Chapter 7 Section 2

  Guo Yining never thought that a female student's death would involve prostitution.

  Liu Xilei is a person with very good family conditions and she is about to graduate, after which she will stay in the family business to work. Why would she go sell herself?

  Wu Hui inferred from a set of lingerie that there was someone in school organizing prostitution, which is quite unbelievable.

  However, through Fang You and Yang Rong's visit, there were indeed some rumors in the school that someone inside the school was engaging in prostitution.

  Fang You and Yang Rong arrived at the president's office of Lincheng University. The president was a man in his fifties, with very little hair left, but it was still neatly styled and held firmly in place by hair gel. The office decor was quite classical and elegant, giving off a strong cultural vibe as soon as they entered.

  But looking at the principal's stout body and narrow eyes, it doesn't look like a principal at all.

  Yang Rong saw the principal's honor and couldn't help but mutter in her heart, "Is this really the principal? No matter how I look at it, he looks like a lecher."

  Fang You asked, "Principal, what's your take on the school rumor that someone is selling sex?"

  As soon as he heard about the prostitution, the principal became somewhat agitated and strongly opposed it. He would not allow anyone to tarnish his school's reputation. "This is utter nonsense! Lincheng University is a century-old institution with a renowned reputation nationwide. Our alumni are scattered all over the country and even abroad. How could such an absurd thing happen in a place that has produced so many talents?"

  Yang Rong saw the principal's high-profile appearance and could imagine what he was like when giving a speech, spitting out flying saliva, generously praising the school he thought was proud.

  "Are you saying that it's absolutely impossible for a school to sell sex?"

  "It's impossible, absolutely impossible, this is definitely a smear. Some third-rate universities can't stand our school's national influence and want to use vicious language to smear us. Vicious, too vicious! Police comrades, I strongly demand that you investigate this matter clearly and give my school a clean bill of health." The principal's tone was as if he were giving orders to Fang You and Yang Rong as his subordinates.

  Although Yang Rong and the principal were separated by Fang You, she still felt the principal's saliva was about to splash onto her face, and her body involuntarily leaned back.

  "Principal, don't worry, if the rumor is false, we will definitely investigate and clear the school's name." The principal is indeed a principal, his words are too smooth, Fang You feels that if he continues to ask like this, he might have to listen to the school's hundred-year history, it's better to leave early before he starts talking.

  As soon as the two of them walked out of the office, Yang Rong immediately took out a wet wipe from her bag and handed it to Fang You. It was fine inside, but as soon as they came out into the light, Yang Rong saw that there were water droplets on Fang You's face. "Wipe it off, quickly!"

  Fang You naturally knew what Yang Rong was saying, but he reluctantly tore open the wet wipe packaging and wiped his face. He had tried his best to dodge, but the principal's saliva was too dense and splashed onto him, making him feel a bit nauseous. "This principal speaks in a completely official tone, it's a bit difficult to get anything out of him."

  "Yes, you see how he speaks in circles, when asked questions, he always beats around the bush and never answers directly." Yang Rong felt that this principal was either used to speaking in this way or intentionally evading the topic and hiding important matters.

  "However, today was somewhat fruitful after all. Let's head back and report to Captain."

  Fang You and Yang Rong were visiting the school, Wu Hui and Guo Yining were also not idle, in the team they have been studying Liu Xilei and Wang Ruolan's life trajectory, hoping to find their last disappearance through this point.

  Liu Xile is an outsider, except for school hours, most of the time she is outside, and the dormitory is just a place to put her clothes or occasionally rest, so where does she spend the rest of her time.

  Regarding Liu Xilei's boyfriend, Liu Xilei likes to go to nightclubs for fun, and the most frequently visited nightclub is 2046. In Lincheng, 2046 has a small reputation, and many young people like to go there for entertainment. Wu Hui doesn't like places that are too noisy, so he has never been there before.

  When Wu Hui and the other person arrived at 2046, the store was preparing to open for business. A very young staff member saw them coming in and came forward to say: "Sorry, gentlemen, we are not yet open for business, there is still half an hour before we open, please wait outside for a while."

  Kuo Yining took out his ID and flashed it briefly, "We are police officers, there are some things we'd like to ask you."

  As soon as he heard that Guo Yining and the others were police officers, the young man suddenly became wary. He hadn't received any notice that the police would be coming today, so had something gone wrong? "Police comrades, we are operating legally here, we haven't done anything illegal."

  "Don't be nervous, we just want to ask a few questions. Do you recognize these two women?" Guo Yining pulled out the photos from her bag.

  The young man was a bit skeptical of Guo Yining's words, but still took the photo and looked at it himself. "Our store has thousands of people every day, these two people may have come to our store, I really don't remember."

