You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 54 Part 1

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 54 Part 1

After returning to Hang City, Xu Huaisong went to work in the law office from nine in the morning till five in the evening. He devoted his energy to Zhou Jun’s case.

Ruan Yu knew exactly why.

For a ten year old case, the police had done all they could going back and forth without finding the real suspect. There wasn’t much Xu Huaisong could do now as a lawyer for the case.

Yet after ten whole years, they had witnessed how Xu’s mother was still guilt ridden, how Xu’s father still bore infamy for his actions, how the victim’s family was still indignant, and how the acquitted suspect was still down and out.

All three families had been badly hurt by the case.

Xu Huaisong was unable to change all that, but still attempted to find a sliver of hope in a similar case.

If he could get to the bottom of Zhou Jun’s case and prevent the same tragedy from happening again, then he could prove to his mother that perhaps his father didn’t do anything wrong.

While Xu Huaisong was busy with the case, Ruan Yu was bored at home. On the days when she didn’t have to go to Global Filming, she would get up earlier in the morning and tag along with Xu Huaisong to the law firm. She would edit the script there with the excuse that she could save on her home electric bills.

Xu Huaisong didn’t point out the fact that he had to pay the office’s electricity bill.

More than half a month had passed. Since Zhou Jun maintained his innocence during interrogations and the prosecutors’ evidence wasn’t sufficient enough, the procurator’s office issued instructions for a supplementary investigation for the case.

Zhang Ling and Xu Huaisong who had been working day and night for the case finally got a break.

However, Ruan Yu suddenly realized that the day when Xu Huaisong had to fly to the US was fast approaching.

She didn’t want to have the surprise of his “sudden departure” again and asked him specifically about it.

Xu Huaisong sat in front of the computer busy with work. He drank some milk from the glass Ruan Yu had brought over to him and said: “I can stay a few more days beyond what I originally planned.”

“A court hearing date can be changed that easily?” 

Xu Huaisong shook his head: “It’s not a court hearing. The purpose of this trip is to sign some important documents which have just been produced a couple days ago. They are too important to use electronic signatures or risk mailing.”

“Then they don’t need to be signed now?”

“Still needs to be signed.”

“Then why don’t you need to fly over?”

Ruan Yu was confused. Xu Huaisong usually was very precise in answering questions. It was quite rare that he hadn’t made himself clear after a couple of exchanges.

What was going on?

Xu Huaisong was quiet for a moment before saying: “Come over.”

Ruan Yu walked over and was quickly being pulled into his arms.

After Ruan Yu had sat down squarely on his lap, Xu Huaisong began to explain: “Lu Shenglan happened to have some business to take care of in China. She said she can bring those documents over for me to sign and then bring them back to San Francisco afterwards.”

No wonder he could stay for a few more days and couldn’t make himself clear in a few words.

Ruan Yu paused before nodding.

Xu Huaisong lowered his head to look at her: “Don’t think too much into it. It’s just some documents. I don’t even have to meet her in person, I’ll have Xiao Chen pick up for me.”

“Hum……” Ruan Yu dragged the sound then paused before saying: “I’m not thinking about this. I just feel like……she can help you with your work, but I just keep having you come back and forth for my troubles.”

“It’s normal for co-workers to help each other out. Besides, I’m not coming back and forth because of you.”

“Hum?”

Xu Huaisong laughed: “I’m the one who suffers the most if I don’t see you.”

Ruan Yu didn’t say anything but the corners of her eyes upcurved with the hint of a smile. She hugged his neck and kissed his chin with a peck.

Xu Huaisong lowered his head and kissed her lips, thirty times longer than her peck.

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 53 Part 3

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 53 Part 3 

The doorbell rang as Ruan Yu was speaking. Xu Huaisong came back.

Tao Rong went to open the door: “How was it, did she make trouble for you?”

Xu Huaisong shook his head: “Mom, I’m capable of handling things like that. But, you, you really didn’t have to……” He paused and sighed. Then he looked over at Ruan Yu who was sitting on the couch.

He walked over and picked up the glass in front of her to gulp down the half glass of water left in it.

Tao Rong hurriedly went into the kitchen to pour some more water and called Xu Huaishi over to help her cut some fruit.

“Mom, don’t bother.” Xu Huaisong turned to say: “My coworker is waiting downstairs. We have to go back to Hang City shortly.”

Tao Rong still brought out some fruit and apologetically said to Ruan Yu: “You’re in such a hurry. We don’t have anything prepared. Come eat some fruit.”

