dead innocent

After Yuan Pingyi was executed, Yuan Xijiang went to Yinjiang to retrieve his son's ashes. He was buried in his hometown cemetery in the twelfth lunar month of the same year.

On the second day of Yuan Pingyi's burial, his coffin was dug out of the ground by several chivalrous fellow countrymen, and his ashes were scattered all over the limestone field, like a snowfall.

Yuan Xijiang picked up the ashes from the ground with grief, knelt in front of the black-haired man's grave and cried for a whole day, and then went home with the urn in his arms.

According to the old woman, his cataracts were at the root of the disease at that time. A month later, a woman with a foreign accent found Yuan Xijiang, left a sum of money, and took away Yuan Pingyi's ashes, saying that since his hometown could not accommodate him He, then let her take him to another country for burial.

She only saw the woman once, her origin and whereabouts were unknown, she just took away Yuan Pingyi's ashes, promised to bury him properly, and never came again.

Chu Xingyun took out Chen Jing's photo for her to identify. The old man squinted his eyes for a while before confirming: "It's her, there is a mole on her chin, it's her."

When they drove away from the recycling plant, they had their own concerns, so the car drove slowly, as if paying silent condolences and nostalgia to this sad place.

Under the starry sky, an old man with a hunchback and deformed spine was walking on the green belt of the street, surrounded by a few stray dogs who were as helpless as him.

The night is like an ink bottle, the farther you go, the deeper and darker it gets.

The black off-roader stopped when it passed by him, watched the old man disappear under the thick black night, and then suddenly accelerated, like an arrow that left the string, rushed towards the entrance of the ink bottle without hesitation, as if it was about to pierce the ink bottle. The darkness penetrates the bottom of the bottle, dispels the darkness that is loaded in the world, and breaks the frame that cannot see the dawn and the light of the sky.

The black off-road is galloping on the quiet and unmanned highway, and the two lights from the front of the car are like lanterns that escort and explore the road at night.

The carriage was very quiet, no one spoke, Chu Xingyun looked at the road ahead, but all his attention was on He Cheng.

The co-pilot's window was lowered to the bottom, and the wind generated by the forceful collision was blown into the compartment through the wide open window, blowing He Cheng's hair and collar upside down with the wind, flying wantonly.

He Cheng looked at the ink-like night outside the window, his eyes were relaxed and soft, and his expression was very calm.

Chu Xingyun didn't know what he was thinking, he only knew that no matter what He Cheng was thinking, he couldn't let his thoughts go deeper.He Cheng's "concentration" is extremely poor, and he is easily swallowed by blood and sin. Once he falls into the vicious circle of not being able to find the target of hatred and desperately hating himself, he will lose control, and lose control forever.

Chu Xingyun watched his every move with anxiety from the corner of his eye, but He Cheng kept staring out of the window since he got in the car, motionless, as if left behind by time, still.

He really hoped that He Cheng would say something to him, even if it was to vent or yell, but He Cheng seemed to 'forget' him, just like time had forgotten him.

Just when he decided to take the initiative to talk about what happened just now, he suddenly saw He Cheng raised his right hand and took off his glasses.

He Cheng squeezed the legs of his glasses to take them off, stretched his hands out of the window like throwing a piece of trash, and gently flung them out——

The wind was too strong and the speed of the car was too fast. The glasses that were thrown out of the car window disappeared without a trace as if they had fallen into the deep sea.

At the moment when he threw the glasses, Chu Xingyun clearly felt that his heart was punched hard by someone, and the heartbeat stopped suddenly, and after a moment of stillness, it was like a noisy drumstick beating the drum crazily.

When the out-of-control car crashed into the roadside curb in a straight slash, He Cheng reminded him: "Be careful."

Chu Xingyun slammed to the left, wondering if it was because he was scared because he barely escaped the imminent car accident just now, layers of cold sweat poured out of his palms, and he almost couldn't hold the steering wheel.

"what happened to you?"

Chu Xingyun's voice was a little hoarse.

"It's nothing."

He Cheng leaned back in the chair, let out a long sigh of relief, still looked out of the window, and said indifferently: "I just feel that it's a little redundant, and suddenly - I'm disgusted, and I want to make some changes."

Chu Xingyun held the steering wheel with one hand, stretched his right hand towards him, and held his chin to make him turn his head to look at himself.

