Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“You won!” She suddenly laughed. “Don’t worry, I won’t become a villain. I will always be your kind, pure and adorable Little Wan…”

Bai Muchuan stroked her shoulders, his lips curving up at the corners, pleased at what he heard.

Maybe that was not enough, for he drew closer and kissed her head gently. “That’s good!”

“Aye!” Tang Yuanchu took a glance at the rearview mirror. “Goodness! What is that? Now my limbs are weak and I don’t think I can drive anymore.”

“I beg to differ.” Xiang Wan bantered with him. “I believe that even if you don’t use your limbs, we can depend on your mouth to blow this car to the destination.”

“…”

The crime scene took place in a neighborhood of luxurious villas.

There was a large artificial lake in the quiet neighborhood. Every villa was quite far apart from each other. The villa where the crime took place was owned by a businessman who also lived there. The entire villa was situated in the middle of well-trimmed greenery and occupied a large area. It looked magnificent, and it was obvious that it was the residence of the rich and wealthy. Even if the ordinary people wanted to buy a toilet here, they would have to work hard for half of their lives.

By the time they arrived, the police officers in-charge of that district were already there.

The area was cordoned off. Besides the police officers from the district, there was also a group of anti-riot officers.

When Bai Muchuan arrived, the head of the district police post came over to him.

“Captain Bai’s here!”

Bai Muchuan nodded his head. “Where’s the corpse?”

“We just retrieved it from the swimming pool. It’s beside the pool now.”

Bai Muchuan strode towards the villa without another word.

The brightly lit hall was full of people who arrived for the party that evening. There were many good-looking men, as well as beautiful women. Their make-up was exquisite and their faces had a reddish hue from alcohol. At one glance, this was simply a party of sheer decadence; the smell of wine, perfume and cologne of men and women filled the atmosphere.

Xiang Wan furrowed her eyebrows inadvertently.

The police gathered everyone in the living room and there were police officers questioning them.

When Quan Shaoteng arrived at the villa, he and his team immediately took charge of the security work there.

Bai Muchuan didn’t stop for a pause. He led the team straight across the main hall to the swimming pool.

“Where’s Zhang Houfa?” he asked as he walked along.

“He’s under control and is assisting in the investigation.”

“Mm.” Bai Muchuan’s strides got larger.

Zhang Houfa was the owner of the villa, who was a famous Internet mogul. He was also the biggest investor of the historical period drama by Meng Entertainment Group, “Life in Chang’an”, of which they had secured the IP of and filming would start once the cast was decided. Prior to reaching the villa, Bai Muchuan told Xiang Wan that the victim this time was Xie Wanwan’s assistant, Xu Siqi.

She was the female assistant that didn’t come back with Xie Wanwan that night. Ever since then, Xiang Wan had not seen her.

Just the day before, she had signed the contract for this new drama.

She would be casted as the second female lead of the drama. It was what the investor, Zhang Houfa, could do for her for their under the table deal.

The first female lead of that drama was Xie Wanwan.

This drama would be a big production with huge amounts of money invested in it. Although Xu Siqi was new to acting, her future was bright.

The private party that evening was one that Zhang Houfa specially held for his new darling – Xu Siqi.

Xiang Wan could see some familiar faces in the enormous hall. Many of them were popular figures in social media and well-known figures in their respective circles. Zhang Houfa hosted this private function so as to introduce Xu Siqi to everyone to pave the way for her new career. It could be said that he really doted on her.

In the end, a joyous occasion became a dreadful event.

…

The swimming pool was special as it was a heated swimming pool.

The people there had been ushered away by the police to the main hall.

A body covered in white cloth lay flat beside the pool, still dripping wet. The ground beside the pool was covered with a lot of footprints – some were wet while others were drier. Obviously, there were many people there not too long ago, and the messy footprints indicated that there was a crowd in the swimming pool earlier.

“She died in the water?”