Ruan Yu thought to herself that they had also arrived in such a hurry, without any preparation and gifts. She thanked her with a smile while taking the plate of fruit.

Because of the incident outside the gate, the atmosphere in the living room was still quite stifling. Xu Huaisong figured that it wasn’t a good time to mention anything about himself and Ruan Yu. He sat for a while, then got up to leave. Before leaving, he told Tao Rong: “I explained everything to Ms. Wang and instructed the guard at the gate. She shouldn’t be able to come into the community from now on. If you run into the same thing again, call the police directly.”

Tao Rong was quiet for a while before asking: “Are you here for a case this time? I heard from her that you’re helping……”

Xu Huaisong paused before answering: “There’s a criminal case and I’m helping the client collecting evidence.”

Tao Rong forced out a smile and said: “Hm. You take care of yourself. Make sure you eat meals on time everyday.”

Xu Huaisong nodded and took a look at Ruan Yu: “Don’t worry. She’s watching over me.”

Tao Rong then said to Ruan Yu: “Thanks.” She then went to get a few boxes of food for her to take back.

Ruan Yu couldn’t refuse. She took the food and said that she would come visit again.

After they left, Ruan Yu said to Xu Huaisong with a frustrated face: “Why am I caught off guard every time……”

Xu Huaisong held her hand and said: “It’s alright. My mom likes you very much anyway.”

Ruan Yu was interested in the topic: “Has she mentioned it to you?”

He shook his head.

“Then how would you know?”

“Just think about it. If it wasn’t for you, would I come back from the US?”

He said it matter of factly. Ruan Yu thought about it and something flickered in her eyes.

They got in Chen Hui’s car downstairs and didn’t mention anything about Ms. Wang again. They went together to pick up Zhang Jie who had finished her work.

Zhang Ling was exhausted and sweaty. She reported to Xu Huaisong after getting into the car: “I still haven’t persuaded two friends of the victim to open up to me. But judging from their attitude, I figure that Ms. Ruan’s surmise might be correct. It should be that the family of the victim wants to convict our client without delay and has instructed her friends not to disclose any information.”

Chen Hui sighed: “Though I can relate to the feelings of the victim’s family, what if the truth gets covered up and it leads to a wrongful conviction……” Half way through, he suddenly remembered that Xu Huaisong had just experienced a not so pleasant incident and probably wasn’t in a good mood. He changed the subject right away: “Hehe, however, Ruan Jie’s really smart. Why don’t you consider changing your profession to be a police or lawyer?”

“Hrm?” Ruan Yu was caught by surprise.

Xu Huaisong laughed and hugged her a little closer: “Her? Forget about it. She has a wild imagination but is easily scared.”

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 53 Part 2

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 53 Part 2

Before they reached the gate, they could already hear high-pitched outbursts: “I’m here today to catch you. Don’t be a hypocrite visiting my daughter’s grave every year! Now look at your son and that bastard, who knows what they’re up to again!”

“Ms. Wang, Huaisong isn’t in Su City. There must be some misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding? Old Qian at the market said your son has come back and is going to do exactly the same thing as his father to help a killer get free! I want to see who your family is going to wreck again!”

Ruan Yu couldn’t catch up to Xu Huaisong, but kept running behind him, panting the entire time. She saw from afar that a fiftyish woman was shouting at Tao Rong and Grandma Xu outside the gate. The woman was very agitated and even stepped forward to shove Tao Rong.

Tao Rong lost her balance and the shopping bags in her hands flew out. She staggered backwards, almost bumping into Grandma Xu.

Fortunately, the guard moved forward in time to prevent Grandma Xu from falling onto the ground. The guard also managed to keep the two sides separated.

Xu Huaisong arrived to let his mother and grandma stand behind him: “Ms. Wang, please watch out what you say and do.”

Wang Qin saw him then turned to demand Tao Rong: “Isn’t this your good son? And you said he wasn’t in Su City?”

Tao Rong truly didn’t know that Xu Huaisong was in Su City. She was stunned and moved forward to say: “Huaisong, go back, don’t……” Then she kept bowing and apologizing to Wang Qin: “Ms. Wang, I’m so very sorry, I……”

“Mom, what are you doing?” Xu Huaisong frowned and pulled his mother back behind him. Ruan Yu happened to arrive just then, out of breath. He gave her a look.

