Case Files Chapter 105: Horror at the Studio (14)

Translated by Vivian of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

 

This time, the media was so well-behaved that everyone was shocked; however, the public still had their own opinions, so it was a mess online once again.

On one side, Yan Qing’s fans were sending well-wishes and defending him: there’s nothing wrong with being gay, there has been worse scandals between straight people in this industry; Yan Qing’s hard work and talent paid off, and he’s where he is today because of his own skill; this beautiful relationship is so cute, my heart’s going to melt… There was also a large number of people who weren’t even his fans that lamented: we believe in love again.

Of course, there were still a lot of people who called it things like a publicity stunt, disgusting, and so on… But these opinions seemed to quickly be overwhelmed by the positive fans.

Yan Qing exited Weibo, sighed, and got out of the car. It was dark outside, and there was no one around. Yan Qing glanced at his watch; it seemed to already be past the appointed time… He wrapped his jacket tighter around himself and walked to a concealed thicket with a statue next to it, looking around furtively.

A figure emerged from behind the statue, holding something in their hand and slowly creeping towards Yan Qing. Yan Qing didn’t seem to notice the person approaching him from behind, and was still stretching his neck to look towards the path.

The person got closer and started reaching towards Yan Qing’s neck. Suddenly, a bright light flashed, causing the person to cry out and cover their eyes, and they seemed to want to flee.

“Hey, isn’t standing in the center of the stage’s spotlight your lifelong dream? Why are you running?” Guan Jin and the rest of the team appeared.

Yan Qing took off his sunglasses and looked at the person. “It really is you… Du Ping. Do you really detest me that much?”

Du Ping was still covering his eyes, and he gritted his teeth. “All my life, I’ve been thwarted by shameless people like you who cheat their way up. I want to get rid of scum like you!”

“That’s enough out of you,” scoffed Chen QiaoYu as she handcuffed him. “Relax, this is just a temporary measure.”

*****

In the interrogation room, Du Ping’s eyes had already recovered, but his expression was still furious.

“Du Ping, are you going to say it yourself? Or should I say it?” Chen QiaoYu pounded the table.

“Say what? I envy Yan Qing, which is why I wanted to knock him out to scare him,” replied Du Ping.

Chen QiaoYu narrowed her eyes. “Is that so? Didn’t you want to get rid of him?”

“I was only saying that.”

Guan Jin hung up on Lu YunYang and walked into the room, sitting across from Du Ping. “Du Ping, you’ve never had much of an opportunity to become famous, but right now is a good chance.”

Du Ping’s eyes flashed.

“The Vigilante of the Entertainment Industry——A Tragic and Ruthless Serial Killer. How does that sound for a newspaper title? A lot of people will want to write about you and this case, and a lot of people will discuss you for a long time, analyzing your ability and the reason why you ultimately went on this path. They might even worship you and request a psychological assessment, and perhaps you won’t be sentenced to death if they find a mental illness. You could write an autobiography…” Guan Jin’s voice was as enticing as a siren’s song, and Du Ping’s expression became crazily ecstatic.

“However, if you plead not guilty, it doesn’t matter. Zhang Xin has already woken up, and assault is enough to land you in jail. After you get out, you’ll be completely cast aside by the industry, and everyone will avoid you until you die alone.”

Du Ping’s expression was conflicted for a while before he finally licked his lips and asked, “What do you want to know?”

Guan Jin shrugged and left the interrogation room, leaving the rest to Chen QiaoYu and Gu Xiang.

“That was an induced confession. It goes against the principles of interrogation.” Wen JingHan crossed his arms and leaned against the outside of the one-way mirror.

“What does it matter? Anyway, Lu YunYang doesn’t understand the principles, and I was only paraphrasing him, so you can take it up with him.” 

“Then I’ll have to train the non-staff consultants properly to prevent a similar situation from happening in the future.” As for this time, I’ll let it go.

The two of them grinned at each other.

