Beiyuan Yangtao was dead.
Both his arms were broken, and his chest was stabbed over a dozen tis, his blood soaking through the clothes he wore.
By the ti the police arrived, the blood had clotted into plasma.
The one who called the police was his neighbor, returning from a night shift.
At the sa ti, the neighbor also tipped off so dia.
Before yesterday, no one knew Beiyuan Yangtao, an insignificant reporter, but since yesterday, he had beco a na well-known in dia circles.
Thus, upon hearing the news, over a hundred reporters sward to the Beiyuan residence, making it impenetrable.
For a plain murder case, there was naturally no need for Aoyama Xiu Xin from the Police Headquarters to personally visit the scene.
But he also received the news right away.
He called Nozawa Yiren imdiately and got straight to the point, "Beiyuan Yangtao was murdered last night."
When he received the ssage, he had been having breakfast with his sister-in-law, but now he had lost his appetite.
Beiyuan Yangtao could die.
But he couldn’t die at this juncture.
Everyone would suspect Nozawa Financial Corporation, including other dia; misfortune shared made a trouble lessened, they would certainly report extensively on the "insider" story of Beiyuan Yangtao’s death.
Already in the spotlight due to a news article by Beiyuan Yangtao, Nozawa Financial Corporation was about to face an even bigger storm, one that was unavoidable.
"What?" exclaid Nozawa Yiren, then quickly realizing that Aoyama Xiu Xin suspected her involvent, she hurriedly explained, "It wasn’t , I just had Mr. Yamakawa arrange for his arms to be broken, I didn’t say to kill him."
How could she be so foolish as to kill Beiyuan Yangtao at this critical mont, and even if she really wanted to kill him, she definitely wouldn’t use such a crude thod, not even bothering to dispose of the body.
"Better get the public relations prepared," sighed Aoyama Xiu Xin and hung up to call Yamakawa Ichiro.
Yamakawa Ichiro, after asking about last night’s events, told Aoyama Xiu Xin that they only followed orders to break Beiyuan Yangtao’s arms and definitely did not kill him.
Aoyama Xiu Xin believed him because Yamakawa Ichiro would neither dare to lie to him nor had any need to.
That left only two possibilities.
One was that Beiyuan Yangtao’s murder was simply a coincidence.
The other was that soone was targeting Nozawa Financial Corporation from the shadows and deliberately killed Beiyuan Yangtao.
And, as a naturally suspicious person.
Aoyama Xiu Xin himself was more inclined to believe the latter.
"Sister-in-law, I must be going," he said, needing to et with Yanchuan Xianyou imdiately to discuss a plan.
Aoyama Haruko was startled, "You’ve barely started eating; why the rush..."
She didn’t finish her sentence before Aoyama Xiu Xin rushed out the door, forcing her to swallow the rest of her words.
Upon arriving at Yanchuan Xianyou’s residence, Aoyama Xiu Xin pressed the doorbell, and it was Asakawa Xia who ca to open the door.
"Sister-in-law, you’re here too," Aoyama Xiu Xin was taken aback and then bowed respectfully.
Asakawa Xia seed to have just arrived that morning, still in her work clothes—a simple white blouse paired with a black pencil skirt, thin black stockings on her legs, and no slippers, her bare feet both elegant and cute.
The full curve of her chest and the proud air about her only incited the urge to defile.
Aoyama Xiu Xin admitted to himself that he was a lecher.
But he did not see it as shaful; rather, he took pride in it.
A lecher has four virtues: liking young lolitas represents benevolence as it’s sympathy for the young; liking the girl-next-door who is just blooming into womanhood demonstrates righteousness in accompanying her growth; liking married won shows sincerity as it does not cover up desires regardless of their marital status; liking mature won reveals constancy as it does not spurn them for their age.
"I ca by to bring sothing for Xianyou," Asakawa Xia casually smiled and explained, saying, "Co in, please."
After she finished speaking, she turned and headed inside.
"Hey!" Aoyama Xiu Xin changed into the slippers at the entrance, then followed her in and closed the door behind him.
From behind, Asakawa Xia’s waist appeared slender enough to encircle with one hand, and her skirt outlines the curves of her ample hips enticingly.
What we call plump yet not greasy—this was it.
It was tempting to beco a minion of her buttocks.
