While I was on the phone, this top hunter was right behind me, staring at me with his bloodshot eyes.
That aggressive probing reminded Pei Xiangjin of a ferocious beast lurking in the shadows, watching its prey and waiting for its chance to strike.
Is this person truly innocent? Pei Xiangjin wondered. In any case, his reaction today seemed very strange.
Just as he was filled with doubt and speculation, and was about to leave with regret, his communicator received another message from Yu Yili:
"The deceased must have engaged in strenuous exercise before his death, which led to an error in the on-site time of death assessment. After returning, we recalculated based on the stomach contents, and the time of death was accurate to around 9 p.m. last night."
For the second half of the message, this person with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder about symmetry typed out the entire message word by word from back to front, at least ensuring symmetry in some sense.
Pei Xiangjin was used to this style of writing. She just stared at the line of text and recalled what Jian Yunxian had said earlier.
“Mr. Jian,” Pei Xiangjin turned around and asked, “Are you saying that you can prove that Mr. Yi Heye was with you after 9:30 last night?”
Jian Yunxian: "Yes."
In that case, Yi Heye's alibi would no longer exist.
Pei Xiangjin glanced at them again, and suddenly a strange intuition kicked in.
“Mr. Yi, I apologize for my offense and abruptness in this law enforcement action.” Pei Xiangjin walked around to Yi Heye’s side. “My family’s forensic doctor just contacted me and can largely overturn my previous assumptions about you.”
Yi Heye raised his red eyes, his beast-like gaze still filled with wariness and hostility.
“But…” Pei Xiangjin took a deep breath, and only continued after seeing Yi Heye’s brows furrow slightly, “Due to the re-determination of the time of death, your alibi is invalid.”
He glanced at Jian Yunxian again. The man remained calm and composed, as if the overturned alibi was entirely within his expectations.
“You remain a suspect in this case. The Security Department will do its utmost to investigate the truth of the case, and we hope you can give us your full cooperation,” Pei Xiangjin said. “We look forward to the day when you stand before me with a clear conscience.”
Yi Heye frowned and didn't reply. He watched a group of police officers retreat from the corridor in a grand manner before impatiently reaching out and slamming the door shut.
Turning around, he discovered that damned little sheep-man was still standing behind him with his big fat sheep, watching the show.
Looking into the man's ambiguous smile, his mind went blank, and he couldn't utter a single word for a long time.
Jian Yun chuckled, "Commander Yi, have you thought about how you're going to prove your innocence?"
Yi Heye was annoyed by what he said—this murder case had nothing to do with him at all, so why should he be blamed and forced to prove his innocence?
He slowly went through the image in his mind, and suddenly the image of SHEEP overlapped with Jian Yunxian's face. Driven by instinct, he grabbed the other man by the collar and slammed him heavily against the wall behind him, his eyes filled with a cold, bloodthirsty gaze: "What is your purpose?"
Jian Yunxian smiled and said, "Darling, I came here specifically to help you out of this predicament. You're making me very sad."
The man was very tall. Yi Heye pinned him against the wall, and when they made eye contact, he still had to look up slightly to look at him.
This made Yi Heye feel somewhat embarrassed and annoyed, and at the same time, it made the murderous intent in his eyes even stronger.
He stared at the emerald green behind the glasses, the breath so close to his ear brushing against his nose, the faint sandalwood scent making him uneasy—he loathed every cell of this man.
Yi Heye clenched his fists, and just as he was about to lose control of his hunting instincts and reach out to execute him on the spot, the communicator rang again.
He frowned, quickly locked the door behind him, and then blocked the doorway with his whole body to make sure the person wouldn't escape since he had him trapped inside. Only then did he answer the phone.
Zhou Wenkai appeared on screen once again, wearing his semi-permanent suit.
"Xiao Yi?" Zhou Wenkai asked anxiously, "What trouble have you gotten into again? The security department just said..."
Yi Heye interrupted impatiently: "I didn't do it. Some bastard is framing me."
