Qiming Chapter 38

Chapter 38

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"Are you really okay hiding out in the hospital instead of going to work?" Xu Chengyue's voice, cold and accompanied by the clacking of his keyboard, sounded even colder since his expression couldn't be seen.

"You didn't see it, the scene was too shocking..."

He pulled at the corners of his mouth with a serious expression. "I need to hide in the hospital to calm down. Speaking of which, this Jiang family... it's truly a massive puddle of dog blood." Gu Yunfeng was slumped on a chaise lounge, wearing an eye mask, enveloped in darkness. Even in the darkness, he could still see the bloodstained scene at the Jiang family's villa and the fresh bloodstained slices on the table. These slices had been cut at least eight hours ago, but they remained fresh due to the use of a large amount of dry ice.

"What makes it dog blood?"

"This chairman of Ronghua Biotechnology Company, Jiang Ronghua, had been married four times. Each marriage produced a child, but each marriage ended shortly due to various reasons. This Jiang Yang certainly inherited his father's traits, no doubt about it." In the darkness, he listened to Xu Chengyue's rapid typing, constantly imagining the murderer slicing the meat, which made him feel quite nauseous.

"This Yin Shaoxing, is she his fourth wife?" Xu Chengyue stopped typing and turned to look at him. "Thirty-six years old, nearly thirty years younger than him."

"Seems like it."

"Yin Shaoxing used to be a minor actress. When she was twenty-four, she met Jiang Ronghua and even gave him a daughter. After their daughter Jiang Shuishan was born, Mr. Jiang divorced his then-wife and married her." Xu Chengyue shook his head helplessly. "His previous marriages were the same. He would abandon his current wife after his lover bore him a child."

"Only the first marriage was slightly different."

Jiang Ronghua's first marriage lasted only five years, but the difference was that it ended with his first wife's suicide. At that time, he was already cheating within the marriage, and the woman he cheated with bore him a son, Jiang Yang.

Seas and springs converge to form rivers. Jiang Ronghua would never have imagined that decades later, his family would lose all its wealth overnight and become a river of blood.

"Jiang Yang's wife... Lin Xiangrong, what is her relationship with Jiang Hai?" Xu Chengyue was searching through scientific journals when he suddenly noticed some familiar names.

"Jiang Hai? The eldest son of the Jiang family. Seven years ago, he became a vegetable due to a traffic accident and has been staying at Jinping Hospital ever since." Gu Yunfeng took off his eye mask and started at Xu Chengyue with wide eyes. The other party was writing a piece of code with an editor open, a needle still stuck in the back of his hand.

"Unfortunately, he wasn't as lucky as I was." Xu Chengyue stopped typing and said slowly.

"Everyone has their fate." Gu Yunfeng put the eye mask into the drawer, and raised his hand to shield himself from the dazzling sunlight. "Tomorrow, I need to go to Jinping Hospital to see this Jiang Hai, I hope I won't disturb him."

Xu Chengyue looked up at him, slowly closing his laptop and placing it on the side cabinet. He gently pulled out the needle from his hand and pressed the adhesive tape against the bottom of the infusion bottle. "This is the last bottle of medicine, I'll complete the discharge procedures in the afternoon. Tomorrow, I'll go with you."

"Don't you have a few more days before you're discharged?"

"It's too boring here." Xu Chengyue got out of the hospital bed, wearing loose grey-white chequered long pants and long sleeves, with clear eyes behind his glasses. "It's much more fun working with you."

"How touching." Gu Yunfeng looked at him gratefully. "I like people who love their work."

He walked over to Gu Yunfeng with his laptop and curled up on the sofa. The editor on the screen was closed, replaced by an English article, which looked like a paper published in a journal.

"Look at this paper published in Nature. It has three authors, the first one is Professor Timsil from Princeton's Department of Biomedical Engineering, the second and third names look Chinese, and they read as Jiang Hai and Lin Xiangrong." He circled the three names. "This paper was published in September 2011, and is titled... Artificial Neural Robotics Realised Through Neural Prosthetics?

Gu Yunfeng leaned closer, trying hard to understand the content of the paper with his nearly forgotten English. When he heard the words 'neural prosthetics', his hands shook violently, and he turned his head and bumped into Xu Chengyue's glasses.

Was this the same neural prosthetic that Doctor Wang mentioned, which caused the rejection reaction in Xu Chengyue's brain? He rubbed his nose, feeling his face heat up, only then realising how close they were. After hesitating for a few seconds, he asked, "Are neural prosthetics widely used in medicine?"

"Of course." Xu Chengyue picked up his glasses that had fallen to the floor and put them back on. "For example, cochlear implants are auditory neural prosthetics, which are very versatile. This paper introduces a lot, you can learn more about it."

Just now, he had inexplicably broken out in a sweat. Hearing Xu Chengyue's explanation, he felt slightly relieved.

