Captured By The Cold Detective (BL)-Chapter 42: Not The Murderer

Toward this silly question, Mu Yuze did not even deign to answer. What other reason would there be other than to pick a certain someone up?

He Juan also thought that his question was rhetorical. Mu Yuze had especially parked here to wait for him. Of course, he was here to pick He Juan up! Scratching his cheek, He Juan said sheepishly, "Sorry, I got quite a surprise there. You never said you’re going to pick me up..."

"I asked you," Mu Yuze deadpanned.

"Huh?

"...When you’d get off work later."

"Oh... Oh!" Only then did He Juan finally connect Mu Yuze’s question to his behavior right now. Why was he such a klutz?! He Juan really wanted to slap his forehead right now. "Oh God... I’m sorry! Have you been waiting for a long time?"

Mu Yuze shook his head and gestured for him to get in with his chin.

Helpless, He Juan could only comply. He rounded the car and slid into the shotgun seat, grinning. He could not seem to stop himself, especially after realizing he could spend a bit more time with the omega after this. "Thank you so much for picking me up. You don’t need to do this. I lent my car to you for a reason."

"Mn," Mu Yuze replied noncommittally. He Juan saw him reach into the glove compartment and suddenly took out a familiar bottle of milk tea like performing a magic trick, giving it to He Juan. "For you."

"Xiao Ze...!" He Juan’s eyes lit up and his smile became even more dazzling. Under the sunset, his silver eyes contained specks of amber like molten copper forged under extremely high temperatures. They sparkled like none other. "You’re just so..." He Juan was unable to find a suitable word to describe how precious Mu Yuze was. In the end, he could only settle with, "...good. The best, you know?"

Mu Yuze tore his gaze away from He Juan’s beaming face and started the car, the earlobes hidden under the fluffy hair flushing ever so slightly.

He Juan savored the sweet and cool sensation that ran down his throat with eyes squinting in delight. He almost groaned at how delicious it was. For some reason, the milk tea bought by Mu Yuze tasted way better than when he’d bought it himself. Only when he finished almost half a bottle did he suddenly realize that... this behavior of providing food for another... was it not supposed to be his job as an Alpha?!

What was with this sudden reversal?!

Fortunately, He Juan was not drinking at the moment or else he would have spurted the milk tea all over himself. He coughed softly and drank two more sips to soothe his throat.

This... This was unacceptable! As an Alpha, he could not let Mu Yuze take the lead in the courting ritual! However...

He snuck a glance to the side and saw Mu Yuze’s casual and attractive pose of driving with one hand on the wheel while the other propped on the window sill to support his head. He seemed perfectly okay with giving He Juan a drink. No, to be exact, he even looked a bit... happy. Sigh, forget it. If it could make him happy, then so be it...

He Juan let go of the psychological burden and happily finished his beloved milk tea until the last drop. Only then did he break the silence, "Thank you for your hard work. Have the police... found Miss Zhao yet?"

"Not yet," Mu Yuze said. Then he changed his words, "Soon."

"You’ve got clues?" He Juan blurted out. Immediately, he palmed his forehead when he realized how thoughtless that question was. How could he ask something like that to a police officer?! He hastily tried to rectify it, "Oh, I’m sorry. I know the police must withhold some confidential information from ordinary citizens. It’s okay if you don’t tell me."

"It’s okay if it is you."

Without any hesitation whatsoever, Mu Yuze started to talk about the progress of the investigation in a simple and concise manner.

He Juan had a complicated look when he listened to this. He could not stop wondering... was it really okay for Mu Yuze to tell a murder suspect something like this?! Belatedly, he discovered that his status as a murder suspect must have been lifted as he was already free to go about his normal life. There were a few times He Juan wanted to interject Mu Yuze for he knew how sensitive the information he was talking about, but the more He Juan listened to it, the more he was drawn in.

Mu Yuze might have used the simplest way to describe the course of the event, but it was already enough for He Juan to imagine how intense the investigation was going on right now.