After saying that, he gave Jian Yunxian a sharp look, his meaning quite clear.
Zhou Wenkai scratched his head anxiously for a long time before finally asking, "Has Professor Jian contacted you?"
Yi Heye frowned, and after a long while, he looked at Jian Yunxian and asked hesitantly, "What...? Who...?"
“Jian Yunxian, a professor of criminal psychology at the neighboring University A,” Zhou Wenkai said. “Because of your recent unusual behavior, the inspectors have mandated that we assign you a new guardian…”
Upon hearing the words "guardian," Yi Heye's blood pressure spiked again: "What the hell are you talking about?!"
"But don't worry." Zhou Wenkai, anticipating Yi Heye's overreaction, quickly added, "Professor Jian is a very nice person, not at all pretentious. You can treat him as a colleague you work with..."
Looking at Jian Yunxian, who was smiling silently, Yi Heye felt as if all the blood in his body was rushing to his brain.
Zhou Wenkai: "The organization also believes you have no connection to this case, so it's perfect that you can team up with Professor Jian to investigate this case. We will provide you with as much access information as possible, as long as you need it..."
Yi Heye couldn't listen to another word and slammed the call down.
Before him, Jian Yunxian smiled slightly and gave him an elegant gentlemanly bow:
"Hello, Mr. Yi Heye, please allow me to introduce myself again."
"My name is Jian Yunxian. I am your new partner and your guardian."
Author's Note:
He is Jian Yunxian, your future sweetheart (crossed out).
Chapter 6, No. 006
As Jian Yunxian introduced himself, Yi Heye's gaze remained fixed on his face, his bloodthirsty eyes radiating a menacing aura.
In a sense, he was a beast, a beast that hunted with precise intuition and wild instinct.
He raised his right elbow and pressed it against Jian Yunxian's neck, pinning him against the wall. With swift and precise movements, he pulled out a gun from his sleeve and pointed it directly at Jian Yunxian's forehead: "Do you know that getting close to me is tantamount to courting death for you?"
Jian Yunxian: "Darling, I don't quite understand what you're saying."
“The video you showed the cops wasn’t filmed by your sheep at all.” Yi Heye’s finger moved to the trigger. He raised his chin slightly and stared intently into the man’s swirling eyes. “It was your eyes, wasn’t it? That angle could only be captured by an AI’s eye camera.”
Upon hearing this, Jian Yunxian raised her eyes again, her emerald eyes reflecting Yi Heye's image, which gradually overlapped with the cold profile in the video: "Mr. Hunter, if you are confident enough in yourself, why don't you pull the trigger now, right now?"
As Yi Heye's movements became increasingly tense, Jian Yunxian gently pressed her head against the muzzle of Yi Heye's gun, her voice low and alluring: "Top hunters should be more decisive, instead of asking their prey: 'Why?' 'Is it right?' 'Will it work?'"
Then, his warm skin covered Yi Heye's cold knuckles, he grasped his hand, and together they pulled the trigger.
“Trust your instincts, darling,” Jian Yunxian said. “Shoot me and see what surprises this blind box can bring you.”
Yi Heye was suddenly horrified. He could feel that the man was really exerting force, pressing his fingers inward.
Yi Heye forcefully pushed the man's fingers away, quickly widened the distance, raised his gun, and panted.
In the temperature-controlled room, a fine layer of sweat seeped from my forehead.
He couldn't fire. Yi Heye heard a strong and clear heartbeat coming from his chest—even if he really was an AI, or even SHEEP, he couldn't fire at this moment.
He is still a suspect in a murder case, and if he is exposed for firing a gun at law enforcement targets before collecting evidence, the consequences are predictable.
Even if this bastard really is an AI, given Yi Heye's understanding of AI performance, someone of his level could immediately transfer core data after being shot.
If his body is made to look even more realistic, all I'll get is a still-warm "corpse" that's impossible to define.
As for the possibility that the other party is human, that simply does not exist. This is Yi Heye's confidence in his professional competence—from the very first glance, Yi Heye could tell that he was not human.
