“Life-and-death matter?” Mu Yu was even more uneasy now.

“That’s right! Where are you? Tell me now!”

“I’m at Fraternity Hospital. Where are you? I’ll head over there.” She knew that her friend used a scooter as her mode of transportation. In such times of crisis, Mu Yu figured it was better for her to look for Jiang Wenwen instead.

“Why are you at the hospital anyway? Don’t tell me it’s because you’re sick!”

Mu Yu hadn’t thought that her friend would focus on this. Not wanting Jiang Wenwen to worry, she explained, “I’m okay. It’s just that Madam Feng isn’t feeling well, and she’s at the hospital. I was about to see her. Where did you say you were again?”

“Oh, I see.” Jiang Wenwen’s tone softened a bit. “I’m still at campus. How about this—you go visit Madam Feng first, while I head over to Fraternity Hospital right now. We’ll meet at the hospital entrance in an hour’s time.”

“I’m in no hurry to see her. Whatever matter you’re wrapped up in is more urgent. You—”

“Actually, it’s not all that urgent. You should go do your thing.”

Jiang Wenwen’s giggles aroused suspicion in Mu Yu, who decided to probe her. “Did Huan call you again?”

“Why would he call me anyway? Oh! Yu, did you have a quarrel with him?”

“No. Why would we fight?” Mu Yu mentally heaved a sigh, still feeling guilty on the inside. She gave a dry chuckle and asked, “What about you? You just said that there was this really important matter, but why are you now saying that it’s not urgent? Are you playing around with me?”

“How would I possibly do that? There really is this life-and-death matter that I need to talk to you about. But since you’re visiting someone in hospital, I can make that life-and-death matter wait. Okay, let’s not continue wasting time here with all that chatter. You should go see Madam Feng. I’m going to head out now from campus. Talk to you later about the details.”

Without a preamble, Jiang Wenwen immediately hung up the call, leaving Mu Yu with a baffled expression on her face.

Still, seeing how forthright Jiang Wenwen’s personality was, Mu Yu figured that she must have had something important if she was looking for her. The ‘life-and-death’ descriptor was just an exaggeration, so Mu Yu didn’t think much about it.

Seeing that the car was already pulling into Fraternity Hospital, Mu Yu got Qi Han to drop her off by the entrance to the inpatient building. She also told him to get something to eat once he had parked the car and to wait for her in the parking lot. However, Qi Han felt uneasy letting her go alone and was prepared to drive the car down to the parking basement before heading in with her to the wards.

Mu Yu didn’t insist against it, knowing that he was worried about defying Qin Xiaozhi’s orders. Hence, she followed him out of the basement and into the inpatient building elevator. She was about to dial Rong Jian’s number upon reaching Feng Rubing’s floor, only to realize that he had texted her, saying that he was waiting for her in Rong Ying’s office. After asking directions from a nurse, she charged over to the director’s office.

The door to the office was ajar. Figuring that Rong Jian had left it open, she strode right in. Just as she expected, she saw Rong Jian inside.

Rong Jian was in the middle of eating a boxed lunch when she came in. When he saw her, he shovelled his food even faster.

“Chief Rong, you can eat normally. No rush.” She was worried that he would choke.

“It’s okay,” he replied, his words garbled from the food in his mouth. He hastily swallowed the food and tossed the container into the bin while indicating Mu Yu to take a seat. “Yu, let me tell you something—”

“Couldn’t you wipe your mouth first before talking to her? Did you think that you could leave your manners by the roadside after joining the police force?”

It was only then that Mu Yu realized that Rong Ying was there as well. She hastily got up to greet her. “Ying—”

“I was grabbing some napkins, wasn’t I?” Rong Jian grinned at his sister, having already whipped out a few napkins. “Besides, I really do have something important to tell you and Mu Yu—”

“Yu, you haven’t eaten yet, right?” Rong Ying ignored Rong Jian completely and deliberately raised her voice to talk over him.

Remembering how she was going to see Jiang Wenwen an hour later, Mu Yu was afraid that Rong Ying would invite her for lunch. Hence, Mu Yu pasted a wry smile on her face and told a white lie. “I’ve just had lunch. I ended up eating a little earlier on purpose because I wanted to come over and discuss a case with Chief Rong.”

“I see.” Rong Ying didn’t say much else as her gaze drifted over to Rong Jian. “Then you should get around to it. I’m going back to work,” she said breezily before exiting the office.

After Mu Yu walked over and shut the door, she turned around and cut to the chase. “Chief Rong, where’s that recording of Li Jianyun’s?”

Her anxiety about this case was no less than Rong Jian’s.

Rong Jian had already taken his phone out. “It’s here. Let me play it for you.” He then swiped on the screen a few times before holding the phone out to Mu Yu.

Mu Yu focused her attention on the recording.

“Baby, I’m already here; why haven’t you arrived yet?” A man’s voice could be heard in the clip first.

While Mu Yu had never heard Li Jianyun speak before, she didn’t even need to ask Rong Jian to know that this was Li Jianyun.

“I’m warning you, Li Jianyun. Don’t ever call me at night to harass me!” Feng Rubing’s frigid admonishment followed.

“Relax. Once this night is over, I promise you I won’t ever call you again. My dear baby, don’t be shy. Come over and have fun with me…”

Li Jianyun’s lustful laughter made Mu Yu want to puke.

“Shut up! If you continue speaking out of turn, I’ll call the police right this instant!” Feng Rubing was clearly furious and ashamed.

