Silver Snow Line [Criminal Investigation]

"There is no such thing as happiness or unhappiness in the world. There is only one situation compared with another, nothing more."
——"The Count of Monte Cristo"

The girl was trapped in the warm bed, with the scent of laundry detergent wafting from the quilt in her nostrils. She lingered on the bed for a while, then sat up and reached for the cane leaning against the bedside table.

Her bedroom was not big, and the distance of a few steps had already become her muscle memory, allowing her to put on her slippers smoothly, walk over the end of the bed, and go to the bathroom outside.
The house was exceptionally quiet this morning. There was no air conditioning on outside the bedroom, and the oppressive cold made her cry out in fear, but she received no response.
Until she heard footsteps, she turned her head towards the source of the sound: "Brother, are you there?"

The cane made a rhythmic muffled sound when it touched the ground. She soon heard a chair being knocked over. She leaned forward anxiously and groped for the chair. This was the balcony. Usually at this time, her brother would be hanging out the clothes to dry. In half an hour, he would prepare breakfast and lunch for her and then go to work.
She felt a little annoyed. If she wasn't just a blind and disabled person who had to rely on her brother for everything, he wouldn't have to work so hard all day.

"Brother, did you hit it?"

She stretched out her hand towards the air, and indeed she touched someone. However, before she could show any joy, she suddenly pinched the limb she touched in fear.

The feet of the body suspended in the air hung down, and after being pushed by her, it swung back and forth strangely. The morning light stretched the shadow of the hanging corpse, all the way to the haze at the end of the cabin, as if a long sword with a cold light split the two people in half.
Screams pierce the winter morning, and the city wakes up at this moment.

seven in the morning.

Xie Qingfei returned home after his morning run and received a call from Xi Ming before he had time to sit down.
"Master, do you remember what I told you last night?"
"Remember, go to your house to get the toy you bought for Deng Deng. I've told you hundreds of times." Xie Qingfei grabbed a handful of cat food for the four-legged money-eating beast that ran to her feet, "Go after breakfast."

Xi Ming felt relieved: "That's good, I——"
He yawned deeply and said, "I'll sleep a little longer."
"What time is it and you're still sleeping? Aren't you afraid of being late?"
"I'm in the dormitory. It only takes ten minutes for me to get ready." Xi Ming's voice was getting weaker and weaker. He probably called her before he woke up. Now his head tilted and he fell asleep again.
Xie Qingfei listened to the gradually sinking breathing beside his ear with amusement, and grabbed Deng Deng's head: "Eat quickly, and then go see what fun things your godfather bought for you."

Xi Ming's house is upstairs from Wei Cheng's house. In fact, Xie Qingfei has rarely been to Wei Cheng's house. When they were in love, Wei Cheng was willing to be "kept" by his leader, and she rarely went back. She was so busy that she couldn't spare much time to visit other places.

When we arrived, we found the right apartment building and the entrance door of Xi Ming's house was right there when the elevator opened.
Deng Deng was released from the space capsule. After recognizing the familiar environment, he ran inside happily. This cat just couldn't sit still and was as energetic as a wild dog. Xie Qingfei couldn't stop it and could only let it play.

She went to the place Xi Ming told her, packed up the boxes and piles of new toys and a bunch of miscellaneous imported cat food and nutritional supplements, and sent a message to complain about the excessive amounts.
Xi Mingren had already arrived at the bureau and sent a voice message with great confidence: "Raise your son in poverty and your daughter in wealth. What's the point of having only one or two toys? Others will think I can't afford them!"
Xie Qingfei was speechless about this man's doting mentality. Since the matter was settled, she planned to ask Deng Deng to go home with her. However, she searched the main hall but couldn't find the cat. This was her first time to come to Xi Ming's house. She was not familiar with the environment. She had checked the bedroom and bathroom, but she didn't know where this rebellious girl had run into.

Opposite the main hall, separated by a transparent TV wall, is the fitness area. When Xie Qingfei found this place, he discovered that there was a hole in the ground in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass window, and inside it was actually a spiral slide that led all the way down.

Xie Qingfei took a photo and asked Xi Ming: [I don’t know where Deng Deng ran to. What’s under the slide? ]
Xi Ming replied after a few minutes: [It's also a gym, why don't you go down and look for it? ]
Xie Qingfei realized something was wrong in a second: [… Below is Wei Cheng’s house. ]
Xi Ming: [I asked him, and he said he wasn't home, so you can go there without hesitation.]

