Chapter 53
Zhan Hantao took Zhuang Zhuohua to meet the Gun King, who was knowledgeable about modified guns, and later accompanied her to the Gun Association. Iris pestered Zhuang Zhuoyuan for a whole day and night, finally persuading him to take her along to join the fun. But by the time they arrived, everyone had already finished firing their guns, and even Zhan Hantao's conversation with a man was almost over.
“Come on.” Zhuang Zhuoyuan walked past them, picked up the gun, and quickly shot down nine targets. When only the last one remained, he handed the gun to Iris: “Last one for you.”
Iris pouted angrily: "Are you a sore loser?!"
Zhuang Zhuoyuan didn't speak, only making a "please" gesture. Iris fired a shot casually, and the human-shaped target fell to the ground. Zhuang Zhuoyuan immediately clapped and praised her: "Look, your marksmanship hasn't deteriorated at all, still as amazing as ever!"
She only now realized how authoritarian her husband was. Iris slapped Zhuang Zhuoyuan's hand, which was trying to take the gun, and took a step back in protest: "Don't you know that affecting a pregnant woman's mood is also bad for the baby's growth? Let me play one more time, or you'll sleep in the study when we get home!"
“BB…” Zhuang Zhuoyuan looked miserable.
Iris also started ignoring him, but after thinking for a moment, she decided to back down and said rather aggrievedly, "How about I have a game with you? After the game, I won't play anymore. I won't play for the rest of my pregnancy, okay?"
"Really? Regardless of winning or losing?" Zhuang Zhuoyuan was initially excited, but seeing her like this, his heart softened. "Alright, alright, I'll let you play one more time today, but if you feel uncomfortable, stop immediately. And if you feel something is wrong later, you can't pretend not to say anything just because you're afraid I won't take you out to play or that I'll tell Mom. Can you do that?"
Iris suddenly realized these words sounded incredibly familiar. Then she remembered—it was a modified version of her previous instructions to Zhuang Zhuoyuan not to conceal his injuries. She couldn't help but smile, and immediately decided to make up with him, even her reply carrying a hint of sweetness: "Okay, okay, stop nagging!"
Where did he find his wife?!
Iris fired incredibly fast, almost instantly spraying bullets at the target as soon as it was set up again, each shot hitting its mark perfectly, striking the center of the human-shaped target's head. Zhuang Zhuoyuan, who frequently accompanied her to shooting clubs or arcades, was used to it and cheered as usual. However, Zhuang Zhuohua and Zhan Hantao, who were seeing her shoot for the first time, were extremely surprised: "I thought A-Yuan was exaggerating, Iris, I didn't expect your marksmanship to be so amazing!"
"Inspector Pan is very happy to have such a quick-witted apprentice," Zhuang Zhuoyuan said, launching into his praise mode. Iris gave him a haughty look and remained silent, refusing to cooperate. Dating is one way of relating, marriage is another, and pregnancy requires yet another.
The man who had been chatting with Zhan Hantao had already left, so Zhuang Zhuohua and Zhan Hantao could watch the two of them goofing around for a while. "If the mountain won't come to me, I'll go to the mountain," Zhuang Zhuoyuan thought, "I chose my wife, so I'll cooperate." He pinched Iris's cheek, signaling her to move aside, and pulled the trigger himself. As an SDU sharpshooter, his skill was undeniable, but the same firing rate, with bullets landing precisely in the same spots, was a bit unfair. Iris thought to herself, "My husband is so handsome!" but when Zhuang Zhuoyuan turned around, she actually made a face at him.
"Silly piggy." Zhuang Zhuoyuan put down the bag and went over to hug her, ruffling her hair. Their posture was quite ordinary, but Iris suddenly remembered something: "Sister, Inspector Zhan, I've seen that man before!"
She hurriedly asked Zhuang Zhuoyuan for the tablet. The group returned to Zhuang Zhuoyuan's car, and Iris swiped left and right for a while before finally finding a photo—it was of the man from before and his girlfriend.
“Kary!” Zhuang Zhuohua exclaimed in surprise.
Iris, surprised, revealed the source of the photo to Sir Zhan: "Yesterday I tried to do a profile myself, and then I looked for similar people on social media. I thought if the suspect was a military enthusiast, he would definitely post some related content to show off. So I entered some keywords, such as 'scum,' 'victory,' 'pleasure,' 'fate,' 'god,' 'king,' etc., and used my dad's company's software to do a wide-ranging filter. As a result, I found a person named Ashin who would occasionally upload photos of himself wearing camouflage uniforms online, and many of his comments seemed to be pointed, such as this one, 'Greedy people will not have a good end,' and 'Scum, if God doesn't punish you, I will.' I felt this person was strange, so I paid special attention, and this group photo is what I found by following his comments and followers. Sister, are you really sure the girl in the photo is your junior, Kary?"
