Silver Snow Line [Criminal Investigation]

Xie Qingfei wanted to hold on a little longer, but he couldn't help but laughed.

"Is that so funny?" he muttered.
Xie Qingfei felt embarrassed by laughing, and quickly straightened his expression: "You also know it's not funny?"

Wei Cheng's lips curled up, and after his smile faded, his eyes became serious. He said in a deep voice: "I know you are thinking about me. I won't do anything that will annoy you. Please give me a little more time."

There was a hint of caution in his tone, and Xie Qingfei suddenly felt a complex emotion in his heart, and for some reason he couldn't be tough anymore.

Wei Cheng was too stubborn. Was it because he had gained everything that he could not accept losing? But he always found his own shortcomings again and again to make up for the possible things that she was not satisfied with, and he didn't think that Xie Qingfei was just selfish and afraid of things, and was unwilling to bear the heavy burden of love.
She suddenly found that she seemed to care about him a little more than she had originally thought. She could even empathize with his grievances and reflect on herself. Love is really a destructive thing.

Xie Qingfei half-closed her eyes and looked at him quietly. Every time they met, Wei Cheng dressed himself up elegantly. Not only did he look like a model, but he also wore clothes that he could walk on any catwalk. It was obviously pleasing to the eye, but she couldn't help but ignore these and think: Has he lost some weight? Does he have bruises on his eyes? It seems that his mood is not always cheerful, and even the soft amber syrup fragrance on his body seems to have turned bitter.

Wei Cheng was unaware of all this. After feeling her gaze, he even thought that she was at least still lusting after his body, so he quietly stretched his beautiful long legs to her feet.

After Xie Qingfei finished reflecting on himself, he began to say in a nonchalant tone: "You don't have to do things that make me like you."
Wei Cheng: “I am doing what I like.”
"You...it's up to you. I don't care about you." Don't argue with a scoundrel.
Rogue: "Are you too lazy to care about me again?"

Xie Qingfei wanted to cover his mouth. Why bother him? Just go away. But he just took a step and was almost tripped by someone's long legs.
Wei Cheng quickly grabbed her by the waist and lifted her up. Xie Qingfei was stunned for a moment and looked at him in surprise: "What do you mean, you're still charging tolls?"

It turned out that she wasn't looking at his legs.
Wei Cheng looked away guiltily and lectured her without confidence: "Look at you, how careless you are when you walk."

After a while, Xie Qingfei sighed softly and said, "Let's still eat in the cafeteria, okay?"
Wei Cheng raised his eyebrows slightly and saw a smile on her lips.
He was relieved and waved his hand: "Swipe my meal card."

Xi Ming took a seat and waved at the two of them from a distance.

"I went home and found some old photos," Wei Cheng took out an envelope from his pocket and said, "When the Xu family and the Zhu family formed an alliance, Zhu Yichun was still in college. It was said that she was reluctant to agree to the marriage. The reason she gave was that she already had someone in her heart and couldn't let her lover down. But her family sent people to her school to investigate and didn't find any boys she was close to. I also found a few secretly taken photos and they are all here. So her family thought this was just an excuse for her to avoid the alliance. Of course, even if she really had a lover, they would have been separated, and she would have eventually married Xu Maokun."

Xie Qingfei opened the envelope. The young woman in the photo was wearing a white gauze dress, with a cello in front of her, playing with her eyes downcast. It was a static image, but one could inexplicably read the sadness between her brows.

Xi Ming saw the pattern on the zither and said, "Isn't this the zither in Xu Siwei's study?"

"Zhu Yichun studied at a music college, but Xu Maokun had lived with his mother since childhood. He could barely make ends meet for more than 20 years before being adopted by the Xu family. He had no knowledge, cultivation, or artistic talent. After taking over the family business, he was just a mercenary businessman. So the two had no common language at all, and their relationship was not good after marriage." Wei Cheng said, "Maybe they fell in love with each other over time? They also spent some harmonious days, but this peace was broken after Xu Siwei was born. Zhu Yichun ran away to the United States alone while pregnant, and never came back until her death."

Xi Ming held the chopsticks in his mouth and said, "From this point of view, Xu Siwei is most likely Xu Maokun's illegitimate son. After the truth was revealed, Zhu Yichun couldn't accept her husband's betrayal, so she left him so resolutely."

