Whether the liar was Xie Liying or Wang Dong, I already had the answer in my heart. Because if Xie Liying possessed even a shred of intelligence, she wouldn't lie to us about this matter; a simple verification with someone from the company would reveal the truth. Surely, she wouldn't be that foolish.

The conclusion, then, is that Wang Dong is the liar. He lied to his wife, claiming a client meeting, yet returned home completely intoxicated, carrying the distinct scent of a strange woman's perfume. Now I could state with certainty that the person he met was highly likely a woman, and not just any ordinary woman. Wang Dong was usually meticulous about maintaining distance from female colleagues, clearly avoiding gossip. As a designer, his professional life consisted mainly of project work and client communications, so his social circle wouldn't be extensive. Meeting an "extraordinary" woman wouldn't be an easy feat.

"Can you lend me the client list for Wang Dong's company?" I asked Xiao Cuo over the phone, hailing a taxi simultaneously.

"No, I asked them about the client data before, but the person in charge insisted it was their industry secret and that they needed to be responsible to their clients. They flatly refused to let us see the list, saying it required official clearance," Xiao Cuo replied quite earnestly.

"Damn it, where am I supposed to get official clearance from?" I couldn't help but blurt out a curse. This special investigation unit wasn't exactly official anyway; 'official criticism' would be more fitting.

"Let's go back to the precinct first," I said, hanging up abruptly and dialing another number.

"Oh, Brother Lei, I finally got your call! I've already slept through two naps," Gao Jianning's high-pitched voice boomed through the receiver. He really sounded like he wanted to shatter my eardrums.

"Where are you right now?" I asked seriously, having no patience for his usual nonsense.

"At the precinct, where else would I be? I'm not like you, you have a beauty for company. Maybe you even used some kind of charm spell to trick Sister Jinxuan into a hotel room," Gao Jianning never bothered censoring himself.

"What rubbish are you spouting!" I roared into the phone, glancing over at Lan Jinxuan, whose face was now bright red. With Gao Jianning's volume, she had probably heard everything.

"Where are you? Why is there someone laughing next to you?" Gao Jianning asked from the other end. "And it's a creepy sort of laugh."

"Nonsense, there's no one laughing here. I'm in a taxi," I snapped back.

"Impossible! I clearly heard a woman laughing, right next to you! Still trying to fool me," Gao Jianning chuckled, assuming I was joking.

I turned to look at Lan Jinxuan. She had already put on her headphones and closed her eyes, listening to music. At that moment, my expression froze instantly.

"No one is really laughing," my voice was somewhat subdued. I couldn't help looking back at the rear windshield, only seeing some advertisements, but I felt an overwhelming sense that someone was lurking behind me.

Sensing the atmosphere had shifted, Gao Jianning changed the subject: "Alright, alright, what favor do you need from me this time?"

Damn that kid Gao Jianning, acting like he owned the place.

"Hacking into Wang Dong's company computer to steal client data—that shouldn't be too difficult, right?" I rolled down the window to breathe in the fresh air, finally letting out a small sigh of relief.

"Piece of cake. Just wait, I'll have it done in ten minutes!" Gao Jianning sounded quite confident.

"Okay, I should arrive at the precinct in about thirty minutes. By then, I want you to organize all the female client data, sorted chronologically. And I want the private details for every female client—including what brand of perfume they use and what brand of lingerie they wear. I want it the moment I get back! If it's not done properly, don't blame me for not showing mercy," I said, trying to sound threatening, enjoying the smugness that reached him over the line.

"You're ruthless!" That was all he managed before hanging up.

Right. If I wasn't firm with him, that kid would be walking all over me!

I couldn't help glancing at Lan Jinxuan again. She was still listening to music, her expression completely normal. Yet, I myself was growing increasingly uneasy, reaching up to touch the top of my head.

It was past five in the afternoon when I got back to the station. Zhang Jiewei and Xiao Cuo were already there. Their failure to secure the client data was exactly what I expected. Now, the only hope rested on that kid Gao Jianning. Thankfully, he was generally reliable and didn't disappoint me this time.

"Everything's here. You can dig through it yourself," Gao Jianning tossed me a stack of freshly printed documents.

I took the files and flipped through them quickly. Fortunately, there wasn't an overwhelming amount; I should be able to sort through it all today. I hoped to find some thread of a clue here. This case was already tenuous; this was just the first potential breakthrough. Looking at the piles of data made my head ache again.

"Brother Lei, you don't actually need to search through everything. There’s really only one client Wang Dong has been interacting with frequently lately. He’s been working on a project recently for a woman named Mu Anmian. Check the files, you'll see. Am I being a good friend or what?" Gao Jianning was beaming, suddenly acting as if he’d completely made up with me.

"Why are you suddenly sucking up to me? Don't you know my sexual orientation has always been perfectly normal?" I shot him a look before lowering my head to search for Mu Anmian’s file.

I didn't even need to look to know that Gao Jianning's face must have been twitching uncontrollably, and I could hear Lan Jinxuan's suppressed giggles—it was quite a treat.

It was getting late. We all went out for dinner that evening. Elder Jiang had naturally slipped away long before and didn't join us. The case was the main topic of discussion, but we still reached no definitive conclusion.

Late at night, I returned to my rented apartment in Lixin. A trip to the [censored, implied rest/sleep]—this life was indeed satisfying. However, as I lay down, I felt something in my clothes, only then remembering that I had taken Mu Anmian's file out of the station when I left earlier.

Mu Anmian. I needed to meet her tomorrow.

"Handsome, answer the phone! Handsome, answer the phone!"

The next morning, I was jolted awake by that damn phone ringing. Fumbling blindly, I reached out everywhere for my phone and finally managed to connect the call.

