Muchuan and Xiang Wan - Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Misfortunes Never Come Singly!
Translator: MintCatnip Editor: Chrissy

Bai Muchuan’s black eyes seemed deep. He replied with a question, “Suspecting what?”
Xiang Wan snorted lightly. “Suspect that there’s a problem about her car accident.”
“And then?” asked Bai Muchuan.
“The unhappiness and conflict among the two families could have been too deep to quit, too hopeless to mend. Perhaps Zhao Jiahang’s death might be related to the Xu family?”
A lot of plots started to pop up in Xiang Wan’s head, and she really felt like prattling on but managed to keep herself in control. 1
As she continued to think about it, she fused the reality and her novel into one, and let her imagination run freely.
Bai Muchuan raised an eyebrow with an indifferent face. “We’re solving cases, not writing novels! I only believe in evidence.”
Not again!
Xiang Wan remembered he had once said that authors liked to make inferences, while the police looked for clues and evidence.
But she really liked to make inferences, what to do?
Xiang Wan gave a thought and frowned with a puzzled look. “But it’s not right, didn’t you ask Mrs. Zhao earlier that someone heard her dialogue with Mr. Zhao? If it’s true, could Er Niu’s death be related to Mrs. Zhao?! Even if she did not kill her, she might have forced Mr. Zhao to do that?”
Bai Muchuan lazily lifted both of his hands and placed them behind his neck like a pillow. “Tian Xiaoya died of heart failure with a hospital death certificate. And—the eye witness was fake.”
He was like a professional mood damper.
No matter what Xiang Wan mentioned about the case, he would pour cold water on them.
“Detective Bai, you actually lied to induce someone else’s confession?!”
Seeing how her eyes lit up with an excited face, Bai Muchuan didn’t say a word.
Xiang Wan was full of spirit with regards to solving the case. She wanted to debate with him and continued to talk as if she was making up a story.
“In fact, the death certificate did not mean anything. In our current society, getting a real one is difficult, but getting a fake one is easy, is it not?”
Bai Muchuan glanced at her but did not answer that.
“Didn’t you notice?” Xiang Wan chuckled. “In fact, Mrs. Zhao is a very controlling person. She did not like it when Detective Bai controlled the questioning. She tried to turn the situation around several times, however, she had failed to do so. After realizing that, she started to show faint signs of anxiety. For a person to become like that, one of the reasons must be due to the excessive sense of inferiority. Judging from her situation, it should be the after-effects of what the accident had brought to her. So, she must have been keeping a tight rein on her husband. I don’t believe that she knew nothing about Mr. Zhao’s affair.”
Listening to her reasoning and her firm attitude about this, Huang He cackled in response.
“So Teacher Xiang did an inference based on that aspect?”
“No, it’s based on a woman’s strong intuition!” Xiang Wan narrowed her eyes, and with a somewhat evil snigger, she continued, “Has Detective Huang ever heard of this saying? When a woman is lovelorn, her writing skills is second only to Mo Yan. When she’s in rage, her combat power only loses to Ottoman. When she’s catching a cheating husband, her IQ is much higher than Sherlock Holmes—she don’t even need any evidence! Her instincts and the smell of the air alone will enable her to tell if the man’s heart is still with her, and if he’s having an affair!”
“Ha ha ha ha!”
That was a burst of hearty laughter by Huang He.
“These should presumably be the most accurate fallacies in the world!”
“This is absolutely true. For example, my cousin once had a meal with her boyfriend and her BFF, just the three of them. However, she smelt a rat and found out about their secret affair even though they did not say anything.”
“Ha ha ha ha!” Huang He guffawed at her remarks once again.
“Detective Huang, please do drive steadily. Don’t just keep laughing…”
“Okay, okay,” said Huang He, “Teacher Xiang, are all authors so interesting?”
“Heheh, maybe! Actually, it’s not that authors are interesting. It’s just that authors like me tend to stay at home, and as time goes by, most of them are mild on the outside but daring on the inside.”
The two of them chatted and deviated away from the topic. Detective Bai, who had been faking a nap by closing his eyes, finally showed a face of displeasure.
“Talk about work!” reminded Bai Muchuan with a hint of irritation. 1
Ahem! Huang He cleared his throat and drove seriously.
Xiang Wan glanced sideways at Detective Bai’s suave, frosty face. She realized that when he was angry, he actually looked better than when he was not.
Ahem! She imitated Huang He’s action by clearing her throat, and began to talk about the case.
