Chapter 254: I Like You

Translator: Azza

Editor: Conspiracing

Lin Dongxue was holding her pancakes as she walked with Chen Shi on the road next to the bureau. Chen Shi said, “Aren't you still angry with me?”

“Why should I be? We already know that it was a misunderstanding... But you used to be a hoodlum so you must have gone to those kinds of places often?” “I did, but I reformed myself long ago so you can be rest assured!” Chen Shi had no choice but to own up to such a past.

“How funny,why should I need to be rest assured?”

“I'm your team’s consultant. If I ruin my reputation, it would tarnish the team’s reputation, which would in turn tarnish yours. So on behalf of your organization, please rest assured!”

Lin Dongxue smiled, “Okay. Reformed, right? I’m reassured then!” Then she rolled the eaten pancake’s wrapping into a ball and threw it into the trash.

“There’s something sticking to your mouth.”

“Where?” Lin Dongxue desperately wiped the wrong side.

“Come here.”

Chen Shi reached out and helped her to remove the crumbs from the corner of her mouth. At that moment, the two were standing under a plane tree. There was little traffic in the street, and the morning light had just awakened the city.

Lin Dongxue looked at Chen Shi's eyes and said, “I'm upset with you. It's not because of anything... It’s just... I just think that I've known you for so long, so... That...” She couldn't find a suitable word for what she wanted to express.

“I know. You like me.”

Lin Dongxue's face suddenly turned red and her eyes looked elsewhere. “Of course. I also like Captain Peng, Xiaodong, and Old Zhang...”

“I also like Captain Peng, Xiaodong, and you.”

Although Chen Shi had said that he liked her before, she could feel that the meaning this time was different.

While no one was looking, Chen Shi held Lin Dongxue's face with both hands. Lin Dongxue couldn't help but close her eyes, but the beautiful moment she anticipated didn't happen. Chen Shi suddenly retracted his hands; Lin Dongxue looked in the direction he was looking at. Lin Qiupu had just walked out of the parking lot, saw the two of them standing together and ran over.

Lin Qiupu saw that Lin Dongxue's face was flushed to her ears and asked Chen Shi, “Are you two arguing?”

“No!” Lin Dongxue blushed even more.

“You... Come here with me!” Lin Qiupu dragged Chen Shi aside, and then put up his fists as they talked for quite some time.

When Chen Shi returned, Lin Dongxue asked, “What did my brother say to you?”

“Basically, he told me not to bully you.”

“You think you can bully me? If you dare to bully me, I will hit you!” Lin Dongxue waved her fist around.

“Oh, have mercy!”

“Don't you run away!”

Lin Dongxue chased Chen Shi all the way back to the gate of the bureau before turning serious again.

Lin Qiupu, who hadn’t left but was hiding in a small bush, watched in surprise. He said to himself, “No? Really? They’ve made up with each other?”

That day, they continued to investigate Yuhua Company. Everyone moved all the written materials that they could find into a conference room. During this time, Peng Sijue called Chen Shi to the forensics department and said, “I have read the materials sent by the three police stations. In addition to the accidental falls, I also noticed that the three all died at around 8:00 or 9:00PM.”

“Is it because there’s usually nobody around the neighborhood during that time of the day?”

“No, they all had dinner before they died. Oral narcotics require two to three hours to take effect.”

Chen Shi rubbed his chin in thought. “I remembered that one of them still had unfinished wine on the table, but nothing was found in the wine. Of course, this is an old trick. After finishing the murder, they could just switch the food.”

“You speak as if you have solved many cases before,” Peng Sijue said sarcastically. “Yuhua's chief pharmacist died in his hometown. At that time, the police station sent the body to the local police for an autopsy. The forensic doctor there found out that his body might have traces of drug residue. However, it was very difficult to detect because the equipment the local public security bureau possessed wasn’t good enough. However, the forensic doctor there was very dedicated. He felt something was amiss and saved a liver sample. I have contacted him, and the sample is on its way here now.”

“Okay, heaven will always give the determined a way out.”

“How did you explain that prostitute incident to Dongxue?”

“Aren’t you switching topics to this too naturally? Anyway, things are fine now.”

“I won't criticize your moral standing...”

“What are you accusing me of?”

Peng Sijue gave him a glance. “Be careful in the future. Don't do such clueless things again.”

After leaving the forensics department, Chen Shi was still wondering what Peng Sijue was trying to imply. In fact, he had long guessed that Peng Sijue had already figured out his identity. After all, they were so intimate in the past. But because it was Peng Sijue, there was no need to worry about him leaking the secret.

It took them all morning to sort out the information at hand. The order of the three deaths was: the chief pharmacist who died at 9PM on June 7th; the manager of the production department, who died at 8PM on August 13th; and the actuary, who died at 9PM on September 1st.

As they had occurred in jurisdictions outside Long'an City, all of them were treated as accidental falls, and the cases weren’t investigated together.

In addition, it was found out through the bank card and credit card history of the secretary Hou Yue, that he had gone to the hometown of the chief pharmacist, before and after the death of the chief pharmacist. During the period that the three died in succession, he had successively deposited a total of four million yuan in the cards, all of which were deposited in small increments across six cards.

Chen Shi said, “It seems that Hou Yue was the executor of the murders. Someone behind the scenes gave him monetary rewards. From the perspective of the chain of interests, the only person who has the financial resources and motivation is the president, Ma Wanli.”

Lin Dongxue said, “Five years ago, Yuhua Company was charged with killing people. Why didn't they kill them then, but waited two years?”

Old Zhang opined, “From the way I see it, the president, the secretary, the production manager, the chief pharmacist, and the actuary all had common interests. They may have had internal conflict regarding the distribution of ill-gotten gains later on.”

“Distribution of ill-gotten gains... What distribution? They killed people and lost money. What could they still have left?”

Lin Dongxue asked this casually, but this was also what Chen Shi wanted to know most. What was the benefit of killing these people off?

Xu Xiaodong raised his hand and asked, “Can I ask what an actuary does?”

“They do business accounting.”

“They need to hire someone for their accounts? Can’t they just use a calculator and do it themselves?”

“They don't just calculate accounts, but they also calculate profits and efficiency. It involves some very complicated algorithms. They are all advanced mathematical concepts that ordinary people can't understand.” Chen Shi suddenly discovered that he had used the word “algorithm”. There was a flash of insight in his brain. “Give me all the accounts over the past few years in Yuhua that you’ve found! Go and get an actuary to figure out if there are any loopholes in it.”

“There were no loopholes. These were brought in by the police. They gave me a headache but they didn't evade taxes.”

“It's not a question of tax evasion, but how much profit they made using this drug’s formula.”

Peng Sijue, who was standing at the door, heard it and said, “No need to find an actuary. I'm good at advanced mathematics. Let me do the calculations! In addition, the sample sent by the local public security bureau has arrived and I’ve already asked people to run tests on it.”