Ruan Yu understood what he meant. She bent over to pick up the shopping bags on the ground and pulled Tao Rong and Grandma Xu to walk inside the community: “Auntie, Grandma, let’s go home first.”

Tao Rong stopped after walking away a few steps. She looked back: “She’ll take it out on Huaisong……”

Ruan Yu looked over and saw Xu Huaisong was negotiating with Wang Qin. She patted Tao Rong’s back to comfort her: “He’ll take good care of it. Don’t you worry.”

After much persuading, Ruan Yu finally brought Tao Rong and Grandma Xu home.

Xu Huaishi looked through the peephole and opened the door with a sad face: “Mom, Grandma, you’re finally home. I’m scared to death!” She then looked at Ruan Yu: “Jiejie, why are you and my brother in Su City?”

“I’ll tell you later.” Ruan Yu closed the door and helped Grandma inside: “Grandma, are you hurt anywhere?”

Grandma shook her head and said: “No.” Then, she finally recovered from the sudden commotion and asked: “Hum, who’s this young lady?”

This was the first time Ruan Yu had met Grandma but Xu Huaisong wasn’t here. Ruan Yu felt awkward and hesitated: “Grandma, I’m……”

Tao Rong, who was absent minded on their way home, finally regained her composure and helped Ruan Yu: “Mom, this is Huaisong’s girlfriend, I told you before.”

Grandma patted the back of Ruan Yu’s hand: “This is the first time you're here and we make so much trouble for you.”

Ruan Yu: “Hehe, it’s nothing, Grandma.” She wiped sweat off her forehead where her bangs were sticking to it from all the running.

Seeing Ruan Yu was a little uneasy, Xu Huaishi helped to make her feel more comfortable: “Jiejie, sit down here. Where’s my brother?”

Ruan Yu helped Grandma to the couch while explaining: “He’s taking care of something at the gate.”

Tao Rong poured a glass of water for her from the kitchen and brought a towel for her to wipe away sweat.

Xu Huaisong didn’t come back for quite a while. The four people in the living room were all worried and the atmosphere in the living room grew somewhat grave.

After a while, Tao Rong doubtfully asked Ruan Yu: “When did you and Huaisong get here, are you two here for business?”

Ruan Yu nodded: “We came here yesterday.”

Grandma tilted her head and asked: “Then last night you stayed in a hotel, why not come and stay at home?”

Tao Rong tugged Grandma’s sleeve: “Mom, Huaisong hasn’t stayed at home for so long, he’s used to staying in a hotel.”

Ruan Yu figured that Tao Rong was probably saddened that her son wasn’t close to her anymore. She hurriedly took the blame: “It’s not that, not that. He did suggest we come here to spend the night. It’s me. I was afraid of causing trouble for you……”

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 53 Part 1

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 53 Part 1

It was close to noon when Chen Hui came to pick up Ruan Yu and Xu Huaisong the next day. Since Zhang Jie wasn’t quite finished with her interviews, they decided to have lunch first.

When Ruan Yu and Xu Huaisong got into the car, Chen Hui turned his head to jokingly ask: “We’re already at Su City, Song Ge doesn’t plan to go back home for a visit? Last time I took your mom home, I had dinner at your place. Your grandma's cooking was outstanding. I even got to take a piece of Dongpo pork[1] home!”

After the old house was demolished, Xu Huaisong’s grandma moved in with Tao Rong and Xu Huaishi in the city. Chen Hui thought that would be a good place to have lunch.

Xu Huaisong smiled and turned his head to look at Ruan Yu: “You better ask her whether she wants to go there.”

Ruan Yu was taken by surprise by his sudden mention of her.

The way he looked at her seemed to imply that it was because she wasn’t willing to go home with him that Chen Hui was losing his chance at having Dongpo pork again.

Ruan Yu looked back innocently. Xu Huaisong blinked: “So we’re going?”

Ruan Yu hesitated.

For her first visit to his family, she thought it should be conducted more formally. However, she wasn’t prepared at all this time. Furthermore, she was still wearing the wrinkled t-shirt which she wore to sleep last night because she didn’t bring a change of clothes.

It didn’t feel proper to shop for new clothes and gifts on the spur of the moment now. Besides, it didn’t seem right to go visit with Chen Hui tagging along either.

Ruan Yu was mulling over and frowned slightly. As she was about to open her mouth, she heard Xu Huaisong say: “Start driving. Let’s just find a place to eat.”

