Silver Snow Line [Criminal Investigation]

Xu Siwei didn't even have time to change his bloodstained pajamas. He was wearing slippers, as if he was scared out of his wits. Without Wei Cheng's support, he had to use the handrail to steady his steps when he went downstairs. His face was pale, cold sweat covered his forehead, and his stiff face looked like a half-melted plastic product.

Lu Shaohui was startled, thinking he had seen a ghost in broad daylight. He whispered behind Xie Qingfei, "Is this Xu Siwei?"
Xie Qingfei nodded.
Wei Cheng had already walked up to her.

"He called me," he explained the situation, "and said that he went to Anqi's room in the morning to wake her up, but no one answered the door after he knocked several times. When he went in, he found that she had been murdered. And..."
Xie Qingfei saw him pause: "And?"
Wei Cheng glanced at Xu Siwei and said, "And Anqi's clothes were disheveled. She must have been violated."

Lu Shaohui was surprised: "In his house? Is there someone else in his house?"

Xu Siwei finally dragged his heavy steps down the stairs. When he heard Lu Shaohui's question, his lips moved but no sound came out.

Wei Cheng frowned: "Siwei, you need to explain the situation clearly to the police."
He then slowly raised his head, glanced at Lu Shaohui, then looked at Xie Qingfei, and was obviously stunned.
"Do you still remember me?" Xie Qingfei said, "I'm from the criminal police team of Tianning Branch."
Xu Siwei opened his mouth in astonishment, turned his head and saw Wei Cheng talking to other police officers in a familiar manner: "Uncle?"
"Hmm? This is Captain Xie." Wei Cheng turned around. "I forgot to tell you that I also work in the Criminal Police Team, and Captain Xie is my superior. So Siwei, who was at your house last night and what happened? Can you explain it to us in detail?"

Xu Siwei pursed his lips, and his pale lips turned slightly red. He gathered the collar of his pajamas, his expression changing with confusion, and finally closed his eyes in pain, and said in an unspeakable tone: "Last night... Si Ruo was there too."

Several people immediately understood why he did not explain the situation immediately.

Wei Cheng first glanced at Xie Qingfei, who showed no expression. She raised her chin to signal Xu Siwei to continue.

"Si Ruo has no place to live in China, and I, as his brother, feel bad that he always stays in a hotel by himself, so I invited him to stay at my house temporarily. An Qi has fewer classes this semester, so he also stays at my place most of the time. It was already very late when I brought Si Ruo back last night. I toured the house with him and then let him go to the guest room to rest." Xu Siwei recalled slowly, and then said, "Because An Qi had already fallen asleep, I didn't want to wake her up, so I didn't go back to the master bedroom last night, but slept in An Qi's usual room."

Xie Qingfei said, "You mean, An Qi has a separate bedroom here, but she sleeps with you most of the time. Last night was a special case, so you left her alone in the master bedroom and went to the spare room."
Xu Siwei nodded.
"Is there anyone else in the house besides this?"
"No. I don't like to have outsiders stay overnight. Usually, the aunt at home gets off work before six o'clock in the evening."

Xu Siwei said, and then came to his senses in panic: "Could it be that a criminal broke into the house and wanted to go to the master bedroom to look for valuables and woke An Qi up, so... Then An Qi died for me, right?"
He immediately convinced himself, grabbed Wei Cheng's sleeve, and said sadly: "Uncle, An Qi died for me, I killed her!"
Wei Cheng raised his arm and pulled him to sit on the sofa, and said in a gentle voice, "Siwei, don't let your imagination run wild for now."
"It's all my fault. How else could it be? I don't have any enemies. It can't be that someone wants to harm me."
Xu Siwei rubbed his eyelids hard, making people worry whether his big European-style eyes could withstand such force.

Xie Qingfei glanced at the dark circles under his eyes and saw the bony sternum under his thin pajamas. He lowered his eyes again and found that the wound on his arm had almost faded.

When Lu Shaohui finished taking notes, he looked up and asked, "Where is Xu Siruo?"
Xu Siwei's face turned grim: "I haven't seen him since I got up. I don't know where he went."
"Why don't you call and ask? With such a big incident, you should also ask him if he has found anything." Xie Qingfei said calmly, "Siwei, although it may be cruel for you to say this, based on the situation last night, Xu Siruo is a big suspect in An Qi's death."

