Chapter 34 Little Snake (Bonus Chapter for 1500 Nutrient Solution!) "You don't..."
[The serpentine cobra*, a type of cobra, is named for its silvery-white body with frosty-gray markings and diamond-shaped white stripes on its neck. It commonly inhabits southern China...]
The Baidu Baike entry was too long, and there were photos below, so Cheng Shiyun scrolled directly to the bottom.
Cheng Shiyun curled up in a ball, propped her head up, flicked her tongue twice, and obediently asked Xie Shijin, "Hiss? Does it look like a snake?"
Xie Shijin looked at the photo on her phone, then at the little snake in front of her, and nodded: "It looks like it."
"So I'm a cobra?" Cheng Shiyun had only ever heard of cobras on TV. "Am I poisonous?"
Xie Shijin said, "Highly poisonous."
"!!!"
Xie Shijin continued, "Two milligrams of venom can cause an adult to die from respiratory failure. There is currently no antivenom available in China to treat snake bites."
Cheng Shiyun's eyes widened: "Does that mean if I bite someone, that person is doomed?"
Xie Shijin pursed his lips: "Even if it's based on photo recognition, it might not be accurate."
“Accurate, of course it’s accurate! I look exactly like the photo!” Cheng Shiyun said. “I am the most venomous snake in the world!”
Although she's only as thick as a thumb, her toxicity is no joke; she's far more potent than a helpless kitten.
The little snake excitedly circled the potted gardenia on the table. Firstly, because she had been reborn, and secondly, because she had become even more powerful.
That's incredible!
"Thank you, Shi Jin." Cheng Shiyun wrapped her arms around the boy's wrist.
The little snake was docile and beautiful, flicking its tongue.
Xie Shijin chuckled softly, "Mm."
Cheng Shiyun is back, and she's turned into a little snake.
He found it incredible and even thought he was dreaming, but he had never had such a beautiful dream before.
The joy of regaining what he had lost filled his anxious heart, making it feel as full as a balloon, and giving him a long-lost sense of happiness.
The next second, he heard the girl whisper, "If anyone bullies you again, I'll bite him and he'll die."
Unlike last time, he wouldn't be thrown off and die from a fall, causing Xie Shijin to be sad again.
Cheng Shiyun looked up at him and said, "I can protect you now."
However, she also had to be very careful, because if she accidentally bit Xie Shijin, Xie Shijin would also die.
In the dim light, her eyes sparkled.
Xie Shijin felt as if something had struck his heart hard.
The boy's lips gradually straightened, and he spoke in a hoarse voice: "Protect me?"
"Yes, you used to protect me," the girl said proudly. "Now, I have the ability to protect you too."
She'll bite anyone who bullies him, and they deserve to die. Anyway, she'll never let him get hurt again.
She was really heartbroken.
The little snake wrapped around Xie Shijin's wrist tightened a bit. Cheng Shiyun wanted to touch his injured hand, but didn't dare. She asked in a muffled voice, "How many stitches did you get?"
Two injections.
"Two stitches?" She wasn't blind. Cheng Shiyun hissed, "Such a long wound only needs two stitches? Are you kidding me?"
Her brain has just shrunk, not her IQ has decreased.
"It's bleeding. Has the wound reopened? Should we go to the hospital to have it re-bandaged?"
Xie Shijin said, "There's no need to go to the hospital; the doctor gave me a bandage."
"Then hurry up and change." Cheng Shiyun wanted to help him change, but unfortunately, the conditions didn't allow it, and she was willing but unable to.
Xie Shijin opened the cabinet and took out a first-aid kit, which contained cotton swabs, iodine, bandages, and gauze.
He cut open the original bandage with scissors, revealing the stitched wound. A long, dark red scar snaked along the lines of his palm.
Cheng Shiyun wrapped her snake tongue around his injured wrist, the forked tongue almost touching his wound: "One, two, three..."
There are twelve stitches in total.
Cheng Shiyun was horrified by what she saw, but the young man didn't even flinch: "Xie Shijin, doesn't it hurt?"
"It doesn't hurt," Xie Shijin said. "They gave me anesthesia when they stitched me up."
What if the knife cuts your palm?
Xie Shijin paused for a moment, then continued wrapping the gauze, remaining silent.
