Card Room (Rebirth)
chapter-264

After seeing Ah Kim’s identity information, Xiao Lou understood why he felt so strange when seeing the stylist yesterday.

He had seen this type of stylist with more girly movements in the hairdresser previously and hadn’t thought much when he heard this Ah Kim speak. Now that he carefully recalled it, this Ah Kim had no obvious Adam’s apple on the neck and her voice was soft. Even if she deliberately pretended to be a more feminine male hairdresser, she was still a girl after all. That was why Xiao Lou felt strange.

Unexpectedly, things would actually be reversed in this way. Xiao Lou immediately compared the results of the fingerprint and gave a copy of Jin Xiaoyue’s ID to Yu Hanjiang.

Yu Hanjiang took a look and frowned. “Sure enough, there is a problem.”

Xiao Lou was curious. “Did you see that she was female?”

Yu Hanjiang shook his head. “I didn’t expect her to be pretending to be a man. I just think she is the most suspicious one. Last night, I repeatedly reasoned it out based on everyone’s testimonies and finally found that none of the five members of the girl group have a motive to kill Liang Ting. The makeup artist and stylist were both out of sight for a few minutes.”

Yu Hanjiang paused and took out today’s interrogation transcripts. “I questioned the makeup artist Su Shanshan just now and ruled out her suspicion. She and Liang Ting have been working together for three years. She got married this year and she is pregnant. There is no reason to kill now. The delivery man also confirmed that she walked east after taking the takeout. Liang Ting’s dressing room is to the west side and the timing will be too late. So, only the hair stylist is left.”

Xiao Lou lamented, “I didn’t expect the last person left to be the hair stylist who wasn’t noticeable at the beginning.”

At that time, Xiao Lou thought that the makeup artist and hair stylist were passersby and his focus was always on the celebrities in the girl group. Unexpectedly, the 505 girl group was the biggest distraction and the murderer was the unremarkable hair stylist Ah Kim.

Yu Hanjiang took the copy of Jin Xiaoyue’s ID card and compared it to Jin Xiaoyong’s card.

He was a professional criminal police officer and had experience with comparing the real person to the ID card. Jin Xiaoyong’s ID card looked a lot like Ah Kim but the distance between the eyes and the nose and lips were slightly different. It was difficult to explain this unless the other person had plastic surgery.

Yu Hanjiang said, “Jin Xiaoyong and Jin Xiaoyue are likely to be siblings so their appearance is very similar. We should go to the household registration office to check.”

Xiao Lou nodded and went to the household registration centre with Yu Hanjiang.

Sure enough, it was as Yu Hanjiang expected. Jin Xiaoyong and Jin Xiaoyue were twin brother and sister. They came from an ordinary working class family. The relationship between the siblings had always been good and they attended the same junior high and high school. However, the sister got very good grades and was often in the top three in the exams while the younger brother had very bad grades and often took the last three places.

More than 10 years ago, the two siblings were facing the university entrance examination. As a result, on the day of the university entrance examination, their parents were killed in a car accident. Jin Xiaoyue and Jin Xiaoyong didn’t take the exam.

There was no record of what happened after their parents’ funeral was over. They only knew that Jin Xiaoyong later signed up to study in an art school and majored in beauty and hairdressing. After graduating, he became a hairdresser. He took the English name Ah Kim and first started as an apprentice in a hairdressers in Binzhou. He slowly became an independent hairdresser. Later, he opened his own hair salon and his business became better.

His hair salon gradually became famous and he attracted some entertainment celebrities coming to him for styling. He was very good at designing a hair style suitable for the other person according to the shape of their face and his reputation increased. Ah Kim quickly became a well-known stylist in the circle and often worked with celebrities.

Yu Hanjiang saw this and said, “According to Sister Chen, Liang Ting’s original hair stylist happened to be on her honeymoon and it conflicted with the concert. Sister Chen had no choice but to find Ah Kim who had a good reputation by word of mouth to come and try it.”

Xiao Lou carefully recalled Liang Ting’s appearance at the concert. “Liang Ting’s face is thin and her forehead is high. Ah Kim designed Liang Ting with mature and sexy curly hair, which can just cover the disadvantage of her forehead. Matched with the black fishtail dress and it is perfectly in line with her temperament… at that time, was it Jin Xiaoyong himself or his sister Jin Xiaoyue who styled Liang Ting?”

“It should be Jin Xiaoyue. She might’ve learned some styling skills and asked her brother for help, designing a hairstyle for Liang Ting’s face in advance. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to prepare for the murder in advance.”

Xiao Lou nodded in agreement. “It seems that Jin Xiaoyue changed identities with her younger brother when doing the test makeup and hair a week ago. She pretended to be her younger brother and do styling for Liang Ting in advance in order to get close to Liang Ting and to find opportunities to murder Liang Ting at the concert.”

Yu Hanjiang continued to search the computer for Jin Xiaoyue’s information but strangely, there was no record of her going to school.

The younger brother Jin Xiaoyue studied at a vocational school for three years to learn hairstyling. The relevant files could be found. However, for the sister Jin Xiaoyue, her school records came to an abrupt end in the third year of high school.”

Yu Hanjiang thoughtfully touched her chin. “Jin Xiaoyue didn’t go to university?”

Xiao Lou said, “The time of their parents’ death happened to be in the third year of high school. Their parents died suddenly and the siblings didn’t have stable work or income. As far as I know, the annual tuition fees for a vocational and technical school that Jin Xiaoyong went to should be very high. How could the two of them afford it?” He paused and made a guess. “Is it because Jin Xiaoyue gave up studying to provide for her brother to go to school?”

