Card Room (Rebirth)

Ye Lan suddenly heard the bad news that her senior sister was dead and her expression became even uglier. “H-How did she die?”

Yu Hanjiang simply said, “She was murdered. We are still investigating.”

Ye Lan’s entire body started to tremble. “How… how could this happen?”

Yu Hanjiang inquired. “She likes to talk to you. As far as you know, who does she have a grudge with?”

Ye Lan had red eyes. “I only know that she has a grudge with Teacher Liang. Teacher Liang slapped her several times backstage and Lin Yiyan never gave up on Xie Yuan. I thought she had killed Teacher Liang…”

Ye Lan thought that Liang Ting was killed by Lin Yiyan. This was why she was so nervous that she said the wrong thing when the police questioned her yesterday. Unexpectedly, Lin Yiyan was also dead. So how could Lin Yiyan kill Liang Ting?

Two people killing each other—it was impossible. After all, this wasn’t a ghost story.

Ye Lan lowered her head and spoke in a weak voice. “Senior sister just told me about some things that weren’t going well in her life. For example, filming was too tiring, this director was too fierce, she wants to get married but she doesn’t know which man is worth marrying… I don’t know if she has any grudges with other people.”

This girl was obviously frightened by the news that both people had died and her hands were constantly trembling. It was natural. She was a good girl. How could she have seen murders? Now two people died and she knew both of them.

Yu Hanjiang continued to question Ye Lan but couldn’t find out anything else. So he let her go.

Two pieces of information were obtained from Ye Lan. First, Liang Ting knew about her husband and Lin Yiyan and had slapped Lin Yiyan. Secondly, the murderer was still sending messages everywhere using Lin Yiyan’s phone.

After sending Ye Lan away, Yu Hanjiang continued to question Liang Ting’s makeup artist and hair stylist.

The makeup artist Xiao Su. Her full name was Su Shanshan and she had worked with Liang Ting for over three years. Teacher Liang liked her skills in makeup very much and took her every time Liang Ting needed to participate in a major program. She had just gotten married at the start of the year and had a boyfriend who loved her very much. She found out she was pregnant some time ago and today, her husband came with her personally.

Yu Hanjiang checked her phone.

At 8:30 last night, she ordered two takeout boxes which were delivered at around 9 o’clock. Her phone contained the record of her answering the call from the delivery man. At that time, Liang Ting was about to perform on stage. Su Shanshan left the backstage area to get the takeout.

Yu Hanjiang called the deliveryman to verify this. The other person said there was indeed a beautiful woman who came out to pick up the takeout and politely told him that he worked hard. After the woman took the takeout, she turned and walked backstage.

Yu Hanjiang asked in a low voice, “Do you remember if she went left or right after entering the door?”

The takeout delivery man thought about it. “It is the right!”

The left was the west and the right was the east. The tea room where the two of them ate takeout was in the north direction. The distance was approximately the same whether she walked to the left or the right. If Su Shanshan wanted to poison Liang Ting, she should’ve gone to the west but she went to the east.

Yu Hanjiang hung up the phone and asked, “Why go to the east?”

Su Shanshan explained, “I went there because there was cheering and it sounded very lively. I passed by and took a look because I was curious. Ye Qi was standing on stage. I stopped and listened for a while. It was very good. Then I took the takeout and went to find Ah Kim.”

“Are you familiar with Ah Kim? He said this was his first time cooperating with Teacher Liang.”

“I don’t know him very well. I first met him last week when the agent asked her to come and try out Teacher Liang’s makeup and hair.”

Yu Hanjiang asked, “Then why did you help him order takeout?”

Su Shanshan replied, “We stayed together all last night and were busy backstage with Teacher Liang. We hadn’t eaten and I thought he must be hungry as well. I asked him what he wanted to eat and opened two meals.”

Yu Hanjiang asked her, “You stayed together all last night? You weren’t together during the time when you went to get the takeout.”

Su Shanshan was taken aback and then she looked shocked. “Yes, I really don’t know where he was during those two minutes. He was already waiting for me in the room when I returned with the takeout.”

Yu Hanjiang followed up by bringing in Ah Kim. He asked the other person to show him ID. Ah Kim gave an embarrassed smile and said, “Officer, my real name is Jin Xiaoyong. Cough, this name is too unsophisticated so I chose a more western English name.”

It was very common for hair stylists to take English names such as Tony or Kim… these names were too popular. The stylist said his real name was Jin Xiaoyong and Yu Hanjiang examined his ID carefully. The photo on the ID card was taken when he was in university. He was wearing sports clothes and looked youthful and immature. He only looked 60% similar to the man in front of him. Now Ah Kim was over 30 years old.

Yu Hanjiang whispered in Xiao Lou’s ear, “Find a way to collect his fingerprint information and check it against the database.”

Xiao Lou nodded.

Then Yu Hanjiang asked this man, “Did you ever go to Liang Ting’s lounge while Su Shanshan went out to get the takeout?”

Ah Kim replied with an innocent expression, “I went to the tea room and waited for Xiao Su when she went out to get the takeout. I never went to Teacher Liang’s lounge. I was tired and hungry at the time and just wanted to eat quickly.”

“Did you hear the footsteps of other people passing by?”

“No,” Ah Kim vowed.

Yu Hanjiang nodded. “I will ask these questions first. Please sign your name on the transcript.”

Xiao Lou brought the transcript and inkpad over. After the other person signed his name, Xiao Lou said gently, “Press your fingerprint beside your name.”

Ah Kim pressed his fingerprint and smiled. “Can I go now?”

Yu Hanjiang told him, “Wait here for half an hour. There are still a few people I need to question. I will send someone to notify you once you can leave.”

Ah Kim spoke helplessly. “Officer, isn’t this too much of a nuisance to people? I still have a job today…”

Before he could finish his complaint, Yu Hanjiang’s sharp eyes swept over him and he immediately closed his mouth in a frightened manner.

Xiao Lou quickly took the fingerprints to the fingerprint bank for comparison.

Everyone would enter their fingerprints in the database when applying for an ID card as an adult. The fingerprint database was the most complete one. A person could have plastic surgery and get a fake ID but they could never change their fingerprints.

Yu Hanjiang asked Xiao Lou to check the fingerprints. He apparently suspected that the information provided by Ah Kim was false. Xiao Lou didn’t know why Yu Hanjiang doubted the other person’s identity information but Xiao Lou unconditionally believed in Group Leader Yu’s judgment. He compared Ah Kim’s fingerprint with the information in the database and was dumbfounded.

This Ah Kim wasn’t called Jin Xiaoyong at all. The person with a 99% fingerprint match in the fingerprint database was called Jin Xiaoyue and their gender was female.

6th Anniversary Event Page

Proofreader: Fictional Reality