When A Snail Loves - Chapter 40

Like other prestigious families, among the family members, there was a balance of power, emotions, and interests. This balance wasn’t apparent, but from year to year, everyone had their own roles.

Ye Lan was the one who set the rules.

Ye Qiang had always wanted to become the person to maintain the balance, but he was powerless.

Ye Xiao, outwardly arrogant, but in fact, faithfully obeyed.

Ye Qiao, seemingly noisy, and ignored the existence of the equilibrium.

Only Ye Jin quietly protected this balance.  

So, more than ten years ago, Ye Jin advised Ye Lan not to completely swallow his brother’s shares. Also five years ago, she opposed Ye Zi Xi coming back to work at Yip. Unfortunately, her father never listened to her advice. Instead, because of that, she became the least favorite child. Since she was the only one who could see through Ye Lan’s greediness and disloyalty, she was also aware of his guilt and weakness in his old age.

Ye Qiang was a tyrannical man, because of the similarity in age, he had always loved and protected this introverted little sister who wasn’t highly regarded. Since young, in front of people, Ye Zi Qiang had always acted as the protector of his sister. However, after maturing, Ye Zi Qiang repetitively encountered hardships, and the person who protected him had always been Ye Jin. She was his guardian whenever he was detained by the police for fighting. He couldn’t manage the company well, so Ye Jin stood behind him giving him advice.  

It was no exception this time.

That night, she heard her brother’s panic and fear while asking for help on the phone, and the first thing she could think of was that the mistake had already happened, what she needed to do was to minimize the damage and effects to the family to the lowest level.

At this time, Ji Bai interrupted: “Why did Ye Zi Qiang have a dispute with Ye Zi Xi?”

Ye Jin’s eyes became sullen: “After Ye Zi Xi came back, my father let her be in charge of the dead investment company. But she was too outstanding, probably better than all of us. Every year, she always brought in huge profits, so my father gradually gave more and more powers to her.”

Pausing for a few seconds, Ye Jin continued: “Last year, Ye Zi Xi’s company had an investment loss.”

Officer Wu flipped through the documents: “ You mean the loss of $100 million USD when the partner ran away with the money?”

Ye Jin was silent for a moment, then said: “Not 100 US million dollars but 2 billion US dollars equivalent to 14 billion yuan, half of Yip poured into the investment.”

Everyone standing outside was in awe. Ji Bai and officer Wu stayed silent, Ye Jin continued: “ We’ve made every effort to hide this, otherwise the Yip stock will crash overnight. My oldest brother always suspected the investment loss was due to Ye Zi Xi’s trick. Honestly, Ye Qiang has calmed down a lot. But he drank alcohol that night, and he also heard some baseless rumors from the overseas investment department. So he was momentarily provoked and drove to follow after Ye Zi Xi to Lin Shan Mountain.”

And then? What happened after was exactly as Ji bai speculated. While arguing, Ye Qiang accidentally killed Ye Zi Xi.  He was extremely frightened, so he thought of the idea of fabricating the blade case.

Ye Jin called right at that time to discuss work. Sensing that his tone was strange, she asked a couple of questions and pressed him to tell the truth.

The first thing she thought of was to command him to turn on the air conditioning, delaying the time of death of the body. When she came to the villa, the whole plan had formed in her mind.

“The message asking for help was sent by you?” Office Wu asked.

Ye Jin faintly replied: “Ye Zi Xi wrote the message before her death, but she didn’t get to send it. After that, I set a timer to send the message to Ye Xiao.”

“Why did you choose Ye Zi Xiao to send the message to?” Officer Wu continued to ask.

Ye Jin raised her eyes to look at him: “Because when Ye Zi Xiao came back home that day, his mood was very bad. With his personality, he will go drinking with his friends for the whole night. Even if he were to come to the villa, he would have an alibi, won’t get into trouble.”

Officer Wu coldly said: “You calculated well.”

Ye Jin stayed silent.

