[1]

After waiting for about twenty minutes, the man kept screaming over QQ, "Are you a scammer? Hey, talk to me!"

Xu Xiaodong sent over a letter of inquiry and added a sentence, "Captain Lin said that if you can solve this case tonight, he’ll write his surname backwards."

Chen Shi sent a response, "Just you wait," and then sent the letter of inquiry over to the person over QQ. The person saw the letter and exclaimed, "Oh, you really are a policeman. Excuse me then!"

"Hurry up and tell me what you know."

"Open voice-chat."

After turning on the audio-speaker, there was a beautiful female voice that sounded through the speakers. "The situation is like this... Sorry, I forgot to turn off the voice modifier."

After turning the voice modifier off, the person’s voice turned low and was clearly a male’s voice. "The Solitary Sword and the Mad Sea Dragon’s Roar were originally in the same guild. They joined hands to fight against the guy who ranked first in the server, who was the most arrogant dude possible. Later, the Solitary Sword had an idea. The idea was that they would divide themselves up into two guilds and then they would take turns to attack the guy who ranked first in the server. The Mad Sea Dragon’s Roar agreed. However, they didn’t know that there would be conflict once they separated into two guilds. One of the female players in the Solitary Sword’s guild swindled equipment off a guy from Mad Sea Dragon’s Roar guild…”

"Tell me the main point! I know that they aren’t on good terms."

"Okay, okay, why are you in such a rush?"

Chen Shi glanced at the time in the lower right corner of the screen. It was already ten o'clock. How could he not rush?

The other party went on to say, "They would fight every two days or so. The guy who ranked first in the server could just sit and watch the show, so it really benefited him. A couple of days ago, Solitary Sword rallied his troops and went to sneak an attack on Mad Sea Dragon’s Roar’s guild. Mad Sea Dragon’s Roar was killed and then kept persistently resurrecting in order to kill Solitary Sword. Solitary Sword’s troops kept on guarding Mad Sea Dragon’s Roar’s corpse. He must have lost close to tens of thousands of yuans’ worth of equipment. That night, Solitary Sword was using the world chat to gloat. Mad Sea Dragon’s Roar replied saying that he’d kill him. It’s a game, so killing each other is pretty normal… Today was the day of the guild wars and the Mad Sea Dragon’s Roar was a contender for the throne of the city. However, since Solitary Sword didn’t come today, Mad Sea Dragon’s Roar won the title of king of the city. He’s still gifting red envelopes to everyone right now. I think he’s sent out close to ten thousand yuan at this point… It seems that he is very happy today."

Chen Shi had once again heard the words "guarding the corpse".

The other party asked, "Are you listening?"

"Yes."

"Right, you still haven't told me what happened... Did Solitary Sword die?"

"Don't spread any rumours. This matter needs to stay secret."

"I can't even ask? Haii, since you are a policeman, why don’t we get married?"

Chen Shi almost vomited blood. This is the first time in his life in which he heard such a thing coming out of the mouth from a guy like this with his low tenor voice. The other party added, "I mean inside the game! I can make sure you rise to level 50 in a month. ”

Since it was too disgusting, Chen Shi wrote “get lost” in the chat bar. As he was about to hit send, Tao Yueyue made a gesture, indicating for him to mute himself in the voice chat.

Chen Shi muted himself as Tao Yueyue reasoned, "If you refuse him, he may go around and talk about this matter everywhere. It’s not good if this is heard by the bad guy.”

Chen Shi smiled. This little girl was really manipulative.

Thus, he agreed to the other party’s suggestion. The other party was really excited and asked if they should get married there and then. Chen Shi negotiated, “Marrying is such a big event. We should find a good day to do it rather than rush into things.”

"Okay. Then let me announce things on the server first. We should add each other as friends as well… Wow, I’m actually marrying a police officer. I’ll have so much face.”

After adding each other as friends, Chen Shi asked for a favor. "Help me inquire about the Mad Sea Dragon’s Roar, Deng Zhongming."

