Chapter 141: Staying by Her Side

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

In the late evening, the light broke through the dark clouds indifferently and basked quietly on the river bank.

Xiang Wan’s face was being reflected on the waters as though she was a mystic who had opened a magic box. She was as though muttering to herself, immersed in her own world although she was talking to Bai Muchuan.

“Too similar! But why is she… why is she in Jin City?”

Bai Muchuan looked serious and his hands that were holding onto Xiang Wan’s shoulders slightly tightened.

“What is that?”

Who… Who is that…

Xiang Wan’s heart missed a beat.

She did not reply immediately but closed her eyes. The face in the photos and the face in her memories merged together repeatedly, comparing against them…

“I can’t confirm… I don’t dare to… Why is it her…”

As though she had thought of something terrifying, Xiang Wan pressed on her temples hard and pursed her lips lightly. There was a look of suppressed fear.

“Captain Bai—”

The next moment she opened her mouth, she noticed that her voice was hoarse and weak. Bai Muchuan detected her abnormality and looked at her coldly. “Who exactly is she?”

Xiang Wan gasped. “This matter is quite complicated; I need to tell you about this privately…”

“Alright!” Bai Muchuan took a glance at Xie Wanwan who was beside them. “You can go back first. Don’t tell anyone about the incident today. If there’s anything we need your help, I’ll inform you again.”

Xie Wanwan: “…”

The business tone was just like Bai Muchuan.

So, she had come all the way here just to see some photos and had become someone who hindered them from talking privately?

“Tch, tch!” Xie Wanwan crossed her arms with a teasing look in her eyes. She sounded helpless and a little grieved. “Buddy, how could you do this to me? It hurts my heart! Do you know how much I earn by appearing in an event? I did not get a single cent by coming here to help you. In the end, you want me to go just like this so you could whisper some sweet nothings? Do you still have compassion? Tch, gals before pals!”

“It’s not like this!” Xiang Wan was, after all, not familiar to her and was certainly not familiar enough to joke around. She was unable to tell if Xie Wanwan had meant it or just teasing them. She immediately apologized and tried to explain to her. “Miss Xie, it’s not some sweet talk. It’s just that the matter is connected to the case… So, I’m sorry about it!”

Bai Muchuan took a glance at her. “You silly girl, she’s just teasing you and you took it seriously? Why bother to explain so much to her? Just let her scram and that’s it!”

Xiang Wan: “…”

He was always saying she was silly!

How would she know how they usually behaved around each other?

She did not want to be accused of ruining the friendship of anyone for a good cause.

Xie Wanwan laughed coldly and glared at Bai Muchuan where he raised his brow and did not seem to mind at all. Whereas Xiang Wan was so serious as though she was worried about offending the entire universe–Xie Wanwan couldn’t help breaking out in laughter.

“Alright, alright, let’s not joke around anymore. Go ahead to do your work. I need to go back and look at my scripts too. Sigh, I’ve stopped work for so many days. It’s time for me to work hard, earn more money and keep a cute dog.”

After saying this, she gave Bai Muchuan a fierce glare.

“Although I can earn a lot of money every time I appear in an event, I am also a good citizen. So, detective, you can inform me if there’s anything I can help. However, if you need me to become a witness… It’s best not to involve me as I might be made to carry the blame for bullying Ye Lun and get hated by everyone on the internet!”

“Hm.” Bai Muchuan nodded his head.

“Don’t worry, I’ll let you be hated by everyone on the internet. It’s not the first time anyway and I believe you can take it!”

“Scram!”

After howling that at Bai Muchuan, Xie Wanwan quickly put on her mask and walked away.

Xiang Wan saw Xie Wanwan walking toward her female assistant waiting outside the cordoned area. “I didn’t know she is so dashing…” She gasped in wonder.

“Hm?” Bai Muchuan sent an unhappy glare. “What are you talking about?” “…”Is he jealous over my comment?

Xiang Wan cleared her throat and asked Bai Muchuan, “About my words earlier, is she angry?”

Bai Muchuan snorted. “Of course not. Besides that incident, I’ve never seen her angry before. She’s a tough person with a strong mentality.”

