Chapter 8
Since receiving the report from the reader, Chang Ting has obtained Chen He's personal information through the comic platform and checked her file through demographic information.
After verification by the high school that Chen He attended, she did enroll in the Zangmo Art Training Base and had off-campus training.
But when Chang Ting came out of the bureau, he forgot to take another look at the list of students at the base in the case file.
He vaguely felt like he'd missed something, and his heart began to pound. He turned around and asked, "Can you recite the student list?"
Zhou Zhengzheng frowned. "That's too much, Master. There are over 200 students." She flipped through the materials in her hand. "I didn't make a copy of the list."
Chang Ting tossed the car keys to Zhou Zhengzheng, opened the door and got out: "You stay here and watch. I'll go back to the bureau."
"Wait!" Zhou Zhengzheng clung to the car window. "Master, you still haven't told me why Feng Xumei's suspicion decreased after the body was found?"
"Think about it yourself. I'll leave you with homework."
He walked away without looking back, while opening the taxi app.
He wanted to go back and confirm whether Chen He was on the list of students in the case file.
*
Inside the small building, Chen He wore a shawl and did not even change her slippers. She walked out of the house and went down to the first floor, but did not walk out of the main door. Instead, she turned into the side hall on the first floor.
The landlord turned the side hall into a public leisure area, where jazz music flows softly. There are tables, chairs and coffee machines for guests to enjoy free of charge. As a long-term tenant, Chen He can of course use them as well.
Chen He walked to a seat in the corner where Yu Aiai was already sitting drinking coffee.
She wore a Chanel-style dress, adorned with jewels, and had long wavy hair gathered on the left side and hanging down in front of her chest.
Yu Aiai raised her head and greeted with a smile: "Xiao He, long time no see."
"Yeah, we haven't been together for a while."
The electric coffee machine with ground beans was on the side cabinet, and Chen He made himself a cup.
Yu Aiai tasted the coffee and pursed her lips in disgust. "Free coffee just doesn't taste good. Why are you still renting a house? Hasn't your boyfriend bought you a house yet?"
Chen He knew Yu Aiai too well, and she immediately understood the multiple meanings of these words - you are poor; you found a poor boyfriend; my boyfriend is rich; my boyfriend buys me a house.
The art of language is beyond words.
Chen He was neither angry nor annoyed, and asked with a smile: "Is your boyfriend going to give you a house?"
Yu Aiai's pride was immediately evident: "Oh, he said he wanted to buy me a sea view apartment. I think the seaside scenery is nice, but it's a bit humid, so I'm still hesitating."
Chen He smiled but said nothing. A man could keep her hooked and toyed with for years with just a few empty words. So stupid, so easy to fool.
She asked, "Does your boyfriend's wife agree?"
Yu Aiai heard the teasing and felt a little embarrassed and annoyed: "Don't give me that! You are so noble, you deserve to rent a house for the rest of your life!"
Chen He was not annoyed: "How can I compare to you in terms of means?"
Yu Aiai showed a proud expression, then suddenly lowered her voice, "Let me tell you, rich guys nowadays like artistic, cool beauties like you the most. I have several big bosses in my boyfriend's circle, and I've matched them up with several of them. Don't suffer with a poor boy. I'll introduce you to one later."
"Thank you, but that's not necessary."
Yu Aiai pursed her lips in disdain. Feeling a little uneasy, she stopped trying to persuade him. She chatted for a while and then casually asked, "Oh, by the way, did you watch the news? Did you say that the body found in Mingzhu Mountain was Qiu Yue's?"
"What do you think?" Chen He's coffee had no sugar and was bitter enough to sober people up.
"I think... yeah."
"The police didn't make the results public, so how did you know it was her?"
Yu Aiai was startled and quickly explained: "Think about it, the body was found in Mingzhu Mountain. Who else could it be if not her?"
