Chapter 44

"Impossible, who else could they find to be the lead except me? This production team is so poor, do you think they have the money to hire other actors?" Ah Cheng said with great certainty: "Next time, I must make Jiang Yi come to me in person."

He seemed to be thinking of something pleasant, and a smile gradually spread across his lips.

The agent was also tactful enough not to say anything more and drove Ah Cheng away.

At the shooting site, no one really cared about Ah Cheng's departure; everyone was watching Director Jiang and Han Fei.

Director Jiang was the director, and he had the final say on how the film should be shot.

Although Han Fei was just a supporting actor, his acting had deeply impressed everyone on the set.

Moreover, when the staff and the victim's family were about to clash, it was Han Fei who single-handedly prevented the conflict, helping the production team through a difficult situation.

"Han Fei, I know what you're saying makes sense, and your persistence is not wrong, but sometimes it's not against the principles to give in a little."

"This isn't about principles." Han Fei shook his head and prepared to leave: "You'll understand in time."

Watching Han Fei leave, the staff and Jiang Yi felt very regretful. The executive, who had been scared by Han Fei before, even chased after him, trying to persuade him to stay.

Although Han Fei was not a star, from the way everyone treated him and Ah Cheng, it was clear that the production staff respected Han Fei more.

"I now understand why his acting is so good, yet he remains unknown." The actress playing Wei Youfu's wife looked at Han Fei with deep feeling: "When the water is too clear, there are no fish. His personality is too easy to offend people."

"To have such acting skills at his age, plus his persistence and character, once an actor like him gets a chance to prove himself, he will soar to great heights. Someone like Wu Cheng, who only became a fourth-tier star with the support of a company, can't be compared to Han Fei." Jiang Yi said to the staff after Han Fei left.

"Director, cough, cough, be careful, we still need Ah Cheng's company for this production." The camera director pretended not to hear Jiang Yi's words.

"Let's wrap it up. We'll temporarily stop shooting and discuss the script." Jiang Yi began to tidy up the messy shooting site.

"Director Jiang, shouldn't we call Ah Cheng?"

"What for? I only let him play the lead out of respect for the investors. If he backs out on his own, that's even better." Jiang Yi looked at the corridor where Han Fei had left: "Actually, I have a pretty good candidate in mind, but alas..."

...

Han Fei still had some blood and dirt on his head and face, making him look rather disheveled.

Walking out of the shooting site for "The Flower of Evil," he heard laughter from across the street.

A handsome male actor, surrounded by a group of people, walked out of the shooting site for "Urban Secret Love." They seemed to have come out to watch the commotion.

"Brother Zifeng, that's Han Fei. I heard he started running errands after leaving our company."

"Why bother? Wouldn't it be better to work behind the scenes?"

"He just joined the 'The Flower of Evil' production, and someone came to cause trouble, affecting the entire shoot. I've interacted with him; he's not a bad person, just inexplicably unlucky."

"That's good for us! Among the same release schedule, only 'The Flower of Evil' might be a competitor. Now that this unlucky guy is there to cause trouble, we're likely to be the top-rated show in the same period."

The people from the "Urban Secret Love" production team, hearing the commotion on the street, came out to watch. Seeing Han Fei's current state, they felt secretly pleased.

When a wall falls, everyone pushes; when a drum is broken, everyone beats it. In this sense, even ghosts are more lovable.

Han Fei had experienced such things many times, so many that now, when he heard these mocking words, he felt nothing, and even found them a bit amusing.

The streetlights in the old city district cast a shadow on the street, creating a play of light and shadow. A group of people were joking and laughing under the lights, while Han Fei walked into the darkness at the street corner.

His phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated. Han Fei stopped in the shadow of the old street and answered the call.

"Xue Li?"

"Han Fei, you might have done a great job this time!"

"Any progress on the Human Jigsaw case?" Han Fei could tell from Xue Li's tone that they had made some progress.

"My teacher checked the original case files in the internal archives and found a person named Jiang Jiang in the list of suspects. This person is not the killer in the Human Jigsaw case, but he has had contact with all the victims! He appeared in front of the jigsaw store, and the surveillance footage shows Wei Youfu giving him some change. He also encountered Gu Ye, who was drunk, late at night and collected Gu Ye's empty bottle. He also bumped into the female streamer Zhang Lingfan outside a large mall and was cursed at by her for a long time..."

"He is a homeless person from another city, living in an abandoned building in the suburbs, surviving by collecting waste and scavenging. He has intellectual disabilities, is simple-minded, and is often bullied by other homeless people. The waste he collects is frequently stolen."

