Chapter 4
“Mm… mm! Mm!”
The person at the bottom, after the initial shock, began to struggle violently.
Unfortunately, no matter how much she rolled and twisted, the person pinning her down from behind did not budge an inch. The only thing visible were the middle-aged woman’s legs flailing wildly—kicking and thrashing in the air. From a distance, she looked like a frog stuck in a mud pit.
As for Luo Jingyao above her, she simply let the hysterical struggle continue for a moment. Only after she turned her head and confirmed that the fruit knife had been picked up by the police did she ease the pressure in her hands slightly.
She helped pull the woman—Mother of Huang Guojun—up from the ground, even brushing the dust off her clothes with an almost gentle motion. Then she spoke in a soft, polite tone:
“Carrying a controlled weapon in a public place is illegal, you know~ It’s very dangerous.”
Her attitude was so mild it was almost as if the person who had just pinned someone to the ground and “rubbed them into submission” wasn’t her at all.
The middle-aged woman froze for a second, clearly not expecting that the girl who had immobilized her seconds ago looked so slender and harmless. But once she snapped back to reality, she immediately raised her hand again, cursing as she swung:
“Where did this little slut come from?! I’m seeking justice for my son—what’s it to you?! Mind your own damn business!”
Luo Jingyao frowned slightly at that twisted expression and stepped aside with precise timing. The slap cut through empty air.
At that moment, the group of muscular men holding placards and banners saw their companion suffer a loss. With angry shouts, they rushed forward as well. The situation seemed ready to erupt into a full-blown conflict.
Then—several figures suddenly stepped in front of Luo Jingyao.
Led by Deputy Bureau Chief Zhang, several police officers stood firmly in place, their faces dark as they shouted:
“What are you doing?! You’re daring to assault someone right in front of the Public Security Bureau?! Do you think there are no laws here?!”
“Officer! She was the one who pinned me down and hit me first!” the woman cried, shoving the men aside as she threw herself onto the ground again with a loud plop. Sitting there, she wailed toward the crowd.
“Everyone, please judge fairly! Aren’t they just ganging up to bully a helpless woman?!”
Rubbing his throbbing temple, Deputy Director Zhang took a deep breath and forced himself to stay calm.
“If Officer Luo hadn’t disarmed the knife from you, you would’ve injured yourself—or worse. How are you still shouting like this here?! We respect your right to express grievances, but there’s a limit!”
“If your actions had actually caused harm, you wouldn’t still be sitting here making a scene!”
“…I… I…” A flash of panic crossed the woman’s ashen face, but it quickly shifted back into stubborn aggression.
“Oh, everyone look! This is the police! This is the Tianjin Public Security Bureau! They’re beating people right in front of you and still pretending to be righteous!”
“Back then, when my son was arrested, who knows how much injustice he suffered? Maybe he was even tortured into confessing… sob sob…”
That statement immediately darkened the expressions of all the officers around her.
“This lady, you need to be reasonable!”
“It’s a modern legal system—police interrogations are fully recorded. That kind of thing you’re talking about doesn’t happen!”
“Spreading false accusations is also a crime!”
But instead of backing down, the woman only screamed louder:
“So what if you’re police?! You think you can threaten people?! I just want justice today! And instead of investigating a murder case, all of you are bullying an old woman—who would believe there’s nothing shady going on?!”
“You—!”
Deputy Director Zhang raised a hand, stopping the others. After a long silence, he frowned, clearly struggling with how to resolve the situation. The longer it dragged on, the worse the impact would become.
Just then—
A head suddenly popped out from behind him.
Because she had been preparing for training, Luo Jingyao wore her hair in a bun today. Paired with a light beige tracksuit, she looked like a college student in her early twenties.
“Uh… hmm…” She studied the woman sitting on the ground, legs still flailing. “Ma’am, from what you’re saying… your son didn’t kill anyone?”
“Of course he didn’t!” the woman snapped immediately. “Didn’t I make it clear?! The recent murder case and the one two years ago where they wrongly accused my son—they’re exactly the same! And even today’s case in Hexi District—it’s all the same killer!”
“I see,” Luo Jingyao said slowly, still half-hidden behind Deputy Director Zhang. Her tone made it sound like she believed her.
But just as the woman began to look triumphant, Luo Jingyao suddenly changed direction.
“However… the police haven’t released any details to the public. Not even the media knows about this. So how did you know all this so clearly, ma’am?”