Ji Bai asked: “Before that, did the two of you know of Zhang Shiyong and Ye Zi Xi’s illicit relationship?”

Ye Jin: “I didn’t know before, but I knew after going to the villa. After that, Ye Qiang found Shiyong’s clothing; the whole family found out about it. “

Officer Wu continued: “ Ye Qiang murdered someone, if you want what’s good for him, then you should have advised him to confess. But because of your so-called benefits of the family, to go against the law, to become his accomplice, why bother?”

Ye Jin didn’t answer.

After Ye Jin confessed, Ye Qiao, weeping, finally told the truth.

A few days before the incident, Ye Qiao had received reliable information from the private detective office. That night, she drove to Lin Shan mountain. She saw a car exactly like her brother’s car leaving the villa upon her arrival. After entering the villa, Ye Zi Xi was dead.

Inside the villa, Ye Qiao, seeing several traces proving that Shiyong lived here, she was so desperate and enraged. Finally, she wanted to take the victim’s phone and aimed to put the blame on her husband.

Officer Wu asked: “Why did you want to become the scapegoat for Ye Jin and Ye Qiang.”

Ye Qiao, stupefied, replied: “Big brother is also part of this family, and my life is ruined anyway. It’s better for me to take the blame.”

Ji Bai slowly said: “Life isn’t so easily destroyed.”

The truth was revealed; the whole police team was relieved. However, this case made everyone’s mood relatively heavy, everyone silently buried themselves in the documents, closing the case.

Ji Bai walked into the office and saw that Xu Xu was sitting at her position; her face was somewhat dazed.

“What’s wrong?” He whispered.

Xu Xu replied: “ I’m thinking about the message Ye Zi Xi wrote before she died, who did she want to send it to?”

Ji Bai rubbed on her short hair, throwing down a stack of documents on the table: “Quickly work.”

“Yes.” Xu Xu slightly stiffened, she once again sensitively noticed the physical contact between the two of them. “Do not pay attention, don’t pay attention to him,” She whispered to herself.

This time, Zhao Han appeared in the doorway: “Boss, I’ve brought in Ye Qiang.”

Today, Ye Zi Qiang represented Yip to attend a workshop in the province. The officer who was in charge of monitoring him also trailed him while not alerting him. His car was stopped immediately by the police upon arriving at the city this morning.

Because they still needed to collect evidence, the police only asked Ye Qiang to cooperate with the investigation. He was a little bit anxious, but he felt nothing wrong about it, so he was relatively calm when arriving at the police station.

Outside the interrogation room was a long and narrow hallway, no lights, just cold and quiet. Ye Zi Qiang followed the police in right at the moment when the interrogation door was opened, and Ye Jin walked out. Ye Jin was handcuffed with two officers behind her.

Ye Qiang felt all his blood rush to his head, his temples throbbing painfully. Seeing this scene, he immediately understood the problem.  He looked at his little sister, his expression ashen and his facial muscles tightening.

At this time, Ji Bai and Xu Xu also arrived at the door. Catching his expression, Ji Bai slightly frowned.

Ye Qiang suddenly turned around, pushing the police officers beside him. His big, tall body, suddenly having an outburst, the others were caught off guard. Several police officers rushed to control Ye Qiang, who knew that he would pull out a Switzerland knife from his pocket, and wave it wildly, resulting in everyone temporarily unable to come forward.

“The person was killed by me, it doesn’t have anything to do with my sister.” A tear trickled down from the corner of his eye. “Darn, prison? Fine.”

“Brother.” Ye Jin yelled.

At this time, Ye Qiang suddenly raised the knife and stabbed it into his chest. But when the knife was 16 centimeters away from his chest, he suddenly stopped, leaning against the wall with a ferocious and miserable expression.

Ji Bai was standing by the door, seizing the opportunity, he dashed like an arrow and fastened Ye Qiang’s wrist with his hands.  Ye Qiang was startled, twisting his wrist. He was originally tall and aggressive, and his strength wasn’t weak. Ji Bai’s hands did not budge like iron grips, but the hallway was too narrow, with people behind him so he couldn’t move freely. So the sharp blade still grazed his hand, the sleeve of his shirt was quickly soaked by the blood.  