He wanted to see some hidden emotions on He Cheng's face, but He Cheng was very peaceful at the moment, his eyes were clear and penetrating after taking off his glasses, which drove away all the dust and dust in the air like the sunshine after the rain. distracting thoughts.

He Cheng met his probing and doubtful eyes, smiled slightly, and said, "Don't worry about me, I'm fine."

Chu Xingyun turned his head, looked ahead and said, "Do you want to talk to me?"

He Cheng put his arms on the car window, pressed against his forehead, and adjusted a comfortable posture: "Well, who will start with?"

Chu Xingyun gave him a gloomy look and said, "Chen Yunan, she should still be alive."

Before exposing Yuan Pingyi's identity, he thought that Yuan Pingyi was at most just a dead ghost whose life was bought by the real murderer.If Yuan Pingyi died for money, then Chen Yunan's life and death would not be investigated, but if Yuan Pingyi died for love, then what he exchanged must be Chen Yunan's life.

Trading life for life is the greatest and cruelest sacrifice a father can make for his daughter.

He Cheng nodded: "Besides, Chen Jing knows that Chen Yunan is still alive." As he spoke, he showed a slight smile: "Then the deceased we failed to commemorate today is not Chen Yunan, but Yuan Pingyi."

The old lady said that a young woman from a foreign country took Yuan Pingyi's ashes away for burial, so there was no doubt that this woman was Chen Jing.

After driving for a long time, he was a little tired, so Chu Xingyun took out the cigarette case with one hand and lit a cigarette, took a deep breath of white mist and then slowly spit it out, the cigarette was caught between his fingers and pressed against the corner of his lips, Said: "Since Chen Jing knows that Chen Yunan is still alive and Yuan Pingyi is innocent, why does she keep this secret? Yuan Pingyi is dead, even if Chen Yunan is still alive, she has disappeared. She still keeps the secret, which is equivalent to covering up the real culprit—— "

As he spoke, he frowned, and patted the steering wheel irritably: "What's the reason for her doing this?"

He Cheng propped his forehead, lowered his eyes slightly and said in thought: "I remember that in the photo album I saw at Chen Jing's house, there were traces of being passive in the back pages."

passive?

Chu Xingyun's eyes froze, and he fell into deep thought in silence.

That means that before Chen Jing showed the photo album, she hid a part that originally belonged to the photo album.So what is that part of her hiding?Did it have something to do with the secret she was keeping?

"photo."

Suddenly, Chu Xingyun raised his eyes, and it seemed that a hurricane was blowing away the fog in his eyes.In an instant, the sky was full of light, the clouds were cleared to see the sun, and the truth came out.

He Cheng looked at him suspiciously: "What photo?"

Chu Xingyun raised the corners of his lips slightly, revealing a smile of unknown meaning, and said in a deep voice: "Chen Yunan's photo."

"...You mean, the photo of Chen Yunan after he disappeared?"

"Well, let's make a bold idea. Suppose Chen Jing, Yuan Pingyi, and the real murderer who kidnapped you reached a deal. The content of this deal is that Yuan Pingyi will plead guilty on behalf of the real murderer and get rid of the entanglement of the police. The conditions offered by the real murderer It is to preserve Chen Yunan's life, and to continue Chen Yunan's life, as for how long it can last, it depends on how long Chen Jing can keep the secret between the three of them."

He Cheng felt that what he said was reasonable, otherwise it would be impossible to understand why Yuan Pingyi was willing to take the blame and die, why Chen Jing refused to tell the truth that Yuan Pingyi was innocent and that Chen Yunan was still alive.

Although his hypothesis can break through all the mysteries, but before Chen Jing personally admits it, the hypothesis is just a hypothesis.

If his hypothesis is true, it means that Chen Jing has been in contact with the real murderer all along, perhaps by collecting photos to obtain news that her daughter is still alive.Otherwise, 'why' would she keep it a secret?

Thinking that Chen Jing might have a connection with the real murderer, Chu Xingyun couldn't help being a little excited, and his exhaustion was swept away, as if he had only learned the clues to track down the real murderer from what she said.

The expression on He Cheng's face was both tranced and clear, and he said to himself: "That is to say, among those pages that have been moved, maybe there are photos of Chen Yunan?"