Li Jianyun didn’t seem to take offence at that, his tone still as light and breezy as ever. “Alright, alright. I won’t continue down that line. Hurry over, then—”

“You shameless lout! F*ck off!”

“My, my. Such fire coming from you! I like it!” Li Jianyun laughed in amusement. “Come quickly. I’ve already finished my warm-ups. I’m just waiting for you now…”

The clip ended right then.

Li Jianyun’s awful sexual harassment had already left Mu Yu’s burning in anger, while Rong Jian was also visibly unsettled. “That’s the 47-second recording of the call between Li Jianyun and Feng Rubing before he died,” he explained while chuckling awkwardly.

“Oh.” Mu Yu forced herself to calm down and grinned wryly. “Did Li Jianyun often call Madam Feng to harass her like this?” she asked lightly.

“Yes. Rubing said that it started because he secretly filmed Qiqi while she was showering, and he had also stalked Qiqi several times. When Rubing found out and warned him, he switched targets to her instead. He kept using that clip of Qiqi to blackmail Rubing into submission. Did you hear anything amiss from the recording?”

Mu Yu solemnly let him replay the recording two more times. After a moment of thinking with her head lowered, she brought up a question. “Chief Rong, what are your thoughts about the part at the beginning when Li Jianyun said to Feng Rubing that he was already there while asking why she hadn’t arrived yet?”

“I asked Rubing about that before. She said that there were a few times when he would call her at night and shamelessly get her to go over to his place, as though she would definitely agree if he brought it up. He would then follow up with a very bald-faced seduction act. Once she found out how he was, Rubing would just hang up on him. On that day, she got it in her head to report this to the police, so she didn’t end the call so that she could gather evidence. However, she really couldn’t continue listening to him…” Rong Jian didn’t continue after that as he gritted his teeth.

“Hey, Chief Rong!” Mu Yu suddenly thought of a problem. “I remember that Madam Feng lost her phone that night. How—”

“She didn’t lose her phone; it was just broken. She didn’t want us to know about that voice recording back then, so she lied. When she came back from the bureau that day, she took her phone for repairs.”

“Oh, no wonder.” Mu Yu thought about it a bit more before she spoke again. “Chief Rong, why did Madam Feng refuse to let us know the existence of this recording before, but decided to let us listen to it now?”

“In her own words, she was initially afraid that we would know that she was being harassed by Li Jianyun because she thought that it was a shameful act for her. She especially didn’t want anyone to know that someone had filmed Qiqi without her consent. But I now know about Rubing’s past back when she was sixteen. She thought that since I already knew about that painful past of hers, then she didn’t mind letting me know about Li Jianyun harassing her.”

Mu Yu was stirred by this. “Looks like Madam Feng cares for you a lot.”

Rong Jian gave an agonized smile. “That’s not necessarily the case. Don’t you think that her statement is riddled with holes?”

“Are you referring to when she said that Li Jianyun secretly filmed Qiqi showering?”

Rong Jian nodded. “I got Xiaofan to carefully go through Li Jianyun’s belongings again this morning. He didn’t discover the other phone that Li Jianyun used to secretly film Qiqi. I even contacted Li Jianyun’s housemate, Miao, to ask about that extra phone. Miao straight-up said that Li Jianyun definitely didn’t have two phones. He said that he knew him very well; Li Jianyun’s financial situation had never been all that good, so he wasn’t fussy about his diet or his wardrobe. Typically, whenever he got his hands on some money, he would either gamble it away or go to the reflexology center nearby to hit on women. Miao even said that he accompanied Li Jianyun to the flea market to buy the second-hand phone that Li Jianyun was using. At that time, Li Jianyun had been insistent on getting a phone that was under 100. He said that he only needed it to make calls. In the end, Miao convinced Li Jianyun to buy a smartphone. We already got the technical team to go through that phone earlier; neither the camera nor video functions had been used in nearly half a year.”

Mu Yu summed things up. “In other words, Madam Feng might have been making things out of thin air when it came to Li Jianyun filming Qiqi, yes? Then why do you think she would lie about that?”

“Perhaps…”

“Perhaps it’s to cover up something else.”

Rong Jian was not surprised by what she had just said. His gaze darkened. “What do you think she might be covering up?”

“I’ve got no idea.” Mu Yu shook her head. “But I get the feeling that it has something to do with Li Jianyun. Since she wanted to cover it up, that means there is something else that she doesn’t want others to know.”

“Something that she doesn’t want others to know…” Rong Jian softly repeated.

“Chief Rong!”

Mu Yu’s sudden shout startled him, and he hastily moved his gaze to her.

“Do you think that Madam Feng might have known Li Jianyun before this?”

“They’ve known each other before this?” Rong Jian was taken aback. “Are you saying—”

“You couldn’t figure out why Feng Rubing wasn’t willing to divulge Li Jianyun’s harassment toward her until she found out that you looked into her past, right? This is a sore spot for Madam Feng. It’s a painful experience that she has never been willing to face. That secret clip of Qiqi showering never existed because Li Jianyun never used Qiqi’s video to blackmail her; he blackmailed her using their past history! Maybe Li Jianyun already knew her more than ten years ago!”

Rong Jian was at first startled by this, but after some thought, he brought up another opinion. “If they did know each other beforehand, and if Li Jianyun did use Rubing’s past to blackmail her, then is there any point for Rubing to continue making up stories about Qiqi’s video, considering that I already knew about what happened to her? Wouldn’t that be an unnecessary move?”

Mu Yu was about to argue against that when the door to the office swung open and a man’s voice rang out. “It might not be unnecessary.”