Chapter 111: The Car Accident Enigma

Ye Shiwen drove me to a small restaurant near campus and ordered a table full of dishes. Those two were so lovey-dovey I could barely stand it. Sitting there was unbearably awkward, so I suggested, "Should I call Da Li over?"

Ye Shiwen nodded, "Sure, we can't possibly finish all this food ourselves."

I called Wang Da Li, telling him Ye Shiwen had invited us out. Da Li immediately asked, "Is Mengmeng here yet?"

Trying to help my buddy out, I covered the phone and said to Zhang Yan, "Can you call Xia Mengmeng?"

"Yeah, she should be in the dorm. I'll call her now."

Zhang Yan dialed, chatted briefly, then burst out laughing. Apparently, Xia Mengmeng's first question was whether Song Yang had arrived.

Zhang Yan said Mengmeng was on her way right away.

I sighed inwardly, knowing I'd have to clear up some misunderstandings later.

Before long, both of them showed up. The whole meal was painfully awkward—Xia Mengmeng kept staring at me, Da Li kept staring at Xia Mengmeng, and Ye Shiwen and Zhang Yan showed off their PDA nonstop. Zhang Yan pretty much did all the talking for us, bragging about my "police flower" girlfriend and how I was some genius detective hired by the Public Security Bureau, cracking countless big cases. I kept denying it, saying I'd only solved a few minor ones.

...

Zhang Yan patted my hand and said, "Detective Song, don't be so modest. Come on, let me toast you."

I said I don't drink alcohol and clinked my drink with hers.

She giggled, "Come on, tell us about your love life!"

Ye Shiwen chimed in, "Yeah, how did you and the police flower meet?"

I awkwardly scratched my head, "Could you stop calling me Detective Song all the time? I don't even have a real name."

"That's just because we admire you! By the way, the school just started a drama club, and I'm the president. You should join! Having Detective Song in the club would be a huge honor."

"No, no, thanks," I quickly declined.

Finally freed from Zhang Yan's harassment, Xia Mengmeng asked how long I'd been dating the police flower, if it was official, and whether police officers are always too busy for dates.

I'm not dumb—definitely not that dumb—so I clearly said we'd been together a long time, our relationship was great, and we went on dates often. Then I desperately steered the conversation back to Wang Da Li. Being a third wheel really sucks.

After that meal, Xia Mengmeng lost interest in me. She used to occasionally text, but I was too busy with cases to reply.

I thought Da Li would smoothly win her over, but I was too optimistic. A few weeks later, Xia Mengmeng suddenly started dating a tall, burly guy, and Da Li was heartbroken, drowning his sorrows with me over drinks. But that's a story for another time.

After the haunted house case closed, boredom crept back in. One day, the counselor called me in for a talk—apparently, I'd skipped too many classes this semester, and I might not have enough credits to graduate. If that happened, how would I face my family?

The counselor was serious, urging me to find ways to catch up since we were halfway through the semester.

Our school uses a credit system, and you can earn credits in many ways: donating blood for two credits, earning "Outstanding League Member" for five credits, or publishing an article in an academic journal for five credits. But each of these can only be counted once. I was still missing over ten credits.

I knew I couldn't just attend classes regularly and make it, so I had to look for shortcuts. Da Li suggested I join the drama club since Zhang Yan was so into me, I could just put my name down and count it as participation.

It sounded doable—join a club, donate blood, and write an academic paper on ancient forensic medicine. That'd be enough to scrape through graduation. I wasn't aiming for a scholarship—just getting that diploma was victory enough.

Da Li had also skipped plenty of classes—our situation was basically the same. So we swallowed our pride and went to see Zhang Yan about joining the drama club. She was thrilled and immediately gave us both officer positions. I told her, "Just give me an honorary title. We're here to slack off and get credits."

Da Li agreed, "Yeah, something like mascot. No real work."

Zhang Yan shook her head seriously, "No way! As president, I can't give privileges. You have to show up for events."

"Do I really have to? I can't act or write scripts. I'd just be dead weight."

"Detective Song, don't be modest. I talk about your cases all the time in the club. If you show up, everyone will be excited. Just do me this favor, okay?"

"Please! Just stop talking about my cases. The details are classified," I begged.

Zhang Yan pouted, "You never told me any secrets. I just make stuff up to hype you up and let everyone know we have a genius detective in school."

Da Li finally got it, "No wonder so many girls have been asking about you lately. They came because of your reputation."

I felt like dying and promised to try attending club events, but only if Zhang Yan stopped spreading my stories.

She agreed immediately, "Fine, fine. I won't say anything more. You just come tell us your exciting cases yourself."

Inside, I was screaming, "Kill me now!"

I'd made two mistakes in the haunted house case—some things you just can't learn from books. To make up for my lack of experience, I decided to spend my free time borrowing old case files from Huang Xiaotao.

Police case files are classified, so I could only read them in the archives. Huang Xiaotao fully supported me but worried I wouldn't stick with it since the files were dry reading.

But I got hooked right away. The reports played out like crime dramas in my mind, even more thrilling than novels. On the first day, I devoured half a shelf of files. Huang Xiaotao was shocked and asked if I wanted to work in the archives.

Every day I ran back and forth between school and the police station. After a few weeks, I'd read thousands of case files and gained a lot.

Unexpectedly, while going through the files, I uncovered a loophole in one case and helped bring a criminal who'd been free for a year to justice.

The case looked like an ordinary fatal car accident. The victims were a married couple—only the wife died, while the husband survived and later collected her huge insurance payout.

The police had originally treated it as a criminal investigation, which is why the file was in the detective squad archives. They suspected the husband might have staged the accident to kill his wife, but all evidence pointed to a simple traffic accident.

The incident happened one night a year ago. The couple drove out of a parking lot when suddenly their car's brakes failed. After some frantic maneuvers by the husband, the car crashed at high speed into a road barrier and flipped over. The wife was fatally pierced in the neck artery by a shard of windshield glass. The husband suffered multiple fractures and spent months hospitalized.

I reread the file over and over, then brought it to Huang Xiaotao. "There are inconsistencies in this case."

She glanced over it. "That case? I remember Captain Zhang led the investigation last year. It's closed, ruled accidental death."

I raised two fingers. "No, look again—there are two suspicious points."