Chapter Thirty-Seventh: When the storm is about to break, the wind fills the pavilion

A few hours later, Chen Tianyu walked out of the police station looking fresh and calm.

Liu Zichen had already been waiting in the reception room for quite a while. When she saw him, she came over cheerfully; they stepped out of the doors arm in arm, easy and untroubled. Even the duty officer on shift smiled at them.

It seemed the matter was not serious.

But they hadn’t gone far before they saw a tall figure waiting for them with its back turned.

Chen Tianyu gave a faint smile. Even in that moment, the man still seemed to walk under the open sun.

“Yunji?” he said. He had no desire to pretend confusion anymore. After all, after being inside the station once, there was no sense pretending not to know.

Yunji was, as always, refreshingly straightforward. In a cold tone he said, “You already know that it was I who sent you to the station, doesn’t it?”

Chen Tianyu nodded. “Thank you, Yun, for thinking so highly of me.”

“May I ask the full names of the two of you?” Yunji asked unexpectedly. Chen was a little surprised—could he not see their records? Perhaps there were rules in the branch office. Yunji was, after all, only a private detective, and had no such authority.

Chen Tianyu silently thanked his fortune. All the secrecy work the Beiting Detective Agency had put in over the years had not been wasted; at least the core members’ information had not been made public.

Liu Zichen was clearly offended. “Sorry, I’m not saying.”

“It’s fine. I’ll figure it out sooner or later,” Yunji said, a corner of his mouth lifting. “Still, I suppose you are Ms. Liu Zichen, aren’t you?”

Liu Zichen blinked at him, then fell silent.

“I’ve seen you in the news,” Yunji said plainly. “That Black Dragon Pond story a while back was a sensation. I even looked into it.”

Liu Zichen thought, so that was it. Coldly she said, “Those attention-seeking headlines—what is worth paying attention to? What I’d like to ask instead is: why did you slander us maliciously?”

“Malignantly?” Yunji smiled for once. “All I did was pass some clues to the police. I didn’t name anyone, and I didn’t add gossip. This man is all right now, isn’t he? The innocent need only clear themselves. I was simply doing my duty as a good citizen.”

“Ha. Must be fate, then, that I happened to know you,” he added with a hint of pride that made her all the more uneasy.

Yunji did not press on that matter. In a low, whispery tone he said, “To tell you the truth, it surprises me that you managed to walk away from this whole thing so cleanly.”

At his little theatrical remark, Chen Tianyu no longer wished to engage. “Do you enjoy prying into other people’s private lives? Is it a hobby of yours?”

Yunji seemed unconcerned. “I have no interest in ordinary people’s privacy, and no time for it. Yet regrettably, your privacy interests me very much.”

“Oh no,” he went on, “perhaps I’m extremely interested. Perhaps I want to know what sort of opponent I’ve run into.”

Chen Tianyu answered helplessly, “You’ll probably know soon enough. But I’m sorry, we have some business now, so we have no time for a long talk with you.”

“It’s all right. As long as you remain in this city, we’ll run into each other sooner or later,” Yunji said. He again removed his hat and, as he had done before, gave a ceremonious bow, then turned away.

Yunji’s manner unexpectedly evoked thoughts of several famous foreign detectives.

Reasoning it out, Chen Tianyu thought, his reasoning style might very well be copied straight from the West; he smiled faintly and felt a little steadier inside.

“What is this man, anyway?” Liu Zichen asked, staring at Yunji’s departing back and frowning hard. “He keeps pestering us without letting go. It really spoils my mood.”

Chen Tianyu sighed. “I think until this is completely resolved, we can hardly escape this watchful hawk’s surveillance… but perhaps this is good. The real test has come for us.”

“What’s good about that?” Liu Zichen asked, confused.

Chen Tianyu thought for a moment and said, “Right now, the immediate priority is to notify Beiting as soon as possible, and ask them specifically to keep things covert, avoid exposing their movements, and if possible come in in batches.”

“What thing could be so serious? Are we not just helping Yiro find someone?”

“No. The situation has changed.” Chen Tianyu hesitated, then spoke plainly. “You know… the man we’re looking for is already dead.”

“Ah?” Liu Zichen’s mouth opened wide. “Xiao Su is dead? When?” Though she was half a detective, she felt a pang at the thought of someone who had only recently been lively and alive.

Chen Tianyu nodded. “Yes. The night we returned from Lugu Lake, around two in the morning, near the bar we often go to. The police still haven’t found any useful clues. This arrest was stirred up by Yunji, but we were, in fact, the only ones who had ever had contact with Xiao Su. I reported everything to them exactly as it happened.”

He exhaled. “It looks as though the police still lack much of a lead, and Xiao Su’s cause of death is bizarre. There are too many rumors. In a tourist city, a killing there creates a huge impact, so everyone handling the case is burning with urgency.”

“Unbelievable… how could this happen?” In her mind, Yiro’s devoted, almost feverish expression appeared. She didn’t know how she would tell her.

Chen Tianyu understood what she meant. “Let’s keep this from Yiro for now. I’m afraid she won’t be able to accept it in one go. Once Beiting’s full force arrives, then we can tell her later.”

“Mm.” Liu Zichen nodded, heavy-hearted. “But how long can we keep it hidden? Are we really going to pretend we’re still helping her search? You know the bar street is shut now. We don’t even have anywhere to go.”

She asked hopefully, “Have the police confirmed his identity?”

“Yes,” Chen Tianyu said. “The investigating officers showed me photos to identify. Xiao Su’s physical features were distinctive. I recognized him at once.”

Liu Zichen stared at him in disbelief. “This…”

“There is one more thing. We had never thought of it before: this name, Xiao Su, may itself be fake. The information system can’t find it at all. In other words, he very likely deceived us from the very beginning.”

Liu Zichen murmured, “What did this man really want?”

“I still can’t untangle it yet,” Chen Tianyu said, his expression grave. “But from all the signs, this matter is far more complicated than we imagined. Add to that Yunji stirring the waters, and I had to bring Beiting into play.”

“Yes,” Liu Zichen said in agreement. “If they come, I can be at ease, and not worry about you all day. Yunji keeps targeting you every chance he gets. I’m really afraid he’ll unleash some trick of his again…”

“Don’t worry. Yunji is nothing to fear.”

He did not rush to explain why, but looked up at the sky. A moment ago it had been cloudless; now heavy clouds were gathering from all sides. Another blizzard was already taking shape.

The cold wind began to cut sharply, tugging at the edges of their clothes.

Then he lowered his voice in a conspiratorial tone. “I’ll wager you could never guess what happened to me just now inside the station.”