Bi Shenghua was extremely busy, but she still managed to help Qingmu tidy up the upstairs studio. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been anywhere to put the things Hu Xing brought.
Xia Tian looked much better than the other day. She was quiet and gentle, with fair skin, like a little girl. When she saw Qingmu, she greeted him warmly and politely, "Hello, Uncle!"
Hu Xing corrected, "Don't call him 'uncle,' call him 'brother.' I'm your sister; if you call him 'uncle,' I'll be at a disadvantage!"
Xia Tian said earnestly, "But he's your teacher, I didn't call him that!"
Hu Xing pouted and frowned, not wanting to argue with a child. Looking at the pig's trotters and fruit she had brought, she said angrily, "If I had known it would lower my social standing, I would have thrown them all away on the way!"
Looking at the pristine white Xia Tian, Bi Shenghua grew increasingly fond of it. Peeling open a mango, she said, "Don't throw it away! It's such a waste! Come on, Xia Tian, have a mango."
The Boss Coal suddenly flew over, shouting, "What a pity! What a pity!", and picked up a pineapple strawberry in his mouth, eating it with relish.
Qingmu said to Xia Tian, "Call me Uncle. There's a little girl who's a bit younger than you. She initially called me 'brother,' but then she started calling me 'uncle.' I'll introduce you two sometime!"
Xia Tian said, "Okay!"
Bi Shenghua said, "Hey, Xiao Tian is still a child, don't be so clueless! Why are you introducing him to any little girls?!"
Hu Xing also said, "Exactly! They're setting a bad example for children!"
Qingmu laughed and said, "Does being a boy or a girl necessarily mean what you're thinking? Can't you adopt a younger sister or something?"
Hu Xing said, "Who's like you! Tell me, how many sisters have you taken on outside?"
Qingmu said, "My sister doesn't have one, but my apprentice will be here soon." Then, looking at the table full of "offerings," he laughed heartily, "Oh dear, should we hold a ceremony?"
Hu Xing snorted, stood up, gave a perfunctory bow, and said, "Master invites you in!"
The Crow beside it excitedly raised its head, spat out the fruit pit in its beak, and cried out, "I'm your martial uncle!" It then spread half a wing and pointed at Bi Shenghua, saying, "This is Ruhua, quickly call her 'master's wife'!"
Bi Shenghua and Hu Xing's hands swept over at the same time, Crow hurriedly flew to a higher place, with a few black feathers falling down with a thud.
When Xia Tian first met the Boss Coal, he was a little scared and asked Qingmu, "Was that the big bird you rode last time?"
Qingmu was somewhat surprised and asked with great interest, "You still remember?"
Xia Tian nodded.
Qingmu smiled at Hu Xing and said, "Your younger brother is a genius too."
Hu Xing roughly guessed what he was talking about, glanced at Xia Tian in surprise, and said, "Then why don't you take on another apprentice today?"
Xia Tian didn't understand what they were talking about; she was only focused on watching the Crow. The Crow was engrossed in eating fruit, but seemed to sense the strange looks, turned around, glanced at Xia Tian, and said, "Hey! Little friend, want to eat some together?"
Xia Tian grew bolder and became curious about the talking Crow, so she carefully peeled a fruit and tossed it to the Crow.
The Crow opened its beak to catch it, gulped it down, and said, "Good child, good child!" Then it hopped in front of Xia Tian and cawed loudly, opening its beak wide.
Xia Tian was startled at first, but then she realized the Crow was just begging for food, so she started peeling the fruit for it, one by one.
"Can you really grow bigger?" Xia Tian asked.
The Boss Coal mumbled incoherently, "Yes... of course... of course I'll grow up."
Xia Tian believed her and excitedly asked, "Can you take me flying?"
"Of course... Oh... What?" The Crow stopped eating, tilted its head, and looked at Xia Tian. "Fly? How do you fly?"
"I'll fly on you!" Xia Tian said innocently.
The Boss Coal wiped his head with his wing, as if wiping sweat, then lowered his head and calculated, "How big can I grow? Maybe as big as an eagle! Oh no, no! I don't want to become a silly eagle!"
Qingmu said, "You won't turn into an eagle. If you keep eating like this, you'll turn into a fat penguin."
"A penguin? Impossible!" The Boss Coal exclaimed excitedly, leaping from the table to a chair, then flying from the chair to the overhead light, displaying his agility. Finally, he landed on the pig's trotter on the table and stomped on it twice with his paws. "This trotter is a bit big; it'll be difficult to braise. Ruhua, remember to buy Old Chen's's sauce!"
Bi Shenghua had just peeled an Apple for Xia Tian when her hand trembled, and the fruit knife flew out of her hand.
The Boss Coal let out a "quack" and jumped onto the bookshelf. Looking at the knife handle still trembling incessantly as it was stuck in the pig's hoof, he yelled, "Murder! Murder!"
Xia Tian said, "You're not human."
The Boss Coal paused for a moment, then shouted, "Killing birds! Killing birds!"
Everyone laughed.
After chatting and joking for a while, Qingmu asked about the case.
"We've found all the girls, eleven in total. Some were completely unaware of what they were doing, while most volunteered for money," Hu Xing said regretfully. " Liang Kai died from massive bleeding after a ruptured spleen, accompanied by an acute myocardial infarction. But there's something strange..."
What's strange?
"He was beaten two days before his death, and the thugs who beat him have been caught. According to their confessions, a man named Jiang Deqian ordered the beating. However, when we went to investigate Jiang Deqian, we found that he was already dead, and the time of death was the night of the incident."
"Does this matter?" Bi Shenghua glanced at Qingmu and, seeing his nonchalant expression, knew she shouldn't have asked.
Hu Xing shook her head and said, "It seems to be purely coincidental at the moment. The forensic doctor believes there is no direct link between Liang Kai being beaten and his death, and his family has no intention of pursuing civil litigation, so this case is basically closed."
Bi Shenghua breathed a sigh of relief.
"However, the case will likely be transferred to the police force," Hu Xing said. "So you should be prepared to be summoned again."
"Why?"
"Besides Li Qian's suspected crime of organizing prostitution, which is already clear, the remaining investigation involves the prostitutes and their clients. Prostitution is a public security offense. The focus and methods of investigating public security offenses and criminal cases are different, so the security team may need to find out some other details."
"Doesn't this also involve mind control?" Qingmu said, "So this isn't a typical public order case, is it?"
Hu Xing shook her head and said, "There's no evidence!"
"Have the experts from the provincial department arrived?" Qingmu asked.
Hu Xing nodded and said, "They've arrived, but they don't believe a person can sleepwalk without knowing what they're doing. Medical examinations of the victims showed they were physically healthy, mentally sound, and hadn't taken any drugs. Therefore, the experts unanimously concluded that there was no mind control involved."
Did they check those mirrors?
"I went to check several times, and even brought biochemical testing equipment," Hu Xing said. "But the test results showed that the mirrors were just ordinary mirrors, and no hallucinogenic drugs or radioactive substances were detected."
"I see..." Qingmu thought for a moment, "Have you found any clues about Situ?"
Hu Xing shook her head and said, "No. We reviewed all the surveillance footage near the music academy Spring Moon Garden, but since most surveillance cameras only retain 7 to 26 days of records, and according to Li Qian's confession, Situ left Wuzhong two months ago, we didn't find any useful clues. We also compared the portrait drawn by the portrait expert with the public security facial recognition system, but so far we haven't found any suspicious individuals."
"Experts from the provincial department said that this person may not even exist; he's just a figment of the female students' collective lustful fantasies."