Card Room

Ch246 – Starlight Entertainment 08

Xie Yuan, the name repeatedly mentioned in the diary made Yu Hanjiang puzzled. He quickly searched for the male actor’s information. During the time when Lin Yiyan was still in high school, Xie Yuan was a popular star in the entertainment industry. Now Xie Yuan was a middle-aged man in his 30s and his wife was a singer queen. They had one son and one daughter. On the surface, the family looked happy.

Yu Hanjiang quickly found Xie Yuan’s contact information from Chief Shao’s information folder and called to inquire.

Xie Yuan received a call from the police and was very puzzled. “Lin Yiyan? Of course I know her. She is an artist from the same company. She previously toasted me at company events and said I was her idol when she was young. She was very polite.”

Yu Hanjiang asked, “Did you have any private contact with her?”

Xie Yuan denied it. “I haven’t contacted her much. I just gave her my contact information politely. I have been very quiet for a long time because I am focusing on raising my two children at home. Officer, why are you suddenly asking me this? Did something happen to Lin Yiyan?”

Yu Hanjiang was silent for a moment. “It is related to a criminal case. If necessary, we will contact you. I hope you can assist in the investigation.”

The other person was stunned and only replied after a while. “Okay, although I really don’t know much about Miss Lin.”

Yu Hanjiang hung up and looked at the diary thoughtfully again.

Xie Yuan seemed to be innocent. Lin Yiyan was 10 years younger than him. She had been crazy in love with the male god when she was a girl so she stepped into the entertainment circle. By the time she debuted, her male god was already married and had children, so she decided to give up. For Lin Yiyan, Xie Yuan was just a dream when she was young.

Yu Hanjiang carefully checked and found that the two people didn’t meet in the circle, nor did they collaborate on any variety shows, movies or dramas. As for whether there was any personal contact, Lin Yiyan was dead and there was no evidence to prove it. The credibility of Xie Yuan’s words had yet to be investigated.

Yu Hanjiang put away the yellowing diary and thought of something. “She used to write in a diary. Did she continue to keep a diary after entering the entertainment circle?”

She was too embarrassed to tell her family many things and didn’t dare tell her friends. Writing in a diary was also a way to vent.

Lin Yiyan in high school wrote every diary entry very seriously. The format was uniform and the handwriting was neat. The habit she had cultivated over the years might not have changed. Then where would her diary be kept?

Yu Hanjiang took a deep breath, picked up the hat on the table and put it on. He walked out of the office and called a few people. “Follow me right away and search all of Lin Yiyan’s residences!”

Yu Hanjiang took several young policemen to search Lin Yiyan’s apartment. The house was very messy with many magazines and snacks on the table and clothes scattered everywhere. It wasn’t the same as the neat and clean Yuehu villa. Yu Hanjiang quickly scanned the room and found Lin Yiyan’s laptop in the corner.

She should’ve pulled the curtains and sat barefoot on the carpet playing with the computer. She left in a hurry and placed the computer on the carpet. At this time, the laptop was turned off. Many changes of clothes and cosmetics were found in the apartment but no diary.

High school students liked to write diary entries with a pen. Perhaps she used a computer to write it later? Thinking of this, Yu Hanjiang took the laptop back and handed it to the professional personnel to crack.

After checking the laptop carefully, Yu Hanjiang found that her computer was full of scripts, contracts, promotional photos…

There were no traces of a diary. It was some photos that caught his attention. Lin Yiyan had created a special folder called ‘Photos’ on her computer. He opened it and most of them were promotional photos of her new drama as well as daily street shots and airport snapshots. There were no big problems.

However, there was a hidden folder among them. He displayed the hidden folder and found that it was encrypted.

Yu Hanjiang found someone to crack the password and the contents of the folder were finally presented in front of Yu Hanjiang. They were all photos of Lin Yiyan and her agent Qi Ming. In addition, there were some videos that were quite intimate.

Yu Hanjiang thought about what Xiao Lou mentioned this morning and couldn’t help frowning. He sent a message to Xiao Lou. “Xiao Lou, come here. I have some new discoveries.”

Xiao Lou’s office was next to the police station. He quickly came over to find Yu Hanjiang. Then he saw the photos and had an expression that said ‘Sure enough’. He told Yu Hanjiang, “It seems that the girlfriend of Qi Ming never seen by the neighbours is Lin Yiyan.”

Yu Hanjiang nodded. “Lin Yiyan made her debut 10 years ago. Qi Ming was responsible for the web drama Young Hearts right?”

“We were discussing it yesterday. There were so many beautiful women who participated in the auditions. Why did Qi Ming choose Lin Yiyan who has no background? Now it seems that the two of them were already lovers at the time.”

Yu Hanjiang opened a photo of the 20 year old Lin Yiyan and the 28 year old Qi Ming.

At that time, Qi Ming was already a well-known agent of Starlight Entertainment and he had looked after many celebrities. The company’s boss had asked Qi Ming to take charge of this project in order to discover some movie school students and find a few good seedlings to cultivate.

In the photo, Qi Ming was wearing a suit and looked mature and stable. His appearance might not be as good as the male stars in the entertainment circle but it was pretty good after all, he had been in the circle for several years. He gave off the unique charm of a mature man.

Lin Yiyan looked young and innocent. She leaned into Qi Ming’s arms with a pure and sweet smile.

