“Why don’t you think so?” Mu Yu hurried over and sat down right beside him. She then stared at him earnestly as if she was a student waiting for her teacher to provide her the answers to a tough question. Qin Jinhuan had initially wanted to keep her guessing for a while longer, but he couldn’t bear to do it once he saw the look on her face. “What else does Li Jianyun enjoy apart from women?” he asked.

“Gambling!” Rong Jian’s voice came from the phone while Mu Yu was still deep in thought. Qin Jinhuan nodded. “You guys have been placing the focus of your investigation on his interest in women because of how he had previously harassed Feng Rubing. However, I think this might simply be a psychological trick that the murderer pulled in order to frame Feng Rubing as the perpetrator. Li Jianyun’s death—and his arms that had been chopped off before he died—might have something to do with his gambling habits. Perhaps you guys should check if he had offended anyone in the past because of his gambling habits.”

“Okay, I’ll do it right now,” Rong Jian uttered hastily.

“Hey!” Mu Yu sounded rather dejected when she realized that Rong Jian’s attention had shifted away from her. “What about my deductions, Chief Rong…”

“I’ll look into them as well. I think whatever you two said really made sense. That’s all for now; I’ll get in touch with you guys when we see developments in the case.” Rong Jian ended the call immediately after he finished his sentence. Mu Yu then stared at the screen of the phone dazedly after the call ended.

“The noodles have gone cold. Let me get Aunty Lan to make you another bowl,” he said.

“Huan!” She grabbed onto his arm before he could give Aunty Lan a call. “What is it?” he asked.

“Do you think Li Jianyun’s case has anything to do with the two previous cases?”

His expression turned serious when he saw the solemn look on Mu Yu’s face. “Based on what we understand about the situation now, although we don’t have any direct evidence to show that Feng Rubing isn’t the murderer, we can still be certain that she didn’t do it. If she isn’t the murderer, then we can pretty much conclude that Li Jianyun’s case wasn’t the result of a copycat murderer. Judging by how similarly these three homicide cases were executed, we may be able to conclude that it was the same person. But…”

“But what?” Mu Yu had been nodding and expressing her agreement toward his words, but his sudden twist of opinions made her chest tighten in anxiety once again.

“Your suspicion had always been that there was some other relationship between the three victims—apart from the fact that they were all workers in the Qing Tian Group. You thought that this relationship would explain the murderer’s motives and that’s why you kept attempting to establish such a relationship between the three of them.”

“Yeah,” she uttered. But Qin Jinhuan merely shook his head. “You guys investigated their social relationships; you now know that they didn’t know of one another despite all of them being workers in the Qing Tian Group. They’ve never had any interactions in the past, so I don’t think they have the sort of relationship or connection that you had suspected. In my opinion, the murderer only killed them to create a greater sense of fear in the Qing Tian Group, or perhaps something worse.”

Mu Yu froze for a second and thought about his words before she spoke up in a soft voice. “So, you think that the murderer’s core intention was to attack the Qing Tian Group. You think that the murderer’s kills were at random and that the only criteria was that the victim had to be a worker in the Qing Tian Group?”

“Yeah.”

“Why would someone hold such a huge grudge against the Qing Tian Group, then?” she continued asking.

“I’m not too sure about that. However, the company is huge; it’s unavoidable that some stubborn individuals might’ve been offended by the strict rules that we have,” he replied.

“In that case, you think that Li Jianyun, Zhao Yongli, and Sun Meilan’s cases aren’t related to one another at all, right?”

“If there was actually some sort of relationship between their deaths, you guys would’ve probably managed to find at least some tiny hints by now.”

Mu Yu sounded rather disgruntled right then. “It’s not like we didn’t manage to find some hints here and there. At least we now know that both Zhao Yongli and Li Jianyun are from Huacheng. If we manage to find out that Sun Meilan had been to Huacheng in the past and if we manage to identify a period when they had all been there together, then we would be able to find out about their relationship with one another. That way, we would be able to find clues that would lead us to the murderer behind these gruesome cases.”

Qin Jinhuan let out a chuckle. “You guys haven’t even managed to establish a relationship between Li Jianyun and Zhao Yongli despite learning that they were both from Huacheng. How could you be thinking of establishing a third relationship with the other person now?”

“We just started, right? I’m sure we’ll find something soon!” She insisted.

“What if Sun Meilan had never been to Huacheng in her life?” he asked.

“Well… I’m sure she must have been there before!”

Qin Jinhuan then burst into laughter. Even Mu Yu realized how far-fetched her words seemed; she threw him a frustrated glare before she curled herself up on the couch and wrapped her arms around her knees. She continued to ruminate about the case. Qin Jinhuan couldn’t bear to see the dejected look on her face, so he edged closer to her and held her in his arms as he comforted her gently. “Aren’t you guys still in the midst of an investigation? Perhaps the three of them actually interacted with one another in Huacheng.”

Mu Yu let out a huge sigh. “Alright; stop sighing. It isn’t like you to admit defeat so easily. I’ll go get Aunty Lan to make you a new bowl of noodles,” he uttered.

“I don’t feel like eating now.” She held onto him. “Sit here with me. My head’s a mess; I just want to calm myself down for a moment.” He quickly sat himself down before he offered her his shoulder. Once she rested her head against it, he held onto her other hand and began to pat it gently.

“Huan,” she mumbled.

“Hmm?”

“Do you think that my whole hypothesis about Qiqi being Li Jianyun’s daughter sounded a little too ridiculous?” she asked.

“Anything’s possible until we get to the truth of the matter,” he replied. Mu Yu was clearly encouraged by his words, for she immediately straightened herself and stared at him. “Then, if I say that Qiqi might be—” Her sentence came to a halt as she realized how her ideas were getting more and more ridiculous.