Yu Hanjiang nodded. “It is possible. Her school records can’t be found at all and this proves she didn’t continue to go to school after graduating from high school. His grades were good. Even if she missed the university entrance examination, she could’ve chosen to repeat it but she didn’t… Maybe it is as you said. She gave up the opportunity to continue school to go work for money, letting her brother go to a vocational school.”

Xiao Lou thought about it with some regret. In fact, Jin Xiaoyue could’ve been admitted to a good university with her grades. However, at that time, her parents passed away and the siblings lost their spiritual support. Both redoing the university examination and attending a vocational school required a lot of money. She had to choose one of the two and she chose her brother.

Xiao Lou wondered, “What is the grudge between Jin Xiaoyue and Liang Ting?”

“Check the car accident that year.”

If Liang Ting was driving and killed the siblings’ parents then it made sense for the two people to join forces and kill Liang Ting. Yu Hanjiang immediately retrieved the records of the car accident of Jin Xiaoyue’s parents.

The records showed that Jin Xiaoyue’s parents had a car accident at an intersection. Jin Xiaoyue’s father accidentally ran a red light. The driver of a truck braked but due to inertia, the car was crushed into scrap metal. The responsible party was Jin Xiaoyue’s father. As the parents hadn’t bought any accident insurance, the siblings didn’t get any monetary compensation.

On the day of the incident, Liang Ting was attending the wedding of a friend in the circle. Therefore, the car accident had nothing to do with Liang Ting.

Xiao Lou wondered. “It has nothing to do with their parents’ car accident. Later, Jin Xiaoyue went out to work and make money for her brother to go to school. What hatred would she have with a big star like Liang Ting?”

Yu Hanjiang answered, “At present, we can’t find the relevant information. We will have to look for Liang Ting’s last agent. By the way, we will have to sort out all the activities that Liang Ting has participated in over the years.”

Xiao Lou asked, “What are you going to do with Ah Kim?”

“Her suspicion is the biggest so I will detain her first. In addition, I will send two colleagues to find Jin Xiaoyong. If my guess is correct, the siblings should’ve exchanged ID cards. Jin Xiaoyong is holding his sister’s ID card and he might not be in Binzhou at present.”

Xiao Lou agreed. “If Jin Xiaoyue is really the murderer then she shouldn’t have told her brother about the plan. Instead, she would’ve used an excuse to distract him and then pretend to be her brother so that it won’t be suspicious. It is just that she underestimated us too much. She thought she was smart to dress as a man but forget about her fingerprints.”

It was thanks to Yu Hanjiang being vigilant enough to doubt Jin Xiaoyue, sending Xiao Lou to check her fingerprints. The most important thing now was to find out the motive for her crime.

After the discussion, Yu Hanjiang arranged for Xiao Wu to check the information on the ID card ‘Jin Xiaoyue’. Xiao Wu soon found it. “Jin Xiaoyue went to Yuezhou next door a week ago. She didn’t buy a high-speed rail ticket but a city bus ticket.”

The bus ticket inspection wasn’t so strict. Jin Xiaoyong must’ve used his sister’s ID card to run to the next city.

Yu Hanjiang ordered, “Immediately notify the Yuezhou police. Search all hotels and guesthouses and control him when you find him. Xiao Wu, Xiao Li, the two of you will go to Yuezhou in person. You must bring this person back to me.”

The two young criminal police officers set off to Yuezhou to arrest someone. Yu Hanjiang took Xiao Lou back to the interrogation room.

Ah Kim was still sitting there. Her expression was a bit impatient as she repeatedly tapped her fingers on the table, as if tapping the accompaniment of a song. The moment she saw Yu Hanjiang, she raised her head and asked, “Officer, can you let me go now?”

Yu Hanjiang pushed a copy of Jin Xiaoyue’s ID card in front of her and asked in a low voice, “Do you know this person?”

Ah Kim’s face was slightly stiff and she forcibly maintained her composure. “Of course, I know her. She is my sister.”

“Where is she?”

Ah Kim frowned unhappily. “What does this matter have to do with my sister? What do you want with her?”

“Why didn’t your sister go to repeat classes after she graduated from high school?”

Ah Kim clenched her fingers tightly together under the table, bit her lip and refused to answer.

Xiao Lou said, “The older sister wanted to go to repeat classes but the fees for repeat classes are very high. The younger brother wanted to go to vocational school to learn some skills. The family’s savings were only enough for one person to go to school. After thinking about it, the sister decided to go to work and let her younger brother attend vocational school. Did I guess correctly?”

Ah Kim looked up with a pale face. “How do you know this?”

Yu Hanjiang added, “At that time, you made sacrifices because you loved your younger brother. You went to work while your younger brother went to school. However, when you grew up, you saw the bright and beautiful girls who graduated from prestigious schools and your heart has always been unbalanced, right?”

Ah Kim’s lips began to tremble. “What do you mean by that?”

Yu Hanjiang showed her the fingerprint comparison record. “Don’t pretend. You are Jin Xiaoyue. You and your brother exchanged identities. Your brother took your ID card and went next door to Yuezhou. I have sent a colleague to find him.”

Jin Xiaoyue, “……”

Yu Hanjiang spoke bluntly. “Say it, why do you want to change identities with your brother?”

6th Anniversary Event Page (Final Submission Date: 15th November)

Proofreader: Fictional Reality