Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Like the saying goes, “the arrow is fitted to the string, and there is no turning back.” As of that moment, Zhao Yu could only go along with the interrogation standard of Miao Ying, which was, basically, fake it till you make it!
Currently, Bureau Chief Hong was leading the group of important officials into the monitor room next door, waiting excitedly to see how Zhao Yu would resolve the murder case that had been closed ten years ago.
After Zhao Yu entered the interrogation room, Lan Bo passed a stack of documents into Zhao Yu’s hands, informed him of something at the same time, which led Zhao Yu to nod with satisfaction. Lan Bo then left the interrogation room.
After that, only Zhao Yu and Xiao Zhen were left in the interrogation room. Although it was noisy outside, due to perfect soundproofing that had been installed in the interrogation room, the suspect Xiao Zhen had zero idea of what had happened outside earlier.
Xiao Zhen knew Zhao Yu already, so he had a strong impression of him. Suddenly, when he saw that the very one that was coming in to interrogate him was the mad detective himself, his facial expression grew instantly stiff.
“Cough cough…”
Zhao Yu started the conversation with a cough, then put the stack of documents on the table, preparing to start the interrogation. Just when everyone was looking forward to Zhao Yu’s interrogation, Zhao Yu’s phone suddenly rang. This was pretty much the worst timing! Zhao Yu recognized the number as Su Jinmei’s, again.
“Ah. Hero, please chase after my sweet dream with me…”
Originally, Zhao Yu wanted to simply not answer, but the ringtone was too ear-piercing, causing him to answer it in the end.
“Sifu? How are things? Are you all done?” Su Jinmei couldn’t wait to ask.
“Mm… You could consider it done, I guess!” Zhao Yu blushed with shame. He didn’t know how the higher ups, who were monitoring the interrogation, would feel about this call.
“Hehehe… I told you! I can help you with that!” Su Jinmei said again. “Then… Do you have time to listen to me now? Captain Zhang already arrested Chen Bingxian, and he confessed everything about him contracting a killer! Ai Lili, she…”
Zhao Yu creased his eyebrows, then said, “Disciple, I am interrogating a suspect now! I’ll call you later, okay?”
Su Jinmei pondered a moment, then said, “That’s a pity. Sifu, the next time you are interrogating a criminal, please let me know, okay? I need to learn from you…”
“Alright, next time!… Ummm…..There’s no more signal in the interrogation room… I can’t really hear you. Bye…”
Beep…
Zhao Yu finally hung up the phone. He had never expected that his disciple, who looked so timid, would turn out to be so talkative!
Thinking about the bunch of higher ups, who were looking closely at him from the other side of the window, Zhao Yu couldn’t help but lift his head to take a look. He reckoned that the higher ups were all sweating, just as he was!
“Alright, alright!” Zhao Yu coughed, then finally took a seat before Xiao Zhen. He then said, “Excuse me for the call earlier! Let us begin! Xiao Zhen, do you know why you have been arrested today?”
“Po… Police officer…” Xiao Zhen looked at Zhao Yu nervously, but he didn’t shake or nod his head.
“Good, very good!” Zhao Yu waved his hand casually, then said, “Xiao Zhen, you have most likely watched quite a bit of legal TV shows, so you would know that a person who committed a crime would need to pay a price eventually. It would just be a matter of time until they are caught, you understand?! I wonder if you are mentally prepared for this?”
As Zhao Yu spoke, Xiao Zhen’s body shivered uncontrollably. He looked down quietly, not daring to look Zhao Yu in his eyes, and definitely not replying to Zhao Yu’s question.
“I prefer to get straight to the point,” Zhao Yu said. “Let me tell you the entire story of how you killed Liu Jiao, then framed Feng Kuo for the crime! Then, you can evaluate whether or not it is identical to what you actually did back then.”
Hearing this, Xiao Zhen displayed an intense level of anxiety that was hard to cover. There was already a cold sweat that was dripping along his sideburns.
“Ten years ago, you were in a relationship with a Water Conservancy College student named Ai Lili, who you would often bring to your home to roll around in your bedsheets,” Zhao Yu said lightly. “I’m guessing, as a boy that was in your first bloom of love, you were utterly charmed by her! In fact, I think that you really did truly like her!”
He continued. “However, because you really liked and cared for her, you couldn’t stand her complimenting your brother, saying that he looked good in his photo! In the end, due to your injured pride, you threw a tantrum and fought with Ai Lili!”
“After a while, you felt that you had done wrong. You wanted to apologize to Ai Lili to patch things up with her. But, when you went to do so, you came upon a scene that was enough to break you down! You saw the girl that you liked, lying beneath your brother, Feng Kuo…”
As he listened, Xiao Zhen was rubbing his body nervously, looking extremely upset. The higher ups in the monitoring room were also in shock! No one would have guessed that there was such hidden resentment between the brothers back then.
“In that moment, you were reduced to despair. Your heart was then filled with hatred, which was derived from love, and anger, which was derived from that hatred. You hated Feng Kuo for taking away the one thing that you loved the most!” Zhao Yu continued to speak sharply, “So, you started planning your revenge on your brother, who was better looking than you! He took away your woman, so you wanted to take away his! You were determined to make Feng Kuo pay for his evil deed!”
Zhao Yu then took out the first piece of evidence. It was Feng Kuo’s testimony. Feng Kuo certified that he had once brought Xiao Zhen to the film studio, and that Xiao Zhen had known about him and Liu Jiao.
“It’s just too bad that your plan wasn’t perfect!” Zhao Yu shook his head and said. “However, you certainly did think it through. You prepared two daggers that looked exactly the same, but you only nailed the handle, without putting glue on it…”
“Then, you tricked Feng Kuo into leaving his fingerprint on the hilt! Once you were all done with these preparations, you could then finally carry out your revenge plan!”
“That day, you found out Feng Kuo’s schedule, then managed to kill Liu Jiao during the time frame when Feng Kuo had just finished filming, so that no one could prove where he was!”
“You went to Liu Jiao’s apartment, and because you said that you were Feng Kuo’s brother, she let her guard down and opened the door for you! However, you directly killed Liu Jiao with another dagger!”
“The killing was very fast, as Liu Jiao almost had no time at all to resist! But, there was another thing that you didn’t think about!” Zhao Yu took out the photo with the blood stain of the ice radical, then showed him. “You failed to see that,while Liu Jiao wasn’t out of breath yet, she wrote the ice radical with her finger, in blood!”
He continued. “All this time, the police thought that the ice radical represented ‘Feng’ from Feng Kuo. No one guessed that it actually meant ‘brother!’”
“Huh?!” Xiao Zhen lifted his head, looking at Zhao Yu in disbelief.
“This is one of many mistakes. If Feng Kuo’s surname wasn’t Feng, or if Liu Jiao could have persisted and completed what she had intended to write, the one sitting in Qinnan Prison would be you!”
“No… No…” Xiao Zhen muttered, but his voice wasn’t confident at all.
“No what?” Zhao Yu challenged. “After you killed her, you brought the weapon, with the blood still on it, and returned it to Feng Kuo’s bedroom. Then, you removed the blade that had the blood stain on it, then changed it with the dagger with Feng Kuo’s fingerprint. Thus, there was a perfect weapon, left right before the investigators’ eyes!”
“Huh!?” At that very moment, when Bureau Chief Hong, who was still in the monitoring room, heard Zhao Yu’s speculation, he shivered in terror, as though he had been struck by lightning. He then murmured, “I mean… I couldn’t understand it back then, why the murderer would bring the weapon home. As it turns out… It is like this?! They are a family of carpenters!”
