CR: Chapter 546

Chapter 546 – End of the Second Link

Liu Qiao was worried that Tang Ci would be in danger alone so she followed Tang Ci to the underground garage.

Tang Ci drove all the way. Within half an hour, they successfully arrived at the university area. In order to avoid the plainclothes police waiting here to capture the suspect Liu Qiao, who ‘killed someone and escaped’, Liu Qiao disguised herself as Little Red Riding Hood and followed Tang Ci.

In the winter, a girl appeared on campus wearing a red cloak-like coat but she didn’t arouse too many people’s suspicions.

The two of them entered the conservatory of music and had just taken a few steps when they saw a familiar face. Ye Qi was wearing a large bear-like down jacket and had a guitar on his back as he walked in the direction of the music room.

Tang Ci stepped forward to stop him. “Hello, where is the girls’ dormitory for the Department of Vocal Music?”

Ye Qi looked up at Tang Ci and enthusiastically pointed the way. “Turn left at the end and then turn right. It is the blue building.”

“Thank you.”

Ye Qi smiled. “You’re welcome.”

Then under Tang Ci’s gaze, he turned around and left on his own.

Tang Ci watched his back and thought about it. Liu Qiao whispered to him, “He isn’t the Ye Qi we know. He shouldn’t be a hunter. I have confirmed with Professor XIao that he doesn’t have any memory of the Card World.”

Tang Ci didn’t dwell on it any longer. He turned around and walked toward the girls’ dormitory area.

The two of them reached the dormitory when it was dinner time. There were many students coming in and out. Tang Ci was a man and it was inconvenient for him to enter the girls’ dormitory. Liu Qiao took the initative to go forward to find the housekeeper aunt. “Hello Auntie, I am looking for Chen Mengmeng of the Department of Vocal Music. Can I ask which dormitory she lives in?”

The aunt asked, “What department are you from? Visitors are required to register with a student ID.”

Liu Qiao naturally didn’t have a student ID card of the conservatory of music so she had to say, “I forgot to bring it. My student number is 04380067…” She casually made up a number that happened to be connected to Ye Qi’s student number.

This aunt wasn’t easy to fool. Perhaps it was due to the murder at the conservatory of music but the school had been very strict these days. She frowned. “This isn’t okay. There is no student ID so you aren’t allowed to enter the dormitory building. Don’t you know the rules that the school has just issued?”

Liu Qiao actually knew it wasn’t so easy for her to get in. She chatted with the aunt in order to buy time for Tang Ci.

At this time, Tang Ci had already taken advantage of the aunt’s lack of attention to sneak into the girls’ dormitory through the side door using the invisibility cloak. He had naturally already checked the bedroom where Chen Mengmeng lived. It was Dormitory 318, Building 7.

Tang Ci quickly came to the door of Dormitory 318.  It was just as two girls came back from eating and they opened the dormitory door.

The moment the door opened, a girl screamed in horror. “Ahhhh—where did this spider come from?!”

She found a palm-sized black spider at her feet and almost fainted. Xu Mingyue, who was accompanying her, also turned pale with fright and hurried to find a broom behind the door. The two people grabbed mops and brooms to fight with the artificial spider that Tang Ci put down. The spider was very flexible and sneaked into the dormitory room. The two girls chased it despite being about to collapse.

Tang Ci took the opportunity to flash into the dormitory. He immediately saw Chen Mengmeng who was eating in the dormitory.

Chen Mengmeng heard the voices of her roommates and her expression changed. She ignored the spider on the ground and rushed out quickly. As a result, she had just gone out when she bumped into a girl wearing a red coat. The clothing was very much like the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. The girl looked at her calmly, eyes clear and cold.

It was Liu Qiao!

By the time Chen Mengmeng reacted, Liu Qiao had already used Elsa’s big move.

Ice and snow were coming!

In an instant, the interior of the dormitory building was frozen with ice and snow. All the moving people turned into ice statues, including the frozen Chen Mengmeng. She was turned into an ice statue and didn’t even have time to adjust the frightened expression on her face.

Liu Qiao’s low voice entered Tang Ci’s ear. “She is in my grasp. Withdraw!”