"Why didn't you say it hurt?" Cheng Shiyun felt an indescribable pain in her heart. "Are you mute?"
The boy remained silent for a long time, his eyes lowered, his gaze dark and deep, before he said in a hoarse voice, "...Who can I tell?"
The squeaky wheel gets the grease, but no one will feel sorry for him. Who can he cry to?
"I."
Xie Shijin stared at her without blinking, his eyes vacant as if veiled by a layer of mist.
"Me?"
The boy's eyelashes trembled, and a thin crack quietly appeared in his eyes, which were usually as calm as a frozen lake.
“Tell me.”
Cheng Shiyun: "Am I not human?"
"..."
Okay, she isn't.
But that's not the point.
"Can't you tell me I'm not even a person? Are you just going to keep putting up with this?" Cheng Shiyun's eyes welled up with tears. "Didn't you... say we were family?"
“You don’t have a mom and dad, or a grandma anymore, but you still have me.”
I will be your family.
Whether you're happy, unhappy, sad, or upset, you can tell me anything. Don't keep it all bottled up inside.
I will listen to you.
You're not alone; you still have me.
...
The following afternoon at 5 PM, Yichuan City Public Security Bureau.
"Sorry to keep you waiting." Yang Shengnan opened the door to the interrogation room, sat down at the table, and looked at the middle-aged man wearing glasses opposite her.
Guo Renyi smiled gently: "Officer Yang, you're too kind."
Xiao Liu sat down next to Yang Shengnan, turned on the computer and the webcam facing the man. The red light came on, and Xiao Liu said, "Master, we can begin."
Yang Shengnan nodded, opened the folder in her hand, and looked at Guo Renyi: "I called you here today to talk about the traffic accident case involving a minor at Yichuan No. 7 Middle School in 2016. I need you to provide some more details about the victim that you know."
"Have you found any new clues?" Guo Renyi's smile faded slightly. "Xiao Cheng was a very good child, helpful, and respectful to her teachers. Not to mention her parents, even we can't believe she's gone like this..."
"Have you seen this keychain before?" Yang Shengnan pulled a photo out of the folder and handed it over.
Xie Shijin took the keychain. The photo was taken from the surveillance video. The resolution isn't very clear, but you can roughly make out what the keychain looks like.
Guo Renyi glanced at the scene for a couple of seconds, then shook his head: "Never seen it before."
"Take another look. Are you sure you haven't seen this before?"
Guo Renyi pushed up his glasses and said firmly, "I really haven't seen it before."
Yang Shengnan leaned forward slightly: "But your housekeeper said that she found this keychain in the guest room when she was cleaning your house."
"A guest room?" Guo Renyi's expression changed slightly, but he quickly regained his composure and said casually, "Probably lost by some relative's child when they came to visit." After a pause, he pressed further, "Is this keychain related to the hit-and-run case from two years ago?"
Yang Shengnan said, "This keychain belongs to the victim."
The man's expression froze for a moment: "I see..."
Yang Shengnan then asked, "Which relative of yours came to your house, and when? Think carefully."
With today's advanced transportation, there are more hotels than public toilets. Unlike before, when it was dark and difficult to move around at night, it's not common to stay overnight at someone else's house when visiting relatives.
"It seems... we're not related." Guo Renyi raised his hand to press his temples, thought for a moment, and then changed his words, "I found this keychain."
"Found it?" Yang Shengnan's eyes narrowed suddenly as she looked at his face. "Where did you find it? When did you find it? Didn't you just say you didn't know it? How come you're saying you found it now?"
“It was at No. 7 Middle School, around June, on the playground.” Guo Renyi answered calmly, as if he had been prepared, one question after another. “Keychains all look pretty much the same, so I didn’t recognize it at first. I was going to put it in the lost and found, but I got busy and it got delayed.”
“I thought it was lost by some student, but I didn’t expect it to be…” He sighed, his tone filled with self-blame and regret, “Cheng Shiyun was an excellent student and a good candidate for Tsinghua and Peking Universities. It’s such a pity.”
Yang Shengnan glanced at him: "In what year, in June, did you pick him up?"
"2016".
Yang Shengnan asked suspiciously, "You still remember something that happened two years ago so clearly?"
