Chapter 99: The secrets were not over.

Liwu listened, resisting the urge to let emotion cloud her focus. “Do you remember anyone clearly? A face, a voice?”

Jinling hesitated. “One of them held my hands down, it was a woman. She was disguised as a man, but I smelled fresh nail paint and some kind of sweet perfume. I could be mistaken, but I heard someone whispering to me that I deserved a lesson. They were wearing masks, I did not recognize anyone.”

Liwu’s pulse quickened. Just as she thought, it was a premeditated crime. Someone had a grudge against Jinling and they set her up.

Jinling’s eyes locked onto Liwu’s. “My whole life, nothing bad has ever happened to me. My grandmother always said that I was born with a golden bell of good luck and charm. This….” she burst into sobs.

Linlin comforted her for a while while Liwu remained silent until Jinling resolved her composure.

“Promise me that you will find him…all of them. Find them and make them pay.” Jinling hissed.

Liwu nodded, her voice steady. “I promise.”

She had to force Linlin out because her partner was ready to be Jinling’s knight in a shining armor. “What was all that about?” she asked.

Linlin shook her head. “I am not sure. I just felt this need to protect her. There is something about her eyes.”

“Maybe she is an unregistered system host.” Liwu suggested.

Linlin considered it. “In this city, that is not impossible.”

They returned to the precinct, while discussing the case and the mess the crime scene was. That mess had been carried over to their work area. Xuanji, the paperwork enthusiast was already going through the witness statements, putting similar narrations together and isolating the ones that made no sense.

He was muttering something about “one hundred blind men” because nobody had seen who assaulted Jinling.

Su Jin was scratching her head, running her nails through her hair which had been trimmed to a buzz cut. She was cataloging instruments abandoned in the square–guitars, tambourines, whistles, a broken violin, even a few masks, one of which was a creepy baby mask like the ones mentioned by some of the witnesses. “I have seen block parties go bad but this? It was a thing of nightmares.”

Liwu crouched near her, picking up the creepy baby mask. It was unsettling at first glance. The surface was smooth and pale, like porcelain stretched too thin. The bulge of the cheeks was exaggerated with too much roundness. The eyes were wide, glassy ovals, painted with a vacant shine that would never blink.

The mouth was the most disturbing feature: a tiny sly smile frozen in place. When it caught the light, it twisted into something sinister.

It was uncanny, far too large for a baby and too small for an adult.

“I can see why witnesses called it creepy.” Liwu muttered.

“If someone walked up to me wearing that thing, they would need an ambulance because I would break all their teeth.” Su Jin declared. “Why are we on this case by the way? Is it because of karaoke guy?”

The answer to her question appeared because Chief Abby came downstairs to the general investigation area with Weijun.

“Daddy pulled some strings.” Xuanji whispered.

Perhaps he was deliberately loud in his whispering because his words made it to Weijun’s ears.

Chief Abby cleared his throat. The detectives and officers working on the case looked up, all fifty two of them. “Liwu’s husband has something to say.”

Weijun stepped forward and cleared his throat just like the chief had done. “Mmm, in the spirit of honesty, I would like to inform you all that I am the city master Shen Weijun, not Weifeng. Before the wedding, there was a threat on my life and Liwu’s life, concerning the wedding. So, to fool the perpetrators, we had to play some tricks by letting the world think Weifeng and Xixi were the bride and groom. On the day of the wedding…..”

“Wait,” Linlin jumped in. “You are the city master!”

“Yes.” Weijun confirmed.

Liwu’s team turned to look at her.

“You could not have slipped this between soda and pizza when were on surveillence?” Linlin asked, obviously displeased that her partner had hidden such an important secret.

Weijun beat Liwu to it. “It was complicated.”

“How do you and your brother look the same?” Xuanji asked. “This feels like I just found out daddy has a twin. Now I have two daddies.”

Weijun lunged at Xuanji.

Su Jin guffawed.

Chief Abby cleared his throat. “Get back to work now. We don’t need some hungry reporter leaking a picture or video of this in the midst of this….” he shook his head. “I don’t even know what to call it.”

Weijun joined up with the chief. “Nobody knows what to call it, but a woman being assaulted in public with hundreds of witnesses looking on is not a good look for the city. Find the perpetrator as soon as possible and end this nightmare.”

Chief Abby felt the need to add something more and re-arrange their priorities. “This is not about the city, it is about the victim.”

“Of course,” Weijun nodded. “Getting justice for the victim is the most important. Again, as soon as possible.” He nodded at Liwu and walked off with the chief.

Liwu clapped her hands, “Back to work.”

Her teammates did not respond eagerly. Instead, they looked at her as if she had somehow grown two heads.

“Back. To. Work.” Liwu said more forcefully. “Someone set this woman up to be assaulted in public for a reason. It was not a random crime. I think it was someone close to her. We need to dig into Jinling’s life and relationships. It could be an ex-boyfriend, a jealous friend, a rejected suitor. There is something about this woman that is unnaturally alluring. She is like a butterfly that draws people to her like. She could be a system host so look into this as well. And don’t forget the necklace and dress, we need to know where they came from. Divide and conquer.”

They went back to work, gathering fragments. But it was already night and some things could only be investigated the following day.

By the time she returned home, it was midnight and exhaustion weighed on her as heavily as the memory of Jinling’s eyes. She dropped her trench coat in the chair, only to be blocked by Majesty.

The cat shrunk and hoped onto her shoulder. “We need to talk.”

Liwu yawned. “Are you having another existential crisis because you are immortal?”

“No.” Majesty’s whiskers twitched in indignation. “I found out a secret. Your husband and his people have a way to track newly awakened system hosts. Using this method, they have been stealing hosts out from under our nose and inviting them to this city. Do you know what this means?”

Before she could answer, her husband appeared, stomping into the house as if he was in a hurry. He did not even notice Liwu. He changed, came back downstairs and left.

“I bet he has gone to recruit another system host.” Majesty whispered.

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