WAM CH10

Wang Zhong, forty-two years old, Captain of the Major Crimes Unit Six.

Over the years, the number of various criminal cases he had investigated and solved was countless.

Hearing his words, Shao Si and Gu Yanzhou actually had the exact same reaction: surprise.

Shao Si thought to himself: [Did you hear that, System?]

The system replied affectionately: [I heard it! Shao Shao, our opportunity has arrived. We are not far from our dream of living for a hundred years.]

[…This dream is still quite far away.]

Officer Wang stood up and took a file from the female officer who had brought them in earlier. The thick, heavy stack slapped onto the table, making a dull thud.

Opening them one by one, what was displayed in front of them wasn’t just Yang Yinyin’s investigation files, but also those of many well-known artists in the industry.

On each file folder, there was a photo and a name attached.

Shao Si looked through the photos one by one. With maximum speed, he concealed the shock in the depths of his eyes. By the time he looked up again, he had already restrained his expression, only revealing a bit of confusion.

In his heart, however, a bold and absurd speculation gradually surfaced.

“Li Yaxin, Huo Wei, Yang Dandan…” Officer Wang sat back down, hung his badge back around his neck, and got down to business. “These are all artists who were previously arrested for drug use. You know them, right?”

Shao Si: “I know them.”

He and the system had caught several of them themselves.

Gu Yanzhou lowered his eyelids and said nothing.

Officer Wang didn’t waste words and cut straight to the point: “At first, we only vaguely sensed many suspicious points around them.”

“For example, why the funds they remitted all flowed to a certain untraceable overseas account, why their confessions were so consistent, why they all mentioned a supplier named ‘K’… It wasn’t until Yang Yinyin’s death that we connected all these suspicious points together—a drug trafficking syndicate is lying dormant in the entertainment industry. We even suspect that over so many years, they have already formed an extremely mature drug trafficking supply chain.”

The female officer had previously brought in a few cups of tea for them. Shao Si happened to be thirsty and picked up his cup to drink. Upon hearing the words ‘drug trafficking syndicate’, his hand couldn’t help but tremble in mid-air.

This was very similar to his bold speculation from earlier, but far more terrifying than he had guessed.

He had thought, at most, this was a group of people collectively doing drugs, one infecting another, with perhaps some element of coercion involved.

Gu Yanzhou frowned and discreetly pulled back the half of his arm that was close to Shao Si to avoid getting his cuffs wet. He didn’t forget to remind him: “You spilled your water.”

Shao Si: “…”

Then Gu Yanzhou looked up and asked Officer Wang: “Why do you say Yang Yinyin’s death connected them all together? Do you currently have a locked-on suspect?”

Officer Wang nodded, answering the second question first: “We have a target.”

After he finished speaking, he took a document from Yang Yinyin’s file and handed it to Gu Yanzhou.

Shao Si leaned over to look while wiping the table, his hand almost resting on Gu Yanzhou’s arm.

Noticing the suddenly narrowed distance between them, the hand Gu Yanzhou was using to hold the file instantly stiffened.

But Shao Si was reading earnestly. A few strands of stray hair slipped down over his forehead, partially covering the corner of his eye and poking it slightly, but he paid it no mind.

This name, this face on the document… he felt they looked somewhat familiar.

Buzz cut, square face, simple and honest-looking. The eyes weren’t very large, and there was a mole on the cheek.

A normal person could tell at a glance that he was exactly the hot topic currently sweeping the major entertainment news sections—

Yang Yinyin’s manager, Lu Jiahui.

…But Shao Si, this face-blind person, had completely forgotten him.

“Who is he?” Shao Si narrowed his eyes, staring at the four-inch photo and examining it repeatedly. He was slightly nearsighted, so he habitually squinted when trying to look carefully. “Looks a bit familiar.”

Coincidentally, Officer Wang had to step out to take a call and gestured for them to sit and wait for a moment, leaving only him and Gu Yanzhou in the interrogation room.

Gu Yanzhou put down the file and turned his head to look at him. From his angle, he could see half of Shao Si’s profile.

His eyelashes were very long, slightly curled. His eyes naturally looked aloof, and when he squinted, his expression seemed particularly lazy.

“Lu Jiahui.” Gu Yanzhou withdrew his gaze, extended a finger, and tapped the name column to point it out to him. “Born in 1982, a Longyan City local.”

Shao Si suddenly realized, though it was unclear if he truly had an impression or was just faking it: “Oh, him.”

With Officer Wang gone, the two had nothing else to talk about.