Xiao Lou looked at this photo. “Qi Ming has been Lin Yiyan’s agent for 10 years. Judging from the photo, the underground relationship between them has also lasted 10 years, right?”

Yu Hanjiang added, “It is because of this closer relationship that Qi Ming recommended so many good resources to her. We have seen Lin Yiyan’s parents today. They are ordinary working class people. It is Qi Ming who helped Lin Yiyan become popular when she was an ordinary person with no background.”

Xiao Lou agreed. “I checked the information and had thought it was strange that Lin Yiyan didn’t have any bad TV dramas. Every one she acted in became popular. Her vision for choosing scripts was too strong. Now it seems that this was all Qi Ming’s contributions. After all, Qi Ming is the ace agent of Starlight Entertainment and has many resources in hand. He picks the best ones for Lin Yiyan and it is hard for Lin Yiyan to not become popular.”

Yu Hanjiang gently raised his eyebrow. He looked at the photos while tapping his finger against the desk as he analyzed it. “The agent who paid silently behind her found out the woman he had been with for 10 years kicked him away after becoming popular. She got together with a hot new star. He has many motives to kill Lin Yiyan.”

“In addition, the dog he raised died of illness a few days ago. This is very strange and too coincidental.”

Yu Hanjiang speculated, “Maybe it was a dog he bought with Lin Yiyan or the gift that Lin Yiyan gave him. After he knew that Lin Yiyan cheated on him, the pet was killed out of anger.”

They looked at each other. These were reasonable assumptions based on current evidence.

10 years ago, Lin Yiyan and Qi Ming had a close relationship. The ordinary girl with no background relied on her agent to be her cheat. The journey went smoothly and she became very popular. Qi Ming used all his resources to support her and was obviously very attentive to her. From the photo, the two people were smiling together quite sweetly.

However, one would always get bored eating the same dish for a long time, especially in a complicated environment like the entertainment industry where there were too many handsome men and beautiful women. There were also too many temptations for money. For the 20 year old Lin Yiyan, Qi Ming was the most powerful agent who could make her popular. However, what about after she became popular? She saw more of the circle and maybe she thought the agent was no longer important?

In addition, Qi Ming was already old and his appearance was much worse than the male stars in the entertainment industry. In comparison, Cheng Yu was young, handsome and a rich second generation. Lin Yiyan didn’t feel much for her agent Qi Ming and had an affair with the young star. After being discovered by her agent, did he kill her out of anger?

Yu Hanjiang frowned and thought about it. The logic chain he reasoned out with Xiao Lou was clear and complete. Lin Yiyan’s fingernails also contained Qi Ming’s skin and hair. This showed that she had some physical contact with Qi Ming on the day of the crime.

Qi Ming and the editor-in-chief went home at 11:30 that night. Lin Yiyan and Cheng Yu’s two cars appeared at the Yuehu villa one after another at 2:00 in the morning. Cheng Yu’s car 501 left at 3:00 a.m. and Lin Yiyan’s car 502 left at 4:00 a.m.

Between 2:00 and 3:00, Lin Yiyan and Cheng Yu should be having an affair in the villa. No matter the identity of the murderer, they wouldn’t kill Lin Yiyan in front of Cheng Yu. Therefore, the murderer should’ve killed her after Cheng Yu left. This was between 3:00 and 4:00 when they took her car away.

Yesterday, the two of them had inferred that the murderer was lurking in the Yuehu Villa area in advance. Otherwise, it would be too late to drive over after learning that Lin Yiyan had returned to the villa.

Qi Ming didn’t have any alibi after 11:30 that night. The editor-in-chief could only prove that she sent him home by 11:30 p.m. No one knew what he did after he got home. He had plenty of time to rush to the villa in advance. He definitely wouldn’t have driven over since his car was taken by Lin Yiyan during the meal. He could’ve taken a taxi but the police didn’t find any evidence of that.

Yu Hanjiang told Xiao Lou, “I want to go to the villa area again. I want to check the monitoring of last night in detail. In addition, I will find the property manager to get the list of all the owners in the villa area. Do you want to come with me?”

Xiao Lou was certainly willing to follow Group Leader Yu. His autopsy was complete and he had nothing to do. The two of them went together to the Yuehu Villa area. Yu Hanjiang had called them in advance so the property management had prepared all the owners’ names and registered vehicles.

Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou carefully inspected it but found that Qi Ming didn’t have any real estate in this community or a house registered under his parents. It seemed that Qi Ming didn’t live here. Still, he might’ve learned that Lin Yiyan wanted to come here after she received the message.

Yu Hanjiang looked at the surveillance, focusing on the surveillance throughout the day on Tuesday.

An entire day’s video was too long so Yu Hanjiang asked the security guard to play it at five times the speed. Xiao Lou was dazzled by the fast flashing footage but Yu Hanjiang watched it very professionally. He stared at the screen for a long time before suddenly shouting, “Stop.”

The security guard pressed the pause button. Yu Hanjiang walked over, took the mouse and rewound the video to five minutes ago. The normal speed playback started and a person quickly appeared in the video.

At 12:30, a man with a height of around 1.75 metres appeared at the gate of the community wearing a black down jacket. He wore the down jacket, a hat, a mask and a scarf. He showed only his eyes so from his appearance, it was impossible to tell his identity.

However, Yu Hanjiang confidently declared, “It is Qi Ming.”