Chapter 123

"Nothing much, I went to the lab for a bit, researched some things, small stuff, nothing to worry about."

Li Tian brought Chen Fan an ID and said, "Your ID, someone got it done for you."

Chen Fan nodded, patted Li Tian on the shoulder, and said, "Tonight, Officer Li, you need to eat more. On your wedding night, you can't just waste it recklessly."

"Get lost, you think everyone is like you. We're in pure love, what the hell do you know."

"Tsk tsk tsk, pure love? I don't think you'd say that."

"Weird as hell, I'm out of here. These past few days catching people has given me a headache. Right now everyone looks like a criminal to me. I still have to go write up the paperwork for that skin case from before. Damn it, even my teacher has come to personally help with the trial."

"By the way, what's the deal with that case?"

Actually, the director was curious too, but since Li Tian didn't say anything, he naturally felt too embarrassed to press further.

Li Tian said, "Just a simple case. This person originally went to the same school as my teacher, but later felt that being a cop was too much hassle, so he took a different path."

"Killed a lot of people?"

"Yeah, killed a lot of people, but in recent years he seems to have pulled back a bit. Later we found out from questioning that people get caught so fast now and get punished, so he stopped acting. This type of person actually has their own moral compass inside."

"Morals?"

Chen Fan scoffed.

Li Tian said, "He's a bad guy, no doubt, but he has morals—just twisted ones. Also, if he had no morals, then this person would be the most dangerous. Only with the restraint of morals can a person be considered human."

Chen Fan said, "What about me then?"

"You? Heh, you guy, I can't read you. On you, I can't see any emotion, any feeling. You have the seven emotions and six desires, but the feelings deep inside, you completely don't understand. The way you look at people, it's like you're looking at a corpse."

"But corpses can be good-looking or ugly too. At the very least, I don't think a bald head looks good."

Tch.

Li Tian flipped him the middle finger and vanished.

A little past seven in the evening, Li Tian called. At that moment, Chen Fan and the others were eating hotpot, chatting casually, adding a bit of fun for the variety show.

"Chen Fan, you bastard, you little punk, you drugged me again."

"Get lost. I didn't drug you the first time, but this time I really did."

The phone was hung up directly by Li Tian.

Chen Fan was thoroughly satisfied.

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

Sister Jing Tian said, "When did you make your move?"

"Huh?"

"My gut tells me something's off about you. I didn't see any chance of you contacting Li Tian at all. Li Tian's been guarding against you the whole time. When did you..."

In the hotpot, the boiling red oil was rolling, and the atmosphere at the table fell silent.

This was Old Liu's own hotpot, specially brought out to treat the kids to a meal. The high-intensity cases over the past two days had left these people utterly breathless.

Sister Jing Tian's words drew everyone's attention.

"Actually, it's nothing, you just don't understand."

Old Liu said, "You didn't clean up the lab bench very well. I tested the residue on it."

After saying that, Old Liu picked up a piece of meat with his chopsticks and ate it.

Chen Fan said, "It's just a hobby."

"Yeah, your hobbies are pretty broad—researching pharmaceuticals on your own."

"Relax, I won't sell it. I'm not making money off this."

"Yeah, you use it all on your own people, right?"

"You woman giving birth, you, you're slandering me!"

Bai Lu was stunned for a moment and said, "What does 'you woman giving birth' mean?"

Sister Jing Tian said, "Slanderous accusations."

?????

Hahahaha, at this moment the livestream chat was the most speechless. No way, you can even drive the conversation like this?

"The Lich King, confirmed, hahaha, I'm dying of laughter. Teacher Fei's first disciple."

"Wait, am I the only one curious about what Chen Fan is researching?"

"Yeah, isn't anyone going to explain? What the hell is Chen Fan preparing?"

"I still feel something's off. If even Li Tian got hit, isn't Chen Fan's technique a bit too impressive?"

Here, Chen Fan took a bite of meat and said, "Little things, you don't need to be afraid of me. I won't use it on you."

