sincerity of lies

The hasty knock on the door awakened Ji Xun who was on the bed.

He didn't wake up from a sleep, but from a meditation that didn't last long.His back was still leaning on the pillow at the head of the bed, a computer was pressed on his crossed legs, and his unsupported neck was like a stick full of cracks. When Ji Xun straightened up, he heard a "click" sound. —and the computer on the lap.

The screen of the computer was turned on during his actions, revealing a document without two lines of words written inside.

Ji Xun, 29 years old, former criminal policeman, now author of mystery novels - author of the famous "Poisoned Fruit" series, living a decent life, if there is anything worth worrying about, it is probably a rather serious problem of insomnia.

However, the human body is a precise machine, and at a certain point in time, there will be some mistakes. From this consideration, his problems are just some small, dark problems.

Ji Xun sat upright with his head supported, the knock on the door persisted, he looked at the time, seven in the morning, who would be so early?

He pushed open the door of the bedroom, and the tearful young man from last night fell asleep on the sofa outside. The other party had already been woken up, and he had already sat up, smoothing his curled hair in displeasure.The hair quality of young people is very good, with moderate softness and hardness. It not only enjoys the enjoyment of silk satin, but also can be concaved into shape.

For example, the curled ends of the hair that have been pulled by the young man make people want to insert a finger into it, pinch the hair, and wrap it around the knuckles again and again.

But as soon as he touches the other party, he thinks of the embarrassment of last night.

He pretended not to see the young man with the mole of tears, and the young man with the mole of tears also pretended not to see him.

If night is a hotbed of desire, then day is an effective tool for violent demolition.

When the clothes are put on and the sun shines, everyone is a decent person.

...Of course, last night was not disgraceful. It was a disadvantage to take someone in for nothing.

The young man with a tear mole went to the bathroom to change clothes. He came to the door and opened the door impatiently: "Who——"

A woman with a puffed belly boldly appeared in his sight.

This is an acquaintance that Ji Xun never expected.He blurted out: "Xia Youqing?"

"It's me." The woman said, she stroked her stomach with a little force, making one wonder if she wanted to press down her bulging stomach, "You look a little surprised, that's rare."

"Why are you here?" Ji Xun whispered, "Where have you been for the past six months? Your stomach..."

"Ji Xun," Xia Youqing avoided the last two questions, and just said, "I have something to ask you."

Ji Xun looked at the woman in front of him.

This acquaintance is actually not very close to him, and under normal circumstances, it is not even a relationship that can be entrusted to each other.

They just... know someone else at the same time, and they're both intimate with someone else.

Yuan Yue.

Xia Youqing was Yuan Yue's girlfriend, and the relationship was once so close that they talked about marriage.

As for him and Yuan Yue, Yuan Yue was four years older than him and entered the police station four years earlier. When he entered the police station, Yuan Yue carried him by the hand, and later partnered with Yuan Yue for a while.

They have a very good relationship, until now when he left the police station, Yuan Yue still called him from time to time.

"Look for Yuan Yue." Ji Xun said.

"I haven't asked you what to do." Xia Youqing said softly.

"It's not difficult to guess. You disappeared for half a year and reappeared. It's not to borrow money from me. Apart from a little money, what I know is that, tracking, criminal investigation." Ji Xun said, "But you also know that I He left the police force three years ago. On the contrary, Yuan Yue became the captain—"

As soon as the sentence was out of his mouth, he realized that he shouldn't have said it, but he insisted on finishing it.

"You go to him and he will do everything in his power to help you."

Xia Youqing's face was livid in front of her. After a while, she curled the corners of her mouth and pulled out a warm smile on the canvas.

"Ji Xun, do you think boyfriend and girlfriend who broke up can still be friends?"

"I think……"

"Ji Xun, don't lie." Xia Youqing reminded softly.

"I think there is a cycle of getting and giving. If you want to get, you have to give."

Ji Xun cleverly avoided Xia Youqing's questioning, can the boyfriend and girlfriend who broke up still be friends?Maybe, maybe not.But in Xia Youqing's situation, obviously not.

The woman in Ji Xun's memory was intelligent and beautiful, and she always appeared with his friends. At that time, her smile was always sweet, as if a whole jar of sugar was hidden in the corner of her slightly turned mouth.

But now, the child in her womb has absorbed too much nutrition from her, and she has become thinner even though she is pregnant. The hair that grows to her waist is like a heavy curtain, pulling her head back and pushing her wrist against the door. It is as thin as firewood, and can be broken without using force.

Happiness fades, just like a diamond loses its halo, exposing its overflowing and cheap nature.