Ruan Yu pinched his sleeve and said in a low voice: “It’s not that I don’t want to go visit with you. I’ll have to get prepared next time……”

Xu Huaisong nodded and rubbed her hair: “I’ll nap for a while.” He then leaned back and closed his eyes.

“Isn’t it tiring to sit like this?” Ruan Yu raised her hand and pushed his head onto her shoulder: “Come.”

Xu Huaisong smiled and laid his head on her shoulder. He didn’t tell her that this was even more tiring for him because of the difference in height.

The three of them found a random restaurant along the road. After eating, they got back in the car and prepared to go pick up Zhang Jie. Xu Huaisong received a phone call.

It was from Xu Huaishi: “Ge, I just came back from cram school and saw a woman who looked somewhat familiar at the gate. She kept asking the guard which building the Xu family lives. She kept saying ‘that bastard, that bastard,’ looking especially agitated. Do you think this is……”

Xu Huaisong sat up straight immediately and asked in a serious voice: “Did she see you?”

“No. As I passed by, she was focused on the guard. She shouldn’t have seen me.”

“Where’s mom and grandma?”

“They’ve gone to the market, not home yet.”

Xu Huaisong was silent for a moment before saying: “You go back home and lock the door. Don’t open the door unless it’s mom and grandma.”

Xu Huaishi seemed to have started trotting on the other end of the phone: “Ge, don’t frighten me. Is it that family coming to make trouble for us again? Haven’t they stopped for many years, why all of a sudden……”

Xu Huaisong pinched in between his eyebrows: “I’m not sure what happened now. You go home first, I’ll be over in no time.” After hanging up the phone, he told Chen Hui to drive to his home.

Ruan Yu didn’t clearly hear what Xu Huaishi had said on the phone and asked with furrowed eyebrows: “What has happened?”

“Someone probably has informed the victim’s family that we had met Jiang Yi at the market yesterday.”

Chen Hui realized the seriousness of the situation and stepped on the gas pedal, rushing to Xu Huaisong’s home. As they were getting near to the community, they were caught in traffic on the main street. 

It was only three or four hundred meters away from the main gate of the community. Xu Huaisong opened the door and said: “I’ll just run over.”

Ruan Yu hesitated, then jumped out of the car as well. She jogged behind him.

[1]: Dongpo pork (东坡肉, dōngpōròu) is a Hangzhou dish of braised pork belly.

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 52 Part 4

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 52 Part 4

Xu Huaisong put the folders on Zhou Jun, Wei Jin, and Jiang Yi together and clicked the cursor back and forth to compare them. He also looked over the related pictures several times.

Ruan Yu glanced over from time to time besides him. It was like watching a horror movie, though she was scared, she couldn’t stop being curious and taking a peek.

Xu Huaisong noticed how Ruan Yu moved her eyes back and forth and moved the computer away: “Don’t look. You’ll be too scared to sleep later. Go take a shower.”

Ruan Yu said “oh” and got up to walk away. After a few steps, she turned back to take out her earphones from her bag, plugged them into the cell phone, adjusted the volume, selected a song, and put the song on a loop.

Xu Huaisong looked at her: “What are you doing?”

Ruan Yu smiled: “Hehe, just listen to a song for a while.” She lightly put the earphones into his ears.

Xu Huaisong took a glance at the bathroom and sighed while smiling.

Whatever.

After the song had repeated five times, Ruan Yu came out of the bathroom.

Xu Huaisong closed the top of his laptop and hurried Ruan Yu into the bed. He then turned off the lights.

Ruan Yu lied down. The moment she lay flat, she suddenly shrieked.

Xu Huaisong staggered when he was about to touch the edge of the bed.

“What’s wrong?” He asked.

Ruan Yu patted her chest and said: “I forgot there’s a mirror above. I jumped when I saw a silhouette in it……” She looked at the ceiling a few more times and it made her hair stand on end. She turned sideways to bury her face in the pillow. “What kind of anti-human design this is!”

Xu Huaisong also went under the cover: “Didn’t you say this was nice a while ago?”  As he was speaking, he pulled Ruan Yu’s head over: “The pillow here may not be that clean. Don’t smother yourself.”

Ruan Yu took a glance at the ceiling again: “But I can’t fall asleep like this. All I can think of are……” Those pictures in his computer.

“I told you not to look at them.” Xu Huaisong sighed and pulled her into his arms: “Then you can smother yourself on me, alright?”

Xu Huaisong didn’t expect that a love hotel could turn into a haunted room for them.