Old Liu said, "What's the method of transmission?"

"We're eating here, and you want to talk about this?"

"Confess honestly."

Damn, they're even using interrogation tactics on me. Chen Fan said, "Sigh, it's just skin contact. I applied some glue mixed with a bit of the drug on my fingers, then it transferred onto someone else's skin."

"Oh, Li Tian's head, well that explains it. You little punk are pretty clever, using glue to isolate your own hand and avoid poisoning yourself."

"Nonsense, teacher, you're talking rubbish. This isn't poison, it's just a normal hormone-type drug."

Old Liu chuckled and said, "So it's just an aphrodisiac."

The whole table went silent in awkward disbelief.

No way, we came to participate in a show and you're preparing aphrodisiacs—is that appropriate?

Gao Ye held back her laughter. Sister Jing Tian said, "What are you laughing at? What if it were used on you?"

Gao Ye froze. Right, oh my god.

"Chen Fan, what are you preparing this for? Who are you planning to knock out? The three of us—who are you planning to use it on?"

Bai Lu snickered, munched on a cucumber, and shot Chen Fan a look.

"I wasn't planning to mess with anyone. I was just—never mind, forget about me. Qu Yiling, did you see Mom?"

Qu Yiling was silent, looked at Chen Fan, and said, "You want to know what I did, right?"

Everyone's attention shifted.

Qu Yiling took a bite of food and said, "I contacted a lawyer. Selling—that's a crime. I'll sue. It's that simple."

?????

Holy crap, she's really ruthless.

But why does it sound so satisfying?

No, that woman is also a victim.

"On the way here, I asked my teacher, and my teacher also asked what I was thinking."

"I thought about it for a long time. I decided to be selfish. I'm a person. Forensic anthropology tells me I'm a living, breathing human being. The suffering I endured was brought on by someone else, so that person needs to bear the mistake. Why should I pay for the mistakes of the previous generation?"

Those words, once spoken, cut deep. But throughout the whole matter, this woman laid everything out clearly. Qu Yiling needs a proof—a proof of her right to be a person.

Perhaps in the past, Qu Yiling would have pursued perfection, apologized to everyone, or tried to please everyone. But now, she won't. She will only demand that she herself lives well.

"And besides, it wasn't rape..."

The mood at the dinner table chilled once again.

Xiang Qinqin slurped her beer noisily, saying nothing.

Xu Xintong and Chen Ti didn't dare speak; the atmosphere was a little awkward.

"I understand now. At the time, a policeman told me that man and my mother had been fond of each other, but their families didn't really approve. My mother didn't hold firm, so she ended up with the man she's with now."

"Later, my father made some money helping people with matters, taking a middleman's fee. He took on a few jobs, and when the other party found out, they reported my father, accusing him of rape."

"Then that father of mine handed over the money, didn't ask for it back, but lived on the other side of the city."

"I know my father was a shady character—I've confirmed that myself. But the policeman told me my father hadn't actually broken the law in any real sense. The reason he knew him was that the Yinweiwu Society often came looking for him. The first case was a false accusation, and that policeman helped handle it, and they became friends afterward."

"Then what about the fight later?"

"The fight was started by the other side. It was just that no one was there to pick up my father."

An outsider's words are always the truest; the people involved can't see anything clearly.

"The reason I'm suing is because I despise this relationship. For the sake of the life they have now, 【my mother】 tricked that man into thinking she'd been raped, so he went and took revenge on my father, which led to this whole situation. So when he was caught, that man confessed everything right away. My mother never said a word, but my teacher took Li Tian along, and Li Tian pried it right out of her."

What was hidden wasn't that her own husband had killed someone, but that because of her own lie, her husband had killed someone.

Chen Fan said, "Can you handle the public backlash?"

"I don't care."

Chen Fan opened his phone. On the screen was a girl doing a livestream, playing on people's sympathy, cursing Qu Yiling, claiming she'd ruined her own family, ruined everything.