Lin Dongxue listened and, without thinking, asked, “Why don't you and her just-”

“Ahem!” Chen Shi interrupted her mid-sentence and asked Chen Jun, “How did you first get to know about each other?”

“A social networking mobile game called-”

“I don't mean that. What I meant was, did you know what each other looked like before you met for the first time?”

“Since cartoon characters were used for our avatars in the game, I wasn’t aware of her appearance. We had the same break time and often played together. Later, she asked to meet up in person. The first time, we didn’t meet successfully because she suddenly had an urgent matter to attend to. A week following this, we met at a coffee shop. We had a good feeling about each other and felt like we had a connection, so then we started to date.”

Chen Shi repeatedly rubbed his chin in thought, “How is your usual break time arranged?”

“The company is busy, so I take an hour off at noon every day. I don't have the habit of taking a nap, and I get off work at 9 o'clock in the evening. My day off is Wednesday, as is hers.”

“Thank you for your cooperation!”

Chen Shi uttered the standard farewells before departing. When he went downstairs, Lin Dongxue scolded him, “You put your nose into the privacy of others but didn’t offer up even two words of comfort?”

“Console him? You are a policeman, not a psychiatrist.”

“Cold and ruthless! That guy had some dedication, though. He didn’t even break up with her even though it was like that.”

“Our nation’s laws have never restricted affairs. The degree of acceptance of such things varies from person to person. Some people can't tolerate it if it happens one time. Other people can be indifferent even with a large yard over their heads!”[1]

“If it were me, I wouldn’t be able to accept it happening even once...”

Chen Shi suddenly stopped in his tracks, “Wait for me here. I forgot to ask a question.”

Chen Shi quickly backtracked. During the wait downstairs, Xu Xiaodong called and asked, “Where are you?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Hehe, I found some super awesome clues on the suspect. According to the driver’s friend, the suspect hasn’t been in this industry for too long. It might have been for just less than a year. Even his driver's license was only obtained a year ago.”

“What did he do before becoming a driver?”

“In 2015, he was in a prison of another city. After he was released from prison, there wasn’t even a peep from him. In fact, there were no records at all. There were even rumors that he was dead. Then, he suddenly appeared in Long’An in 2018, all alone.”

“All alone? Didn’t he say that he has a mother at home?”

“Did he say that? No, there is no one left in his family. He claims that his relatives are in his hometown, but we checked, and his so-called hometown doesn’t have this person on their census at all. He seems to have come out of thin air.”

Hearing the sound of him coming downstairs, Lin Dongxue hurriedly hung up the phone and looked at Chen Shi. Lin Dongxue thought, what exactly is this guy’s background?

“What's wrong?” Seeing Lin Dongxue's strange expression, Chen Shi asked with a smile.

“Nothing, where are we going next?”

“What do you think?”

Lin Dongxue thought for a moment, “To investigate the interpersonal relationships of Gu Mengxing. For instance, her ‘friends with benefits’?”

Chen Shi smiled and shook his head, “Can we even investigate that? Let’s go directly to her home and her company!”

After the two got in the car, Lin Dongxue looked at Chen Shi's side and thought, this guy used to be a gangster with a massive rap sheet. Yet, during the short time that she’d spent with him, she didn’t find even a trace of vulgarity or senseless aggression. On the contrary, he had an air of justice around him.

Moreover, he was extremely skilled in solving crimes. If he had no experience, it would be impossible to get this far in a case just from self-teaching.

What happened to him in the last three years that didn’t appear in his records? What caused him to change completely?

The two went directly to the pharmaceutical company where Gu Mengxing worked. Gu Mengxing had just passed away, so her work station hadn’t been cleaned yet. There was a bunch of red roses on it. Chen Shi concluded, “It seems like this girl was rather popular!”

It was about 5PM at present; thus, most of the employees had gone out to eat, and there was no one in the office.

Chen Shi sat at Gu Mengxing’s work station and began to look through her belongings. Lin Dongxue quickly reminded him, stating, “Hey, watch your fingerprints!”

“I’ve already got gloves on!” Chen Shi raised a hand, and a pair of cleaning gloves taken from Gu Mengxing’s company could be seen on his hands.

He opened the drawer, and there were a few boxes of medicine inside, all of which were to be taken orally. Chen Shi stated, “These medicines, like those seen with Chen Jun, are also drugs for treating gonorrhea.”

Chen Shi looked at the table and remarked, “The character of the deceased appears to be easy-going. She’s a person who easily believes in others and is keen on trying new things, but there is also a bit of stubbornness in her heart. Such people are generally good at justifying their behavior.”

“How did you get that from just looking around her desk?”

Chen Shi pointed out, “The workstation is a person’s character, preferences, and personality on display. When you look at Gu Mengxing’s desk, the objects are placed conveniently at a glance, without any obstruction. The books she’d been reading were casually placed on the table. The item used as a bookmark is actually a tampon package, which shows that this girl was not petty. Look at this memo. The handwriting looks like a flying dragon, or a dancing phoenix (messy), showing that she was a warm and energetic person. However, the corners and finishes of the handwriting are relatively hard, which proves that her heart was a bit stubborn.”

Lin Dongxue was shocked, and Chen Shi smiled and looked at her, “I am a driver; I usually see lots of people, so I am pretty accurate at reading people.”

A young man came in with a lunch box and saw the two sitting at the station where Gu Mengxing used to sit. He glowered at them suspiciously, “What are you guys doing? Who allowed you to enter this private area and to mess around with things?”

Lin Dongxue showed her ID, and the attitude of the young man immediately softened, “It turned out to be a police officer. Are you investigating the cause of her death?”

“We’re just investigating her interpersonal relationships.” Chen Shi replied, noticing that the man had been watching the flowers on the table and asked, “Are these flowers from you?”

“N-No… it’s the co-workers who bought it together. Such a good girl was taken from us too soon, and everyone has been hit pretty hard.”

“What was your relationship with her?”

The guy was in a panic, “We’re just ordinary colleagues!”

“Oh, really?” Chen Shi’s took the note on the flower and compared it with the name on the young man’s lunch box, “The handwriting is the same. Logically speaking, this bunch of red roses was sent by you. Would ordinary colleagues send this?”

“I…”

“There is no one else here; let's talk!”

The man’s cheeks flushed. “I... We were in contact with each other!”

“What!?” Lin Dongxue was shocked.

“I had been in contact with her for half a year. To be honest, I secretly loved her since I entered this company. She was so beautiful and gentle; she was the goddess in everyone's mind. I felt that I had no hope of ever getting with her. Once we all went out for karaoke, I confessed to her from the strength of the wine. I didn’t think she would accept, but she did, and I died happily that day. Then we started to associate more and more, but something was quite off about this. She never talked to me in the unit. We never went home together after work. We only occasionally went out to meet on Sundays, but I was quite content. After she passed, I realized that she had a boyfriend. I was hit very hard, but I truly loved her. This bunch of flowers is meant as my mourning for her.”

“Loyal love.” Chen Shi smiled. “May I ask you a personal question? Have you been sick recently?”

“Nope.”

“Do you have a sexually transmitted disease?”

Stunned, the man suddenly threw his lunch box to the side and violently jumped up, “Bastard, what are you on about!”

1.