That Woman and Ran Ran

Fuhua City has developed well in recent years, with new buildings springing up like mushrooms after rain. At first glance, it seems to rival first-tier cities.

However, this is just a superficial illusion. Beneath the glamorous exterior, there are many backward, dark, and deliberately concealed areas in this city.

Old town areas, suburbs, areas near garbage dumps, abandoned industrial zones...

These are places found in almost every city in a similar situation, and administrators have mostly made the same choice—in the face of municipal achievements, lagging areas are intentionally hidden and forgotten.

However, as the Throat Cutting Case gained traction, these issues resurfaced amidst people's decadent lifestyles and were vaguely remembered again.

Because all four victims in the Throat Cutting Case were killed in remote, sparsely populated areas with little surveillance.

No one knows why these handsome young men living in bustling neighborhoods went to these places. All that is known is that when they reappeared in the public eye, these young men, who should have had bright futures, had become cold corpses.

In the suburbs far from the city center, night falls earlier than most people expect.

This old town area of Fuhua City is not only remote but also sparsely populated. The houses slated for demolition were almost completely demolished half a year ago, but something went wrong with the project, and no one paid any attention to it for a long time, leaving behind large areas of unsightly ruins.

Under normal circumstances, people who don't live here would never go to the ruins of the old town alone at night unless they were out of their mind.

Zhang Yu had the same thought before setting foot here.

He held an umbrella in his left hand and gripped his phone tightly in his right. On the still-lit screen, text messages from his contact [Ranran] were particularly glaring.

Zhang Yu, this is Ranran.

I've been kidnapped. She seems to want to kill me and has locked me in a dilapidated building in the old town. I managed to hide this phone, and now that she's having dinner outside, I can finally call you for help. Please come and save me!

-[Location Information]

-I'm here!

- Call the police immediately, let the police...

The above messages were sent in very short intervals, revealing the sender's urgency. However, when the message reached the words "Come save me," everything came to an abrupt halt, without even finishing typing the pinyin.

The next message appeared at 7:15.

- Zhang Yu, hello there.

-I'm not Ranran, but I'm with her right now~ I didn't expect her to hide her phone, it almost ruined everything [laughs]

"I guess you know who I am, right?" the "handsome" gentleman.

I didn't want to contact you so soon, but now that you know about my crimes, there's nothing I can do. It's such a shame. (^_^)

She even sent you her location! How decisive. Well then, Mr. Zhang Yu, you only have one option left. "Come."

Come on, one of you. If you come, I'll release Ranran. If you don't come, as punishment for her disobedience, she won't live past tonight.

Remember, I don't want to see the police, so you absolutely must come alone. Looking forward to seeing you again! Sending you love~

Don't try anything funny, I can see you.

After that, no matter what Zhang Yu replied, the other side remained silent.

Zhang Yu was at home after work when he received these messages, and he felt a sense of relief, as if he had known.

The only person who would call him "handsome gentleman" besides the substitute female shop assistant whose name he didn't ask was none other than the one who called him that.

The female clerk claimed to be Ranran's friend that day, and he never saw Ranran again after that. Instead, he was threatened by that woman who wrote words on the bookshelf.

Zhang Yu had been speculating about the truth for days, and today, having finally confirmed that the woman was not a good person, he breathed a sigh of relief.

The danger that has been confirmed is not actually the tormenting unknown that is ambiguous.

He gave a wry smile, hesitated for a moment between calling the police and going to the location alone, and finally chose the latter.

It wasn't that he didn't trust the police, nor was he reckless or confident that he could rescue Ranran on his own; it was just that... he also had things he wanted to do.

Just as Zhang Yu was trying to call an acquaintance to leave himself an escape route, he discovered that his phone could not contact the outside world. The data fluctuated for a while before settling down again.

"It's gone black?"

Zhang Yu suspected that his phone had been hacked by the other party, which matched the last text message that read, "I can see you."

At this moment, his every move must be under their surveillance.

He could have simply thrown the phone away and made an excuse to leave and call the police. Going to the restroom would have been a good excuse, since the other person was a woman, and it wouldn't be appropriate for her to monitor his urination through his phone.

But he didn't do that. He simply got up calmly, took his phone, grabbed his car keys, and went out.

"Click."

Lost in thought for a moment, Zhang Yu accidentally stepped on a broken brick. He steadied himself, which was about to fall forward, and brought his attention back to reality.

It's 7:49 now.

