“What do you want to say?” Qin Jinhuan asked as he dialed Rong Jian’s number.

“I’ll tell you about it later.” Mu Yu hastily took the phone from him and pressed it against her ear as she listened to the dial tone from the call.

“Put it on speaker,” Qin Jinhuan ordered.

“Okay.” The moment Mu Yu put it on speaker, Rong Jian’s voice came from the other end of the call. “Huan?” he said.

“Chief Rong, it’s me, Mu Yu. I need to ask you; have you looked into Qiqi’s family history?” she asked.

“Qiqi’s family history?” Rong Jian was clearly confused. Qin Jinhuan flashed Mu Yu a curious look as well. Mu Yu ignored him as she continued to talk on the phone. “If I recall correctly, Madam Feng is 30 this year, right, Chief Rong?”

“She turns 30 in 3 months,” he replied.

“Qiqi just celebrated her 14th birthday, and Madam Feng’s about 16 years older than her. According to our investigation, Madam Feng left Linhe County and transferred schools when she was between 15 to 16 years old—” she uttered.

Rong Jian interrupted her words in shock. “A-Are you suspecting that Qiqi is Rubing’s daughter? H-How is that possible?!”

“No, no, no; hear me out, Chief Rong. That’s not what I meant.” Mu Yu hurriedly explained herself. “When we were discussing the case yesterday, didn’t we suspect that Li Jianyun and Madam Feng might have known each other a long time ago? We thought Li Jianyun might have known something about Madam Feng, so he wanted to threaten her with a secret that he knows about her. You thought that the traumatic past Madam Feng told you about was filled with loopholes as well. Think about it. If Madam Feng actually came up with that entire history and if she was willing to talk bad about herself like that, then whatever secret Li Jianyun knew probably wasn’t a secret regarding herself. The only person Madam Feng would be willing to sacrifice her reputation to protect is Qiqi; I can’t think of anyone else. So, I think whatever Li Jianyun is holding against Madam Feng must have had something to do with Qiqi. You know how Qiqi’s like; she doesn’t reveal the traumatic incidents that she has been through. I think whatever Li Jianyun held against Madam Feng might be related to Qiqi’s past. In other words, I think Qiqi and Madam Feng might not be biologically related to one another. You’ve already contacted Madam Feng’s old neighbors; perhaps you can indirectly ask them when Madam Feng’s parents passed away. We might be able to find some answers. I think Qiqi’s past might have something to do with Li Jianyun.” Mu Yu paused there.

“Say what you want to say, Yu; you don’t have to speak in circles with me.” Mu Yu only continued with her words a few moments after Rong Jian urged her to do so. Her suspicions were completely based on speculation, after all; they sounded ludicrous even to herself.

“Perhaps Qiqi is actually Li Jianyun’s daughter. Perhaps he tried to take Qiqi back from Madam Feng after he found out that she’s his daughter. However, Madam Feng had spent so many years of her life with Qiqi and she probably treated Qiqi as her only family, so she couldn’t bring herself to let Qiqi go. Furthermore, we all know what Li Jianyun’s personality and financial situation are like; Qiqi would suffer if she went along with him. That would explain why Madam Feng had rather given Li Jianyun money than handed Qiqi over to him, and why Madam Feng never made a police report in the end. It was because she had willingly given him the money. As for the story that she made up for you, it was probably because she didn’t want you to return to her hometown and investigate further. She was afraid that you would find out about Qiqi’s family history. Madam Feng didn’t want Qiqi to find out that she had such a horrible father. In conclusion, once you’re able to determine that Qiqi isn’t actually Madam Feng’s biological sister, then we can narrow down our investigations. If we focus on Li Jianyun’s daily life after Qiqi was born, perhaps we might be able to find some interactions between him and Madam Feng.”

Rong Jian fell silent as he found it hard to digest everything that Mu Yu had just said. “Do you think that Rubing and her grandmother had left Linhe County in the middle of the night because of Qiqi as well?” He started to question her.