Xie Qingfei was relieved then and went down on the slide. Sure enough, he heard a meow when he landed.

However, when she looked up, she saw Wei Cheng standing at her feet, with only a towel wrapped around his lower body. His hair was still dripping with water, and the crystal beads slid down his neck, through his full chest and abdominal muscles, and into his waist. The white sunlight shone through the glass window, casting a thin layer on him, and it was hard to tell who was more dazzling, him or the sunlight.

Xie Qingfei: "..."
She stood up straight with the help of the handrail, and a drop of water from his body fell on the back of her hand.

Wei Cheng was briefly surprised and then suddenly laughed. Before he could finish saying "Yo", Deng Deng, the lecherous cat, eagerly wanted him to hug her. She grabbed his bath towel with all four paws and climbed onto him. Wei Cheng was caught off guard, and the bath towel, which was not tucked in tightly to begin with, was torn off by Deng Deng.
The man and the cat cried out at the same time. Wei Cheng's face flushed red. He quickly turned around and wrapped himself up, shouting, "Xie Qingfei, you have a good cat!"

Xie Qingfei turned his head away reluctantly.

Xi Ming's message popped up again. She clicked it and saw that under the message where he swore that Wei Cheng was not at home and told her to go boldly, he added: "If he is here, it means he lied to me, you can just scold him."

Xie Qingfei cleared his throat and distanced himself from the rebellious girl: "It wasn't me who pulled it, and I didn't see anything."
Wei Cheng was incredulous: "You can't even see it's so obvious?"
Xie Qingfei asked: "Do you want me to see it or not?"
Wei Cheng came over with a bath towel in his hand, and turned around in front of her eyes, showing off his muscles. "Are your eyes okay? How could you not see?"
His lines, muscles, strength and hormones, even cats can see them!
Xie Qingfei was almost bumped by him. He admired his chest for a few seconds, then looked into his eyes and said jokingly, "Oh, you mean here."

Wei Cheng: “…”
The blush on his face, which had not faded, suddenly became hot again, and he said with a smile: "Okay, you are going to act like a hooligan in the morning, right?" "Hurry up and put on your clothes, don't catch a cold again." Xie Qingfei also smiled, and took a towel from the treadmill rack next to him and wrapped his head, "I'm leaving first."
Wei Cheng showed his eyes from under the towel: "I calculated with my fingers, you are going to Tianning Primary School."
Xie Qingfei didn't believe that he could really predict the future: "Jiang Zhaolin told you?"
"Well, the school is holding a parent-school exchange day, and both parents have to participate. They both don't have time, and they can't leave the child alone."

Jiang Zhaolin is also a colleague of the Tianning Branch. He was sent to the capital to study some time ago and is expected to return at the end of the year. Both of them are police officers, one is far away from home and the other is stationed at the grassroots level. They usually have little free time. The school activity was not arranged at the right time this time, so they could not accompany their children.

The daughter Jiangjiang is young but sensible. She has already shown maturity beyond her age. She fully understands the heavy responsibility on her parents' shoulders. She originally agreed to let her grandparents come to accompany her, but Jiang Zhaolin thought about it and still felt that it would be inconvenient for the elderly to come. If she fell or bumped into something while doing something, it would be even more troublesome. So he simply asked Xie Qingfei to come.

As soon as he stated his purpose on the phone, Xie Qingfei agreed immediately. She had nothing to do anyway, and she liked Jiang Jiang very much, but she didn't expect that Jiang Zhaolin had also found Wei Cheng at the same time.

"What's so surprising? Otherwise, where are you going to find another 'father' for Jiangjiang?" Wei Cheng saw that she hadn't considered him at all, so he asked jealously, "Haha, are you going to find Xu Siruo?"
Xie Qingfei hadn't really thought about this question, and said, "I'll find you."
Wei Cheng was satisfied, and went to put on his clothes, covering the upper part and the lower part.

The handsome man who had just come out of the bath left in such a sloppy manner. Deng Deng regretfully meowed at the back that he didn't touch, and returned to Xie Qingfei's feet and circled around.
Xie Qingfei pinched the back of its neck and lifted it up, criticizing, "Slutty cat."
Deng Deng waved his paw innocently.
"Let's change your name," Xie Qingfei pondered for a moment, "Hehe, that's good enough."