He hesitated for only a moment before driving over without stopping. Since cars couldn't get through the ruins, he switched to walking.

Walking cautiously on the rugged road, Zhang Yu kept his eyes on the location and text messages. The pattering rain in his ears and the dark sky above him gave him a strong sense of suffocation.

He felt lost.

With each step I took, a mocking little voice inside me spoke to itself.

This is ridiculous. What am I doing right now?

Knowing that coming here might mean certain death, why would I so readily throw my life away?

Ranran...

Ranran will be fine, won't she? She and that woman are business partners, right?

These text messages were all sent by Ranran, right? Every single one of them. That woman was sitting right next to her, reading the messages aloud, making Ranran type them out, leaving only Ranran as the "victim's" fingerprint.

That's the truth, isn't it?

Zhang Yu felt as if his heart had been pricked by needles, a mixture of pain and bitterness.

He's not stupid, nor is he someone who's easily fooled.

He graduated from a prestigious university, loves mystery, reads a wide range of things, and to put it narcissistically, he's very smart.

He is more intelligent than the vast majority of people in the world.

In short—he was not fooled by the trick.

On the surface, it appears that Ranran was kidnapped by a woman and cried for help, but was accidentally discovered by the woman. The woman then used Ranran's life to blackmail him into going to the old town, a dark and rainy night, in a place similar to where the bodies of the four victims in the Throat Cutting Case were found.

The other person practically stated bluntly, "I'm the murderer of the Throat Cutting Case, and you're my next target. Come on, come save Ranran, or the girl you like will die!"

But Zhang Yu saw something even higher up.

Ranran has been in cahoots with the woman from beginning to end. Now, the woman is using Ranran to lure him into a trap, which probably has Ranran's consent.

He came not to save Ranran's life, but simply to find out why Ranran had aided and abetted evil, and what Ranran had gone through to choose to live in the shadows.

Zhang Yu wanted to know the truth, the whole truth.

They were getting closer and closer to the location. Finally, at 7:53, Zhang Yu arrived in front of a residential house that had been partially demolished in the ruins.

The second floor of the residential building was missing a wall, and the deep blackness inside could be clearly seen, like a black hole about to devour it, leaving not even a bone behind.

In the deep darkness, he finally saw Ranran as he had hoped.

Ranran was wearing a casual outfit of indistinguishable colors, her hair was down, and she had no makeup on. She wasn't particularly beautiful, but she had a very superior aura.

Holding a flashlight, she stood leisurely on the broken wall. The rain made her figure, hidden in the shadows, appear hazy and unreal. Only the light pierced through the illusion and shone on Zhang Yu, who was holding an umbrella.

Zhang Yu's breath hitched. He didn't speak, but shone his flashlight back at Zhang Yu.

Ranran seemed completely unsurprised by his actions; her eyes, which he remembered as always sparkling with vitality, were now filled with indifference.

As expected, she had not been kidnapped at all.

The two looked at each other in silence. Ranran lowered her head, while Zhang Yu looked up, gazing at each other quietly.

A few seconds later, Ranran turned around first, leaving Zhang Yu with only her back view. A few seconds later, her back view also disappeared.

Zhang Yu pursed his lips. Hearing a noise beside him, he turned his head and saw that the strange woman was already approaching in the rain.

"You love her more than I thought." The woman spoke, not coldly, but not as lively as in the text message, and in the same strange tone that had tormented Zhang Yu for days.

Zhang Yu looked down at the woman's hand, and sure enough, she was holding something.

It's a knife, isn't it? A knife used to slit throats.

He couldn't help but take a step back, then stopped.

Things have come to this point, and he has no reason to regret it. "Wait, before you kill me, I have a request."

"Hmm?" The woman tilted her head.

"I want to talk to Ranran... I want to ask her why she chose this path!" Zhang Yu's voice trembled.

However, the woman did not agree to his request.

He only saw the woman raise her hand, and then everything went black before his eyes, and he knew nothing more.

Inside the office, Yu Jiaming was stopped by Yu Xing.

"If Han Zhiyong isn't the murderer, then who is?" Yu Jiaming wiped his face with his hand. After hearing Yu Xing's words, he knew he had been hasty and could only hold his breath and search his mind for other possibilities.

"If Han Zhiyong wasn't the murderer in the Throat Cutting Case, then he killed Han Xinyi because of a conflict Liu Ping Han Xinyi. But if that's the case, it's a separate incident, another case of someone trying to shift the blame onto the Throat Cutting Case murderer, and has nothing to do with the Throat Cutting Case!"