This is a good woman, and she has paid a lot for Yuan Yue, and Yuan Yue has indeed failed her.

As a result, even Ji Xun had to be a little shorter for his friend when facing her.

"I understand." Xia Youqing said calmly, "Everything has value, and you have to pay a price to get it. Then Ji Xun, I have something here, do you want to pay something to get it back?"

"What is it?" Ji asked.

"Ji Xun, you said..." The woman blinked her eyes, her voice was gentle yet cold, "Does Yuan Yue know that you like him?"

When Ji Xun heard this sentence suddenly, his brain stopped for a few seconds.He looked at Xia Youqing, and the woman restrained the expression on her face again, begging him:

"I have a friend, I can't get in touch now, I hope you can go and see with me. I'm worried that something will happen to her..."

Before Ji Xun spoke, the door of the bathroom opened, and the young man with a tear mole came out from inside.

He was wearing the patent leather jacket from yesterday, and his hairstyle had been rearranged. He combed it all back and fixed it with hairspray, revealing his smooth and full forehead, and his temperament also changed dramatically. Ji Xun felt the edge of oppression.

The only problem is that Ji Xun doesn't have hairspray at home.

This guy actually carries hairspray with him.

"This request sounds very simple." The mole youth said to Xia Youqing briefly, "Did he agree? If he doesn't agree, I will go with you."

who are you?

Xia Youqing looked puzzled, she didn't answer, she just looked at Ji Xun.She didn't come here in a hurry to go to the doctor.The reason why she didn't look for Yuan Yue was because she hated Yuan Yue, but also because she trusted Ji Xun.

She is waiting for Ji Xun's answer.

Ji Xun looked at Xia Youqing, then at Huo Ranyin.

Both men looked at him.

"...Okay, let's go. The three of us are together."

Ji Xun suddenly made a decision. Without giving Xia Youqing and the young man a chance to refute, he put on his clothes, went to the bathroom, quickly wiped his face and rinsed his mouth, and led the two of them downstairs. On the way to Xia Youqing's friend's residence, he simply said understand the situation.

Xia Youqing's best friend is Xi Lei, 28 years old, renting in Qing'an Community. She used to work as a nurse in a hospital, but later she resigned to become a confinement maid. Therefore, they are very popular in confinement centers and earn a lot of money.

Since three months ago, she met Xia Youqing who was in a bad state of mind at the entrance of the hospital and had no family to accompany her, she has taken care of Xia Youqing in many ways, and even asked Xia Youqing to go for a walk every morning. This is the first time in three months that the other party Never disappeared.

"Does she have a boyfriend?"

"Yes, but I'm not very familiar with it." Xia Youqing said apologetically, "Her boyfriend's name is Zeng Peng. He seems to work in a car repair shop, but he resigned a while ago. During that time, Xi Lei was always worried, and I comforted him. A few words. Then—it's all right, I haven't heard any more."

"When was the last time you communicated with her?"

"Ten past nine the night before yesterday." Xia Youqing remembered very clearly, "I was taking a shower at that time, and when I came out, I saw that there was a missed call, and no one answered when I called back; when I called again the next day, the phone was turned off."

When the car arrived at the community, Xia Youqing said nervously when she got out of the car: "I don't have the key to Xi Lei's house."

"It's okay." Ji Xun said, glanced around, and went in one direction, "Wait for me for 5 minutes."

It didn't take 5 minutes, and he came out after 2 minutes, with a mobile phone in his hand, he had already dialed the landlord's number: "Hello, Auntie, I am Xi Lei's brother. She was in a hurry to go home and forgot to leave the key. I Waiting downstairs with my pregnant sister... you coming over right away? Okay, thank you very much."

How is this done?

Xia Youqing was stunned, and the tearful young man standing next to her read her explanation: "This agency is the closest to the community. From the principle of human proximity, the landlord has the highest probability of registering the house for rent here."

"You are..." Xia Youqing was curious about the identity of this person.

The young man with a tear mole did not answer. From the beginning to the end, his eyes did not really fall on Xia Youqing. He was always looking at Ji Xun.

Ji Xun hung up the phone.

Pregnancy is indeed a very lethal thing. Aunt Jiang came very quickly, and she didn't have any doubts about them when they arrived. She led them upstairs and opened the door with the key: "It's cold today, you go in quickly, the pregnant girl must Don't freeze."

The door opened, Ji Xun stopped Xia Youqing and entered first.

This is a typical small single apartment house, the kitchen is the first to enter the door, and then the living room and bedroom.The house was kept very clean, not even the range hood was stained with oil.

