[Cloud City · Major Crimes Unit Office]
Three hundred twenty-seven thousand six hundred.
That was Xu Ruolin's total spending in Night Wanderer Bar's VIP room over the past twelve months.
Yin Wuwang looked at the printout Little Lu had handed him, his finger sliding down the column of numbers. The highest single charge was forty-eight thousand—one VIP room session, including two bottles of vintage champagne and one bottle of single malt whisky. The lowest was still over six thousand. Two to three times a week, like clockwork.
And in the month before the incident, the frequency suddenly jumped from three times a week to five. The amounts nearly doubled as well.
Then, the entire week of the murder—zero.
"There's also this." Little Lu pushed another sheet over. It contained Xu Ruolin's basic information, with several points highlighted in fluorescent marker. "Xu Ruolin, twenty-eight years old, Investment Manager at Yufeng Asset Management. I couldn't find her annual salary, but Yufeng is one of the city's top five private equity funds—you know the going rate for investment managers there. Not short on cash."
Little Lu paused, lowering his voice as if sharing classified intelligence.
"Then I checked her vehicle registration. She has a Mercedes E-Class under her name, but she never drives herself to the bar. Always calls a car—not a taxi, but the same designated driver company every time. I called them; they said Miss Xu is a VIP customer with a dedicated driver."
Xie Qingyan stood at the whiteboard, having already organized the key information from last night's interview into several lines. After hearing Little Lu's report, he picked up a marker and added two lines next to "Xu Ruolin"—
Spending anomaly: Frequency doubled in month before incident, dropped to zero during incident week.
Driver service: Dedicated driver, pickup records traceable.
Yin Wuwang stared at the spending statement, his mind unconsciously breaking down and reassembling the numbers.
Three hundred twenty-seven thousand. One year. Nearly thirty thousand per month average. An investment manager's income could certainly cover this amount, but the issue wasn't the money—it was the pattern.
Someone who went to the same bar every week, sat in the same private room, ordered the same tier of drinks—she wasn't going there for the alcohol. The drinks were just the entry fee. What she was buying was time alone with Chen Wan in that room.
And doubling the frequency in the month before the incident meant she needed more time.
More time for what?
Xiao Zhou had mentioned they'd had a fight. She came back the next day. The content of the argument was unknown, but Xu Ruolin had cried, and Chen Wan's face had looked terrible.
"Brother Jiang, one more thing." Little Lu pulled out the last page from the stack. "This is the credit card record for her final purchase. Nine days before the incident, VIP room, four hours. Charged twelve thousand."
Four hours.
Yin Wuwang glanced at Xie Qingyan. Xie Qingyan was looking at the timeline on the whiteboard, his pen tip lightly tapping the spot marked "nine days before incident."
Four hours in the private room, and an intense fight. Then she vanished for an entire week.
If you connected "fight" and "disappearance"—
On the surface, this thread pointed to a very simple conclusion: crime of passion.
A woman deeply involved in Chen Wan's life, upon discovering something unacceptable, had an explosive confrontation with him. After the fight, she disappeared for a week—during which she was either cooling down or planning. Then the incident occurred.
Motive, timing, emotional intensity—everything lined up.
Too neat. Yin Wuwang's brow furrowed slightly.
But the instinct that it was "too neat" had no evidence to support it at the moment. He couldn't assume every smooth lead was a smokescreen just because the last suspect, He Jinsong, had been "too smooth" and turned out to be a dead end. That wasn't investigation—that was bias.
"We need to pursue two paths simultaneously." Xie Qingyan turned around, capping his marker. His tone had shifted to case mode—concise, clear, no unnecessary emotion.
"First path: investigate Xu Ruolin's whereabouts during the week of the incident. Where she went, what she did, whether she has an alibi. The driver company's pickup records are our breakthrough—if she called for a car that week, we'll have times and locations."
He looked at Yin Wuwang.
"Second path: re-examine the physical evidence. Previously we reviewed the scene from the angle of 'a second person was present.' Now we have the possibility of 'emotional dispute.' I need to go back and look at the ligature mark details and the distribution of items at the scene, confirm whether the killer's behavioral pattern suggests premeditation or passion."
Yin Wuwang understood his meaning.
The first path was chasing the person. The second was chasing the evidence.
Two different directions—one running outward, one drilling inward.
"You track her whereabouts; I'll go to the evidence room." Xie Qingyan said.
This was the first time since entering this world that they would be working separately.
Yin Wuwang felt something shift—not unease exactly, but an awareness. For the past several days, they'd been side by side through every interview, every crime scene, every late-night analysis session. Splitting up was logical, efficient, necessary. But it also meant driving alone, thinking alone, discovering things without anyone to immediately share them with.
He pushed the thought aside. This was a case, not a field trip.
Yin Wuwang didn't hesitate. "Fine. I'll check the driver company and her credit card records together. Little Lu—"
"Here!"
"Give me the driver company's contact info. Then go pull Xu Ruolin's cell tower location records for the week of the incident."
Little Lu scribbled rapidly. "Got it!"
Yin Wuwang stood, picking up the car keys from the desk. As he turned, his gaze swept across Xie Qingyan's desk—the dark gray travel mug stood at the corner, cap screwed on, probably filled with green tea before leaving this morning.
"I'm off." He said.
"Mm." Xie Qingyan had already started gathering the evidence files on his desk.
[End of V2_Chapter 38]
Next: Xu Ruolin's background check, Dragon Brother's ledger, and a debt that spans more than money.