As the days went by, the New Year holidays came to an end. Everyone gradually resumed their regular work schedules at the office, Mu Yu included. However, while others were reluctant to leave their holidays behind, Mu Yu was looking forward to going back to work—in fact, she was enthusiastic. Sure enough, she headed out with Qin Jinhuan as early as around 7.00AM. He was about to hold a morning conference with the mid-level management team.

“Get Huang Bo to send you home earlier in the afternoon,” Qin Jinhuan reminded her when he dropped her off at the Bureau.

She chuckled and said, “I’ve got nothing to do if I go home early anyway. I’d rather wait for you to pick me up and head home together.”

He frowned in return. “There’s not much to do, though; there’s no need for you to sit here all day.”

“I’m the only person on duty in the forensic lab right now; how is there not much to do? All right, enough nagging. Quick, you should go to work. Don’t miss me too much.” She gave him a nudge, urging him to get back into his car. Closing the door gently, she gave Huang Bo a quick wave and signaled for him to start driving.

Before Qin Jinhuan left, he wound down the window and reminded her again, “Take care of yourself and be safe. Don’t go out alone.”

She nodded hastily like a chicken pecking on some grains so that he would leave. “Okay, okay. Stop worrying now, and I’ll see you tonight.”

Qin Jinhuan put on a discontented expression as he shook a finger and warned her jokingly. However, his eyes were still full of tender affection as he stared at her fondly.

Meanwhile, she pulled a silly face at him and watched as his car left the building before turning around. She then headed up to the forensic lab through the lobby.

“Huh? Sir Nie?” Upon entering the forensic lab, Mu Yu noticed that Nie Yunkang was typing rapidly in front of the computer. She immediately went up to him and asked, “Did Director Gu call you back to work?”

“No, he did not.” Nie Yunkang looked up at her and shook his head. “I came back on my own terms; I just wanted to see if there’s anything I can help with.”

Mu Yu chuckled in relief. “There’s no need for that, Sir Nie. Everything’s fine with me here. You should go home and spend time with Snow.”

“Snow has her grandparents looking after her—she’ll be fine.” Then, he returned his attention to the computer screen.

Seeing that he was busy with something, she came closer and stood behind the screen suspiciously. “Is there a new case that I’m unaware of, Sir Nie?”

“No, I’m just looking at some documents regarding Li Jianyun’s murder case. I want to check if there’s anything we’ve overlooked.” Just then, he sighed in frustration. “Honestly, it’s no use—I’ve been looking through the files for three days; if there really was something that I missed, I would’ve noticed it by now.” He then slapped the desk in resignation to release his pent-up irritation. “After more than twenty years of working here and helping countless people, I can’t even be of any use when someone dear to me needs help! How useless of me!”

Mu Yu knew at once that he was referring to Feng Rubing, and a rush of sadness rose in her chest. She sighed and consoled him in a low voice, “Don’t rush it, Sir Nie. As long as we keep investigating, we’ll crack the case for sure.”

“There’s no use going on any longer—Rubing can’t wait anymore! The Bureau has already issued a warrant for her arrest!”

“What?! An arrest warrant?”

“Yes! The case has already been transferred to the public prosecution office, and it will be going to trial soon.”

“Goodness!” Mu Yu gasped as she clapped a hand to her mouth. “When did this happen?”

“It was just announced today.”

“Didn’t Director Gu promise that he would try his best to delay it?”

“Director Gu probably can’t do anything about it anymore.” Nie Yunkang sighed again. “After all, it seemed that the evidence was conclusive.”

Mu Yu wasn’t convinced. “Isn’t there no direct evidence pointing toward Madam Feng as the murderer? They haven’t even found the murder weapon, which is the most basic evidence required for a trial.”

“However, don’t forget that Rubing confessed to committing the murder during her first interrogation.”

“Well…” Mu Yu let out an exasperated breath. Just then, she thought of something and argued, “Madam Feng only admitted to it because she panicked in the spur of the moment.”

“She hasn’t taken back her statement ever since, though.”

