Kiwi Beyond the Cage 007

**Knife in the Fog (I)**

The hospital room had no soundproofing.

The caregiver was terrified. She didn’t dare rush forward to wrestle the knife from the assailant. In the critical moment, the best she could do was smash the kettle lid at the doctor and sprint into the hallway, screaming for help.

Zhao Liang, leaning against the door of the adjacent room, burst out at the noise.

The caregiver should be grateful she wasn’t facing an experienced hitman. Everyone should be grateful that her loud cries threw the doctor off balance. In that split second of indecision between fleeing and killing, Zhao Liang seized his chance. He lunged forward, disarmed the doctor, and pinned him to the ground. The doctor’s cap fell off, revealing long hair cascading out—it was a woman.

Ou Yang Lin checked on Ji Wei, confirming she was unconscious but unharmed. She then tore off the woman’s mask and matched her face to the file photo. “Meng Qingde.”

She spoke the name aloud.

Recognized, Meng Qingde began to struggle. “Let me kill her! I’ll kill her!!”

In photos and online videos, Meng Qingde was always elegant and beautiful, her flawless makeup a mask concealing her true self. The real Meng Qingde they’d captured bore no resemblance to that image.

She was hysterical, hurling venomous curses at Ji Wei. Her wavy hair was disheveled, her unmade face haggard and pale, her eyes filled with shattered despair and malice.

“It was her who killed Sheng Linrong!”

“She destroyed my family! Why is she still alive?!”

As Zhao Liang restrained her, Meng Qingde continued to curse Ji Wei, glaring at the hospital bed and shouting, “Why don’t you just die, Ji Wei!! Why won’t you die?!”

If only she were dead. If she’d never entered their world, Meng Qingde wouldn’t have become what she was.

Meng Qingde’s appearance took everyone by surprise.

Her indifferent phone calls had led Ou Yang and the others to assume the couple was estranged, that she was indifferent to Sheng Linrong’s death. No one expected the woman who claimed career over concern, who said she’d only return after her art exhibition, to slip back quietly and come to the hospital to kill.

Ji Wei remained in a deep sleep, seemingly untouched by the chaos.

Ou Yang escorted Meng Qingde out, turning to see Sheng Long standing in the hallway. He didn’t approach or speak, merely watching Meng Qingde’s frenzy, absorbing every insult she hurled.

Meng Qingde noticed Sheng Long too.

Like a erupting volcano suddenly silenced, her transformation was palpable.

She went mute.

Stopped struggling.

In an instant, she snapped back to sanity, her狂乱melting away. Silent, she allowed Ou Yang to lead her away.

“You lied to me again,” Sheng Long’s low voice, cold as flowing spring water, reached everyone, including Meng Qingde.

He seemed devastated, a stark contrast to his earlier calm with the police. Fragile, pale, sensitive—he stood in the light, yet gave an illusion of lurking in shadows.

—Like a venomous snake licking its wounds in the dark.

This analogy jolted Ou Yang.

Even after walking far, the clammy unease lingered. Ou Yang glanced back at Sheng Long, finding him leaning against the threshold, hands covering his face.

Though his expression was hidden, Ou Yang saw… his fingers trembling.

What drives uncontrollable shaking?

Fear, pain, or perhaps… excitement.

“Captain Lin, is there a problem?” Zhao Liang whispered, noticing her lingering gaze.

Ou Yang watched Sheng Long turn and enter Ji Wei’s room, closing the door.

Instinctively, she didn’t want him alone with Ji Wei. Recalling the interrupted interrogation, she signaled Officer Wang, “Take Sheng Long in too.”

.

**Interrogation Room One.**

Meng Qingde refused to cooperate.

After seeing Sheng Long, she seemed shaken, withdrawn into herself. No matter Ou Yang’s questions, she hung her head in silence.

“Sheng Long said you’d return in three days. Why come back early and hide?”

“How did you get into the hospital?”

“Why kill Ji Wei?”

“You claim Ji Wei killed Sheng Linrong—any evidence?”

Zhao Liang’s tongue grew tired, but Meng Qingde remained mute until Ou Yang asked, “Why did you hire someone to surveil Ji Wei?”

Meng Qingde’s fingers twitched ever so slightly.

Ou Yang noticed, flipping through her files. “We know Ji Wei moved to Huanmeng Jiayuan in 202X. Shortly after, you hired Wu Fali to plant cameras in her home and stalk her for four years. What were you after?”

“What was I after…” Meng Qingde murmured, lifting her dark eyes.

“I was looking for evidence.”