There is a basket in the corner of the kitchen, a very ordinary basket made of bamboo strips, but a circle of dried flowers is wrapped around the mouth of the basket, so even the few simple black umbrellas placed inside become interesting.

Looking at the fabrics hanging on the walls, the patterns and colors are very mixed, and it can be seen that they are all put together by rags. Even so, they also lightly and skillfully cover the inevitable cracks on the walls of old buildings.

A clean and tidy woman who is full of zest for life.Such a woman should not make this mistake.

Ji Xun's eyes moved away from the dirt that was not cleaned up at the entrance.This bit of scattered soil reminds people of what it looks like after being repeatedly drilled and ground by earthworms.Thinking of earthworms, molluscs seemed to get under his clothes, onto his skin, and creep up his back.

He clenched his fists weakly.

It's really cold today.

The decoration inside the house is bright and sunny, but the air is as cold as a kiln, and there is no atmosphere at all.

The master has only been away for two or three days, so why is it so dead and silent?Maybe as for it.A house must always be lived in. A house without people is just a shell of dust and cobwebs, a paradise for insects, snakes, rats and ants.

He passed the kitchen and entered the bedroom, his restrained eyes spread out, and the first thing he saw was a bouquet of flowers placed on the TV cabinet. The bouquet was inserted in a transparent glass bottle. There was no water in the glass bottle, and the fresh flowers were already drying up. Withering, head down, leaning limply on the edge of the glass bottle.

Under the glass bottle, there are dots of purple red, which are the traces of crushed purple petals.

The wind roared, the curtains fluttered like a bat's wings, the light dimmed and brightened suddenly, and he finally saw the little woman on the sofa and the countless puppets in front of the little woman.

The woman was lying on the sofa, neatly dressed, with one hand drooping empty, her unattractive face had a serene expression, as if she had fallen asleep in an ordinary dream; her other hand was holding , with a wooden doll in his palm.

The doll is a girl with two pigtails, a round face, bright dress, black hair, all parts are painted with good colors, except for the eyes, which are not lit up, they are empty white pupils, Looking at the woman holding it.

Under its left eye, where the woman pressed her thumb, there was a trace of purple red.

It was the trace left by the purple petals, but it was more like the blood of a doll, slowly oozing from the wood.

In addition to this, there are many more figures.

Some of these dolls are standing, some are lying down, some are on the coffee table, some are on the sofa, and some have fallen to the floor. Their postures and shapes are also different from each other, but all of them are girls. They didn't light up their pupils, they were exactly the same white pupils, looking at the dead woman on the sofa, looking at every corner of the room, and also looking at Ji Xun who entered the room.

"Chirp—"

Like a young girl's coquettish cry sounded in the room, Ji Xun was slightly shocked, and then realized that it was the cry of a murine bird in a cage in the corner. Ji Xun's skin pierced to the bottom of Ji Xun's heart, it twisted and twisted, just like the earthworm that crawled on his body just now also found a gap to enter...

He took a step back and bumped into the young man's shoulder, and the other party's calm voice sounded:

"If you find the female body, call the police."

Ji Xun looked back, and the young man also looked at him. The color of the pupils of the other party was like a dry ancient well, dark enough to cover up any ugly things.

When Ji Xun came out of the corridor, police cars and cordons appeared, and other people in the community were looking around. Aunt Jiang was sitting on a pony in the corridor, accompanied by a policewoman, repeating Talking about "how could this happen", "someone died, how can I still rent my house".

There is order in the chaos of the crowd, just like swarms of ants with a clear division of labor.

Ji Xun found Xia Youqing with a pale complexion downstairs, and before he had time to speak, a warm gaze came from beside him.

Ji Xun followed his gaze and looked over.

It was a young man with buns in one hand and soy milk in the other, staring in his direction with a bare head and a blank expression on his face.

To be honest, with a bald head that can become a monk just by adding ring scars, generally no one would think that this is a people's policeman.

But he is still a real detective.

Tan Mingjiu, a member of the Second Criminal Investigation Branch, an old acquaintance of Ji Xun.

There is still a reason for this bald head, and it all depends on a crisis in the past.The original Tan Mingjiu was a literary youth with rather long hair. Although he was severely punished twice by the bureau, he still couldn't bear to part with his soft hair.

Once Tan Mingjiu followed a team to track down a heinous murderer, who had a gun in his hand and was extremely cunning. They launched a final chase with the murderer in an unfinished building.

Tan Mingjiu was sweating from chasing people, and his hair fell out and got stuck in his eyes. He didn't know where to find a rubber band, and tied the hair covering his eyes.

It was also a coincidence that he leaned down and hid behind half of the concrete wall. His hair just protruded a little bit from the edge of the concrete wall. The murderer on the opposite side saw the human hair and raised his hand under tension. one shot.