*****

“He climbed out of the hotel window and murdered Zhao Qi, who had been mocking him before. He then exsanguinated Zhao Qi, put the body into the box, and ordered the prop crew to stay away from it. He also took the opportunity to get close to Guo ZiZhen and encouraged him to find you to rehearse before killing him and tying him onto the door.”

“No wonder Guo ZiZhen asked to meet with me right after he came out of the lounge,” realized Yan Qing.

“It was also him who left the flower, since he wanted to make you feel tense and scared. Then, he knew that you would go back to the hotel to meet with Lu YunShen, so he found an excuse to meet with Zhang Xin, and then assaulted him. At the same time, he anonymously tipped off the reporters so they would know where to find you. He just didn’t expect that Zhang Xin would actually survive that, which is why he released all of the information he had on you. However, Lu YunShen’s confession messed up his plans, so he took the risk and tried to kill you directly.”

“Does he really hate me because of those things from before? And he’s been collecting evidence of my relationship with Lu YunShen all these years?”

Guan Jin nodded.

“Then why did he wait until now to…”

“His dream to become an actor failed, but he happened to enter the director circle. Originally, he thought that he could still succeed in this field, but unfortunately, his lack of talent and poor social skills resulted in him being unreliable. Two years ago, he met a married woman and had an affair with her. The woman had a good background, and promised to sponsor him so he could make his own movies. However, a few months ago, the woman told him that she had had enough fun and wanted to return to a normal familial life, so she broke up with him. His accumulated rage from several years exploded, and in addition to his mental instability, he began killing.”

Yan Qing was dumbfounded. “Doesn’t Du Ping hate people who use dishonest methods to succeed? How about himself?”

“His hate isn’t because of his moral standards. Instead, it’s due to jealousy and desire. He doesn’t hate these people, he just wonders why he couldn’t have an opportunity like them.”

Yan Qing shook his head. “How did you guys suspect him?”

“According to their testimonies and our investigation, Du Ping should be very indifferent towards others in the industry. On the surface, he’s never really cared about what other people are doing, nor was he ambitious. However, on set, he changed attitudes and took the initiative to resolve things he didn’t need to, such as the issues with Guo ZiZhen. After Zhang Xin was assaulted and the gossip about you started circulating, he expressed worry for the crew as well as sympathy that it might affect your career. The others all firmly believed that you weren’t involved, either because that’s just how they saw things, they liked your personality, or sympathy or admiration for you. Du Ping’s concern, however, came out of nowhere, and it didn’t match his personality.”

“Such a little clue?”

“That little clue was enough for us to pay attention to him, and we were right, weren’t we?”

As the two of them were talking, the door opened. Lu YunShen walked in.

“I came to pick you up.” This was his first time seeing Yan Qing after the public confession.

Guan Jin tactfully said his goodbyes and left.

Yan Qing stood where he was and stared at Lu YunShen, unmoving.

Lu YunShen hugged him. “You can hate me or leave me, but it doesn’t matter to me. For a long time, I’ve wanted to put you somewhere where no one else could see you except for me. However, this situation is also not bad, since everyone finally knows that you’re mine. In short, if you want to leave, you can, but it won’t matter.”

Yan Qing thought, …Is that a fucking threat?! How dare you threaten me at a time like this!

Yan Qing looked up and said fiercely, “So you finally reveal your true self now? Now that everyone knows I’m Lu YunShen’s little lover, you don’t have to pamper me anymore? Because I can’t run off anyway?” Yan Qing’s voice suddenly became a lot lower. “So it turns out that this is all I am to you. All these years, you were only reluctantly being nice to me, you’re already tired of it…” Then, tears began falling.

Lu YunShen was dumbfounded; how could this happen?! He had been scared that Yan Qing would hate him and simply scold him, but where did this feeling of abandonment come from?!

“Babe, how could that be? I would never get tired of you, don’t cry… It’s all my bad, I shouldn’t have said all that nonsense… When we get home, I’ll make you scrambled eggs, okay?”

