Guanlan Court lived up to its reputation as a high-end residential complex. It was clean, tidy, with barely a fallen leaf in sight on the roads.
Xu Ruyi invited Old He to come inside for some tea.
Of course, this was the very purpose of Old He's visit.
He'd questioned her multiple times already without finding evidence. Coming again for interrogation required an excuse.
The construction site Qin Guan mentioned had been subjected to an almost carpet search by Old He. The toothbrush and clothes were found, but nothing else useful turned up.
That road had long been included in the city's redevelopment plan. Apart from a few small eateries catering specifically to the construction site and a spontaneously formed snack street nearby, almost all other businesses had moved away early. Naturally, there were no surveillance cameras installed.
The toothbrush was found in a sewer grate in front of one of those eateries.
The snack street Qin Guan mentioned also had no surveillance.
The old movie theater had been abandoned for years, let alone equipped with cameras.
The street opposite the snack street did have road surveillance. Old He had stared at the footage until his eyes ached and finally captured a familiar figure.
Medium build, black baseball cap, jeans, and a plain, unremarkable black short jacket—no tiger head emblem on the back this time. But the entire silhouette strongly resembled "Feng Zhi."
Old He recognized it at a glance. So did Qin Guan. After technical comparison, this figure matched the one appearing outside the aquarium and the Lotus Hotel.
The same person, at the most sensitive times, at three locations critically linked to the case.
This was no coincidence.
"That's Feng Zhi. If it's not Feng Zhi, then it's his friend, or Xu Ruyi's friend, or someone Xu Ruyi deliberately hired. In short, it's their person. I've said it many times, please believe me. Their people followed me. That morning, they took the suitcase!"
"Qi Min was still alive inside that suitcase then, really! Qi Min died at Xu Ruyi's hands! And those black stockings were also placed at the Lakeside Charm Hotel by Xu Ruyi!"
Qin Guan pleaded almost desperately. "I don't know how Xu Ruyi altered the time of death. I truly don't understand. You have to ask her about that! Ask Feng Zhi! You can't let the two of them play you for fools! Please re-examine the body! Please, you must find out the truth!"
But this was all the "truth" Old He had uncovered.
A man with a figure strikingly similar to Feng Zhi had appeared near the construction site on the snack street during Qin Guan's "body disposal" attempt.
Yet, at the exact same time, Feng Zhi was at school.
Xu Ruyi was lying in the hospital.
Xu Ruyi's phones—her own and Auntie Feng's—showed no contact with Feng Zhi.
Naturally, Old He hadn't forgotten to thoroughly investigate Xu Ruyi and Feng Zhi's inner circles: Xu Ruyi's relatives, friends, Feng Zhi's friends, classmates—this kind of thing required someone extremely trusted. Hiring a stranger carried enormous risk and was highly unlikely.
However, still nothing was found.
Xu Ruyi's friends were all women. She had little contact with relatives. Her only aunt had married far away years ago. Several cousins had also settled and started families in other cities, none present locally around the time of the incident.
Feng Zhi, apart from his three close roommates, had one good high school friend—who was already abroad.
No suspicious person matching the description was found.
In short, like every previous attempt, whenever Old He dug deep, he hit another dead end.
A few butterflies fluttered by. Little Pear, spotting them, let go of Xu Ruyi's hand and chased after them joyfully.
"Little Pear is so adorable, so well-behaved. That's good. The child hasn't been too badly affected?"
Old He stood on the path, watching Little Pear. Turning his head, his gaze instinctively fell on a streetlight standing amidst the nearby greenery—a surveillance camera was mounted on it.
He looked around, seemingly checking the camera's coverage.
This old detective truly left no stone unturned.
"Little Pear is young. The impact isn't great," Xu Ruyi replied calmly.
The child truly wasn't deeply affected. Qin Guan had never spent much time with her anyway. From infancy, her main companions had been her mother, Auntie Feng, and her late grandfather.
This was Xu Ruyi's greatest comfort—she had protected her daughter.
Too young to understand adult matters, the little girl only knew her father seemed to have done something wrong, and her mother was angry and wouldn't let him come back. But because his presence had always been sparse, she rarely clamored to see him, only occasionally feeling a little troubled.
Time would ease that small trouble.
"It's best the child doesn't know. She can grow up happily. These things… the worst fear is the impact on the child," Old He offered stiff comfort. "Fortunately, she still has her mother. You can see she's very close to you."
Yes, she still had her mother. And only her mother now.
Xu Ruyi watched her daughter's skipping figure. Threads of pain wound through her heart again. She seemed to see her parents' figures once more—if they were still alive, how wonderful it would be to see them accompany Little Pear as she grew.
Sadly, that was just her dream. A dream forever out of reach.
"Do you know Qin Guan dismissed his lawyer?" Old He finally got to the point, clearly uncomfortable with small talk.
Xu Ruyi nodded.
She certainly knew.
Qin Guan had fired his lawyer. He was preparing to represent himself. He was serious this time. Even if it meant shouldering the murder charge himself, he was determined to drag Xu Ruyi down at all costs.
During the adjournment after the first trial session, when the bailiffs were taking Qin Guan away, he had stared straight at her, screaming hoarsely through gritted teeth:
"Xu Ruyi! I won't let you off! Just you wait! You just wait for me!"
The ferocious face of her former bedmate, the hate-filled roar through clenched teeth, had given Xu Ruyi nightmares for several days straight.
She knew Qin Guan wouldn't let her go easily.
Even though Qin Guan truly was the killer. Even though the sentence was just.
But she also understood Qin Guan—this man with no moral bottom line, who had even lost his conscience, with an extremely vindictive nature. He would never recognize his own wrongdoing. Give him the slightest opportunity, the tiniest flaw, and his revenge would be merciless.
The question was, would he find that flaw?
She was pondering this when Old He suddenly spoke again. "By the way, Xu Ruyi, I noticed you've withdrawn quite a bit of cash recently. Hundreds of thousands. Planning to start a business?"
He stared directly into her eyes, clearly seeing the slight tremor within them.