Xie Qingfei asked: "Does Wu Xiuxiu have any relatives at home? Can someone come and do a kinship test with Xu Siwei?"
Xi Ming said: "Her parents are still alive, but they moved away after Wu Xiuxiu passed away. I have contacted local colleagues to help collect DNA samples."
Xie Qingfei nodded and continued looking at the photos.

Wei Cheng even found some wedding photos of Zhu Yichun and Xu Maokun, as well as some group photos of the Xu family banquet. The couple looked harmonious but their hearts were far apart, and it was obvious that their relationship was average. As time went by, Zhu Yichun no longer appeared, and the woman standing next to Xu Maokun was replaced by Fan Qiuye. Xu Siwei was getting older, and as Wei Cheng said, he was not liked by his father. Although he was the host of the banquet, he always shrank behind Fan Qiuye, and his young back never straightened up. At that time, he had not had plastic surgery yet, and was a very handsome boy, so his posture did not look wretched, but rather a bit pitiful.

Xie Qingfei remembered that Xi Ming once said that he thought Xu Maokun was a very flattering person. Although she didn't know what he looked like in front of Wei Cheng's father, trying to please him to be his godfather, but when she recalled his attitude towards Wei Cheng when she first met Xu Siwei, she seemed to be able to appreciate the similarities between the father and son.

She quickly flipped through a few more photos, all of which were pictures of various banquets. Xie Qingfei paused, and her eyes suddenly stopped on a delicate and handsome little boy.
He was about five or six years old, wearing a small suit, with his hair combed black and shiny, his legs showing under his knee-length suit shorts, his leather shoes were polished to perfection, and his expression when looking at the camera was particularly cold, like a miniature version of a domineering president.
Xie Qingfei looked up at Wei Cheng. He put down the can of Coke that was raised to his lips and blinked in confusion: "Why, you want to drink too?"
She ignored it and looked at the cool and arrogant kid in the photo again, then held the photo up to Wei Cheng's face for comparison.

Xi Ming, who was sitting next to her, also took a look and said, "Isn't this my brother when he was a child?"
Wei Cheng frowned, glanced at her hand, blushed, snatched the photo and stuffed it into his pocket: "No."
Xi Ming exposed her without giving her any face: "Obviously, I still have a lot of your childhood photos at home."
Wei Cheng glanced at him and said, "I have a lot of photos of you naked too."
Xi Ming was fearless: "Ha! How can you be so mean and threaten me? Wait for me to call my mom and she will definitely find a photo of your naked butt. I will frame it and hang it in the office!"
"There's no need to post it in the office," Xie Qingfei advised without much sincerity, "You can send it to me privately."
Wei Cheng said angrily: "Xie Qingfei!"

Xie Qingfei smiled: "Hmm? You were so cute when you were a child, show me what's wrong?"
Xi Ming nodded repeatedly: "Yes, I still have a lot of idol baggage."
Wei Cheng gritted his teeth and forced a smile: "Have you never seen it before or what?"

What haven't you seen? I'm definitely not talking about childhood photos, but naked buttocks.

At this moment, Xi Ming really hated himself for understanding the context too quickly. While secretly cursing his brother for being so coquettish, he lowered his presence and concentrated on eating.

Xie Qingfei was silent for a moment and picked up a piece of pork ribs for Wei Cheng.
Wei Cheng raised his eyebrows.
Xie Qingfei: "Don't talk."
Wei Cheng: “I didn’t say that.”
What the hell is that expression on your face? Xie Qingfei warned, "Don't even think about it."
Wei Cheng smiled slightly.
Xie Qingfei blushed: "You can't even laugh!"

……

After dinner, Xie Qingfei will begin his first interrogation with Xu Siwei.

Xu Siwei had been left out for such a long time, and no one had informed him of any situation. The arrogance he had in cursing the police for being incompetent before being taken away had long since died down, and his emotions were dominated by anxiety and fear.

Xie Qingfei entered the interrogation room carrying a cello, without even saying hello to him. He pulled out a chair, sat down, and began to tune the cello in silence.
Xu Siwei's bloodshot eyes fell on the piano in her hand. He immediately recognized that it was his own and clenched his hands.