Everyone was terrified. Xu Xu looked at the steely expression of Ji Bai’s side profile and the red bloodstain on his shirt, her heart was like a string, and started to shake.

Suddenly, Ji Bai had secured Ye Zi Qiang’s hands behind his back, his tall body like a bull, frantically struggled. but was pressed into the wall by Ji Bai. Several other officers rushed over immediately, overpowering Ye Qiang.

News came from officers who were responsible for the collection of evidence, that they had found traces of Ye Zi Xi’s blood in Ye Qiang’s car, and were still searching for the weapon. Ye Qiang calmed down after being detained in the interrogation room, also sincerely confessing to his offenses.

It was lunchtime, Ji Bai told everyone to go eat and he sat in the office, throwing piles of hemostatic cotton into the trashcan.  Although the bleeding wound looked scary, but the wound wasn’t deep, so he didn’t care.

Officer Wu, who was sitting opposite of him, smiled and said: “Finally settled, we can relax for a few days.”

Ji Bai smiled: “When the case is finalized, I’ll ask the bureau minister for three days’ vacation, you can take your wife to visit your son.”

Officer Wu nodded: “That’s great, my wife has been telling me that.”

Then, Zhao Han came in carrying a first aid kit: “Boss, let me handle your wound.”

The case ended so Ji Bai’s mood was very good, he glanced over to where Xu Xu was, she was lowering her head, busying herself with work and forgetting to go eat in the other room, then said to Zhao Han: “ The report in your hand is more urgent, get someone else to do it.”

Zhao Han nodded: “Okay, I’m going to call Yao Meng.”

Ji Bai slightly frowned, officer Wu on the side said: “Yao Meng is also busy, just get Xu Xu here.”

Ji Bai looked at officer Wu and he also looked at him.

Ji Bai just smiled, not saying anything.

Zhao Han and officer Wu went out, and Xu Xu quickly went in. Her eyes immediately stopped on Ji Bai’s arm: “Master, is your arm okay?”

Ji Bai relaxedly leaned back on the back on the chair, holding out his hand in front of her: “You can check.”

Xu Xu carefully held his arm, taking a cotton ball dipped in alcohol, gently wiped the blood around the wound: “Fortunately it’s okay, but it’s best that you get a tetanus shot.”

“Okay”

Xu Xu was dedicated to treating the wound. Now she noticed that Ji Bai’s hand wasn’t like the hands of other men she had seen. (Of course, other than when the case required it, she had never carefully looked over a man’s hand.)

His arm was much larger than hers, but did not look muscular, it was elongated and looked strong. His arm and the back of his hand were slightly darker, but his palm was fair.  This showed that Ji Bai had a fair complexion, but due to the nature of his job as a criminal investigator which made him stay under the wind and sun frequently, it had changed his skin tone to the wheat-colored complexion it was now. In addition to the new wound, there were old scars on the back of his hand and arm. And because he used guns frequently, there were a lot of calluses on his palm.  This made his hand look a lot cruder than that handsome face of his.  

His hand was perfect, Xu Xu silently thought.

While Xu Xu was in a trance, Ji Bai didn’t take his eyes off of her.

The afternoon light shined in; the room was bright and quiet. Ji Bai comfortably stretched, Xu Xu obediently stood beside him holding his hand. The longer he watched her face, he felt her appearance was delicate, and her skin which was as thin as jade was slightly blushing. Her while little fingers were holding his wrist, giving a cold and soft feeling, making the slightly hurting wound become comfortable.

Ji Bai pulled out his cell phone and started recording.

Xu Xu noticed and asked: “What are you doing?  

Ji Bai looked at Xu Xu on the screen, her brow was slightly corrugating, replied faintly: “I’m looking at the news. International news.”