Fang Rui planned to go to Lu Tian's house with Zhang to see if they could find any clues. But as soon as he left the office, he saw Mu Mian blocking his way.
"Fang Rui, can I come with you to investigate the case?" she asked.
"Why?" Fang Rui was a bit surprised. In his impression, Mu Mian wasn't very interested in investigating cases; she was only interested in corpses.
Mu Mian glanced back at Chen Xue, then looked at Fang Rui again. "For justice!"
"..."
As it happened, Zhang had gone out on duty, so Fang Rui directly took Mu Mian to Lu Tian's house.
Lu Tian lived in the Wenyuan Residential Complex in the East City district. The security in the complex was quite good. Lu Tian lived in Building 6, Room 603.
Nie Yan opened the door. Lu Tian had been in a very bad emotional state recently, so Nie Yan was with her almost 24 hours a day, fearing she might do something rash.
Nie Yan was pleasantly surprised to see Fang Rui. "Officer Fang? It's been a while since we last met. Are you investigating this case?"
"Yes. Nie Yan, are you in charge of Lu Tian's case?"
"That's right. Are you here to see Lu Tian? She just took her medication and is asleep now. She'll probably wake up in a while."
Nie Yan used to specialize in handling criminal cases and was an excellent prosecutor, so she often had work handovers with Fang Rui and his team. Through these interactions, the two of them got to know each other.
Later, Nie Yan was marginalized in the prosecutor's office and was mainly responsible for small cases, so she had fewer interactions with Fang Rui.
"Fang Rui, seeing that you're investigating this case, I suddenly feel confident. I'm sure we can find evidence to prove Lin Qianjie's guilt," Nie Yan said happily.
Fang Rui and Nie Yan continued to exchange pleasantries, blocking Mu Mian's path and making her a bit irritated. So she chimed in, "And me too!"
Only then did Nie Yan notice that there was a young girl behind Fang Rui.
"This is Prosecutor Nie Yan," Fang Rui turned to smile at Mu Mian, then introduced her to Nie Yan, "Nie Yan, this is Mu Mian, our new forensic expert at the City Police Bureau."
"Hello, Forensic Expert Mu!" Nie Yan extended her hand towards Mu Mian.
"Hello."
Mu Mian looked at Nie Yan's fair hand, which she didn't know how many bacteria it harbored, and felt conflicted. She didn't want to shake hands with this Prosecutor Nie. So she looked at the ceiling.
"Sorry, I don't like shaking hands."
Nie Yan withdrew her hand, feeling that this Forensic Expert Mu didn't seem to like her very much.
The location of the rape case was Lu Tian's room. Her room faced south, with a large window that let in plenty of light when the curtains weren't drawn.
After the rape occurred, Lu Tian hadn't entered the room, preserving the crime scene.
The entire room was in disarray. The pillow had fallen to the floor, there were pieces of a broken vase on the ground, and the blanket was messy, indicating that Lu Tian had put up a fierce struggle at the time.
Looking out from the window, Mu Mian could see the balconies of the building opposite. The distance between the two buildings wasn't very far. With good eyesight, one could see the TV screen in the living room across the way.
The apartment directly across from them on the eighth floor was watching SpongeBob SquarePants.
Mu Mian wanted to see more clearly, so she leaned out of the window to look. She was very curious about the flowers on the balcony of the ninth floor opposite, so she leaned out a bit further.
The feeling of suspension suddenly reminded her that she was afraid of heights!
Fang Rui had been discussing the case with Nie Yan. He caught sight of Mu Mian's dangerous action from the corner of his eye and immediately ran over to pull her back.
"Mu Mian, don't you know how dangerous that is! Don't you have a fear of heights? Why are you leaning out of the window? This is the sixth floor. If you fall, you'll die!" Fang Rui was furious with Mu Mian.
Mu Mian was startled and couldn't help but point out, "I wouldn't have fallen. I only had a quarter of my body out. According to the principle of leverage, I wouldn't have fallen..."
Seeing Fang Rui's face getting darker, she quickly changed her tune, "Fang Rui, thank you for saving me!"
"If you do this again, I won't bring you out to investigate cases next time."
Mu Mian felt a bit wronged. It was Fang Rui who was making a big deal out of nothing; she hadn't done anything very dangerous.
She still valued her life very much. She wanted to live for a very long time, so she could dissect Fang Rui's body after he died.
"What did you want to see?"
"The balcony over there."
Fang Rui followed Mu Mian's gaze to the living room on the eighth floor of the opposite building. From this angle, they could see that the TV in the living room was playing a cartoon, which appeared to be SpongeBob SquarePants.
Fang Rui almost laughed in exasperation, "Mu Mian, you made such a dangerous move just to watch SpongeBob SquarePants? Can't you watch it on your phone?"
Mu Mian wanted to argue, but seeing that Nie Yan was still standing nearby, she could only acquiesce.
Nie Yan felt that the current Fang Rui was very different. She had dealt with Fang Rui before, and although he was very good at social niceties, he was skilled at controlling his emotions and often gave people a sense of detachment.
But he was very different with Mu Mian.
Fang Rui suddenly realized that the buildings in this residential complex were quite close together, which didn't provide much privacy. The residents in the opposite building might also be able to see what was happening on Lu Tian's side.
