Sang Tong and Old Zhang returned once again to the crime scene. The case wasn’t closed yet, and the scene still remained in its original state, looking much the same as it did the last time they came.

The place had already been thoroughly examined several times, and many pieces of physical evidence had been taken away. The scene hadn't been cleaned up yet and still looked horrifyingly bloody.

The bloodstained quilt on the bed had already been taken back for testing, but large patches of dried blood remained on the mattress, appearing as a dark reddish-brown color.

Even through rubber gloves, one could feel the hardened texture. A foul stench lingered, the smell of decomposition left behind by the corpse.

She rubbed her fingertips together, and the familiar sensation struck again. Before she could dwell on it, a white mist clouded her vision. When the fog dispersed, the image gradually became clear.

A woman appeared in the corridor of a hospital. Smoke veiled her face, making it impossible to tell who she was, but Sang Tong could sense her despair and broken spirit. Hearing a sound at the end of the corridor, the woman raised her head. Following her gaze, Sang Tong saw that the person approaching was Guan Xingwen.

Guan Xingwen had previously accompanied Ruan Tiantian to get an abortion. Could what she was seeing now be from that day?

Half of the woman’s face was shrouded in darkness. Last time, Sang Tong hadn’t seen her clearly. But now, as Guan Xingwen approached, the shadowed woman slowly stepped forward.

In that moment, Sang Tong saw the woman’s face clearly. But to her surprise, it wasn’t Ruan Tiantian, as she had previously guessed. It was another woman she had seen before...

“Sang Tong! Sang Tong!” Old Zhang’s urgent voice pulled her back. She abruptly looked up at the person beside her.

“What is it, Brother Zhang?” Sang Tong cleared her throat, her voice a little hoarse.

“The Captain just called. He said that the person missing from the records is an HIV patient…” Old Zhang relayed the message to Sang Tong.

Sang Tong froze for a moment upon hearing it but quickly returned to normal. The forensic tests mainly focused on determining the cause of death, and there hadn’t been any conclusion yet about whether Ruan Tiantian carried the virus.

Ye Jinchen had made that call to remind Sang Tong and Zhang Weimin to be careful, to supervise each other closely, this wasn’t the kind of mistake they could afford to make. Sang Tong glanced at the blood on her fingertips and exhaled slowly. Though the gloves weren’t perfect, they still offered protection—better than nothing.

Still, just hearing the word “HIV” made the hairs on her arms stand up. Ruan Tiantian had organized offline gatherings more than once, it was very likely there was more than one infected person!

“Xiao Sang, don’t be scared. We’ve taken proper precautions…” Zhang Weimin reassured her. For people like them who often dealt with blood, a bit of sensitivity was natural.

This was probably the first time the young woman had encountered this. As her senior, he naturally had to help ease her anxiety.

“Brother Zhang, I’m fine. I was just thinking about something.” Sang Tong chuckled lightly. She really wasn’t that nervous.

“Brother Zhang, come with me to the hospital. There’s something I need to check.” Sang Tong said, and then added, “Puji Hospital.”

“Alright,” Zhang Weimin nodded.

Sang Tong had more or less figured out who the murderer was, but she still needed to verify a few things. She thought for a moment and sent a message to Ye Jinchen. If her findings aligned with his, then they could basically confirm the culprit.

After sending the message to Ye Jinchen, Sang Tong also recorded a voice message for Le Qiwen.

̶̶̶̶ «̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ «̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ »̶

In the office, Ye Jinchen received Sang Tong’s message and didn’t hesitate to head out. Just as he passed by Le Qiwen’s desk, he heard the voice message Sang Tong had sent.

She texted him but sent a voice message to Le Qiwen? Was he being treated differently? Why did that feel a little frustrating?

“What’s wrong, Captain?” Le Qiwen turned his head and asked.

“Nothing,” Ye Jinchen replied flatly, expressionless as he left the office.

̶̶̶̶ «̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ «̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ »̶

Meanwhile, Sang Tong and Zhang Weimin arrived at Puji Hospital. Standing in the corridor, the vision she saw earlier became even clearer.