Gu Yanzhou kept flipping through the archive files, while Shao Si was too lazy to flip through such things.

He propped his head on his arm, sized up the interrogation room a few times, and finally, bored out of his mind, contemplated whether to lie down and sleep for a bit.

[Sleep what sleep, get up and keep working, for our dream!] The system had wanted to speak up earlier but was afraid of disturbing them. [Who’s this man next to you?]

Shao Si closed his eyes: [You don’t even recognize a major Best Actor.]

[…A major Best Actor? Bigger than you?]

[Several tiers bigger than me, his fee is three times mine, what do you think?]

[Then he really is quite big… So expensive, who can afford him?]

The system wasn’t interested in this kind of human hierarchy; it cared more about something else: [This handsome major Best Actor next to you is entangled with Yang Yinyin’s fate. I can feel it.]

Shao Si: [Can I trust your feelings?]

[…My feelings have always been very accurate.]

Shao Si recalled how every time the system ‘helped’, it ended up doing a disservice, and the occasions where it could actually be useful were incredibly rare. He couldn’t help but ask from the bottom of his heart: [I’ve been meaning to ask you, why do you always have this blind confidence?]

[…] The system held it in for a long time before squeezing out a sentence it had learned from god knows where: [Hmph, I’m ignoring you now.]

[Just go ask him. Asking won’t kill you. Since he was called in by the police to assist the investigation, nine times out of ten, he has some indescribable relationship with Yang Yinyin, right? Don’t you think that makes sense?]

Shao Si thus had no choice but to open his eyes.

He first coughed lightly, then leaned over again, making conversation out of nothing: “Senior Brother Gu… Are you, are you familiar with Lu Jiahui?”

Gu Yanzhou turned a page of the document without changing his expression: “Not familiar.”

Seeing him like this, Shao Si found it hard to imagine how he could possibly be the ‘central AC’—the guy who was supposedly warm to everyone—that Li Guangzong always talked about.

Where was he warm? Was Li Guangzong blind?

Just as Shao Si was about to ask further, Officer Wang finished his call and pushed the door open to come back in.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. Let’s continue.” Officer Wang sat down, took a sip of water, and said seriously, “We were just talking about…”

“The suspect target.” Gu Yanzhou closed the file and tapped his finger twice on the cover. “So Yang Yinyin successfully drew out Lu Jiahui’s line, and that’s what allowed you to connect everything together?”

Officer Wang: “Yes. Before she died, she didn’t just call you. Before she called you, she had a two-minute call record with Lu Jiahui. This detail aroused our suspicion.”

…

Oh.

Shao Si silently repeated in his heart: Before Yang Yinyin died… she called Gu Yanzhou.

Halfway through repeating it, he realized the amount of information in this sentence was massive—so massive it made him a little jealous.

On what grounds? Back when he was filming The Young Wife Returns to the Village, he brought Yang Yinyin flowers and snacks every day, fed her chicken soup for the soul, and proactively cared for her, yet he didn’t leave a single trace in her heart?

Afterward, Officer Wang hastily said a few more things, mainly expressing the willingness to cooperate. The specific details would be discussed with them once the strategic plan was confirmed.

Then he and Gu Yanzhou each signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Shao Si didn’t really listen carefully to these parts; his attention was entirely focused on that phone call between Yang Yinyin and Gu Yanzhou.

—The last phone call before her death.

They stayed in the interrogation room for about half an hour. When they came out, Chen Yang and Li Guangzong, who couldn’t sit still, stood up and went to greet them.

Chen Yang: “Are you alright?”

Li Guangzong: “Dad, you scared me to death. You’re not going to jail, are you?”

Shao Si dodged to the side, making Li Guangzong grasp at air: “…What nonsense are you spouting. Can you not embarrass me in public?”

The dynamic of this artist and manager duo always looked like a monkey circus act.

Chen Yang and Gu Yanzhou’s side was the normal dynamic.

“We’ll go grab a meal in a bit. You still have the ZIA magazine cover shoot this afternoon.” Chen Yang looked meticulous and extremely earnest. As he spoke, he smoothed out the wrinkles on Gu Yanzhou’s coat.

Just as the two were about to reach the door to the emergency stairwell, Shao Si suddenly called out to him from behind: “Senior Brother Gu.”

Gu Yanzhou’s footsteps paused.

Turning his head, he saw Shao Si standing three paces away from him, waving his phone at him. When he smiled, his dimples flashed by, but even while smiling, his expression still carried a trace of sleep-deprived weariness.

“I added you on WeChat. Remember to add me back… It’s this number, right? You gave me your business card before.”