Xu Huaisong and Ruan Yu stood frozen at the doorway for thirty seconds before exchanging a glance.
Ruan Yu hesitated before asking, "Didn't the front desk ask you earlier what kind of suite you wanted?"
"Mm," Xu Huaisong replied with innocent eyes. "I said whatever."
So...
Ruan Yu scanned the room again, where even the lighting emitted pink bubbles. If this was the "whatever" option, then the problem clearly didn't lie with Xu Huaisong.
She took a few steps back and glanced at the hotel logo in the hallway. Two lively little figures—the meaning was obvious.
They must have been blind earlier.
What now?
Xu Huaisong checked his watch, probably calculating how long it would take to change locations.
Seeing him about to leave, Ruan Yu thought it would be a waste.
She said, "No rush, no rush. Let me take a look inside first. It might be good writing material..."
Watching her walk in like a curious cat, Xu Huaisong had no choice but to follow.
Surrounded by pink bubbles, Ruan Yu completely forgot about the goosebumps she'd had earlier, exploring left and right as if entering a new world.
She crouched beside an S-shaped lounge chair, studying its form. Limited by her imagination, she pondered for a long while before looking up hesitantly at Xu Huaisong. "What's this for...?"
He choked slightly, turning away expressionlessly. "How would I know?"
She nodded thoughtfully with an "Oh," then shifted her gaze to a half-person-high wooden tub in the bathroom. She walked over and tugged at the shower curtain, murmuring, "There's a curtain..."
So it wasn't that risqué after all.
"Done looking?" Xu Huaisong urged from outside the door.
She asked for more time, then walked to the bed and looked up at the large mirror on the ceiling, tilting her head. "This design is quite artistic. When the morning sun comes in, you can wake up to your own beauty..."
Xu Huaisong sighed and walked over, pulling her up. "Are we leaving or not? If not, we're staying here."
There were too many novel furnishings, and even the lighting had seven or eight adjustable settings. Ruan Yu pressed buttons here and there, lingering as if reluctant to leave.
Perhaps too accustomed to purely platonic interactions with Xu Huaisong under the covers, she felt no tension. After some thought, she said, "A place to sleep is a place to sleep. Since we're already here, let's make do..." She continued fiddling with the lights.
Xu Huaisong knew this wasn't "making do"—she clearly loved it.
Fine.
He closed the door, opened his briefcase, and plugged in his nearly dead laptop, only to realize there was no desk in the room.
Considering no one coming here would likely work, he looked around and settled for placing the laptop on a chair that seemed relatively normal. Then he turned to Ruan Yu. "I'll go over the case files. You go shower first."
Ruan Yu paused mid-light adjustment and glanced at the bathroom.
From a sightseeing perspective earlier, the transparent glass with a shower curtain hadn't seemed too bad. But now that it was time to actually use it, the situation suddenly felt several levels more intimate.
Noticing her stiff gaze, Xu Huaisong also realized the awkwardness. "Let me check it out first," he said, worried there might be something strange in the bathroom that would startle her.
After speaking, he took off his jacket. Ruan Yu gave a soft "Mm," but when he started unbuttoning his shirt, she quickly turned away. "I-I'll play with your laptop for a bit. You... do whatever you need to..."She picked up his laptop, placed it on her lap, and deliberately chose a seat with her back to him.
The sound of a belt buckle hitting the wooden tub from the bathroom behind her made Ruan Yu’s heart skip a beat.
The bathroom had zero soundproofing.
As the sound of running water started, she blinked hard and forced her focus onto the laptop screen. At a glance, she noticed a folder on the desktop labeled "Jiang Yi Case."
Ruan Yu knew that for Zhou Jun’s case, Xu Huaisong had been revisiting this decade-old incident, trying to draw parallels to reference his father’s defense strategy back then.
She moved the cursor over the folder and double-clicked.
Maybe reading about the case would help distract her.
The folder contained numerous documents and images. She skipped over the more technical-looking files and opened one summarizing the case.
Since the summary was from the lawyer’s perspective, it focused on the client’s side of the story.
It mentioned that the victim back then was a female student from Suzhou University of Business, while Jiang Yi was her senior in the same department, about to graduate.
On the day of the incident, Jiang Yi and the victim, along with a few other students from their department, had gone out for dinner and later to a bar. After leaving the bar, the two, who had been in a flirtatious phase, parted ways with their classmates and left together. Under the influence of alcohol, they engaged in intimate relations in a roadside public restroom.
