Twenty-nine. Guess

  Ye Qing looked at me for a moment, then pulled out a stack of photos from her bag and searched through them seriously for half a day before handing one to me. Perhaps seeing the confusion on my face, she smiled faintly and said: "You should be able to guess, in order to separate Li Cheng and her, I hired... a private investigator, just to see if Guan Xinyue had any other men outside. After all, Guan Xinyue is different from me, she's beautiful, young, and educated. Even if it was for the money, she wouldn't be with Li Cheng, there are plenty of richer men who know how to treat their lovers. However, apart from this photo, Guan Xinyue's life seems very regular, just like a bird raised by Li Cheng, living her days according to the schedule he set out."

  A few light words, I'm afraid this year is also the most tangled time for Ye Qing. Now she can face it calmly, because the biggest threat is no longer there. But what kind of days was she living in at that time? Every day was nervous and fearful, afraid that a slight mistake would offend Li Cheng. Being overly cautious and flattering to Guan Xinyue, didn't it also lead to Li Cheng considering divorce?

  I took a look at the photo of Li Bin, not bad. Just by looking at Li Bin's eyes in the photo, you can tell that his attention is all focused on Guan Xinyue, while Guan Xinyue seems to be distracted. At that moment in the photo, it seemed like Guan Xinyue was trying to brush off Li Bin's hand that was holding hers. This was a great opportunity for a subtle attack, and I furrowed my brow, saying slowly: "So you're saying that Guan Xinyue doesn't plan on marrying Li Cheng? If so, then Guan Xinyue must have her own plans. Otherwise, why would she stop Li Cheng from divorcing me?"

  Ye Qing fell silent, looking at me with a very complex expression. After a while, she sighed and said: "This is also something I don't understand. On the one hand, she deliberately shows off in front of me how good Li Cheng is to her, but on the other hand, she stops Li Cheng from quarreling with me, not to mention mentioning divorce. She's a woman who makes people feel very contradictory, and even somewhat incomprehensible. Maybe it's because you can't guess what she's thinking in her heart that Li Cheng would be so devoted to her? You say this is...what did they call it on TV? 'Desire to entice' or 'entice to desire'? Who knows what kind of trickery she's up to? Anyway, we still have to thank her, just like she knew what was going to happen later..."

  I didn't respond. However, the words Ye Qing said made me fall into deep thought. But, Zhu Ling's previous words suddenly reminded me of a question, I waved that photo and asked her: "Have you sent someone to monitor Ye Qing? Has there been any discovery? When did this monitoring start and when did it end?"

  "It was about half a year ago, I only paid for one month. This isn't to monitor her, it's to protect my own family, I think you should understand." Ye Qing put away the photos with some helplessness. At the same time, he said with a few more parts of helplessness: "Later, I thought I had the upper hand, so I went to find Guan Xinyue to settle accounts...I think you also heard from her place? That day was the most embarrassing day of my life, I really didn't expect Li Cheng to die protecting that little..."

  Ye Qing's emotions were somewhat agitated, her nose kept flapping, and a hint of indescribable sadness appeared on her face, as if there was a bit of helplessness and a bit of self-mockery. She opened her mouth and said: "Forget it, let bygones be bygones. Now I just want to get this over with as soon as possible. Closing the case quickly is what you police should do, right?"

  "That month, did you find anything strange?" My heart couldn't help but move, even if Guan Xinyue was really playing some conspiracy, no matter how meticulous she was, there must be a time when she let her guard down.

  Ye Qing calmly shook her head and said, "No. It's just this one photo. But what does it prove? When I showed this photo to Li Cheng, he got furious and even threatened me that if I dared to do something like this again, he would kick me out of the house. You see, Li Cheng is really devoted to her..."

  "Now that you've taken this photo, didn't you conduct any further investigation?" I recalled the words Ye Qing had said to Li Bin earlier, and she seemed very confident in her own judgment.

  Ye Qing shook her head and sighed, "Guan Xinyue is too clever, she knows I'm investigating her, how could she possibly wait for me to find out something? And Li Cheng is too protective of him, with Li Cheng's personality... I understand it too well, if I had persisted at that time, I'm afraid I would have really become the previous Mrs. Li."

  Ye Qing seemed to have said a lot of problems, but actually didn't say anything. She just spoke out all the doubts in my mind, and also explained some details that hadn't been mentioned before. This was a very clever move, at least judging from her expression, she thought she had cleared herself of any suspicion. But she was actually the biggest beneficiary of this case, because she could regain her marriage. I closed the book in my hand, looked at her and said: "Okay. Closing the case isn't that easy, you can't just rely on imagination to solve it. However, I'm curious, since you're quite familiar with her, can you guess who might be the murderer?"

  "This can't be said casually, especially since you're helping the police with the case." A hint of disdain flashed in Ye Qing's eyes, clearly thinking that this question was too naive. She looked at me meaningfully and said calmly: "I think you should be the one to answer this question. If Shao Yin isn't the murderer, then who else could it be? You can't just stand on her side because she's your friend, right?"

  This question was once again placed in front of me, but I still had no answer. Shao Yin indeed had a motive, but was Ye Qing completely innocent? I glanced at her and said calmly: "Anyone could be the murderer until we find out who the real one is. So for now, we're just locking down on the most suspicious person. But what I'm curious about is, someone like Guan Xinyue seemed to be hated by everyone. What about her? In your eyes, was she an angel or a devil?"

  "Angel? You'd better not ruin that word." Ye Qing's eyes held a hint of unspoken disgust, she glared at me and said slowly: "Only in the heart of a man who likes her can she possibly be an angel. I've said all I need to say, as for what to do, it's up to you to decide. You're also doubting, aren't you? Perhaps even you are wondering, who is the real murderer?"