"Xiu Xin has arrived, what brings you?" greeted Yanchuan Xianyou, who was reading the newspaper on the couch and apparently had not yet heard about the death of Beiyuan Yangtao.
Not that he wasn’t well-inford, but Beiyuan Yangtao was too insignificant to have caught his eye.
"Brother Xianyou, we have a problem," said Aoyama Xiu Xin with a serious expression, taking a seat on the couch across from him and recounting the events.
Yanchuan Xianyou had not spoken yet when Asakawa Xia, carrying tea, said, "Xiu Xin suspects soone deliberately murdered Beiyuan Yangtao to fra it on Nozawa Financial Corporation to escalate the situation?"
As she leaned over to offer Aoyama Xiu Xin a cup of tea.
"Thank you, sister-in-law," Aoyama Xiu Xin stood slightly, taking the tea cup with both hands, and after sitting back down, he nodded and replied, "Yes, I can’t just chalk this up to coincidence, especially since I fear this may actually be a strike against the Yanchuan family."
"You have work, too, don’t you? Go ahead and get busy at the hospital," laughed Yanchuan Xianyou to Asakawa Xia.
With a smile, Asakawa Xia replied, "Alright, I’ll leave you two to talk then, I’m off, goodbye."
Carrying her bag, she turned to leave and the mont she turned her back, her smile vanished.
Yanchuan Xianyou was clearly trying to send her away.
She felt very upset about it.
I am supposed to be your future wife! The one who shares your bed!
Is it necessary to keep everything from ?
That was why she tried to bring Aoyama Xiu Xin to her side; otherwise, as a fiancée, she wouldn’t even know what Yanchuan Xianyou was up to.
"Do what you can to muzzle the other dia outlets, even if you can just make them a bit more neutral in their wording, and not too biased. Don’t be afraid to spend money; it’s the least useful thing," Yanchuan Xianyou said gravely.
He knew Beiyuan Yangtao’s death would infuriate all journalists. It was impossible to keep the dia quiet about it, so the best he could do was to lessen the impact by using gold coins to silence them.
Aoyama Xiu Xin nodded and responded, "Yes!"
Yanchuan Xianyou continued to discuss other arrangents.
"Directly pay the dia that is easy to talk to, and be tough with the legal affairs departnt towards those companies that are difficult to deal with, pursuing the legal responsibilities of those dia outlets that fail to appreciate kindness, distort facts, and maliciously sling mud! I’ll have a word with the court; just sue them and demand a speedy trial."
"Let the Daokuan Association and other violent gangs do their thing—I refuse to believe that all these reporters are tough nuts like Beiyuan Yangtao. If that’s the case, he won’t be the first to step forward."
"Withdraw a sum of money from the company’s account; I will visit those who need to be visited. You also need to quickly check who exactly killed Beiyuan Yangtao."
Nozawa Financial Corporation is very important to the Yanchuan Family, as its spread-out automatic loan service could potentially expand their influence all over the country.
Now being the peak of their expansion, they absolutely wouldn’t allow any accidents to happen at this critical mont.
"Yes!" Aoyama Xiu Xin acknowledged, but then added, "Before acting, the Yamakawa Family took the precaution of destroying the surveillance cara outside Beiyuan Yangtao’s doorstep to avoid exposure, so it might be a bit troubleso to investigate, but I’ll do my best to find the murderer as soon as possible."
He had to make the potential difficulties clear in advance; otherwise, if the investigation dragged on without results, the other party might think he was incompetent.
At the sa ti, he had to demonstrate his determination. Otherwise, ntioning only the difficulties without showing resolve might seem as if he wasn’t ready to make a serious effort.
"Hmm, go ahead," Yanchuan Xianyou nodded.
After bowing, Aoyama Xiu Xin turned and left.
"Clang!"
Hearing the door close, Yanchuan Xianyou slowly leaned back on the sofa and rubbed the center of his brow with a woeful gesture.
If soone was truly using this incident to target the Yanchuan Family, they had found the right entry point. Once the inside story of colluding with banks to misuse national savings for loans was exposed, Nozawa Financial Corporation would undeniably be dood.
Even if the Yanchuan Family sought to survive by cutting losses, they would still suffer greatly—all their previous investnts would go to waste. What’s more, they feared they might attempt to cut their losses but fail to do so, as the mastermind behind the scenes would surely not allow them to withdraw at ease.
Aoyama Xiu Xin drove out of the residential area where Yanchuan Xianyou lived, only to see Asakawa Xia’s car.