Afterward, Jiang Yi received a call from home and left in a hurry without seeing the girl home. The next time he heard about her was when her body was discovered in the restroom stall.
The autopsy report showed she had died instantly after hitting the back of her head against the toilet tank.
At the time, just like Zhou Jun, Jiang Yi’s first reaction was panic. He chose to evade the police investigation.
But he couldn’t escape.
The criminal profile suggested the perpetrator was most likely a tall male around twenty-three years old.
Classmates confirmed that the victim had left with Jiang Yi that night.
More critically, the semen stains on the victim’s body matched Jiang Yi’s DNA. The timing of the call he received was also very close to the estimated time of death, making it impossible to determine the exact sequence—thus failing to clear his name. The public restroom was rudimentary, and there happened to be no surveillance nearby.
Under intense public pressure and police interrogation, Jiang Yi’s mental state deteriorated. He began questioning whether he had actually killed the victim, at times speaking incoherently.
It wasn’t until Xu’s father took over the case at the Jiang family’s request that Jiang Yi was eventually acquitted.
Ruan Yu finally understood why Tao Rong and Xu Huaishi couldn’t comprehend Xu’s father’s actions. From an outsider’s perspective, Jiang Yi did seem very much "like" the murderer.
No wonder Zhou Jun had also said that Xu’s father was someone who could turn black into white.
Ruan Yu was so absorbed in the case that she didn’t notice the water in the bathroom had stopped.
She closed the document and returned to the folder, scrolling until she found a photo from the students’ gathering that night.
Jiang Yi, strikingly handsome, stood at the center, chatting and laughing with his classmates, the picture of youthful brilliance.
It was hard to imagine that the man in this photo would end up scavenging for scraps a decade later.
With a sigh, Ruan Yu was about to exit the photo when she suddenly noticed a vaguely familiar figure at the corner of the table.
Frowning, she zoomed in and locked onto it.
Just then, the bathroom door opened behind her, and Xu Huaisong stepped out. "What are you looking at?" he asked.
Ruan Yu gasped. "Ah—"Xu Huaisong froze for a moment, then walked over. Noticing the photo on the computer screen, he sighed, "I told you it would scare you, yet you still looked."
Ruan Yu shook her head, indicating she wasn't frightened.
Pointing at the screen with a slightly trembling finger, she said, "This person..."
"What's wrong?"
Her eyes widened in surprise. "He looks so much like Wei Jin!"
Xu Huaisong had never interacted directly with Wei Jin and hadn't paid much attention to unrelated individuals while studying these old photos.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
Ruan Yu tilted her head, scrutinizing the screen carefully. "The resolution isn't high enough to be certain, but the resemblance is striking, especially the eyes... But if it really is Wei Jin, why would he appear here? Is there any way you could check his academic records?"
For someone like Wei Jin, information security would be extremely tight. The police were already investigating him discreetly for suspected drug involvement. If Xu Huaisong tried to check his records privately, it might alert him.
After some thought, Xu Huaisong opened his phone contacts. "My dad has reliable connections we can use." He made a few calls.
Half an hour later, Wei Jin's academic records were sent to his email.
Ruan Yu sat beside him, eyes fixed on the download progress. When the PDF finally opened, she grabbed Xu Huaisong's sleeve tightly.
Wei Jin had indeed graduated from Suzhou Business University—in the same department and year as Jiang Yi.
Ruan Yu instantly broke out in goosebumps. Clutching Xu Huaisong's arm, she asked, "What does this mean?"
Frowning, Xu Huaisong shook his head. "It doesn't necessarily mean anything."
He knew what she was thinking.
The decade-old case remained unsolved, with the real perpetrator still at large. Wei Jin had been present that night, and his age and build were similar to Jiang Yi's.
But did someone with a possible history of drug abuse and sexual assault necessarily commit murder? Of course not.
The fact that Wei Jin hadn't appeared on the suspect list back then meant the police had ruled him out.
Ruan Yu understood this too. Based solely on her subjective suspicions, the police wouldn't reopen the case against Wei Jin.
If that were the case, China would need a hundred million police officers to handle all such accusations.
"But Officer Fang is already investigating Wei Jin, right? What if we mention this to him? Maybe it could lead to some clues?"