Right. If even the media couldn’t dig it up, where did this woman get her information?
The question instantly filled everyone’s mind.
Was there a leak inside the police?
But the next sentence from Luo Jingyao shattered that absurd suspicion completely.
“And you even said there was another murder in Hexi District just now? Wow, that’s impressive. Even the police haven’t confirmed whether that case is connected to the previous ones yet… but you’re already so certain.”
She tilted her head, eyes full of exaggerated admiration.
“Since you’re neither a police officer nor a journalist… let me guess.”
A faint smile appeared.
“You’re the killer, aren’t you? Otherwise how would you know so much?”
The woman’s face changed drastically. She shot up from the ground instantly.
“You—don’t spout nonsense! You’re slandering me! Where’s your evidence?!”
“Oh? So you know you need evidence before speaking too,” Luo Jingyao shrugged lightly. “That’s fine. You can talk nonsense, I can too. It’s not illegal, right?”
She tugged at Deputy Director Zhang’s sleeve where no one could see.
He snapped back to attention immediately.
“Mrs. Wang,” he said sternly, “the police now have reason to suspect your involvement in a serious case that occurred in Tianjin last week. We ask that you cooperate with our investigation.”
“Ridiculous! I’m the victim! I’m a good person!” she shouted, backing away subtly. “If you keep slandering me like this, I won’t let it go! I’ll come back again in a few days if you don’t give me an explanation!”
After throwing out that threat, she turned and pushed through the crowd.
The muscular men followed without hesitation. Within half a minute, they had all disappeared, leaving behind scattered protest boards and banners.
The grand spectacle ended in an anticlimax. The crowd and media slowly dispersed as there was nothing left to see.
Deputy Director Zhang finally let out a long breath, wiping sweat from his shiny forehead.
“Officer Luo, we really have you to thank today. Otherwise, if that Wang Guifen had really escalated things, the consequences would’ve been unthinkable.”
“No need to be polite,” Luo Jingyao smiled, waving it off. “The Special Case Investigation Team is out on duty today anyway. Since class is canceled, I’ll head back first.”
“Alright, take care, Instructor Luo.”
After sending her off warmly, Zhang turned back to deal with the aftermath.
Not long after leaving the Public Security Bureau, Luo Jingyao casually hailed a taxi from the roadside.
It was nearly ten in the morning—far from rush hour—so traffic was smooth. About twenty minutes later, she arrived at Sanjiang Road in Hexi District.
She didn’t actually know the exact location of the Special Case Investigation Team’s crime scene. Fortunately, Sanjiang Road in the old district wasn’t long.
She walked slowly along the narrow, slightly worn street, occasionally glancing into the deep alleyways on both sides.
Soon, she spotted police presence.
For a serious case, the scene was heavily guarded—police cars, cordons, and security measures were all in place. Impossible to miss.
It was an aging residential complex. The police van she had seen earlier was parked downstairs of one of the buildings.
Most of the onlookers outside the cordon were elderly residents, with only a few younger figures scattered among them.
After some hesitation, Luo Jingyao approached the cordon and looked inside. Officers came and went in the dim entrance, but she couldn’t make much sense of what was happening.
“What happened here? So many police cars,” asked a woman wearing a mask, holding groceries as she passed by.
“It’s a dead body,” an old man nearby replied immediately. “Right there—second building, second floor, left unit.”
“I heard that unit’s been empty for a long time. How did someone die there?”
“No security in these open neighborhoods… anyone can get in.”
Murmurs filled the air.
Luo Jingyao raised her head slightly, looking toward the second-floor left unit.
Through blue sliding glass windows popular from decades ago, she could vaguely see movement inside—police officers conducting a search.
She turned away and walked toward the entrance. She couldn’t get into the scene anyway, so she needed to think about what to do next.
Then—
A sharp screech of sliding glass came from above.
She instinctively looked up.
A man jumped out of a second-floor window.
And it was from the building right next to the crime scene.
He seemed extremely familiar with the layout. The moment he landed, he grabbed the thick drainage pipe, slid down, stepped onto a ground-floor iron grille, and then leapt off, sprinting toward the exit at full speed.
“Don’t run—shit!”
Before she could fully process what she was seeing, another voice came from above.
She looked up again.
A blond young man was crouched on the second-floor windowsill, face pale, gripping the frame tightly as he shouted.
Their eyes met.
Mm… how should one put it?
Eye contact wasn’t scary.
Whoever panicked first loses.
