Case Progress

Yu Xing Qu Xuanqing was talking about, because his current situation was somewhat awkward.

On one hand, he wants to take revenge on the Lingren, but in order to actually get close to the Lingren, he has ruined his health by getting involved in Absurd Deduction Game, which means that if he were to face the Lingren directly now, he would definitely be in a terrible situation.

Therefore, his goal has always been to exhaust his body to obtain the qualification for the Yugi, and then regain the strength to rival the Lingren in the Yugi. During this period, he also needs to investigate the operation mode and member distribution of the Single Prism organization, and do his best to cause damage to this broken organization, but he cannot be directly captured by the Lingren.

As for the Lingren, due to Yu Xing's initial loss of control, the entire organization dared not confront him directly. Until the organization's members were replaced, the Lingren, who also possessed the same immortality ability, were still around, while the other members had long been unaware of Yu Xing's existence due to the Lingren's deliberate neglect.

In fact, during the many years that his strength had been weakened, the Lingren had been searching for him. Whenever they needed to use members of the organization, they would find other excuses to make the members think that the target they were looking for was just someone who had a grudge against the organization. "Immortality" was like a secret, at least in the Single Prism, a secret that belonged only to the Lingren and Yu Xing.

The Differentiation Tier deduction has far more ways to be exposed than before, and the connections and conflicts between the deducers are also more complex. Previously, he could use his resurrection ability in the Coffin Village out of necessity to lie that he was a sacrifice, but now he can't. He must hide this overpowered ability and absolutely cannot let others find out.

In other words, he cannot die in the presence of any other predictors.

The current situation is that Yu Xing wants to exploit the rules to openly sabotage Single Prism, and the Lingren can't directly do anything to him. The Lingren wants to find Yu Xing secretly and deal with him without revealing his secret.

Both had their own agendas, and for a time, neither could gain the upper hand. However, the other members of Single Prism were the key to their success.

Yu Xing wanted to find people who had access to the Single Prism organization's operations, to uncover the organization's and Lingren' weaknesses from them, and even to uncover the principles behind the research from back then, rather than one enemy after another who knew nothing.

Qu Xuanqing is right. If he doesn't have a guild behind him, anyone can interfere with him, wasting his time and prematurely exposing his current scheming habits to the Lingren in the shadows.

It can be said that we are now in the information war phase between him and the Lingren; whoever can obtain more information about the other will gain the advantage and the initiative.

"So, what are your plans?" Qu Xuanqing sat on the edge of the bed that Yu Xing had made, crossing her legs. "Are you going to join a guild, or not, or start your own new guild, or... just steal one?"

Yu Xing poured herself a glass of water, ran her fingers through her messy hair, and pondered for a moment.

Guilds can be joined or created, but the latter requires the presence of someone who inspires fear in most players of the Fallen Path. Qu Xuanqing can do this, but she alone is still too few. Unless he plays every subsequent deduction Yugi with her, there will always be flies swarming around him when he Yugi solo.

As for stealing... that means either pulling the leader of an existing guild to your side or killing them and directly inheriting the entire guild. Yu Xing would never do something like that.

It wasn't out of kindness, but because he saw guild members whose backgrounds he didn't know as potential threats.

"Let me complete a Differentiation Tier deduction first, then we'll test the difficulty," Yu Xing said to Qu Xuanqing after a while.

He's just one Yugi away from fulfilling the first wish on his wish list. Once his strength recovers and his maneuvering improves, he can then decide on a guild.

His performance in the rookie live stream competition was decent. Aside from attracting the hostility of a bunch of deducers on the Fallen Path, he also naturally attracted the attention of some deducers on the Mutation Path and the Righteous Path. After he helped Carlos kill the Prophet, there were already double-digit numbers of star deducers watching in the live stream.

Many of them were there to help their guilds find new members.

Yu Xing has just been promoted, and the deduction system is very principled in terms of privacy protection. Apart from Xiao Ququ and Zhao Mou, almost no one knows his current whereabouts. Once he completes a new deduction and the other people in the deduction circulate the video, then those who previously intended to contact him will come one after another.

Of course, this is not what Yu Xing wants to do most right now.

He wants to thoroughly investigate the Throat Cutting Case in Fuhua City before proceeding with the subsequent deduction Yugi.

"Actually, for your first Differentiation Tier deduction, you could do it with someone you know who has just been promoted; it'll be easier for you to adapt." Qu Xuanqing didn't press him further about his decision; she'd just listen to him. "I'll pass. My level is Mourning, and doing a deduction with you would raise the requirements for strength in the deduction world, and your situation might be exposed."

