Captured By The Cold Detective (BL)-Chapter 611: The Second Person

Tense silence hung in the air for a few long seconds. Somehow, He Juan could almost envision the shock on the young man’s face in response to Chen Youzhi’s revelation. He couldn’t help but click his tongue, "Was he lying?"

Mu Yuze remained silent, brows furrowed in concentration and jaws clenched tight.

Chen Youzhi shook his head. "Technically, he wasn’t. I’ve checked it thoroughly; the time he went to the nursing home coincided with my break time. So we completely missed each other."

The recording played out exactly like Chen Youzhi had explained.

Under Chen Youzhi’s intimidation tactic, Zhong Yun panicked, though he insisted that he had truly never seen Chen Youzhi before, even going so far as to swear on his life. The two of them matched the date and time, and Chen Youzhi confirmed that he was really not present when Zhong Yun visited the place. What an uncanny coincidence.

Now it was Zhong Yun’s turn to question him, his tone frantic and desperate, "Y–You were his father’s personal nurse? Then that means you saw him that day, right? How... How was he?! He..."

Chen Youzhi knew exactly what he wanted to ask. He thought for a while before offering his opinion, "I’m pretty sure he was still fine when he visited his father."

"I–I see..." Zhong Yun murmured, deep in thought. "So something must have happened on his way home..." his voice cracked in the end, the rims of his eyes reddening. He looked like he would burst into tears at any moment.

.

That day, not wanting to arouse suspicion, Zhong Yun once again enacted an act, this time pretending to be there for a delivery to Qin Zhen. Through the words of the nurses, he learned that Qin Zhen had left a few hours prior and nothing seemed to be amiss aside from the little argument he’d had with his father. Even then, they did not think it was weird, given Old Qin’s explosive temper and his increasingly estranged relationship with his son.

Zhong Yun’s visit yielded no results whatsoever, and he still had no clues as to where the real Qin Zhen had disappeared to.

Leaving the nursing home, he stood on the side of the road, dazed and confused.

What should he do next? Everyone had acted normally without noticing any anomaly with Qin Zhen. Only he... only he knew that the man who donned his lover’s appearance, who was occupying Qin Zhen’s house as though it was his own, was actually an impostor.

But who would believe him if he were to say that? They would surely think he was insane.

"I didn’t know what to do, or where to start searching." Zhong Yun’s voice trembled as he spoke, his head buried in his hands. "Something bad had clearly happened to him, but I... I couldn’t do anything! I was so useless!"

With nowhere to go, Zhong Yun could only take refuge in the internet cafe for the time being. He kept an eye on the news to see if someone had reported a bizarre accident, yet there was none. He then tried hanging around their neighborhood to gauge his chances of confronting the impostor – it was an extremely risky move, he knew. But at that moment, fueled by five cups of black coffee and extreme sleep deprivation, Zhong Yun’s desperation had reached its peak and he felt like he could go against that person. He would surely go mad if he still couldn’t find out anything about Qin Zhen!

And imagine his surprise and fury when he discovered that... the impostor went about his day as though he was the real Qin Zhen! Smiling like him, talking like him, behaving like him, even going to work as him!

The more Zhong Yun observed, the more intense the chill he experienced.

If he had not been so obsessed with Qin Zhen, he, too, would have been fooled by this person’s near flawless act.

How dare he... how dare he do that!

Zhong Yun still had no idea what this person’s motive was, or why he chose Qin Zhen out of everyone, but did it really matter? His Qin-ge was uniquely beautiful, one-of-a-kind and utterly irreplaceable. Just having this person parade around with that exquisite face was more than enough to repulse him. At that time, Zhong Yun really wasn’t thinking straight – he couldn’t afford to. How could he, when his lover’s current fate remained unknown?

So he returned to his apartment, grabbed a kitchen knife and lay in wait until the impostor returned from his night shift at the Phoenix Ablaze.

It was ten minutes before four in the freezing winter morning that Zhong Yun caught sight of him. The alley was desolate, and the broken street lamp created a perfect atmosphere to veil the act of mindless fury he was about to commit.

As soon as that person approached, Zhong Yun sprang up from where he was hiding and pounced on the other, brandishing his knife with all of his might!

Alas, who was he kidding? How could an ordinary citizen, a desperate and frenzied young man driven by adrenaline like him, stand a chance against one of the best fighters in the underworld? Despite having a knife in hand, Zhong Yun was thrashed within seconds, his knife flying to God-knows-where. He was slammed against the wall, a merciless hand grabbing him in the chokehold, restricting his airways.

"Oho~" the impostor drawled, a sinister smirk tugging on his lips. "Look at who we have here. The rat has finally shown himself, huh? Did you have fun tailing me everywhere?"

Zhong Yun let out a choked sound as he grasped the other person’s wrist, his face turning red from the lack of oxygen. He should have been afraid. He really should. This person radiated a dark and dangerous aura from head to toe, and he looked as though he had no qualms killing someone. Yet as Zhong Yun stared at him, who bore a face so identical to his beloved but with a completely unfamiliar expression, he could find not even an ounce of fear within him, and all that remained was only wrath, grief and desperation.

Tears rolled down his cheeks as he spat out, "W–Where... where did you hide him? Return him to me, you disgusting fake!"

A flicker of surprise flashed in the impostor’s eyes and his grip around Zhong Yun’s neck loosened, allowing the young man to gasp and cough from the air that rushed down his pipeline. "You can see through me?"

Holding onto his sore neck, Zhong Yun sneered, "Ha! Do you really think you can fool me with your lousy act? Not a chance! You... what have you done to him? Where is he?! Tell me!" he growled menacingly, though he must have looked funny with his battered body and face covered in bruises.

And sure enough, the impostor did not take him seriously at all. He laughed out loud instead, as though he had stumbled upon something amusing. "Interesting. You are the second person in this world who called me out when I’m in full disguise. Fine, I will let you live for now, little rat. You want to know where he is? Unfortunately, I can’t tell you. But I can give you some clues, how about it?"

Under the emerging dawn, the devil smiled sweetly at him, though his bottomless eyes were anything but.

It was on that day that Zhong Yun learned about the terrifying existence of the ’Master Manipulator’ for the first time. It was also on that day that he was heading straight to his demise.

The impostor claimed that he was going to give Zhong Yun clues, but it was all bullshit. Zhong Yun was led in circles around the city, even visiting a small temple called Mingguang, yet there were no signs of his beloved anywhere. With each passing day, his sanity was eroded bit by bit, yet he desperately clung to the hope that Qin Zhen was still alive somewhere he did not know, waiting for him. It was that thought that drove him to wake up and keep going amidst this cold and cruel world.

Fortunately, Zhong Yun might be impulsive, but he had not completely lost his wit. He had secretly recorded the first conversation he’d had with the Manipulator and held onto it as though it was more important than his life.

He planned to take this evidence to the police once the impostor redirected his attention elsewhere.

"Did you go to the police?" Chen Youzhi asked in mild surprise.

"I did..." Zhong Yun barked out a cold laugh. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"Impossible," Mu Yuze murmured under his breath. "The Bureau has never received such a report, unless..."

In the recording, Zhong Yun continued, "But what good does it do? I should have known the Manipulator would never let me be. I submitted a report to the police with the evidence, but in the end, what happened? My evidence was seized, the report never went through, and I... I was tricked into consuming drugs!" He released a bitter laugh, almost hysterical.

"There’s a mole inside the police force, and they are working with that bastard to end me!"