  "As far as I know, you guys must have some memory of regular customers, and this person is a frequent visitor to your store. How can you not recognize him?" Guo Yining knew he was lying, pointing to Liu Xilei's photo with his hand, she was a regular here.

  "Oh, you're talking about her? I wouldn't have remembered if you hadn't mentioned it. The photo and the real person are quite different." Upon hearing Guo Yining's words, the young man looked enlightened, his exaggerated expression giving him away. "I remember, she's called Victoria, and she does come to our place often, but I haven't seen her in the past few days."

  "Who all came with her?" Wu Hui thought about who might have come to play together with Liu Xier, maybe some classmates from school.

  The young man thought for a moment, previously he saw this woman and thought she was the mistress of some big boss, because the big boss was old and couldn't satisfy her certain needs, so she came out to find a young guy. He even wanted to offer himself to make some money. "It's hard to say, every time she comes with different people, sometimes men, sometimes women, they play very wildly."

  Wu Hui pointed at the photo of Wang Ruolan and asked, "Is this woman among those who came with her?"

  The girl in the photo, Wang Ruolan, looks very delicate and well-behaved. A young girl like her is rarely seen in this place. If he had seen her before, he should have an impression. "No, no impression, probably never came with her."

  The young man thought that when Wang Ruo Lan's eyes drifted to the upper right, it was as if he was recalling something, and he didn't seem to be lying. "Why do you think so?"

  When Wu Hui finished speaking, the young man smiled and said, "Because most of the people who came with her were different men, there were few women. This woman should not have come before."

  "I need to see the surveillance footage in your store. Can you copy a copy for me?" Guo Yining asked, handing over a hard drive to the young man.

  "But we can only monitor at the entrance, other places are not available." The young man said as he took over the hard drive.

  "I know, you can just give me a copy of the last two months." As for this nightclub, many shady things happen here, so it's natural that there wouldn't be any surveillance cameras installed.

  "You said among the people who followed Liu Xile, would there be the person we are looking for?" After Guo Yining obtained the surveillance footage, she and Wu Hui took a stroll around the surrounding area.

  "It's possible." Wu Hui looked around, this was a very prosperous place, there were many footprints of Liu Xier here, but Wang Rulan had never appeared here before. Could it be that Liu Xier and Wang Rulan had no intersection in their lives?

  "Wang Ruo Lan is a local, I think she shouldn't be doing prostitution locally, what if we run into her on the street?" Generally, prostitutes won't do business in their own living area to avoid running into people they know in daily life.

  "I've thought of this too, but Wang Ruo Lan has never left Lin Cheng, so how did she get into prostitution? Was someone driving her around or was there a place in the city where clients from different places would go to choose?" Previously, Wu Hui had Zhang Qiang check Wang Ruo Lan's entry and exit records, but they didn't find any signs of her leaving the city.

  "This place is still weird, I think this nightclub isn't that simple. Let's go back and analyze the surveillance footage, maybe we can find something interesting." The surveillance footage they got from Guo Yining wasn't as clear as the one in 2046, but among the people entering and exiting 2046, they would definitely find some valuable clues.

  "Now the only clue is this, let's take a look first." Wu Hui looked around at his surroundings, he always felt that 2046 was not so simple, there must be many secrets hidden inside that were unknown to others.

  Kuo Yin-ning and Wu Hui were driving to the bureau when they received a call from Fang You, saying that Wang Rulan's body had been found.

  Kuo Yining hastily turned the car around and drove in the opposite direction, to a small lake outside the city. The environment was beautiful, so many locals would come here to play, it was a place with a lot of foot traffic. The murderer had actually thrown the body here.

  The couple who discovered the body were originally planning to come here for a stroll and did not expect to see Wang Ruolan lying there by the lake.

  The people from the procuratorate have arrived, Wang Siting is squatting there collecting evidence, Wu Hui walks over and finds that Wang Ruolan's posture is exactly the same as Liu Xilei's, with both hands clasped in front of her chest, legs tightly closed together, and clothes intact.

  "What time was the death?" Wu Hui asked as he saw Wang Si Ting finish collecting evidence and packing up.

  Wang Siting continued to collect things and didn't look up at Wu Hui, but from the sound he also figured out who it was. "Based on the liver temperature, it can be inferred that the death occurred more than two hours ago, which means the time of death is between 5 pm and 6 pm today. There are signs of being tied up, the cause of death is asphyxiation, there are signs of being imprisoned, and burnt paper ash was found in the nostrils. This needs to be taken back for inspection and compared with the paper ash found in Liu Xier's nostrils to determine if it's the same substance."