Wang Zhong, 42 years old, was the leader of the Serious Crime Unit 6.
Over the years, he had solved countless criminal cases.
After hearing his words, Shao Si and Gu Yanzhou had the same reaction - surprise.
Shao Si thought to himself: [Did you hear that, System?]
The System responded coyishly: [I heard it! Shao Shao, our chance has come. We're not far from our dream of living for a hundred years.]
[...That dream is still quite far away.]
Officer Wang stood up and took the files from the female officer who had brought them in earlier. The thick stack flopped onto the table with a dull thud.
As he opened them one by one, what was revealed before them was not only Yang Yinyin's investigation materials but also those of many well-known celebrities in the industry.
Each folder had a photo and name attached to it.
Shao Si looked at the photos one by one, quickly hiding the shock in his eyes. When he looked up again, he had already composed his expression, showing only a bit of confusion.
In his heart, however, a bold and absurd guess was gradually forming.
"Li Yaxin, Huo Wei, Yang Dandan..." Officer Wang sat back down, hung his badge back on his chest, and got down to business. "These are all celebrities who were previously arrested for drug use. You know them, right?"
Shao Si: "I know them."
Several of them were even caught by him and the System.
Gu Yanzhou, on the other hand, kept his eyes lowered and didn't say anything.
Officer Wang didn't beat around the bush and got straight to the point: "At first, we only vaguely felt that there were many suspicious points about them."
"For example, why did all the money they transferred go to an untraceable account overseas? Why were their confessions so consistent? Why did they all mention a supplier called K... It wasn't until Yang Yinyin's death that we connected all these suspicious points - there's a drug trafficking gang lurking in the entertainment circle. We even suspect that over the years, they've formed an extremely mature drug trafficking industry chain."
The female officer had brought them some tea earlier. Shao Si was just feeling thirsty and was about to drink when he heard the words 'drug trafficking gang'. His hand trembled in mid-air.
This was very similar to his bold guess earlier, but far more terrifying than what he had imagined.
He thought at most it was just these people collectively using drugs, one infecting two, maybe with some element of coercion involved.
Gu Yanzhou frowned slightly and inconspicuously pulled back the half of his arm closest to Shao Si to avoid getting his sleeve wet. He didn't forget to remind him: "You spilled your water."
Shao Si: "..."
Then Gu Yanzhou raised his head to ask Officer Wang: "Why do you say Yang Yinyin's death connected everything? Do you have any suspects locked down at present?"
Officer Wang nodded and answered the second question first: "We have a target."
After saying this, he took out a document from Yang Yinyin's folder and handed it to Gu Yanzhou.
Shao Si leaned over to look while wiping the table, his hand almost resting on Gu Yanzhou's arm.
Gu Yanzhou sensed the suddenly shortened distance between them, and his hand holding the document instantly stiffened.
Shao Si was looking intently, several strands of his bangs sliding down to cover the corner of his eye, which was a bit irritating, but he didn't bother with it.
The name and face on the document seemed somewhat familiar to him.
Crew cut, square face, looking honest and kind. Not very large eyes, with a mole on the cheek.
A normal person would recognize at a glance that this was the hot topic in various sectors of the entertainment industry recently -
Yang Yinyin's manager, Lu Jiahui.
...But Shao Si, with his face blindness, had completely forgotten.
"Who is he?" Shao Si squinted, staring at the small 4-inch photo repeatedly. He was slightly nearsighted, so he habitually squinted when looking at things carefully: "He looks familiar."
Just then, Officer Wang had to go out to take a phone call, indicating for them to sit and wait for him for a while, so only he and Gu Yanzhou were left in the interrogation room.
Gu Yanzhou put down the document and turned his head to look at him. From his angle, he could see half of Shao Si's profile.
His eyelashes were very long and slightly curled, and his eyes were cold and clear, looking particularly lazy when squinting.
"Lu Jiahui," Gu Yanzhou withdrew his gaze, stretched out his finger and pointed to the name column for him to see, "Born in 1982, a local from Longyan City."
Shao Si had a sudden realization, though it wasn't clear if he really remembered or was just pretending: "Oh, him."
With Officer Wang gone, the two didn't have much else to say to each other.
