He Juan held his forehead helplessly. "Molei…"
"You drank alcohol, a whole fucking bottle at that, and slept on the fucking kitchen floor! What do you have to say about that, He Juan?!"
"Don't curse," He Juan slipped that out by reflex.
No offense but being on the end of Jia Molei's furious holler was scarier than the prospect of being a murder suspect.
The flying spit notwithstanding, they just had to do this confrontation in front of Mu Yuze. He Juan palmed his eyes as waves of helplessness came over him. First, the man had seen what kind of mess He Juan's apartment was and now, it was solidified by Jia Molei's nagging. He Juan wished he could stay like this forever so he did not have to see what kind of look Officer Mu was giving him right now. It was just nine am in the morning but He Juan already felt tired to the bone.
Jia Molei abruptly turned silent. There was the sound of a chair being dragged back followed by a touch on his shoulder. "What's wrong?" Jia Molei asked, softer this time. "Do you have a headache?"
"I…" He Juan offered a weak smile. "I am sorry. I have made you worry again."
"Tell me honestly, He Juan. I am your doctor, I need you to be honest about your own body." Jia Molei asserted solemnly. "I know you're not a drunkard. Why did you drink last night? Did you have a headache again?"
When he put it like that, how could He Juan evade him anymore? "I did." He Juan admitted with a sigh. "When I returned from school, the pain got worse and I saw the liquor you gave me so…" He sighed again.
This was the origin of the mess, wasn't it? If he had not drunk, then perhaps he would have been sober enough to notice something wrong next door. Alas…
There was something he did not tell the doctor though. He had been feeling this throbbing pain in his head for the past few days and yesterday, it was especially bad. He had downed twice the dose of medicine to get through the day because he did not want to mess up his first day of teaching, which is coincidentally his first stable job after seven long years of part time jobs and scraping whatever tasks he could find.
But he had been too naive.
Toward the end of the class, the dull pain had intensified into sharp, burning pain that hammered down his skull again and again, insistent.
Honestly, he had no idea how he had driven home safely without creating a traffic accident somewhere. And then, it was made worse when he found out that the elevator in the apartment malfunctioned. He Juan had to force himself to climb to the fifth floor on his own feet amidst the wrecking agony.
When he stumbled into his apartment, he was already half conscious. Then the rest was a blur of pain pain pain, the urge to slam his own head against the wall so he could get a brief respite was overwhelming. He was so close to breaking down when his blurry vision landed on the bottle of liquor in his cabinet.
Without even thinking twice, He Juan chugged down the wine directly. It went smoothly down his throat, leaving a burning sensation on its wake. The good, distracting kind of burn. Amid the strong desire to escape from the pain, He Juan had drunk again and again, losing control of himself and fell asleep on the kitchen floor.
Unaware that right beyond the wall, a heinous crime was taking place.
Jia Molei snapped his fingers, pulling He Juan's attention away from the spiral of memories. "From the scale of one to ten, how strong was your headache?"
"Eight." He Juan answered without thinking.
Jia Molei nodded glumly. "It's twelve then."
He Juan: "..."
The doctor returned to his seat with a perpetual frown on his face. "Honestly, He Juan, you—"
Oh, nonono. He did not want to have this kind of talk. Not now. Not here. Especially not here. "We have talked about this before, Molei." He Juan chuckled in a weak attempt to deflect the question. "You can't take back your words, remember?"
Jia Molei gave him a look which said 'I know exactly what you are trying to pull here' and 'we will have a long, long talk about this'. He Juan groaned again.
"Alright, finish your bread and let's get on to the business." Jia Molei pointed at the half eaten bread in his hands. Then he turned to Officer Mu Yuze, who had been watching their interaction in silence. "Please enlighten me, Officer. How did this idiot Alpha become a murder suspect again? If the victim is stabbed then I have to tell you that you have caught the wrong person because this one here is especially clumsy with knives."
"Molei!" He Juan hissed. Was this the national day of 'let's embarrass He Juan until he faints'? And judging from the hardened look on Mu Yuze's eyes, he wasn't impressed by the poor joke either. Goodness… could the Earth open up and swallow him now?!
"The body is still missing, so is the murder weapon. We still have no idea whether it's a knife or others." Then Mu Yuze placed the photo — the messy living room with He Juan's name written in blood — on the table. "This is at the crime scene."
Jia Molei's brows furrowed, deeper if it was possible. "The fuck…" He mouthed the curse then flicked his eyes to He Juan, asking. "Do you know the victim?"
He Juan shook his head solemnly.
Mu Yuze slid the photo of Miss Zhao Xinya, the victim, in front of Jia Molei. "Have you seen this woman before?"
Jia Molei's expression was carefully blank. He took the photo and scrutinized it closer. "Looks familiar…"
He Juan's heart skipped a beat. "You know her?"
Jia Molei spent a few long seconds staring at the photograph. "I am sure I have seen her somewhere before but I can't remember where…" He closed his eyes and tapped on his forehead. "She might just be someone who visits the hospital. I may be good at recognizing faces but I still can't remember every patient's face one by one."
"So you're saying Miss Zhao used to be one of your patients?"
"I am not sure." Jia Molei shook his head. "I have to go back to the hospital first to check the record."
"Tell me the hospital's name." Mu Yuze demanded. "The police will go and check the record."
Jia Molei narrowed his eyes at that, his jaws tensing.
He Juan looked at them back and forth, confused. Why… did it seem like there was an invisible undercurrent between the two? Had he missed something?
Just as he was ready to say something to dissolve the tension, Jia Molei averted his gaze. "Fine," the man spat out. "It's Yuyang Hospital Center. Just tell the receptionist that Doctor Jia from the Neurology Department is asking."
Mu Yuze nodded. He seemed to receive a call from his earpiece because he tapped on his ear and listened closely. The room was reigned in static silence for a while. Jia Molei contemplating the photo and He Juan discreetly sneaking a few glances at the stunning Mu Yuze. He couldn't help it. The more he looked at Mu Yuze, the more attractive he was.
He gave He Juan the impression of a little fierce rabbit, making his fingers itch to smooth down the bristled fur. He just wished that Officer Mu's opinion of him after this incident wouldn't be too bad otherwise… well, there was no otherwise. What could He Juan do if this man already did not like him from the start?
Their eyes suddenly met and He Juan was startled lightly. This time though, He Juan didn't avert his eyes and offered the man a smile instead.
Mu Yuze narrowed his eyes. Uh-oh, he did not look too pleased. "Alright, I understand." He ended the call and said to them, "We have a few more discoveries." Albeit his eyes hadn't moved away from He Juan. At all.
"First, your apartment is clear, Mr. He. We found nothing suspicious in it."
He Juan heaved out a sigh of relief despite knowing that there was no way something could suddenly pop up in his house.
"Second, our officers have been searching for a possible link between you and Miss Zhao. But strangely…" Mu Yuze's eyes shifted slightly and his gaze turned sharp and accessing, as if he wished to split He Juan's head open to see what was inside. "They find nothing at all. By nothing, I mean, there's no record about you in the database. Your birth certificate, academic record, hospital record, fingerprints, DNA, surveillance footage — up to seven years ago… there is nothing at all."
"It's like we are facing a ghost." His dark eyes bore down heavily on the gobsmacked He Juan. "Mr. He, who exactly are you?"