The whole night Ruan Yu held onto Xu Huaisong like an octopus, not treating him as a man but an exorcism charm.

Finally it was daybreak, Xu Huaisong, who had been tense for the whole night, carefully moved Ruan Yu’s arms and legs away to get off the bed.

But Ruan Yu turned back, entangling herself with him in a daze.

Xu Huaisong had no choice but to pinch her face to wake her up.

Ruan Yu frowned and rubbed her eyes. She looked quite innocent: “What are you doing……” 

She stretched her legs as she asked.

Xu Huaisong blocked her knees and said with gritted teeth: “Don’t move.”

Ruan Yu suddenly realized what was going on. She paused, then slowly moved herself away.

Xu Huaisong cleared his throat and got off the bed to go into the bathroom. After 15 minutes of the sound of running water, he came back to the bed and pulled Ruan Yu, who was covering both of her ears, out of the covers: “Have you slept enough?”

Ruan Yu blushed and said: “Yeah.”

“Then it’s my turn to sleep. You go do something else.”

Ruan Yu got out of the bed, but turned to get closer and asked: “Uh, you didn’t sleep the whole night?”

Xu Huaisong gave her a glance, but didn’t say anything.

Ruan Yu bit her lips: “Sorry……”

He reached over to rub her ear: “You owe me. Pay me back later.”

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 52 Part 3

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 52 Part 3

Xu Huaisong came out of the bathroom and asked: “What are you looking at?”

Ruan Yu: “Uh.”

Xu Huaisong walked over and saw the enlarged picture on the computer screen. He sighed: “I told you you would get scared and you still looked at it.”

Ruan Yu shook her head to indicate that she wasn’t scared.

She pointed at the screen and her index finger slightly quivered: “This man……”

“What about him?”

Ruan Yu widened her eyes in amazement: “He looks like Wei Jin!”

Xu Huaisong had never met Wei Jin and didn’t pay much attention to the other people when he studied the old pictures.

He asked: “Are you sure?”

Ruan Yu looked at the screen again and carefully studied the picture with her head tilted: “The resolution isn’t high enough. It’s hard to tell. But, he really looks like him, especially his eyes…… If it really is Wei Jin, why would he show up in this picture? You have any way to check his educational background?”

A person like Wei Jin must be very careful keeping his personal information confidential. In addition, the police were investigating him because of drug-related crimes. If Xu Huaisong started checking his background, it might alert him.

After giving it some thought, Xu Huaisong opened his contact list on his cell phone: “I can try using some of the connections that my father has.” He started making several phone calls.

Half an hour later, information of Wei Jin’s educational background was sent to Xu Huaisong’s email.

Ruan Yu sat next to him and watched without blinking as the file downloaded until the PDF showed up. She tightly grabbed Xu Huaisong’s sleeve.

Wei Jin was a graduate of Su City Business College and in the same department and same year as Jiang Yi.

Ruan Yu suddenly had goosebumps all over her. She grabbed onto Xu Huaisong’s arm: “What does this mean?”

Xu Huaisong frowned but shook his head: “It doesn’t mean anything.”

He knew what she was thinking of.

The real killer of the old case ten years ago had never been found. Wei Jin was present at the dinner that night and was the same age and had a similar figure as Jiang Yi.

However, would a person necessarily be a killer just because he had a history of taking drugs and raping women? One certainly couldn’t jump to conclusions.

Wei Jin wasn’t on the list of suspects at that time, which meant that the police had ruled out the possibility that he was involved.

Ruan Yu could understand the reasoning; it was impossible for the police to reopen the case just based upon her surmise which was colored by personal feelings.

If the police actually did that, then the country might need one hundred million police to be able to handle all the surmises.

But Ruan Yu wouldn’t give up so easily: “Isn’t Officer Fang investigating Wei Jin right now? Why not share this information with him, he might happen to discover some leads?”

Xu Huaisong shook his head: “Let’s not consider how realistic your accusation of Wei Jin is. The fact is that the Jiang Yi case occurred ten years ago in Su City. For the police to take on a case in a different province and to reopen an old case, it’ll have to meet certain requirements and it would be hard for him to “happen” to find something. Ten years ago, the police back then were the closest to all the clues and evidence and they didn’t find anything. How would Officer Fang find anything now? The only breakthrough we can hope for is the police's investigation into his drug usage.”

Ruan Yu nodded: “Then, how did that investigation go?”