“We got the results. Just like you suspected.” Old Zhang came over with a stack of documents.

“Let’s go. Time to head back. The rest we’ll leave to the captain.” Sang Tong glanced at the documents, they directly confirmed her suspicions.

By the time Sang Tong and Zhang Weimin returned to the team, Ye Jinchen hadn’t come back yet, but they received another message: Ruan Tiantian was not an HIV patient. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

“It’s almost ready. Just wait a little longer,” Le Qiwen said to Sang Tong.

“No problem,” Sang Tong nodded. Ye Jinchen still hadn’t returned, so there was time.

About an hour later, Ye Jinchen came back. He gave Sang Tong a slight nod. They didn’t exchange any words, but from just that glance, Sang Tong knew—he had results.

Guan Xingwen had been repeatedly summoned to the interrogation room these past few days. He was almost getting used to it. The matter of selling counterfeit goods was solid evidence. He knew he’d probably serve time and pay a fine. He was mentally prepared.

What he didn’t expect was to see someone else standing at the door of the interrogation room next door. Their eyes met, and both saw shock in each other’s gaze.

But the officers escorting them didn’t give them any time to speak, immediately taking them into separate interrogation rooms.

Ye Jinchen and Sang Tong naturally saw their reactions. They exchanged a glance and nodded, then entered separate rooms.

The interrogation room was kept at a low temperature, with only one lamp lit—dim and shadowy. While Sang Tong poured a glass of water for the other party, Old Zhang came in holding a file.

“You saw him, didn’t you? Guan Xingwen is in the next room,” Sang Tong didn’t jump into the main topic. Instead, she deliberately mentioned the person in the adjacent interrogation room.

“If you have questions, just ask them. No need to beat around the bush,” the woman bit her lip, staring at Sang Tong.

Although her face didn’t show much emotion, her tightly clenched hands gave away her nervousness.

“Mi Xinya, let’s start. How long have you known Guan Xingwen?” Sang Tong smiled, unbothered by the woman’s attitude. Her expression was completely non-threatening.

The calm she was desperately trying to maintain cracked at Sang Tong’s question. She stiffened for several seconds before finding her voice again.

"I've only been in Feiyun for six months, so how long could we have known each other—five or six months at most." Mi Xinya licked her lips, which were a bit dry, and picked up the glass on the table to take a small sip of water.

"And how long have you known Ruan Tiantian?" Sang Tong asked again.

"Also about five or six months," Mi Xinya replied, placing the cup back on the table and looking at Sang Tong.

"Not just that, right?" Sang Tong stared at Mi Xinya and added lightly.

Mi Xinya instinctively wanted to refute it, but when she met Sang Tong’s smiling eyes, the words she had prepared got stuck in her throat and wouldn't come out.

"You once worked a summer job at a milk tea shop. Coincidentally, Guan Xingwen also worked at the same shop at that time." Sang Tong placed a photo in front of Mi Xinya.

Before signing with Feiyun, Guan Xingwen had been active on other platforms. It took some time to track down all his past accounts and videos. This photo was a screenshot from one of his old videos.

In the video, Guan Xingwen appeared on screen, and the girl behind him turned to face the camera. Although the shot was taken from a distance, that face unmistakably belonged to Mi Xinya. Both were wearing the same black and white aprons from the milk tea shop.

"Even though there was a gap when you returned to school and Guan Xingwen signed with Feiyun, it’s still been more than six months, hasn’t it?" Sang Tong said slowly.

Nowadays, jobs aren’t easy to come by. Sang Tong wasn’t sure if Mi Xinya became a streamer because of Guan Xingwen, but after she entered the industry, Guan Xingwen often promoted her on his channel.

"You knew Ruan Tiantian was close to Guan Xingwen, and since she’s a top traffic anchor now, you wanted Guan Xingwen to ask her to promote you. But he refused, didn’t he?" Sang Tong continued.

Mi Xinya had mentioned this when she connected with Guan Xingwen on stream, but he had refused her request.

