The Vanishing Lover

Old He slumped his whole body into the chair, his toe irritably prodding the corner under the desk – a spot already worn bare from repeated kicks.

He was kicking it again.

Xiao Wu at the desk diagonally opposite had been stealing glances at his superior for what felt like the eight-hundredth time, but still didn't dare come over to urge him – Deputy Captain Qi Zhifei had summoned Old He to his office.

Old He wouldn't go. Didn't want to. Refused.

He was frustrated. His heart felt like his desk looked right now: a chaotic mess, files piled haphazardly in stacks everywhere. He hadn't filled out any performance review forms. He hadn't written any reports.

Of course, Old He also knew Qi Zhifei wasn't calling him in for forms or reports.

It was about the case. The murder of Qi Min.

That was precisely the source of his frustration.

Xu Ruyi had withdrawn forty thousand yuan. Cash. Two days before she went to the aquarium.

Which, according to Qin Guan, was the day before she met Qi Min at the Xinhe Hotel.

She had taken it out in three separate transactions from ATMs over those two days: ten thousand twice, and twenty thousand once.

"She can hide the fact she met Qi Min, but I know Qi Min! That woman only cares about money! If Xu Ruyi wanted to team up with her, sweet talk wouldn't do a thing! She had to pay! Cash! A bounced check wouldn't work! Qi Min would demand it! She was already jealous of Xu Ruyi's money! So, Xu Ruyi had to withdraw cash from the bank before seeing her, because our house didn't have that kind of cash lying around!"

That was Qin Guan's exact statement.

Forty thousand yuan.

Xu Ruyi's explanation to Officer Lu, who went to question her, was that she was giving cash red envelopes to a friend who was about to move into a new home, and another friend who had just had a baby.

This explanation was plausible. Officer Lu checked with the two so-called friends, and indeed, both families received substantial cash red envelopes from Xu Ruyi about a week later – Xu Ruyi's friends were all quite well-off, and red envelopes exchanged in the range of ten or twenty thousand were commonplace.

How to put it? It looked flawless.

But as a detective with years of experience, Old He had long since smelled something off.

It was all too coincidental.

Coincidental, yet covered up extremely well.

The word "covered up" caused a hard, uncomfortable surge in Old He's chest, pressing against his lungs, making it hard to breathe. He abruptly stood up, his elbow accidentally knocking the teacup on the corner of his desk.

The cup clattered to the floor with a loud bang, then rolled clattering to a stop.

It was a double-walled cup, made of some unknown material. It had been dropped countless times without breaking. Unlike those fancy mugs his wife used to buy him – pretty, yes, but each one incredibly fragile, shattering into pieces at the slightest bump.

"How can you not keep a single cup intact? Just how busy are you? Is your desk smaller than everyone else's? Or are you dropping them on purpose? Think the cups I buy aren't good enough for you? Embarrassed by them?" His wife had been furious.

Her anger wasn't really about the cup, of course. It was using the cup as an outlet for her deeper grievances – Old He was obsessed with promotion, throwing himself into cases, often not coming home for days on end.

Whenever this happened, his sister-in-law would come over to mediate. "Sis, don't expect Brother-in-law to act like those soft city men. He's a policeman! He catches bad guys and protects the innocent! If he wasn't out there shielding us, would we have the leisure to sip afternoon tea from pretty cups like this?"

His wife's family was reasonably comfortable. Both sisters had a bit of a bourgeois streak.

Especially the sister-in-law. She was quieter, slender, with long hair, always smiling, often acting as the peacemaker between him and his wife.

She wasn't snobbish either. She'd joined some volunteer group and often did charity work.

What a good girl.

Just like...

Old He's nose stung. A suppressed pain welled up from his chest, threatening to spill from his eyes, blurring his vision – the image of his sister-in-law gradually overlapped with that of Xu Ruyi...

He took a deep breath and slammed the file containing Xu Ruyi's withdrawal information down onto the desk.

Grabbing his jacket, he stormed out of the office.

No concrete evidence. It didn't prove anything. But precisely because he couldn't find concrete evidence, he found it incredibly hard to believe that Xu Ruyi was meticulously setting up a trap, step by step.

He strode to the video analysis room, pushing the door open and demanding, "Has Feng Zhi's figure been found in the surveillance footage or not?!"

"You can rest assured, I'll take the money, disappear without a trace, and never come back."

Qi Min held the thick stack of cash, feeling pleased.

Forty thousand yuan.

For Xu Ruyi, this was probably just the price of a handbag or a coat bought on a whim.

But for Qi Min, it was a significant windfall.

Unexpected wealth – she never imagined that at her lowest point, such a golden opportunity would suddenly fall into her lap.

"This is the deposit. Do exactly as I say, and there will be more later," Xu Ruyi said.

Xu Ruyi wanted her gone.

"Don't worry, I'll leave right away. I'll pack my things now and go immediately. Oh, no, I'll wait for your signal!" Qi Min started gathering her things, swearing solemnly.

Xu Ruyi didn't trust this woman at all – what moral compass could a woman who deliberately wrecked a marriage and tried to extort her lover possibly have?

But she had no better alternative for now.

She needed Qi Min gone – as long as Qi Min remained missing, Qin Guan's troubles wouldn't disappear. Only when he was entangled and distracted could she seize the opportunity to implement her next move.

"Before you leave, you cannot see Qin Guan!" Xu Ruyi warned Qi Min as she prepared to leave. "Someone will come this afternoon to take you away."

Rushing back to the aquarium, her daughter was still lost in the world of mermaids.

"Mommy, the mermaid princesses were so beautiful! One had a purple dress that glowed! And another had golden hair, like Princess Lisa in the cartoons..."

Even while eating at a nearby restaurant, the little girl's mouth kept chattering.

Xu Ruyi responded distractedly, eating while her eyes scanned the room.

Finally, she spotted a familiar figure. "Mommy's going to order another dish and buy Little Pear an ice cream, okay?" She stood up, leaving the child and Auntie Feng, and walked straight to the restaurant entrance.

However, she hadn't anticipated that the mere mention of ice cream would instantly divert Little Pear's attention from the mermaid princesses. The little girl craned her neck, watching eagerly. Finally, unable to resist, she seized the moment when Auntie Feng bent down to pick up a dropped spoon. She slipped out of her seat and darted towards the door.

"Huh? Uncle Xiao Zhi!"