Then he covered Chen Mengmeng’s entire body with the invisibility cloak.

Tang Ci was thin and the wide invisibility cloak could cover more than one person. It wouldn’t be too crowded. Liu Qiao and Little Red Riding Hood could switch positions at any time and the two of them quietly withdrew from the girls’ dormitory.

The snow and ice melted without a trace.

The girls who woke up looked at each other. “Did I just see snow in the dormitory?”

”Me too. Was it an illusion?”

”Strange… I seem to have seen that the entire building is frozen by snow.”

The housekeeper aunt also felt that her eyes were dazzled. How could she see the magical scene of the entire building being frozen into ice? Everything in front of her obviously wasn’t different from usual.

She shook her head vigorously and saw the back of the girl in the red walking away in the distance.

Under the cloak, the ice disappeared from Chen Mengmeng but she had already been knocked unconscious by Tang Ci’s hand chop.

The two of them took Chen Mengmeng to the parking lot and put her into the trunk. Tang Ci firmly controlled her with the eight sharp claws of the mechanical spider. Immediately after that, he took off his invisibility cloak and took out what he had found in the dormitory.

They were Chen Mengmeng’s mobile phone, wallet and laptop.

These were all things that Tang Ci obtained in the chaos of the other two girls ‘fighting spiders’.

Liu Qiao praised him. “Mr Tang, your invisibility cloak has simply become a magic cloak that can hide many things.”

Tang Ci didn’t like to joke so he said casually, “First, see if we can find evidence in her mobile phone and computer.”

Liu Qiao opened her mouth. “You mean, chat history, emails etc. However, she should’ve deleted them right?”

Tang Ci’s eyes were calm. “I can restore the data as long as it isn’t a factory reset and complete formatting.”

Liu Qiao, “……”

This was Tang Ci. Just deleting the photos, chat history and other information wouldn’t work. Unless the system was completely redone, the hard drive formatted or the mobile phone got a factory reset, Tang Ci could always find some clues!

Chen Mengmeng obviously wasn’t so professional and cautious.

In a short time, Tang Ci restored a large amount of data that Chen Mengmeng had deleted. This included photos on her mobile phone, the call information and email exchange records on the computer.

At around 8 o’clock last night, she sent a WeChat message to Ning Xue. “Xiao Xue, your ex-boyfriend came again. He said that if you don’t come back to meet him tonight, he will send all your indecent photos to the forum. Come back and we will discuss what to do. At around 8:30, I will be waiting for you next to the tree at Liuguang Lake.”

Tang Ci and Liu Qiao glanced at each other. Sure enough, Chen Mengmeng used a pretext so that Ning Xue would not suspect anything and tricked Ning Xue back to the school. The ex-boyfriend had a precedent for entanglement with Ning Xue. It was said that he had waited for her downstairs for a month, frightening Ning Xue into not returning to her dormitory.

Therefore, Ning Xue’s first reaction upon receiving the message had to be panic. Watching fireworks with her current boyfriend? She definitely wouldn’t be in the mood. She naturally had to make up an excuse to go back first and solve the threat of her ex-boyfriend.

She didn’t know that what was waiting for her was a knife that her roommate used to send her to hell.

Liu Qiao said, “Our speculation is basically correct. Chen Mengmeng is Ning Xue’s murderer.”

Tang Ci read through the records. “There was also a message sent to her from a strange number, stating ‘Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao have decided to go to the conservatory of music at night. They must be going to see Ye Qi. Implement Plan A tonight’.”

Liu Qiao analyzed it. “The person who sent her this message should be from the medical university and it is likely Professor Xiao’s teaching assistant. He is called Wang Yishen. This teaching assistant was very aware of my movements with Professor Xiao and sent a message to his companion to prepare in advance.”

“Yes. Chen Mengmeng killed Ning Xue at the conservatory of music, took Ning Xue’s phone and deleted all the chat records. She watched you and Xiao Lou backstage and told Wang Yishen the exact time you left. Then Wang Yishen used Xiao Lou’s phone to call Ning Xue’s phone. The two of them created the five minute call record evidence.”

