“My mother was always very strict with us ever since we were young, especially since our family had only daughters. My mother never wanted us girls to show ourselves in public, so we really didn’t see any missing person notices. Governor Wu, think about it. Our family was and still is so short on funds. If we knew that you fathered a child with Zhou Hua back then, why wouldn’t we have brought her to you? We would have been able to get some money out of you!”
“How would I know why you didn’t come? I just figure there was something wrong in that house of yours! You must have seen the missing person notice but just didn’t dare to bring Zhou Hua to me!”
“No, no! We really didn’t see it!” Zhou Menglu insisted.
“Zhou Menglu, how many times do I have to repeat myself? I gave you one chance to answer me truthfully.”
Wu Jingzhong pulled out a few photos that Nuannuan had helped him get by hacking into a satellite’s image array and threw them at Zhou Menglu.
Zhou Menglu picked up the photos shakily. When she looked at them, she was so frightened that her hands trembled. She dropped the photos, and they fell to the ground.
The photos showed a missing person’s notice stuck onto an electricity pole and a crowd of people examining the notice. Among the people there was… her mother!
Zhou Menglu’s disguised gaze quickly shattered under Wu Jingzhong’s glare. She was so frightened her eyes rolled backward and she collapsed.
“Wake her up.”
The prison guard got some cold water and splashed it on Zhou Menglu’s body and face, quickly making her come back to reality.
Just as she was about to scream and curse, she met Wu Jingzhong’s gaze and instantly became terrified again.
“Zhou Menglu, now answer my second question. Why didn’t you bring Zhou Hua to me when your mother clearly saw the missing person notice and your family was short on funds?”
Zhou Menglu was terrified and kept shaking her head. “I-I don’t know either. My mother saw it, b-but I didn’t!”
Wu Jingzhong sneered and threw the two remaining photos from his bag at her.
“Then explain to me who’s in this photo.”
Zhou Menglu shakily reached out and picked up the photo from the ground. When she saw that it was a photo of her and Zhou Mengjing also looking at the missing person’s notice, she broke down into tears.
“Fake! Fake! This photo is fake! I never saw the poster! Never!”
“Go. Take Sze Junyan to the interrogation room and question him regarding the car incident. If he dares to not comply, you guys know what to do.”
“Yes.”
The prison guard immediately left to pass on the orders.
Zhou Menglu cried so much that she felt like retching. She cried, screamed, and begged for mercy. “Governor Wu, please let me go! Please let me go! I’m just a common citizen. I didn’t know that a big shot like you was going to come here to interrogate me personally! I raised Sze Lingyun. I don’t want any alimony… I don’t want anything anymore! Just please let me go. And please let my son go! You’re an official! You should be helping people—how can you treat us like this?”
“Ms. Zhou, I think you may be misunderstanding the situation. I do like to do good deeds, and I also like punishing evil. Zhou Hua was my wife, and she gave birth to my daughter. You killed my wife and abused my daughter. The fact that I’ve been standing here and having a conversation with you is already me being merciful, yet all you’ve done is lie and lie over and over again…”
