When A Snail Falls in Love - Chapter 24

“I went because I received a message from Zixi.” Zhang Shiyong took out his phone and calmly passed it to Ji Bai.

Everyone outside the interrogation room was stunned. ‘Another message?’

“Husband, I have something important to tell you, can you come to the villa immediately?” The timestamp read 10.40 pm that night, but the sender was not Ye Zixi, it came from an unknown number.

“This is the private sim card that Zixi and I used to communicate daily.” Zhang Shiyong explained.

Zhao Han who was seated beside Xu Xu muttered, “As expected, there’s another number. No wonder we couldn’t find him in Ye Zixi’s call records.”

In the interrogation room, Zhang Shiyong raised his deep-set eyes that were like dark pools of water. “It was very late and I was quite surprised too, but since our private sim cards are encrypted only Zixi and I know the password, I still went.”

“I left right after I packed everything as I didn’t want my relationship with her exposed.” He said indistinctly, “I was the one who covered her with the shirt too. After all, she was my woman.”

Zhang Shiyong was temporarily released but remained under police surveillance.

There were two reasons why he was released. The first being that based on the route that he mentioned that he took to the villa, the police found a few surveillance recordings which proved that he had arrived at the villa at midnight and left at 1 in the morning. However, upon further inspection of the forensic results of the corpse, they knew that Ye Zixi had probably already been killed by then.

Secondly, the police had no other direct evidence that proved that he was related to the crime.

Everyone from the Criminal Police Unit immediately called for a quick meeting as Ji Bai cut straight to the point. “Ye Qiao is the only possible person who could have sent the message.”

Yao Meng added on, “Yes, the message was sent at the same time that Ye Zixi was killed, but she had no reason at all to send such a message if she was in a dire situation.”

Old Wu nodded. “At that time, the eldest child Ye Ziqiang and the second child Ye Jin had alibis. Only Ye Qiao was out.”

Xu Xu continued on, “Apparently, nobody knows the password of the private card, but Ye Qiao is Zhang Shiyong’s wife, so it’s possible that she figured it out.”

Zhao Han hesitated. “Not only does the time of the case match, but she also has a motive to commit the crime, so it now looks like Ye Qiao is the biggest suspect. However, why did she send this message to get Zhang Shiyong to visit the scene? At 10.17 pm that night, Ye Zixiao received a message too, what exactly happened that night?”

When he said this, everyone fell silent again. There were still a lot of uncertainties such that the case was still unclear and blurry. Suddenly, Ji Bai broke the silence. “We’ll know once we question her.”

Incandescent lights shone on the lady’s beautiful yet pale face. She held her hands together tightly and her body was very stiff such that, when compared to her husband’s calmness, Ye Qiao appeared to be very nervous.

“Give me a cigarette.” She sounded a bit hoarse.

Ji Bai said, “There’s none.”

Ye Qiao lowered her head and fell silent as Ji Bai stared at her. “We want to talk about the message. Zhang Shiyong has already given us the details.”

Ye Qiao said, “What… message? I don’t understand.”

“Miss Ye, we’ve already found the highway surveillance videos from that night. You arrived at Lin An Mountain at around 10 o’clock, then stayed until 11 o’clock before you left. Previously, you provided us with a false statement.” Old Wu softened his tone, “Regardless of whether you killed her or not, it’ll benefit you to be honest.”

However, Ye Qiao’s stubbornness far exceeded everyone’s expectations. Even though Ji Bai and Old Wu who played good cop bad cop, she still remained quiet even after half an hour.

It was already 3 in the morning and Yao Meng had ordered some takeaway as everyone gathered in the big conference room and ate casually. Ji Bai ordered them to detain Ye Qiao for a few hours, then asked everyone to rest for a while before walking outside alone.

It was dead quiet in the pitch-black compound of the police station. Ji Bai leaned against the corridor with his tall body, then took a cigarette out from his pocket, but as he was about to light it up, he heard light yet familiar footsteps approach him from behind.

He looked up at watched Xu Xu walking over quietly, then burst out laughing. “Just one.”

