Chapter 10: Just say whether you want it or not

Translator: Abo Dammen

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Case One: The Phantom Sniper

The champagne glass shattered into pieces, the pale golden liquid splashing all over the floor.

Everyone stared at Xu Pei, trying to figure out what had happened. Especially Lin Mei, whose glass had been slapped away. No one had ever dared to be so disrespectful to her. Suppressing her anger, she said, “You’d better give me an explanation.”

Xu Pei bent down slightly and sniffed the wine scent permeating the air. “It’s cyanide.” 

The crowd erupted in an uproar.

A flicker of astonishment crossed Lin Mei’s face. “I was just drinking from it,” she said disbelievingly. “How could it be poisoned?”

He Yixun crouched down, leaned close to the floor, and smelled it. There was indeed an unmistakable bitter almond odor. He slowly stood up, his sharp gaze sweeping over everyone present before finally settling on Lin Mei. “Who handled your glass?”

“No one touched it,” Lin Mei stated with certainty. “Are you sure? Someone really tried to poison me?” 

She still seemed reluctant to believe someone would target her in this way.

“Cyanide kills on contact,” He Maohu, across the table, spoke up. Like Lin Mei, he was half-convinced, half-doubting. “She’s been drinking champagne all along. If it were really poisoned, would she still be standing here? You must have made a mistake.”

Cindy, from another table, acting on her professional duty as a bodyguard, also came over to inspect. She nodded to Ling Feng. “It is indeed cyanide.”

“Wow,” Ling Feng said leisurely, looking left and right. The minor bosses who met his gaze either shook their heads or waved their hands, hurriedly distancing themselves. Finally, Ling Feng shifted his gaze back to He Maohu and said meaningfully, “How interesting.” 

After silently observing everyone’s reactions, He Yixun called out, “Professor Xu.”

Hearing this form of address, the others looked at each other in surprise.

Xu Pei was also slightly taken aback. Previously, when He Yixun used this title, it carried a sarcastic tone. But this time was different; He Yixun seemed to have let down his guard against him and, for the moment, acknowledged his professional identity.

“Aside from the floor, where else do you smell this odor?” 

Understanding the implication, Xu Pei closed his eyes and focused on sensing the flow of scents in the air. Pale golden threads originated from the shattered champagne glass, branching out in countless directions like an airport route map. Some weaved between table legs, coming to an abrupt stop at the tip of a shoe; others shot straight up, reaching a distant sleeve.

The splashed wine had its corresponding paths, but beyond that, there was no trace of the bitter almond smell anywhere else in the restaurant.

“No,” Xu Pei opened his eyes and shook his head. “It’s only in the champagne glass.”

This meant the container used to administer the poison wasn’t in the restaurant, and the perpetrator hadn’t gotten any of the poison on them. He Yixun’s intention to directly identify the culprit through scent had failed. 

He Jun, who had apparently figured out that Xu Pei relied on his sense of smell to identify the poison, teased, “So it’s not my sister-in-law, but a police dog.”

This earned him a glare from He Maohu. “Shut up.”

Lin Mei, who always trusted only herself, ignored the inconvenience of her gown, bent down, and picked up a concave fragment, smelling the tiny amount of liquid remaining inside.

There was indeed a distinct unusual odor. 

The fact that she had nearly been killed was right before her eyes. Lin Mei staggered back half a step in a daze, one hand braced on the table to steady her swaying body. But in the blink of an eye, she had recovered from her shock.

The dark eye makeup intensified the sharpness in her eyes. Issuing commands, she seemed more like the true master of the Lucky Number than He Maohu himself. “Check the surveillance. See who touched my glass.”

The wheelhouse was located on the top deck, offering the best view on the entire ship.

The surveillance monitoring station had only one operator’s seat, unable to accommodate eight or nine people watching at once. In the end, only He Maohu, Lin Mei, Ling Feng, He Yixun, and Xu Pei remained by the console. The others either went for a smoke or waited to the side, chatting while enjoying the view. 

The surveillance footage rewound to the beginning of the reception. Lin Mei, standing closest, pointed her index finger at the screen. “That’s me. I’ve just arrived.”

There were only two cameras in the restaurant. One was near the front hall. The VIP area was very blurry, almost impossible to see clearly. The other was further in, clearly showing Lin Mei taking a glass of champagne from a randomly moving waiter.

“I took it randomly,” Lin Mei said, pressing the spacebar with a snap to pause the footage. “This might be a case of indiscriminate murder.”