The gun directly blasted the hair on Tan Mingjiu's head, and the murderer's position was exposed because of this, and he was shot dead by the sniper.

Recalling afterwards, Tan Mingjiu could feel the heat on his scalp being plowed by the electric razor, only one centimeter away, and what was gone was not his hair but his head.

In the resumption of the bureau, the danger Tan Mingjiu encountered did not receive humanitarian care. After everyone knew the whole story, they backhandedly gave Tan Mingjiu a hilarious laugh. The director also brought up the mental outlook again and ordered Tan Mingjiu to conduct an in-depth review.

Regardless of the danger, he was scolded by the leader and ridiculed by his colleagues. He did not hesitate to hurt twice and strike three times.

Tan Mingjiu learned from the painful experience, and ruthlessly shaved off his three thousand threads of troubles, and lived a life of competing with light bulbs for business with his head.

Ji Xun wanted to leave when he saw Tan Mingjiu, but Tan Mingjiu didn't give Ji Xun this chance.

Tan Mingjiu, who recovered from the shock, crossed the middle distance in three steps and two steps, and came to Ji Xun: "You? Xia Youqing? Xia Youqing? You?"

Then his voice dropped an octave sharply, and he said in a voice that was almost a whisper:

"Xia Youqing's stomach?"

"Don't think too much."

"I didn't think much about it." Tan Mingjiu said immediately, but he only held back for a second. After a second, he and Ji Xun whispered, "Just... is the child yours or Yuan Yue's? I want to drink you Your wedding wine, or Yuan Yue's wedding wine?"

"You can go away."

Ji Xun's head grew bigger, and he was thankful that Xia Youqing had already turned and left when she saw Tan Mingjiu, and she was not by his side now.

He pushed this ex-colleague who became energetic when he heard the gossip, and emphasized again:

"Don't think too much, Xia Youqing appeared this time because of the dead upstairs—the corpse is upstairs, go and have a look."

When it came to business, Tan Mingjiu became more serious: "Of course I will go to see it, but where are you going?"

"I'm going to eat, I'm fainting from hunger."

Tan Mingjiu handed the squashed steamed stuffed bun in the plastic bag to Ji Xun, and said generously, "Hey, breakfast. I've given you my ration."

"The country has been lifted out of poverty for many years, and you don't have to be so hard and simple. Or, you handle the case first, and I'll treat you to breakfast another day. Soy milk buns with fried dough sticks and porridge are enough." Ji Xun suggested.

"You go upstairs with me now. After checking the scene, I don't need to wait another day. I'll treat you directly. Soy milk buns, fried dough sticks and porridge are also enough." Tan Mingjiu also said slowly.

"Why?"

"Why bother." Tan Mingjiu rolled his eyes at the sky, "It's better to catch up sooner than later, you are also a consultant in our bureau after all, and you didn't go up to see if you bumped into the scene?"

"It's just a non-staff consultant. There are so many consultants in the bureau, and I'm a lot less."

"Is the point about the number of consultants? The point is that you are on the scene." Tan Mingjiu ruthlessly dragged Ji Xun back.

It was too ugly for two big men to chat in broad daylight.He patted Tan Mingjiu's hand away, took out a tissue to cover his nose, and took the initiative to enter the stairs.

The pancake-shaped bun was in Tan Mingjiu's hands again, and Tan Mingjiu didn't dislike it, so he ate half of it in one gulp. Then he saw Ji Xun's action, froze for a moment, swallowed the bun whole, sniffed suspiciously, and sniffed around like a dog.

"What are you doing?"

"What are you doing?" Tan Mingjiu asked back.

"It smells a little bit." Ji Xun said.

"There's no taste in winter." Tan Mingjiu rolled his eyes, "I haven't seen you in three years, I don't know if I left the business behind, but I'm full of hypocrisy."

The corner of Ji Xun's mouth twitched. Fortunately, the last flight of stairs had already been climbed, and the crime scene attracted Tan Mingjiu's attention.

Tan Mingjiu gasped.

"Why is he here?"

"Who?"

Ji asked, and he followed Tan Mingjiu's straight gaze to see who he was referring to.

That mysterious tearful mole youth.

A young man stands indoors, holding a puppet in a plastic-gloved hand.

The number of dolls is a bit too much, and Tan Mingjiu, who was standing beside Ji Xun, has already counted in confusion: "1, 2, 3...a total of 19, what's the matter with this doll? The murderer fell, and the cult murdered The festival site?"

"It's not like." Ji Xun replied, "It's the deceased's own."