"Can a person even live with calls this early in the morning!" I mumbled with my eyes closed, not caring if it was the Heavenly Emperor on the other end.

"Senior Brother, something terrible has happened!" Lan Jinxuan's urgent voice came through.

"What is it? Why the rush?" Right now, nothing could be more urgent to me than getting another hour of sleep.

"Director Jiang just called. He said Wang Dong escaped from the morgue last night and was spotted setting himself on fire outside!" Lan Jinxuan’s voice was laced with an inexplicable tremor.

"What?" I shot upright in bed, swallowing hard. "Explain that clearly. Isn't Wang Dong already dead? How could he self-immolate?"

"I can't explain it clearly! I just got the notice from Director Jiang. He told me to call you and tell you to get to the precinct immediately!" Lan Jinxuan sounded extremely rushed, not like she was joking.

"Okay, see you at the precinct." I hung up, quickly threw on my clothes, ready to leave, skipping washing up entirely.

I was uneasy the entire way. Wang Dong, even dead, was pulling a zombie trick by setting himself ablaze—what was he trying to pull? I had no idea where to hail a cab so early, but thankfully, the buses had already started running; otherwise, I truly wouldn't have known how to get there.

The office door wasn't locked. Upon entering, I saw Lan Jinxuan and Gao Jianning huddled in a corner, staring at the computer screen, both looking grim.

"Hey! What's going on?" I tapped Lan Jinxuan on the shoulder.

"Ah!" Lan Jinxuan jumped violently, only realizing it was me when she saw who was there, gasping for breath. "You scared me half to death! Why do you walk so quietly, like a ghost?"

Just as I was about to speak, I saw Gao Jianning slowly lift his head, staring at Lan Jinxuan with a face ashen with rage. Seeing Gao Jianning’s expression, Lan Jinxuan immediately realized she might have uttered something taboo and quickly clapped her hands over her mouth.

"What are you two doing! Tell me clearly what happened, and be quick about it!" The confusion and shock from the journey were making me restless.

"Brother Lei, we really can't explain this one. You should see it for yourself," Gao Jianning's expression was deadly serious.

A sense of foreboding began to creep up in my own heart, but I walked over to the computer. A surveillance recording was playing—I understood that much. The time displayed on the screen was precisely 01:21:13 AM today.

"This is the surveillance footage from the outer door of the morgue," Gao Jianning explained beside me.

"Get to the point."

"Look ahead," Gao Jianning commanded, rewinding the footage to 01:18:50 AM.

The recording was now playing at double speed; time seemed to drag. I could see the colleague on duty at the guard post, though he was likely deep in conversation with the God of Dreams at that moment. Time crawled by, the air around me felt increasingly heavy, and my heart tightened painfully.

When the recording reached 01:19:28 AM, the picture changed. A dark shadow suddenly appeared in the lower-left corner of the screen, and my heart immediately seized up, feeling a chilling cold invading my spine. The shadow moved steadily toward the center of the screen, and slowly, a completely naked male body materialized. Since the camera was positioned overhead, the face was indistinct, but I knew it was just a body because, at that time and in that place, what appeared could absolutely not be a living person! The body in the footage moved toward the upper right of the screen, where the main door was located. I had visited the morgue just yesterday and had some faint memory of the layout.

My gaze remained fixed on the figure's head. As the body moved, an increasingly intense feeling of unease rose within me, as if at any moment that head would suddenly turn and smile at me. After the figure vanished from the screen, my heart rate hadn't stabilized, and the feeling of anxiety hadn't dissipated. Had he stepped out of the screen? Was he potentially right behind me now? I wanted to turn and check, but in the end, I lacked the courage.

"That's Wang Dong?" I asked, trying to sound steady, feeling the question was redundant.

"Keep watching," Gao Jianning’s usual flippancy was gone.

I kept my eyes glued to the monitor. The recording was now at 01:24:30 AM. Another figure appeared, but this one was normally dressed, causing me no immediate sense of the bizarre. The gold-rimmed glasses visible in the footage confirmed his identity for me—You Qiaolin from the Forensic Medicine department.

"You Qiaolin? Why was he still at the precinct at that hour?" That should have been his off-duty time, although it wasn't entirely strange; someone of his status often worked overtime.

"Five minutes later, You Qiaolin called the police, reporting he found a person engulfed in flames in the adjacent alley. By the time officers arrived, the fire hadn't fully extinguished," Gao Jianning added. "Since You Qiaolin was the only forensic examiner present, after the fire was put out, he examined the corpse. The body was already burned beyond recognition, so he couldn't confirm the identity immediately. It was only when he noticed the freezer storing Wang Dong's body was open and empty that he suspected the corpse belonged to Wang Dong."

"And then? Was it confirmed?" I pressed, though based on the earlier footage, the body that walked out had to be Wang Dong.

"We don't know yet. The identification results are pending until the forensics lab opens," Lan Jinxuan, who had been silent, interjected.

"Where is You Qiaolin?" He was the most critical person in this whole affair.

"Still in the Forensic Medicine office," Lan Jinxuan replied.

"Keep watching the recording. Don't miss a single detail," I told Gao Jianning, then turned to Lan Jinxuan. "Let's pay the Forensic Medicine office a visit."

Lan Jinxuan nodded and followed me out. Behind us, we heard Gao Jianning’s harsh grumbling, sounding entirely like a jilted lover. I thought the kid had finally matured, but even at a time like this, he was still concerned about the girls. I wondered if he had made any improper moves when he was alone with Lan Jinxuan previously. But what could I do? He was my cousin, after all. They say cousins are more like brothers than actual siblings, and on that point, I tended to believe it.