Chapter 180: The Ruled-Out Suspect

After Chen Mo finished explaining things to the teacher, Zhou Hao and Qu Danwan were also done.

The group of friends met up, ready to go out and grab a big meal.

Just as they were about to leave, Chen Mo suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked at a figure.

The figure gave Chen Mo a fleeting sense of familiarity.

Following Chen Mo’s gaze, Su Yuqing looked over as well.

It was a handsome boy. Although he wasn’t tall, only about 172 centimeters, his posture was very straight and proper.

"Lin Ranhai?" Su Yuqing looked at him, a surprised expression on her face.

But then she thought about how everyone was here for the unified exam today, so running into him wasn’t that strange.

"Well, hello there, Yuqing. What a coincidence." Even though Lin Ranhai saw there was a large group, he wasn’t shy around strangers and walked right over to greet Su Yuqing openly.

In an instant, both Zhao Yuanyuan and Huang Mao put on expressions as if they were about to watch a good show.

What a coincidence today was. Chen Mo had run into a beautiful girl he knew, and now Su Yuqing had run into a handsome guy she knew.

Now there was really going to be some drama.

Unlike Su Yuqing, who didn’t know the exact nature of the relationship between Chen Mo and Chu Mengyao,

Chen Mo knew very well what this handsome guy’s relationship was to Su Yuqing.

Chen Mo was also starting to recall. He hadn’t seen this person many times, but his handsome face made him quite memorable.

This person was Su Yuqing’s stepmother’s biological younger brother.

Su Yuqing’s stepmother had managed to steal her father away from her mother, so it was no surprise she was quite beautiful herself.

Her younger brother had also inherited those good looks and was a fine, handsome man.

Chen Mo only knew of him because he had been included in the relationship network Chen Mo investigated on her father’s side.

But at that time, Lin Ranhai was just a high school student. Plus, he lived quite a distance away, so his chances of meeting Su Yuqing were extremely rare.

Since Su Yuqing didn’t visit her father’s house often, the chances of her bumping into Lin Ranhai while he was visiting his sister were even slimmer.

In total, the two had only met twice.

So they barely had any interaction.

Besides, a girl had provided an alibi for the time of the incident, stating they were studying together at Lin Ranhai’s house, so the police had basically ruled him out as a suspect.

When Chen Mo took over Su Yuqing’s case, all he had were the notes from the original investigation conducted by his predecessors.

He had started his own investigation very late in the game.

Some cases that have been cold for over a decade can suddenly be solved due to the appearance of a key clue or a flash of inspiration.

But for other cases, the longer they remain cold, the harder they are to solve.

Su Yuqing’s case was one of the latter.

Because so little evidence had been collected at the time.

A torrential downpour had washed everything clean.

If it weren’t for the security footage of Su Yuqing eating at the convenience store,

the night of cold rain would have made it difficult to even narrow down her time of death to a small window.

After Chen Mo took over, many of the original witnesses were already very difficult to find.

Since Lin Ranhai and Su Yuqing had few opportunities to interact, the possibility of them having any deep connection or conflict was low.

So Chen Mo hadn’t really considered him a major suspect.

"It’s the unified exam, so it’s not that much of a coincidence," Su Yuqing replied with a graceful and poised smile.

"That’s true." Lin Ranhai smiled and looked at the people around her. "Are these your friends?"

"Yes."

"Does everyone have plans after the exam?" Lin Ranhai suddenly asked the group.

"No, we were just about to go get something to eat," Chen Mo said, looking at Lin Ranhai with a faint smile.

Just then, one boy and three girls walked over from Lin Ranhai’s direction.

"Ranhai, what are you doing? We still need to recruit more people," one of the girls, who had a ponytail and was somewhat attractive, said as she walked over quickly.

"No need. Don’t we have the perfect number right here?" Lin Ranhai said with a smile, looking at Chen Mo’s group of seven.

He continued, "We’re planning to play a scripted murder mystery. There’s a really fun scenario for twelve people. We have five, and you guys have seven. Want to join us?"

"A scripted murder mystery?"

Hearing the name of this game, many people in Chen Mo’s group were confused.

Because very few of them had ever heard of it.

Only Chen Mo and Qu Danwan knew what it was.

"It could actually be pretty fun with a big group," Chen Mo said, turning to the six people with him. "Do you guys have any other plans?"

The six of them immediately shook their heads.

Seeing this, Lin Ranhai broke into a sunny smile and said, "Then let’s go. There’s a scripted mystery place nearby that also offers food and drinks. It’s a one-stop shop for everything."

Since he knew a place, the group didn’t object and simply followed him.

As they walked, the other boy in Lin Ranhai’s group kept glancing over at Su Yuqing and Chu Mengyao.

It was obvious that the girls in Chen Mo’s group were much more attractive than the three in Lin Ranhai’s.

As for the guys, however, only Chen Mo could be considered more handsome than Lin Ranhai.

Two of the three girls in Lin Ranhai’s group kept stealing glances at Chen Mo.

Only the somewhat attractive girl with the ponytail kept her eyes fixed on Lin Ranhai.

It was obvious she had fallen head over heels for him.

The reason Chen Mo had agreed to go with Lin Ranhai was a simple sense of urgency in his heart.

He felt like he was on the verge of remembering something, but the thought was fleeting and elusive.

His habit of suspecting everyone he met was starting to act up again.

Without realizing it, he had already begun to treat Lin Ranhai as a potential suspect.

Even though the case files had basically cleared him of suspicion.

But from the moment he saw Lin Ranhai, a sense of dissonance made him feel that something was wrong.

As they walked, he deliberately fell a few steps behind Lin Ranhai.

He watched Lin Ranhai from behind, trying to see if his back resembled the blurry figure from the security footage.

Looking closely, there seemed to be a slight resemblance, but the height was wrong.

The person in the security footage, and the one Blade had seen, was about 180 centimeters tall.

Lin Ranhai looked to be only a little over 170 centimeters.

As they walked, Chen Mo’s gaze couldn’t help but drift down to Lin Ranhai’s shoes.

’The height doesn’t match the person from the footage or the one Blade saw, but a person’s height isn’t exactly fixed.’

’If he were wearing shoe lifts, he would look much taller than he does now.’

It was pouring rain that night, and the ground was covered in deep puddles. The security camera only captured a blurry figure; they were lucky to see a silhouette at all, let alone make out his shoes.

Therefore, even though the height didn’t match, the feeling of unease Chen Mo felt upon seeing Lin Ranhai had already made him a suspect in his mind.