Chapter 67: Six Suspect Number, Little Xie
Shoutout to nyanmaru for the commission!
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“Cousin, any clues?”
Chu Feng walked out of the Civil Affairs Bureau, holding the list of suspects provided by the system in his left hand, while his right hand held a pen. After hesitating for a moment, he ultimately crossed out 20-year-old Little Xie from the list.
“Another one eliminated! Cousin, did you just crack Brother Xie’s password problem inside the Civil Affairs Bureau?”
Lin Lan was curious about where the newlywed Brother Xie ranked on the list.
“No, I didn’t crack it. I only glanced at the questions, and my intuition tells me it’s not him,” Chu Feng replied.
The secret concealed by 20-year-old Little Xie was the reason for his hesitation to get married. He didn’t refuse to marry Chu Feng, but rather wanted to confess something to him. This indirectly indicated that the culprit was the person he was before the age of 20.
On the list of suspects, 24-year-old Dr. Xie ranked second, while 7-year-old Little Xie Shiyu ranked fourth. Third-grade Little Xie, at the age of 10, had already been confirmed as the weakest in the city, used as a smokescreen by the virus. That left 8-year-olds, 9-year-olds, and 11-19-year-olds, a total of eleven Little Xies.
Chu Feng’s gaze moved up and down the list of Little Xies. If the blood-stained blue ribbon hidden by 7-year-old Little Xie Shiyu was indeed intended to frame the convenience store owner, it meant that Xie Shiyu had someone he wanted to kill since childhood. He had been planning for a long time but hadn’t acted until witnessing the convenience store owner commit murder at the age of seven, seizing the opportunity to secure an escape route for himself by taking the blood-stained blue ribbon from the scene.
The person Little Shiyu had always wanted to kill…
In Chu Feng’s mind, only one person emerged as a candidate: Xie Shiyu’s drug-addicted father.
It was said that his father often came back to ask for money, and sometimes, when his drug addiction flared up, he would ruthlessly beat his mother and him. Chu Feng had seen the bruises on Xie Shiyu several times during primary school. At the time, Little Xie Shiyu had only said it was from falling while climbing trees, and Little Chu Feng had believed him.
As he grew older, Chu Feng gradually guessed what had really happened from those scars. However, before the age of 15 when they officially started dating, Chu Feng was just a friend of Xie Shiyu’s, and any friend with emotional intelligence wouldn’t ask someone directly to their face: “Hey, I heard your father is a drug addict. Did he cause those bruises on you? Did it hurt?”
Xie Shiyu never brought up his parents’ matters proactively, and naturally, neither did Little Chu Feng. Now, looking back, he realized that he actually didn’t know much about Xie Shiyu’s family background.
The last time Chu Feng heard about Xie Shiyu’s father was during the summer vacation when they were both fifteen.
Chu Feng, a high school sophomore, went to Xie Shiyu’s house to supervise Little Xie’s homework. His mother warmly poured two glasses of Huiyuan orange juice. After entering the room, a small fan stood on the desk, trying hard to shake its blades and emitting a squeaky sound. Xie Shiyu found it annoying and shut it off with a slap:
“Turn on the air conditioner.”
“Okay.”
Chu Feng nodded and cautiously ventured, “By the way, how’s your dad?”
Drip—
Xie Shiyu, holding the remote, calmly turned on the air conditioner, with no hint of awkwardness in his actions.
“He’s dead.”
Chu Feng’s hand shook, and the orange juice in the snow-white cup rippled with golden waves. He immediately lowered his head and took a big sip.
Gulping—
As the orange juice went down, he heard Xie Shiyu add:
“He overdosed.”
***
“Oh.”
Chu Feng nodded. Holding the cup of orange juice in both hands, he didn’t know whether to say to Xie Shiyu, “Please accept my condolences,” or “Congratulations.”