"Were the curtains not drawn at the time of the incident?" Fang Rui turned to ask Lu Tian.
Lu Tian said, "I'm not sure. That day he suddenly pulled me into the room. I don't remember clearly. But I didn't touch the curtains afterwards, so they probably weren't drawn."
Nie Yan immediately understood Fang Rui's meaning - the residents in the opposite building might have seen what happened. Nie Yan immediately ran out to investigate.
Mu Mian watched Nie Yan's hastily departing figure and sighed, "Fang Rui, next time don't reveal the clues. Look, she's beaten us to it."
"She's Lu Tian's prosecutor. She's on our side."
"Shouldn't we be neutral?"
Fang Rui was taken aback. Perhaps because Lin Qianjie had so much negative history, he had subconsciously sided with Lu Tian. But Lu Tian could also be the one lying.
"It's okay, those residents haven't returned from work yet, so her trip will be in vain," Fang Rui said. "We'll go interview those residents after dark."
Fang Rui then questioned the security guard downstairs.
The security guard was a man from the Northwest, with a large build. He spoke with an accent: "Miss Lu and Mr. Lin were definitely a couple. We often saw them entering and leaving the complex together."
"Are you saying that Lin Qianjie also lives in this complex?"
"Yes, Mr. Lin lives on the eighth floor. But Sister Wang said that when she was cleaning early in the morning, she saw Mr. Lin coming out of her apartment several times. They were probably living together."
Fang Rui then found the cleaning lady, Sister Wang. She was in her fifties and looked quite kind.
"Mr. Lin moved in last month. I remember him clearly because as soon as he moved in, he gave me a big red envelope with several hundred yuan. He was very generous. He and Miss Lu had a very good relationship. Once when I was cleaning the corridor, I saw him coming out of Miss Lu's apartment. It was at 6:30 in the morning, they couldn't have been discussing work at that time, right?
Oh, Miss Lu is too bad. She was clearly in a relationship with Mr. Lin, but she accused him of rape. She probably didn't get the money she wanted, so she turned on him. Young girls these days are so wicked."
"Have you seen them come out of the apartment together?"
"No, I haven't!"
"Thank you for your cooperation."
Fang Rui felt that this cleaning lady probably wasn't lying, but why would Lin Qianjie come out of Lu Tian's apartment?
Could Lu Tian be lying?
As night fell, lights began to come on in the residential complex.
"Based on the distance between the two buildings and the height of Lu Tian's window, the residents who can see into Lu Tian's room are those on the fourth to twelfth floors," Mu Mian said, drawing a proportional sketch of the two buildings on paper. "The residents on the left side can't see into Lu Tian's room due to the angle. So we only need to question sixteen households."
"Mm-hmm."
Most of the residents were cooperative. Upon learning of Fang Rui's purpose, they all said they hadn't seen anything.
"Why are you here again? Didn't you ask us last night?" one resident complained.
"Someone came to ask you last night?" Fang Rui inquired.
"Yes, he said he was the prosecutor in charge of Miss Lu's case."
Fang Rui frowned. Nie Yan had only gone to question these residents this afternoon. How could someone have come last night?
"It was a man in a suit, wearing glasses."
It was Lawyer Wang! Fang Rui knew that someone had beaten him to it again. Even if there were eyewitnesses, it was very likely that Lawyer Wang had already bought them off.
Sure enough, as Fang Rui went door to door asking questions, most people cooperatively claimed they hadn't seen anything.
By the time he had finished questioning all the residents, it was already ten o'clock at night.
They had walked so much that day that Mu Mian felt her legs cramping. She was exhausted and wanted to go to sleep.
Fang Rui said, "Let's go back!"
As they reached the ground floor, Mu Mian suddenly said, "Fang Rui, I wasn't really watching SpongeBob this afternoon."
"Mm, I know."
"No, you don't. I was looking at the balcony on the ninth floor. I saw a red dot from a camera on that balcony. There's a good chance a camera has been installed there."
Fang Rui looked up at the balcony on the ninth floor. The owner of that apartment seemed to be away, as the entire place was dark. The balcony was filled with various plants, some with beautiful flowers blooming, and some with vines.
Among the greenery, there was a faint red dot, but it wasn't clear what it was.
Fang Rui went to find the residential complex's security guard again. The guard knew that resident because he had given the guard several pots of orchids and always greeted him when coming and going.
"Uncle, my girlfriend wants to buy some orchids from the resident on the ninth floor of that building. Do you have their contact information?" Fang Rui made up an excuse, fearing that this security guard might have also been bought off by Lawyer Wang.
"The flowers at his place are indeed beautiful, but he might not want to sell them. His phone number... Oh, I can't just give you residents' contact information. You'll have to find him yourself."
"Do you know when he'll be back?"
"He left on a business trip a few days ago and should be back tomorrow. How about this: give me your phone number, and when he returns, I'll ask him to contact you. But whether he'll sell the flowers or not, I can't say."
After getting the information from the security guard, Fang Rui returned to the car to find Mu Mian already asleep.
Looking at the dark circles under Mu Mian's eyes, Fang Rui smiled helplessly. He didn't know why Mu Mian had suddenly become so invested in this case, but he was certain that Mu Mian had been acting a bit strange these past few days.
Mu Mian wasn't usually the type of person who was passionate about upholding justice.