Tough, huh?

Uh, the way he described her, was that really Miss Xie Wanwan who had a pure, lovely image?

Xiang Wan squinted her eyes at him, not saying a word.

Indeed, an iron-willed straight man was unable to understand a woman’s heart…

In fact, sometimes, the tougher a woman seemed, the more depressed they might be. There were plenty of people with depression that appeared cheerful. If she was really so tough, she would not have chosen suicide the last time…

“Tell me, who did you think of just now?”

Obviously, Bai Muchuan did not think much of Xie Wanwan’s matters.

He talked about work the next moment and scrutinized Xiang Wan from head to toe with doubt in his eyes.

“Earlier on when you looked at the photos, you seemed as though you’re possessed!”

“Uh,” Xiang Wan lowered her head when she responded. “I thought of someone and I suddenly felt a little… scared!”

“Hm?” Bai Muchuan narrowed his eyes. “Who did you think of?”

“Bai Muchuan, do you still remember the five readers of mine?” Xiang Wan’s expression slowly turned grim. “During the 720 case, there are five readers who are also admins in my QQ readers chat group where they have another private chat group with me. All the five of them uniformly denied having seen my plot outline where I added the cat abuse plot…”

If they were not the ones lying, then Xiang Wan must be the one who lied.

Although the 720 case had closed, that doubt was never cleared. Of course, Bai Muchuan still remembered that.

But the matter had been over for months, now that Xiang Wan brought it up again, he took a while to react to it. He opened the photos once again and looked at them.

“So you’re saying that this girl is…?”

“One of the five readers,” Xiang Wan continued for him, in a dubious tone. “The girl in the photo really looked like the reader whose ID is called ‘Cotton Candy’, especially here…”

Xiang Wan pointed to the photo on Bai Muchuan’s phone.

“Right in between her eyebrows, she had a big, black mole. It’s a very distinctive feature of her. There was a period of time where the girls loved to share their pictures in the chat group. As ‘Cotton Candy’ had such a mole, she was often being mocked and teased by the rest. They even gave her a nickname called ‘Black Mole Candy’ and made her pictures to become emoticons…”

The girl at the photo also had a black mole between her eyebrows.

Of course, having a black mole there might not be able to prove her identity but when coupled with similar looks, the possibility was much greater.

Bai Muchuan now understood why Xiang Wan looked as though she saw a ghost earlier.

He frowned and stared at the girl in the photo. “Are you still in touch with them?”

Xiang Wan pursed her lips, shook her head and sighed faintly.

“After the 720 case, we hardly talk anymore. They seemed to have stopped reading my book as well. From then onwards, I don’t see them leaving any comment in my book review and comments page anymore. Maybe they thought it was too awkward…”

No matter love or friendship, impurities could not be tolerated.

Once a crack had occurred, it was difficult to repair it.

Even though that chat group still existed in their list of QQ chats, it had become a dead chat.

Nobody talked in there. None of them typed any message in there.

Xiang Wan thought of that and looked at Bai Muchuan. She took out her mobile phone and opened Cotton Candy’s QQ profile.

Her profile picture was not her own picture but a funny cartoon girl where there was a black mole between her eyebrows. This could be counted as a chibi cartoon of herself. After Xiang Wan showed that to Bai Muchuan, she opened the chat records of that “dead” chat group and searched for a while before she found a photo of Cotton Candy.

“Look at this, do you think it’s really her?”

Bai Muchuan compared against the two photos in their mobile phones and his expression gradually grew cold.

“Sure looks like her!”

So that’s really the case?

Xiang Wan’s heart was as though sank to the bottom of a valley.

In that private chat group for her admins, Er Niu was already jailed to atone for her sins. What would it mean if Cotton Candy was now dead?

Was she the only one who got targeted or her chat group was being targeted by that person?

Xiang Wan felt her back numb and chilly. Her nerves were tense and she felt like acting all crazy and shout hysterically.

“Why is it her? Why did she come to Jin City?… Bai Muchuan, who’s the one doing all these to them? D*rn! I really wanted to know who that person is! I think I’m about to go crazy!”

