I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 58: Chapter 56: Getting a Bonus

”What kind of nonsense is that!” Cai Qinglian flared up the moment she heard the phrase ”selling their daughter.” ”What do you mean, selling our daughter? You’re this old and still not married. Isn’t it right for us, as your parents, to worry about you settling down?”

Su Miaoyi actually laughed at her words. ”You don’t care whether I live or die... Oh, wait, that’s not right. You’d love for me to just die. And now you’re claiming to be worried about my marriage? Don’t you think you sound ridiculous?”

Ji Sheng stood by, his face dark.

Su Miaoyi looked at them. ”I make my own decisions about my life; I don’t need your concern. From the moment I was born, I was a curse upon the Ji Family. Let’s not have any contact from now on. That way, when something bad happens to the family, you won’t be able to blame me for jinxing you.”

With that, she turned and walked into the residential complex.

Cai Qinglian tried to grab her but was held back by Ji Sheng.

Su Miaoyi used the facial recognition scanner to enter the complex.

Cai Qinglian turned to Ji Sheng. ”Why didn’t you let me stop her? They specifically asked to see *her*.”

”And what good would stopping her have done?” Ji Sheng shot her a look. ”Were you going to start a fight with her right here? Causing a scene, grabbing and pulling at each other in public—aren’t you embarrassed?”

Cai Qinglian fell silent.

Ji Sheng turned and got back in the car, and Cai Qinglian followed.

Seeing that Ji Sheng had gotten in but wasn’t starting the car, she asked, ”What is it? Aren’t we leaving?”

Ji Sheng took a deep breath, trying to restrain himself, but he finally snapped. ”What did I tell you on the way here? No conflicts. Talk to her properly. Why can’t you remember anything I say?”

Cai Qinglian stared at him. ”What do you mean I wasn’t talking properly? How much more proper did you want me to be? Did you expect me to get on my knees and beg her?”

”Did a single pleasant word come out of your mouth?” Ji Sheng demanded. ”Is this how you speak to Jia Bao at home?”

”Is she Jia Bao? How could she possibly compare to Jia Bao?” Cai Qinglian yelled.

Ji Sheng sighed. ”How can I get you to understand the Ji Family’s situation? Do you have any idea how desperately we need this capital injection? I’ve spent the last few months begging everyone I know, and this is the only family willing to lend us a hand. The Ji Family’s entire future is riding on this. Do you get it?”

Cai Qinglian frowned.

Ji Sheng said, ”They have just one condition: they want to meet Su Miaoyi.”

”I just don’t get it. Why do they want to see her? Why her, of all people?” Cai Qinglian’s voice was laced with resentment.

Ji Sheng sighed again. ”The Jiang family’s eldest son had a fever when he was young that damaged his brain. For years, no one has been willing to marry into their family. The Jiangs probably want to find a companion for him, someone who can also take care of him.”

Hearing this, Cai Qinglian fell silent.

Ji Sheng’s brow furrowed again. ”Can’t you even pretend for a moment? Let me be blunt. If we can’t secure this connection with the Jiang family, the Ji Family is going to go into a steep decline. All your handbags, your jewelry, your clothes, all the things for your son... not only will you be unable to buy new ones, you’ll have to sell everything you own to plug the holes in the company’s finances. When that happens, do you really think you’ll still be Mrs. Ji?”

”How did things get this bad?” Cai Qinglian was stunned.

”Why are you yelling?” Ji Sheng shot her a look. ”Your brother and your nephew both went to prison. The Cais have fallen, and their company is riddled with problems. The Ji Family and the Cais are intertwined. Did you think we’d escape unscathed?”

Cai Qinglian scowled. ”This is all Su Miaoyi’s fault.”

”Right now, our only hope rests on her,” Ji Sheng said. ”So you are going to put on an act for me, even if you have to force it.”

Cai Qinglian glanced at him, fuming inwardly, but in the end, she said nothing.

...

Su Miaoyi returned to her apartment.

She stood before her full-length mirror, staring at her hair.

After a moment, she started ruffling her hair, trying to style it into something that looked good.

But no matter how she messed with it, it just looked awful.

’So ugly.’

The two words suddenly popped into Su Miaoyi’s head.

Her eyes flew wide. ”Who are you calling ugly? I have a face that could topple kingdoms.”

Silence reigned, both around her and inside her head.

”Haven’t you ever heard the saying, *’A fair lady in the north, whose beauty topples kingdoms and cities’*?” Su Miaoyi said, looking at her own face with a smile. ”They were talking about me.”

After she said this, her gaze fell back to her hair. A few seconds later, she clapped a hand over her mouth.

’It was so ugly I almost gagged.’

’So pathetic.’ The voice in her head added two more words.

Su Miaoyi instantly bristled, planting her hands on her hips. ”I can let it slide when you call me ugly—that’s a fact, so I won’t argue. But I draw the line at you making things up! How am I pathetic?!”

’And what are you going to do about it?’ the voice in her head asked.

”I...!” Su Miaoyi thought for a moment and realized there wasn’t actually anything she could do to the voice.

The voice in her head snorted. ’You let him cut your hair like this and you still paid him. Pathetic.’

Su Miaoyi stared at her reflection, then paused. ”Well, why didn’t you say something when I was paying? You’re pathetic, too.”

The voice in her head went silent.

”Go on, why’d you stop talking? Keep going,” Su Miaoyi said, looking at her reflection with a smug expression.

Then, her right hand suddenly shot up against her will and flicked her on the forehead.

”Ow! How dare you!” Su Miaoyi cried out, clutching the spot where she had just flicked herself.

’Fix your own hair.’ After saying this, the voice in her head fell silent.

Su Miaoyi grabbed a pair of scissors, sat cross-legged on the floor, and looked up tutorials on her phone before starting to fix her own hair.

...

「Three days later.」

Su Miaoyi met with Zhuang Yanzheng. He had just finished a long stint of work and was on his way home to finally get some sleep, stopping to see her on the way.

Su Miaoyi had gotten a call from him saying he had something for her, so she went to wait outside her complex.

Zhuang Yanzheng’s car was parked outside.

She got right into the car. ”What’s up?”

Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at her hair. ”You cut your hair? It’s pretty sharp.”

Su Miaoyi nodded, pleased with the compliment.

She had trimmed it herself. Though it was a little shorter, it still had the shape of a mullet, and now it looked even sharper.

Zhuang Yanzheng handed her a few forms. ”Fill in your bank account number and sign here.”

Su Miaoyi flipped through the forms, then looked up at Zhuang Yanzheng.

”The bonus for the case you helped with has been approved,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”Once you fill this out, the money should be in your account by tomorrow or the day after.”

Su Miaoyi looked at the forms again, the corners of her mouth twitching into a smile. ”I get paid for this, too?”

Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at her and chuckled. ”Of course. We can’t have a civilian doing all that work for free.”

Su Miaoyi filled in her bank account number, signed her name, and handed the forms back to him. ”How is the case going?”

Xia Yan’s case was wrapped up quickly.

But there was still a lot to investigate in Lu Jing’s case.

”There’s no new progress. We investigated that old residential complex in the suburbs, but didn’t find anything,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”We also ran the composite sketch through the system, but got no hits. It’s hard with just a pair of eyes, after all. We took the sketch and asked around the old complex, too, but everyone said they’d never seen him.”

Su Miaoyi nodded without a word.

’That man is far more difficult to deal with than I imagined.’

...