"How can you tell?" Tan Mingjiu asked.

"There are a lot of paper towels in the trash can. I just found a rag under the sofa. On the wall cabinet facing the sofa, there is a large cabinet that is empty. From the distribution of dust on it, it can be seen that it was originally placed. There are quite a few round objects, and it just so happens that the bases of the dolls are round..." Ji Xun finished slowly, "Considering the above, the deceased was cleaning these dolls that belonged to him before he died."

Tan Mingjiu understood: "I think something is wrong."

"What's wrong?"

"You said that even if the deceased was a woman and liked dolls, so I bought [-] dolls in a row, but why didn't these dolls have their eyes lit? This infiltrating... can't be summed up in a single hobby, right?"

While they were talking, they were also simultaneously investigating the scene inside.

A criminal policeman wearing glasses stood beside the young man with a mole of tears, checking and recording: "The window is open, there are footprints on the window sill, the scene is messy, and the computer and mobile phone are missing. It is suspected to be a robbery and homicide."

The young man's eyes moved to the bottom of the table, where lay a rather eye-catching silver headset: "How do you say that?"

The policeman with glasses was taken aback for a moment, but he didn't know, so he looked at the earphones.

Hen Jian turned his head and glanced: "Famous brand earphones, the market price is two to three thousand, not cheap. It's a bit strange that a robbery suspect left this."

The glasses criminal policeman proposed a possibility: "The earphones are under the table, and the suspect didn't see them when he left in a hurry."

Youth is noncommittal.He took two more steps and came to the balcony. There were several pots of flowers placed here. He pointed to one of the pots, "The soil of this pot of flowers has been loosened. Open it and have a look."

The trace inspectors stepped forward immediately, and after finishing the inspection, they pushed aside the soil and found a plastic bag with a tightly fastened pocket inside.

I opened the plastic bag and saw that there was a large wallet of various colors inside, but the wallet was empty, and there was nothing in it.

"Can you tell when this pot of soil was turned over?" the young man asked.

"The traces are very new and happened within three days."

"Has the on-site forensic identification been identified?" the young man asked again.

"Come out." The forensic doctor replied, "The deceased was tied up before his death. No obvious injuries were seen on the body surface. The point-shaped subcutaneous bleeding marks on the mouth and nose matched the fabric of the sofa pillowcase. The inner mucosa of the mouth ruptured and bleeds. It is a typical death injury. The time of death is estimated. More than 24 hours, less than 48 hours."

Observing all the way to the present, the situation is ready to emerge.

"Acquaintances committed the crime, forged the scene of the burglary, investigated the deceased's interpersonal relationship and emotional life, and focused on investigating the deceased's boyfriend."

The sound in the room came faintly, but not very clearly.Ji Xun didn't listen carefully, his eyes fell on a data cable on the empty table in the room.That black data cable, like a small coiled snake, is extra eye-catching.

Tan Mingjiu let go of the topic about dolls, and leaned into his ear, wanting to tell him the details of the youth:

"You came with him today? Why didn't you say hello to me earlier, he—"

"Do you have anything to add?"

Tan Mingjiu was interrupted before he could finish his sentence.At some point, the young man was already standing at the door of the house, talking to them.Tan Mingjiu hesitated for a while, and was about to answer, but found that the other party didn't look at him, he looked at Ji Xun.

Ji Xun leaned against the wall as if boneless, and didn't look at the young man very much. He just stopped on the door frame and changed a nose-covering tissue: "Ask me? I don't have anything to add. Maybe like a police inspector I mean, it's a pretty boring case."

"boring?"

"Boyfriend kills girlfriend for money and love, isn't it boring enough? Of course, there may be some twists and turns in it. After all, third-rate authors also know to create some false and real contradictions and conflicts before the murder occurs."

The young man frowned, as if dissatisfied with Ji Xun's frivolous tone, but he didn't dwell on it, but changed the subject:

"When did you find out who I am?"

"Last night, I had some doubts about the capture technique. This morning, your answer is definitely doubtful. Now I know the rank of the police officer."

The young man took off his latex gloves, stretched his hand forward, and pointed his pale fingertips at Ji Xun, leaving aside the drunkenness and indulgence under the feasting and feasting, and now only sharp eyes remained.He stood there, Yuan Ting and Yue Zhi, completely different from last night:

"Huo Ranyin, the captain of the Second Criminal Investigation Detachment."

Ji Xun shook hands with others.

The opponent's hand was as cold as his voice.

The author has something to say:

Xia Youqing's point of view is Xia Youqing's point of view, the protagonist has no idea about Yuan Yue~

Note 1: There are references to professional books for the professional description of corpses in this article