She found herself unable to control her emotions.

Bai Muchuan noticed that she was now pale like a ghost and seemed a little out of control. He patted her back to get her to calm down a little. Then he led her out of the cordoned area and helped her inside the car which he had parked outside.

“Stay here and wait for me…”

He was about to close the door when Xiang Wan suddenly leaned forward and grabbed his hand.

“Bai Muchuan…”

Bai Muchuan’s expression under the reflected light was solemn and heavy. “What’s on your mind again?”

“No!” Xiang Wan gulped and said softly, “I’m scared!”

By this time, the sky gradually darkened.

The traditional looking lanterns by the street were lit up. However, the reflection of the lights on the surface of the water seemed to suddenly transform into humanoid monsters–her heart could not stop pounding loudly at her ear. She did not dare to stay inside the car alone…

Bai Muchuan lowered his head and gazed at the pale hand that was holding on to him tightly.

“Don’t be afraid! I’m here!” He decided to stay inside the car and patted her hands. “I’m right here.”

After that, he quickly picked up the phone and instructed the intelligence team to dig out the information of the five female readers as well as to contact them. Immediately, he called up Tang Yuanchu to ask about the progress of interrogation with Ye Lun. After briefing him several key points to note, he quickly made another call to the Municipal Bureau to report the progress…

Although they were sitting inside a car, it felt as though they were in the office.

Xiang Wan looked at his serious side profile and dared not interrupt, even though there were a few instances that she opened her mouth, but ultimately did not say a word.

Finally, after he hung up a call, she cleared her throat and finally found her voice.

“You better go get busy, don’t worry about me.”

“Oh, you’re not afraid now?” Bai Muchuan kept his phone and looked at her, wearing a

half-smile and hugged her shoulders with an arm. “Your face is still very pale. I don’t believe that you’re not scared.”

“…”

Xiang Wan pressed her lips together and forced a smile after a short pause. “I’m such a coward, right?”

Bai Muchuan chuckled in a low tone and sighed. He patted her head as though he was patting a pet dog. “Silly girl! If you’re brave, then you won’t need me!”

“…”

Xiang Wan kept quiet and ran her fingers through her hair in an attempt to comb it neatly. She felt her hair had been messed up like a chicken nest and felt uncomfortable.

“In actual fact,” smiled Bai Muchuan who helped her to smoothen her hair, “I know that you’re not entirely filled with fear… but shock instead! After all, this matter is too much of a blow to you!”

A reader was in jail. Another reader was dead.

Moreover, the cases that happened in Jin City somehow was a little related to her…

No matter how strong a person was, there would be somewhere in their heart which was soft. Even a man who encountered these might have lost control of his emotions, let alone Xiang Wan, who was a woman after all.

“I don’t know.” She sounded a little melancholic. “If the deceased is really Cotton Candy, I really can’t imagine how many nightmares I would have every night… No, no, no, I hope it’s not her, I wish that it’s purely someone else who resembled her!”

She sank into the chair with her head hanging low like a pitiful little kitten, murmuring to herself.

Bai Muchuan gazed at her affectionately. He slowly extended his arms and gave her a deep hug.

Time flowed quietly by. It was quiet inside the car.

Neither of them spoke, as if enjoying a rare moment of leisure and silence. They were also like two people snuggling together for warmth under the same horrible experience, seeking solace to comfort their souls.

“I’m fine now!”

A good while later, Xiang Wan lifted her head and smiled. “Bai Muchuan, I’ve been cured by you. Let’s get on to work?”

Bai Muchuan studied her fair face where he could tell she was pretending to be strong. He wanted to hug her again but ultimately he could not bear to break the brave front she had tried so hard to build. So he smiled and brushed the tip of her nose.

“What a tough simpleton you are!”

“…”

The occasional bright and dim light reflection in the car shone on his well-defined face. Xiang Wan felt her heart warm just by looking at Bai Muchuan like this.

She took a deep breath and exhaled deeply as well, as though she was really fine now.

“Detective Bai, let’s go! Let’s go and see if they found the corpse!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep