Chapter 44: Scenario

“Final night time, it rained closely, and also you didn’t come again all night time.”

Dealing with He Wei’s retelling, Cheng Zesheng was a bit confused. He cautiously requested, “…Had been you frightened?”

Final night time, after assembly Lian Jingyuan and returning residence, he was naturally requested to remain for the night time by his mom, so he didn’t have an opportunity to greet He Wei. If he had identified that He Wei was ready for him and frightened, he would have rushed again even when it was raining knives outdoors.

He Wei appeared up, however sadly, they couldn’t see one another. In any other case, Cheng Zesheng would undoubtedly have appreciated his expression of indifference. “Don’t overthink it. I needed to debate the case with you. Nervous about what? You failing to cross the tribulation?”

“…” This was the nth time Cheng Zesheng felt the impulse to close He Wei’s mouth.

How might somebody who appeared so calm and mild be so irritating with each phrase? They most likely didn’t let him do interviews outdoors, did they? Possibly he might drive leaders and journalists loopy off-camera.

He Wei was utterly unaware that Cheng Zesheng wanted a ebook titled “The Artwork of Communication.” As he wiped the whiteboard, he mentioned, “I used to be ready so that you can come again final night time as a result of I needed to let you know some crucial information.”

“Go forward.”

After cleansing the whiteboard, He Wei pinned up the transcript of Cheng Zhenqing’s assertion, highlighting a couple of traces of key content material. Cheng Zesheng rapidly scanned the textual content and steadily grew to become astonished. He snatched the transcript over, his eyes mounted on the acquainted signature under the content material.

He Wei had anticipated that he would seize the transcript uncontrollably. Fortuitously, he had made a number of copies, so he discovered one other one and caught it up. He mentioned, “Are you able to guess? We’ve caught the true id of the particular person we apprehended, Cheng Zhenqing.”

“…My brother.” Cheng Zesheng’s voice was dry and hoarse, his arms trembling barely as he stared on the signature beneath the transcript. “He actually is my brother, it’s actually him!”

Immediately, feelings that had been lacking for 3 years surged forth. Reminiscences flashed by way of his thoughts, together with the final time he noticed Cheng Zhenqing’s physique, holding his ashes on the cemetery, and locking away all reminiscences associated to him. Cheng Zesheng’s eyes grew barely heat, and he rapidly closed them, suppressing his feelings. He didn’t wish to present He Wei such an embarrassing aspect.

Earlier than his surging feelings might settle, He Wei poured chilly water on the scenario. “Despite the fact that he was once a police officer, after his reincarnation, he engaged in unlawful actions, injured colleagues, broke the legislation, and dedicated extra critical crimes.”

“Please examine correctly earlier than leaping to conclusions. I consider my brother will need to have had his causes.” Cheng Zesheng needed to defend his brother, however he couldn’t discover a justification. Whereas Cheng Zhenqing was alive, his sense of justice was a lot stronger than Cheng Zesheng’s. Nevertheless, after his rebirth, he took a very completely different path, which was sudden. Confronted with these modifications, Cheng Zesheng couldn’t cross judgment. He hadn’t skilled such a painful dying, so he had no proper to touch upon his brother’s journey. Nevertheless, deep down, he all the time believed that his brother will need to have been pushed to this path out of necessity, not out of deliberate self-destruction.

Individuals who stand by and provides recommendation with out experiencing it themselves are those who can simply encourage others to be virtuous. Some issues are solely understood when skilled firsthand. Forgiveness is way tougher than it appears. Maybe sure obstacles in a single’s coronary heart are by no means overcome.

A black line divided the whiteboard into two sections: on the left was He Wei’s scene, and on the correct was Cheng Zesheng’s scene. He was writing concerning the progress of his personal case, circling a number of necessary factors. “Presently, there are various doubts about your case. As an illustration, the place have been you on the night time of the thirteenth, and the way did you get to the mansion?”

“Not me, it’s Cheng Zesheng,” Officer Cheng protested.

“Oh, Cheng Zesheng,” He Wei instantly corrected himself. “Ought to I provide you with guys some code names? You could be Cheng 1, he could be Cheng 2?”

Cheng Zesheng went together with it, “Then I’ll assign you some ranks on my finish. You could be He 1, the lacking one could be He 2, and the deceased one could be He 3. How about that?”

He Wei didn’t hassle with the nonsense and accepted this association to keep away from confusion. He continued to prepare, “Based mostly on the present clues on the scene, due to the time-space folding, a 3rd celebration is provisionally labeled as ‘me.’ However why ‘I’ appeared there’s nonetheless unknown. With out enough proof, I’ve purpose to attribute all traces of a 3rd celebration to the results of time-space folding.”

“And there’s this marble, which has your fingerprints on it, however judging by its place, it appears extra more likely to have rolled out from ‘He 3’ in your aspect. I can’t work out the importance of this piece of proof, so I’m sustaining skepticism about its true id for now.”

Cheng Zesheng retorted, “It should be out of your aspect; I don’t even know the ‘you’ from this aspect.”

He Wei chuckled, as if he truly knew Cheng Zesheng from this aspect.

Cheng Zesheng hesitated to talk. He nonetheless harbored doubts about He Wei’s quantity showing on the cellular phone of pianist Cheng Zesheng. He Wei was assured, didn’t know Cheng Zesheng, and had no purpose to lie. So what did the looks of this quantity suggest?

“After confirming the firearm and Cheng Zhenqing’s connection, we’ve decided that it’s the type-92 that went lacking from the basement armory. Presently, we don’t know whether or not the assassin nonetheless has the weapon on them or if it has been discarded someplace. Discovering the assassin is essential to discovering the homicide weapon.”

“College students went to the mansion late at night time attributable to an exploration order, which led to the invention of the physique. The issuer of the exploration order has remained elusive. I think they’re hiding within the residential complicated the place my classmate lives. Nevertheless, there’s no footage of them there. In the event that they used a automotive for entry and exit, we’d want to analyze the data of all automobiles coming into and exiting Huyue Xingchen, which is basically a lead that’s at present reduce off.”

“The members of the duty drive suspect that Cheng Zhenqing and the issuer are the identical particular person. After evaluating surveillance footage from varied angles, this chance hasn’t been dominated out. However whether or not the issuer and the assassin are the identical particular person or a part of a bunch continues to be unclear and requires additional investigation.”

“After capturing Cheng Zhenqing, throughout questioning about sure irregular behaviors, he defined it as ‘the script can’t be modified.’ He didn’t specify the character of the script, nevertheless it appeared like he was hinting at an enormous conspiracy. There’s additionally an envelope within the protected; he mentioned the timing isn’t proper, and I haven’t opened it but, so I’m undecided what’s contained in the photographs.”

“There are a couple of remaining questions, corresponding to what ‘He 2’ was doing that night and the way he acquired to the mansion. In comparison with earlier factors, these are comparatively minor points. Fixing them ought to change into a lot simpler as soon as we establish the assassin.”

He Wei neatly organized all these case doubts, itemizing them out one after the other, which made issues significantly clearer. In comparison with He Wei’s dying case, Cheng Zesheng’s case didn’t have as a lot mysteriousness, however had all single-chain proof, scattered and messy, not possible to piece collectively. These items of proof appeared unrelated, but when a key piece might be discovered, all the things might be naturally linked, forming a sequence of proof.

Sadly, what was lacking was the essential hyperlink: traces of the assassin. All through your complete case, there was no point out of clues concerning the assassin. These imprecise traces that have been initially unclear and regarded as as a result of results of time-space folding have been dominated out. Now, the scenario was even worse—there have been no traces of the assassin in any respect. The prison had change into utterly invisible.

Cheng Zesheng’s gaze swept over the musical notation by probability, and he unintentionally noticed the protected password offered by Cheng Zhenqing. He froze for a second, his gaze shifting up and down the 2 rows of numbers, and he exclaimed, “These two are the identical set of numbers!”

He Wei was drawn in by his phrases and instantly in contrast the musical notes with the protected password. 85553113, including 1 and seven equals 8; 2 and three equals 5; 1 and a pair of equals 3; 6 and 5 equals 11; 2 and 1 equals 3. The password was fashioned by including the numbers from the musical notes. He Wei realized the numerous look Cheng Zhenqing had given when offering the password through the interrogation. He realized, Cheng Zhenqing knew, that he clearly understood the particular and essential nature of those musical notes, which was why he had reworked them right into a password as a refined trace.

He Wei furrowed his brows. The melody of this musical notation was the chime of the quartz clock on the wall. Was it Cheng Zesheng who created it and it was subsequently made, or did it exist lengthy earlier than and was famous down by Cheng Zesheng?

And why did it change into the chime on the particular time of midnight? It was fairly intriguing. He Wei had known as the producer to inquire and discovered that this was set later by way of a USB insertion. However who might have foreseen all of this and organized it earlier than they moved in?

———

“The password for the protected, does it have any particular which means?”

Cheng Zhenqing pretended to not keep in mind. He Wei took Cheng Zesheng’s pocket book, flipped to that web page, and pointed at it. “Does it jog your reminiscence?”

Cheng Zhenqing glanced at it and shrugged. “Oh, that? I occurred to come back throughout this musical notation and used it because the password.”

“When did Cheng Zesheng write this? And why didn’t he end it?”

“How would I do know? It was already there once I noticed it. Zesheng didn’t end writing it; maybe he didn’t deal with it as a music however moderately as a hidden code to create. Officer He, many issues should not as sophisticated as we expect. They’re truly fairly easy when you perceive them.”

He Wei closed the pocket book. It appeared asking Cheng Zhenqing wasn’t very productive. He might solely reply a lot, not as a result of he didn’t know however as a result of he couldn’t reply. He crossed his arms and appeared down at Cheng Zhenqing. “You mentioned the timing isn’t proper for the envelope. When will or not it’s the correct time to open it?”

“That is dependent upon you, Officer He. When this recreation actually begins, opening it can reveal quite a bit.”

The idea of the “recreation” was talked about as soon as once more. He Wei bent down barely and spoke with a voice solely the 2 of them might hear. “You have been reborn, however I wasn’t. I’ve all the time lived on this world. What sort of recreation do I have to expertise?”

Cheng Zhenqing chuckled, his smile helpless and melancholic. “You’re imagining it too positively. This has nothing to do with the place to begin of life; it’s all concerning the endpoint. From the second you met my brother, you have been destined to be unable to flee this recreation.”

He Wei contemplated deeply, his voice even decrease. “Then simply inform me, based mostly in your expertise, what ought to I do?”

Cheng Zhenqing furrowed his brows, hesitated, and after a second, his lips pressed right into a line as he shook his head. “In case your concepts have been modified an excessive amount of, the result will solely be the worst consequence.”

He Wei remained silent for a couple of seconds, then straightened his physique. “Alright, in case you can’t inform me, I gained’t drive you. Lastly, your brother requested me to ask you, why did you need to flip to crime?”

Cheng Zhenqing was shocked, then lowered his head and slowly clenched his arms. “…This could’t be thought of a criminal offense. It’s very probably that my kindness and compassion might result in an irreparable upheaval.”

“I’ve already died as soon as. There’s nothing on this life that may’t be gambled on. Every little thing I’m playing on is to avoid wasting my brother.”