Chapter 4 – The Question

“You’re saying you’re the murderer?” Inside the interrogation room, Lu Anchi, the Director of the Public Security Bureau, personally interrogated the suspect. He was no longer young—his hair had turned white at the temples for various reasons—but every wrinkle on his face was etched with caution and solemnity.

The young man slouched lazily in the interrogation chair, nodding carelessly. “Yeah. What, do I need to prove I’m the murderer just to turn myself in these days?”

Lu Anchi sneered. “Desperate young people looking for an easy way out might just be after some notoriety.”

“Fine.” Yan Ru pursed his lips and nodded. After a moment of thought, he said, “I still have a bunch of roses with traces left. I dumped them in the basement of the rental house at Unit 1, Building 2, Block 3 in the urban village.”

Before he even finished speaking, the officers stationed outside the one-way glass of the interrogation room had already sprung into action without hesitation.

Yan Ru remained oblivious to everything outside, casually adding, “You probably haven’t figured out who I killed yet, right?”

As he spoke, the corners of his lips curled into a smile, his eyes gleaming with interest. It was as if he wasn’t talking about a human life but something as insignificant as roadside weeds or insects.

Lu Anchi clenched his fists to suppress the anger in his chest, playing along with Yan Ru’s words. “So, who was it?”

Yan Ru said, “That poor bastard… I remember he worked at Weiyao Technology. Pretty sharp-minded, too! What was his name again…”

He paused for a moment, then feigned sudden realization. “Ah, I remember now! His name was Wei Qinzhou!”

Immediately, someone was dispatched to retrieve Wei Qinzhou’s biographical records and archived personal information.

The comparison yielded results quickly—the DNA left in the database by Wei Qinzhou matched the bloodstained DNA on the roses perfectly.

Yan Ru wasn’t lying.

Then again, who would actually take the risk of pretending to be a murderer?

Lu Anchi asked, “Why did you decide to turn yourself in?”

“Hmm…” Yan Ru propped his chin on his hand, his pale complexion lending a sickly air to his delicate features. “Because I was just too bored. You guys took forever to crack the case, and I got tired of playing.”

As he spoke, there was an almost childlike cruelty in his expression.

“What right do you have to stop me from leaving the carriage? It’s not like I stole anything!”

I was about to head to the dining car for a bite to eat when I ran into an obstacle at the carriage entrance.

The muscular guy from the upper bunk stood with his arms crossed at the connecting area, arguing unhappily with the train attendant.

The gray-trench-coated attendant—well, he was practically an acquaintance by now, even if I still didn’t know his name—wiped the sweat from his forehead, trying to placate the clearly troublesome figure in front of him.

“Passenger, please understand. The hard sleeper carriage was sealed off from 9 PM last night to 5 AM this morning, so…”

So the thief who stole the item was still in our carriage.

I stepped forward, and the gray-coated attendant recognized me, flashing an apologetic smile.

I said, “There are surveillance cameras on both sides of the aisle, right? Can’t you just check the footage to see who’s acting suspicious?”

At both ends of the hard sleeper carriage, there were surveillance cameras monitoring the aisle.

The attendant looked troubled. “Because the train had a power outage yesterday, and to reduce the load on the power supply after it was restored… we shut off one camera in each carriage. The incident happened to be in the blind spot of the other one.”

Ugh, what kind of luck was this?

If I reported this, they’d all be fired for sure.

If nothing had happened, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But now, of all times, this had to happen.

I turned to the muscular guy. “Let’s just go back. No need to make things harder for them.”

The attendant immediately gave me a grateful smile.

“The railway will definitely compensate the passengers later. Right now, I’m specifically assigned to Carriage 2—if you need anything, just let me know.”

“Who needs compensation?” The muscular guy scoffed but ultimately relented, trudging back reluctantly.

The attendant visibly relaxed, nearly bowing to me. “Thank you so much, passenger! You’re so reasonable! We really didn’t do this on purpose, but until the police arrive, we can’t just let the thief go.”

“Don’t mention it!” I leaned against the train wall. “I know you guys have it tough. Since you’re assigned to our carriage now, we’ll probably see each other a lot. What should I call you? Just calling you ‘attendant’ or ‘train staff’ feels weird.”

“Xu Anran. ‘Anran’ as in ‘melancholy’.”

I didn’t catch it at first. “As in ‘dark’?”

“No, no!” Xu Anran quickly waved his hand, tracing the characters in the air.

Truthfully, I didn’t see it clearly, nor did I care. Who cared how a train attendant spelled his name?

“Oh! Got it. That’s a great name!” I smiled. “I’m Qin Yuezhang. You don’t have to call me ‘passenger’ either.”

Xu Anran nodded repeatedly.