"Get in," Asakawa Xia called out, lowering her car window.
Aoyama Xiu Xin could only give a helpless smile, pull his car over to a stable stop, and then got into the passenger seat of Asakawa Xia’s vehicle.
"What exactly is going on?"
Asakawa Xia rolled up the window and asked.
The car’s limited space allowed Aoyama to sniff her faint fragrance, and perhaps because she felt more at ease in her own car, she had undone one more button at her collar, allowing him an even clearer view of a hint of pale green lace at her shirt’s neckline.
"Sis-in-law, please don’t make things difficult for ."
Aoyama Xiu Xin said with a look of helplessness.
"Hmmph!" Asakawa Xia had a very imposing look in her eyes.
After pondering for a mont, Aoyama Xiu Xin said, "Nozawa Financial Corporation has a problem with its sources of funds. Once they are investigated, it will trigger a massive earthquake. That’s why Brother Xianyou is very nervous. The rest I cannot say."
"Right now, it’s not clear whether this is an accident pushing developnts, or soone deliberately doing so. We can only react to the moves made and try our best to mitigate the impact."
"That’s it? I’ll help look into it. Get going," Asakawa Xia said curtly and started shooing him away.
Aoyama Xiu Xin quickly got out of the car and headed straight to Police Headquarters, while also conveying Yanchuan Xianyou’s orders to Yehua Yiren over the phone on the way.
............
At nine o’clock, Nakamura Shinichi, who had just returned to Police Headquarters from the cri scene, was notified to go to the section chief’s office.
"Knock knock knock!"
"Co in."
Nakamura Shinichi opened the door, closed it behind him, strode forward, bowed, and said, "Police Commissioner, you wanted to see ."
"Beiyuan Yangtao’s case—tell the situation," Aoyama Xiu Xin said as he twirled his pen.
Nakamura Shinichi started imdiately, "The ti of death was around ten o’clock last night. He was first beaten to break his hands and lose the ability to resist, and then was stabbed more than ten tis. Judging from the footprints at the scene, there must have been at least six assailants."
He paused here, furrowing his brows, "This is also the strange part. Since the assailants were many and had the upper hand, why did they need to break his hands to render him unable to resist before stabbing him? Also, the surveillance outdoors was destroyed, but they left footprints at the scene—cautious yet not cautious enough."
"Additionally, from the cleanly broken bones in the hands, it’s evident the assailant was proficient and had great strength, breaking them in one strike, with the sa exact point on both hands. But the multiple stab wounds on the chest indicate the assailant was not professional at all. Why is that? Was it simply to vent anger?"
"Because two groups went up there last night—the ones who beat him and those who killed him were not the sa..." Aoyama Xiu Xin explained matter-of-factly, without any emotion, providing the answer to his confusion.
Nakamura Shinichi suddenly understood, and was not surprised that Aoyama Xiu Xin knew this—after all, he was well aware of the ties between Aoyama Xiu Xin and Yehua Yiren.
"No wonder. Then I’m inclined to think this was an accidental incident, because from the wound, the person who did the killing was very unprofessional, as if they were just haphazardly killing him after taking advantage of the victim’s incapacity to resist."
Aoyama Xiu Xin frowned. If it was indeed an accident, then this matter would be easy to resolve, as no one would interfere with their process.
"Was a large amount of US dollars found at the scene?"
He rembered sothing, and asked another question.
"No," Nakamura Shinichi shook his head.
The money was taken, which made Aoyama Xiu Xin more inclined to believe it truly was an accident. However, he still didn’t jump to conclusions, "Anything else found at the scene?"
"There were several strands of hair found and have already been sent for testing," Nakamura Shinichi replied.
Aoyama Xiu Xin slowly exhaled, "Just focus on this case, and catch the murderer as soon as possible."
Before the murderer was completely apprehended, he had no intention of treating this rely as a chance event.
Always best to be prepared for any circumstance.
"Yes!" Nakamura Shinichi bowed in response.
"Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring!"
Just then, the internal phone on the desk began to ring.
Aoyama Xiu Xin answered, "Director... Yes!"
After hanging up the phone, he said, "The Director has called over. Go on and investigate the case."
With that said, he walked toward the door.
Nakamura Shinichi stepped aside to let him pass, and after Aoyama Xiu Xin walked ahead, he followed him out of the office.
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