Xu Xu nodded and walked to his side. She leaned against the railing as well as she was thinking about the case, and kept quiet,

Ji Bai’s heavy heart from dealing with the case was instantly relieved as he observed how the petite figure naturally followed him and stayed by his side. He had a thought and tossed the lighter to her. “I’ll keep my word, so you’ll be keeping this for me from now on.”

“Oh.”

Ji Bai chuckled and added on, “But light this for me first.”

Previously, Xu Xu used to light cigarettes for Xu Juan, so she was still quite familiar with what to do. “Cha”, a flame lit up, but before she could raise her hand to light it up, Ji Bai lowered his head and moved towards the flame with the cigarette in his mouth.

The corridor was quiet and dark, as Ji Bai’s huge body towered over Xu Xu. Meanwhile, the orange lights shone on his side profile, which made his angular features even more prominent. Xu Xu saw this and felt her heart jump.

She had always known that Ji Bai’s looks were above average (However, he was still too tall and too muscular), but his face did not stand out to her. His face and Old Wu’s face were no different to her.

Perhaps it was due to the strange harmony of the dim street lights outside and the bright lights of the compound. Maybe it was the stillness of the night that made her enter a trance, but the moment he lowered his head and inched closer to her, he looked bold and sturdy. It made her notice him in a way that she never had before.

She continued to stare at him as Ji Bai straightened his body and took a puff, then he looked back at her. “You should go sleep for a while too.”

Xu Xu quickly turned away and lowered her head whilst claiming that she did not need to. She silently took deep breaths to steady her heartbeat that was going out of control and she quietly thought to herself, ‘Desire for food and lust is just a part of human nature, desire for food and lust is just a part of human nature.’

The two of them stood for a little longer, then Ji Bai ashed his cigarette. “Let’s go, we’ll talk to Ye Qiao again.”

The hearing room was bright and quiet. Ye Qiao could not maintain her posture of sitting upright anymore, so she soon found herself lying down on the table with her head buried in her arms and her sleeves drenched in tears. When she heard the sound of her door open, her heart tensed up and she looked up to see Ji Bai and Xu Xu.

Ji Bai’s face was dark and he looked unusually strict. Due to his cold expression, his normally attractive face now gave off a terrifying vibe. Ye Qiao looked at him then instantly lowered her head as her heart trembled.

Although Xu Xu did not have much experience interrogating suspects, she could figure out what was going on – Ye Qiao had an obviously fragile mental state, so right now she was trying hard to support herself. Ji Bai intended to interrogate her aggressively, so as to break down her mental defense.

That being said, the persistence of Ji Bai’s interrogation was completely beyond what Xu Xu had expected.

Ji Bai threw the evidence bag which contained Zhang Shiyong’s phone on the table, and said coldly, “The SIM card which Ye Zixi and Zhang Shiyong communicated with has a password. We know that you know the password.”

Ye Qiao remained expressionless.

Ji Bai did not give her a chance to speak as he continued, “Zhang Shiyong has an overbearing character, but what kind of password would his secret lover set? The last few digits of his phone number? His birthday? A set of numbers that he likes?” Ye Qiao’s face changed a little and Ji Bai instantly noticed it. “Looks like it’s a set of numbers that he likes.”

Ye Qiao’s face turned pale, but Ji Bai was not going to let her go. “What’s the purpose of sending a message to Zhang Shiyong telling him to go to the crime scene? To let him see the look of his dead secret lover? Or perhaps it was to make him the primary suspect?” Looking at Ye Qiao’s expression, Ji Bai smirked. “Perhaps it was both of those reasons.”

Ye Qiao looked even more awful as she clenched her fist tightly while Ji Bai stared at her. “You only realized that the handphone is a hot potato after you sent the message out of your impulsiveness? What should you do with it, throw it away because you were scared that the police would be able to figure out that you were at the scene? Bring it home? You wouldn’t dare. In the end, you still crossed your fingers and threw it away, didn’t you? Lin An Mountain is so huge, so the police might not be able to find it if you threw it in some dark corner.”