“Yes,” answered the police officer, “A woman found the deceased when she swam to the deep end of the pool. She felt something was blocking so she dived in for a check. When she realized that it was a human body, she quickly shouted and screamed for help…”

“She didn’t float?” Bai Muchuan asked another question.

“No,” replied the police officer, “we did a visual check earlier. The deceased’s hands and feet were bound with a skipping rope and there was a 7-kilogram weight tied to it…”

The lights at the swimming pool area were not that bright. The level of visibility at the deep end of the pool was very low. Those who were swimming at the pool didn’t notice the corpse at all.

Bai Muchuan took a look at Cheng Zheng. “I’ll hand this over to you.”

Cheng Zheng nodded his head and didn’t say much. He put his equipment box beside the corpse and lifted the white cloth.

The face of a young, beautiful woman was revealed.

The time of death was rather recent as her complexion and face did not have much changes.

When he removed the white piece of cloth entirely, the sexy bikini that the deceased was wearing came into view…

Cheng Zheng furrowed his eyebrows and turned his head. “Mei Xin.”

“Yes!” Mei Xin passed a pair of gloves to Cheng Zheng. After he put them on, he checked the deceased’s eyes, felt the carotid artery at the neck and made his preliminary examination. “This is a fresh corpse. The current traces so far suggest that the cause of death is drowning. However, there is an approximate three-centimeter wound caused by brute force behind the right ear… We need to conduct tests for the internal organs as well as a blood composition test…”

As Cheng Zheng talked, Mei Xin would record it down in the notebook.

Miao Zichen was standing some distance away and looked at him like a fangirl.

Bai Muchuan listened and nodded his head. “Alright, please continue!”

Bai Muchuan followed the lead of the two police officers who arrived first at the scene to the deeper end of the pool, the spot where the corpse was found.

“Captain Bai, it’s this spot.”

The uniform of the police officer was quite wet and he seemed to be cold.

As he said so, he let out a sneeze. “By the time we got here, the corpse had been retrieved out of the water.”

Bai Muchuan took a look at him. “Did you find anyone suspicious at the scene?”

The police officer pondered for a while. “No. But we dealt with the situation immediately by gathering all the guests who attended the party tonight at the main hall and the questioning has started.”

Bai Muchuan asked, “Nobody is being left out?”

“I don’t think so. We got the list of guests from Zhang Houfa’s butler, as well as the list of personnel working in this villa. Our colleagues are working on the verification of identities right now. We also noted that Zhang Houfa is quite a cautious person. There are surveillance cameras installed in quite a lot of places. From what we’ve gotten so far, there’s only people coming in and no one has left.”

“Alright!”

As long as the murderer was still in this villa, it would not be a problem to nab him or her.

Bai Muchuan walked around the pool for a moment and slowly walked to the nearest wall from the pool. He had a flashlight with him and he started to check the area bit by bit.

Xiang Wan and Tang Yuanchu had stayed beside him throughout.

When Xiang Wan saw that, she raised a question. “Do you suspect that someone might have jumped over the wall to commit murder?”

Bai Muchuan replied, “It’s a possibility.”

The night light on the wall was dim and weak. His face appeared dark and grim under the lighting conditions there.

Xiang Wan took a look towards the swimming pool which was some distance away. “I feel that the possibility of this happening is very small. Firstly, there are surveillance cameras everywhere in this villa. This is not a place where one could trespass easily simply by jumping over a wall. Secondly, there were quite a lot of people swimming in the pool. They’re in their swimming costumes… So, if at this moment, if someone managed to jump over the wall, the attire of that person would attract the attention of the people in the villa.”

Bai Muchuan gave her a glance. “So your take is?”

Xiang Wan gave her inference. “I feel that the murderer is more likely to be one of the guests or the service personnel.”

Bai Muchuan smiled. “Why didn’t you suspect Zhang Houfa instead? Maybe he’s the murderer?”