“Were you trying to suggest that Qiqi might be Feng Rubing and Li Jianyun’s daughter?”

Mu Yu was utterly shocked. “H-How did you know that I was going to say that?! D-Do you have the same suspicions as well?”

“I don’t; I simply know what’s going on in your head,” he replied honestly.

“W-Well, then… do you think that it might be possible?” she asked again.

Qin Jinhuan let out a light chuckle. “Didn’t you hear what I just said? Anything’s possible until we get to the truth of the matter.”

Mu Yu let out another long sigh upon hearing his words. “That idea somehow popped up in my mind, but I was reluctant to share it as I was afraid that Chief Rong wouldn’t be able to accept it.”

“But the main reason you couldn’t bring yourself to voice it was probably because you found it too hard to believe. You thought that the idea was simply too ridiculous, right?” he asked. She flashed him a bitter smile then. “You know me the best.” Mu Yu didn’t know how the idea surfaced in her mind; she was stunned by herself when she first thought about it. She had always shared all of her hypotheses and case deductions with Rong Jian in the past, but she found this idea too absurd. Furthermore, she was careful with her words because of the special relationship between Chief Rong and Feng Rubing.

“You’re my wife; how could I not know you well?” Qin Jinhuan then put on a rather aggrieved expression. “I know what goes on in your mind, but I don’t understand your actions. You always shout and howl at me when you’re analyzing your cases; you get so harsh then. I was thinking if I should warn Rong Jian not to randomly call you up to analyze cases with him in the future.”

Mu Yu jumped up in shock before she immediately gave out her orders. “No! You know how much I enjoy analyzing cases with Chief Rong!”

“But you can’t neglect your husband’s feelings just because you enjoy analyzing cases, right? You make me feel really ashamed when you scold me in front of outsiders,” he said.

“Chief Rong isn’t an outsider.” Mu Yu quickly switched to addressing him with an apologetic tone once she reflected on her acts and realized how she had gone overboard with her words earlier. “I’m sorry. I know I’m wrong; I’ll be more mindful about it in the future, alright?” she said with an expression of guilt.

“You’re not going to be mindful about it the next time,” he muttered.

“I will. I will! I really will. I promise that I’ll be really gentle toward you in the future.” She pressed both her palms against his cheeks when she saw that he had shut his eyes and put on a look of disbelief. She then planted kisses all over his face as she laughed. “Alright; stop being mad at me. I promise I’ll be more careful in the future.” He sounded rather serious with his threats earlier; Mu Yu was terrified that he would actually stop Rong Jian from contacting her to analyze cases with him. “Huan…” She held onto his face and shook it from one side to another. When he refused to open his eyes, she hung her arms around his neck as she began to speak to him in a childish tone. “Stop being angry at me… I’ll be more careful in the future.”

“You’re not allowed to call me your darling from now on.” He continued feigning anger.

“Well, let me give my darling a massage, then.” She giggled as she sat herself down on his legs before she placed her hands on his shoulders and began to massage him. Both her voice and her actions were as gentle as the spring breeze in March. “I simply can’t stay mad at you,” he muttered helplessly.

“I haven’t even had my dinner.” She put on a pitiful look.

“I’ll get Aunty Lan to make you some noodles.”

“It’s fine. It’s almost midnight; we shouldn’t trouble Aunty Lan at this hour. I’ll just get myself some snacks.” Mu Yu then let out a huge yawn as she spoke.

“You should just go to bed if you’re tired. I thought you’d never feel tired once you started talking about the case,” he said. She pretended to jab his forehead angrily when she realized that he had been feigning his anger all along. She then recalled what he had said earlier. “We’ve already been together for about two months; why aren’t I pregnant yet? Should we go get a check-up at the hospital tomorrow? We can check if there’s something wrong with you. I heard that most of the issues with infertility are due to the male partner,” she uttered worriedly.

He wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry at her words. “There’s nothing wrong with me!”

“How would you know if you haven’t done a check-up? Furthermore, you’ve been with quite a few other women in the past, yet none of these women have ever had your child. It might really be due to some problem that you have.”

“Who told you that I had other women? I’ve always valued my chastity, alright?” He then provided her an explanation in a low, muffled voice as he was displeased to hear her suggesting that he had problems. “It’s totally normal for a regular male and female to be together for a whole year without getting a baby. This is common sense, alright?”

“Is it considered normal that they didn’t have a child after such a long period?!” She was stunned.

“It’s completely normal.”

“But Grandpa’s going to start suspecting something if I don’t get pregnant soon,” she uttered anxiously.

“It’s all up to fate; there’s no reason for us to get worried about it if there’s nothing more we can do about it.” He patiently smiled and comforted her when he saw how distressed she seemed. She was indeed uneasy about the situation; she lay herself down on the bed as she mumbled to herself, “When will fortune befall us, then?”

“Soon. Trust me.” He lay himself down beside her.

…

While Qin Jinhuan and Mu Yu were discussing their fate, Rong Jian was zoning out as he stared at a wall outside Feng Rubing’s hospital ward. “It’s late. Why aren’t you asleep?” He immediately turned around to stare at Feng Rubing once he heard her voice.

She seemed rather uneasy under his observation, and she was about to turn and head toward her room when Rong Jian quickly called out to her. “I have a question for you, Rubing.”

“Hmm?”

He hesitated for a moment before he finally spoke in a gentle voice. “Is Qiqi really your biological sister?” Right then, Feng Rubing looked as if she had just been struck by thunder. Her body jolted with shock as her face was drained of all color. Her lips turned extremely pale as her limbs began to tremble uncontrollably.