Zhuang Zhuoyuan also knew that his older sister had recently attended a class reunion and reconnected with her former classmate, Pei Zhiqi (Kary). Based on her previous assessment of Pei Zhiqi, this gentle and charming psychologist who had just returned from abroad didn't seem like the type to be a serial killer capable of torturing and murdering others. However, Iris's intuition was always accurate, and he had personally witnessed his wife diligently doing her research over the past two days. Therefore, he decided to support Iris: "Sister, this man was evasive earlier, seemed to be in a hurry to leave, and now he's involved with this Ah Xin. I think it wouldn't hurt to investigate. And Kary, let's investigate together, and use the investigation to rule her out as a suspect."
Zhan Hantao shared the same idea as them, and he pointed directly to the word "greedy" on Ashin's post, thinking that this was also a breakthrough: "When we were discussing before, we couldn't figure out how they chose their prey. Maybe the answer is here."
“Then I’ll go back and look at some job posting websites to see if I can find any leads. I’ll also ask G-Force; he might know about those high-paying jobs on the dark web.” Iris snapped her fingers, quickly following Zhan Sir’s train of thought. Excited, she turned to look at Zhuang Zhuoyuan, tapping her head with two fingers: “See? Investigating doesn’t necessarily mean putting yourself in danger. How about I be the mastermind from behind the scenes?”
Nearly half of his family are now police officers, so he couldn't stop her from getting involved in these things. Zhuang Zhuoyuan sighed and emphasized one last time, "As long as you don't go to dangerous places, I'll stand by you. But let me make it clear beforehand that my stance isn't absolute; if necessary, I'll side with Mommy."
Iris knew this would happen.
However, with someone acting as her guardian, she could always do more. Before the police officially identified Kary as a suspect, Iris, along with Chong Cheuk-wah, invited her junior colleague to PC Bar, bringing Pandora along as well. Dr. Pun, besides being passionate about folklore, also enjoys solving crimes. There were also seven or eight handsome men for her to choose from; she just didn't click with Jason, but maybe Ah-Sing or Kwong-jai would be just as appealing.
The single men in Team A were quite pleased that two beautiful women had arrived that night, and Xie Jiaxing was the first to be pushed forward to toast them. Dr. Pun took only a small sip and responded politely, while Kary was particularly generous, finishing her glass in one go. The men, always eager to tease her, saw her doing so and urged her to drink more, and before long, Kary had downed two or three glasses.
Iris winked at Pandora, who understood and played along, rambling on about dating. "By the way, Kary, do you have a boyfriend? Or tell me what kind of guy you like, and I'll introduce you to someone." Iris asked deliberately. Zhuang Zhuoyuan was taken aback at first, but quickly realized she was testing him and played along with his wife: "Sorry, Kary, my wife has been really into playing matchmaker lately. She wants to introduce everyone she meets to someone, so she was being a bit blunt. Don't mind."
“Of course not,” Kary continued with her enthusiasm and generosity. “Iris meant well, but I already have a boyfriend.”
"Really? Who is he? What does he do? Is he handsome?" Iris asked, feigning curiosity. Zhuang Zhuoyuan, wanting her to keep her distance from Kary, pulled her back after a few steps. Iris brushed him aside, saying playfully, "Oh, I'm just curious. Maybe Derek is better off than her boyfriend? It's girls' talk now, gentlemen, please step aside. Kary, let's ignore him, you continue."
Kary pushed up her glasses and smiled, this time answering simply: "My boyfriend is an engineer, tall and big, a little silly, but he's very good to me."
“Looks like we’re out of luck with Derek!” Iris feigned regret, clinking her glass against Kary’s. Kary took a sip of her drink and became the questioner: “By the way, how did you and your husband meet? You two seem very much in love. And judging from your accent, Iris, you don’t sound like a local.”
Zhuang Zhuoyuan became more alert, stretching out his long arm to pull his wife into his protective range. He increasingly felt that having such a wife who loved investigating cases had greatly improved his acting skills. He rejoined their conversation, but still mainly talked to Iris: "See, we're used to it. New friends can tell right away that your Cantonese isn't standard. You can't always be thinking about having fun."