Tang Ci hesitated before continuing. “Once the competition was over, Chen Mengmeng placed Ning Xue’s phone at the central square and guided the police to find it. She just ignored the fact that the central square implemented one way traffic control that night. It is easy to get to the square from the school but from the square to the school, 10 minutes is simply too short.”

The context of the case became clearer. Liu Qiao declared, “Let’s go find Teaching Assistant Wang.”

Tang Ci drove to the medical university.

The medical university and conservatory of music were right next to each other, so they would get there soon. He had just driven the car to the laboratory building when he found a familiar police car parked there. Tang Ci signaled for Liu Qiao to hide in the car and opened the door to get out.

He had just come to the door of the laboratory building when he met Yu Hanjiang, who was coming out of it.

The two of them stared at each other. Before Tang Ci could speak, he heard Yu Hanjiang say, “Are you looking for Wang Yishen? He isn’t at school. He is flying out of the country this evening.”

Tang Ci was startled. “…Group Leader Yu also found out the truth?”

“I never believed Xiao Lou would kill anyone but the evidence was too much. I had to take him back for a routine interrogation.” Yu Hanjiang’s sentence wasn’t like a deception and his tone was very firm.

“Wang Yishen has already bought a ticket?” Tang Ci asked.

“Yes, he also bought a ticket for Xiao Lou, making the illusion that Xiao Lou wanted to flee after killing people. In fact, he is the one who really wants to escape. I have contacted the police at the airport to intercept him at the security checkpoint. He definitely won’t escape Jiangzhou,” Yu Hanjiang explained calmly.

“It seems Professor Xiao’s suspicion has been removed. Group Leader Yu, can you release my friend first after you go back?”

“I will naturally release Xiao Lou when I catch the real murderer and complete the formalities.”

“Ah right!” Tang Ci suddenly thought of something. “Is Xiao Lou still in the cell?”

“He asked me to go and catch the murderer myself. I sent three colleagues to keep a close eye on Cell 1 and ensure that no one goes near there.”

Tang Ci’s expression changed. He didn’t pay any more attention to Yu Hanjiang and instead turned around to drive quickly toward the police station.

In the back seat, Liu Qiao looked at Tang Ci’s pale face and asked in a worried manner, “Mr Tang? Did Wang Yishen run away? Are you driving so quickly to go after the murderer?”

“It is Xiao Lou who is in danger.” Tang Ci’s voice was low. “Have you ever thought about how there can only be two hunters when there are three of us in this world?”

“…There are also three hunters?!”

“Yes, there is another one. Maybe they are among the police officers.” Tang Ci slammed a hand onto the steering wheel at the intersection. He slammed down on the accelerator and overtook three cars in a row. Liu Qiao’s body almost hit the door and she grabbed the handlebar of the car to steady herself.

Tang Ci’s expression was gloomy. “Why did the police arrive at the crime scene so quickly last night? Is it Yu Hanjiang himself?”

“Can it be Xiao Wu?” Liu Qiao reacted. The intern police officer who followed Yu Hanjiang could not only guide Yu Hanjiang to the scene of the crime but also closely grasp the investigation progress of the police force…

If Xiao Wu was responsible for the internal response of the police, the group of hunters would be more comfortable in framing Xiao Lou.

“In other words, they decided to implement Plan A yesterday and Xiao Wu took Group Leader Yu to the vicinity of the university area in advance. That way, the moment his partner completes the killing and the alarm is received, he and Group Leader Yu can come to the scene of the crime first and he can act comfortably.” Liu Qiao thought about how she had pretended to be Xiao Wu and felt complicated.

“Xiao Lou deliberately sent Yu Hanjiang away. He obviously thought of this and wanted to use himself as bait to lure the last hunter.” Tang Ci took a deep breath. “I hope that Xiao Lou is still alive when we arrive.”

“…Cough, Mr Tang, you don’t have to worry too much. Professor Xiao isn’t an impulsive person. Since he dares to do this, he definitely will be able to ensure his own safety.” Liu Qiao was relieved. “At least for now, he still has two lives.”

“Two lives?” Tang Ci looked back doubtfully.

“Yes, I gave him the Witch card. He has the antidote that can save his life.”

Proofreader: Paranoid Kitten & Fictional Reality