Film and Television: My Cheat Code is AI

Daylight broke. Zhang Yang lay slumped over his workstation, his face buried in his arms, breathing evenly. He had clearly closed his eyes because he couldn't stay awake any longer in the middle of the night.

Old Zheng, holding a teacup, leaned closer and said to Ji Jie in a low voice, "What have you done to her? You don't even let her get a proper rest?"

Ji Jie was flipping through the files on the table without looking up, her tone tinged with grievance: "How can you blame me for this? It's Zhang Yang who ruined himself. He went straight to the archives after returning from the crime scene last night and managed to find those two brothers. The Sui brothers' files have been on your desk for a while now."

Old Zheng glanced at his desk and, sure enough, there was a brown paper bag. He clicked his tongue and said in a different tone, "You guys don't really care about other people's feelings."

Before she could finish speaking, the door was pushed open, and Tian Rui strode in, holding a sticky note in her hand. Her voice was clear and bright: "Sister Ji, we've found the home address of the deceased, Hu Yaoliang."

Zhang Yang woke up with a start, his eyes not even fully open before his hand reached for the car keys on the table. He rubbed his face vigorously, his voice still hoarse from just waking up: "Let's go, let's go together."

The three of them drove to Hu Yaoliang's house, an old-style residential building. The hallway was dimly lit, and the paint on the walls was bulging in some places. When they knocked on the door, they could immediately sense the oppressive and stifling atmosphere inside, as if half of all the air had been sucked away.

Hu Yaoliang's mother sat on the sofa, trembling with sobs, tears streaming down her face. She clutched a soaked handkerchief in her hand, her knuckles white from gripping it so tightly. Her father sat on a wooden chair next to her, his back hunched, his eyes red but he forced himself to remain silent, his lips pressed into a thin line, his hands clasped together on his knees, occasionally loosening them before immediately clenching them again.

Hu Yaoming stood by the window, some distance from his parents. He crossed his arms, gripping his elbows tightly, his shoulders slightly hunched in. He stood awkwardly, toes pointing to toes, making him appear as if he had shrunk in size.

Zhang Yang stood at the door and scanned the scene, then exclaimed inwardly.

[Analyzing...]

[Target Hu Yaoming, hands tightly gripping his upper arms, a defensive posture indicating he is highly tense and instinctively forming a barrier in front of him. His feet are turned inwards, toes pointing inwards, revealing hesitation and a desire to retreat. There are noticeable beads of sweat on his nose and forehead; given the relatively low room temperature, this is cold sweat from stress. His gaze is unfocused, avoiding eye contact with his parents and the police. Conclusion: This person shows signs of guilt and is likely concealing something.]

Ji Jie spoke up, her tone calm, as if she were chatting casually: "Before the accident, did Hu Yaoliang say where he was going?"

Hu Yaoliang's father slowly shook his head, his movements small and his voice as soft as if afraid of waking someone: "No."

"Who is he with?"

"I don't know," the father shook his head again.

The mother quickly added, her voice trembling with tears, but she spoke very fast: "We don't know, and we usually don't ask." As she said this, she glanced at Hu Yaoming, her eyes filled with a complex emotion, not like she was talking to a stranger, but rather as if she were reminding someone.

Ji Jie turned her gaze to the person at the window: "Hu Yaoming, you're Hu Yaoliang's brother. What's your opinion on this matter?"

Hu Yaoming's shoulders visibly tensed, his lips moved slightly, and he said, "How could this be? Yaoliang is dead just like that." His voice was dry and flat, without any inflection, as if he were reciting a prepared sentence.

Zhang Yang and Ji Jie almost simultaneously noticed the problem in that sentence: since they entered the room, they hadn't mentioned that Hu Yaoliang was dead. Reporting deaths was the job of the police station, and at this point, the family members probably didn't know the exact news.

Tian Rui didn't pursue that point further, but instead continued her investigation by asking, "Do you have a girlfriend?"

"Yes," the mother said.

"No," the father said.

Two voices rang out almost simultaneously, followed by a moment of silence. The father turned to look at his wife, and the mother glanced at him as well; both elderly people wore expressions of confusion.

Hu Yaoming glanced at his parents, his Adam's apple bobbing, and he stammered, "Who...who are you asking about?"

Tian Rui said, "Your younger brother, Hu Yaoliang."

Hu Yaoming glanced guiltily at his parents again and said, "Oh. He doesn't have a girlfriend." As he said this, his father looked up at him, his eyes filled with something new, not anger, but a nascent confusion and unease, as if a scar he had never seen before had suddenly appeared on his son's thigh.

"And what about you?" Tian Rui then asked.

"I have."

"What's your name?"

"My name is... my name is Du Yi." After saying the name, he bit his lower lip and gripped his elbows even tighter with his fingers.

Zhang Yang noticed that from the moment Hu Yaoming opened his mouth, his mother's hand had been gripping his wrist. The veins on her hand were bulging, the knuckles were prominent, and her nails were almost digging into Hu Yaoming's sleeve. It wasn't comforting; it was a tight grip, as if if she let go, her son would disappear.

Zhang Yang stood at the door of Hu Yaoliang's room and glanced inside. The room wasn't large; it contained a single bed, an old-fashioned wardrobe, and a few freight industry magazines stacked on the desk. The curtains were half-drawn, making the room dimly lit but fairly tidy. Nothing special, just an ordinary truck driver's room.

Just as he was about to turn around, the deep blue voice rang in his mind.

There is a foreign object under the bed. The hem of the sheet is wrinkled and appears to have been dragged outwards, with slight signs of dust disturbance on the exposed portion, which is inconsistent with the overall cleanliness of the room. The object is located approximately 15 centimeters inside the bed leg; it is lumpy, dark in color, and blends into the shadows on the floor, making it difficult to spot with the naked eye.

