ATLAS TRANSLATES

In that instant, the air in the interrogation room suddenly became stagnant.

Having worked in the criminal police force for so many years and handled so many cases, Deng Chuan and his team could roughly identify suspects just by intuition. Now that Guo Min’s confession clearly didn’t match the evidence and she could be ruled out as the killer, she was clearly trying to protect someone by confessing. Deng Chuan had thought this from the start. He narrowed his eyes discreetly, suspecting someone close to her had helped commit the murder. However, he hadn’t expected Guo Min to volunteer herself and dig her own grave despite the obvious holes in her story.

Her sudden accusation that Yan Cheng was the mastermind undoubtedly helped the police determine their investigation direction. In other words, it was a clue delivered to their doorstep. Ultimately, she was just lifting a rock to drop on her own foot.

“…” For a moment, Deng Chuan laughed internally, wondering if he should mock the killer’s intelligence. After thinking about it, he held back. Upon careful consideration, he realized it made sense – in today’s society, how many carefully planned, highly intelligent crimes were there really?

Just then, the interrogation room door opened.

Qiao Fei held up a sealed transparent plastic bag containing a fruit knife. Before Deng Chuan could stop her, she confidently dangled the bag in front of Guo Min. “This is the murder weapon. You should recognize it, right?”

“Yes,” Guo Min glanced up briefly before lowering her eyes and looking away, nodding eagerly, “That’s the knife.”

Hearing this, Qiao Fei let out a meaningful sneer and curved her lips. “Is that so?”

She didn’t say anything more, turning to hand the bag with the supposed murder weapon to Deng Chuan, raising an eyebrow, “Continue.”

The whole process took less than two minutes before she left again, not only walking with purpose but also slamming the door with a startling bang.

Jian Huai turned his head slightly, glancing down to find that the weapon in the sealed plastic bag wasn’t actually the murder weapon from the crime scene.

This was interesting. She quietly raised her eyebrows, then shot a sharp look at Guo Min: “Guo Min, I suggest you tell the truth.”

“Don’t be foolish.” Jian Huai said expressionlessly, giving her a chance. “You still have a long life ahead of you, you understand what I mean?”

However, Guo Min kept her head down and stopped talking.

Whether because she hadn’t thought it through or not, she insisted it was Yan Cheng who instructed her, as if not backing down would give her a lifeline. But in reality, it was exactly the opposite.

Her silence, in Deng Chuan and the others’ eyes, was just stubborn resistance in a hopeless situation.

Given her attitude, further interrogation wouldn’t yield anything unless Guo Min herself could understand the pros and cons.

But they didn’t really need her confession anymore.

Leaving the interrogation room, Deng Chuan immediately assigned tasks: “All the call records on Guo Min’s phone were deleted, right? Xiao Zhong, you and Xiao Ma go to the mobile company and get Guo Min’s call records.”

“Jian Huai, check if there’s any sudden large sum of money in Guo Min’s account or her immediate family members’ accounts. If there is, trace who sent it.”

With just this one sentence, Jian Huai understood Deng Chuan’s suspicions. Honestly, judging from Guo Min’s obvious lies, her choice to wrongly accuse or drag Yan Cheng down had already exposed the real killer.

Deng Chuan shifted his gaze to another team member: “Xiao Qi, continue questioning Guo Min, use methods that might help her understand the situation.”

…

Meanwhile, Qiao Fei, who had already left the interrogation room, stood in the hall with her chin up and eyes slightly narrowed, looking at the characters for “Public Security” above, feeling righteous indignation.

A passing intern saw her expression, stopped in his tracks, tilted his head in confusion and asked: “Dr. Qiao, what’s wrong?”

Qiao Fei, caught off guard, immediately gritted her teeth and revealed her thoughts, rather dramatically: “Trying to frame my future uncle-in-law? Not a chance!”

“…” The intern swallowed awkwardly and quickly scurried away.

At Er Restaurant, before the evening lights dimmed, business was slow.

In the second-floor office.

Yan Cheng was half-reclined on the sofa, wearing frameless gold-rimmed glasses for show, seriously comparing last month’s profits.

After a while, he put down the notebook, raised his hand to touch his suddenly chilly neck, and just then, his phone lying on the tea table lit up.

Chai Yue: [I suddenly feel like those startup guys at Zhiyuan Tech aren’t reliable either.]

Yan Cheng picked up his phone, unlocked it, the screen light immediately casting onto his face, making his rebellious nature more apparent. He puffed his cheeks, narrowed his eyes to stare at Chai Yue’s message for a while, somewhat confused.

Yan Cheng: [?]

Chai Yue: [If you’re going to do a project, do it properly, if you’re going to start a business, do it right. But as soon as summer vacation starts, their core team member, their general manager, goes home for summer break. Damn, I don’t even know what to say!!!]

Can’t blame Chai Yue for suddenly venting.

But he wasn’t telling the whole story, couldn’t judge everyone by one example.

In this technological age, as long as there aren’t any major problems with the project, it’s acceptable to leave the team. In other words, they could completely communicate online.

However, to some extent, this would leave a bad impression on investors. But that wasn’t absolutely certain either – if in the leader’s absence, the subordinates still showed a thriving face to others, that could also be a bright spot.

Seeing this message, Yan Cheng’s shoulders gradually drooped, his distinct knuckles hovering over the screen. He frowned slightly, his tongue pressed firmly against the roof of his mouth, eyes downcast, emotions unreadable in his dark eyes. He only pressed his lips into a line and remained silent, seemingly unsure how to respond to Chai Yue.

