Chapter 116: A Puzzling Case

“Hello, I’m Xiao Yu from the Municipal Criminal Investigation Brigade,” Xiao Yu said, staring straight at her face, his eyes gleaming with interest. “Are you Jiang Dan?”

The woman in front of him was slightly above average in looks, not particularly beautiful. She had a medium build, around 1.65 meters tall, and was rather slim.

“Yes,” Jiang Dan nodded, looking puzzled. Her voice was a bit hoarse, “May I ask why you’re looking for me?”

“Ren Chang committed suicide,” Xiao Yu declared, fixing his gaze on her face, watching for any reaction.

Jiang Dan froze, her body trembled slightly as if the news had hit her hard, and her expression changed. However, her face had a stiff, numb quality to it, which seemed quite unnatural. But that was also normal. Many people who’ve had plastic surgery or injections often have somewhat unnatural expressions.

Xiao Yu frowned. He couldn’t read her micro-expressions to gauge her psychological state.

His eyes shifted to Jiang Dan’s hands. 

Her fists were clenched? 

It was normal for people to clench their fists when feeling sad, excited, scared, or shocked.

It was perfectly normal.

Next, Xiao Yu noticed tears welling up in Jiang Dan’s eyes.

“How is that possible?” Jiang Dan seemed to be struggling to accept it, her voice wavering. “We just saw each other a few days ago. Could it be because I broke up with him?”

Broke up? Xiao Yu squinted his eyes.

Was it when Li Shu took Jiang Dan to see Ren Chang? Ren Chang said Jiang Dan wasn’t his girlfriend. Did Jiang Dan break up with him after being pushed away?

How did she break up with him?

According to the police’s investigation of Ren Chang’s chat records, Ren Chang had video-chatted with Jiang Dan before he reported the fake incident the second time. He had also video-chatted with her before the first fake report. The duration of the first and second calls was about five minutes and three minutes, respectively.

No, that didn’t add up. Breaking up after so many years of being together in just a few minutes? It must had been discussed earlier.

“My condolences,” Xiao Yu said as he saw tears streaming down her face. “After you saw him, he committed suicide in the detention center.”

“How could this happen? How could this happen?” Jiang Dan cried, her voice raspy, “He promised me, he said he would live well, that he would never…”

He promised you he’d live well? Why wasn’t that in the chat records? Did he say it through video or voice messages? Xiao Yu frowned. He was puzzled.

Something was off.

Through the body and the chat records, he had conducted a psychological analysis. Although Ren Chang was a bit of a lunatic and somewhat twisted, he was extremely calm and didn’t typically have suicidal tendencies unless severely provoked.

Unless…

Xiao Yu’s expression turned peculiar as he stared at her face. 

‘Could it be that you’re not really Jiang Dan? Is the real Jiang Dan already dead?  Is that possible?’

Xiao Yu shook his head internally. The possibility was too small. It was not that he hadn’t considered it initially, nor had he underestimated it. Before coming to see Jiang Dan, he had investigated thoroughly. Jiang Dan was an only child, with no sister or twin.

Could there be someone who looked exactly like her?

Yes, but how coincidental would it be for that person to be in Jiang Dan’s life?

Alright, let’s say it was a coincidence. But how could someone replace her in such a short time? This wasn’t a movie. Trying to impersonate someone else convincingly was not that simple. People who knew her well would quickly notice something was off. Without long-term interaction and familiarity, there was no way to pull off such a disguise.

Even identical twins, after spending some time together, could be told apart. If someone claimed they couldn’t tell the difference, it was probably because they didn’t want to. Especially when guys encounter twin girls and say they can’t tell them apart… well, everyone gets that joke.

So, ruling out these possibilities, what else was Xiao Yu suspicious of?

Could it be someone familiar with Jiang Dan who had undergone plastic surgery to look like her? That was even less likely. 

First, the person would need to know Jiang Dan very well. Second, their body shape, height, build, and face would need to be similar. Third, they’d have to be extremely familiar with everything around Jiang Dan. And lastly, plastic surgery wasn’t that magical. Trying to look exactly like someone else was a bit of a stretch.

Of course, there was a slim chance. For example, some obsessive fans undergo plastic surgery to look like their idol female stars. Some girls manage to look 70-80% like their idols, and with makeup, they could achieve a 90% resemblance. But that was just the appearance. People who know them well could still tell the difference quickly.

However…

“Can I ask you a question?” Xiao Yu fixed his gaze on the slightly agitated, slightly sad Jiang Dan. “Have you had plastic surgery on your face?”

“Yes…” Jiang Dan nodded through her tears. “Nine months ago, I was in a car accident. My face was injured, and even my vocal cords were damaged.”

After investigating Jiang Dan, Xiao Yu already knew the situation, but he asked knowingly, “Can you tell me about the day of the accident?”

“That day, I was with the flower shop owner,” Jiang Dan said, head lowered, still sobbing sadly. “The owner drove us to the countryside, and we had an accident on the way. The place where we crashed was very remote. By the time we were found, almost a day had passed. The result… the owner died, and I was the only one who survived. I stayed in the hospital for three months before being discharged.”

She wasn’t lying.

This matched the police investigation and Ren Chang’s chat records. Xiao Yu had seen it through the chat records. It was after this incident, post-discharge, that Jiang Dan’s behavior changed.

As for Jiang Dan’s boss… she was a woman. Wu Tingting, 33 years old, from this city, had run the flower shop for ten years, single… died in the car accident nine months ago. Originally, her family wanted to sell the shop after handling her funeral, but Jiang Dan bought it with Ren Chang’s money.

Was it possible that the flower shop owner impersonated Jiang Dan? Could the real Jiang Dan be dead? 

Although the idea was wild, it was highly unlikely. Besides their similar height, their appearances were completely different. Even with plastic surgery, it was hard to achieve such a resemblance. The most crucial point was that due to suspicions, Xiao Yu had the police pull up the hospital records from the accident. Wu Tingting was declared dead upon arrival at the hospital, and their blood types were entirely different. The “face swapping” scenario from movies wasn’t realistic either.

So, it must mean Jiang Dan was indeed herself.

Would Ren Chang lie? A person who committed suicide, would he need to lie? Why would he say Jiang Dan wasn’t his girlfriend?

Xiao Yu’s expression became extremely peculiar, feeling like he was in a sci-fi novel. It was like scientists finding alien-like skeletons thousands of years later and falling into deep thought.

But…

“Is it convenient,” Xiao Yu smiled at Jiang Dan, “for me to visit your residence?”

Identifying if someone had been impersonated was actually quite simple. Just compare the scents.