The Real Culprit - He's Not a Bad Cat!

"I've taken the liberty of coming to you to say all this, not to play the emotional card, telling some little stories and grand principles to get you to accept me. I just think you should know what happened."

In the fast-food restaurant outside the school that year, Doctor Zhou said to him amicably while eating french fries: "Qi Yue said you are very smart and extremely sharp, that you quickly discovered we were in contact. I think, given your personality, you'd rather be kept up-to-date on the progress of events, even if the process isn't so smooth, than to just be handed a good result after the fact."

Shen Zhengning noticed that Zhou Xingchuan always addressed Qi Yue directly by her name, not referring to her as "your mother," nor did he call him "child," or immediately assume the position of a future elder—while this attitude might not be universally applicable, at least Shen Zhengning confirmed that he was a reasonable adult who could be reasoned with.

"Tattling behind my mom's back, aren't you afraid I'll sell you out the moment I get back?" Shen Zhengning said tepidly. "Uncle, I appreciate you respecting me, but it seems you haven't respected my mom's wishes."

"He who sells others out will in turn be sold out, I'm prepared for that," Zhou Xingchuan said. "But since I already know you two have argued, and I am the focus of the dispute, the central figure of the topic, if I just hide behind Qi Yue without saying anything, you will definitely hate me even more in the future."

'Being aware' and 'being clueless' achieved a rare harmony in this peculiar man, and Shen Zhengning even felt a strange sense of respect for him. "You're quite courageous, then."

"Right?" Zhou Xingchuan leaned forward slightly with enthusiasm, as if he'd met a kindred spirit. "I'm a man in my forties, and you're a smart young lad. Logically speaking, if the sky were to fall, we should be the ones holding it up. But in Qi Yue's heart, it seems we are both people who need to be protected. Incredible, isn't she?"

Shen Zhengning: "...If I may be so bold as to ask, how did you and my mom reunite? Did something happen?"

The motion of Zhou Xingchuan putting a french fry into his mouth suddenly paused, and behind him, the characteristic stars and rose effects of a shoujo manga seemed to appear. "Oh, it's quite a fine story, actually. That day, a patient's family member came to my office to cause a scene. Qi Yue happened to be passing by our floor. Seeing that he was about to hit me, she rushed forward in a single bound and sent him flying with her handbag, hahaha..."

Shen Zhengning: "..."

That was a "mother" beyond his perception, the "Qi Yue" from the mouths of others. He finally recognized this fact and completed the final lesson that bid farewell to his youth—

Before becoming Sherlock Holmes, one must first be an ordinary person who understands warmth and cold, a person of flesh and blood; only by abandoning the detached, high-and-mighty mindset of observation can one truly begin to learn to observe life.

"Hmm... how should I put it," Zhuang Mingqi lamented, his voice trailing off with a slightly nasal tone, "you and your mother are truly cut from the same cloth."

Shen Zhengning was already used to him always focusing on the wrong thing. "My mom is still a bit fiercer."

"Don't get competitive over this kind of thing," Zhuang Mingqi said. "I've long felt that something wasn't right—you were still a minor back then, weren't you? Wasn't it too harsh to demand the standards of Sherlock Holmes from yourself?"

"It's better to learn your lessons early, otherwise you'll be learning from fists later." Shen Zhengning's mouth was dry from talking, and he reached for the water glass on the nightstand. "Although I was indeed a bit unwilling when I was applying for college, in the end, I was the one who chose to compromise, so there's nothing to complain about. Besides, life is full of surprises. See, even without being a cop, you can still run into danger—Oof!"

Zhuang Mingqi shoved a whole apple against his tactless mouth. "No dark humor!"

Inside an apartment building in an urban village.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

"Hello! Your delivery is here!"

A delivery driver in uniform and a helmet, completely covered up, knocked heavily on the door a few times. A moment later, a muffled male voice came from inside: "Leave it at the door!"

"Alright, I've hung it on the doorknob for you!"

