Replacing the Evil Way

Chapter 44: Situation

“Last night, it rained heavily, and you didn’t come back all night.”

Facing He Wei’s retelling, Cheng Zesheng was a bit confused. He cautiously asked, “…Were you worried?”

Last night, after meeting Lian Jingyuan and returning home, he was naturally asked to stay for the night by his mother, so he didn’t have a chance to greet He Wei. If he had known that He Wei was waiting for him and worried, he would have rushed back even if it was raining knives outside.

He Wei looked up, but unfortunately, they couldn’t see each other. Otherwise, Cheng Zesheng would definitely have appreciated his expression of indifference. “Don’t overthink it. I wanted to discuss the case with you. Worried about what? You failing to cross the tribulation?”

“…” This was the nth time Cheng Zesheng felt the impulse to shut He Wei’s mouth.

How could someone who appeared so calm and gentle be so irritating with every word? They probably didn’t let him do interviews outside, did they? Maybe he could drive leaders and journalists crazy off-camera.

He Wei was completely unaware that Cheng Zesheng needed a book titled “The Art of Communication.” As he wiped the whiteboard, he said, “I was waiting for you to come back last night because I wanted to tell you some very important news.”

“Go ahead.”

After cleaning the whiteboard, He Wei pinned up the transcript of Cheng Zhenqing’s statement, highlighting a few lines of key content. Cheng Zesheng quickly scanned the text and gradually became astonished. He snatched the transcript over, his eyes fixed on the familiar signature below the content.

He Wei had anticipated that he would grab the transcript uncontrollably. Fortunately, he had made multiple copies, so he found another one and stuck it up. He said, “Can you guess? We’ve caught the real identity of the person we apprehended, Cheng Zhenqing.”

“…My brother.” Cheng Zesheng’s voice was dry and hoarse, his hands trembling slightly as he stared at the signature underneath the transcript. “He really is my brother, it’s really him!”

In an instant, emotions that had been missing for three years surged forth. Memories flashed through his mind, including the last time he saw Cheng Zhenqing’s body, holding his ashes at the cemetery, and locking away all memories related to him. Cheng Zesheng’s eyes grew slightly warm, and he quickly closed them, suppressing his emotions. He didn’t want to show He Wei such an embarrassing side.

Before his surging emotions could settle, He Wei poured cold water on the situation. “Even though he used to be a police officer, after his reincarnation, he engaged in illegal activities, injured colleagues, broke the law, and committed more serious crimes.”

“Please investigate properly before jumping to conclusions. I believe my brother must have had his reasons.” Cheng Zesheng wanted to defend his brother, but he couldn’t find a justification. While Cheng Zhenqing was alive, his sense of justice was much stronger than Cheng Zesheng’s. However, after his rebirth, he took a completely different path, which was unexpected. Faced with these changes, Cheng Zesheng couldn’t pass judgment. He hadn’t experienced such a painful death, so he had no right to comment on his brother’s journey. However, deep down, he always believed that his brother must have been driven to this path out of necessity, not out of deliberate self-destruction.

People who stand by and give advice without experiencing it themselves are the ones who can easily encourage others to be virtuous. Some things are only understood when experienced firsthand. Forgiveness is much harder than it seems. Perhaps certain obstacles in one’s heart are never overcome.

A black line divided the whiteboard into two sections: on the left was He Wei’s scene, and on the right was Cheng Zesheng’s scene. He was writing about the progress of his own case, circling several important points. “Currently, there are many doubts about your case. For instance, where were you on the night of the 13th, and how did you get to the mansion?”

“Not me, it’s Cheng Zesheng,” Officer Cheng protested.

“Oh, Cheng Zesheng,” He Wei immediately corrected himself. “Should I give you guys some code names? You can be Cheng 1, he can be Cheng 2?”

Cheng Zesheng went along with it, “Then I’ll assign you some ranks on my end. You can be He 1, the missing one can be He 2, and the deceased one can be He 3. How about that?”

He Wei didn’t bother with the nonsense and accepted this arrangement to avoid confusion. He continued to organize, “Based on the current clues at the scene, because of the time-space folding, a third party is provisionally labeled as ‘me.’ But why ‘I’ appeared there is still unknown. Without sufficient evidence, I have reason to attribute all traces of a third party to the result of time-space folding.”

“And there’s this marble, which has your fingerprints on it, but judging by its position, it seems more likely to have rolled out from ‘He 3’ on your side. I can’t figure out the significance of this piece of evidence, so I’m maintaining skepticism about its true identity for now.”

Cheng Zesheng retorted, “It must be from your side; I don’t even know the ‘you’ from this side.”

He Wei chuckled, as if he actually knew Cheng Zesheng from this side.

Cheng Zesheng hesitated to speak. He still harbored doubts about He Wei’s number appearing on the cell phone of pianist Cheng Zesheng. He Wei was confident, didn’t know Cheng Zesheng, and had no reason to lie. So what did the appearance of this number imply?

“After confirming the firearm and Cheng Zhenqing’s connection, we’ve determined that it’s the type-92 that went missing from the basement armory. Currently, we don’t know whether the murderer still has the weapon on them or if it has been discarded somewhere. Finding the murderer is key to finding the murder weapon.”