“Evidence of Sheng Linrong cheating with Ji Wei?” Zhao scoffed. “But Wu Fali’s emails to you were never opened.”

Initially, she had opened a few.

The photos showed Ji Wei alone in various settings; group photos only featured Sheng Long by her side. Not a single shot of Ji Wei and Sheng Linrong together.

Wu Fali admitted that in four years of following Ji Wei, he never saw her interact with Sheng Linrong.

Unaware of his employer’s true identity, he’d assumed Sheng Long was the cheating boyfriend. But as time passed, he barely captured any photos of the two together, fearing the employer would end the contract. Yet the employer never complained—easy money for little work.

To repay his generous employer, Wu Fali abandoned other jobs to focus solely on Ji Wei. Later, realizing the employer never reviewed his work, he grew careless, sending only solo shots of Ji Wei, claiming he “couldn’t capture them together.”

“So, what evidence were you really after?”

Evidence conjured from her delusions? Evidence to exonerate Sheng Linrong from loving her?

“It’s because they hid it too well… They hid it too well!!” Meng Qingde grew agitated.

She’d never admit Ji Wei and Sheng Linrong were innocent, nor accept that her husband was the harasser. “I saw it with my own eyes!! Ji Wei seducing Sheng Linrong!! She even flaunted it in my face! How dare she?!”

“Young and scheming, she lived off me, then flirted with Sheng Linrong behind my back. Later, she dared to seduce my son. Because of her, my son’s barely my son anymore… What did I do wrong? What did I do?!”

Meng Qingde wept, covering her face. “I’m the real victim here.”

“Then why say Ji Wei killed Sheng Linrong?” Ou Yang frowned, sensing something amiss.

The crying stopped. Meng Qingde wiped her tears and fell silent.

Zhao nudged Ou Yang, and they stepped outside. “She’s contradicting herself,” Zhao said.

“She has no proof of Sheng Linrong cheating. Even if she did, why would Ji Wei kill him?”

If Ji Wei wanted to usurp, wouldn’t Meng Qingde be the target?

“Could she have delusional disorder too?”

Ou Yang massaged her temples. “Since she started talking, I doubted her honesty. She knows something she’s hiding…”

What was she hiding?

Ou Yang believed extracting this secret could link the two cases. She planned to request a joint investigation.

“Has Old Wang finished?” they asked, heading to the second interrogation room.

Inside, Officer Wang was questioning Sheng Long.

“How did you injure your forehead?”

No more evasion. Sheng Long replied succinctly, “Ji Wei hit me.”

On the night of July 13th, Sheng Long went to the third floor as planned, finding the door ajar.

Wang interrupted, “What plan?”

Sheng Long raised his lashes. “We planned to watch a movie together. Is that acceptable?”

“Officer Wang,” he reminded, “Ji Wei and I are lovers.”

Visiting his girlfriend late at night sometimes needed no plan.

Sheng Long entered the room.

There, he found Sheng Linrong, who’d somehow obtained a third-floor key. His unannounced intrusion terrified Ji Wei. In panic, she struck Sheng Linrong with a photo frame. Sheng Long persuaded Sheng Linrong to go upstairs.

“I stayed to calm Ji Wei, but she was too frightened. In her episode, she mistook me for an intruder and hit my forehead with the frame.”

That was all.

Sheng Linrong barged in, Ji Wei had an episode, and Sheng Long was injured while soothing her. Only after she stabilized on medication did Sheng Long head to the hospital, forgetting about Sheng Linrong upstairs and only telling Ji Wei to lock the door.

“Why didn’t you say this before?”

“Did I not?” Sheng Long feigned surprise. “During the first inquiry, I was unwell and couldn’t focus.”

At the second hospital inquiry, he was about to speak when another incident occurred. This was his third account.

Sheng Long couldn’t prove his story true.

The police had no grounds to call him a liar.

Most of the cameras in Ji Wei’s home were defunct, halted months ago. The few still operational were on the first and second floors. Those on the third floor were all disabled, yielding no useful data.

On this, Ou Yang had also questioned Sheng Long. His reply: “I’m not a creep.”

He installed cameras to protect Ji Wei, not spy on her. Before Sheng Linrong’s intrusion, her condition had improved, with no episodes for months. Coincidentally, the cameras were deactivated just before the incident.

“What a coincidence,” Ou Yang remarked.

Sheng Long smiled. “Some coincidences are heaven-sent.”

Heaven-sent that Sheng Linrong’s murder would never find its culprit.

Heaven-sent that not all deaths find peace.

“Captain Lin,” a police officer burst in, flustered. “Wu Fali is dead!!”