The delivery driver took a photo of the plastic bag on the doorknob, sent it to the customer online, and after confirming delivery, clattered down the stairs.

The hallway fell silent again. After about two minutes, the light in the peephole suddenly flickered. The doorknob turned gently, the deadbolt disengaged with a soft 'click,' and the security door was pulled open a crack—

Several police officers lying in ambush in the hallway suddenly swarmed forward, kicking the door in and pinning the resident to the floor. "Police! Don't move!"

"Balcony clear!" "Kitchen clear!" "Bathroom clear!"

"No one else! Take him away!"

"Brother, how's the recovery going?" Yuan Hang strode into the hospital room, carrying a bag of fruit that was obviously just bought from the supermarket downstairs, and apologized with a smile, "I've been insanely busy the last couple of days, couldn't get away at all, so I didn't have a chance to come see you. When can you get your stitches out?"

"Soon, in a couple of days." Shen Zhengning, who could already get out of bed and move around slowly, motioned for him to sit anywhere. "It's not even the last month of the lunar year and you're already rushing over for a New Year's visit. I really can't guess your intentions."

Yuan Hang: "...A two-thousand-a-night hospital room really does wonders for recovery, huh? You're so aggressive. Did I somehow offend you?"

"It's perfectly normal for someone who was stabbed for no reason to be resentful. If you hadn't come soon, I might have gone to camp out for free at the entrance of the Public Security Bureau, or appeared at your bedside in the middle of the night." Shen Zhengning looked at him encouragingly. "Let's have some good news, Officer Yuan. I hope you're not just scooping noodles this time."

Zhuang Mingqi picked out a decent-looking apple from the fruit Yuan Hang had brought and, to the accompaniment of their verbal sparring, sat quietly to one side like a peeling machine. His knife skills were okay, just slow. In the kitchen, he was usually in charge of delicate tasks like carving patterns into shiitake mushrooms, his main focus being participation.

He asked curiously, "What does 'scooping noodles' mean?"

Yuan Hang didn't get the malicious joke at first either. Shen Zhengning patiently explained: "It's a vivid metaphor used to describe our Officer Yuan's style of handling cases. You have a whole pot of clues here, but he can manage to stick his chopsticks in and break them all into tiny pieces, unable to scoop up a single strand."

Zhuang Mingqi: "M-Maybe he's just unlucky..."

Yuan Hang clutched his heart and slowly slid off the sofa. "...Your viciousness is breaking my heart. I'm going to have to get some medicine prescribed downstairs later. It's fine, this counts as a work injury, my health insurance will cover it."

From the nurse's station not far away: 'Where is that sobbing coming from in broad daylight? So creepy. Whatever, I'll just play the Great Compassion Mantra!'

"The good news is, we've caught the guy. He was interrogated overnight last night and has confessed to everything, including Ye Tongsheng's case." Yuan Hang cleared his throat, his joking expression gone. "Your judgment was correct."

"We couldn't find him on the surveillance footage because he was very familiar with the cameras on that stretch of road and deliberately avoided them—he had been stalking Ye Tongsheng for nearly two weeks, looking for an opportunity to strike. That night, he coincidentally saw Gao Qihui meeting with Ye Tongsheng. Taking advantage of the fact that Ye Tongsheng couldn't move due to his head injury, he took Ye Tongsheng to the riverbank, used Ye Tongsheng's account to post an 'I'm sorry' on his Moments, and then pushed Ye Tongsheng into the Xinliu River, faking a scene of Ye Tongsheng committing suicide by jumping into the river."

Shen Zhengning: "What about the jacket?"

"It had Ye Tongsheng's blood on it. To cover up Gao Qihui's crime in the preceding event, he took off the jacket, took it with him, and burned it."

"Was that the only reason?"

Yuan Hang didn't answer immediately. Instead, he lifted his gaze to glance at Zhuang Mingqi, who was focused on peeling the apple, then turned back to Shen Zhengning. "After you were attacked by him, why did you immediately judge that he might be the murderer of Ye Tongsheng? The two crimes were three months apart, how did you connect them?"

