"Another Home Invasion, A Family of Five Lost Their Lives"
"Crime of Passion? Revenge Killing? Famous Celebrity Found Dead at Home, Mysterious Symbol Left by Killer"
"Vice President of XX Company Died at Home, Police Cracked Major Financial Case"
...
Jianjing spent the whole morning browsing the news headlines, growing more and more shocked. Setting aside major political events, entertainment gossip took up a full one-third of the news, criminal cases another half, leaving only a sixth for ordinary news.
What was the world coming to? She quickly searched for "Shinichi Kudo" and "Batman", but only came up with comics and movies - the real people didn't exist.
Why were there so many crimes happening!?
It made no sense.
Ordinary people living in a world like this were clearly in great danger. No wonder the System thought she was useless.
Yes Dad, she was useless.
"Ding dong", her phone chimed with a notification.
Jianjing picked it up and saw it was a message from an unknown number: [I heard Ms. Jian has been discharged from hospital. Please come down to the station to give your statement as soon as possible.]
Followed by an address for the Criminal Investigation Department.
She remembered the promise she had made.
Today was Wednesday. After two more days of rest it would be the weekend, so she may as well go back to class next week. She typed in the address to check the distance - about a twenty minute drive. With time on her hands, she decided to do her civic duty and go down to the station.
She drove over, arriving around 10am.
There were many cars parked outside the police station entrance, and she had great difficulty finding a space. The cars on either side were parked incredibly selfishly, leaving only a tiny gap between them. She struggled to reverse into the tight parking spot for a long time before giving up.
"Who parked this piece of junk?" She was furious, wishing she could just back right into it.
"Stop, stop, you'll never fit," said the man smoking outside the side entrance, finally unable to watch any longer. He walked over, asking "Yo, Ms. Jian?"
Chifeng smiled around his cigarette: "Oh it's you! Get out, let me park for you."
He was speaking very politely, with a friendly demeanor. Jianjing hesitated for a moment before getting out of the car: "Thanks for your help."
"No problem, that's my colleague's car. Must have been in a hurry and parked carelessly." Chifeng got in her car, spun the steering wheel, and precisely wedged her car into the narrow parking spot with some acceleration.
But when he went to open the door and get out... he was stuck!
Chifeng paused awkwardly for a few seconds before starting the car again and parking on the other side where there were no marked bays: "We'll leave it here for now. I'll get those two idiots to come move their cars later."
He got out and beckoned to her casually: "Well, since you're here, let's get your statement done."
Jianjing's footsteps faltered slightly and she maintained a certain distance as she followed him - for some reason, she felt Chifeng's attitude towards her was overly friendly, not matching the aura he gave off.
But she had nothing to hide, so she was cautious but not afraid.
Chifeng led her to a quiet interview room, poured a glass of water, and called in a female officer before speaking: "I asked you to come today mainly to corroborate the events that occurred in the emergency room the night before last. I hope you will answer truthfully and not conceal or provide false testimony, otherwise you may face legal liability."
Jianjing nodded: "Alright."
Chifeng: "The night before last, June 10th, what time did you arrive at the emergency room?"
Jianjing: "Around 8 or 9pm, I didn't note the exact time."
Chifeng: "You were hospitalized for carbon monoxide poisoning. Why did you go to the emergency room?"
Jianjing: "The supermarket didn't have hot water, the owner suggested I go to the emergency room to get some."
Chifeng: "But the incident happened around 9:30pm. Why did you stay there for so long?"
Jianjing was surprised that Chifeng had noticed this detail. She thought he would just ask about the events leading up to and after the incident.
Subconsciously, she avoided the question: "A personal matter."
Chifeng was still very friendly, as if chatting with a friend: "Would you mind sharing what it was about?"
"The officer is very interested in this?" she retorted, already revealing her wariness.
This kind of response no doubt increased Chifeng's suspicions. But he didn't show it, simply saying: "This is just routine verification, not prying into your privacy. I hope you can answer truthfully."
His tone remained friendly and non-confrontational, but his persistent gaze was pressuring.
After a brief silence, Jianjing realized her mistake and hastily explained: "I was... observing the people in the emergency room."
Relying on experience, Chifeng's intuition told him this was the truth. He couldn't help being curious: "Why?"
"Research." The truth paved the way for key lies. Jianjing kept her cool and smiled: "The main character in my new book is a doctor, and there may be some emergency rescue scenes coming up, so since I was here anyway, I decided to take note of things. It's not some special hobby."
The last part circled back to explain her earlier evasiveness about privacy.
But over-explaining to the police was a huge mistake. Chifeng felt something was off but couldn't find a logical flaw, so he set it aside for now and continued: "Why did you notice the perpetrator?"