He spoke these words aloud, and as he spoke, Yu Jiaming adjusted his mindset, forcing himself to calm down.

This moment of calm reminded Yu Xing of Yu Jiaming, whose life seemed to be unfolding exactly as expected.

He looked at Yu Xing, who was leaning against the doorframe, and said in a deep voice, "But there's still a possibility that Han Zhiyong is the murderer. Why do you sound so certain? You—you already have an idea, don't you... Although it's a bit embarrassing that I, a criminal investigator, don't know as much as you do, now is not the time for me to be coy. Yu Xing, I'm begging you now, tell me all your speculations."

Yu Xing really wanted to applaud Yu Jiaming's decisiveness.

This kind of decisiveness in setting aside pride is not something everyone possesses, especially someone who has become the captain of the Criminal Investigation Detachment at such a young age. It would be impossible for him to lack arrogance and confidence.

The higher one's position, the more accustomed one becomes to flattery, and the less likely one is to humble oneself to ask others for favors.

Yu Jiaming, having received no reply from Yu Xing, added, "Furthermore, I promise you, after the case is closed, I will absolutely not investigate you."

"Regardless of your reasons for participating in the investigation, the methods you used to obtain this information, or the source of the information, I will not pursue it. Yu Xing, I mean what I say. Please help me."

Having heard what she wanted to hear, Yu Xing finally stood up straight.

He smiled and said, "Okay."

"I can't say for sure who the murderer is." Yu Xing took out her phone and tapped a few times, then smiled Yu Jiaming's expectant gaze. "However, I should be able to provide you with the identity of the next victim."

"What? You know who the next victim is!?" Although he was somewhat prepared, Yu Jiaming was still shocked by Yu Xing's astonishing efficiency. However, the matter was urgent, so he immediately straightened his face and became serious. "Okay, I won't ask how you know. Tell me who the next one is."

Yu Xing turned her phone over so the screen faced Yu Jiaming, and the time displayed was 7:22.

His long, slender fingers pointed to a location on the map. "Look, follow this location. This librarian named Zhang Yu should be the killer's next target."

Yu Jiaming leaned closer to take a look and found that it was actually a real-time location, indicating that Zhang Yu's little red dot was in the city and gradually shifting towards the old city area.

Yu Jiaming: "..."Wait, the old town?

The Criminal Investigation Detachment leader rushed out of his office to issue orders, and at the same time called Gao Chang'an to have his deputy drive there to stop the crime.

Yu Xing followed at a leisurely pace, and at the same time, he clicked to return to the previous screen, thus revealing the name of the person who sent Zhang Yu's location to him.

Z.

Hacker Zhu Yan.

7:40.

Yu Xing sat in the back seat of the police car, with Gao Chang'an driving in the front and Yu Jiaming in Yu Jiaming passenger seat.

The trees outside the window kept receding, and the torrential rain pounded against the car glass, leaving behind one broken droplet after another, which gradually merged into one, making it impossible to distinguish one drop from another.

The lights that had been shining brightly gradually faded and receded into the distance. The road from the city center to the suburbs was a bit long and a bit boring.

His eyes were half-closed, and he listened wearily to the reports that had been coming from Yu Jiaming's phone since earlier.

"Captain Yu, Han Zhiyong has gone missing!"

"He should be home today. We specifically checked the security footage to confirm that he didn't go out, but when we arrived at his house, no one was home!"

"Captain Yu, I don't think he necessarily realized our intention to arrest him and fled out of fear of punishment. After all, we only just learned the inside story. It's very possible that he's already preparing to commit the crime and has already headed to the scene!"

One voice after another, some urgent, some calm, came through. Yu Jiaming replying to each one, Yu Jiaming glanced at the navigation app in front of Gao Chang'an, then turned to Yu Xing and said, "You're right. Zhang Yu's location is moving very quickly towards the old city area. He's clearly driving. Like the victims in the previous cases, we can't find any connection between him and the old city area."

Gao Chang'an interjected, "... Won't it be too late?"

"No, it won't." Yu Xing rested her head on the back of the seat, radiating a reassuring aura.

He actually knew who the murderer was, but in order to avoid being labeled by the police as "this kid has been using us from the beginning" so quickly, he planned to let Yu Jiaming see the murderer's face himself.