Xu Huaisong shook his head. "Setting aside how baseless your accusation against Wei Jin is, Jiang Yi's case happened ten years ago in Suzhou. Cross-provincial investigations and reopening old cases require specific conditions—this 'side lead' is unlikely to go anywhere. The police closest to the evidence and truth ten years ago found nothing. What could he uncover now? The only real breakthrough would be the ongoing drug investigation."
Ruan Yu nodded. "How's that going?"
Xu Huaisong wasn't a police officer and didn't know many details. "They suspect Wei Jin is part of a larger drug organization and are investigating step by step. I heard he went to Vietnam recently and has plans to visit Las Vegas next. Cross-border tracking is difficult, especially when it has to be done discreetly. Progress won't be quick."
Fortunately, Wei Jin was the type preoccupied with "bigger schemes," which was why he hadn't bothered with Sun Miaohan—or by extension, Ruan Yu.
Following police advice, Sun Miaohan had left Hangzhou, pretending to let the matter drop. Now, Ruan Yu needed to act just as casually.
Only then would Wei Jin remain unsuspecting, allowing the police investigation to proceed undisturbed.Xu Huaisong listed the cases of Zhou Jun, Wei Jin, and Jiang Yi side by side on his computer, scrolling back and forth between them and reviewing the related images several times.
Ruan Yu kept sneaking glances from beside him, like watching a horror movie—terrified yet unable to resist her curiosity.
Noticing her gaze, Xu Huaisong moved the laptop away. "Stop looking. You’ll complain about not being able to sleep again later. Go take a shower."
She let out an "Oh," got up, and walked a few steps away before turning back to fish her earphones out of her bag. Plugging them into her phone, she adjusted the volume, played a song, and set it on loop.
Xu Huaisong glanced at her. "What are you doing?"
She grinned. "Letting you listen to some music." With that, she gently placed the earbuds into his ears.
Xu Huaisong glanced at the bathroom, smiled, and sighed inwardly.
Fine.
Five songs later, Ruan Yu came out.
Xu Huaisong closed his laptop, herded her into bed, and turned off the lights.
Ruan Yu lay down fully clothed, but the moment she straightened, she suddenly shrieked.
Startled by her scream, Xu Huaisong nearly stumbled as he reached the edge of the bed.
"What’s wrong?" he asked.
She patted her chest, still shaken. "I forgot there’s a mirror above the bed. I saw a shadow and got scared..." She glanced up at the ceiling again, goosebumps rising all over her, then buried her face in the pillow. "What kind of inhumane design is this?!"
Xu Huaisong lifted the covers and climbed in. "Didn’t you just call it romantic earlier?" He pulled her head back. "The pillowcase isn’t clean. Don’t bury your face in it."
Ruan Yu peeked at the ceiling again. "But I can’t sleep like this. All I can think about is..." the case photos from his laptop.
"I told you not to look earlier." Xu Huaisong sighed and pulled her into his arms. "Then bury yourself against me. Happy now?"
For the first time in his life, Xu Huaisong learned that a love hotel could feel like a haunted house.
The entire night, Ruan Yu clung to him like an octopus—not treating him like a man, but as a talisman against ghosts.
By dawn, Xu Huaisong, who had been tense all night, gently pried her limbs off and prepared to get out of bed.
But she drowsily latched onto him again.
Fed up, he pinched her cheek, waking her.
Ruan Yu frowned, rubbing her eyes, still looking innocent. "What are you doing...?" She stretched her legs slightly.
Xu Huaisong blocked her knee and gritted his teeth. "Stop moving."
Ruan Yu froze in sudden realization, then slowly inched away.
Xu Huaisong cleared his throat, got up, and headed to the bathroom. Fifteen minutes of running water later, he returned and pulled Ruan Yu—who had buried herself under the covers with her hands over her ears—back out. "Had enough sleep?"
She blushed and mumbled, "Mhm."
"Then it’s my turn to sleep. Get out of bed and go play for a while."
She let out another "Oh," climbed off the bed, then turned back and leaned in to ask, "Did you not sleep at all last night?"
Xu Huaisong glanced at her and said nothing.
She bit her lip. "I’m sorry..."
He reached out and rubbed her ear. "You owe me. I’ll punish you properly later."
Author’s Note:
Ruan Ruan: "What are you doing..."
Song Song: "If you don’t go do something soon, I’ll have to do you."
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