Chu Xingyun nodded: "It is possible."

The four or five hour journey was like this with 13 years of lies scattered on the road, and they returned to the small town in the south of the Yangtze River, where it was already late at night.

Chu Xingyun parked the car in front of a row of shops opposite the community, and walked around the roadside with no one around.

Several high-rise buildings in the community stood quietly in the quiet night, only a few windows were lit, and the windows of Chen Jing's house melted into the night, looking stable and peaceful.

"Are you sure you don't want to go back to the hotel to rest? I'll just stay here alone."

Chu Xingyun looked at the blue and black that appeared on his lower eyelid with some distress.

He Cheng's skin is fair, and he lives a regular life. He hasn't had a good rest in the past few days. He looks very tired and has dark circles under his eyes.

"No, I'll wait with you."

As if deliberately teasing him, Chu Xingyun reached out and touched his face, and said, "Our young master has suffered, and the dark circles under his eyes have come out."

He Cheng glanced at him sideways, and took his hands off his face: "It's the same with you."

Chu Xingyun smiled: "What do you compare with me? I am either squatting on the suspect or on the way to arrest the suspect. Staying up late is my normal routine."

After finishing speaking, he unfastened his seat belt and got out of the car. After walking forward for a few minutes, he saw a 24-hour fast food restaurant.When he walked into the store, there were almost no customers in the middle of the night, only two night shift waiters dozed off on the cash register.

Ten minutes later, he bought a bag of Western fast food and walked out of the store, returning along the same road.

At his age, He Chengchang has never eaten anything more crude than the red bean pie exuding a greasy starchy aroma in his hand. He had no appetite to eat, and was suffocated by the heat of fried food, and he didn't want to eat it, but Chu Xingyun stared at him, and had to bite a few bites reluctantly.

Chu Xingyun threw him another bottle of water, finished eating the hamburger in his hand in two or three bites, and said: "You sleep for a while, the sky will dawn soon."

He Cheng put down the half-eaten red bean pie, unscrewed the bottle cap and took a few sips of water, sighed and said, "I'm so tired."

"What's so tiring?"

"You police are tired."

Chu Xingyun was lowering his head and flipping through his phone. Hearing this, he glanced at him and asked with a smile, "Have you realized our hardships? Do you know that you love me?"

As he spoke, he picked up the red bean buns he had put on the bridge: "Don't you want to eat?"

He Cheng nodded, thinking that he was going to throw it into the garbage bag, but saw him stuff it into his mouth, and finally lowered his head and flipped through his phone.

He Cheng smiled slowly, his voice was tired and soft: "You deserve it."

Chu Xingyun'huh'?He said, "Why do I deserve it again?"

He Cheng poked at his sore spot with a gentle smile: "If you had done a little bit better in your studies back then, and your college entrance examination scores had surpassed the second line, you should be building a house now as you wished."

It turns out that in his eyes, an architect is equivalent to a cement worker who builds a house on a construction site.

Chu Xingyun was so stunned by him that he had nothing to say, but he still had to admit that he 'served it', who made him careless in his studies.

But having said that, He Cheng seems to have gotten rid of the haze left by Yuan Xijiang on him, and now he is in the mood to make fun of him.

Chu Xingyun swallowed the sweet and greasy red beans in his mouth, drank a few more sips of water, looked at him helplessly and said: "You should go to sleep."

He Cheng leaned over to him, smiled and kissed the corner of his lips: "Call me at dawn."

After speaking, he returned to his seat and sat down, closing his eyes.

I've been on the road all day today, and now I have time to take care of the mess he made in Yinjiang.

He had told Fu Yi and Qiao Shishi to tell him immediately if there was any progress in the case, but it was strange that his cell phone was quiet all day today.A few of them formed a group, and the group was also very quiet.

Chu Xingyun glanced at He Cheng'an's sleeping face, then opened the car door, slowed down and got out of the car.

Sitting down on the edge of the sidewalk, he called Fu Yi and was answered after it rang for a long time and almost hung up automatically.

"Team Chu."

As soon as Yang Kaitai made a sound, Chu Xingyun heard his anxious tone, his voice was choked up, and he hurriedly asked: "What's wrong? Where is Team Fu?"

"Captain Fu was injured and is now being sent to the hospital."