Seeing that he couldn't understand the paper, Xu Chengyue patiently explained its content. "This paper talks about artificial neural robotics, which is just the author's concept. The author divided his concept into three levels. The first level is connecting a single artificial neuron with an actual neuron to achieve information transmission. Then, through the adaptability mechanism of neurons, cluster functions can be realised. Finally, by directly connecting artificial devices to part of the neural tissue, complex functions of tissues and organs can be achieved."

He nodded, half understanding, then pointed at a pile of professional terms he couldn't comprehend at all and asked, "So, has this conceptual robot been realised in the ten-plus years since then?"

"There are laboratories conducting research, but I haven't heard of any successful cases yet." Xu Chengyue handed him the laptop and got up to pour a glass of water. His junior, Xie Yu'an, at Zhiyin Technology, had started researching this topic several years ago. The focus was on the artificial devices connecting to neural tissues, which needed to be highly intelligent to gradually replace the functions of the brain. However, this was a highly confidential project, and he wasn't clear on its progress.

"So this Lin Xiangrong is quite a talented woman, why would she be willing to marry Jiang Yang and become a full-time housewife?" Gu Yunfeng's voice came from behind him. "By that logic, she and Jiang Hai are like junior and senior."

"She probably wasn't willing, but what choice did she have?"

In some disciplines, you either go all the way for advanced studies or change careers. Holding his thermal cup, he fetched the last bit of water for his stay in the hospital. "The field of biology in our country mainly relies on passion and ideals to drive the development of the discipline."

Few people would pursue a low-reward ideal day after day. Jiang Hai and Lin Xiangrong could advance in their favourite field and publish articles in prestigious journals only because they had a solid economic foundation and were unafraid of the survival challenges most people faced.

—————

The criminal investigation team of Jinping District was once again bustling with activity.

A family massacre, financial crime, the last supper, bloody human flesh. In less than half a day, the media had exploded with related topics. Gu Yunfeng hadn't even stepped into the criminal investigation team's entrance when he saw a swarm of media reporters gathered at the door from afar.

This case was really eye-catching... He secretly slipped in through the back door and remembered that one of the deceased, Jiang Yang, was a notorious playboy in Nanpu City, with unclear relationships with various celebrities. It was no wonder the media flocked here. Just a few days ago, Ronghua Biotech had been under investigation, and before anyone was arrested, the whole family was brutally murdered.

Indeed, it was quite eye-catching.

"Wen Xin, have you contacted Lin Xiangrong? When will she return to the country?" Gu Yunfeng strode forward, weaving through the bustling crowd, and walked straight into the office.

"Captain Gu!" She responded, "I've contacted her, and she'll be back tomorrow."

"What about the autopsy report?"

"Er... Forensic Doctor Xu said it would be ready tomorrow."

"Have the surveillance tapes from the Jiang family villa been retrieved?" He frowned anxiously. "Don't tell me those haven't been sorted out either."

"They've been retrieved..." she whispered, "but there's nothing on them."

"What do you mean?" He stopped. "Were the cameras broken?"

"Since August 8th, the power supply to the Jiang family has been cut off by the power company." Qin Wei, whose hairline had receded significantly, walked over with a lit cigarette in his mouth, filling the office with smoke.

Not only Qin Wei, but everyone else had also gradually noticed that Gu Yunfeng no longer minded them smoking in front of him. They wondered how his years-old aversion had suddenly been cured.

"Isn't that Jiang Ronghua under investigation?" Old Qin scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "And recently, their family was blacklisted by the court for dishonesty. As soon as the power company got the notice, they cut off their electricity."

"Fuck, their execution is..." he gritted his teeth, swallowing the words he wanted to say. "really swift and decisive."

"This... can't really be blamed on the power company." Wen Xin stood aside and explained cautiously. She had specifically contacted the power company today, and they had arrogantly stated that they were following the court's ruling and suggested taking up any complaints with the court.

She felt quite helpless too, after all, they weren't wrong.

"Forget it. Let's talk about that Lin Xiangrong." Gu Yunfeng was too tired to dwell on the issue. He was more interested in this woman he had once met briefly. Before arriving, he had gathered some information from several related police stations in Nanpu City.

"She reported domestic violence multiple times, but none of the cases were filed in the end." Gu Yunfeng took a thick stack of documents and transcripts, slamming them heavily on the desk. "These are the records of her reports from the past five years, twenty in total, thirteen of which occurred in the last two years."

He opened the top record, dated July 6th, just a month before Jiang Yang's murder. The record detailed the specifics of Lin Xiangrong's domestic violence incident, noting a suspected comminuted fracture in her left arm and multiple soft tissue contusions on her body. She had spent over half a month in the hospital because of it.

"On July 28th, she was discharged before fully recovering and flew to Europe the next day." He pointed to the date on the record. "Just in time to avoid the family massacre."

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: July 12, 2024 by Angel

Edited: September 3, 2024 by Angel