Xu Siwei shook his head fiercely: "Impossible, Si Ruo is not that kind of person!"

"What kind of man is he?"
"He..." Xu Siwei was confused for a moment. He didn't know his younger brother very well.
Wei Cheng took Xu Siwei's cell phone and called Xu Siruo, but the phone was turned off.
Xu Siwei said firmly: "In any case, Si Ruo would not do such a thing. I know that because of the recent rumors, the outside world is suspicious of our relationship, but I am Si Ruo's brother, and I believe he would not do anything bad. Even if...even if he wants to fight with me for something, he should not attack An Qi, An Qi is innocent!"

Xi Ming called out to Xie Qingfei at the stairs.
"You should have a good rest first. If you think of any details, tell Officer Lu." Xie Qingfei added, thinking of his timid personality, "Or tell your uncle."
Xu Siwei pursed his lips and said okay, but he never let go of the hand that was holding Wei Cheng's sleeve.

"Who is that little crowbar downstairs, Xu Siwei?" Xi Ming leaned on the handrail and looked down.
As soon as he finished speaking, the people below seemed to sense something and looked up.
"Oh my, oh my." Xi Ming was so shocked that he touched his chest. He barely maintained his politeness and commented tactfully, "He looks a bit like that."

The two entered the room.

Anqi's body was lying on the bed. The most obvious wound was at her neck. A deep red blood line cut her slender neck, and the collar and bed sheets were splattered with blood. Her long, smooth hair seemed to have lost its luster with her death, and was pressed messily under her body. Her legs were open, her right leg was bent, and there were red marks on her ankle from being pinched. Her nightgown was pushed up to her waist. Several men present avoided their sight, and two female police officers were working with the forensic assistant to collect evidence from her lower body.

Xie Qingfei glanced at An Qi's face. She seemed unable to believe that she would die in such a way. Her eyes were wide open and her beautiful face finally froze in a blank expression.

Xi Ming turned his back to the bed and said, "We checked the interior of the bedroom. The windows were closed tightly. There were no signs of intrusion. Colleagues outside also said that the courtyard door had not been pried open. There were a lot of surveillance cameras installed. Xiao Zhao had already checked them out. However, the security conditions in this entire area are very good. There were no signs of fighting at the scene. The possibility of illegal entry is really small."

Someone outside called Cheng Buyu's name. Xie Qingfei looked up and saw him hurriedly taking off his coat and coming in.
"How come?"
"I met a drunk young man on the road and sent him to the hospital before rushing here." The assistant fastened the belt of Cheng Buyu's protective suit. Xie Qingfei took advantage of the waiting time to observe the room.

This is Xu Siwei’s bedroom.
The interior area is quite large. Because it is a suite, there are doors leading to the bathroom, cloakroom and study. The main colors are black, white and gray. There is a large line painting on the left side of the wall. The winding black lines form an abstract human face. Although the decoration style is simple, the overall aesthetic is not bad, unlike the impression given by the owner of the house.

Xie Qingfei pushed open the secret door of the study, and the first thing that caught his eye was a cello placed against the wall. The body of the cello was a bit old, and it was not difficult to see that it had been idle for a long time and only served a decorative purpose.
There wasn't much on the desk next to him. The bookcase had three layers, and most of them were classic books that hadn't even been plastic-wrapped. The bottom layer had more stuff, and Xi Ming pulled out an unwrapped leather book and found it was a photo album, which contained old photos of Xu Siwei when he was a child.

"You were so cute when you were little, how did you end up like this?"

He complained and stuffed the album back.
Looking back, he saw Xie Qingfei still standing in front of the cello. He walked over and asked, "Did you find anything?"
Xie Qingfei bent down and looked for a while, then said, "Have you seen the wound on An Qi's neck?"
"I saw it. It was a strangulation injury, right?" Because An Qi was half naked, Xi Ming only took a quick glance at the most conspicuous wound. "The width of the rope groove is probably only a few millimeters. Judging from the amount of blood, the artery must have been cut. Tsk, he was really cruel."

As if to verify his conclusion, the forensic doctor has completed the on-site evidence collection.