Interesting. Yi Heye was both furious and unable to resist being intrigued by him—it had been a long time since he had encountered a prey with whom he could have some fun.
Jian Yunxian lowered his head, took off his glasses, and then took out a glasses cloth from his coat pocket to gently wipe them: "Darling, if I were you, I would be more concerned about the murder case I've gotten myself into right now."
Yi Heye watched as the man lifted his left arm and gently placed a small card in his mechanical palm: "This is my business card. If necessary, you can also try to ask your partner for help."
In this day and age, few people use physical business cards, so this move is clearly more malicious than anything else.
Sure enough, as the business card fell, it gently slid across his palm. The sensation, amplified 2.5 times, instantly shot to his head, causing Yi Heye to instinctively clench his knuckles.
Jian Yun chuckled, "You're really sensitive."
Yi Heye was most afraid of being called "sensitive." Upon hearing those two words, his fierceness and wildness vanished, leaving only his ear tips turning uncontrollably red.
But Jian Yunxian only intensified her approach, her breath so close that Yi Heye almost bit his teeth until they bled.
"Actually, I've always been curious why you set the sensitivity of your prosthesis so high, which is clearly beyond your tolerance."
Jian Yunxian's voice crawled from the tips of his ears throughout his entire body, making him feel numb and uncomfortable.
Then, the man leaned closer to him and asked earnestly and sincerely:
Do you have any unusual fetishes?
The air fell silent.
"Click".
A crisp sound rang out in the silent room as Yi Heye grasped Jian Yunxian's fingers with a forced smile.
It was broken.
Seeing the cracks appear in Jian Yunxian's smile, and then witnessing his flawless expression replaced by shock and pallor, Yi Heye's emotions reached an unprecedented peak.
"Take care, I won't see you out." Yi Heye smiled and saw the person to the door. "The clinic downstairs probably can't cure you, you'll have to fix it yourself slowly."
After closing the door, Yi Heye's mind was still filled with the pale and shocked look on that person's face. He instantly felt a sense of relief—to hell with the prey, he had to settle his score right now.
A long time ago, Zhou Wenkai told others that Yi Heye seemed difficult to deal with, but in fact he was a very easy child to coax.
Solving his emotional problems often only requires a small thing to make him happy, such as making him a delicious cup of milk, or breaking a finger of someone he dislikes.
At that moment, he kept replaying that heartwarming scene in his mind, feeling as if he had conquered the whole world, and even forgot that he still had a case to solve.
After he had prepared his milk, he habitually opened the intelligence intranet to search for hunting information.
A pop-up window appeared: "Sorry, your user privileges have been frozen. Please unfreeze them and try again."
Yi Heye was stunned for a moment, then swiped the access card again, but the result was the same.
He sensed something was wrong, carefully put down his milk glass, and tried to access the government's dedicated network for equipment, only to be blocked from entering again.
Subsequently, all websites requiring access, including collaborative office systems, internal FTP servers, and integrated case-handling platforms, shut him out.
He finally realized the seriousness of the problem.
Suppressing his anger, Yi Heye dialed Zhou Wenkai's number. Zhou Wenkai gave him a vague and evasive answer, the gist of which was that Yi Heye was now under close supervision and many of his privileges required the approval of his guardian.
Looking at the access control list sent by Zhou Wenkai, Yi Heye felt his mind go completely blank for a moment—
"Items requiring guardian approval/accompaniment: Single shopping exceeding 50 yuan, visiting bars or other entertainment venues, leaving the government district during working hours, and traveling outside the district during non-working hours..."
He did some quick calculations and realized that even buying a can of baby formula at the supermarket now required that damned bastard's approval.
A complex mix of emotions overwhelmed him, leaving him unsure how to react.
Frustrated, he frantically searched the internet and discovered that the only place that still opened its doors to him without reservation was SHEEP's fan forum, which resembled a cult.
He put on his vest and had just sneaked in when he saw a little sheep's head in the background image smiling at him: