Floating Island
"Lin Ran?"
Seeing him sweating profusely, his agent Meng Yan asked, "Are you feeling unwell?"
Lin Ran suddenly pulled himself out of his memories, "No, it's okay."
"Are you really okay?" Meng Yan was a little worried. He looked so bad and he had fainted at the memorial service two days ago.
Lin Ran forced a reassuring smile, "It's just low blood sugar, it's okay."
Meng Yan immediately asked her assistant to make him a cup of glucose and told him to drink it.
There is a big scene with Lin Ran today. His condition directly determines when the staff will get off work, but he is really too emotionless today. He did not express the emotions that should have exploded, and he was not firm enough where he should have been rational. After many NGs, the director finally gave up.
"Ka!" He was very dissatisfied with Lin Ran's performance today, and even looked at him with a reproachful look.
The agent came up to apologize to the director, but the director didn't know what to say. If he dragged it out, it would only cause more trouble for the staff. "Let's stop here for today."
Lin Ran felt deeply sorry for today. After the show, he treated the entire crew to a drink. After taking off his stage makeup, he looked at his phone anxiously.
He saw today's news. Although it only flashed briefly in some news sections, he knew who the news was talking about.
After work, he told Meng Yan that he wanted to walk alone. His agent would not bother him. They were all workers and no one would disturb each other after work.
Lin Ran ordered a cup of coffee on the second floor of the cafe, and the secluded booth soon welcomed the second protagonist.
Chen An just asked for a glass of water and then got straight to the point: "Why did you make that call?"
Lin Ran wore sunglasses and a baseball cap pulled low. He thought for a moment and then asked, "Tang Xiaoyou is dead, isn't he?"
Chen An didn't answer. After a moment's silence, he continued, "It was indeed me who called because I didn't want them to send Xiaoyou away."
"Send away?" Chen An frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"
"'Dream Butterfly' has a private rule that members with good performance will be sent away if they are spotted by a sponsor."
"Where to send it?"
Lin Ran shook his head. "I don't know." He picked up his coffee and took a sip. His tone was flat. "Does Officer Chen check trending searches?"
Chen An shook his head, "I won't pay attention unless it's necessary."
The other party smiled slightly. "No wonder. The day before I called, there was a hot search all day about the lead singer of the R&E girl group suspected of leaving the group to study abroad. I saw the trending search, so I called."
"So you are sure that Tang Xiaoyou will be in danger?"
Lin Ran didn't deny it. "None of the people who were sent away have returned. I was just worried about her. Besides, she even contradicted Jia Kun, the manager of Area C, on the day the notice came out."
"Besides her, who else was sent away?"
Lin Ran frowned. "I can't remember exactly. This situation is quite rare. As far as I know, the only one who has seen this happen is Cui Yuxiu, who placed first in the previous talent show. After all, compared to simply collecting something of value, investing it to earn money for them is the choice of most sponsors, isn't it?"
Chen An silently noted down the name and then asked about their relationship.
"What is your relationship with Tang Xiaoyou?"
"We..." Lin Ran said, "We have nothing to do with each other." The coffee had already cooled, and Lin Ran's thumb unconsciously groped the wall of the cup. "If I have to say it, it's that I like her."
"Tang Xiaoyou, 24, a member of the girl group R&E, joined Dream Butterfly as a trainee at 16. She was reported missing on July 21st, and her body was found four days later in the urban-rural fringe of Qu'an City." Cheng Xiaoxiang verbally recounted the deceased's basic information. "According to Medical Pathologist Qin's report, Tang Xiaoyou was strangled with something like a belt."
The report was passed to Chen An, and the symptoms were recorded in detail.
The deceased's face was cyanotic, his eyeballs were slightly bulging, and he had subconjunctival hemorrhage. There were signs of intense struggle, and scratches on the skin near the strangulation marks. There was no water or algae in his lungs, and it was confirmed that the body was thrown into the river after death.
Cheng Xiaoxiang added: "There was blood on the back of the deceased's head. He must have been attacked from behind and then strangled to death."
Bai Shuo briefly researched Tang Xiaoyou's background. "Tang Xiaoyou's parents have been out of touch with her for a long time and haven't been able to get in touch with her. As for what you said about Lin Ran admitting that he likes Tang Xiaoyou, I think it needs further investigation. The gap between Lin Ran and Tang Xiaoyou's status is too big. Although Lin Ran is not a top star in the circle, he is also the most popular artist in Mengdie Company. They rarely even have the opportunity to meet in the company."
Lu Yuyao twirled the pen in his hand, "Could it be that Tang Xiaoyou and Lin Ran knew each other before or were very familiar with each other?"
Bai Shuo said: "I don't know about that. Judging from their social media accounts, everything seems normal."
Chen An looked at the smiling girl in the photo and couldn't connect her with the "yoyo" in the super topic account who was full of foul language and cursed at everyone he met.
"Where are the other girls in the group?"
Cheng Xiaoxiang also gave some basic information about the group's members: "R&E has a total of seven members, all of whom debuted through talent shows. They were originally amateurs and not signed to any company. They were selected through variety shows and fan voting. 'Dream Butterfly' simply signed them."
"This afternoon, we questioned a few team members who were close to Tang Xiaoyou. They were all crying, and we didn't get any useful information. However, there was someone in the group named Li Meng who seemed to have a grudge against Tang Xiaoyou. She seemed particularly reluctant to communicate with the police, and she said she didn't know anything when asked."
Lu Yuyao added, "There's also someone named Wang Yingying, who's timid, but has a good relationship with both Tang Xiaoyou and Li Meng." She sorted through the information at hand and said, "That's all I know for now."
Chen An nodded, moving his pen up and down. "Investigate Lin Ran. Just because he could call out my name the first time we met, he's definitely not a simple person. Also, collect more information on Tang Xiaoyou. What kind of person is she? It's very important to the case. Tomorrow I'll meet with Li Meng, and Lu Yuyao and Cheng Xiaoxiang will check the surveillance. That's all for now."
Tang Xiaoyou's death caused the top management of "Dream Butterfly" to hold an emergency meeting. The management department all spoke with one voice, and R&E's business activities were once again stopped. Jia Kun wanted them to stay out of the spotlight for a while, but one butterfly stopping flapping its wings cannot stop other butterflies from flapping their wings. After all, no one has hurt their vitals yet.
On the way back to the dormitory, Wang Yingying grabbed Li Meng's hand and said, "Sister Meng, let me live with you. I, I'm a little scared."
Their dormitories all have double rooms. Originally, Wang Yingying lived with Tang Xiaoyou, but Li Meng's roommate left, so her room was empty.
Li Meng tutted in displeasure, "Why are you so timid? You didn't kill her, what are you afraid of?"
"But, but I'm just scared." Wang Yingying is the youngest and the most timid in their group, so it's understandable that she's afraid.
Seeing her pitiful look, Li Meng accepted it and said, "Okay, okay."
Li Meng did not live on the same floor as them. She moved to the fifth floor later. When she took the key to open the door, Wang Yingying said enviously as soon as she entered: "Wow, Sister Meng, your room is much better than ours. It's big and bright." She walked around the room and looked around, and kept making envious sounds.
This is very useful for Li Meng, she likes the feeling of being envied by others.
She was very satisfied with Wang Yingying's performance, so she said generously: "It's empty anyway, so you can stay here if you want."
Wang Yingying rushed over and hugged her, smiling happily, "Sister Meng, I really love you to death!"
Li Meng peeled the man off her body and said angrily, "You look so ignorant." As if giving her a reward, "You can choose any other room except Room 101."
Wang Yingying took a quick look at the apartment layout and pointed to the innermost room and said, "I like big windows, so let's choose that one." Room 103 was indeed connected to a balcony and had good ventilation.
Li Meng nodded and went into the room to get clothes. "I'm going to take a shower first. You can do whatever you want."
Wang Yingying pushed her suitcase in and happily hung her clothes on the wardrobe. Ten minutes later, she took a bag of milk powder and went to the living room to brew it. The milk powder smelled so fragrant that even Li Meng, who had just come out of the bathroom, could smell it and asked casually, "What smells so good?"
Wang Yingying pointed at the cup and said, "Milk. Brother Kun always says I'm short. This milk is high in calcium. I bought it at the supermarket last time. It tastes good."
Li Meng's wet hair dripped some water onto the table. She picked up the cup and sniffed it. "It does smell good, but drinking this won't help you grow taller. It's obviously a scam. You might as well get a bone graft."
Wang Yingying said in horror: "I don't want it. I saw online how they were doing bone setting to grow taller. It was so scary. They had to break the bones. It hurt so much!"
Li Meng snorted and gave her a mocking look.
"Sister Meng, would you like something to drink?"
Li Meng didn't want to drink it at first, as she didn't have the habit of drinking milk before going to bed, but looking at the milky liquid in the cup, she suddenly wanted to drink it.
Wang Yingying gave her a new bag of brewed tea and watched her drink it. Their communication tonight ended here.
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