“No. I think Madam Feng might have actually suffered some form of acute illness. Well, that’s not right. Perhaps it was some nasty disease that she would’ve been reluctant to disclose. Otherwise, she would’ve at least told her neighbors about it—they had a pretty close relationship. When Madam Feng’s grandmother brought her to seek medical help, she encountered Qiqi, who had been abandoned by Li Jianyun. They probably pitied the young child… Hey! Look; the pronunciation of Qiqi’s name sounds like the Chinese adjective, ‘abandoned’. I really think she might have been picked up on the streets. Families usually name their children according to the eldest child’s name, like how Yi Yunzhe and Yi Yunrui have similar names. If Madam Feng’s name is Rubing, then her sister should have been Ru-something or something-Bing…”

“That’s not necessarily true.” Qin Jinhuan chimed in to offer his views. “My name’s Qin Jinhuan but Xi’s name is Qin Chengxi.”

“T-That’s because the two of you aren’t from the same mother! Furthermore, at least your name and Xi’s names have two different words—I guess your names share some similarity since both of you don’t have repeated characters in your name. But Madam Feng is Rubing while her sister is Qiqi; that is completely different!” Mu Yu explained.

“Feng Rubing is 15 or 16 years older than Qiqi; perhaps Rubing’s parents were the ones who gave Rubing her name while Rubing was the one who named Qiqi. Qiqi’s name is really cute. I think it fits the style of a 15 or 16-year-old trying to name a child,” Qin Jinhuan replied.

“Get Huan not to interrupt us for now. We have to continue analyzing this,” Rong Jian uttered in an anxious tone.

“Okay.” Mu Yu immediately glared at Qin Jinhuan when she realized that she had been distracted by him earlier. “Why are you fooling around here? Go away; don’t butt in when Chief Rong and I are trying to analyze a case.” She instantly gave him stern orders.

He spread his hands open innocently. “I wasn’t fooling around; I was trying to help you guys…”

“Alright! Stop disturbing me!” Mu Yu turned her back against him right after she shouted at him; as if she wanted to show him that she didn’t need his help. “Don’t quarrel, Yu and Huan; let’s analyze this slowly,” Rong Jian uttered.

“Okay.” Despite her words, Mu Yu still took a few more steps forward to keep herself a distance away from Qin Jinhuan. She then continued to question Rong Jian. “By the way, Chief Rong, didn’t you get Officer Liu to look into Li Jianyun? Was there any evidence of him traveling to Linhe County all those years ago?”

“No; not as of now. But when Fan was looking into Li Jianyun’s household registration, he found that Li Jianyun had moved here from Huacheng 3 years ago!”

“Huacheng?!” Mu Yu immediately thought about Zhao Yongli. “Zhao Yongli’s from Huacheng as well, right?”

“Yeah! Zhao Yongli’s from Huacheng, but he moved to An City 6 years ago in search of job opportunities without changing his household registration details. Li Jianyun was from Huacheng as well, but he shifted his household registration details over to An City 3 years ago.” Rong Jian clearly recognized the same pattern.

“Was there another relative or partner listed in his details?” Mu Yu asked.

“No. It was just him alone. He was single; he was an old, single man. We couldn’t find any of his relatives so far.”

“Oh.” Mu Yu shifted her focus since there didn’t seem to be any clues there. “What about Sun Meilan? Was she from Huacheng as well?”

“No. Sun Meilan’s a local who has been living in An City her entire life,” Rong Jian uttered.

Mu Yu seemed rather disappointed to hear this, but she continued to ask questions. “Has she ever been to Huacheng?” If the three of them had once appeared in Huacheng all at once, then Mu Yu suspected that they might have experienced an event together. If we can establish their relationship with one another, we might be able to see how they are tied to the case. We’d be able to hunt down the killer from there.

“We’re not sure about that. Ever since Gan Wulin…” Rong Jian continued the rest of his sentence without mentioning Wen Zeyu’s name. “Ever since Gan Wulin broke his leg, his wife took him away from An City. We haven’t been able to contact them; we don’t know where they went.”

Mu Yu knew that they only hid because they were afraid that Wen Zeyu would hunt them down otherwise. She, therefore, didn’t continue questioning in this direction. “Doesn’t she have any relatives in An City?” Mu Yu thought that her relatives might have some information to share.

“She does, but they’ve cut ties a long time ago.” Rong Jian didn’t seem surprised by this; he thought that any regular person would find it hard to tolerate the way Sun Meilan spoke. “Lifeng interviewed a few of her relatives, but all of them explained that they didn’t know if she had ever gone to Huacheng. They only knew that the couple had been handling their own business for a few years now; they didn’t even know what sort of business they had. I’ve already ordered for Lifeng to find ways to contact Gan Wulin.” Rong Jian stopped for a second before he continued his sentence. “Both Linhe and Guangyang are relatively distant and poor counties; counties can’t even be found on a map. On the other hand, Huacheng and An City are both considered as one of the largest cities around. If we go according to your suspicions of Li Jianyun being Qiqi’s father, why would he abandon her in such a tiny county? Regardless of whether he had reasons that stopped him from caring for a child and regardless of which county Rubing and her grandmother found Qiqi in, I don’t think Li Jianyun would have traveled such a long distance to abandon his child there. Couldn’t he just hand the child over to a better family if he couldn’t care for the child himself?”

Mu Yu found herself tongue-tied for a moment. “Perhaps…”

“Li Jianyun was bored, and he might have been traveling around Linhe or Guangyang County. He then got a woman pregnant there. After the woman gave birth to the baby, he might’ve abandoned the child somewhere nearby before he left the county.” Mu Yu immediately spun around as she heard Qin Jinhuan’s voice coming from behind her. She was surprised as she nearly collided with Qin Jinhuan. “Ah! The phone!”

“What is it, Yu?” Rong Jian asked.

“It’s nothing!” Qin Jinhuan reacted swiftly as he caught the phone that had slipped out of Mu Yu’s hand. He beamed and handed it back to her when he saw the look of irritation on her face. “The call wasn’t cut off,” he said.

“Step aside!” Mu Yu took the phone away from him and shoved him away before she continued talking on the phone. “Chief Rong, do you think Li Jianyun’s death might have something to do with his relationship with Madam Feng?”

“No.” Qin Jinhuan’s voice came from beside her. She quickly threw him a side-eye. “I’m not asking you,” she muttered. Soon enough, Rong Jian responded to her question. “This might not have anything to do with Rubing if the culprit in Li Jianyun’s case was also responsible for the two other cases before him. The murderer probably knew about Li Jianyun’s relationship with Rubing. Perhaps the murderer attempted to use this relationship to frame Rubing.”

Mu Yu’s voice was filled with excitement. “If all of our hypotheses are right, then the murderer is probably someone associated with Madam Feng! We’d be able to narrow down our circle of investigation then, right?”

Qin Jinhuan couldn’t stop himself from interrupting their conversation again. “This would only prove that the murder knows Feng Rubing; it wouldn’t show that Feng Rubing knows the murderer. The murderer could have just done a lot of research beforehand.” This time, Mu Yu didn’t criticize him as his words made a lot of sense to her. She felt a little dejected then. Since she kept quiet, Qin Jinhuan continued to offer his suggestions. “Have you guys ever wondered why the murderer had to chop off Li Jianyun’s arms?”

Mu Yu thought about it for a moment before she replied. “I think it was because he liked touching girls inappropriately, so someone chopped his arms off.”

“I don’t think so,” Qin Jinhuan uttered.

“Oh?” Mu Yu stared at him curiously. He intentionally kept her guessing as he walked toward the couch and sat himself down at a leisurely pace.