My Roommate Is a Detective Episode 33 Recap
> My Roommate Is a Detective Recap
Bai Youning informed Lu Yao that his sister, Lu Miao, had not only agreed to their plans to leave Shanghai but had also given her blessing for their relationship. Lu Yao feigned reluctance, prompting an annoyed Bai Youning to question his recent kiss.
Lu Yao explained the kiss was a desperate act when he thought he was dying, but now realized he had a long bucket list to complete, which included everything from using his Swiss ice cream machine to watching a movie with the person he loved. He then confessed his affection for her carefree smile, his joy in teasing her, and how he secretly watched her feign nonchalance while admiring him after he solved a case.
When asked if he was still too "sleepy" to confess, Lu Yao declared that after a life lived aimlessly, he would now dedicate himself to her, vowing to spend the rest of his life tackling her like an endless math problem. Moved to tears, Bai Youning embraced him.
Meanwhile, as Qiao Chusheng expressed his doubts to Bai Qili about arresting Chen Youli without conclusive proof, news arrived that a shipment of Bai's arms had been ambushed by Mr. Huang’s Marine Police, with heavy casualties. Realizing Mr. Huang had declared open war, Bai Qili ordered Qiao to arrest Chen Youli immediately. During interrogation, Chen Youli denied the murder, accusing Qiao of framing him to drag his gang into Bai Qili's escalating conflict with the British.
Qiao recounted the official story: that Chen, furious after his offer to buy the shadow play theater was rejected, murdered the co-owner, Tao Yu. Chen scoffed, admitting he was at the theater but never in the storage room where the murder occurred, stating he wouldn't dirty his own hands to kill "two humble puppeteers." He refused to sign any confession, daring Qiao to use force. Later, Mr. Huang confronted Bai Qili, furious about Chen Youli's arrest.
After a tense standoff, Huang insisted Chen was innocent and proposed that Bai Qili's brilliant "son-in-law," Lu Yao, investigate. Bai Qili brought up the ambush, but Huang claimed his men acted in self-defense and deflected, warning Bai Qili that a British warship with two thousand Royal Marines was arriving next month, ostensibly to "assist in suppressing bandits" but truly targeting him. At Qiao's request, Lu Yao agreed to re-examine the case.
He and Bai Youning, after a rock-paper-scissors game to decide their future home (Paris won), joined Qiao at the theater. Lu Yao and Qiao found Wu Peiyan, the surviving owner, packing his late partner's belongings. Wu Peiyan confirmed Tao Yu had a morphine addiction, which he despised so much he had considered killing Tao Yu himself.
Though Wu Peiyan had a strong motive, Lu Yao was perplexed by his seemingly unbreakable alibi: multiple witnesses saw him emerge from the front of the theater less than a minute after the murder. The next morning, the case took a dire turn when the Municipal Council, pressured by public outcry and a visiting British delegation, issued an order for Chen Youli's immediate execution.
Lu Yao, convinced Chen was framed, pointed out fatal flaws in the evidence: Chen was left-handed, but the fingerprints on the murder weapon were from a right hand. His coat, a polyester blend impossible to clean blood from, was spotless. Lu Yao decided he had to speak with Chen Youli, bribing his way into the prison.
Chen revealed that on the night of the murder, he was lured to the theater, drank a glass of water, and was subsequently struck with severe diarrhea, confining him to the toilet when the murder happened. He also recalled being mugged a week earlier by a man with an elm stick—the same type of wood as the murder weapon.
Lu Yao deduced a sinister plot: the killer stole Chen's button, drugged him to create a useless alibi, and used the fingerprints obtained from the prior mugging to frame him. As an official from the Municipal Council arrived, Lu Yao slipped away, advising Chen to remain silent. Lu Yao and Qiao Chusheng obtained the old sewer blueprints for the area, hoping to find a secret passage in the theater, but the plans showed no such exit.
Their investigation hit a dead end. That night, Bai Youning brought urgent news: the execution had been moved up to the early morning hours to prevent a rescue attempt by Mr. Huang. With the deadline looming, Qiao's men began smashing the theater's walls and floors in a desperate search for a hidden tunnel, but found nothing. As the frantic search continued, Lu Yao was distracted by the unusually fast-paced dance music from the neighboring Shengle Club.
A quick call to an old colleague confirmed that a cargo ship, the "Istanbul," was leaving for Hong Kong the next day with hundreds of security personnel aboard. Suddenly, all the pieces clicked: the club's free-for-all promotion, Mr. Sassoon selling off his assets, the heavily guarded ship, and the area's large flood-discharge pipes. The murder was merely a diversion. Apologizing to the bewildered Wu Peiyan for the destruction, Lu Yao ordered Qiao to immediately converge on the Sassoon Bank. Arriving at the vault, they caught a crew of men in the act, transporting gold bars from the bank into the underground pipe system.