“I cited that example because I wanted to say that for a woman like Mrs. Zhao, she will monitor her husband more closely and her emotional sensitivity would be much higher than the average woman. As a result, the likelihood of her discovering Mr. Zhao having an affair is more than 80 percent! Now the question is, why is she pretending that she only came to know about the affair today? Overwhelmed with grief? Could it be to cover something up? For instance, the death of Er Niu?
“Good imagination!” Bai Muchuan finally replied her seriously. “Do you have evidence?”
Xiang Wan imitated his neutral face. “Shouldn’t the police be looking for the evidence? Why are you asking an author for evidence?”
Six of one and half a dozen of the other!
The score’s now one is to one—an equalizer! 1
But after dissing Bai Muchuan with this sentence, Xiang Wan finally woke up from her dream of being Conan and Sherlock Holmes. She was suddenly conscious of the fact that all these things had completely nothing to do with her.
She was just writing her own novel, so why should she be bothered about the evidence?
“Don’t detach yourself from this case!” Bai Muchuan seemed to have seen through her thoughts. “There is still no conclusion about the matter where you lied. You’re not completely cleared of suspicion for this case!”
What the heck?!
When did she lie?
Just because her statement was inconsistent with the other five readers, she had to be the one who was lying?
Xiang Wan felt her head aching when she thought about this. She was red with anger. “Detective Bai, you said that I lied. Do you have any proof?”
“I have,” replied Bai Muchuan indifferently, “they have their chat records as proof, but you don’t.”
Xiang Wan: “…”
The two of them were talking as if they had thorns on them and were having a “conflict” without apparent reason. Even Huang He, who was driving diligently, could not make sense out of it.
To ease the embarrassment, he gave a cough. “Ahem, so… Boss, are we now going back to the office or going back to the office?” 2
“Drop me at the office!” said Bai Muchuan. “Quan Laowu introduced and brought a criminal psychologist over. I need to go meet that person. You’ll deliver the fingerprint to the Evidence Center.”
What about Xiang Wan?
Huang He was waiting for the next line. Xiang Wan was also waiting. But Detective Bai seemed to have forgotten about her as he didn’t say anything more.
Finally, Xiang Wan couldn’t take it anymore. “What about me?”
“Currently, the case has come to a temporary closure.” Bai Muchuan looked at her casually. “We don’t need you for now, so you can go back to rest. We’ll look you up if we need your assistance again.”
D*ng! Xiang Wan was quite upset with what he had said, but she couldn’t understand why she had felt that way.
“Alright, but I need to go to your house to get my things.”
“Hm,” Bai Muchuan responded and closed his eyes again.
It was suddenly quiet in the car. The silence made Xiang Wan embarrassed!
…
Huang He was indeed a good-natured detective.
He sent Bai Muchuan back to the Criminal Investigation Unit, then he sent Xiang Wan back to the outskirts of the neighborhood where Bai Muchuan lived, even though it was out of the way to the Evidence Center. He also repeatedly told her to pay attention to safety.
“After all, there’s still some doubts in this case. Wang Tongsheng may have been caught, but this case isn’t really closed yet. Teacher Xiang should be careful.”
“I know that. Thank you, Detective Huang!”
Xiang Wan smiled at him. She might seem calm on the surface, but her heart was actually pounding with unease.
The amount of fear she had experienced these days was much greater than what she had experienced for her whole life.
Without any umbrella to stand under and being alone, Xiang Wan still felt a little afraid.
She was really afraid about the incidents happening. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. This time, she really had the urge to kill someone.
When she stepped into the Bai Muchuan’s house once again, under the discomfited expression of Nanny Li, she went back upstairs to the room where her things were—she was appalled by the sight before her.
Her pajamas was dragged and tossed on the floor in an abject manner, and there were even footprints on it.
That might still be bearable…
The most exasperating thing was her laptop. It was her means of livelihood as well as her weapon on the battlefield. Her laptop was her most important and beloved treasure.
And, it was now broken into two. 2
It looked so pathetic while lying in some water stains as if it had been soaked in water. It had died a horrible death.
“Who did this?!”
She screamed in rage, completely forgetting that this was not her house. She dashed out of the room, fuming with anger.
“Why are you kicking up such a fuss?”
Bai Lu was lounging idly on the sofa at the living room.
She was eating fruits leisurely when she lifted her head and glanced impatiently at Xiang Wan.
“I broke it by accident. Tell me, how much is it? I’ll compensate you!” 2
…