By then, Guan Xingwen likely already knew what Ruan Tiantian was involved in. His rejection of Mi Xinya was probably his way of protecting her.

Unfortunately…

"After Ruan Tiantian found out you knew Guan Xingwen, she started recommending you, and your traffic numbers quickly soared. You got a taste of success," Sang Tong added.

"So what? Does any of that matter now? It all happened nearly six months ago. What’s the point of dragging it back up now?" Mi Xinya seemed quite resistant to Sang Tong bringing up her past.

"Meeting with your top-ranked fan offline was Ruan Tiantian's invitation. But you didn’t refuse. In fact, you knew exactly what was going to happen, didn’t you? Ruan Tiantian dangled the bait, and you willingly took the hook." Sang Tong's smile faded a little.

"Guan Xingwen liked you. There’s no way he didn’t tell you anything. But you chose to pretend you knew nothing." Sang Tong looked at the girl sitting across from her. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Sang Tong realized clearly that the victim sitting before her had now also become a perpetrator.

At first, Sang Tong had thought Guan Xingwen liked Ruan Tiantian. After all, his attitude whenever he talked about her had been rather intriguing.

But it wasn’t until today that Sang Tong realized she had read too much into it. What existed between Guan Xingwen and Ruan Tiantian was a bond forged through years of shared hardship—a deep, mutual understanding between close friends.

Guan Xingwen’s feelings for Mi Xinya, however, were evident in his old videos. That girl in the footage had always stood out.

"Ruan Tiantian taught you how to drive traffic and make more money. You didn’t refuse. Then you agreed to meet the big-spending fan she introduced you to." Sang Tong paused. "You received ¥100,000 yuan from that meeting, and you used it to cover your brother’s medical bills, right?"

"Everything might have seemed fine, if you hadn’t gotten that physical exam two months ago…" Sang Tong continued.

Two months ago, Mi Xinya suddenly began to feel unwell. At first, she thought it was just a minor illness, but it kept getting worse. Her immune system visibly deteriorated. Fearing it might be a hereditary condition, she rushed to the hospital.

But… she never would’ve imagined things would turn out like this.

“You didn’t think of Ruan Tiantian when you were diagnosed with HIV, but you happened to find out that man had died,” Sang Tong continued.

The death of that top-ranking male fan became the final straw that broke Mi Xinya’s back. At that moment, how could she not have realized where her illness truly came from?

Though she was indeed short on money, things got better after she sent that ¥100,000 yuan to her family, and she hardly did any offline work afterward.

Just that one time—if it wasn’t him, then who?

“You knew Guan Xingwen used to like you,” Sang Tong added.

“What does this have to do with him?” Mi Xinya replied, her voice trembling so subtly even she didn’t notice.

“You two weren’t exactly subtle. The moment you got your test results, you told Guan Xingwen. You knew he had a good relationship with Ruan Tiantian, so you started planning your revenge on her from very early on.”

Ruan Tiantian had her guard up with everyone else, but not with Guan Xingwen. When she was in trouble, she would always turn to him first, because the two of them had climbed up from the bottom together, so she trusted him deeply.

“Five days ago, Ruan Tiantian caught a cold. That became your chance. You had Guan Xingwen switch her cold medicine with sleeping pills, then you helped him create an alibi so he could distance himself from it all.”

Sang Tong had long been puzzled, who could possibly have gotten Ruan Tiantian to take sleeping pills and then killed her? That answer had actually surfaced a long time ago.

Guan Xingwen was the only one she’d lower her guard for. But during the time of the incident, he had a solid alibi—he was livestreaming.

That’s how the time discrepancy came about. But if there were two perpetrators, it was a whole different story.

Guan Xingwen delivered the drugs, but… the one who killed Ruan Tiantian was the girl now sitting in front of her. The two of them worked together to orchestrate this horrific case.

Sang Tong looked at Mi Xinya sitting across from her—barely past twenty, supposedly the prime of youth, the age of blooming like a flower. And yet now… she was already beginning to wither.

