Good and Evil Chapter 115: Doubts and Xu Lang's Coldness

Before long, Jin Enpei entered Xu Lang’s office with a folder in hand.

She handed the folder to Xu Lang, who took it and scanned the contents. Immediately, he recalled who the Han Xingchang mentioned by Ning Yanran was.

According to the documents, Han Xingchang was the client from a case Du Ziqiao had brought to Xu Lang’s attention a few months prior. At that time, a wealthy man had approached their detective agency, suspecting his wife of infidelity. His suspicions were sparked by the mysterious disappearance of cigars and food from their home, along with strange noises heard in the middle of the night—as if the house were haunted.

Xu Lang had been assisting the police with another case at the time and was not at the agency. Du Ziqiao took on the case, but after conducting surveillance and shadowing the wife, he found no evidence of an affair. Once Du Ziqiao reported these findings to Han Xingchang, the matter was dropped.

Back then, Du Ziqiao had recounted the case to Xu Lang as a joke, and Xu Lang hadn't paid much mind to it. He never expected that, just a few months later, Han Xingchang would be murdered in his own villa.

After finishing the file, Xu Lang handed it to Ning Yanran. After reviewing it carefully, she looked at him in astonishment and asked, "Han Xingchang once hired your agency to investigate his wife, Yan Wanyi, before he died?"

Xu Lang nodded, his brow furrowed. As things stood, that was indeed the case.

Based on Ning Yanran’s account of the murder and the preliminary findings, there were numerous red flags. Xu Lang felt this was not a simple case of a burglary gone wrong, but rather a premeditated murder.

First, Han Xingchang was more than a decade older than Yan Wanyi. In marriages between an older man and a younger woman, especially when the husband is wealthy, property disputes are a frequent motive for homicide.

Second, Han Xingchang had suspected Yan Wanyi of cheating. While Du Ziqiao’s investigation found no evidence, the mystery of the vanishing cigars and food remained unsolved. If Yan Wanyi wasn't cheating, why would the cigars disappear? She didn't smoke. Even if women who smoked did so, they usually opted for low-tar cigarettes; they wouldn't touch cigars. Furthermore, if she *had* been cheating, how could she have evaded Du Ziqiao, whose investigative skills Xu Lang trusted implicitly? There were two possibilities: either she was faithful, or she was a master of deception, perhaps even suited to be a secret agent. Xu Lang leaned toward the former.

Third, the villa complex’s surveillance showed no signs of an intruder entering or leaving. Aside from Yan Wanyi, no one had seen the perpetrator. How did the killer leave the complex? They couldn't have just walked out. The security guards maintained that no strangers had entered or exited in the last month, and the gate cameras confirmed this. Did the killer vanish into thin air, or were they a resident of the complex?

Fourth, Xu Lang doubted the burglary theory because of Yan Wanyi’s behavior. Han Xingchang was dead, yet his young, beautiful wife was left unharmed—not killed, not assaulted, merely tied up in the guest bedroom. It was clear the killer didn't want to harm her. But why? Did they know each other? If so, why wouldn't she tell the police?

Furthermore, Xu Lang had seen a news report about Yan Wanyi winning a lawsuit to claim Han Xingchang’s entire estate. The report featured Shi Dehua, a criminal defense attorney. However, Yan Wanyi’s case was a civil matter. Criminal lawyers generally didn't handle civil cases; the lawyer who actually represented her was Shen Xiaowen, a civil litigator. Xu Lang knew that Shen and Shi worked at the same firm and were close associates.

After Xu Lang shared his deductions with Ning Yanran, she nodded. "I agree that this case is extremely suspicious. It has been over a month since the murder, and the district police have been unable to solve it, which is why they requested support from the municipal bureau."

Xu Lang closed the folder, stood up, and said to Ning Yanran, "Let’s go."

"Where?" Ning Yanran asked, rising to follow him.

"To the police station to look at your investigation results."

With that, Xu Lang strode out of the office. Ning Yanran cast a glance at Jin Enpei, who was still standing there, before following him out.

After they left, Jin Enpei tidied up the messy desk. When she went to shut down the computer Xu Lang had forgotten to turn off, the screen lit up at her touch. She caught sight of a horrifying photo and let out a blood-curdling scream.

"Ah!"

On the screen was a photo of a woman’s dismembered corpse. The woman looked remarkably like Xu Lang. It was a gruesome, high-definition image of a body neatly chopped into pieces, the face preserved in a hauntingly lifelike state.

Before Jin Enpei could recover, Xu Lang returned. Seeing her reaction to the photo, his eyes narrowed, his gaze turning icy and his expression dark. He was clearly furious.

Sensing his presence, Jin Enpei turned around, pale and trembling. "Brother Lang... you hadn't left yet?"

Xu Lang looked at her, then at the computer, and walked toward her in silence. Having always known him to be a jovial and approachable person, Jin Enpei felt a surge of genuine fear as she witnessed this cold, emotionless side of him.

*Click, clack.*

Each of Xu Lang’s footsteps echoed like a hammer against her nerves. He reached the desk, didn't look at her, and calmly closed the photo and shut down the computer. Only then did he look at her, his voice flat. "Did Du Ziqiao never tell you that you can touch anything in this office except this computer?"

"Brother Lang, I... I just saw it was still on, so..."

Before she could finish, Xu Lang cut her off. "Enough. Don't explain. Whatever you saw, never mention it to anyone. If I find out that anyone else in this office knows about this, you're finished."

He gave her one last sharp look before walking out.

Jin Enpei exhaled, her heart still racing. The man she had just seen felt like a stranger. Though she had only glimpsed the photo, the image of the woman who looked so much like Xu Lang was seared into her memory. She was filled with curiosity, but she knew better than to pursue it.

After the encounter, she resolved that unless absolutely necessary, she would never set foot in his office again.

***

At the police station, Xu Lang pored over the case files and crime scene photos. His frown deepened as he studied them.

The bedroom had been ransacked, seemingly by a thief looking for valuables. But to Xu Lang, the mess felt staged. A real burglar, if caught, would prioritize escape over confrontation. Yet, according to Yan Wanyi, the perpetrator had stayed to fight Han Xingchang with a knife. Furthermore, a thief would focus on cash and jewelry, not tossing a bedroom to rummage through beds and closets.

Then there was the expression on Han Xingchang’s face in the morgue photos: pure shock and disbelief, not the terror or rage one would expect when fighting a stranger. He clearly recognized his killer.

And then there was Yan Wanyi herself. The ropes she was tied with were simple slipknots that she could have easily escaped, yet she had sat there for hours, waiting to be found, without a single struggle mark on her wrists.

Finally, there was the missing watch—a timepiece worth hundreds of thousands—which had appeared on the wrist of the lawyer Shi Dehua in recent news.

After reviewing everything, Xu Lang was convinced that Yan Wanyi was the key to the entire mystery. He decided it was time to meet her face-to-face. He instructed Ning Yanran to summon Yan Wanyi to the police station for questioning, and this time, he would conduct the interrogation himself.