"Who told you to trick me into coming here when I hadn't had enough fun yet?" Iris continued to act like a spoiled child, glancing at Kary out of the corner of her eye as she simply lowered her head and took a sip of her drink. Seeing the two of them playing games, she seemed to give up on getting involved and turned to talk to Pandora.
Back home, Iris immediately video-called Pandora. They both agreed that this psychiatrist was definitely not a simple person. If she was indeed involved in the BB gun murders, then she was very likely the head of their organization.
Therefore, after everyone finished washing up, Iris convened a brief case discussion at home. The first point of the meeting was that she was prepared to withdraw from this case-solving operation immediately.
Zhuang Zhuoyuan immediately clapped. Iris glanced at him, pressed his hands down, and handed all her case information to Zhuang Zhuohua, then began to explain her reasoning: "Lala and I both believe Kary is not as simple as she seems. She's a very opinionated and controlling woman. Take tonight, for example. As soon as she entered the bar, she subtly took control of the entire place. On the surface, everyone was toasting her, but actually, when she took her first drink, do you remember what she said? 'Then I'll toast everyone.' So you see, it wasn't us who made her drink, but rather she..." I voluntarily drank a glass of wine. And then there was our conversation later; although I started by asking questions, she clearly tried to take the initiative later, but was interrupted by A-Yuan. When she turned her attention to Lala, Lala pretended to answer all my questions, and Kary spent the rest of the time chatting with Lala, trying to probe my background through her. It's just making friends, I don't think it needs to be this complicated, right? Therefore, we think Kary is very calculating and used to being in a dominant position in relationships. As for whether this personality trait is influenced by inferiority or confidence, I lean towards the former.
Chuang Cheuk-wa frowned, her fingers tapping habitually on the table. She recalled her school days: "Kary came from mainland China. She didn't do well in school, couldn't speak the language, and was shy, so she was ostracized by her classmates."
"That's exactly it!" Iris slammed her hand on the table. "Sister, after you helped Kary back then, didn't she become your little follower, and then gradually drift apart for some reason later?"
"Wife, don't tell me that your research on fortune-telling techniques has actually been effective!" Zhuang Zhuohua nodded, and Zhuang Zhuoyuan was even more surprised.
Iris didn't reply to him and continued talking to Chong Cheuk-wa. She actually hoped to guide Chong Cheuk-wa to recall some details from her childhood: "Sister, Kary is a very proud person. Her sense of alienation and isolation caused her to feel inferior, and she needed to use her pride as armor to protect herself. In other words, she is successful now, but she may still be suffering from the trauma of her childhood. That's why she added this topic to our conversation—'Judging from your accent, Iris, you don't sound like a local.' Maybe she was ridiculed for this back then, so she still cares about it subconsciously."
"Isn't this argument a bit too subjective?" Zhuang Zhuoyuan stroked his chin. "Actually, when people meet for the first time and aren't very familiar with each other, they always find some topics to talk about. For example, what do you like, what have you been doing lately, etc. Asking where you're from shouldn't be a problem, right?"
“The problem is that after you interrupted, the way she looked at me was noticeably different. I can’t quite put my finger on what those emotions were, but I just felt really uncomfortable. And Lala just said that when Kary was talking to her, she glanced at me several times.” Iris frowned and rubbed her arms, recalling the look Kary gave her before she drank, and the more she thought about it, the more she felt that this woman was no good. “Anyway, if she suddenly distanced herself from you and my sister back then, then I think you should be careful. She’s probably still holding a grudge about what happened before, and she might very well think you’re a hypocrite.”
Amidst Zhuang Zhuoyuan's concerns, Zhuang Zhuohua did recall some past events: "There was a time when she was very clingy, to the point that I almost lost my personal space, so I complained to some close friends about it. I'm not sure if those words reached her ears, but it seems that Kary started to distance herself from me around that time."
Zhuang Zhuoyuan got goosebumps. Both women in his family seemed to be potential targets for Kary. One was driven by hatred, the other perhaps by jealousy. He should have known better than to be so nervous about Iris at the pub.
"But it's no use even if you ignore me. With Kary's personality, she doesn't trust people easily. Even if I'm at my lowest point, she won't easily accept me into their circle."
"You actually considered going undercover! I knew you weren't that obedient!"
Zhuang Zhuoyuan's incessant chatter pierced Iris's ears. She covered them, suddenly realizing she'd gotten carried away with her reasoning and forgotten what was and wasn't to say. She sighed inwardly, "Sigh, I'll have to spend half the night coaxing him again. Getting married is so hard!"
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