CHAPTER 31: CHAPTER 31: THE MASTERMIND AND THE POLICE

Mu Qiu followed Cheng Zhirang and Lin Banyan towards the factory building.

Her expression seemed thoughtful, remaining silent without speaking.

The cameras in the front and on the side were focused directly on Cheng Zhirang and Lin Banyan, and she barely appeared in the frame. The photographer didn’t rush them for not speaking, just kept the camera aimed at Cheng Zhirang’s face.

"Why do you think the explosion happened?"

Cheng Zhirang suddenly asked them.

Lin Banyan hesitated for a moment, shook her head without saying anything. Mu Qiu tried to keep up with their long strides, walking alongside them, and said, "I have two ideas."

"Two? Tell me about them."

"One is that this explosion was a condition for triggering the group scene recreation, it already existed, and have you noticed, the place where Zhu Qi first appeared was exactly the spot he was just lying at, which is also where the explosion occurred, so Zhu Qi might be one of the reasons for the explosion, or even a participant in everyone’s story."

Cheng Zhirang nodded as he listened and thought, "And the other one?"

"The other is that this explosion was sudden and shouldn’t have existed."

Saying this, she looked at him with a suspicious gaze, continuing, "A God-like perspective should understand everyone’s stories, including all the processes of the stories and everything we will encounter. But is it possible that this God could also control or even rewrite the story?"

Cheng Zhirang stopped, his face unchanged as he met her gaze, "Are you saying that this God could control all the plots and deliberately caused this explosion? But why create an explosion? Why say it was caused by a gas leak?"

Mu Qiu stared into his beautiful eyes, slowly shaking her head, "I don’t know yet. Do you know, Brother Cheng?"

Cheng Zhirang slightly raised the corner of his mouth, "I don’t know either."

[Whoa! It feels like a mastermind pretending to be serious with the police!]

[Is Brother Cheng playing the mastermind?! I love this kind of thrilling plot!]

[I never thought, after "Candle South," I’d see Brother Cheng’s second mastermind role in a variety show!]

[Oh my, I love him so much! Even if he’s the mastermind, I still love him!]

[The black toad came uninvited, wanting to leave a pair of twins]

[That smile!! I don’t care, it’s smiling at me!]

[Lin Banyan looking around, seems to have a new idea]

[Some Cheng Zhi fans, boiling water and orange juice can’t wake you up, right]

[I already messaged my husband questioning who he’s smiling at, he replied saying he’ll comfort me when he gets home]

[Brother Cheng is solving a case; he has no time to reply to messages. To the sister who got a reply, does your husband just so happen to smile at other women like mine?]

[It’s about to start! I’ve already prepared a family bucket to watch this tear-jerking love story]

[I’m also ready to immerse myself in it, this episode is called "The Unspoken Love and Hatred Between Me and Brother Cheng"]

[Such a big imagination, I can barely keep up]

The factory building was also empty, with only two high stools inside, where the two people who were silently facing each other at the door just sat.

Mu Qiu, Lin Banyan, and Cheng Zhirang stood in the corner, listening to their conversation.

The young and handsome man softly asked, "Is this really the only way?"

The woman lowered her head and said nothing.

After a brief silence, the man let out a sudden laugh and began reminiscing to himself, "We were together since sophomore year in high school. At that time, I wrote you a love letter and gave it to you when you woke up from a nap, and you blushed, pretending not to care, but were so flustered you couldn’t open it. From then on, we started dating. From sophomore year to college, college until now, seven years together, we’ve defied our parents and teachers to keep this relationship, sacrificed so much time with others, faced pressure to study together and enter the same university, stubbornly planning a future together. All these years, you’ve gotten used to relying on me, and I’ve gotten used to being with you, but why, why did you suddenly leave me?"

Mu Qiu had a bad feeling; she wouldn’t have truly been blind enough to cheat, would she?

The woman still said nothing, but a choking sound began.

The young man continued reminiscing, "I love you very much, I really do, I can’t bear for you to go through any hardship, afraid you’ll be wronged. I constantly remind myself to walk on the outside while walking, pull out the chair for you when we eat, dry your hair after a shower. You like eating orange-steamed eggs, mousse cake, dislike garlic and eating fish, I remember it very clearly, even this morning when I woke up, I was repeatedly going over these things. I plan to forgive you."

The woman finally burst into tears, "Stop talking! Stop talking! I was wrong! I’m sorry, I regret it! I regret doing these things, I want to make it right! But no matter what I do, I can’t go back to that feeling, I feel guilt every moment! I’m sorry, continuing to pretend nothing happened only makes me feel guiltier! And it’ll be unfair to my sister!"

"I don’t need your apology! I can act like nothing happened!" The young man suddenly shouted, his expression so agitated it twisted, "I love you! All I want is to be together! For us to be together for a lifetime! A lifetime! We promised each other a lifetime! Why do you feel guilty now?!"

The woman cried into her hands, shaking her head continuously, as if trying to persuade herself, "There’s no going back, no going back!"

"We can go back," the young man calmed down again, speaking gently to the woman, "As long as he’s no longer between us, we can go back."

Mu Qiu widened her eyes, slightly opened her mouth, and turned her head to look at Cheng Zhirang.

"Brother Cheng, the character you’re playing, turns out he’s not mentally stable."

This kind of love to the point of distortion can’t even be described as obsessive anymore.

A sudden spark flashed through her mind.

Then she sharply lifted her eyes, fixedly staring at him.

[Here it is, here it is! Did they find the problem?]

[What kind of twisted love is this, are my tears free?]

[If it’s with Brother Cheng, I could accept this kind of love too]

[Is the case solved?! Is it about to be solved?!]

What Mu Qiu suddenly remembered was what Su Yan had mentioned previously, about the information regarding their group.

The outsider was dead.

She asked word by word, "Su Yan said that in the information he received, there was mention of that outsider, which should be... the cheating partner, so the cheating partner is dead. You killed him."

Cheng Zhirang’s expression didn’t change, "I didn’t."

"You did," Mu Qiu’s brainstorming was in full swing now, using her ability to piece together novel plots, "You’re a man who gives tenderly, you’ve been in love with your wife for many years, and recently you discovered your wife’s affair, yet your thoughts were on forgiving her. In the scene recreation, you believed that without the outsider, the couple could go back to the way things were. With your personality, you could do such a thing to continue your love with your wife. And then there was the explosion; how could the gas in the middle of the street leak and explode so easily? And why, coincidentally, did someone die right at the spot of the explosion?"