Guo Renyi said solemnly, “Officer Yang, I have taught at Yichuan No. 7 Middle School for nine years. There are 103 classes in the junior high and senior high school sections, with a total of 5,323 students. I remember the name of every single one of them.”
“Every student is my child.”
Yang Shengnan said, "Principal Guo has a pretty good memory."
“Officer Yang has a good memory; he even remembers that my surname is Guo.” Guo Renyi smiled. “The last time I met Officer Yang was also in this interrogation room.”
On July 15, 2016, Guo Renyi came to be investigated because Yichuan No. 7 Middle School did not have surveillance footage from July.
Yang Shengnan then asked, "How long do you store surveillance footage?"
“One month,” Guo Renyi said. “The system is regularly overwritten.”
Yang Shengnan nodded, meaning that the surveillance footage from June 2016 had already been reviewed dozens of times. Where the keychain was found and whether Guo Renyi was lying were also unverifiable.
The trail went cold again.
"Master?" Xiao Liu glanced at Yang Shengnan. "Do you still want to ask?"
Yang Shengnan shook her head: "It's over, Principal Guo, please go back."
"Alright, I won't keep Officer Yang from handling the case any longer."
Guo Renyi stood up and extended his right hand: "I hope you can catch the murderer as soon as possible."
Yang Shengnan's eyebrows twitched. The 712 traffic accident was an accident, and the driver who caused the accident should not be referred to as the "culprit." However, Yang Shengnan had heard this word too many times recently and had become so numb that she did not want to correct it anymore.
She stood up and shook hands with the man: "Of course, thank you for cooperating with the investigation."
"Officer Yang, you're too kind. Cooperating with the police is what every citizen should do. I will definitely cooperate if there's anything I can do for you in the future."
As Guo Renyi opened the door to the interrogation room, he suddenly stopped at the doorway, turned to the side, and asked, "May I ask who provided this keychain?"
Yang Shengnan stood in front of the table: "I'm sorry, I can't disclose the details of the case."
"It's nothing, I was just asking casually." Guo Renyi walked out of the interrogation room.
After packing his things, Xiao Liu unscrewed a bottle of mineral water and handed it over: "Master."
Yang Shengnan took it and drank a sip.
Xiao Liu said, "I always felt that Guo Renyi was strange. He remembered the names of all the students in the school and when he found the keychain, but he couldn't remember what the keychain looked like."
Yang Shengnan nodded thoughtfully.
"Master, you also find it strange?"
"Um."
Upon reaching the lobby, Guo Renyi found himself in the open-air parking lot. He opened the car door and got into the driver's seat.
The silver-white sedan drove out of the parking lot and disappeared from sight.
"It's too low-key for a school principal to drive a car like this," Xiao Liu muttered. "This car only costs 150,000 yuan."
Yang Shengnan raised an eyebrow: "So cheap?"
Xiao Liu nodded: "That's right, it's a 2014 model, you can get a used one for seventy or eighty thousand, and it'll be even cheaper if you replace the bumper. Doesn't his family live in a villa?"
"Does living in a villa mean you have to drive a BMW or Mercedes? There's a landlord in Guangdong who owns two buildings and still wears slippers." Yang Shengnan screwed on the bottle cap, then suddenly paused. "You said that car had its bumper replaced? How did you tell?"
Xiao Liu said, "The gaps between the bumper, headlights, and fenders are uneven, one side is wider than the other, it's obvious they've been replaced."
Yang Shengnan shoved a mineral water bottle into his hand: "Go check Guo Renyi's car repair records for the past two years."
After the incident in 2016, based on eyewitness testimonies, the police first identified the vehicle type that matched the traces at the scene of the accident: a silver or white sedan.
Based on this, surveillance footage from the surrounding roads during the time of the incident was retrieved, and vehicles with suspicious driving trajectories were identified, such as those that appeared near the scene before the incident and suddenly deviated from their usual routes after the incident.
Finally, the police further narrowed down the search, focusing on vehicles that had repair records within the past month after the incident.
They registered and compared every suspected vehicle, but the vehicle registered under Guo Renyi's name did not appear on any of the suspicious lists.
Yang Shengnan instructed: "Focus on investigating the cases from 2016."
Xiao Liu followed behind her: "Where are you going, Master?"
"The witness's family."
...
The taxi stopped at the entrance of the residential area, and Yang Shengnan, dressed in casual clothes, got out.
As soon as Yang Shengnan reached the entrance of the building, she saw the boy sitting on the steps.
"Ni Jiaqi".
Ni Jiaqi stood up: "Officer Yang."
Yang Shengnan looked him up and down: "What are you doing here?"
Ni Jiaqi's hair was messy, and he was wearing the same T-shirt as a few days ago. He looked disheveled and颓废 (颓废 is a difficult word to translate directly, but it implies a state of being listless, dispirited, and颓废).
"I didn't do anything." He didn't want to go home, had nowhere to go, and didn't want to go upstairs to find Xie Shijin.
Ni Jiaqi scratched the back of his head in frustration: "You came to see Xie Shijin?"
Yang Shengnan nodded: "Yes, I'll ask him something."
The two of them went upstairs.
After going up to the sixth floor, Yang Shengnan knocked on the door.
Soon, Xie Shijin came and opened the door.
Yang Shengnan asked, "Is it convenient for us to chat?"
Xie Shijin stepped aside to let the two into the house.
“I checked the keychain you mentioned, and I also questioned Guo Renyi.” Yang Shengnan held a transcript in her hand. According to regulations, case-related materials cannot be taken out of the police station without authorization, but she knew the boy must be very concerned about this. “Take a look and see if there’s anything wrong with it.”
Ni Jiaqi was stunned: "What keychain?"
Xie Shijin didn't move, and Ni Jiaqi took the transcript.
His pupils contracted sharply when he saw the photo attached to the back.
He suddenly looked up at Xie Shijin, his voice trembling slightly: "You bought this keychain?"
Yang Shengnan: "You've seen this keychain before?"
Ni Jiaqi was holding that photo.
Of course he had seen it.
The boutique owner said a guy had pre-ordered the keychain and was supposed to pick it up the next day. But when he went to the boutique the next day, the owner told him that the guy had taken the keychain that very night.
"The playground in June..."
Ni Jiaqi quickly scanned the conversation on the transcript and suddenly said, "Guo Renyi is lying!"
Yang Shengnan was surprised: "Lying?"
“Yes, he’s lying! Photos, photos… I saved them.” Ni Jiaqi hurriedly took out his phone and kept flipping through it until he finally found a photo. He handed it to Yang Shengnan and said very quickly, “On the day Cheng Shiyun had the accident, she posted a status update, and this keychain was hanging on her phone. How could he have picked it up in June?”
Yang Shengnan looked at the two photos thoughtfully, then asked after comparing them, "Are you sure they're the same one?"
The surveillance footage from 16 years ago is no longer available. Only by proving that the keychain on Cheng Shiyun's phone is the same as the keychain in the photo can we prove that Guo Renyi lied.
Ni Jiaqi was taken aback.
How can he prove that he didn't buy the keychain at all?
Just then, a very soft snort came from beside him, so soft that Ni Jiaqi thought he was hallucinating.
"Xie Shijin?"
He turned his head and realized that Xie Shijin hadn't said a word from beginning to end, acting as if he were completely detached. It was as if that soft scoff hadn't even come from his mouth.
Xie Shijin's thick, dark eyelashes drooped, concealing the emotions in her eyes.
Only when Ni Jiaqi's gaze swept over him did he slowly raise his eyes, open his lips, and say in a slightly hoarse voice, "I don't know."
"Don't know?" Ni Jiaqi frowned, staring at him. "What do you mean you don't know? Didn't you buy this keychain? Don't you recognize it?"
"I bought it, but there were three of the same keychain on the shelf, and the one I bought was the last one," Xie Shijin said. "I don't know if Cheng Shiyun has the keychain I bought hanging on her phone."
With only a blurry photo, no one can definitively say that the two keychains are the same, unless Cheng Shiyun comes back to life.
He paid in cash when he bought the keychain, but the shop owner didn't give him an invoice, and he can't even prove that he bought the keychain.
Police love to hear this kind of testimony.
Ni Jiaqi paused for a moment, then suddenly grasped the key point: "Wait a minute, you just said there were three of these keychains?"
Xie Shijin looked at him and said coldly, "It could be more."
“But no matter how many, as long as we find other keychains, we can prove that this keychain is the same one on Cheng Shiyun’s phone.” Ni Jiaqi was very excited, as if he had already seen a breakthrough.
Xie Shijin said, "The boutique has moved, and the surveillance footage from back then is most likely gone. The possibility of finding out who bought the other two keychains is extremely slim."
"So you're not going to look for it if the chances are slim?" Ni Jiaqi frowned, sensing something was off about him. "...What's wrong with you today?"
The boy's fair and handsome face remained expressionless as he simply asked, "What's the date today?"
Ni Jiaqi turned on his phone screen: "...August 13th."
"School starts in ten days."
"And then?" Ni Jiaqi was increasingly unable to understand what he was saying.
Xie Shijin said, "If we couldn't find it in two years, can we find it in ten days?"
"You haven't even looked, how can you be so sure you can't find it?" Ni Jiaqi frowned, sensing there was something more to his words. "Xie Shijin, what exactly are you trying to say?"
Xie Shijin raised her eyes and looked at him calmly: "Cheng Shiyun is dead."
"I'm going to live my own life now."
His tone was almost indifferent: "I don't want to be called out by the police again next time I'm in class."
Ni Jiaqi understood.
Because he was a witness, the police came to find Xie Shijin as soon as they found even the slightest clue. Xie Shijin had cooperated with the police in many investigations over the past two years.
"So you're annoyed? It's disrupting your life?"
He chuckled abruptly, knowing full well that some of his words were inappropriate, but he couldn't help saying, "If you had looked more carefully back then, would you have had to search for so long?"
Yang Shengnan frowned: "Ni Jiaqi, watch your words, don't say anything too harsh."
“I know what I’m talking about, you don’t need to remind me.” Ni Jiaqi glared at her, his fists clenched tightly.
His emotions were already somewhat out of control; he was saying things he shouldn't have said without thinking, just blurting them out.
"Only you know what happened back then, and only you saw the car. Cooperating with the investigation and finding the driver who caused the accident is what you should do."
“You saw her. It was so dark, and the road was so difficult to walk. Why didn’t you see her off? Don’t you like Cheng Shiyun? You don’t need to deny it, I know all that.”
“Cheng Shiyun doesn’t know, but I do. You follow us around every morning. To be honest, I really look down on you. You’re so timid that you don’t even dare to get close to her. Cheng Shiyun would never like someone like you.”
"And you also bear some responsibility for Cheng Shiyun's death. Uncle Cheng didn't give up, so how can you just give up like that and stop looking for her?!"
Ni Jiaqi's voice was loud, and he spoke without thinking, almost shouting these words.
Yang Shengnan stopped him: "Ni Jiaqi! What's wrong with you!"
"Don't touch me!"
Shaking off her hand, Ni Jiaqi's eyes were bloodshot as he looked at Xie Shijin and said through gritted teeth, "Your affection only lasts for these two years. It doesn't count once Cheng Shiyun is dead!"
Xie Shijin glanced at him: "Did I kill Cheng Shiyun?"
"If it wasn't you, then it was me?!" Ni Jiaqi retorted.
Xie Shijin said, "It was the driver who caused the accident."
It wasn't him, nor was it Ni Jiaqi.
But he always felt that he was the one who caused Cheng Shiyun's death, that he hadn't seen the car clearly, which led to the driver getting away with the accident for two years, causing Cheng Jinghua to turn white overnight and Ran Hongyin to suffer a mental breakdown. He felt that Cheng Shiyun would definitely blame him.
Every time he had a nightmare, he wanted to see Cheng Shiyun's face, but he was also afraid to see her face. He was afraid that Cheng Shiyun would ask him why he didn't look more carefully, why he didn't run faster, and why he didn't save her.
He had this nightmare for two whole years.
But now a girl is telling him that none of this is because of him, and has nothing to do with him at all.
She didn't blame him at all, and even told him not to feel guilty or blame himself.
Whether she could find the driver or not was not important at all; she wanted to see them happy and healthy for the rest of their lives.
The dead are dead, and the living should not be trapped in the same place.
Ni Jiaqi paused for a moment, still unable to believe it: "So... just like that... we're not looking anymore?"
The boy looked away and blinked his sore eyes.
"—I'm not looking anymore."
-----------------------
Author's note: Not looking anymore = I don't want anyone else to look for me [glasses]
The snake species I mentioned is fictional; this snake doesn't exist in reality. [Applause]
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