Xie Qingfei sat sideways, with the guitar on her thighs, and slowly unscrewed the A string and pulled out the pegs. Xu Siwei didn't know her purpose, so he didn't speak easily. The only sound in the room was the occasional keyboard tapping by the recorder, and the rest was his heavy breathing. Xie Qingfei slowly applied the axis wax to the pegs, once, twice, three times... Xu Siwei's eyes couldn't help but focus on her movements. When she counted to seven, she put down the axis wax, and he also breathed a sigh of relief.
Xie Qingfei put the peg back into the peg hole and took out a pen from her pocket to polish the string groove. Xu Siwei looked at her with some surprise. However, when she straightened the A string and put it back into the peg, Xu Siwei suddenly said uncomfortably: "You put it in the wrong way, it should be..."
Xie Qingfei paused, pinched one end of the string and plucked it a few times on the peg, then asked, "Like this?"
"No, you have to turn it over first." Xu Siwei saw her poking everywhere, and he felt as if his heart was pierced with several holes and it was unbearable. He wished he could do it himself.

"Like this? Like this? Or like this?" Xie Qingfei tried a few more unrelated options.
"Neither, neither!" Xu Siwei watched the string being twisted around by her, sweat forming on his forehead, "You can't just twist it six times!"
Xie Qingfei gave up and pulled out the untied strings and threw them on the table, saying impatiently, "This is such a hassle."
Xu Siwei was anxious: "Reinstall it as I said!"
"As you said? You know a lot?"
"Of course I--" Xu Siwei stopped talking abruptly and his face turned pale in an instant.

Xie Qingfei said calmly: "Of course you understand it. If you don't understand, how can you use it to cut An Qi's throat?"
She straightened the strings and put it in place quickly and neatly, without any of the unfamiliarity that had shown her just now as she was at a loss as to how to do it.

Xu Siwei's plump lips were curled up due to dryness and dead skin. They trembled as he moved, and Xie Qingfei heard him say in a weak voice, "I didn't."

She sat facing him, with the cello at her feet: "Why would you lie? Didn't you say you can't play the cello?"
Xu Siwei looked at her angrily: "I can't play the violin in the first place. I just know how to change the strings! Xu Siruo is good at playing the violin. What's the point of looking for me instead of him?"
"How can you be sure that it was Xu Siruo who did it?"
"If Xu Siruo knew which room An Qi slept in, he could also remove the strings and kill people."
"You also meet these conditions."
"I……"

"After you took Xu Siruo to the master bedroom to sleep, you went to An Qi's room to find her and killed her. In order to cover up the truth, you carried her to Xu Siruo's side in the master bedroom, and then used the strings of a guitar as a weapon to make it look like she was strangled to death. First, you misled the police with the speculation of burglary, so that we thought someone wanted to harm you but went to the wrong room, causing An Qi to become your scapegoat. Later, you reminded us that Xu Siruo met the conditions for committing the crime and transferred the crime to him. But if this so-called "burglar" really wanted money, there was no need to violate An Qi and take a life. So the only person who wanted to enter the master bedroom and harm people could be Xu Siruo, who was also at your house that night. It's okay for Xu Siruo to kill you, but what kind of relationship does he have with An Qi that made him hate her so much that he killed someone in such an irrational situation?"

Xu Siwei defended himself by saying, "I can't possibly kill her!"

Xie Qingfei sat back and said, "When I was chatting with An Qi before, I asked her how you two met. She said she met you while working at a convenience store on campus. To be honest, you are not the type that people would fall in love with at first sight, and An Qi doesn't like you that much either. But she still agreed to be with you. I think in addition to your own 'money ability', the most important thing is that you two have similar interests."

Xu Siwei suddenly got goose bumps on the back of his neck: "I, I don't know what you are talking about."

"Is your online name 'Seven'? Your date with her is not just a simple chat, right?"
Xie Qingfei patiently explained to him: "It's hard to investigate what you did before, but this is the first time you've killed someone, so it's really difficult to deal with it. You can only be thankful that you took contraceptive measures during the process and didn't leave any sexual fluid on her body. You also carefully cleaned An Qi's body afterwards, but you didn't expect that there was still some of your DNA in her throat that couldn't be erased."
Xu Siwei then remembered something, and a trace of regret flashed in his eyes.
Xie Qingfei tapped the pen he used to polish the string grooves on the table. "In this case, what you said about not going into the master bedroom to see An Qi that night was also a lie."

Xu Siwei took a deep breath and sneered, "Okay, I admit that I did it with her that night. She's my girlfriend, isn't it natural for me to do something with her? Is it illegal to have some fun? The reason I lied was because I was afraid that you would frame me for her death. Why would I kill her for no reason?!"
"You didn't mean to kill anyone, but she died because of you, and you know that very well."
"What do I know? I've never heard of someone dying from sleeping. Are you crazy to pick a fight with me?"