"I’ll go back to the guild and ask for you. Wait for me, honey.”

Chen Shi raised his face and closed his eyes. He had to suppress the urge to vomit. Tao Yueyue giggled at his side.

After a while, the damn guy came back and said, "Honey, I’ve asked. He lives in Long'An City. He is a small boss who sells paint. The specific address isn’t clear, but I’ve found his contact information."

Chen Shi quickly sent the contact information and personal background of Deng Zhongming to Lin Dongxue, and asked her to check for the person’s address.

Lin Dongxue asked over text message, "Is he determined to be the murderer?"

"With 80 to 90% certainty."

In the game, the stupid guy was still talking about nonsense. He intended to take Chen Shi to level-up because he was too low-level at the moment. He couldn’t show him around in front of his friends. He also gave Chen Shi a 200 yuan upgrade package.

Chen Shi replied, "Hey, I have to rest tonight. I will come online again.”

"Okay, I’ll wait for you. Xoxo.”

After turning off the game, Chen Shi sighed deeply and sent a message to Xu Xiaodong. "Okay, I can return your account back to you now."

"Damn it, Brother Chen, are you playing me? ... I just trained your account to level ten."

"Go to your old account. There are surprises there waiting for you"

Chen Shi thought about it and remembered there is still a place they needed to visit. He took Tao Yueyue to leave the Internet cafe and went to the nearby park.

In the evening, there was no one in the park so it seemed a bit gloomy and eerie. Tao Yueyue was afraid and grabbed ahold of Chen Shi’s hand. As the two arrived at the inner lake, Chen Shi walked around the river bank and found a branch.

He put on his gloves and picked up the branch. He checked it carefully as Tao Yueyue asked, "Is this the stick that the bad guy used to beat the uncle?"

"Not necessarily. If I were him, I would throw the stick into the water... I’m guessing he did the same."

"Why would he do that?"

"I think it’s for revenge. He had his corpse guarded in the game, so he pushed the deceased into the water and hit him with a stick like what happened to him in the game. Perhaps he only wanted to humiliate him, rather than kill him… But in the end, he killed someone.”

Tao Yueyue smiled.

"What are you smiling about?"

"The reporter will have nonsensical material again."

Chen Shi remembered that this was the feeling he had when he saw a certain news story in the last couple of days. It was actually remembered by Tao Yueyue. This little girl truly was really smart.

Peng Sijue called and asked, "Where are you?"

"Next to the lake."

"The deceased had a lot of broken bones and had small amounts of water left in the lungs. It is suspected to be caused by trauma to the chest wall. The death is due to drowning. The death time is about 24 hours prior... I have not conducted an autopsy yet, but I’m on the way back to the bureau. Your car is still in the neighborhood you left it at."

"It's similar to my own conclusion. Thanks for the trouble.”

"Did you make a bet with Lao Lin again?"

"Haha, come back later and I’ll treat you to dinner."

Peng Sijue ignored him and hung up the phone.

Lin Dongxue called. "I found his address. I will get people over there now."

"Give me the address, I will go as well."

After getting the address, Chen Shi speedily took Tao Yueyue back to the neighborhood that he parked his car at. Peng Sijue was carrying a forensic testing kit and was about to catch a ride with the police car. Upon seeing Chen Shi’s arrival, he asked, "Found the murderer?"

"You’re deducing this from my confident face?" Chen Shi smiled.

"I will go with you."

"Get in the car."

The three got in the car and Tao Yueyue greeted, "Hello Uncle." Peng Sijue stared at her face for a few seconds and said, "Did you just recover from an illness?"

"Yeah, she was discharged from the hospital just a while ago... Are you not curious about who this girl is?" Chen Shi asked.

"Not curious." Peng Sijue turned his gaze back to the front.

1. Jianghu literally translates as “Rivers and Lakes”, but figuratively refers to the “underground world”. A section of society consisting of martial artists, gangsters, thieves, beggars, prostitutes, merchants, entertainers, and anyone else wanting to operate outside of mainstream society or in the grey area of the law.