"Hmm." Yu Xing indicated that she was aware of the situation.

With that topic settled, he checked the weather.

Cloudy day.

He laughed, "Let's deal with this one right in front of us first, and continue with the previous plan without getting noticed."

Qu Xuanqing turned slightly serious. "Okay."

Three days later.

Today is the day Han Xinyi is discharged from the hospital. When she was discharged, in addition to her uncle who had left work early, several of her old college classmates came to pick her up.

These people were all close friends of hers from university, mostly from the same club. They had organized a class reunion three days ago, but she had an emergency, so the reunion didn't happen.

So, they decided to have a big meal after picking Han Xinyi up from the hospital today to celebrate, hoping that the beautiful Han would be blessed with good fortune after surviving such a close call.

After Han Xinyi came of age, her uncle Han Zhiyong stopped interfering with her life and social interactions. He simply told her not to eat anything too greasy and not to do anything too strenuous since her injury hadn't fully healed, and then let her go play with her friends.

On the way to the private room at the restaurant, a girl from a rather traditional family laughed and said, "Xinyi just escaped a disaster, but she's weathered it. Things will definitely go smoothly from now on."

The six people, each driven by a local male classmate from Fuhua City, finally relaxed completely once they arrived at the private room. They started talking about their university days, and soon the last trace of awkwardness disappeared. Han Xinyi took a sip of water, her smile sweet.

Seeing everyone chatting and laughing, Jiang Pan would occasionally chime in, then bustle around offering food and water, making Han Xinyi feel a little embarrassed. He lived in another province and had flown in three days ago. The other classmates teased, "So you're not going to hide your feelings anymore? Goodness, we didn't see you confess in four years of university, but now you're suddenly all eager to do it!"

Jiang Pan could only smile bitterly to herself, but outwardly she pretended to be serious and said, "Don't talk nonsense."

It's true that he likes Han Xinyi; he liked her during college. But his thoughtfulness today stems not only from liking her, but also from guilt.

You see, the incident happened almost immediately after Han Xinyi hung up on him. In the past few days, he has often wondered if the murderer would have dared not attack Han Xinyi, who was on the phone with someone else, had he not hung up.

Perhaps Han Xinyi could have completely avoided this ordeal.

He knew it was unreasonable for him to take on so much responsibility, but for some reason he just couldn't help it.

Everyone enjoyed the meal, but no one knew what the usually good-natured Jiang Pan was thinking. A short-haired girl, who had drunk a bit too much, asked Han Xinyi near the end, "Did the police tell you why the murderer committed the crime?"

Han Xinyi shook her head. "No, these past few days, besides monitoring my physical condition, the police haven't told me anything else. Oh right, it's also because I didn't ask. I guess if I had asked, as the victim, they could have told me some details about the case."

To prevent unnecessary speculation and panic among the public, the Criminal Investigation Detachment specifically instructed her not to disclose any specific information about the case to the outside world. Han Xinyi only briefly mentioned her old classmates and did not reveal any further details.

At the same time, the police didn't reveal much to her at all.

"So what have you been doing these past few days? Just lying in the hospital bed playing on your phone?" the male classmate joined the discussion.

"No, I asked a policewoman to borrow a mystery book I hadn't finished reading before, and I finished it these past few days. It's quite interesting." Everyone knew that Han Xinyi liked mystery and supernatural stories, so they didn't delve into it further and changed the subject.

The short-haired girl winked at her. "I heard the guy who saved you was super handsome! So, did anything happen?"

Jiang Pan immediately raised her head, a strange feeling rising in her heart.

"No, he really is handsome." Han Xinyi's smile deepened a little as she recalled the day Yu Xing left, when she asked the police for Yu Xing's phone number, and the policewoman told her that Yu Xing already had a girlfriend.

He has a girlfriend... so what?

Her hero is so outstanding, it's normal for him to have a girlfriend, but girlfriends do break up sometimes.

No new cases have emerged in Fuhua City in the past few days, but the previous cases have already put immense pressure on the Criminal Investigation Detachment.

Gao Chang'an felt that his already dwindling hair was starting to fall out again. If this was the case for him, the vice-captain, then the captain Yu Jiaming, was in even worse shape.

The urgency of saving lives, public opinion, and the risk of being dismissed all weighed heavily on Yu Jiaming's shoulders, and Old Gao felt a pang of heartache seeing him like this.