“No,” He Yixun tapped the spacebar to resume playback. “You said you drank champagne again later.” 

Right after taking the champagne, Lin Mei took a small sip, ruling out the possibility that the waiter had poisoned it.

The footage after that became somewhat chaotic. Lin Mei, holding her champagne glass, socialized everywhere—greeting one person, exchanging pleasantries with another. Several times, the glass disappeared from the camera’s view. 

Later, He Yixun and Xu Pei arrived in the VIP area.

After finishing her rounds of socializing, Lin Mei returned to her seat. From that point on, she didn’t touch the champagne again.

After everyone was seated and began dining, she stood up holding her champagne glass and a spoon, and then Xu Pei stepped forward and knocked the glass from her hand.

That was the complete sequence of events. 

Rewinding the footage to the chaotic socializing part, Lin Mei pointed one by one at the people who had been around her. “I don’t believe any of these people would poison me. I haven’t harmed their interests.”

“That’s hard to say, Mayor Lin,” said Ling Feng, pushing his silver-framed glasses up his nose and speaking slowly. “The policies you’ve drafted, even if there are countermeasures below for every policy above, still have a significant impact on us.

“Do you really think just giving a heads-up beforehand means no one holds a grudge?”

Lin Mei’s confidence wavered slightly. She frowned almost imperceptibly. “I was shot at yesterday, and I’m here today to show my stance. Isn’t that sincere enough? Li Menglan’s policies are even more radical. I am already your only choice.” 

“But the problem is, this trouble was stirred up by you two,” said Ling Feng, glancing at He Maohu. “Lucky Number has had many incidents, from disappearances, sexual assaults, organ trafficking… all caused by the lack of oversight. And the person who granted it this privilege was you, Mayor Lin. You issued the Lucky Number’s casino license.”

“Bro, there’s no need for that kind of talk,” He Maohu spoke slowly, his deep voice carrying natural authority. “There’s an order to things. When I was building my business in Bincheng, you were probably still playing in the mud somewhere.”

“I was just saying.” Ling Feng shrugged, retracting the sharpness from his words. “If Mayor Lin can’t figure out who it was, I’m just kindly reminding her that there are plenty of people with motive. Even among Hu-ge’s people, you can’t be sure someone doesn’t have other ideas.”

“It’s impossible that it was my people,” He Maohu snorted coldly, his attitude disdainful, almost explicitly saying Ling Feng was talking nonsense. 

However, Lin Mei seemed to waver. She looked at the people in the surveillance footage, lost in thought. “Was it him? Or him…”

Xu Pei, not in a position to interrupt, nudged He Yixun with his elbow and whispered, “Don’t you think it’s a bit strange?”

He Yixun shifted his gaze from the monitor to Xu Pei. “You mean the timing of the poisoning.”

“If someone had poisoned it during the socializing, I should have smelled it immediately,” Xu Pei recalled the details. “But I only smelled it after she had returned to her seat.” 

“That is indeed strange here,” He Yixun agreed, taking the mouse and dragging the timeline to the moment just before Lin Mei prepared to return to her seat. “Look, she even took a sip of champagne at this point.”

“Yes, I definitely drank it then,” Lin Mei recalled, her confidence returning somewhat. “This proves the poisoner wasn’t among those I was socializing with.”

But after that, no one else touched Lin Mei’s glass. Within a few minutes, cyanide had appeared in the glass out of thin air. This was the most perplexing point.

“So who poisoned it then?” Ling Feng said offhandedly. “A ghost?” 

For now, He Yixun could only think of long-range projection.

Or perhaps there were other clues at the scene that Xu Pei, not being a professional investigator, had missed.

“It’s not a ghost, only someone playing tricks,” said Xu Pei. “The only thing certain now is that the poisoner must have been in the restaurant.”

He Yixun thought the same. 

Or, to be more precise, the poisoner was right beside Lin Mei.

At that moment, He Jun’s voice suddenly rang out from outside the wheelhouse, “Goddamn it, let go of me!”

This was followed by a “bang!” and He Jun’s furious curse. “Fuck!”

He Maohu, who had been pondering the poisoning, turned around impatiently and walked towards the wheelhouse door. “What’s going on?” 

“This bitch hit me!” He Jun, who had just been given an over-the-shoulder throw, cursed as he scrambled up from the ground.

The accused, Cindy, remained very calm, explaining only to Ling Feng, who had followed, “He groped my butt.”