"You have a point." Chen He took a sip of coffee. "So, what do you think? Was it suicide or homicide?"
Yu Aiai blurted out: "Of course it was murder."
Chen He asked back: "How do you know?"
"She... wasn't she buried in the ground? Someone must have buried her."
"That's not necessarily true."
Chen He performed again the two methods of "burying oneself" that he had thought of for the two policemen.
Yu Aiai looked at her as if she were a pervert.
Chen He smiled: "I just made it up."
Yu Aiai laughed dryly a few times: "You are really good at making up stories."
She hesitated for a moment, then suddenly asked hesitantly, "Xiao He, what's the matter with that cartoon of yours?"
Chen He raised her eyes: "When did you start liking comics?"
Chen He knew that although Yu Aiai was an art student in high school, she actually had no interest in painting.
I chose art as my major in high school because my academic performance was not ideal and I wanted to take a relatively easy path to higher education.
She came from an ordinary family, and the tuition for the Zangmo Art training course was very high, but she was rather vain and insisted on enrolling in a training course of this level, so her parents gritted their teeth and sent her here.
Although she did not study seriously at the base, she passed the entrance exam to an art school in the end.
However, my academic performance was so poor that I couldn't get into art school, so I barely got into an ordinary second-tier university. I didn't even finish the second-tier university because I was kept by someone and dropped out early.
So Yu Aiai doesn’t like art or comics, and she doesn’t like black and white comics.
The two kept in touch intermittently. Yu Aiai knew that she was a comic artist, but she was never interested in asking her pen name, and she probably had never read her works.
Why was it discovered so quickly this time?
Yu Aiai explained defensively, "I don't really read comics. I just happened to see a short video and saw a blogger talking about this. Why...why did you draw that comic?"
"In memory of our youth."
"Then, how did you guess that Qiu Yue's body would be found five years later, and that it would grow... grow red spider lilies?"
Chen He looked at her across the table, a smile on his lips, his pupils dark: "Because Qiu Yue appeared in my dream."
Fear flashed across Yu Aiai's face. "Dream...dream?"
Chen He lowered her voice to a gentle, cold breeze. "In my dream, Qiu Yue told me that someone had killed her and sprinkled her body with red spider lily seeds."
Yu Aiai accidentally knocked over the cup, and the coffee flowed down the edge of the table.
Chen He laughed out loud: "I was just kidding, look how scared you are."
"You..." Yu Aiai angrily used a tissue to wipe her Chanel-style skirt, but the coffee stains could not be wiped off.
Someone walked over. It was Sister Qin, the guesthouse's housekeeper. Her short hair was visible beneath her sanitary cap. She wore gloves and a mask, and silently wiped the tabletop with a rag.
Yu Aiai threw the tissue in front of Sister Qin and said, "Take this too."
Sister Qin silently picked up the tissue and went to clean the other side.
Yu Aiai said angrily: "Chen He, what are you doing?"
Chen He had been holding up her cheek, watching her frantic movements. Then she smiled and said, "Don't be angry. The comic book thing was just a coincidence. The plots we create are wildly imaginative, and if you look closely, there are countless examples of them coinciding with reality."
"The attention this time is simply the platform taking advantage of the opportunity to hype it up, and the story is getting more and more outlandish."
Yu Aiai doesn't have much brains, and both metaphysics and creation are beyond her thinking ability.
She only cares about one thing.
"Then, why did you draw me in it?" Yu Aiai finally couldn't hide her resentment.
Chen He raised an eyebrow and pretended to be confused: "Really? Which one is you?"
Yu Aiai blushed. "That's the one who wrote on Qiu Yue's back... Yu Er..."
Chen He looked at her with amusement: "How could it be you? What's the relationship between Yu Er and you, Yu Ai Ai? Don't let your imagination run wild. You are beautiful and kind, how could you do such a thing?"
Yu Aiai suddenly raised her voice: "Chen He, are you pretending to be stupid?"
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