67. A torrential rainstorm hits the village on the night.

Liang Mei felt a chill run down her spine; the voice was indifferent and mocking.

Zhou Yun walked in into the light, followed by Fang Chengjin and Lin Long.

The three people blocked the gate, and Liang Mei couldn't run away even if she wanted to.

"How could this be..." Liang Mei slowly got up from the ground, muttering to herself as if she had lost her mind.

"You're looking for me?" Liang Mei asked uncertainly.

Lin Long took a sealed transparent packaging bag out of his pocket and held it up to Liang Mei.

Do you recognize this?

Inside the bag were medicine sachets.

Liang Mei shuddered, swallowed hard, and lowered her head.

Liang Mei shook her head: "I don't know what you're talking about. Please move aside, I want to go home!"

Lin Long blocked his way, "You killed Lei Batian, and you still want to go home? Come with me to the police station!"

As Lin Long said those words, he had already handcuffed Liang Mei's hands.

"No, what are you doing! How can you say I killed him? You have no evidence!" Liang Mei struggled.

Fang Chengjin continued, "I've thought about this for a long time, and you almost fooled me. But I saw the pill shells in the trash can and detected traces of sedatives. I think that night must have been like this: you fed Lei Batian the drug, he passed out, you waited for a while, and then you pushed him down. The injuries on your body were inflicted by Lei Batian, weren't they?"

Lin Long grabbed her sleeve and pulled it up, and sure enough, her arm was covered in tiny bruises.

Zhou Yun tossed a report at you, "We also checked your insurance situation. Last year, you bought a huge life insurance policy for Lei Batian. The salesperson said you originally intended to buy it for yourself."

Liang Mei covered her face and made a final defense: "You have no evidence to prove that I killed the person."

Fang Chengjin: "You bought the drug. As long as we check the time and place of purchase, you will be a suspect. If you confess, you might get a lighter sentence."

Liang Mei ignored him and glared at him fiercely, "I will not say another word. I did not kill him."

Fang Cheng stared intently at her, but did not take any further steps.

Lin Long pressed down on her shoulders. "Behave yourself and come back to the police station with me. You're suspected of murder now, and there's no escaping it."

Lin Long pressed her down and left the ward.

Fang Cheng stared at her retreating figure, lost in thought.

Zhou Yun noticed his concerns and asked, "Is there anything else you're wondering about?"

“I think that after she pushed Lei Batian downstairs, the place wasn’t next to the fountain, so she wouldn’t have gone downstairs to move Lei Batian’s body to the fountain, let alone spread those photos.”

Zhou Yun nodded: "Judging from her reaction, she doesn't seem like the person who did this later. And Ahua's case also had a similar scene. Do you mean there's a third party involved in this case?"

Fang Chengjin took a deep breath. "Alright, the truth is about to come out, but we still have to wait a little longer."

Wait? Zhou Yun raised an eyebrow.

**

At six o'clock the next morning, Lin Long brought another clue.

Fang Chengjin and Zhou Yun had been staying in the police station's break room. When Lin Long opened the door and came in, the room was still dimly lit.

When the lights came on, Lin Long's mouth gaped open.

What did he see?

At this moment, Zhou Yun leaned on Fang Chengjin's shoulder, and Fang Chengjin actually hugged Zhou Yun, the two of them very intimately.

The moment the light was turned on, Fang Chengjin opened his eyes, but Zhou Yun was still asleep.

Fang Chengjin looked at Lin Long with a hint of reproach in his eyes. Lin Long yelled, "This damn melodramatic scene of forgetting his brothers after getting a wife!"

Zhou Yun was awakened by the scream. She distanced herself from the other person, looking somewhat awkward.

"Latest lead: our people found a surveillance camera in the guesthouse room, and then the cyber security department restored the missing surveillance video, discovering that Ye Xiao and Liang Mei were both filmed committing the crime. This is the most compelling evidence!" Lin Long's tone was slightly excited.

"And what about the identities of those two?" Fang Chengjin's face didn't show any extra smile.

Lin Long suddenly frowned and tossed out another report, "This is the problem. The video we recovered doesn't contain any footage of these two committing the crime; it only shows the usual daily activities at the guesthouse. What's even stranger is that the guesthouse manager was changed just last month. The guesthouse owner is overseas, and we can't contact him. The guesthouse is currently abandoned. Also, there is indeed a photographer named A-K, but when our people went to inquire, he had never been to the guesthouse. We don't know if it's the same person."

Lin Long opened her phone, scrolled to the photos, and showed them to Fang Chengjin.

Wide face, buzz cut.

Fang Chengjin glanced at it, his face calm.

Zhou Yun spoke first, "This is not Ah K at all. This uncle looks completely different from the Ah we saw!"

Lin Long shook his head: "Unless there is video footage, we have no way to investigate the two people you mentioned. The guesthouse's surveillance video does not show their faces at all. The cyber security team found that it was tampered with."

Fang Chengjin's eyes were deep and thoughtful. He was silent for a moment before saying, "These two should be from a third-party organization, and they should be related to the arson case from back then."

Lin Long looked surprised. "You mean they're here to see you?"

Fang Cheng nodded: "Based on what we've seen over this period, A-K really enjoys communicating with me, even telling me everything. He's trying to gauge my reaction and Zhou Yun's importance to me. Zhou Yun was probably smuggled down the mountain by him. They must have discovered that Zhou Yun is very skilled. If she were here, it would probably affect their plans."

Lin Long asked, puzzled, "But why are they targeting you? Do they want to kill you?"

Fang Cheng shook his head. "I'm not quite sure either."

Zhou Yun worriedly said, "Should I ask my former bureau chief to have them investigate whether there are any cases like this in mainland China...?"

Fang Chengjin: "No need. They won't be found out so easily. If you go back and ask, it will only cause more trouble."

Lin Long grinned: "Old Fang, he's starting to feel sorry for people."

Zhou Yun's ears felt slightly warm.

Fang Cheng carefully reviewed the report: "The facts are clear: Liang Mei killed Lei Batian, Ye Xiao and Tang Tiantian killed Director Chen and Ahua, as for Tang Tiantian..."

After a moment of silence, Fang Chengjin spoke up: "It was the butler who did it, but what was his motive?"

Lin Long frowned, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Could it be that these two are protecting you?"

Silence again.

Zhou Yun also spoke up: "I think Lin Long's words make perfect sense. A-K and the others must have known that you couldn't beat Tang Tiantian and Ye Xiao. Imagine when you came back from outside with a limp, wouldn't Tang Tiantian have killed you on the spot? The butler killed Tang Tiantian and let you return to the hall. After you came to the hall, according to Ye Xiao's testimony, he couldn't find the knife at the time. I have reason to suspect that A-K did something to prevent him from killing you."

Fang Chengjin remained silent, his face grim.

Lin Long sighed, "Old Fang, didn't you say that your sense of smell was unusually sharp after that fire? I even went with you to the hospital for a checkup. The doctor said that some of your cells had been altered. I've always suspected that this might be some kind of human experimentation... Maybe those two people were sent by the organization to test us..."

Zhou Yun: "What human experiments?"

Lin Long dared not make a sound, and he glanced at Fang Chengjin.

Fang Chengjin said helplessly, "Alright, let's close the case. As for those two people..."

The sound gradually faded.

Fang Cheng carefully closed the report. "What's meant to happen will happen, and didn't you notice this time? I didn't solve the case entirely by relying on my sense of smell; it was just an aid."

Zhou Yun and Lin Long exchanged a knowing smile upon hearing this.