“We’ve already found Ruan Tiantian’s phone in your home, and also…” Sang Tong paused, steeling herself before continuing, “A frozen blood clot. I believe once it’s tested, we’ll know whose blood it is.”

The moment she realized Mi Xinya was the killer, Sang Tong immediately sent Ye Jinchen to search her home. She never expected they’d find the evidence in the fridge. Not just her, even Ye Jinchen was shocked at the discovery.

“That’s right, I did it. I did all of it. So what? Ruan Tiantian didn’t deserve to die?” Mi Xinya looked at Sang Tong, suddenly laughing, her eyes glistening red despite the smile.

“You know what she said to me when I went to see her?” Mi Xinya’s tone shifted, now tinged with rage and hysteria.

“She told me to stay away from her. She said my blood was dirty. Me? Dirty? How clean could she be? She knew that man was infected, and she still introduced him to me!” Mi Xinya practically screamed the words.

At that, Sang Tong’s brows furrowed instinctively.

No wonder… Ruan Tiantian wasn’t a patient—but shockingly, she had known.

“You took her blood to get revenge?” Sang Tong asked seriously.

“Revenge? You could say that…” Mi Xinya let out a cold laugh. “She thought my blood was dirty? Then fine—we’ll be dirty together. I mixed our blood, and guess what?” Mi Xinya suddenly giggled.

Sitting in the interrogation room, Sang Tong felt a chill crawl up her back—a coldness that crept like vines from her feet, curling upward, making it nearly impossible to breathe.

“Brother Zhang, you take over—I’m stepping out for a bit.” Sang Tong suddenly stood up, her chest tightening with a rush of panic. She had a powerful gut feeling: Mi Xinya wouldn’t have stopped there. She took Ruan Tiantian’s blood for a reason, she must have done something else with it!

Mi Xinya was definitely the killer. But it wasn’t enough, they didn’t yet have all the answers. Something was still missing!

Sang Tong steadied herself against the hallway outside the interrogation room, her heart pounding so hard she could barely control herself. This kind of reaction was rare for her, but deep down, she knew—they had missed something crucial.

“What’s wrong?” A strong arm supported her unsteady body.

A familiar presence enveloped her with a sense of safety, invisible yet real. Sang Tong felt a bit more grounded.

“Did Guan Xingwen confess?” she asked urgently, clutching Ye Jinchen’s arm.

Ye Jinchen lowered his gaze to the hand gripping his arm. Her fingers were slender and pale, but the grip was firm. He could clearly feel her urgency.

“Yes, he confessed everything.” Ye Jinchen nodded. At first, Guan Xingwen had been reluctant to talk, but somehow he ended up spilling everything honestly.

If he had simply denied bringing the sleeping pills or claimed he knew nothing about the phone, they would have had to investigate further. But surprisingly, Guan Xingwen confessed cleanly and straightforwardly.

Sang Tong’s grip finally loosened a little. Moments like this required even more composure, so she forced herself to calm down.

“The blood in Mi Xinya’s refrigerator, was there 500 milliliters?” Sang Tong asked again.

“There was probably only about 300 milliliters,” Ye Jinchen replied after thinking for a moment.

“Mi Xinya said she mixed her own blood with Ruan Tiantian’s. The total should have exceeded 500 milliliters. But we only found 300.” Sang Tong closed her eyes. She was certain—it was 500 milliliters.

The feeling of blood draining had been too vivid. She was sure Mi Xinya had taken 500 milliliters of Ruan Tiantian’s blood.

But… now, they’d only found about half of it.

Ye Jinchen frowned upon hearing this. Where had the missing blood gone? What worried him more was that it was mixed with Mi Xinya’s blood.

Just then, a phone vibrated. Ye Jinchen pulled it out of his pocket as Sang Tong used his support to stand upright, letting out a long breath. This wasn’t the time to panic. She had to remain calm—sharply, deliberately calm.

“Mi Xinya has mailed out a large number of packages over the past two days,” Le Qiwen’s voice came through the phone.

Sang Tong: !!!