Ling Feng let out an amused “Ha!”, took out a cigarette case, lit a cigarette, and wore a look of watching a show. “Young Master He, you certainly have… ideas.”

“A slut in tight clothes is just asking to be touched, isn’t she?” He Jun’s arrogance was off the charts, clearly relying on this being his family’s turf. 

However, He Maohu, as if ashamed, berated him harshly, “Enough!

“Haven’t I told you you’ll end up dead because of a woman if you don’t control yourself?!”

He Jun looked defiant and wanted to say more, but Zhou Ye, nearby, quickly pulled at him to soothe him, “That’s enough, Young Master He.”

This farce soon concluded. The originally separate groups now mingled in twos and threes. He Maohu also lit a cigarette and asked Ling Feng for his thoughts on territory division. Lin Mei and Ma Jing discussed what they had seen in the surveillance footage. 

Looking out over the railing outside the wheelhouse, a full moon hung quietly in the sky. The sea breeze blowing towards them carried a slight chill.

Xu Pei rubbed his arms and asked He Yixun, “Do you think the killer will strike again?”

He Yixun moved his lips, about to speak, when a ringtone interrupted his response. He looked down at the caller ID and answered, “Speak.”

“Officer He, it’s me.” Chen Zhen’s voice came through. “I heard you’re on the Lucky Number?” 

“What is it?” He Yixun urged.

“It’s like this. I’ve been reviewing the video from the shooting scene repeatedly. There’s something strange. When the first shot… , … was at… , so the second shot… , how…”

A staticky sound, indicating poor signal, came from the receiver. He Yixun took the phone away to look at it, then put it back to his ear and said, “Hello?”

This time, the call dropped completely. The previously full signal bars in the top right corner of the screen were now replaced by an “X”. 

He Yixun frowned and looked at Xu Pei. “Do you still have a signal on your phone?”

“Huh?” Xu Pei, confused, took out his phone. “No.”

He Yixun turned to the others. “Do your phones still have a signal?”

Before everyone could confirm one by one, the captain suddenly emerged from the wheelhouse and said to He Maohu, “Mr. He, there’s electromagnetic interference on the ship. The radar has failed.” 

Losing phone signal was already a bad sign. Lin Mei visibly tensed up. “What does that mean?”

“It means the killer will strike again,” He Yixun said calmly. “He doesn’t want us contacting the outside world.”

The air instantly tensed, making everyone’s breath hitch.

“Turn back! Turn back now!” Fear of the unknown twisted Lin Mei’s expression. She yelled at the captain indiscriminately, “What are you standing there for?” 

He Maohu, having seen greater storms after all, said composedly, “If the radar has failed, we can only operate manually. We should first investigate the cause.”

Ma Jing chimed in to comfort her, “Boss, don’t panic yet. We’re all here. We definitely won’t let anything happen to you.”

Ling Feng said quietly to Cindy, “The mayor absolutely cannot die on the Lucky Number. Otherwise, we’re all finished.”

“……” 

The group was in chaos like a pot of porridge. Xu Pei, completely unrelated to the matter yet equally trapped on the ship, couldn’t help but feel nervous. “Can we still get back?”

“As long as the captain is skilled enough, yes,” said He Yixun.

“And if the captain isn’t skilled enough??”

Originally, He Yixun had intended to have He Maohu turn back as soon as possible. Once docked, he could have the forensics team thoroughly search the restaurant and bring all suspects in for interrogation, believing they would eventually find clues. 

But now that seemed unworkable. The Lucky Number had become an isolated island, and it was unclear where it would drift.

All modern investigative methods lost their meaning on an isolated island. The only thing that could be of use now was…

“Then you assist me in finding the killer,” He Yixun responded. “Once the interference is cleared, we can go back.”

In this short single day, Professor Xu’s life had embarked on a wild ride, full of unexpected developments. 

He was a professor engaged in biological research! How did he end up solving a case in a gangster’s den?

But, startled by the sea breeze, Professor Xu suddenly realized this was a good opportunity to fight for his freedom.

After a moment’s thought, he said to He Yixun in a negotiating tone, “You’re really treating me like a police dog? I can’t work for you for free.”

Assuming that, given He Yixun’s rule-abiding nature, he would certainly propose a material exchange. Who would have thought Officer He would say, “If you never find a way back, I can’t support you forever. I’m offering you a job opportunity now. Just say whether you want it or not.” 

“…….”

Professor Xu gritted his teeth. “I want it.”