The criminals this time are too meticulous. If they are not caught within seven days, Lao Yu... may really have to be removed from his position.

He pushed open Yu Jiaming's office door, carrying lunch, and saw Yu Jiaming reviewing surveillance footage from several previous cases.

The entire team had reviewed the surveillance footage several times, but hadn't found anything useful. They also had no better leads at the moment. Yu Jiaming dark circles accumulated under his eyes.

The nearly one-month investigation period was already the maximum leniency granted by his superiors, and he had to race against time.

Gao Chang'an placed the still-steaming lunch on Yu Jiaming's table and sighed, "Eat first, then take a half-hour nap. I'll watch over you."

Yu Jiaming wearily, tore open the packaging, and felt a little comforted by the aroma of the food. He swallowed a large mouthful and asked indistinctly, "Where's Liu Ping? He still hasn't produced anything useful?"

Liu Ping was the man in the black baseball cap who tried to kill Han Xinyi on the rainy day.

"No, he insisted that he just thought the throat-slitting killer was amazing, committing so many crimes without getting caught, so he wanted to imitate him and have some fun." Gao Chang'an shook his head, recalling Liu Ping's unrepentant demeanor when he woke up in the hospital. "He's always had antisocial tendencies, so it's not impossible for him to act when he gets the chance. Our awesome psychological consultant also observed the entire interrogation, and both he and I believe Liu Ping wasn't lying about this."

They failed to catch the real throat-slitting killer, but instead caught an imposter. This not only did not help in solving the serial murder case, but also wasted a lot of the Criminal Investigation Detachment's time. Yu Jiaming and Gao Chang'an were both unwilling to accept this outcome.

Liu Ping, a man in his thirties, did not kill Han Xinyi on a whim, but rather it was premeditated.

Their investigation revealed that Liu Ping was actually Han Xinyi's colleague at her current company. The two belonged to different departments and were not familiar with each other at all; their relationship was basically limited to occasionally sharing an elevator.

According to Liu Ping's confession, he had long wanted to make a move against Han Xinyi because Han Xinyi was beautiful, eye-catching, and had a particularly sweet smile.

Every time Liu Ping saw Han Xinyi's smile, he felt an urge to destroy her.

The day of the incident was the first day of Han Xinyi's annual leave. Liu Ping also took a day off on the grounds of sick leave. He had checked Han Xinyi's preferences in advance and was waiting at the bookstore.

What happened next was completely clear, as evidenced by a limited number of surveillance videos along the way, the testimonies of Han Xinyi herself, Liu Ping himself, the shop assistant, and Yu Xing, who rescued the victim.

No matter how you look at it, this seems to be an independent case unrelated to the serial Throat Cutting Case. After Liu Ping recovered from his injuries, several criminal police officers took turns interrogating him, but still failed to find any valuable information.

But Gao Chang'an, a veteran criminal investigator with many years of experience, had a voice in his mind saying – something's not right, Liu Ping must be hiding something.

After thinking about it for several days, Yu Xing's face suddenly appeared in Gao Chang'an's mind. He looked at the dark circles under the captain's eyes, hesitated for a moment, and finally decided to invite Yu Xing to participate in part of the investigation of this case.

Yu Xing observation skills and physical abilities are a great asset in solving the case. He left a very good impression on the injured Han Xinyi, which made it easier for them to contact Han Xinyi.

Moreover, during the interrogation of Liu Ping remembered very clearly what Yu Xing had said to him at the time.

Perhaps it's because the beating was so deeply etched in my memory.

At the time, Yu Xing asked him if he was the murderer in the Throat Cutting Case. When he failed to block Yu Xing's fist, Yu Xing said in a regretful tone that he was not, as if he had some knowledge or guess about the murderer in the Throat Cutting Case.

Gao Chang'an was also very curious about this, not to mention that the reason Yu Xing turned back when rescuing Han Xinyi was too vague.

Is it really possible for someone to deviate from their route and turn back to confirm something based on a fleeting glimpse of an unusual detail while driving at high speed?

If Yu Xing has a problem, Gao Chang'an feels that keeping this person in sight is much better than completely losing track of him. Revealing a few clues might even provoke Yu Xing into making a mistake.

Therefore, regardless of Yu Xing has any problems, including him in the investigation team is a worthwhile endeavor, even if it's against the rules.

But compared to the hard work of team leader Yu Jiaming, the rules can obviously be broken.

That evening, Yu Xing received a call from Gao Chang'an, who asked him to meet at the police station. Yu Xing raised an eyebrow and immediately agreed.