"Jiang Jiang has a very good temper and is very kind, never stealing or robbing. If he finds something he shouldn't, he will even try to find someone in uniform to return it, though he often confuses security guards and police, and has been tricked out of his earnings by security guards." Xue Li spoke very quickly, not caring whether Han Fei understood: "The change started about eleven years ago. There was a private welfare home on North Street in the old city district. The director's wallet was stolen during a business trip. Although there wasn't much money in it, it contained various documents."

"Did Jiang Jiang find the wallet?"

"Yes, Jiang Jiang found the wallet in a trash can. He couldn't enter the high-speed train station, so he waited by the trash can until the station staff came. After the director got his wallet back, he thought Jiang Jiang, though a bit simple-minded, was honest and reliable. He wanted to help Jiang Jiang, so he gave him a job cleaning at the welfare home."

"Unfortunately, the good times didn't last long. Jiang Jiang was fired after a short time because he was too dirty and always had a strange smell. The problem was that after Jiang Jiang left, a child in the welfare home started saying he saw ghosts at night."

"Ghosts?" Xue Li's words caught Han Fei's attention: "Can we find that child?"

"The child is missing, but we found another child who used to live in the same room. This child told us a terrifying story." Xue Li's voice slowed down: "He and the missing child slept side by side in the bedroom, able to see each other's beds and under the beds. The missing child always said there was a ghost under the other child's bed, and it only appeared in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep."

"Are you suggesting that this ghost was Jiang Jiang?" After playing "Perfect Life," Han Fei's thinking was now in sync with the experienced detective: "But such an obvious thing, the police would definitely have suspected Jiang Jiang at the time."

"The police first investigated Jiang Jiang, but the investigation was difficult to continue."

"Why? Did he have an alibi?"

"Because he was dead." Xue Li sent Han Fei another picture: "This Jiang Jiang was the first victim in the Refrigerator Murder case."

"Was he the homeless person killed by the Meng brothers?"

"We have no evidence that the Meng brothers were the killers, but you suggested that the Refrigerator Murder case was related to the Human Jigsaw case, so we reviewed the Refrigerator Murder case files and made a surprising discovery." Li Xue sent Han Fei a third picture, a photo taken in an abandoned villa, showing a strange drawing under Jiang Jiang's tattered blanket.

In the drawing, black trees hid a black house, and around the house were headless children.

"At the time, the police thought that the intellectually disabled Jiang Jiang might be a dark monster, suppressing his emotions. But after hearing what you said today, I realized that the black trees, the black house, and the headless figures around it perfectly match the clues you gave me!" Xue Li's voice sped up again: "A homeless person, with nothing to his name, would not be worth robbing. The police thought his murder fit the profile of a random killing by a serial killer, but after seeing this drawing, I realized the killer killed Jiang Jiang to silence him. He might have seen the killer in action, or even something even more terrifying!"

"I understand what you mean. You think Jiang Jiang approached Wei Youfu and the others not to harm them, but to save them!" At this moment, Han Fei realized how closely the Human Jigsaw case and the Refrigerator Murder case were linked.

"Do you know what's most terrifying?"

"What?"

"The killer of the Human Jigsaw case might have deliberately let the intellectually disabled Jiang Jiang try to save the victims, enjoying the feeling of kindness being betrayed, despised, and hated! Perhaps in the killer's mind, kindness looks like Jiang Jiang, ugly, smelly, and intellectually disabled." Xue Li's voice became much lower: "Jiang Jiang never did anything bad. He tried to warn the victims of the Human Jigsaw case to prevent them from being harmed, but he was met with misunderstanding and hatred. No one, except Wei Youfu, was willing to approach the dirty Jiang Jiang."

"If a strange person suddenly came up to me on the street and said I might be killed, I probably wouldn't believe it either. The killer isn't exploiting human weaknesses; he knows Jiang Jiang will fail and is just watching the show."

"You're right. The killer arrogantly believes everyone will think Jiang Jiang is crazy, but one person did something unexpected, and that person was Wei Youfu!"

Xue Li finally got to the key point: "You asked me to pay attention to the jigsaw store. I checked all the records, and in the area around the jigsaw store, besides the owner and staff, Jiang Jiang had the most contact with Wei Youfu. Wei Youfu was willing to help Jiang Jiang, and Jiang Jiang wanted to save him, giving him constant hints. Eventually, Wei Youfu must have been swayed. Wei Youfu, who often worked overtime, behaved strangely in the last few days before his death. He went alone to a nature reserve in the suburbs of Xinhu twice."