Chapter 208: Absolution

At that moment, Su Yaxi had no idea who to blame for the stab.

’This is murder, a felony!’

She yanked her hand back, and the bloody fruit knife dropped with it, landing in a puddle with a soft splash.

Su Yaxi stumbled back, as if she had seen the most terrifying sight in the world. Soaked to the bone, with a mixture of rain and tears streaking down her face, every last trace of her previous arrogance and venom was gone, leaving only pure, instinctual terror.

Lin Ranhai was frozen to the spot, a statue being scoured by the rain.

He looked down at his own trembling, empty hands. ’I was gripping Yaxi’s wrist so tightly... but the knife... how did it...?’ He looked at Su Yuqing, collapsed in a pool of blood, at her chest that had all but stopped rising and falling. A bone-chilling cold and an overwhelming dread instantly submerged him.

’This wasn’t what I meant to do... I was just trying to pull Yaxi away... I... Did I kill someone?’

The rain fell harder, mercilessly washing away the bloodstains on the ground, yet it could never cleanse the despair and death frozen in that moment.

As the two stood frozen in place, they suddenly heard someone passing by.

Lin Ranhai instantly went rigid with fright.

But Su Yaxi, whose face had been a mask of terror moments before, suddenly composed herself. She quickly crouched, grabbed the murder weapon, and dragged Lin Ranhai into a run, not once looking back.

But she quickly realized the person had just walked past without stopping, having failed to notice Su Yuqing nearby.

After all, the area was so dark it was nearly impossible to see anything; one could, at most, sense someone’s presence nearby.

This allowed Su Yaxi to breathe a sigh of relief.

And this passerby was the very person who, after the incident with Su Yuqing, would later mention having passed by and heard someone running off.

After all, while he couldn’t see, he could still hear people running away.

This led to the rumor that an attempted rape had been interrupted by his passing, causing the perpetrator to kill the victim and flee the scene.

Seeing Su Yaxi flee, dragging him along, Lin Ranhai’s head throbbed with panic.

The two ran until they reached a more secluded location before finally stopping.

As they fled, Chen Mo hesitated for a brief moment, watching Su Yuqing lying lifelessly in the cold rain.

His heart clenched with an inexplicable pain. He wanted to help her up.

But Su Yuqing, floating beside him, held him back.

Turning to see Su Yuqing’s gaze fixed on the direction the pair had fled, Chen Mo understood what she meant.

’I’m just an observer. Staying here won’t help the Su Yuqing on the ground one bit. I need to see more of the truth.’

He was curious how the two of them, having killed someone under such haphazard circumstances, managed to evade the investigation.

He gave Su Yuqing one last, pained glance, then hurried after Su Yaxi and Lin Ranhai.

"What do we do? We’re finished. This is bad, really bad," Lin Ranhai panicked.

But Su Yaxi had suddenly become preternaturally calm. After stowing the weapon, she put her hands on Lin Ranhai’s shoulders. "Don’t panic," she said. "The rain is so heavy, and there aren’t any security cameras around here. Even if there were, they wouldn’t be able to film us. We’re going to be okay."

Unexpectedly, it was the younger Su Yaxi comforting her uncle, Lin Ranhai.

Lin Ranhai turned a deaf ear to Su Yaxi’s words, still trapped in his own world of panic. "It’s no use! What if the police ask us what we were doing? What are we going to say?"

Su Yaxi was silent for a moment, her mind racing. "Remember how my mom said there was a girl you were seeing? Was she the one you had a date with today?"

"That’s her." Lin Ranhai nodded, then immediately shook his head. "But we’re not dating."

"Does she like you?"

"Yeah."

"How much? Would she do anything you asked?"

Lin Ranhai thought for a moment. "Pretty much."

"Then this is simple. Just agree to date her and have her create an alibi for you." Now that she was calm, Su Yaxi’s mind was terrifyingly sharp. "Think about it," she said, "not even the police would believe you invited a girlfriend over just to leave her home alone while you went out into a storm to murder someone. It’s completely illogical."

"But if the police launch a full-scale investigation into me, they’re bound to find a flaw in my story somewhere," Lin Ranhai said in terror.

"Uncle, how can you be so much older than me but know so much less!

"The police don’t waste massive amounts of energy investigating every little detail about a low-probability suspect. Do you think they have nothing better to do all day? Do you know the ratio of solved to unsolved cases?

"They might have the slogan ’every homicide must be solved,’ but the actual clearance rate is far lower than you think.

"Like I just said, your alibi is solid. Trying to disprove it and work backward to you being the perpetrator would require a leap in logic that no normal person would accept.

"What kind of guy invites his girlfriend over, leaves her there all alone, runs out into a stormy night, and murders a girl he has no beef with, barely knows, and has only seen a few times?

"From behavioral logic to motive to means, you don’t fit any of the criteria.

"And let’s say, worst-case scenario, the police find proof you weren’t home. What about the weapon? You need a weapon to commit a murder, right? Did you buy this knife?

"Su Yuqing brought that knife herself. Who would have guessed she’d be carrying one around? If we just stick to that one unexplainable point—the weapon—the police won’t have anything on you.

"The most important thing right now is not to panic. We need to step outside ourselves, look at this from an observer’s point of view, and think about the situation calmly. You’ll see that we have absolutely nothing to be afraid of."

Nearby, listening to Su Yaxi’s words, Chen Mo felt a chill crawl down his spine.

’This girl’s knowledge and reasoning skills are far beyond her years.’

’She also has the ability to calm down so quickly.’

’She was clearly panicking the moment it happened.’

’Yet after just a short run, she’s already thought everything through.’

Her cunning and composure were genuinely terrifying, even to Chen Mo.

Lin Ranhai, who had been panicking uncontrollably just moments before, now found himself calming down under the influence of Su Yaxi’s words.

He realized that what Su Yaxi was saying made perfect sense.

’Killing Su Yuqing today was a complete accident. The police aren’t gods; finding evidence against me in all this would be next to impossible.’

’Especially since I have a way to fake an alibi.’

He might be in the clear, but he immediately turned to Su Yaxi. "My suspicion can be easily cleared away, like you said, but what about you? I remember the elevator in your building has a camera, right? You were filmed leaving. How are you going to explain that? Are the police just going to ignore you because of your age?"