When they reached the car, Xie Qingyan suddenly spoke.
"You just agreed to the barbecue for me."
Yin Wuwang was fishing out his car keys; his hand paused.
"...Performance requirements."
"She'd already left."
Yin Wuwang was silent for half a second.
"Habit." He said. Then quickly changed the subject, opening the car door: "Let's go. I asked Little Lu yesterday to pull the convenience store surveillance. Let's see if he got it."
Xie Qingyan didn't press further. He opened the passenger door, got in, buckled his seatbelt.
Yin Wuwang started the engine. The car slowly pulled out of the parking lot.
On the road, Yin Wuwang's phone rang. He pressed the hands-free button.
"Brother Jiang!" Little Lu's voice burst from the car speakers, full of energy. "The convenience store surveillance you asked me to pull after visiting He Jinsong yesterday—I got it! The FamilyMart at the East District intersection, 10:42 PM, there's definitely a guy walking in to buy a pack of cigarettes. The footage is pretty clear; the face matches He Jinsong's photo."
"Good. Did you save the footage?"
"Saved, saved. Oh, Brother Jiang—" Little Lu's tone suddenly shifted from business mode to gossip mode. "Dr. Shen looks like he's in good spirits this morning. Way better than the past few days. Did you two last night—"
"We'll talk at the station." Yin Wuwang cut him off directly.
He hung up.
The car was quiet for two seconds.
Xie Qingyan looked out the window, tone flat: "What was he going to say?"
"Nothing." Yin Wuwang's gaze was fixed on the road ahead. "He talks too much."
Xie Qingyan didn't ask further. But Yin Wuwang caught, in the reflection on the window glass, a very slight curve at the corner of his mouth.
It disappeared in less than a second.
Yin Wuwang pretended he hadn't seen it.
Little Deer Assistant drifted a comment through his mind: "Master, regarding Little Lu's question just now, would you like to understand it in context?"
Yin Wuwang mentally replied with three words: Shut your mouth.
They arrived at the station.
Little Lu came up to meet them, folder in hand, mouth already opening to continue his earlier topic.
Yin Wuwang gave him a look.
Just one look.
Little Lu's mouth closed. The folder thrust forward: "He Jinsong's convenience store surveillance screenshot. Time, appearance, purchase record—all match. I also checked the convenience store's external surveillance—He Jinsong walked over from the bar direction at 10:38, entered the store at 10:42, exited at 10:45, walked straight toward the East District residential area. No doubling back the whole time."
Yin Wuwang took the folder and flipped through it.
In the surveillance screenshot, He Jinsong wore a dark jacket—the same person they'd seen at his doorstep yesterday. The timeline matched perfectly: he left the back alley at 10:35, passed by the convenience store camera at 10:38, entered the store at 10:42.
"He never went back to the bar?" Yin Wuwang confirmed.
"Never." Little Lu was certain. "There are two traffic surveillance points between the convenience store and the bar. He only appeared on the way there; his return direction was the opposite—he went straight home."
Yin Wuwang handed the folder to Xie Qingyan behind him. Xie Qingyan took it and quickly flipped through.
"He Jinsong's alibi is confirmed." Xie Qingyan said, closing the folder. "He left the back alley at 10:35 and never returned. Chen Wan's time of death was between 11:00 and 11:30. He can't be the killer."
Little Lu listened from the side, eyes darting between Yin Wuwang and Xie Qingyan. "So He Jinsong's ruled out?"
"Ruled out." Yin Wuwang said. "But he provided useful information—when he left the back alley, he saw a figure in the shadows."
Little Lu's expression grew serious. "Another suspect?"
"Possibly." Yin Wuwang didn't elaborate. He glanced at Xie Qingyan.
Xie Qingyan was standing by the desk, filing He Jinsong's documents. His movements were quick, categorization precise—one copy into the "Ruled Out" folder, one into "Reference."
Yin Wuwang remembered what Little Deer Assistant had said: ruling out suspects was part of repairing the world. He Jinsong, this "half-developed character," now had complete behavioral logic—he'd gone to ask Chen Wan for money, was rejected, bought a pack of cigarettes, went home. An ordinary former partner with grievances but not enough to kill.
His storyline was now complete.
Yin Wuwang didn't know if some corner of this world had become more stable because of it. But he had a vague feeling—like some noise in the air had disappeared.
Zhou Jie leaned over from the neighboring desk: "Jiang Ye, any progress on that bar homicide?"
"Working on it." Yin Wuwang replied briefly.
"Good luck." Zhou Jie said, then ducked back.
Little Lu sidled over and lowered his voice: "Brother Jiang, take Dr. Shen to that new noodle place for lunch. I went yesterday—the beef noodles are amazing. Dr. Shen looks like he's lost weight lately. He should eat more."
Yin Wuwang looked at Little Lu's face, brimming with gossip enthusiasm, and sighed internally.
This chatty mortal.
But all he said aloud was one word: "Fine."
Little Lu nodded with satisfaction and bounced back to his seat.
Yin Wuwang turned to look at Xie Qingyan. Xie Qingyan had already sat down at his desk, opening a new file—the physical evidence inventory from the crime scene. He probably hadn't heard what Little Lu just said.
Or he had, but chose to ignore it.
Yin Wuwang walked over and placed the travel mug he'd bought at the convenience store downstairs that morning on Xie Qingyan's desk.
Stainless steel body, dark gray, simple and clean. Inside was green tea with sugar.
He'd made a special detour to the convenience store before leaving this morning. While buying the travel mug, he'd stood in front of the shelf for three minutes. Little Deer Assistant asked what he was hesitating over; he said: "Fuguang doesn't like flashy things." In the end he'd picked this plainest one.
The green tea was freshly brewed from the convenience store's drink machine. He'd added two packets of sugar. Not sure if it was sweet enough, but this was day one—he could adjust gradually.
Xie Qingyan picked up the travel mug and unscrewed the cap.
A faint tea fragrance wafted out. Not the heavy turbidity of coffee, but a light, faintly sweet herbal scent.
Xie Qingyan paused.
He lowered his head and took a sip.
Then his fingers lingered on the mug for two seconds—a bit longer than when he'd held the coffee cup.
"Mm." He said.
Just one syllable.
But Yin Wuwang understood.
That "mm" was completely different from the perfunctory "thanks" when he'd received the coffee. It carried a hint of surprise, a hint of... something hard to articulate. As if, in the long ages of the cultivation world, he'd suddenly been touched in some soft corner by something insignificant.
Yin Wuwang turned back to his own seat.
From today on, he'd never get it wrong again.
[End of V2_Chapter 31]
Next: A beef noodle lunch, three thousand years of observation, and a nickname that makes someone's ears turn red.