Zhang Yang stopped, put on white gloves, squatted down, lifted the hem of the bed sheet, and reached inside to feel around. His fingertips touched a soft piece of fabric, which he carefully pulled out. It was a pair of women's underwear, black lace with openwork details. The material was very thin, the workmanship was exquisite, and the label was printed with English. He picked up the underwear, looked at it in the light from the window, and then put it into the evidence bag.

At the door, Hu Yaoliang's parents saw his actions at the same time. His mother's hand, which was holding a handkerchief, stopped in mid-air, and his father's originally hunched back straightened slightly. Neither of them spoke, but their eyes were fixed on the transparent evidence bag.

Zhang Yang put the evidence bag away and nodded to Ji Jie. Ji Jie stood up and said, "Then we won't bother you any longer. We'll take our leave now."

After leaving the Hu family's house, Tian Rui had already contacted the household registration department and obtained Du Yi's home address. On the way to Du Yi's house, Ji Jie turned to Zhang Yang from the passenger seat and asked, "What did you see in the room?"

Zhang Yang took out an evidence bag from his bag and held it up for Ji Jie to see: "Victoria's Secret, the latest model. This one alone is probably around three thousand RMB. We only found the lower body; the upper body isn't in the room."

Tian Rui leaned over from the back seat, her eyebrows raised high: "Wow, I didn't expect you to know so much."

Zhang Yang smiled and put the evidence bag back into his bag. He didn't know much, but the deep blue in his mind knew the styles and prices of women's underwear brands very well, and could even list out which year they entered the domestic market. He couldn't hide it.

When they arrived at Du Yi's house, they knocked on the door. Du Yi was a young woman in her early twenties with long, flowing hair and delicate features. She was wearing loose-fitting loungewear and led the three of them into the living room.

Ji Jie cut to the chase: "What were you doing around 9 PM last night? Were you with Hu Yaoming?"

Du Yi sat down, crossed her hands on her knees, and said in a calm tone, "Yaoming has been staying at his parents' house. We made a phone call around nine o'clock."

Tian Rui pressed further, "Do you remember the exact time?"

"It's probably 9:15."

"Until what time?"

"We played until 10:30."

Tian Rui then asked, "What do you do for a living?"

I teach music in middle school.

Ji Jie steered the conversation towards the deceased: "What was your impression of Yaoming's younger brother, Yaoliang?"

Du Yi's gaze drifted from Ji Jie's face to the coffee table, then from the coffee table to the window: "She's a nice person... I'm not quite sure about that." Her voice trailed off halfway through her sentence, as if she were trying to find the right words.

Zhang Yang sat beside her without saying a word, but his eyes never left Du Yi. While she spoke, her right hand kept picking at her left thumb nail, and her speech was sometimes fast and sometimes slow. She swallowed twice when she mentioned Hu Yaoliang.

[The subject showed clear signs of guilt. Their gaze avoided key questions, and their eyes drifted twice to the lower left when the deceased was mentioned—a typical eye movement pattern when fabricating or concealing information. Frequent fidgeting, such as picking at their nails, tugging at their clothing, and repeatedly adjusting their posture, are all externalized behaviors of anxiety. Their answers, "The person is fine" and "I don't quite know," are contradictory, showing a break in the logical chain and indicating concealment. Further questioning is recommended.]

Ji Jie continued, her tone a little more tense than before: "Du Yi, what were you doing at 9:50 last night?"

"I'm taking a shower," Du Yi replied quickly.

Ji Jie didn't pause and followed up directly: "When you're dating Yaoming, do you often talk on the phone for an hour or two?"

"No...no," Du Yi was clearly flustered, her hand waving in the air before quickly lowering it. "It wasn't yesterday when I took a shower, it was the day before yesterday." Her cheeks flushed red, her ears burned, and her breathing became shallow and rapid, the rise and fall of her chest clearly visible.

What are your thoughts on Yaoliang's death?

"This...this...I don't know." She shrank back an inch into the sofa, her back pressed tightly against the cushions, as if searching for something to hide herself from.

Zhang Yang felt the time was right, so he took an evidence bag out of his bag and placed it on the coffee table: "Have you seen this before?"

Du Yi looked down at the black lace panties in the transparent bag, her expression shifting from panic to daze. She stared at them for several seconds, her lips moving slightly before she hesitantly spoke, "This seems... seems to be mine."

Zhang Yang said, "I found this at Hu Yaoming's house. If it's yours, then there's no problem."

That was a clever way of saying it, referring to Hu Yaoliang's room as Hu Yaoming's home. Ji Jie glanced at Zhang Yang slightly, her gaze not reproachful, but Zhang Yang understood the weight of that warning. He didn't press further, taking the evidence bag back and placing it on the coffee table.

Du Yi picked up the bag and looked at it over and over again. She held it up to her eyes, examined the label against the light, and then put it down. There was a hint of uncertainty in her voice: "I'm not quite sure about this. It seems to be mine." As she said this, her brows furrowed slightly, then relaxed, as if she were quickly flipping through some ledger in her mind.

Zhang Yang suddenly changed the subject, his voice low but his question abrupt: "Does Hu Yaoming have his own place to live?"

Du Yi was startled by his jump, and after a moment of surprise, she nodded: "His parents bought him an apartment near our school."

Zhang Yang nodded and didn't say anything more.

Ji Jie stood up and resumed her previous polite tone: "Then we'll be going now."

Du Yi saw them to the door, his hand on the doorknob, his expression somewhat unnatural, as if he had been interrogated—and in fact, he had been interrogated. As the door closed, Zhang Yang heard a very soft, long exhale from inside, as if someone had been holding their breath for a long time and finally let out a sigh.