"He seemed very strange," Jianjing replied, her tone unconsciously relaxing as she recounted the truth. "He looked like he was in terrible pain, but was overacting too much. It seemed staged, like a play, so I paid more attention. And by chance that let me notice the knife's reflection under his coat."
Chifeng scrutinized her: "So you bumped into him because of that? I'm not questioning your actions, just curious. Most people wouldn't dare take action based on slight suspicion like that. Your decisiveness surprises me."
Jianjing straightened her back slightly and met Chifeng's gaze steadily. When she came today, she thought giving a statement would just be a formality, helping the police a little. She never imagined she would face this kind of interrogation.
The man before her was truly frightening. Had she revealed that many anomalies?
For a time, the quiet interview room was filled only with the female officer's typing.
"Even though there was a 90% chance I was wrong and would hurt someone by mistake, there was a 10% chance I could save a life," Jianjing finally spoke. "I felt it was worth trying. If I was wrong, I would just apologize and compensate the person, not end up in jail, right?"
Chifeng stared at her fixedly before suddenly smiling. "Alright, I understand."
He didn't question her further, going through the routine verification of how she subdued the perpetrator, before casually bringing up another mystery: "What did you use to restrain the criminal?"
"Pepper spray." Jianjing answered cautiously.
"Pepper spray with an anesthetic effect?" Chifeng said jokingly, "More effective than police-issue, huh?"
Jianjing said: "A friend gave it to me."
He glanced at her for a few seconds before nodding: "Are you sure everything you said is factual?"
"Yes."
Chifeng motioned for the officer to print out the statement for Jianjing to review: "Take a look, and if you don't see any issues, sign at the bottom."
Jianjing quickly read through it and signed her name.
"Done?" She was eager to leave.
"Done. Thank you for coming in, Ms. Jian." Chifeng politely extended his hand.
Jianjing hesitated before reluctantly shaking it. At the same time, her observational skills automatically activated, noticing Chifeng's palm was covered in calluses, especially pronounced on his tiger's mouth. His grip was very strong - even just a polite handshake meant she couldn't pull her hand away once caught.
"Oh, one more thing," he suddenly said.
Jianjing instantly jerked her hand back, looking at him suspiciously.
Chifeng just smiled, like a sly old fox: "A personal matter - I have a sister who's your avid reader. She asked me to get an autograph from you. Would you be willing?"
It was a reasonable request and refusing would be too odd, so Jianjing nodded: "Alright."
"Please wait a moment." Chifeng stepped out briefly and came back with a newly published copy of "Demon Doctor". "Thank you."
Jianjing flipped open the book: "Who should I write it to?"
Chifeng cleared his throat: "Ji Yunyun. Just write, uh, study hard, get into a top university, don't dream of opening a detective agency in the future."
Jianjing raised her brow, a silent question in her eyes.
"Just write 'study hard' then," Chifeng conceded.
Only then did Jianjing put pen to paper.
Chifeng secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
He had his doubts about Jianjing, but still took his lunch break to interview her. When his beloved little sister insisted on getting an autograph, he could only comply.
As a policeman, he was most lacking towards his family.
"Done," Jianjing closed the book and suddenly asked, "I have a question, if you don't mind answering."
Chifeng glanced at the book in her hand: "What is it?"
"What did that person want to do? Why did he act like that?" After much hesitation, she couldn't resist asking the biggest question on her mind.
Chifeng answered readily - such a malicious incident would definitely be publicly reported, so telling her now made no difference: "The perpetrator was Dr. Chen's patient. He had gone to the hospital before for treatment, but they recommended some tests that he felt were too expensive, so he didn't get them done. Six months later, he developed issues and got tested at another hospital, where he was diagnosed with late-stage cancer."
Jianjing softly exhaled.
"He felt that if Dr. Chen had told him it could be cancer back then, he definitely would have gotten the tests. And he thought the hospital was deliberately overcharging so he wouldn't have a chance at life. So he developed the idea of getting revenge on society."
What Chifeng didn't say was that according to the perpetrator's own account, he went in with the mentality of taking someone down with him for each life he had left.
His rationale was simply imbalance.
"I didn't do anything bad my whole life, why do I get such rotten luck? If I can't live well, why should they get to live well? If I have to die, we can all die together, I don't care. Killing one is earning one for me." The perpetrator felt no remorse the entire time.
Such indiscriminate murder was the most frightening kind.
If not for Jianjing's preemptive actions, the consequences were unimaginable.
For this exact reason, Chifeng decided not to look too deeply into the oddities surrounding Jianjing.
"Ms. Jian, you saved many lives," he sincerely said. "If there is a next time, I hope you can be as brave as you were this time."
Jianjing: "..." Next time?
For a policeman to say this, just how terrifying must the crime rate be in this world?
