Car Accident Suspicion

Ye Shiwen took me to a small restaurant near the school. She ordered a table full of dishes, and the two of them were so lovey-dovey that I could hardly stand watching them. Feeling very awkward just sitting there, I suggested, "Why don't I call Wang Dali over?"

Ye Shiwen nodded. "Okay, we can't finish all this food anyway."

I called Wang Dali and told him Ye Shiwen was treating us to a meal. Wang Dali immediately asked eagerly, "Did Mengmeng come too?"

Wanting to help my buddy start a relationship, I covered the phone and asked Zhang Yan, "Could you call Xia Mengmeng over?"

"Sure, she should be in her dorm. I'll give her a call!" Zhang Yan dialed the phone, exchanged a few quick words, and hung up with a snicker. It turned out the first thing Xia Mengmeng asked was whether Song Yang had come or not?

When Zhang Yan said he was there, Xia Mengmeng immediately said she'd be right over.

With a sigh, I thought to myself that I'd definitely have to find a chance to clear up this misunderstanding later!

Soon, both of them arrived. This meal was extremely awkward. Xia Mengmeng kept looking at me, Wang Dali kept looking at Xia Mengmeng, while Ye Shiwen and Zhang Yan openly flirted with each other. Zhang Yan spoke enough for all of us, chattering on about my police officer girlfriend and calling me a detective hired by the police department who had cracked countless major cases. I kept saying "No, no, just a few trivial cases."

Zhang Yan patted the back of my hand and said, "Detective Song, stop being so modest. Come on, I'll toast to you."

I said I don't drink alcohol, and clinked a soft drink with her.

Zhang Yan laughed gossipingly, "Detective Song, tell us a little about your love life!"

Ye Shiwen chimed in, "Yeah, tell us how you met that police beauty!"

I scratched my head awkwardly, "Could you guys stop calling me Detective Song? I do have a name, you know?"

"We're just showing our admiration! By the way, the school recently started a drama club, and I'm the president. Would you consider joining? It would be such an honor for our school if the famous Detective Song joined us." Zhang Yan pleaded.

"No no, I'll pass." I waved my hands quickly in refusal.

After much difficulty shaking off Zhang Yan's pestering, Xia Mengmeng asked how long I had known the police officer girl and whether we were officially dating. She also said police must be too busy with work to date often.

Although my EQ is low, I'm not stupid enough to fall for that. I very clearly stated that we had been dating for a long time and the relationship was great, with frequent dates. Then I desperately tried to steer the conversation towards Wang Dali, saying it's so tiring being the third wheel!

Fortunately after this meal, Xia Mengmeng lost interest in me. In the past she would occasionally text me, but I had been too busy cracking cases to reply.

I thought Wang Dali would smoothly win her over after this, but I was too optimistic. A few weeks later, Xia Mengmeng suddenly started dating a tall, burly guy. Wang Dali came to me heartbroken and we drank the night away in sorrow. But that's a story for later.

After cracking the haunted house case, I became bored again. One day the school counselor called me in to talk, saying I had skipped too many classes this semester and would likely not earn enough credits to graduate.

This scared me badly. How would I face my family if I couldn't graduate? The counselor earnestly advised me to hurry up and earn some credits while there was still over half the semester left.

Our school used a credit system. I could earn credits through various means, like donating blood for 2 credits, being named an outstanding club member for 5 credits, or publishing an article in an academic journal for 5 credits. But I could only do each of those things once, and I was short by over 10 credits.

Attending class diligently was definitely not going to happen for me. I could only think of underhanded ways to earn some credits. Wang Dali suggested I join that drama club. Zhang Yan seemed to worship me, so just being nominally affiliated with the club's activities should count.

I thought this might work. I'd join a club, donate blood, and later write an academic paper verifying ancient forensic techniques. That should be enough credits to graduate. I didn't care about honors, just being able to graduate would be cause for celebration!

Wang Dali had also skipped a lot of classes this semester, so we shamelessly went to ask Zhang Yan if we could join the drama club. She was overjoyed and immediately named us directors. I said, "You can just give me a meaningless title, we're only here for the credits."

Wang Dali chimed in, "Right, preferably something like a mascot that doesn't require any work."

Zhang Yan said solemnly, "That won't do. As club president, I can't play favorites. You have to show up when there are activities."

"Do we have to come? I can neither act nor write scripts, I'd be useless to your club." I forced a laugh.

"Detective Song, stop being so modest! I'm always telling club members about how you assist the police solving cases. If you come in person, everyone will be super excited. Just do me this favor, okay?" Zhang Yan said.

"Oh my god!" I screamed internally, "Please, I'm begging you, don't talk about me. Case details are confidential, you can't just spread rumors."

With a pout, Zhang Yan said, "I never told them any confidential stuff, I make it all up to promote your reputation, so everyone knows our school has a famous detective!"

Wang Dali suddenly understood, "No wonder so many pretty girls have been asking me about you lately, they must all admire you."

I wanted to die right then and there. I promised I'd try my best to attend club activities, on the condition that Zhang Yan stop spreading rumors about me.

Zhang Yan readily agreed, "Okay okay, I won't say anything anymore. You can come tell club members yourself about your thrilling crime-busting experiences."

I yelled internally, just let me die!

I had overlooked things twice in the haunted house case. Some things just can't be learned from books. I couldn't immediately make up for my lack of experience, so I decided to borrow some old criminal case files from Huang Xiaotao in my spare time to study.

The case files from the police department were confidential, so I could only read them in the archives room. Huang Xiaotao fully supported this endeavor, she just worried I wouldn't persist since the files were all written very tediously.

But I couldn't put them down once I started reading. The words automatically reconstructed into crime scenes in my mind, even more gripping than novels. On the first day, I finished half a shelf of files already, astonishing Huang Xiaotao. She asked if I had considered coming to work in the archives department?

So every day I shuttled between the school and police station, feeling quite fulfilled. In a few weeks I read through thousands of case files and learned a lot.

What I never could have imagined was that in the process of reading case files, I discovered a loophole in one of the cases. This allowed me to bring a villain who had evaded justice for a year to justice!

This case was an ordinary looking fatal car accident. The two victims were a married couple. The husband survived while the wife died. Afterwards, the husband collected a huge insurance payout for his wife's death.

The police had investigated it as a criminal case at the time, which was why I could find it in the detectives' archives. They had suspected the husband of faking an accident to murder his wife, but all the evidence indicated it was just a straightforward car accident.

The accident happened like this. One night a year ago, the couple drove out of a parking garage, but the car's brakes suddenly failed after they got onto the road. Despite the husband's efforts, the car eventually crashed into a barrier at high speed and flipped over. The wife was impaled in the neck by a shard of broken windshield glass, severing her carotid artery. The husband also broke many bones and spent months in the hospital.

I read it over and over and brought it to Huang Xiaotao, saying, "There are suspicious points about this case!"

Huang Xiaotao glanced at it and said, "I remember this case. Team leader Zhang led the investigation last year and it was determined to be accidental death."

I held up two fingers. "No, read it carefully again! There are two suspicious points!"