To that end, he had saved an ace up his sleeve.
Even so, he almost lost control of his heartbeat when he saw the photos of the corpse of Lu Dayong, the Weibo blogger who had written ‘Churchill’s Garden’.
In order to keep his composure, he bit down hard on the tip of his tongue. The piercing pain was enough to get him lucid enough to stay calm. In truth, however, he felt like he had seen a ghost and was completely shocked.
He had never expected that Huo Shaoheng would somehow have the photos of that man, or that he would have brought them there in order to interrogate him.
Hong Kangquan rapidly called to mind what had happened, but he was positive that he had pulled it off flawlessly. It was impossible for Huo Shaoheng to prove that he was linked to that incident.
Hong Kangquan’s heart rate soon slowed back into normalcy, and his eyes moved away from the photo. He frowned, “Who is this person? Why are you showing it to me? Is he dead?”
Of course, he was dead.
This was probably the very photo ever taken of the Weibo blogger who had written ‘Churchill’s Garden’.
His limbs splayed in strange angles as he lay prone on the surface of a red brick pathway. A puddle of blood was pooled by the top of his head and his wide-open staring eyes were extremely disconcerting.
“You don’t recognize him?” Huo Shaoheng rapped on the table with his slender and well-manicured hands. “Think it over again.”
“I still wouldn’t know who this man is, even if I thought about it a hundred times more.” Hong Kangquan spread his hands, “You won’t beat me into confessing, right?”
Huo Shaoheng lips curled, “If you don’t know who he is, then why did you go looking for him?” As he spoke, Huo Shaoheng brought over a report that had recorded Hong Kangquan’s whereabouts on that day. He set it before Hong Kangquan, “Does this look familiar?”
Hong Kangquan looked down and concealed a flash of panic in his eyes. He read the timestamps printed on the report and shook his head blankly, feigning completely cluelessness. “I’m not familiar with this, what is it? Why are you showing this to me?”
Huo Shaoheng leaned back against the chair, folding his hands together. He rested his elbows on the armrests of the chair as he looked on silently at Hong Kangquan, the intensity of his gaze gradually increasing, “Not familiar? This is a complete record of your whereabouts on that day, as transmitted by the tracking chip in your body. Hong Kangquan, are you saying you doubt the accuracy of your tracking chip?”
“Look at your route. When you left home, you went to the gay bar. You then left the gay bar from the back door, taking the subway to an apartment complex near the Fourth Ring Rod where you then finally stopped at the door of this person’s apartment. And then you went into the apartment…”
Hong Kangquan jerked his head up finally and glared fiercely at Huo Shaoheng. He could no longer hide the shock he was experiencing.
How could this be?
His tracking chip had been modified by the four-lined AI programming language a long time ago, by a certain someone.
Every time he did something of dubious legality, he had only needed to send a command to the Central Control System and the four-lined AI programming code would automatically hide his whereabouts.
He had used it multiple times without ever running into trouble.
Had Huo Shaoheng somehow been able to expose the interference of the four-lined AI programming code?
This was absolutely impossible.
Even if it were Zhao Liangze, the computer genius of the Special Operations Forces, he would have been unable to unearth the perfectly hidden four-lined AI programming code.
Hong Kangquan also knew that Zhao Liangze had been “exiled” abroad by Huo Shaoheng after he had offended him.
How could Huo Shaoheng possibly know about something that even Zhao Liangze had failed to detect?
Or was there another expert in the Special Operations Forces he had failed to take into account?
It could be said that finding the four-lined AI programming language within the Central Control System’s programs was akin to searching for four droplets of distilled water that had been placed into the vast ocean.
Who could separate four drops of distilled water from the sea itself?
Upon considering the probability of such a feat, it was absolutely impossible!
No, he could not really believe that Huo Shaoheng and his men were capable of discovering such an advanced four-lined AI programming code. Hong Kangquan naturally assumed Huo Shaoheng was simply bluffing. So he denied everything vehemently.
“Major General Huo, you shouldn’t waste your efforts. Your methods of bluffing were taught by me, do you think I’d fall for it?”
“You want to frame me for murder by the mere fabrication of a schedule? You’d better check to see if the Military Court will agree with your actions!”