For the past few days, Zhuang Mingqi hadn't asked, and Shen Zhengning had tacitly not mentioned it. But what was bound to come could not be avoided. The most crucial, core question had now finally been dragged out into the light by Yuan Hang.

Zhuang Mingqi's movements paused. The long peel of the apple skin broke in the middle and fell into the trash can with a soft thud. Although Shen Zhengning wasn't facing him, it was as if he had eyes on the back of his head. Without turning, he said, "Be careful with your hands," then immediately answered Yuan Hang with clear logic: "Because the culprit wasn't killing randomly; his target was clearly Zhuang Mingqi. But Mingqi has been abroad for years and only returned to the country after Ye Tongsheng passed away. His social circle in the country is very simple, and for half of these short three months, he's been suffering from headaches and fevers. To be honest, it's unlikely he would have made a mortal enemy."

"Moreover, the time and place of the crime are also subtle. He had no security around him, and he walks his dog every day. There were plenty of opportunities to attack him inconspicuously, so why choose that specific day? Because the culprit didn't know his whereabouts. It was only after he accidentally became an internet celebrity recently that his name and location were noticed by the culprit. And the day he was photographed walking his dog in Xinliu Park finally provided the culprit with his precise location."

"It's not a new grudge, and it's not an acquaintance, so it must be an old grudge from within the country. Zhuang Mingqi went abroad after graduating from high school and was an old acquaintance of Ye Tongsheng. Although the specific details are unclear, something definitely happened in the 'past'. Since we've already determined that there might be a second murderer in Ye Tongsheng's case, and someone connected to Ye Tongsheng has now been attacked, why couldn't it be the same culprit?"

"Bullseye." Yuan Hang applauded him silently. "You guessed correctly. It is indeed an old grudge."

But Shen Zhengning didn't press on with this topic. "His performance in the Ye Tongsheng case could be called meticulous. Why was he so bold and unrestrained when it came to Zhuang Mingqi, completely abandoning any attempt at concealment? Was he provoked by something in these three months?"

"Perhaps Mr. Zhuang's appearance was the biggest provocation for him." Yuan Hang gave him a deep look. His expression remained calm, but his tone was sharp and hit the nail on the head. "Zhengning, you've been beating around the bush this whole time. You haven't even asked about the most curious part of a case, which is not like you—is your protective instinct for him affecting your rational judgment?"

Shen Zhengning answered fluently, "No, I simply respect others' privacy and don't casually expose their old wounds. This is basic decency for an ordinary person. Investigating the motive for a crime is the police's job. This is probably not a question you should be asking me, but one we should be asking you."

Yuan Hang let out a cold laugh. "So you've decided to stand on his side now?"

"A man with a family shouldn't say such ambiguous things," Shen Zhengning said calmly. "We victims were on the same side from the beginning."

Yuan Hang glared at him reproachfully, like an ancient minister looking at an incompetent ruler. Zhuang Mingqi finally finished peeling his apple, cut it into small, neat pieces and placed them on a small plate. He pulled out two wet wipes to clean his hands and said slowly, "Officer Yuan, if you have something to say, why not say it directly? Could you please stop harassing the patient?"

"Do you know this person?"

On the phone Yuan Hang pushed over was a photo of a middle-aged man. He had a long face, triangular eyes, high cheekbones, and dark, sallow skin. His cheeks were sunken, his nasolabial folds were deep, and for some reason, his skin was extremely slack, like a layer of hide draped over bones, giving off an indescribable sense of strangeness.

Zhuang Mingqi and Shen Zhengning leaned in together and studied it seriously for a moment. "I don't know him."

"Zou Jinliang, thirty-three years old, from Xingcheng, H Province. This person is the culprit in the Ye Tongsheng case and the park assault case. During his interrogation, he confessed that his motive for the crime was to avenge his father."

"He insists that twelve years ago, you and Ye Tongsheng killed his father." Yuan Hang met those clear, cold amber eyes without flinching. "Mr. Zhuang, would it be convenient for you to come with me?"