Xu Huaisong wasn't a police officer and didn’t know too much about the details: “They probably suspect that there’s a drug organization behind Wei Jin and are secretly collecting information. I heard that Officer Fang went to Vietnam a couple days ago and has also scheduled a trip to Las Vegas in the US after that. It’s not easy to track across borders. Besides he has to do it covertly, it won’t progress that fast.”

Fortunately, Wei Jin was the kind of person who didn’t care about trivial things. He didn’t think the incident with Sun Miaohan or being seen by Ruan Yu was something worth being concerned about.

At the suggestion of the police, Sun Miaohan had already left Hang City, pretending not to make a fuss about the incident. What Ruan Yu needed to do now was to pretend nothing had happened like Sun Miaohan.

Only then, would she prevent arousing any suspicion from Wei Jin and the police could slowly push their investigation forward.

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 52 Part 2

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 52 Part 2

Xu Huaisong took off his jacket as he was speaking to go to the bathroom. When he started to unbutton his shirt, Ruan Yu hurriedly turned her back to him: “I, I’ll just play around with your computer. Take your time……”

She picked up his laptop and sat down with her back to the bathroom, resting the laptop in her lap.

Ruan Yu’s heart skipped a beat when she heard the sound of Xu Huaisong’s belt buckle striking against the wooden barrel.

The bathroom wasn’t soundproof.

When she heard the sound of running water, she blinked her eyes and tried to concentrate on the computer screen. With a glance, she saw a folder named “Jiang Yi case.”

Ruan Yu knew that lately Xu Huaisong had revisited the ten years old case repeatedly because of Zhou Jun’s case. He was trying to learn his father’s defense strategies since the two cases were quite similar.

Ruan Yu double clicked on the folder.

She decided to read about the case to distract herself.

In the folder, there were many images and text documents. She skipped the ones that looked more technical, but opened a document which had a brief description of the case.

It was written from the lawyer’s perspective, therefore it was based on the client’s statement.

In the statement, it described the victim as a student of Su City Business College. She was Jiang Yi’s junior in the same department and Jiang Yi was about to graduate.

On the day of the incident, Jiang Yi, the victim, and several other students from the same department were having dinner together. After dinner, they went to a bar. They all had drinks at the bar, then Jiang Yi and the victim, who had just started dating, left the bar together, leaving their friends behind. Under the influence of alcohol, they had sex in the public restroom on the roadside.

Afterwards, Jiang Yi received a phone call from his family. He hastily left without taking the woman home. The next time he heard of her was that the woman’s body was discovered in a stall of the public restroom.

The autopsy report indicated that the cause of death was due to head trauma when she struck the back of her head against the water tank of the toilet. She was found dead at the scene.

Jiang Yi had a similar reaction as Zhou Jun at the time. He panicked and chose to run when faced with a police investigation.

But he couldn’t get away.

Criminal profiling indicated that the suspect should be a male about 23 years old and tall.

The other students also testified that the victim had left the bar together with Jiang Yi. 

The most damning evidence was that the semen stains on the victim matched Jiang Yi’s DNA. In addition, the timing of when he received the phone call was quite close to the time of the victim’s death and investigators couldn't conclusively determine which came first in order to clear him. The public restroom was also rather basic, with no surveillance nearby.

Under the pressure of public outcry and police interrogation, Jiang Yi had a mental breakdown. He even began to doubt whether he really was the killer of the victim and gave self-contradictory statements.

Jiang Yi’s family hired Xu Huaisong’s father to defend him and he was eventually acquitted.

It was finally clear to Ruan Yu why Tao Rong and Xu Huaishi couldn’t understand Xu Huaisong’s father. From the perspective of an onlooker, Jiang Yi did “look” like he was the killer.

No wonder Zhou Jun had said that Xu’s father had the ability to turn black into white.

Ruan Yu’s full attention was on the case and didn’t notice that the water had stopped running behind her in the bathroom.

She backed out of the document and went back to the folder. She moved the cursor and saw a picture taken the night of the incident of all the students at the dinner.

The good looking Jiang Yi was at the center of the picture. He was chatting happily with the others besides him, looking like he was in the prime of his life.

It was hard to imagine that the person in the picture would become someone who made a living by scavenging ten years later.

Ruan Yu sighed. Right before she was going to close the picture, she suddenly noticed that in the picture there was a person looking somewhat familiar at the corner of the dinner table.

She frowned and enlarged the picture.

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.