After a moment, I asked, “Do you know what was actually stolen in our carriage? Why the big fuss? Keeping the whole carriage locked down?”

Xu Anran said, “That’s the passenger’s privacy. We can’t disclose it casually.”

“Then who had something stolen?”

“That’s also something we can’t disclose casually.”

How boring.

I sighed regretfully. “Alright, I get it. I’ll cooperate with your work. I’ll head back now. Oh, by the way! Didn’t you mention compensation? What about meals?”

Xu Anran adjusted his gray trench coat and assured me, “Don’t worry about that. The train conductor has already arranged it. You won’t go hungry.”

I gave Xu Anran a friendly wave and returned to my bunk.

The muscular guy sat gloomily on the small flip-down seat by the train wall in the hard sleeper carriage. The seat was tiny, and he looked almost pitiful squeezed into it. But the upper bunk space was so cramped that he couldn’t even straighten his back up there.

He glanced enviously at Yan Ru’s and my lower bunks.

“No idea what valuable thing got stolen to cause such a commotion,” I said to Yan Ru. “I asked that attendant earlier, but he wouldn’t say anything.”

Yan Ru remained calm. “Once they find the item or catch the thief, it’ll be over. No need to rush.”

Before I could respond, the muscular guy chimed in, “I’ve ridden all kinds of trains. Only this rickety little one has so many problems.”

I asked, “Do you ride this route often?”

“My company sends me on business trips a lot. I’m always traveling back and forth. If I hadn’t been in a rush this time, I wouldn’t have taken the train.” The muscular guy scratched his head. “And it’s been so long—no one’s come to search, and the train hasn’t moved. What’s the deal? Just wasting our time!”

Yan Ru said, “They can’t just search the carriage without permission. Maybe the train staff are applying for a search warrant. Searching without approval would violate people’s privacy rights.”

I couldn’t help but look at this street vendor in a new light. “Damn, you know the law!”

Yan Ru froze, his gaze flickering away as he frowned. “I… I probably read it somewhere.”

I said, “But it’s been so long without a search, and they’re keeping us locked in the carriage like this. If I were the thief, I’d have hidden the thing by now.”

Besides, that Xu Anran was pretty dumb. Did he really trust me so much, believing I wasn’t the thief? Just casually telling me about the missing surveillance footage? Even if both cameras were back online now, if I really were the thief, there’d be plenty of ways to play this.

The muscular guy suddenly said, “Hey, if it were you, where would you hide the thing? TV shows always say to think like the suspect, and everything becomes clear.”

Where would I hide it? Unconsciously, I followed his lead and started thinking.

Yan Ru, meanwhile, lowered his eyes, his expression unreadable.

I looked around. The hard sleeper carriage seemed spacious, but the setup was simple—just rows of bunks. With so many passengers, the bunks were chaotic, full of nooks and crannies where things could easily be hidden.

If it were me, where would I hide it?

Under the bed? In the aisle? On my person?

“I don’t know,” I finally said with a shrug, shifting the focus to Yan Ru. “Where would you hide it?”

Yan Ru lifted his eyes, his dark pupils calm. “I wouldn’t steal, so I don’t need to think about it.”

Me, who had just thought about it: “…”

What, so I’m the one who’d steal?!

The muscular guy seemed to get excited and added, “Then let’s rephrase it. If you had something really important that couldn’t be discovered by anyone, what’s the first place you’d think to hide it?”

As soon as he finished speaking, I eyed him suspiciously.

The muscular guy looked at me, confused. “What?”

I raised an eyebrow, forcing what I thought was a friendly smile, and said half-jokingly, “If I were going to hide it, why would I tell you?”

Maybe the malice and suspicion in my words were well-hidden behind my smile, or maybe the muscular guy was just the type to take things at face value. He even explained, “I’m just making conversation out of boredom. It’s not like I’m going to break into your safe. We’re just strangers passing by, right? Once we get off the train, will we even see each other again?”

Better safe than sorry.

The muscular guy turned to Yan Ru. “What do you think, Yan Ru?”

Yan Ru looked startled, even a little agitated, as he turned to face us. He had been turned toward the train wall this whole time, only now shifting to look at us after all this conversation.

“You know me?”

Yan Ru had always seemed calm and composed—why the sudden excitement?

The muscular guy widened his narrow eyes with effort. “I—I just heard him call you that. Did I get it wrong?”

The light in Yan Ru’s eyes dimmed almost instantly, disappointment obvious on his face. “No, you didn’t.”

Weird. Even though I didn’t know Yan Ru well, I could tell he was usually reserved. Why the sudden strong reaction?

Frowning, I stared at Yan Ru, not missing a single shift in his expression.