Gu Yanzhou continued to flip through the case files, while Shao Si couldn't be bothered to look at such things.
He propped his head up with his arm, glanced around the interrogation room a few times, and finally considered lying down to take a nap out of boredom.
[What are you sleeping for? Get up and keep working, for our dream!] The System had wanted to speak up for a while but was afraid of disturbing them. [Who's that man beside you?]
Shao Si closed his eyes: [You don't even recognize the big movie star?]
[...Big movie star? Bigger than you?]
[Several levels above me, his fee is three times mine, what do you think?]
[That is quite big... So expensive, who can afford him?]
The System wasn't interested in these levels between people, it was more concerned about another matter: [This handsome big movie star beside you, he has some connection to Yang Yinyin's fate, I can feel it.]
Shao Si: [Can I trust your feeling?]
[...My feelings have always been very accurate.]
Shao Si recalled how the System was always busy but rarely able to be useful, and couldn't help but ask sincerely: [I've wanted to ask you for a long time, why do you always have this kind of blind confidence?]
[...] The System struggled for a while before coming up with a line it must have learned from somewhere, [How annoying, I'm not talking to you anymore.]
[Just ask him, asking won't kill you. If he's been called by the police to assist in the investigation, there's a ninety-nine percent chance he has some unclear relationship with Yang Yinyin, right? Don't you think that's logical?]
So Shao Si had no choice but to open his eyes.
He first coughed lightly, then leaned over again, trying to make conversation: "Senior Gu... are you, are you familiar with Lu Jiahui?"
Gu Yanzhou turned a page of the document without changing his expression: "Not familiar."
Seeing him like this, Shao Si found it hard to imagine that he was the 'central air conditioning' warm guy that Li Guangzong always talked about.
Where was he warm? Were they blind?
Shao Si was about to ask further when Officer Wang finished his call and pushed the door open again.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, let's continue," Officer Wang sat down, took a sip of water, and said seriously, "We were talking about..."
"The suspect target," Gu Yanzhou closed the file, tapping his finger on the cover twice, "So Yang Yinyin successfully led to Lu Jiahui's connection, which allowed you to link everything together?"
Officer Wang: "Yes, not only did she call you before she died, but before calling you, she had a two-minute phone call with Lu Jiahui. This detail aroused our suspicion."
...
Oh.
Shao Si silently repeated in his heart, before Yang Yinyin died... she had called Gu Yanzhou.
He realized halfway through repeating that this sentence contained too much information, so much that it made him a bit jealous.
Why? When he was filming "The Village Widow" back then, he sent flowers and snacks to Yang Yinyin every day, gave her chicken soup for the soul, and actively cared for her. Didn't that leave any impression on her?
Later, Officer Wang briefly said a few more things, mainly expressing willingness to cooperate, with specific matters to be discussed in detail after they confirmed their strategic plan.
Then he and Gu Yanzhou each signed a confidentiality agreement.
Shao Si didn't pay much attention to these steps, his focus was entirely on the phone call between Yang Yinyin and Gu Yanzhou.
—The last phone call before death.
They stayed in the interrogation room for about half an hour. When they came out, Chen Yang and Li Guangzong couldn't sit still and stood up to greet them.
Chen Yang: "Is everything okay?"
Li Guangzong: "Dad, you scared me to death, you're not going to jail, are you?"
Shao Si dodged to the side, causing Li Guangzong to miss: "...What nonsense are you talking about, can you not embarrass me in public?"
The dynamic between this artist and manager always looked like a monkey show.
Chen Yang and Gu Yanzhou's side was the normal scene.
"We'll go grab a meal later, and there's a Zia magazine cover photoshoot in the afternoon," said Chen Yang. He was always meticulous and serious, and as he spoke, he smoothed out the creases in Gu Yanzhou's clothes.
As the two were about to reach the emergency exit door, Shao Si suddenly called out from behind, "Senior Gu."
Gu Yanzhou's footsteps halted.
Turning around, he saw Shao Si standing about three steps away, waving his phone at him. When Shao Si smiled, a dimple flashed briefly, but even while smiling, his expression still carried traces of weariness from not getting enough sleep. "I've added you on WeChat. Remember to reply to me... This is the right account, right? You gave me your business card before."