when the moon whispers

Chapter 520: Rose-Divergence (Part )

Case Seven Rose
Twenty-two Differences (Part 2)
How long had the rumors about the heart-digging case been spreading? How long had the Shanqian Bar been closed down because of the cleaning lady Qin's exaggerated rumors and the unfortunate reputation of being the crime scene?

At first, Boss Luo tried to pretend to hang up a fire inspection sign and fend off the increasingly intense rumors of a bloodbath for a while. Later, the case became more complicated and the cordon after evidence collection was removed, and all kinds of unlicensed self-media sneaked around the crime scene to explore. Within half a month, they had covered the bar with a few layers of messy filters and turned it into the ruins of a haunted house. The place that looked like a den of brothels was fooled into a check-in point for internet celebrities by short videos, and the police station in charge of the area was also busy.

Due to the police's repeated requests for confidentiality regarding the cases they were investigating, Luo Shi lived an idle life for more than 20 days. It was not until the police report on the solution of the old murder case was posted all over the Internet so that it could be seen even on the manhole cover that the Shanqian Bar dared to start the schedule of renovation and redecoration in full swing. The original front door of the bar, which had a winding and gloomy path, and the entire wall were smashed into pieces by the construction team led by Boss Luo. It was unknown who asked someone to check the feng shui, but a golden Bagua mirror was pasted on the corner of the modified floor-to-ceiling window in an inconspicuous way.

"See? That mirror faces the bathroom - the small cubicle where Boss Chen lies... I asked that master to calculate it, and he charged me 100,000 for just this small broken mirror. And the ventilation system above... Ever since I knew that there were bloody bags containing corpses hidden in it, I had nightmares every time I looked at it. Later, I couldn't stand it anymore, so I just replaced them all to have peace of mind..."

"Hey - that... that's enough. We've been busy all morning. Let's put down the work now. Didn't you see I have a guest? It's not worth an hour or so. Let's go eat, Master... Chao'er, take me to eat. Isn't there a new restaurant at the intersection ahead? Let's order some good home-cooked food. We still have work to do in the afternoon. Forget about the wine - get two packs of cigarettes for Master Meng."

Luo Shi leaned back in the brand new leather sofa in the booth, dug his ears which had been devastated by the noise of the resident singing stage for most of the day, gestured around the newly decorated venue, waved his hand to disperse the ignorant crowd around him, turned around and noticed Jiang Mo and Xiao Letian followed him to sit down, watched the cleaning staff carry their lunch boxes into the backstage lounge and then looked at each other in confusion for a moment, then frowned and sighed.

"That sister Qin is really killing me. She's just talking nonsense outside with her mouth open. It's like there's a whole room full of dead people in the cubicle. How dare I keep her here? Hurry up, pay her some mental damages out of my own pocket and send her to find another job."

Jiang Mo raised his eyebrows slightly, looking at Luo Shi who looked calm and composed, and took the water cup beside him and turned it around, "I just had a drink at Liang Ming's place last night, but I didn't expect Boss Luo to come so early... Is he here to supervise?"

"Supervision is one thing... You two don't know that my bar was renovated and reopened a few days ago. Those workers first said that my murder scene was likely to be haunted, and then raised the price and continued to slack off. I have to keep an eye on it."

Luo Shi waved his hands in a bitter and resentful manner, and then brought up the topic that Jiang Mo had mentioned deliberately, "I thought Officer Jiang didn't see it yesterday... In Liang Ming's neighborhood, Officer Jiang took a shortcut that was a bit too far, right?"

"Why take a shortcut? You've gone around in a big circle." Jiang Mo glanced at the guilty conscience written on Xiao Letian's forehead, and slowly moved the water cup in front of him. "Although Liang Ming is a bit of a jerk, he doesn't seem like a coward who drives out to scare people for no reason. What a coincidence that you went to Binshui Mansion yesterday. It's really hard for me to sit back and watch."

"So it seems... Officer Jiang has come up empty-handed." Luo Shi leaned forward with his chin in his hand, "If you had really found out something wrong last night, given your personalities, you would have rushed to my house and dragged me to the Municipal Bureau, using threats and bribes to wait for me to betray Boss Liang—"

Luo Shi grinned nonchalantly, and just uttered a few words in a nonsensical way. When he looked up at Jiang Mo's unfriendly expression, he straightened his body and became serious, "Just kidding... If you want to find me to know about Liang Ming, you can solve it with just one phone call - just run to this bar... Then I guess it should be related to that Hong - Hong Xinyu? But I guess he should have just squeezed out a little bit of information just now, so the two of you can... sit opposite me so calmly."

Jiang Mo raised his eyebrows but didn't rush to reply. However, Xiao Letian stiffened his neck a little impatiently, and his fair face was almost wrinkled. "Do you know Hong Xinyu?"

"It's hard not to know, sir~"

Luo Shi muttered in a veiled tone, and shrugged slowly, "Let's take a step back... no matter how unprofessional I am, I am still a businessman. Regardless of whether it is serious or not, I always have to know the familiar faces. What's more, the Su Ge Bar in Fengxi was investigated. Sheng'an's circle is so small that we can guess who has problems. As for Hong Xinyu... it looks like he is in big trouble."

Jiang Mo tapped the table with his fingertips twice, and held down Xiao Letian's trembling knees with his arms hanging under the table: "Boss Luo, are you impressed by him?"

"He was dressed in a timid manner, and he would come to the bar very late every time. He would usually sit in the most inconspicuous corner in front of the bar before the renovation..."

Luo Shi thought for a while, then pointed behind him: "But he would occasionally bring women here. I've also run into him in the restroom, interacting with people - sometimes it was the fat manager of Shengcheng Intermediate, and sometimes it was a young man I wasn't very familiar with. I don't know what they were doing, but nothing happened, so I never cared... Oh, yes, I did care once. That time he brought a woman here, and the owner of the box recognized him, saying he was an acquaintance or something, and dragged the girl into the box to untie her belt -"

Luo Shi looked at Jiang Mo's face, and didn't finish his harsh words out of sympathy, "Later, the deputy captain of some district police station came to mediate, but not long after, the deputy captain was arrested because of Fengxi's incident, right?"

Jiang Mo watched Luo Shi's performance steadily, chuckled lightly, and followed his meaning to finish the gossip: "Since you guessed that Hong Xinyu was not a simple person, why didn't you tell the police earlier?"

"They are a group of extremely vicious people, Officer Jiang. How could I dare to do that? Besides, hearing a word or taking a look at them is not enough evidence. At best, I can only keep a surveillance video."

Luo Shi twisted his fingertips and leaned forward mysteriously, "Officer Jiang, there was a USB drive hidden in the bouquet of flowers I gave you earlier. Did you forget? I confessed it voluntarily, but I didn't investigate it thoroughly... This has nothing to do with me."

"Look at my past, and look up to spring with me."

Happy Chinese New Year!