In the quiet room, with only the two of them left, the wall-mounted air conditioner hummed, blowing out cool air. The fifteen-year-old Xie Shiyu, wearing a black tank top and sporting a clean buzz cut, was exceptionally tall, with his height of 190. He casually sat down beside Chu Feng, casting a shadow over him.
Xie Shiyu picked up the orange juice on the desk and downed it in one gulp.
Chu Feng observed him swallow, the rolling of his throat, and the muscles flexing on his biceps as he lifted the cup. It was the first time he had been so close to Xie Shiyu and felt the erupting power radiating from him, emanating a scorching heat next to him.
—This was entirely different from the five-year-old Xie who played with water guns in kindergarten.
Xie Shiyu took a sip of orange juice and turned to look at Chu Feng:
“You’ve been staring at my body since earlier.”
“……”
Chu Feng: “I didn’t.”
Sipping his orange juice, Xie Shiyu squinted, playfully staring at Chu Feng.
“I didn’t!”
Fifteen-year-old Chu Feng reiterated forcefully, his ears turning red behind his tousled hair.
Without saying another word, Xie Shiyu reached out and pinched Chu Feng’s earlobe: “It’s turning red.”
Chu Feng remained composed on the surface. “…Because I’m feeling hot right now.”
“Heat doesn’t make you blush, though; it only makes you sweaty,” Xie Shiyu remarked slyly.
Chu Feng retorted, “Oh, it’s because you keep pinching it, of course it’s turning red.”
“Ah~ You’re so sensitive; just a little pinch and you blush,” Xie Shiyu teased.
“…”
Chu Feng changed the subject:
“Have you finished your summer homework?”
“…Oh.”
Chu Feng held the list of suspects, the tip of his pen pausing at fifteen-year-old Little Xie.
—Did his father really overdose on drugs?
When did he die? That guy had been doing drugs since Xie Shiyu’s kindergarten days. He died at the right time, just when Xie Shiyu was growing up.
Chu Feng recalled Xie Shiyu’s physique at fifteen. He didn’t even need to be fifteen; Xie Shiyu was over 1.7 meters tall when he graduated from elementary school at the age of twelve, equivalent to the height of an ordinary adult male.
With Xie Shiyu’s personality and strength, he couldn’t have just let his drug-addicted father run wild when he grew up.
Chu Feng drew a line under the fifteen-year-old Little Xie’s name.
If Xie Shiyu really killed his father, then this Little Xie was very likely the “core” with the highest combat power. The question now was, when did his father die?
Chu Feng remembered that Xie Shiyu had moved to a new house in junior high, with two bedrooms and one living room.
When he went back during high school, he found that the living room and both bedrooms were equipped with air conditioners, indicating that things had improved.
That meant his drug-addicted father should have been dead for some time when Xie Shiyu was fifteen, and his mother had time to save money to buy air conditioners to improve their living conditions. Chu Feng’s pen tip hovered over the list of Little Xies under fifteen.
Fourteen, thirteen, twelve… Which one was it?
“If you can’t figure it out, you can go back to reality and think about it again,” X spoke up beside him.
“There is a virus in your city; it’s not safe.”
The deep, hoarse voice sounded in his ears, and the diligent regulator was once again concerned about the player.
Chu Feng suddenly felt that after listening to X’s voice for a long time… it was actually quite pleasant.
Although it wasn’t as handsome and mood-lifting as Xie Shiyu’s voice, there was a kind of… so-called charm in the low tones.
Chu Feng actually didn’t like low voices; some guys intentionally lowered their voices when speaking, as if they were exerting force to stick to someone’s ears, like buzzing mosquitoes, making Chu Feng want to swat them.
It was difficult for normal people to maintain the so-called “low voice” in their daily speech without deliberate practice. However, X’s vocal cords might have been damaged due to the “shipwreck,” and without deliberately lowering his voice, it sounded more natural and comfortable.
