Chapter 357: Volume 1, Chapter 357: Strange Mirage (27)

Plane tickets were expensive, Jiang Zhi wanted him to book a train ticket, Wen Chijin raised his long fingers, threaded them through her black hair, gently rubbed, and explained: "I have savings, sis, you don't need to worry about money."

Speaking, he placed the bankbook in her palm.

Jiang Zhi, while he went to buy the plane ticket, opened the bankbook.

She counted.

Seven zeros in total……

He had actually become a millionaire already?

During the boring wait, Jiang Zhi's phone vibrated, and she received a text message.

It was a familiar phone number, but Jiang Zhi couldn't recall who it was; when she opened the message, she suddenly stood up, and the scarf wrapped around her neck slipped off onto the chair with her movement.

(136***: I am the officer in charge of your parents' case; I just found a crucial piece of information—your parents' case is suspicious, and it is certain that someone deliberately murdered your parents.)

She was about to reply to the text when Wen Chijin walked over at that moment.

"Sis, what's wrong?"

The girl's face turned deathly pale, she stood frozen in shock as if struck by lightning, her vision darkening, her trembling fingers handed over the phone.

That line of text entered Wen Chijin's field of view.

His dark eyes, deep-set beneath prominent brow ridges, flashed a hint of coldness, then retracted without a trace.

He said, "Sis, this might be a scam text."

Jiang Zhi spoke firmly: "No, I remember, I remember he was the officer who sent me that text last time, Ah-Chin—my parents weren't killed in an accident but murdered; let's go to the police station now!"

Wen Chijin's hand behind his back gradually clenched, crumpling the plane ticket inside, veins bulging on his wrist.

After a few seconds, he nodded and agreed: "Okay, let's go together."

Jiang Zhi's mind was now in turmoil, anxious and tense, urgently wanting to know the truth of her parents' murder.

So much so that she didn't notice the abnormality of the boy beside her.

Taking a taxi all the way to the police station where Officer Wang was stationed, Officer Wang had been waiting a while and told her some current leads.

"Our investigators found slight modification traces in your parents' minivan, but that van is too old to uncover any other clues."

Officer Wang handed her the photo of the brakes.

"It's because the brakes failed that your parents had the accident."

Jiang Zhi stared at the photo, her pallid lips pressed tightly together.

At that moment, Officer Wang shifted his gaze to the boy behind her, furrowed his brows, and asked: "You're Wen Chijin, right?"

Wen Chijin nodded, his face calm, but one could see the usual nervousness of anyone coming to the police station to face officers: "I'm Wen Chijin."

Officer Wang said: "I have a few questions I'd like to ask you alone; come with me to the interrogation room."

Seeing this, Jiang Zhi grabbed the corner of Wen Chijin's shirt.

Officer Wang explained: "Don't worry, I just have some doubts I want to ask him about; I'm not going to lock him up."

Wen Chijin turned his head, smiling gently to reassure her: "It's fine, sis; I'll be out soon, just wait here for me."

Jiang Zhi released her grip, watching them leave with worry.

…

Several minutes later.

Wen Chijin came out of the interrogation room, Officer Wang following behind, and said to them: "For now, stay in the city."

Jiang Zhi wanted to ask why.

Officer Wang saw what she wanted to say and began explaining: "First is your parents' matter, second is……"

His gaze fell on the boy, and he continued: "Your younger brother Wen Chijin is suspected of murder."

Jiang Zhi hastily shook her head, disbelieving, took out her phone, typed a message, and handed it to him to see.

"Impossible, how could he kill anyone? Officer, did you guys get it wrong?"

Officer Wang said: "We just received an anonymous tip that someone filmed Wen Chijin meeting the deceased near a bar after Song Yuwei went missing on New Year's Eve."

But this is merely a lead, not evidence identifying Wen Chijin as the killer, so he can now leave the police station and move freely.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Zhi's body swayed a few times.

After leaving the police station.

Wen Chijin looked at her absentminded state, his pupil color slightly deepening.

After walking a while, Jiang Zhi suddenly raised her hand to gesture.

"Ah-Chin, I believe you."

She lifted her head, her clear tea-colored eyes reflecting his silhouette, lips pressed tight, full of sincere trust in him.

Wen Chijin stopped walking and said: "That night I went out to buy a drink, on the way I received a call from Song Yuwei asking me to meet her one last time."

"I had already told her I didn't like her; I only went over because I feared she might come to harm, but I never expected her to burst into tears upon seeing me, begging me not to dislike her."

"I didn't want to stay longer, so I left despite her being drunk."

Jiang Zhi listened attentively.

Wen Chijin lowered his eyes, gave a self‑mocking light laugh: "If I had kept her company a bit longer then, would she not have died?"

Jiang Zhi raised her slender, scallion‑like fingertips and lightly pressed them against his furrowed brows.

Wen Chijin said self‑reproachfully: "Back then I was afraid you'd misunderstand, so I never told you I had met her again. Sorry, sis, I hid it from you."

Jiang Zhi shook her head: "It's fine, Ah-Chin, you don't need to blame yourself; this has nothing to do with you."

After finishing the gesture, she voluntarily wrapped her arms around his neck, rose on tiptoe, and kissed his cheek.

Wen Chijin reached out and held her close in his arms, tightly, as if wanting to embed her into his flesh and never part.

In a corner she couldn't see, the depths of his narrow pupils surged with a sinister, vicious aura.

——All obstacles should be removed.

…

The plan to move away was temporarily put on hold, and they returned home.

The winter snow melted, and early spring arrived.

One week after school started, Jiang Zhi received a text message.

Officer Wang died.

The body was found in the abandoned long river; as a scavenger old man passed by the riverbank, he noticed bubbles continuously rising on the river surface, so he hooked with a branch, pulling out a piece of clothing, and immediately a swollen, waterlogged corpse surfaced—it was Officer Wang, who had been missing for five days.

Jiang Zhi felt panic welling up inside her.

The officer who sent her the text was Officer Wang's apprentice, who had been accompanying Officer Wang in investigating the clues to her parents' deaths.

She hadn't even had a chance to reply when that officer immediately sent another text.

(I've found an important clue: Officer Wang had visited a bookstore before his disappearance, located on Chengdong East Road North Lane; I'm heading there now—please stay safe.)

Jiang Zhi glanced at the overcast sky outside, threw on a coat, and hurried out of the house.

Following the address sent by Officer Xiao Zhang, she took a taxi to the vicinity of the bookstore.

This is an old street; a pedestrian street was recently developed two kilometers away, causing this old street to gradually fall into disuse and abandonment—all shops closed, no one on the road, giving an eerie feeling.

This is an old street; a pedestrian street was recently developed two kilometers away from here, so this old street has gradually become deserted and uninhabited, all the shops have closed their doors, there is no one on the road, giving people an ominous feeling.