“She… Ugh! Madam Feng’s health is in terrible shape! How is she handling all this? Where’s she now? I’d like to pay her a visit.”

“Just leave it to Chief Rong to look after her. Since we still have time, we should see how we can help her instead.”

“Is Chief Rong already back from Linhe County?”

“I heard that he returned yesterday in the middle of the night. Not only that, word has it that he and Director Gu had a dispute due to the arrest warrant.” Nie Yunkang couldn’t help but sigh as he recounted the matter. “Honestly, Director Gu does care for those under him, but there are some things that he can’t control. I’m sure you know that if he hadn’t insisted, the Bureau wouldn’t have agreed to allow Rubing to return home two years ago if it were only for her statement alone and the evidence we had collected at the time.”

“What do we do now then?”

“We…” Nie Yunkang was rendered speechless by Mu Yu’s question. He answered dejectedly, “Let’s think carefully and see if we can find any loopholes in the evidence. Perhaps… Perhaps Chief Rong might give us some good news soon.”

“Chief Rong?” Mu Yu sighed, for she wasn’t confident with the outlook at this point. After all, she was aware of what happened to Rong Jian over the past few days.

Three days ago, Rong Jian received a phone call from a fellow police officer who had returned to work early in Linhe County. He told Rong Jian that their team in Linhe had uploaded a photo of Li Jianyun, which had been provided by Rong Jian previously, to their community page online. As a result, a man who shared Li Jianyun’s last name came forward and told them that Li Jianyun was a long lost uncle of his, so Rong Jian immediately got the officer to send the man over to An City before performing a DNA test on him. After confirming that they were indeed relatives, the man was interrogated regarding Li Jianyun’s situation in recent years. It turned out that the man heard from his immediate family members that Li Jianyun hadn’t had a proper job since 15 years ago; he also had a gambling addiction which caused him to lose all his fortune and engage in usury. To clear his debt, he had sold his own son behind his wife’s back and even forced his wife into prostitution. His wife, though never legally married to him, was utterly disappointed in Li Jianyun; after fleeing Linhe County, she was never heard of again.

Li Jianyun’s mother loved him dearly; she couldn’t sleep well and cried for days and nights. Meanwhile, his two older brothers were working hard to pay off their brother’s debt for their mother’s sake, hoping that he would turn over a new leaf. Unexpectedly, Li Jianyun took all their hard-earned money which they had endlessly begged and pleaded from their grandparents—he spent it all on gambling yet again. Unhinged by his losses, Li Jianyun broke into both his brothers’ houses while they were at work, stole their family savings and used it all to cover his debt before taking another huge loan. In the end, he was forced to return home to ask for more money to pay his creditors. Seeing her son in such a miserable state, his mother died on the spot after spewing a pool of blood, and it prolonged his due date for another five days. If he couldn’t return the money by then, he would have to pay with his life. Li Jianyun’s conscientious brothers knew that they couldn’t afford to cross their brother’s gangster creditors, but they couldn’t bear to see him die as well. Thus, aside from preparing for their mother’s funeral, they worked left and right to pay off his huge debt. Little did they know that Li Jianyun would take the opportunity to sell off valuables belonging to both his sisters-in-law and fled the county, completely losing contact with them as well.

Rong Jian didn’t expect Li Jianyun to be such a heartless person—he finally knew why the man had no relatives in both Huacheng and An City.

“We had no idea that he’d relocated legally. Of course, we never wanted anything more to do with him; we’re grateful as long as he doesn’t cause us any more trouble. Don’t take this the wrong way, though—we’re not cursing him, but after my brother and I sold our houses to those gangsters, we knew that our youngest brother wouldn’t end well had he continued living like that. Sure enough, we were right. This is all karma,” Li Jianyun’s eldest brother told Rong Jian.

