I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 265: Chapter 263: She’s Back!

When Su Miaoyi and the others returned to Weiyang Palace, they ran into their upstairs neighbor in the underground parking garage.

”Captain Zhuang,” the woman called out to Zhuang Yanzheng.

Zhuang Yanzheng stopped and looked at her. ”You’re out of the hospital?”

”Not yet.” The woman glanced from him to Su Miaoyi. ”He’s been doing much better the last couple of days, so I just came back to grab a change of clothes.”

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded. Just as he was about to leave, the woman approached Su Miaoyi.

Zhuang Yanzheng instinctively moved to block her.

The woman stopped and looked at Su Miaoyi. ”I’m sorry.”

Su Miaoyi looked at her.

The woman said, ”I was in such a panic that day. I... I know it wasn’t your fault, it was the kidnappers’, but I was just so frantic, and I wasn’t thinking straight, so... I said what I said. I didn’t mean it. I’m so sorry.”

”Officer Zheng said that you were severely injured while saving my son—that you were hurt all over. When I saw you that night, you were covered in blood. I never should have said what I did. And... thank you.”

Su Miaoyi looked at her for a moment, then turned and walked away without saying a word.

Shen Yanzhou followed her.

Zhuang Yanzheng stayed behind and exchanged a few words with her.

Once they were back in the apartment, Su Miaoyi immediately asked Zhuang Yanzheng for an update on the case.

Seeing them discuss the case, Shen Yanzhou returned to his own apartment.

The case had hit a dead end.

For now, all leads ended with Mia.

”Lu Xian refuses to cooperate with us. Mia said he’s leaving Jinghai overnight,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”She said that after killing Feng Ruihao that night, she and Lu Xian went their separate ways.”

”Did Lu Xian ask her to kill anyone else?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”You mean Feng Ruihao’s wife and her family?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

Su Miaoyi nodded.

”No,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”Mia said she stayed behind to kill you, and that she planned to return to Country D after she was done.”

”Has anyone checked out Apartment 1801 in Building 8 of that residential complex?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”We’ve been there,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”It’s an unsold, fully furnished model apartment. The real estate agent said some people did view the apartment around that time. I checked; it was Mia’s people.”

”Anything special about it? Why choose that location?” Su Miaoyi asked, puzzled.

’Wouldn’t it have been more convenient to act at the factory in the suburbs?’

’Such a roundabout way of doing things.’

”She said that when her client hired her, they told her the target was a formidable individual,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”They also told her to make a big scene, to create a major headache for the police.”

”It’s him,” Su Miaoyi said.

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded. ”Only that madman would think of making trouble for the police, constantly provoking them. So... they planted a bomb in that apartment.”

Su Miaoyi’s eyes flickered.

”First, she was worried she couldn’t beat you, so it was her backup plan. Second, she wanted to create a major disturbance,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”Building 8 is the most densely populated one in the complex. If that bomb had gone off, the casualties would have been catastrophic.”

”Was it remote-controlled?” Su Miaoyi asked. ”I remember at the beginning of our fight, when she raised her leg to kick me, something fell from her pocket into a flowerbed. She tried to find it—glanced over several times—but the plants were too dense. She couldn’t spot it, and she had to deal with me, so she never managed to pick it up.”

”It was remote-controlled,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”It’s been disarmed.”

”Then why didn’t she go straight to the apartment complex? Why go to the factory and that village to the east first?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”Mia said the kid wouldn’t stop crying, and it was getting on her nerves. She was coming from the eastern village anyway, so she stuffed him in a refrigerator in an empty house there,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”The family who lived there had gone to the city to babysit for their son, so the house was empty. The entrance was overgrown with weeds; it was obvious no one had been there in a while. She took the boy inside, flipped the main breaker to turn the power on, knocked him out, and threw him in the fridge.”

Su Miaoyi recalled the vision she had seen.

She had seen it from the little boy’s perspective.

’He was taken into the village first, then over a wall into a yard, and finally thrown into the refrigerator.’

”As for the factory... she said she just wanted to lead you on a chase. After all, with a hostage in hand, she knew you’d find her eventually, no matter how many circles she led you in,” Zhuang Yanzheng continued. ”She also mentioned that she was nearly caught while staking you out at Weiyang Palace. When you didn’t return for the next two days, she set her sights on the mother and son upstairs.”

”Luckily, you noticed the boy wasn’t upstairs and didn’t go up. Mia was watching you the whole time. When she saw you lingering downstairs instead of coming up, she knew something must have gone wrong. She figured if she missed this chance, it would be difficult to lure you out or get this close to you again, so she came right down to make her move.”

Su Miaoyi didn’t say anything.

’If I hadn’t won the fight that day, Mia would have killed me, found that remote, and pressed the button...’

After a moment of silence, she asked, ”Have you pulled the surveillance footage from the bus stop?”

While she was in the hospital, she had asked Zhuang Yanzheng to pull the footage when he got a chance.

Zhuang Yanzheng took out his phone and found the video she wanted. ”It’s strange footage. Take a look for yourself.”

Su Miaoyi watched the footage.

It was indeed very strange footage.

She was in the middle of crossing the street when she suddenly stopped.

A speeding semi-truck hurtled toward her.

It didn’t slow down at all, driving straight through the spot where she’d been standing.

But it didn’t hit her.

Instead, at the exact moment the truck sped through her position, she was suddenly standing on the sidewalk, next to the bus stop sign.

What’s more, her loose hair was now in a braid.

Su Miaoyi watched it over and over, three times in total, her eyes fixed on the timestamp.

The timestamp was running normally, and there were no skipped frames in the video.

She looked at Zhuang Yanzheng.

Zhuang Yanzheng looked back at her.

They were both silent.

”I had the tech department look at it,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”There are no signs of editing. It’s the original, unaltered footage. Nothing’s wrong with the video itself.”

Su Miaoyi looked at the footage again.

After the truck sped past the spot where she had been standing, it slowly came to a stop further down the road.

The driver got out and circled the truck, searching for something.

Bystanders also gathered around, looking.

So, judging by their reactions, she really was about to be hit. But somehow, she ended up on the sidewalk, with a different hairstyle.

Su Miaoyi stared at the footage, lost in a deepening silence... Then, her eyes suddenly fluttered. She blinked, looked around the room, and then turned to Zhuang Yanzheng. ”How did I get home? Why are you here?”

”Huh?” Zhuang Yanzheng, his mind still on the bizarre footage, didn’t immediately register her question.

Su Miaoyi stared at him, utterly bewildered. ”Am I dreaming?”

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at her bright, bewildered eyes, then suddenly gripped her shoulders, his voice loud with excitement. ”You’re back!”

Su Miaoyi flinched at the volume of his voice, a muscle in her cheek twitching. She reached out and pinched his arm.

Zhuang Yanzheng released her shoulders, hissing as he rubbed the spot she’d pinched. ”What was that for?” he said through gritted teeth. ”You’ve got a mean pinch, you know that?”

”I was checking if I was dreaming,” Su Miaoyi said.

”Why didn’t you pinch yourself?” Zhuang Yanzheng shot back, looking at her as if she were a little demon.

”You just said it yourself, didn’t you? My pinch is too mean.”

Zhuang Yanzheng: ”........”