Pft—— Guan Jin and Lu YunYang were eavesdropping at the window.

“I don’t want scrambled eggs! I want to eat red king crab!”

“Okay, I’ll tell the chef to prepare it!”

“I want to eat the yolk…”

“Mn, you eat the yolk, I’ll eat the shell…”

Guan Jin shuddered.

However, as he saw the two of them walk off, Guan Jin smirked to himself: Lu YunShen, how could you forget that your darling is the king of acting? If he really wanted to, crying on the spot like that is nothing to him…

*****

“This case feels kind of incomplete, the ending wasn’t grand at all,” complained Chen QiaoYu.

“How grand do you want it to be?” Guan Jin gathered the stack of files from the case.

“Mn… Never mind, I reckon this is probably the best way it could have ended.”

Guan Jin walked into the archive room, shelved the files, and locked the cabinet

“Ah! There’s only a week until Chinese New Years! There shouldn’t be any big cases anymore, let’s go shopping!” Ding Ding pulled Lin Bai and Zheng Fei with her.

New Years? Lu YunYang was probably going to celebrate it with his family, so he wouldn’t bother him. Since it was just Guan Jin, there didn’t seem to be a point in doing anything. Perhaps he could go back to New York and visit Tony, or he could take a trip to Europe?

“Did you get off work? Let’s go buy some things on the way home, okay?” Lu YunYang was waiting outside the police station.

“What are you buying?” Guan Jin had been dragged to the supermarket, and he was still preoccupied about going home to feed A-Gua.

“Mn, we should get some dried fruit and snacks to eat while watching the New Year’s Gala. We should also get some juice, I have wine at my place, we can get vegetables and meat on New Year’s Eve….” Lu YunYang was muttering to himself. “Right, should we get more seasoning?”

Guan Jin watched as he kept throwing more things into the shopping cart, and he asked in confusion, “You don’t lack these things at home, do you? Why do you have to buy so much?”

“I don’t lack these things, but you do.”

“It’s not like I’m celebrating the New Year, why would I need these things?” Guan Jin frowned.

Lu YunYang looked at him in bafflement. “You’re not celebrating?”

“I’m planning on visiting Tony or taking a trip to Europe,” Guan Jin said casually.

“…Then what about me?”

“You?”

“Well, I indeed haven’t spent a New Years away from my family, but if you don’t want it to be so noisy, I was going to go with you.” Lu YunYang smiled.

“You’re not spending New Years with your family? Won’t your dad kick you out?”

“Which is why I originally wanted you to come back with me, but when I thought about it, I realized you definitely wouldn’t agree. Besides, my dad is still annoyed about the whole situation with my brother, and you might get dragged into it. Thus, I can only spend it with you, and although your place is a little small, we’re just two people and a dog, so it’s not bad.” Lu YunYang continued to throw things into the cart.

“You want to spend the holiday with me?” Guan Jin observed his expression carefully.

“Of course.” Lu YunYang looked as if this wasn’t even a question.

“You idiot, why are you buying so much chili sauce?!” Guan Jin suddenly noticed the cart and began picking out things.

“To make spicy pork ribs.”

“There’s already enough for that!”

“It never hurts to be over prepared.”

“It’s not like I live deep in the mountains, if we need more you can just come and buy it!”

The two of them bantered as they continued to proceed through the aisles.

*****

Lu YunYang was busy in the kitchen, and Guan Jin was lazily relaxing on the couch, waiting for dinner. When he looked at the various decorations that that idiot had bought, Guan Jin really didn’t want to admit that this was his house. It was too cheesy!

Anyway, New Year’s Eve indeed didn’t sound too bad. However, should he let Lu YunYang have a normal holiday, or should he tell him a ghost story to add to the atmosphere? Guan Jin smiled to himself.

 

The author has something to say:

That’s it for this case orz

The next part will be about New Year’s Eve, consisting of two chapters…

 

After that, there will be a special arc and then some extras, and this novel will be finished