I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 191: Chapter 189: Seeing a Vision Again

”But what if you lost your life?”

Su Miaoyi’s question made Xu Jinlan freeze for a moment.

It seemed she had never considered that she could lose her life.

She stared blankly at Su Miaoyi.

Just then, an image suddenly flashed before Su Miaoyi’s eyes.

It flashed by very quickly.

She blinked, and then she saw more images and heard some sounds.

She saw Liu Namo.

She saw Liu Namo tying her hands to the leg of a bed.

She was lying on the floor beside the bed, her body aching all over. It hurt so much she felt like she would stop breathing from the pain in the next second.

Liu Namo was viciously pinching the side of her face, as if he were trying to crush the bone.

With his left hand gripping her face and a butterfly knife in his right, Liu Namo raised his arm and viciously stabbed the blade into her shoulder.

He immediately pulled it out and stabbed it into her arm.

She screamed in pain, but no matter how loud she screamed, no one came to save her.

She looked at Liu Namo’s sinister, crazed eyes and listened to his voice: ”How much money have I spent on you? Would you be where you are today without me? Without me, who would even know who you are now?”

”You actually dared to call the cops on me? To say I hit you?!”

As Liu Namo spoke, he pulled out the dagger and stabbed it into her chest once more. ”Everything you have now, I gave to you. You have to take this. Thinking of escaping? Don’t even think about it. It’s impossible.”

She looked into Liu Namo’s eyes. A few seconds later, she closed her own and plunged into darkness.

The images flashed continuously before her eyes.

Su Miaoyi raised a hand to touch her shoulder, then her chest.

Then she looked up at Xu Jinlan and Meng Yan.

’Liu Namo really has killed someone.’

’It should be relatively easy to find out who.’

’She reported it to the police, so there must be a record.’

”I... I never thought about that,” Xu Jinlan said.

”I did think about that problem. That’s why, during that time, I hoped every day that he would be the one to break up with me,” Meng Yan said. ”He had no restraint when he hit people; he didn’t even treat you like a human being. I was terrified that one day he would just beat me to death.”

Xu Jinlan looked at Meng Yan.

Meng Yan continued, ”Just when I was at my breaking point, when I wanted to kill him, he brought up the breakup. He gave me a huge sum of money and told me to be good and not to run my mouth, so I never told anyone.”

”In our line of work, reputation and public image are everything. Although that experience brought me fame, to me, it’s a disgrace. I don’t want to bring it up. I don’t want to bring it up to anyone. By not talking about it, I could numb myself and pretend that experience never happened.”

”Then why are you speaking up now?” Su Miaoyi asked. ”And why did the two of you come together?”

Meng Yan replied, ”I was at the same hotel as Xu Yu. He was taken away in the early hours of the morning. This morning, we got access to the surveillance footage, and I guessed the killer was him.”

Su Miaoyi looked at them.

”Xu Yu is a good person, a very good person. I’ve known him for many years. He’s helped me before; he saved my life on set. Without him, I would have died in that accident,” Meng Yan said. ”I hope that by speaking out about this, we can help Xu Yu in some way.”

Su Miaoyi didn’t say anything.

Xu Jinlan said, ”I just met Xu Yu; we haven’t really interacted. She was the one who called me to come here. I didn’t think too much about it. I figured Liu Namo is already dead, so apart from feeling embarrassed, there was nothing left to be afraid of. She told me that if I came here, she could get me onto another variety show.”

”You just said you were worried about it affecting your reputation and public image, that you were unwilling to bring it up,” Brother Zheng asked. ”For Xu Yu’s sake, you’re not afraid of the impact?”

”I’ve already figured out a public relations strategy,” Meng Yan said. ”If this can get Xu Yu a lighter sentence, I think it’s worth it.”

Brother Zheng fell silent for a moment. Whether this would lessen Xu Yu’s sentence... ultimately depended on the prosecutor’s office, and on whether their evidence was sufficient and valid.

”We’ll need you to describe the frequency and process of Liu Namo’s abuse.”

”Okay,” Meng Yan said.

”I can too,” Xu Jinlan said.

Brother Zheng went to get two female colleagues to take their statements.

Meanwhile, Su Miaoyi went to find someone to check for police reports.

Zhuang Yanzheng wasn’t around, so she had to find someone else.

First, she checked Jinghai. Finding nothing at the Jinghai police departments, she then checked Luo City.

She found a police report at the Luo City Branch.

The person who filed the report was named Liang Qi.

She had called the police because her boyfriend beat her.

At the time, the branch office had handled the matter as a lovers’ quarrel.

They had given Liu Namo a verbal warning.

Su Miaoyi looked up Liang Qi’s information.

She was a former online influencer who had passed away two years ago.

Her death occurred one month after she filed the police report.

The cause of death was listed as: illness.

What kind of illness wasn’t mentioned.

Liang Qi’s information... only mentioned her maternal grandparents.

Su Miaoyi then searched for news about Liang Qi online.

There was very little information available. She could only find that she had been a streamer who sang, and there were some clips from her livestreams.

There was no news of her death online.

Instead, most of the discussion was about her suddenly quitting the scene, with people speculating about what might have happened.

Su Miaoyi looked at the address for Liang Qi’s grandparents’ home. It was in Yan City.

As she was looking, she heard the sound of police sirens.

Zhuang Yanzheng and his team were back.

She glanced out the window toward the back courtyard.

Wang Youxian had been brought back...

...

Wang Youxian was put into an interrogation room.

Before Zhuang Yanzheng entered the interrogation room, Su Miaoyi told him about the vision she had suddenly seen.

Zhuang Yanzheng reviewed Liang Qi’s information, then contacted the Yan City police and asked them to check on her grandparents.

”The branch office arrested Liu Beiqing. He wanted to kidnap you?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

Su Miaoyi nodded. ”Right at the entrance to Weiyang Palace. He said I was a relative of Xu Jinlan’s and that I was interfering with your investigation to protect her.”

Zhuang Yanzheng: ”...I’ve yet to meet anyone who can interfere with my investigations.”

Su Miaoyi said, ”Who did Liu Beiqing believe? How did he end up connecting me with Xu Jinlan?”

”No idea,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”Besides the Liu Family’s manipulation, someone else is behind those online comments. We haven’t found out who yet.”

Su Miaoyi asked, ”You guys weren’t hurt, were you?”

”No,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”Wang Youxian was driving recklessly. The rear of one of the police cars got smashed in. My car... the taillight was knocked off, and the back is dented too.”

”It’s fine. Replacing a light on that old clunker of yours shouldn’t cost much,” Su Miaoyi said.

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at her. ”Where exactly do you see it being a clunker?”

Su Miaoyi read something unusual in his expression, but she still spoke her honest thoughts: ”It looks pretty beat-up all over.”

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded, said nothing, and walked toward the interrogation room.

Watching his back, Su Miaoyi felt as if he had suffered a critical blow to his spirit.

”That car of his... aside from the ordinary logo, every other part is ridiculously expensive,” Lu Zhishen suddenly said from behind her.

Su Miaoyi turned to him. ”Huh?”

”Custom-built,” Yan Cheng said.

Su Miaoyi’s eyes widened. ”But he drives it like it’s a three-wheeled rust bucket!”

Neither Yan Cheng nor Lu Zhishen said a word.

Su Miaoyi understood their silent gazes. ”Got it.” 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

’He’s rich.’

...