Xie Qingfei threw a few photos in front of him. Xu Siwei lowered his eyes and took a look, his pupils contracted violently.
It is the secret room of his room.

The tools were secondary. The containers of illegal drugs were clearly displayed in front of him, as if victims were jumping out to identify him one after another. Xu Siwei's Adam's apple rolled up and down, and he licked his lower lip with the tip of his tongue, tasting a hint of blood.

"Angie died of mechanical asphyxiation. Overdosage of drugs can cause vomiting, and alcohol can slow down one's senses. In this situation, you still squeezed her throat forcefully." Xie Qingfei observed the other party's increasingly gloomy expression and said slowly, "Of course, something unpleasant may have happened between you, which made you refuse to stop even though you knew she was uncomfortable, and ultimately led to her death."

Xu Siwei stared at the table in a daze, thinking about that night.
They both drank some drugged wine to help them have fun, and because the amount was well controlled, it increased their interest without making them dazed. An Qi's graceful body was crawling at his feet, with seven fresh and beautiful whip marks on her body.

He reached out and caressed her skin lovingly, and suddenly heard her ask, "Are there any guests at home?"
He told her that he brought Xu Siruo back.
"It's your brother," An Qi recalled several times she had met Xu Siruo, and said without thinking, "Your brother is so handsome, he doesn't look like you at all."
Xu Siwei suddenly woke up from his confusion and pinched her neck and asked, "What did you say?"
An Qi still didn't feel the danger approaching, she turned around and hugged him, saying jokingly: "If I had known you had such a handsome brother, I would have chased him."

Xu Siwei was immediately furious. He thought of his miserable life in the past twenty years. His father didn't love him, his mother abandoned him, and they all liked Xu Siruo better than him. An Qi was his woman, and even though she could only kneel at his feet like a dog and beg him to love her, she still dared to say that Xu Siruo was better than him.

Why? Why should he endure all this? He is servile to you and him because everyone looks down on him. Does he want to be called incompetent? Does he really not care at all when he hears those comments and ridicules about him?
Xu Siwei felt a fire burning in his chest. He could do nothing to the outside world, but he could severely punish the woman in front of him. He wanted her to pay the price for her words and deeds.

So, maybe it was because he was too emotional or too drunk, but when he came to his senses, An Qi had stopped breathing.
This was certainly not the result he wanted, but it had indeed happened.

"I……"
Xu Siwei's voice was hoarse, and he could feel the smell of blood coming out of his throat, which reminded him of An Qi's whimpering and begging for mercy.
"She deliberately angered me, and I was careless... I didn't mean to kill her."
Xu Siwei held his head and sobbed, "You're right, I knew she couldn't stand it, but I didn't stop."

Xie Qingfei asked: "After she died, how did you deal with it?"
Xu Siwei suddenly stared into her eyes and asked, "What will happen to me?"
"what?"
"If I kill someone, how long will I be sentenced to?" He asked without waiting for her answer and smiled bitterly, "No matter how long it takes, the result will be the same."

"I have nothing left to lose."

Xu Siwei wiped his face, drank the water in the cup beside the table, and said, "I didn't handle it myself. There was actually someone else at my house at the time."
Xie Qingfei: "It was Tan Wei who cooperated with you to record the kidnapping video some time ago."
"Yes." Xu Siwei nodded numbly. He was no longer surprised that she knew other things. "The remaining one of the three rooms is where he is."
"What's your relationship with him?"
Xu Siwei covered his face in pain and said, "He said...he is my uncle."
Xie Qingfei raised her eyebrows in surprise. Just as she was about to ask something, the door of the interrogation room was pushed open and Lu Shaohui looked at her solemnly.

outside the hallway.

Xie Qingfei asked: "What's the matter?"
Lu Shaohui took out his mobile phone and played a video for her.

The camera shook violently several times, and after it was stabilized, Tan Wei's face appeared in the center of the screen. He held a knife in his right hand, which was pressed against the neck of the terrified woman next to him.
Lu Shaohui explained: "This woman is Fan Qiuye."

The next second, Tan Wei stared at the camera with a cold gaze, and said sharply: "Xu Maokun! If you want your woman to live, tell her everything you have done! Otherwise, I will kill her!"
Xie Qingfei watched the few seconds of video several times and said, "Xu Maokun has become a vegetable. What's the point of shouting at him?"
"I'm not a vegetable now."
Lu Shaohui said with a headache: "Xu Maokun is dead."

(End of this chapter)