Chapter 202: The Real Culprit, The Truth

"Following a girl?" Chen Mo feigned confusion. "You specifically invited a girl over to your house, but instead of staying home where you belonged, you went out in a rainstorm to follow another girl?"

Seeing that Chen Mo didn’t seem to believe him, Lin Ranhai quickly said, "It’s true."

"Then give me a reason to believe you."

Feeling the cold touch on his face again, Lin Ranhai immediately said, "Someone asked me to do it."

"Who?"

"My sister."

"Your sister?"

Su Chengfeng’s new partner and her daughter had never been pleased with Su Yuqing. When Su Yuqing showed up at their door again that Friday night, their resentment was obvious.

If it was her, then Chen Mo was inclined to believe Lin Ranhai wasn’t lying.

However, seeing is believing. Chen Mo took Lin Ranhai’s phone, unlocked it with his fingerprint, and looked through the chat history.

Sure enough, he found the chat log between Lin Ranhai and his sister, Lin Shiyu.

It did indeed contain his sister’s request for him to follow Su Yuqing that day.

Chen Mo had been searching for the motive behind Lin Ranhai’s strange decision to go out.

After all, one of the clues he already had was that Lin Ranhai had invited a girl over to his house to do homework.

That was what the case file said.

Then, through Blade, he discovered that Lin Ranhai had followed Su Yuqing.

This was a major contradiction.

Who would invite a girl over, leave her at home, and then run out in the rain to follow someone else?

No matter how you looked at it, it was strange.

Now that he had this answer, it all made sense to Chen Mo.

Chen Mo continued scrolling through the chat history.

[Queen Sis]: Come to my place. Now.

[Lin Ranhai]: What’s up?

[Queen Sis]: I said come, so hurry up. Stop asking so many questions.

[Lin Ranhai]: But I have a classmate over. I can’t just leave her by herself.

[Queen Sis]: Just have her wait a bit, it won’t take you long. Hurry up. Let me know when you’re downstairs.

[Lin Ranhai]: Fine, fine, fine.

From the contact name Lin Ranhai had saved for Lin Shiyu, it was clear that he held his sister in high regard.

[Lin Ranhai]: I’m downstairs.

[Queen Sis]: You remember Su Yuqing, right? She’s about to leave. Follow her and see where she goes.

[Lin Ranhai]: Huh?

[Queen Sis]: What "huh"? Just stick to her.

[Lin Ranhai]: Won’t that make me a stalker? If anyone sees me, they’ll think I’m a pervert.

[Queen Sis]: It’s pouring rain, what are you afraid of? The security cameras won’t even get a clear shot of your face.

[Lin Ranhai]: I guess that’s true... But why do you want me to follow her?

[Queen Sis]: After I calm down your brother-in-law, I need to have a word with her. Just follow her for now. From the looks of it, she won’t be going home anytime soon.

[Lin Ranhai]: Fine. This little trip is worth at least 1,000 in allowance money.

[Queen Sis]: I’ll put it on your tab.

...

Some time later, Lin Ranhai sent his next message.

[Lin Ranhai]: She went into someone’s house. Should I keep waiting here and following her?

[Queen Sis]: Whose house?

[Lin Ranhai]: I don’t know. It was a guy about my age. Maybe her boyfriend?

[Queen Sis]: She actually has a boyfriend?

[Lin Ranhai]: She’s so pretty, it’d be weirder if she didn’t have a boyfriend.

[Queen Sis]: Alright, wait a few more minutes. If she doesn’t come out, you can head back.

...

The rest of the messages weren’t important.

This showed that Lin Ranhai had indeed only followed Su Yuqing to the vicinity of Chen Mo’s own house.

’In other words, the moment I took Su Yuqing in, the butterfly effect caused this part of the plot to come to an abrupt end.’

But looking at all the information gathered so far...

Chen Mo’s head was full of questions.

If Lin Shiyu had Lin Ranhai follow Su Yuqing...

...then his only job should have been to follow her.

Why would he suddenly be overcome with lust and kill Su Yuqing?

If Lin Ranhai had contacted Lin Shiyu and they met up in the old district, their conversation didn’t indicate at all that Lin Shiyu had any intention to kill.

Neither of them seemed to have a reason to kill Su Yuqing.

But Chen Mo had been a criminal detective for many years, after all.

He understood that many murders didn’t necessarily have a clear motive.

Many cases were crimes of passion. Someone would get swept up in the heat of the moment and do something they’d regret when it was already too late.

If there was a possibility that Lin Ranhai and Lin Shiyu had killed Su Yuqing...

The first scenario is that Su Yuqing was soaked by the rain, her white school uniform turning transparent, which momentarily triggered Lin Ranhai’s animalistic nature. He lost control of his desires and tried to make a move, not expecting that Su Yuqing was carrying a knife.

Lin Ranhai snatched the knife and killed her with it.

But this theory, when combined with the original investigation’s findings, was clearly wrong.

Although Su Yuqing’s clothes were in slight disarray, her body showed few signs of a struggle.

When a person struggles, they will have ligature marks from their clothing to varying degrees, as well as bruises from being forcefully restrained.

In the absence of such marks, the person essentially didn’t put up a fight.

This didn’t fit the scenario of her facing an assailant, bravely drawing a knife to defend herself, only to have the knife taken and used against her.

Then, based on their conversation, the only other possibility was that Lin Shiyu and Su Yuqing had a conversation that went south.

The murder weapon would still have been the one Su Yuqing was carrying. After all, in such spontaneous crimes, the perpetrator rarely brings a weapon with them.

In most cases, they use whatever is at hand.

As for what Su Yuqing and Lin Shiyu actually talked about, why their talk fell apart, and how it ultimately led to such a tragedy...

...that was impossible to know.

But he guessed it still had something to do with Su Yuqing visiting her father’s home.

Based on what Chen Mo had found out about Lin Shiyu’s personality, she was the type who hated her husband having any connection to his ex, and that included his biological daughter with that ex.

Driven by this desire for control, it wasn’t impossible that she wanted to warn Su Yuqing to stay away from Su Chengfeng’s home, and the conversation unexpectedly broke down.

But in the end, all of this was just speculation.

’Who is the real killer? What is the truth?’

Chen Mo felt like he was extremely close to the truth, yet it was as if there was a thin paper screen he just couldn’t break through.

He still didn’t have that feeling of everything clicking into place.

But at the very least, he could now be certain that Lin Ranhai’s part in this was basically over.

The trail he could follow had gone cold. He wouldn’t find out why Lin Shiyu had her brother follow Su Yuqing that day unless he confronted her face-to-face.