Ye Qiao’s eyes were already slightly red as she looked up at Ji Bai abruptly. “What are you saying, I don’t understand at all.”

Ji Bai got even colder. “You don’t understand? Of course, you understood how to wipe traces of your fingerprints from the phone so that even if we find it, we won’t be able to prove anything.”

Ye Qiao did not say anything, but Ji Bai quickly changed the topic. “Did you stain yourself with any blood when you took the handphone from the corpse?”

Ye Qiao’s body shuddered at once, the immense shock she was feeling was unspeakable. Ji Bai stared at her frightened face and continued on, “Ye Zixi’s fatal injury was on her chest. She wouldn’t have died instantly and she must have pressed on the wound out of instinct to stop the bleeding. Later on, when she took her phone out to seek help, her phone must have been stained with blood. So when you were driving about looking for a place to dispose of the phone, you panicked and did not notice that your steering wheel was stained with blood. Of course, you must have noticed it after that and cleaned it. Even so, with the police’s identification technology, we will be able to find the remaining traces of her blood within an hour. Ye Qiao, are you going to be honest after the authentication report comes out, or will you speak now?”

Ye Qiao froze completely and the blood drained from her face. Her beautiful face was as pale as a porcelain doll and, after keeping quiet for a while, she covered her face with her hands dropped onto the table.

Ji Bai no longer pushed her. He immediately opened the door and walked out to give her some time to consider her options.

Xu Xu snapped back to reality after witnessing his clean sweep, as she too she stood up and followed him. They left the room to see that Zhao Han and the others were listening outside without them knowing.

Ji Bai and Old Wu walked somewhere else and talked while Ye Qiao sobbed quietly in the room. Everyone was quiet and the atmosphere was tense. After a while, Zhao Han said, “Captain is really sharp and ruthless.”

Ten minutes later, Ye Qiao asked to meet Ji Bai.

When she faced him again, Ye Qiao still looked pale and flushed, but she seemed to have calmed down. Her eyes looked like that of a dead fish, but they also displayed a determined silence.

“I killed her, I admit it.”

“I hired a private detective and found out about this affair between her and Zhang Shiyong. If it was another woman, I would’ve held it in, but it turned out to be my cousin sister. That day, I went to look for her at the villa, we argued, and I accidentally killed her. I panicked then, but I recalled the razor blade case, so I cut her with razor blades then cleaned the scene.”

“She wasn’t dead then, and when I wasn’t paying attention, she sent a message to Zixiao. I… I sent another message to Shiyong afterward because I wanted Shiyong to be dragged into the matter as well.”

When the sky turned bright, the people from the Criminal Police Unit went their separate ways to Ye Qiao’s house, office and car to retrieve evidence. Sure enough, like what Ji Bai had said, they found Ye Zixi’s blood stains on the steering wheel of her car after using ultraviolet to examine it.

Ye Qiao’s confession proved Ji Bai’s deduction that there were two culprits to be wrong. Somebody asked Ji Bai if there was a need to inspect Zhang Shiyong again, as he might very well be an accomplice, but Ji Bai said there was no need to.

In the afternoon, the station chief called Ji Bai over to his office and threw him a pack of expensive cigarettes. “Not bad, you’re getting faster at solving these cases.”

Ji Bai placed the cigarette into the pocket of his coat and replied, “Thank you, sir, but the case is not solved yet.”

Despite the fact that Ji Bai had not announced the closing of the case, the people of the Criminal Police Unit seemed to be much more energetic than how they were just a few days ago. When Ji Bai walked into the office, everyone just looked straight at him with smiling faces. He took a glance at everyone then entered his office calmly.

As he was about to sit down, Xu Xu walked in and sat down. She stared her dead in the face and announced, “I’d like to express my opinion that this case is not yet solved.”

Initially, Ji Bai was lost in his thoughts, but when he looked at her, his heart became warm, and he smiled.

‘Our hearts are so in tune it would be shocking if I fail at winning your heart.’ Ji Bai thought.