If Deng Deng could speak human language, he would definitely protest loudly against these two stupid names.
Xie Qingfei measured its body suspiciously: "Have you grown up? You're still a little heavy, but you were normal before."

"An adult Ashira cat can grow to 1.2 meters tall. Just think of it as having a dog at home." Wei Cheng had already put on his clothes and came out. He squinted at Deng Deng and said, "It looks pretty dog-like anyway."
Upon hearing the sound, Deng Deng immediately struggled to jump out of Xie Qingfei's hands and ran straight towards Wei Cheng.
Xie Qingfei suddenly realized that he had no intention of defending the rights of his own species: "No wonder it is so willing to kiss you, it turns out that it has a sense of belonging."
As expected, Wei Cheng remained silent.

At nine o'clock, the two arrived at Tianning Primary School together. The parking spaces on both sides of the aisles had already been occupied, and the entrance was so crowded that even a bicycle could not find a gap to squeeze in.

Wei Cheng was so tall that an SUV was stuck in the middle of the road, unable to move forward or backward. No matter which direction he turned the steering wheel, it was a dead end. The traffic police finally cleared the blocked area in front. Xie Qingfei suggested, "Why don't we drive to the square in front and then walk back? I guess there's no place to park in the school."
Wei Cheng followed her instructions, and luckily they didn't get late.

Jiang Jiang was already waiting at the door. When she saw them, she smiled so hard that her eyes curved into crescents. She ran and threw herself into Xie Qingfei's arms: "Aunt Feifei!"
Xie Qingfei was bumped into by her. Fortunately, Wei Cheng supported her waist from behind. She smiled and leaned forward to give Jiangjiang a kiss: "Did you miss me?"
Jiang Jiang turned her head and kissed Wei Cheng on the face again, and said politely: "I miss you two!"
Wei Cheng also smiled and opened his arms to Xie Qingfei: "Let me hold you."
Jiangjiang took the initiative to say: "I am already in the second grade, I can walk by myself."
She squeezed between the two people, took their hands respectively, and skipped to the classroom.

As a result, before I reached the teaching building, I saw a familiar-looking person turning from the corridor from a distance.

Xie Qingfei stopped and turned to look at Wei Cheng.
Wei Cheng raised his eyebrows high: "I have been with you since I got up in the morning!"

Xi Ming said a few words to the people around him, then walked towards them with big strides: "Why are you two here again? Master, you don't have an informant, do you? How come you always arrive at the scene one step ahead of me?"
Xie Qingfei pointed at Wei Cheng and said, "I have been with your brother from early morning till now."
Wei Cheng: “…”
He is used to it and will draw inferences from one example: "See, it's better to be with me. Work efficiency has improved and I can save a lot of travel."
Xie Qingfei changed his tone this time: "Metaphysics is all fake."
Wei Cheng: "How do you prove it's fake?"
Xie Qingfei: "I am a party member."
"..." He was at a loss for words, "Okay."

Xi Ming was unable to get a word in for a long time, and he didn't understand what they were talking about. After hesitating for a while, he asked, "Are you two flirting?"
Wei Cheng smiled and said, "Yes."
"...It's you." Xie Qingfei almost bit his tongue and quickly changed the subject to ask Xi Ming, "Did something happen at school?"
"No, we're here to arrest someone." Xi Ming teased Jiang Jiang for a while before saying, "A resident of Jincheng Jiayuan was found drowned in the bathtub this morning. Based on the fingerprints found at the scene, we confirmed that the suspect is her neighbor who lives downstairs. This person happens to be a teacher at Tianning Primary School."

"drowning?"

"It's hard to say whether she drowned. She was planning to take a bath, and she had taken off all her clothes and put the water in. When we arrived, we saw her kneeling beside the bathtub with her head submerged in the water. I heard from other residents of the building that the two families upstairs and downstairs had been arguing in the homeowners' group for a week because the noise from the deceased's home was too loud, especially affecting the rest of the people downstairs. The police from the police station went there several times, but she refused to change. The residents downstairs were forced into a corner and cursed at her."

Xie Qingfei understood: "Cursing someone to death?"
Xi Ming scratched his head: "Well... this is it."

What are you still doing alive? You are causing trouble to the society all the time. Go to hell! It would be better if you die! Bitch, I hope you get hit by a car when you go out, choke on rice when you eat, and drown when you take a bath. If you die, I will definitely set off firecrackers at your doorstep!
Less than 12 hours after this statement was made, a body was found next to the bathtub.

(End of this chapter)