Chapter 28

Chen Pu put the thermos in front of her: "There's nothing to see."

Li Qingyao sighed: "I spent two and a half hours cooking the chicken soup and delivered it myself, but I am not even allowed to visit my neighbor's house."

Chen Pu laughed and raised his chin towards her: "Talk normally, there's really nothing to see, you can watch whatever you want."

Li Qingyao put her hands in her trouser pockets and walked towards the kitchen first. Chen Pu looked at her focused look and became interested. He wanted to see what she would say after the tour, so he followed her.

The kitchen was in line with Li Qingyao's expectations. It was a modern grey design, simple and elegant, with a cold atmosphere of a single man who was not interested in worldly affairs. But it was unexpectedly clean.

As we all know, hygiene in the kitchen and bathroom is the most difficult to maintain.

Li Qingyao asked: "Did you hire a cleaner?"

Chen Pu also put his hands in his trouser pockets, leaned against the kitchen sliding door frame, and said, "You can see this? Can't I have cleaned it myself?"

"No."

Chen Pu smiled: "You have good taste."

Then, Li Qingyao discovered that his family didn't even have soy sauce, and a whole barrel of oil was left unopened on the shelf. It was obvious that he didn't cook much and probably ate takeout every day.

Li Qingyao looked at him with pity.

Li Qingyao walked to the bedroom again. The door was open. One was for sleeping and the other was for working out. She stood at the door of the master bedroom and saw a large bookcase filled with books. She was curious and asked, "Is it convenient to come in?"

Chen Pu tilted his head and motioned for her to come in.

Li Qingyao walked to the bookcase, but caught a glimpse of a pair of grey underwear lying on the chair. Chen Pu rushed forward, grabbed the underwear, and stuffed it in nowhere but it didn't fit, so he finally put it in his pocket, feeling extremely annoyed, and missed it when he came back to do the laundry at noon.

Li Qingyao's face was calm, and he said, "Do you still like this color?"

Chen Pu was so angry that he laughed and said, "It's none of your business." He turned around and went to the bathroom, threw his underwear in the laundry basket to be washed later, and wished he could lock the bathroom door.

In addition to some criminal investigation books, Chen Pu's bookshelf also has some novels, including domestic and foreign historical and modern novels. Li Qingyao saw a row of Zhang Ailing's novels, took one down, and asked: "Do you still read Zhang Ailing?"

"Can't you?"

Li Qingyao smiled: "I haven't read this book yet, can you lend it to me for a few days?"

"Take whatever you want."

Li Qingyao took the book and went to the second bedroom. There was a treadmill, a comprehensive strength training machine, and a skipping rope mat next to it. Li Qingyao: "Are you still skipping rope?"

"Ah."

"How many jumps at a time?"

"About four or five thousand."

Li Qingyao looked at the several skipping ropes in the cabinet next to him and said, "What brand of skipping rope is good? Recommend it to me. I also want to exercise recently."

"You can just search on JD.com, any major sports brand will do."

"Which brand do you recommend?"

As soon as Chen Pu heard her tone of voice, especially the delicate "ma", he knew she was going to cause trouble again. He silently bent down to open the cabinet and took out a brand new unopened skipping rope: "This is for you, no thanks."

"I feel so embarrassed." Li Qingyao took the skipping rope and the book, and walked out of the second bedroom with satisfaction.

Li Qingyao held the book and skipping rope in one hand and picked up the thermos bucket with the other hand. He said politely, "Captain Chen, I won't bother you any more. Drink the chicken soup while it's hot and go to bed early."

"Wait a minute!" Chen Pu rummaged through the cabinet in the living room for a while, found a brand new box of tea leaves, put it in a plastic bag, and handed it to her, "Take it home and drink it."

He didn't like to owe favors to others. Li Qingyao had spent time and effort to send chicken soup, so according to his habit, he had to return the favor on the spot. As for skipping rope and borrowing books, in his opinion, they were not gifts at all. Li Qingyao didn't recognize the brand and price of the tea, but he estimated that it was not cheap, so he sincerely declined: "It's too expensive, I can't accept it."

Chen Pu frowned, snatched the book and skipping rope from her hand, threw them into a plastic bag, and threw them into her arms: "What's so expensive about them? I don't want any money. They were given to me by others, otherwise I wouldn't give them to you. Let's go."

Li Qingyao was pushed out of the door by him. She was actually a person who didn't want to owe favors to others. Taking advantage of Chen Pu was just teasing him. She would feel bad if she really took the tea leaves. However, with her current financial strength, she couldn't afford to pay back the gift.

But when she thought about it, it suddenly dawned on her - since she couldn't return the economic value, she could first return the emotional value.

So she held the door frame with one hand and said earnestly: "Chen Pu, I still want to say a few words to you."

Chen Pu stared at her suspiciously, fearing that she would set off another bomb.

"You did nothing wrong in this case. Every step you took was accurate. It's just that the case itself is beyond common sense. This is a very low-probability event. We were unlucky to run into it. I think you did a great job. You are the best captain I have ever seen."

Li Qingyao went downstairs with a relaxed look on his face.

Chen Pu was stunned for a while, mainly because Li Qingyao usually spoke sweetly to others, and occasionally to him, she would turn on the mocking mode. But today, she spoke with deep understanding and justice, without a trace of sarcasm.

A trace of warmth rose uncontrollably from Chen Pu's heart, gradually spreading to his entire chest. He closed the door and couldn't help but smile, thinking that she was actually a kind person at heart, just a little naughty at ordinary times.

Not long after, the takeaway was delivered. Chen Pu walked into the kitchen and saw the big bowl of chicken soup. Suddenly, he had an epiphany.

He said that she was making chicken soup for no reason. Was she trying to comfort him, the captain, by making chicken soup? But the girl was too soft-hearted to say it directly.

Chen Pu looked down at the chicken soup that was slightly shining with a golden luster, shook his head and laughed, picked up the bowl, and drank a big sip happily.

-

The next morning, Chen Pu came to the office in high spirits. He did not look like he had ever encountered any setbacks. The group of listless guys in Team 2 felt inferior to him - the squadron leader still had a steady mentality!
Chen Pu called everyone to a meeting.

He was actually a man with great management talent. After noticing everyone's mental state, he did not ask them to express their opinions one by one as usual. Instead, he thought for a moment, picked up a pen and wrote the name "Liu Huaixin" in the middle of the whiteboard, and wrote "Zhou Yangxin", "Fang Kai" and "Li Qingyao" next to it.

This attracted everyone's attention.

Chen Pu threw the whiteboard marker onto the table with a clang, and said straight to the point: "Put Gao Jichang aside for now. He can't be the murderer of Liu Huaixin. Let's start all over again. Previously, our focus was on the Zhang Xiyu case, thinking it was a case within a case. Now, it's obviously a case outside of a case."

Everyone became interested and their eyes lit up.

Chen Pu said: "We need to put the focus back on the victims."

Li Qingyao's eyes fell on the name "Liu Huaixin", and the image of a gentle, poor young male teacher emerged in his mind.

Some people said: "Could it be that Liu Huaixin committed suicide?"

Many voices sounded at the same time: "No."

Chen Pu smiled and nodded, "Something else must have happened that night before Gao Jichang came. We know that Liu Huaixin stayed at home and did not go out, and his phone did not receive any calls or text messages. Therefore, it is only possible that there was a third person who came to his house. Liu Huaixin committed suicide by cutting his wrists under the coercion of this person."

Everyone was talking, and it was obvious that they had returned to their usual chattering state. Chen Pu glanced around and happened to meet Li Qingyao's eyes. His eyes softened and he nodded to her.

Li Qingyao froze slightly. Why did Chen Pu's eyes become so saintly?

Just because I gave him a bowl of chicken soup that I couldn’t finish and was destined to throw away?
Li Qingyao couldn't help but feel pity. He wondered what kind of life the child usually led.

Yan Yong asked: "Who could this person be?"

Fang Kai said, "That's what we need to check next. Chen Pu, why did you write our three names on the whiteboard?"

"Because in the past investigations, the results of your three investigations actually revealed the possibility of the existence of a third person. It's just that the general direction was wrong at the time, so we all ignored it."

I tell you not to get used to the rhythm of 2 chapters a day. I’m not an energetic youngster anymore and I can’t do it!