It turned out that as he was happily mingling with his students, Mu Yuze had returned back to District 15 in time to catch Deng Shi trying to escape through the secluded back alley. In the end, Mu Yuze simply captured the middle aged man along with his poker companions and rounded them all in the police station.

It was not only He Juan who suspected that Miss Zhao’s disappearance twenty two years ago must have something to do with Deng Shi. Coupled with the fact that he was trying to escape, this man had practically plastered the label ’suspicious’ all over his forehead.

A professional team, the same one who had questioned He Juan yesterday, took turns in interrogating these people and broke down their psychological defense bit by bit.

He Juan could not help but feel a tinge of sympathy and schadenfreude toward Mr. Deng Shi and co. Being questioned by a group of experts was truly exhausting. He Juan himself had been pressured and antagonized so many times despite being innocent — even though he understood that it was all procedure — so he knew how much torment Deng Shi and co must be going through.

In the end, after hearing what Mu Yuze concluded, what little sympathy in his heart instantly vanished and in its place was pure anger and indignation.

He Juan could persist under the interrogation team’s pressure for eight hours, but Mr. Deng Shi and co’s spirit broke down in less than four hours. Deng Shi was only a small cop in the local station after all. Not to mention that he had retired more than ten years ago. He was not as aggressive and rigorous as the guys in the Municipal City Bureau. Once the professional interrogators caught a chink in his armor, they instantly focused on drilling into it until Deng Shi tripped over himself.

It could be said that Deng Shi had really run out of luck. All this while, he was able to escape by taking advantage of the lack of circumstantial evidence and the unwillingness of the victims to step forward. He could easily evade the officers in the local station, but now that the investigation team in the City Bureau itself had stepped in... it would not be so easy for him to perform the same trick anymore.

"So it’s really him?" He Juan clenched his fists, his voice contained a rare chill to it.

Mu Yuze softly hummed.

Twenty two years ago, the 14 years old Zhao Xinya was kicked out of her house in the middle of a winter night. She carried what little belongings of hers and trudged along the snowy path, stubbornly not letting her tears fall. She walked and walked, until she arrived in the local police station that still emitted warm bright light.

A police officer surnamed Deng received her warmly and even offered the sleeping lounge for her to stay temporarily. Zhao Xinya accepted the kind police officer’s offer, feeling grateful in her heart. She naively thought that she had escaped from her vicious aunt’s grasp, that her life would surely turn better from now on...

Never had she expected that this response would be the one that pushed her life into an eternal nightmare. She thought that she had managed to save herself but ironically... she had delivered herself to the devil instead.

That year, the snow was falling heavily and the temperature outside was less than zero degrees Celsius. However, her heart felt even colder than that. It was so... so cold that her entire body froze along with it. What little hope in her heart was extinguished that day, replaced with bone-deep fear, desperation and helplessness.

"Deng Shi has confessed to sexually assaulting her twenty two years ago," Mu Yuze’s softly said, yet each word hammered down on He Juan’s heart so hard that he could not breathe. "Not only her, but countless others. The people who are with him today are all accomplices. We’re trying to retrieve the files but..." he sighed and kneaded his temple. "It has been too long and quite a lot of victims had never filed a report. The most recent one is—"

—the girl who had become another unlucky victim five months ago. However, her parents were unwilling to press charges and the police could do nothing about it.

The answer popped up in He Juan’s mind even without Mu Yuze saying.

He Juan pursed his lips and asked. "The confession alone is not enough?"

"To get him into jail? Yes. To give him the appropriate amount of punishment? No. Just an oral statement can’t be considered as solid evidence."

"Then... what about the two years’ time when Miss Zhao disappeared mysteriously?"

"That’s another problem." Mu Yuze tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. The car coincidentally came to a halt in front of the red light and he turned to stare at He Juan with a somber look.

He Juan’s heart thudded uneasily in his chest.

"...Deng Shi is not the murderer," he heard Mu Yuze say. "Miss Zhao’s disappearance has nothing to do with him."