Cheng Buyu took off his mask and said, "The initial inference is that the victim died of mechanical asphyxiation. The victim had sexual intercourse before his death, and his vagina was wiped. Only a small amount of vomit was extracted from the mouth and nose. However, there were many new and old scars on the body, mainly concentrated on the buttocks and inner thighs."
"Take someone to do a blood test." Xie Qingfei pointed at the cello.
"For this guitar?" Xi Ming reacted quickly and touched his neck. "It's the strings."

Xie Qingfei and Cheng Buyu returned to the bed, leaned over to look at the bruises on An Qi's neck, raised their heads and asked in a positive tone, "It was caused after death."
"Yes. My guess is that if the murderer wanted to strangle the victim with a tool like a guitar string, the victim's neck would not be left with only one wound during the struggle. Although there is vomit in the victim's mouth and nose, there is no sign that she is drunk. I have to wait until I go back and test her to confirm the details."
Cheng Buyu walked around to the other side of the bed, where the body was being moved and turned over: "And this."
Xie Qingfei looked over and found several long scars crisscrossing on the buttocks of the corpse, some of which were red, swollen and protruding. She frowned and asked, "Was it whipped?"

Cheng Buyu pointed out a few more places to her, and Xie Qingfei immediately figured it out: "She was kneeling and was whipped from behind with a whip or something like that."

She checked the victim's wrists again. She had noticed the red marks on her wrists when she had coffee with Angie not long ago. Such marks are most familiar to the police, because when they encounter uncooperative suspects, their wrists are usually left with scars from the handcuffs because they struggle after being forcibly restrained.

Both of them were thinking of something, and there was a hint of unspeakable awkwardness in their looks at each other.

Xi Ming also had a result: "There was indeed blood on the string, the thinnest one."

Wei Cheng and his friends talked to Xu Siwei for a long time, and the other party finally calmed down a little and stopped shaking. But the lost sense of security was not so easy to restore. Wei Cheng lowered his eyes and looked at his sleeves that were already wrinkled and soaked with other people's sweat. He felt that all his patience in his life was lost at this moment.

As soon as Xie Qingfei came downstairs, she saw his expression of despair. There was blood on Xu Siwei's pajamas, and he would occasionally rub against Wei Cheng's arm as he leaned against him. Xie Qingfei frowned, and became even more annoyed. Looking at Wei Cheng's expression of not knowing how to refuse, she also felt that he was possessed by a saintly father, and why was he still maintaining his good uncle persona at this time.

The more she looked at him, the more annoyed she became. She stepped forward and pulled Wei Cheng aside with great force. Xu Siwei lost his support, and his hands hung in the air, grabbing the air twice, looking at her with tears in his eyes.

“Can you play the cello?”

Xu Siwei sniffed, and his stiff facial features shook as a whole, his expression difficult to discern: "I can't."
Xie Qingfei glanced at his hands and asked, "Do you know anyone who can do this?"
Xu Siwei tilted his head and thought carefully: "Yes, Si Ruo would. But what does this have to do with An Qi's death?"
"Because An Qi might have been strangled to death by the cello strings," Xie Qingfei examined his eyes. "The strings are so thin that if you put them around her neck from behind and pulled them hard, they would cut into her flesh and even sever her veins and arteries."

She described the scene very calmly, and Xu Siwei immediately showed a horrified expression, as if his neck was also strangled.

He looked at Wei Cheng with pleading eyes again.

"How about this, let's not talk about An Qi for now, let's talk about you." Xie Qingfei pulled a chair over and sat opposite Xu Siwei. "When you were kidnapped before, you were beaten by the kidnappers. Your injuries have almost healed now, right?"
Xu Siwei crossed his arms and said humiliatedly: "Well, it's okay now."
Xie Qingfei: "Of course you know it's okay. How serious the injury is, how many days it will take to heal, whether it hurts or not, isn't it all up to you to decide?"
Xu Siwei frowned in dissatisfaction: "What do you mean?"
"You said you didn't enter the master bedroom last night, so where did the seven whip marks on An Qi's body come from? Which burglar would bring such a niche prop to play games with you?" Xie Qingfei shot a sharp look at him and saw that Xu Siwei's face turned pale with nervousness. "Or... did you accidentally go too far and cry thief?"

(End of this chapter)