Until the next second, when Chai Yue’s message came again.

Chai Yue, almost wanting to kneel down for his own panic: [Oh, I didn’t understand clearly, they went back because they had important matters to handle.]

“…” Yan Cheng looked up, grinding his teeth.

Yan Cheng: [So?]

Chai Yue typed rapidly: [So after hearing we’re interested in investing in them, they probably just want to firmly grasp this opportunity.]

Chai Yue: [Already contacted their team’s founder, apparently he’ll be back in Beijing in at most two days, we’ll meet then.]

Chai Yue: [We’re not in a hurry, they are.]

The afternoon sunlight, bright with a hint of laziness, but also undeniably carrying its own heat, combining these characteristics, quietly crawled through the window and silently lay on the office floor, enjoying life contentedly.

Yan Cheng only then noticed the coolness at the back of his neck had gradually dissipated. He shook his head left and right to stretch his neck, then slowly replied with a “good” to end the conversation early.

After a brief quiet period, he couldn’t resist poking Chen Jinyao again.

The scenery in Hangzhou was nice.

Especially these few days with the enthusiastic hospitality of Hangzhou local Luo Xiao, it was much more perfect than coming to explore as unfamiliar tourists.

Riding on a boat, looking at the sparkling waves, enjoying everything on West Lake.

Everything was good, except seeing the young couple leaning together in the front seats suddenly made Chen Jinyao miss Yan Cheng. She thought, if only Yan Cheng were here too.

Luo Xiao: “I’m going to Beijing in a few days.”

He was telling Chen Jinlin, but his voice was just loud enough for Chen Jinyao to hear.

Chen Jinyao withdrew her gaze from the lake surface, her attention shifting to Chen Jinlin’s excited sideways face, “Really?”

Luo Xiao nodded, “Really.”

“What for?” Young girls are like this, like to question their boyfriends thoroughly.

“Something at school,” he said.

Chen Jinlin frowned slightly, looking at him somewhat disbelievingly.

But she didn’t pursue it further.

After being together for a while, she actually knew that her boyfriend was used to being mysterious.

So, when her phone made a “ding dong” sound in her pocket.

As expected, seeing the message was from Yan Cheng, Chen Jinyao didn’t even look at what he wrote, just curved her eyes and smiled slightly.

Then, she immediately replied: [I’m coming back the day after tomorrow!]

Yan Cheng was naturally delighted, smirking with his lips curved, showing no trace of seriousness: [Alright, I’ll wash up and wait for you.]

“…”

Chen Jinyao’s mouth twitched, and after being stunned for about two minutes, she belatedly turned red to her ears and covered her face with her hands.

Finally, she couldn’t help but curse at him under her breath.

---

Regarding the matter of Yan Cheng, Sixth Young Master Yan, being accused by Guo Min as the mastermind behind everything, Deng Chuan had originally wanted to talk with Yan Cheng.

Whether Yan Cheng was suspicious or not, this procedure should be followed.

But before he could go, he was stopped by Qiao Fei. Actually, he wasn’t stopped for long – just as he was about to break free from Qiao Fei, his capable officers very efficiently completed their tasks and returned with faces full of joy.

In Guo Min’s call records, there were several calls from Zhou Xue.

Three before the incident, two after.

One of them was on the day they arrested Guo Min.

In other words, when they were waiting for Guo Min in her dormitory, she was likely with Zhou Xue…

Moreover, eight million yuan had inexplicably appeared in Guo Min’s mother’s account, and the sender of this eight million was still Zhou Xue.

Some connections could be made here.

After performing the autopsy on Zhou Chao, Qiao Fei had told Deng Chuan: “Although drunk, since he could still mess around with women, it means he wasn’t in a completely unconscious state, at least he was still conscious. And since there were no defensive wounds on the victim’s body, it’s possible he was killed when he wasn’t on guard, more likely by someone he trusted most.”

They had initially focused only on the first scenario, thinking that since he died naked in bed, he must have been killed during intercourse with Guo Min. After this mindset was established, they overlooked other possibilities…

After identifying Zhou Xue as a suspect.

Deng Chuan immediately led people to arrest her at her home.

Meanwhile, probably because the evidence was right in front of her eyes, ironclad and leaving no room for Guo Min to lie anymore, Guo Min hung her head biting her fingers, avoiding the strong light with disheveled hair. Before long, she confessed everything.

Once she confessed, they were shocked to find that almost nothing in her previous testimony had been true.

She hadn’t killed Zhou Chao, but she was an eyewitness.

Just when she went back to Zhou Chao’s apartment after discovering she had left her phone.

She didn’t call the police because Zhou Xue gave her a large sum of hush money.

She needed this money, desperately needed it.

And Zhou Chao had never assaulted her at all.

The first time she had relations with Zhou Chao was completely voluntary.

She was originally a bad girl who hung around nightclubs.

Wanting to hook rich guys for money.

As for her supposed personality change, it was just a facade she showed at school, partly because she wanted to completely separate herself from her roommates who walked different paths.

As for what happened afterward between Zhou Xue and her…

“I needed money, she promised to give me another twenty million.”

Jian Huai: “Even if it meant taking the blame, going to prison for her?”

“Yes,” Guo Min’s voice was hoarse.

Jian Huai: “Then why drag Yan Cheng into it?”

Guo Min buried her face lower, shaking her head while sobbing softly. After a long while, she finally calmed down somewhat, sniffled, and said tearfully: “I don’t know, it was all Zhou Xue’s idea, she said it would reduce the crime.”

“…”