Rong Jian wasn’t really interested in Li Jianyun’s past. However, things were different according to Li Genyun when he was asked about his youngest brother; Li Genyun denied that such things had happened. “All three of our houses were built side by side at the same time. His house was in the middle, and our wives were good friends as well. His wife would’ve told us if something like this had happened, but even if she didn’t, we would’ve noticed it—our families shared the same backyard. Besides, our brother was only into gambling, not women. In fact, he didn’t usually joke around with women at all. From what I understand, he wouldn’t have done something like this.”

Due to the discrepancies in information, Rong Jian told Li Genyun about Li Jianyun’s hobby of playing around with women in An City, as well as his similar behavior in Huacheng.

Li Genyun, who was an honest man, was a little flustered at the news. “Impossible! Our old neighbors can be witnesses if you don’t believe me.”

“It’s not that I don’t believe you; it’s just that I’m not without proof here. All this information was obtained from the public, and they’re backed by evidence too,” Rong Jian explained patiently.

“Ah, I see. T-Then, it’s probably because he was a grown man without a woman’s love looking to solve his personal needs. Maybe that’s why his personality changed over time?”

Rong Jian found Li Genyun’s justification quite logical, but he still didn’t believe the fact that Li Jianyun hadn’t been in contact with Feng Rubing while he lived in Linhe County. Therefore, under Li Genyun’s company, he paid a visit to a few of Li Jianyun’s old contacts; all of them stated that they had never seen the man harass a woman. Following that, Rong Jian also talked to someone who knew Feng Rubing back then, but that person was clueless about Li Jianyun too. As a result, Rong Jian was confused, but more than that, he was disappointed.

“Rubing was lying; I don’t know what happened between her and Li Jianyun, and I also don’t know why she won’t tell me the truth. What do you think she’s hiding, Yu?” Rong Jian was drinking in Linhe County yesterday afternoon when he called Mu Yu and rambled on for over an hour, going on and on about Feng Rubing’s case. If it wasn’t for Mu Yu’s phone ending the call by itself after running out of battery, he would have probably rambled on until his own phone was out of battery as well. In reality, Mu Yu knew very well that he was frustrated and in pain, but she couldn’t do anything to help.

Mu Yu had spent the New Year holidays at home analyzing cases in her notebook. Aside from that, she occasionally visited Yin Xiaotian in the hospital after her surgery, and she also visited Old Madam Xiao’s home to see if the old lady had returned home. She was even teased by Qin Jinhuan for being too obsessed with work. In truth, she wasn’t obsessed; she simply knew that Director Gu would have to take Feng Rubing into custody after the New Year if they hadn’t found any conclusive evidence by then. However, she never expected Director Gu to have already arrested Feng Rubing on her first day back at work.

Mu Yu fell in deep thought for a moment before she decided to call Rong Jian; she thought that it’d be a good idea for him to tell Feng Qiqi the truth, and that would probably get Feng Rubing to confess what really happened.

Rong Jian let out a heavy sigh and answered hoarsely, “I had this very idea when I rushed back to An City last night, Yu. However, I was worried about Rubing’s health, so I stopped by and visited her. When I tried to mention Qiqi, she immediately acted up and threatened to kill herself if I were to tell Qiqi that she was Rubing and Li Jianyun’s daughter. She even insisted that she had killed Li Jianyun and that she was willing to admit it in court—she also told me that I should stop wasting my time and effort on her. I’ve already met Director Gu in the morning, Yu, and he said that Rubing has already admitted to the murder. Since she’s a forensic doctor in addition to the exceptional severity of this crime, the prosecution office will review the case soon. Even if we can prove that Li Jianyun was corrupt and immoral, those aren’t enough to be her motive for murder. Furthermore, it’ll also be harder for us to reverse the case once the court declares her guilty.”

Mu Yu was at a loss for words and the line became silent for a moment.

A while later, an idea popped up in her head all of a sudden. “Chief Rong, could Madam Feng and Li Jianyun be…”

Just then, another call interrupted her speech. Putting her phone down and glancing at the screen, she felt her heart skip a beat after seeing the notification. “I’ll call you back, Chief Rong,” she quickly said before hanging up and answering the other call.