Hong Kangquan angrily pounded on the table, “I demand to see General Ji! I demand to see Speaker Long! Don’t you dare use your official power to settle our private matters!”
The amusement grew in Huo Shaoheng’s eyes, as he leaned forward slightly in order to reply calmly, “Hong Kangquan, I haven’t even said anything yet. How do you know that this was a murder?”
Hong Kangquan’s expression instantly fell. His entire body shook uncontrollably, such that even his teeth chattered loudly as he immediately lost his ability to speak.
His pupils were enlarged, breath quickening as his face turned purple, his eyeballs almost seeming to pop out of their sockets. It was exactly the appearance of someone who was exceedingly nervous.
Huo Shaoheng continued to cross his leg slowly and taking the time to enjoy the rapid change in Hong Kangquan’s expression, “Even the police had not said that he was murdered, so why are you so certain that this was a murder case? Hmm? Could you know more about it than the police do? Could you share your knowledge with the police?”
Hong Kangquan was nearly provoked into madness by Huo Shaoheng’s unhurried questioning.
He was far too anxious.
Huo Shaoheng was truly an expert at taking full advantage of someone’s weakened mental state.
He personally captured Huo Kangquan alive, an act that had already broken through the man’s first layer of psychological defense.
After a day of exhausting interrogations, Huo Shaoheng then suddenly threw out a photo of the corpse of Lu Dayong, the Weibo blogger who had written ‘Churchill’s Garden,’ even though his death appeared unconnected to Hong Kangquan.
The tactic had taken Hong Kangquan by surprise, and so Huo Shaoheng had rapidly broken past the second layer of Hong Kangquan’s psychological defense.
He then threw out the record of Hong Kangquan’s whereabouts from that day and hinted that there was something wrong with the four-lined AI programming code that Hong Kangquan was most reliant on.
This final blow not only breached the last layer of Hong Kangquan’s psychological defenses but also made him fall headfirst into Huo Shaoheng’s carefully laid psychological trap. Hong Kangquan’s had long planned to use his own fabricated truth as a counterattack to Huo Shaoheng.
When he called Huo Shaoheng’s hidden bluff, however, he had ended up exposing himself.
Huo Shaoheng sneered at Hong Kangquan, disdainful as a cat hunting a mouse. He was even more cunning than a cat hunting a mouse!
Huo Shaoheng didn’t even need to say anything before Hong Kangquan had blurted out the truth himself!
“I didn’t!” Hong Kangquan struggled desperately to regain ground, “I was only making a logical inference! Huo Shaoheng, don’t think you can replace me just like this! You’ve done all of this because you want to get rid of me, but I shan’t give you the chance to replace me!”
“Hong Kangquan, you should know that today’s interrogation is also being recorded in audio and video formats. If you continue to contradict yourself, you will only expose even more holes in your story.” Huo Shaoheng’s face turned stony and he ceased his banter with Hong Kangquan, “The murder of this Weibo blogger is just one of the many crimes you have committed.”
“I didn’t. I don’t know this person. This was the first day I’ve ever seen him.” Hong Kangquan denied vehemently, “You brought out this gory photo of his corpse, then you claimed I went to his apartment. Were you not implying that I had murdered him? This was clearly a logical inference, how can you pin it on me like this?!”
“Logical inference? How many people would see a photo of the corpse of someone they don’t know then naturally assume they were getting framed for murder? Hong Kangquan, you have been defeated by your own cunning.” Huo Shaoheng turned around in his chair expressionlessly before facing the large screen display in the interrogation room, “You see there the surveillance footage sent in by the police. See it? That person standing at the door of Lu Dayong’s apartment was you.”
Hong Kangquan immediately shot back, “It was me? Do you have any evidence? Did you measure that person’s height? Do you even have eyes? As I expected, you are indeed plotting to frame me!”
The person in the video was obviously much larger and taller than Hong Kangquan himself. If someone saw the person in the video, they would never link him to Hong Kangquan.
Huo Shaoheng’s calm and steady gaze shifted before finally falling on Hong Kangquan’s body – he was already so anxious he had started to tremble faintly.
…