“Students went to the mansion late at night due to an exploration order, which led to the discovery of the body. The issuer of the exploration order has remained elusive. I suspect they’re hiding in the residential complex where my classmate lives. However, there’s no footage of them there. If they used a car for entry and exit, we’d need to investigate the records of all vehicles entering and exiting Huyue Xingchen, which is essentially a lead that’s currently cut off.”

“The members of the task force suspect that Cheng Zhenqing and the issuer are the same person. After comparing surveillance footage from various angles, this possibility hasn’t been ruled out. But whether the issuer and the murderer are the same person or part of a group is still unclear and requires further investigation.”

“After capturing Cheng Zhenqing, during questioning about certain abnormal behaviors, he explained it as ‘the script can’t be changed.’ He didn’t specify the nature of the script, but it seemed like he was hinting at a massive conspiracy. There’s also an envelope in the safe; he said the timing isn’t right, and I haven’t opened it yet, so I’m not sure what’s inside the photos.”

“There are a few remaining questions, such as what ‘He 2’ was doing that evening and how he got to the mansion. Compared to earlier points, these are relatively minor issues. Solving them should become much easier once we identify the murderer.”

He Wei neatly organized all these case doubts, listing them out one by one, which made things considerably clearer. Compared to He Wei’s death case, Cheng Zesheng’s case didn’t have as much mysteriousness, but had all single-chain evidence, scattered and messy, impossible to piece together. These pieces of evidence seemed unrelated, but if a key piece could be found, everything could be naturally connected, forming a chain of evidence.

Unfortunately, what was missing was the crucial link: traces of the murderer. Throughout the entire case, there was no mention of clues about the murderer. Those vague traces that were initially unclear and thought to be due to the effects of time-space folding have been ruled out. Now, the situation was even worse—there were no traces of the murderer at all. The criminal had become completely invisible.

Cheng Zesheng’s gaze swept over the musical notation by chance, and he unintentionally saw the safe password provided by Cheng Zhenqing. He froze for a moment, his gaze moving up and down the two rows of numbers, and he exclaimed, “These two are the same set of numbers!”

He Wei was drawn in by his words and immediately compared the musical notes with the safe password. 85553113, adding 1 and 7 equals 8; 2 and 3 equals 5; 1 and 2 equals 3; 6 and 5 equals 11; 2 and 1 equals 3. The password was formed by adding the numbers from the musical notes. He Wei realized the significant look Cheng Zhenqing had given when providing the password during the interrogation. He realized, Cheng Zhenqing knew, that he clearly understood the special and necessary nature of these musical notes, which was why he had transformed them into a password as a subtle hint.

He Wei furrowed his brows. The melody of this musical notation was the chime of the quartz clock on the wall. Was it Cheng Zesheng who created it and it was subsequently made, or did it exist long before and was noted down by Cheng Zesheng?

And why did it become the chime at the special time of midnight? It was quite intriguing. He Wei had called the manufacturer to inquire and found out that this was set later through a USB insertion. But who could have foreseen all of this and arranged it before they moved in?

———

“The password for the safe, does it have any special meaning?”

Cheng Zhenqing pretended not to remember. He Wei took Cheng Zesheng’s notebook, flipped to that page, and pointed at it. “Does it jog your memory?”

Cheng Zhenqing glanced at it and shrugged. “Oh, that? I happened to come across this musical notation and used it as the password.”

“When did Cheng Zesheng write this? And why didn’t he finish it?”

“How would I know? It was already there when I saw it. Zesheng didn’t finish writing it; perhaps he didn’t treat it as a song but rather as a hidden code to create. Officer He, many things are not as complicated as we think. They’re actually quite simple once you understand them.”

He Wei closed the notebook. It seemed asking Cheng Zhenqing wasn’t very productive. He could only answer so much, not because he didn’t know but because he couldn’t answer. He crossed his arms and looked down at Cheng Zhenqing. “You said the timing isn’t right for the envelope. When will it be the right time to open it?”

“That depends on you, Officer He. When this game truly begins, opening it will reveal a lot.”

The concept of the “game” was mentioned once again. He Wei bent down slightly and spoke with a voice only the two of them could hear. “You were reborn, but I wasn’t. I’ve always lived in this world. What kind of game do I need to experience?”

Cheng Zhenqing chuckled, his smile helpless and melancholic. “You’re imagining it too positively. This has nothing to do with the starting point of life; it’s all about the endpoint. From the moment you met my brother, you were destined to be unable to escape this game.”

He Wei pondered deeply, his voice even lower. “Then just tell me, based on your experience, what should I do?”

Cheng Zhenqing furrowed his brows, hesitated, and after a moment, his lips pressed into a line as he shook his head. “If your ideas have been changed too much, the outcome will only be the worst result.”

He Wei remained silent for a few seconds, then straightened his body. “Alright, if you can’t tell me, I won’t force you. Lastly, your brother asked me to ask you, why did you have to turn to crime?”

Cheng Zhenqing was taken aback, then lowered his head and slowly clenched his hands. “…This can’t be considered a crime. It’s very likely that my kindness and compassion could lead to an irreparable upheaval.”

“I’ve already died once. There’s nothing in this life that can’t be gambled on. Everything I’m gambling on is to save my brother.”