But Chu Feng was more curious: if X’s vocal cords could be repaired from the damaged parts, would it be possible to be closer to Xie Shiyu’s kind of handsome feeling?
***
“How much time do I have left?”
Chu Feng kept X in mind, but didn’t look at him, casually turning his head to ask the system spirit about the remaining time.
“Don’t worry, Young Master, there are still 69 hours and 45 minutes left. As long as we find the core before that, we’ll be fine!” The system spirit said.
“Take your time to think. Once we find the right one, we’ll strike with precision and perfect the removal of the virus!”
“Cousin, it’s around four or five o’clock. It’s time to go back for dinner.”
Chu Feng nodded. He also wanted to check when Xie Shiyu’s father actually died in reality. Once he knew the year, he could roughly determine the age.
“Then let’s call it a day.”
Chu Feng let go, and the list of suspects gathered in the air, forming into a scroll, which was absorbed by the system spirit’s fluffy hair.
Di—
The brainwave connection was severed, and Chu Feng took off the Dream City game headset. He wanted to find Xie Shiyu’s household registration booklet and searched through the drawer for a long time, only to find his own household registration book.
Strange, they were clearly put together…
Chu Feng was still thinking when his outstretched fingertip suddenly froze.
Xie Shiyu was listed as deceased; his household registration and ID card had been canceled.
After some thought, Chu Feng wrote down Xie Shiyu’s previous registered address. He made a call and quickly reached out to a familiar old household registration police officer in that area, inquiring about the whereabouts of Xie Shiyu’s father.
“Ah! The drug addict, right? Seems like he’s been missing for many years.”
“…Missing?”
Chu Feng was taken aback. Xie Shiyu’s father was officially missing, but when he was fifteen, Little Xie told him:
“My dad died from a drug overdose.”
—Unless, he did it himself…
Chu Feng: “Are you sure he’s missing, not dead?”
“Well… practically speaking, it’s almost the same, but strictly speaking, it’s not. Missing or deceased requires the family to apply. It must be four years of disappearance or two years of missing due to accidents before relevant authorities can confirm the citizen’s death.”
His heart suddenly felt pierced, and Chu Feng clenched his phone, his fingertips turning slightly pale from the pressure.
Missing for two years, verified by authorities that the citizen couldn’t survive…
These unintentional words made Chu Feng realize once again that Xie Shiyu was already considered deceased.
According to regulations, family members should proactively handle the cancellation of household registration with public security. However, if they fail to do so even after being informed, the public security organs can directly cancel the household registration of deceased citizens based on proof materials.
International aviation accidents were widely known. Even if Chu Feng, as a family member, didn’t apply for Xie Shiyu’s missing or death certificate, the law had already declared Xie Shiyu dead, and his household registration and ID card were both canceled.
As for Xie Shiyu’s father, although everyone knew he had been missing for many years and was most likely dead, nobody could state the cause of death, and his family didn’t take the initiative to cancel his registration. The public security bureau also lacked evidence to confirm his death, so his household registration somehow lingered until today.
Chu Feng: “Do you know when he went missing?”
“Well… I’m not sure about that, probably about ten years ago.”
Ten years ago, they were nineteen.
At the age of nineteen, the range was too wide, it was not helpful. Chu Feng was currently focusing on the Xie Shiyu before he turned fifteen, excluding the seven-year-old ranked fourth in combat power and the weakest ten-year-old, leaving behind the fourteen-year-old, thirteen-year-old, twelve-year-old, eleven-year-old, nine-year-old, and eight-year-old.
Among these six Xie Shiyus, one of them must be the No.1 core.
Unable to find any information from the household registration, when Chu Feng hung up the phone, the evening glow had spread across the sky outside the window.
Buzz—
His WeChat vibrated, and X sent a message:
[Good evening]
Chu Feng glanced at the message history. The last conversation with X ended with: [Let’s chat again tonight~]
“…” Chu Feng:
This regulator is really… tireless.
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