Chapter 1049: Lie Detectors In the Cultivation World
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“I was wrong, I was really wrong… I’m a disgrace to the motherland that cultivated me. I sincerely apologize to the students I held hostage in the auditorium. I will accept however long my jail sentence will be.”
Father Zheng confessed bluntly to his crimes in the interrogation room. Although he hadn’t hurt anyone, he had still taken people hostage, and before the new witness testified in a public court hearing, Father Zheng couldn’t be cleared of suspected murder yet.
At that moment, Gao Tian, Odd Zhuo and Little Silver were all in front of Father Zheng in the interrogation room. Little Silver was in charge of recording the statement. For Little Silver, he could be said to be collecting reference materials. He had been learning to write novels recently, but couldn’t be said to be talented. He had written more than a hundred thousand words, but had yet to sign a contract.
Little Silver thought it was because he didn’t have enough reference materials. Hence, he helped Gao Tian take down the statement, which could be counted as one way to collect reference materials.
Gao Tian’s and Odd Zhuo’s respective interrogations had different aims. In order not to steal each other’s credit, the division of labor was very clear: Gao Tian only asked about the hostage situation, while Odd Zhuo asked about the magic treasure plagiarism case.
“Did you take the auditorium hostage because of the plagiarism case three years ago?” Gao Tian asked.
“That’s right – I need to know the truth of the matter, even if I have to pay a hefty price for it,” answered Father Zheng, his hands in Spirit Shackles.
Initially, only the Old Devil had gotten this sort of treatment. In the last few months, however, the realms of the criminals caught, which Odd Zhuo had shouldered the credit for, had gotten higher and higher. Later, Wang Ling and Wang Ming discussed the issue, and Wang Ming decided to get the research institute to mass produce Spirit Shackles.
Spirit Shackles had now become standard prison equipment.
“If no new witnesses had come forward, would you still have done this?” Gao Tian asked.
Father Zheng thought for a while and said hesitantly, “That’s hard to say…”
“You should have gone through legal channels – that’s the right way to go,” Gao Tian said.
“But I really had no choice… I tried online complaints and offline petitions, but nothing worked since I didn’t have any feasible evidence. Moreover, the witnesses I was looking for were all killed by someone else before I arrived… I haven’t hurt a single person in all of this.”
Father Zheng said articulately, “That includes Liu Yi. In the beginning, I just wanted to use magic to pull him out from behind the screen, but when I crossed over, he was already dead.”
“Mm.”
Gao Tian nodded.
He compared Father Zheng’s statement with the evidence and clues they had so far. Father Zheng’s words were very credible: most of what he said could be corroborated, and it was very detailed; it was almost identical to the information which the police had.
There was only one thing that Gao Tian and the rest in the interrogation room were curious about, and that was Father Zheng’s unusual increase in realm.
What happened?
“Explain how your realm increased so fast. Don’t tell me it was by happenstance: this isn’t a novel, and you’re not the main character.” Gao Tian fixed his gaze on Father Zheng; it wasn’t just him, but all the police officers who had been following the case were also curious.
“I don’t know if you’ll believe me…” When it came to the sudden growth of his realm, Father Zheng also seemed a little flustered. He looked Gao Tian in the eye and replied, “It was because of a pack of frozen dumplings…”
“Fro… frozen dumplings?”
The answer surprised all the officers in and outside the interrogation room.
“What’s that about?” Gao Tian asked.
“This actually happened a few days ago, on September 14th…” In the face of this inquiry, Father Zheng told him everything about how he had increased in strength. “For so many years, I’ve been secretly looking for evidence and trying to get the case overturned. I basically spent all my living expenses on private investigations. To save money, I usually go to the cultivation department store to buy things from the returned goods section.
“That day, I bought several packs of frozen food as usual. In the end, after eating one pack at home, I suddenly felt my whole body steaming up. There was a huge leap in my realm and my body was brimming with energy… And then, that was it: my realm increased, just like that.”
“…” Hearing this, Gao Tian, Little Silver and Odd Zhuo sucked in cold breaths of air.
That was right.
No pushups, no squats, no leaving the air conditioner off on a hot summer day 1… Father Zheng’s increase in realm was all because of a pack of frozen dumplings…
The point was that this was also consistent with the information the police had.
It was clearly written in the report that Gao Tian was holding: After Father Zheng was detained, the police found an empty pack of frozen dumplings at his rental. They also confirmed that these dumplings had been bought from the returned goods section of the store, and had been sold at sixty percent off at the time.
Although it was hard to believe, Gao Tian was utterly convinced… Because, apart from the testimonies they had, the interrogation room’s lie detector didn’t find anything unusual in Father Zheng’s words. This was an extremely precise lie detector: as long as a question wasn’t answered truthfully, the lie detector would emit a “beep beep” warning sound.
Of course, this warning wouldn’t sound outright, but was transmitted through the earphones that Gao Tian, Odd Zhuo and Little Silver were wearing in the interrogation room. The average prisoner was usually unaware of the lie detector’s existence, which served to prevent prisoners from deliberately preparing their answers before an interrogation.
So Gao Tian and the rest of the officers were astonished.
Why… did a pack of frozen dumplings have such tremendous power…
“F**k… What was in the dumplings? Celery and pork? Or mushroom and three delicacies? I’m eating them tonight!” The officers outside the interrogation room couldn’t sit still, especially Chief Zhao himself. He was also paying close attention to the case, and when he learned the “secret” of Father Zheng’s advancement, he was so excited he almost jumped up.
He had been slow to be promoted, not only because his track record was lacking. There was in fact another major reason: he had hit a bottleneck in his cultivation.
Chief Zhao had been stuck at the Nascent Soul stage for a long time. There was a fixed standard he had to meet if he wanted to be transferred to a central department like Huaxiu Alliance, which was that he had to be at the Soul Formation stage or above.
After consulting each other in whispers, Gao Tian and Odd Zhuo decided to have Father Zheng undergo a physical examination. If it really was because of a pack of frozen dumplings… then they should be able to analyze the composition of the dumplings from a comprehensive test of Father Zheng’s stomach fluid.
“Well, I’m done with my questions. It’s Director Zhuo’s turn now.” Gao Tian capped his pen and steepled his fingers together.
“Done?” Odd Zhuo asked.
“Yes.” Gao Tian nodded affirmatively.
Since the evidence could be corroborated, Gao Tian felt that there was no need to continue asking questions about the hostage situation itself – instead, he was more interested in overturning the case from three years ago.
But he wasn’t in charge of that, so he could only leave it to Odd Zhuo.
“First of all, I want to understand Student Zheng Jingxuan’s family situation a little more. May I ask why you divorced Madam He Xiulan, Student Zheng Jingxuan’s mother?”
Odd Zhuo’s first question was a little personal, but it was necessary: his family situation was also a big reason for Student Zheng ultimately deciding to kill himself.
“Ah Lan and I divorced because of personality differences,” Father Zheng answered.
Odd Zhuo and the others instantly heard the lie detector’s warning sound in their earphones: “Beep beep… beep beep…”
“Father Zheng, please answer your question truthfully.” Odd Zhuo’s eyes turned sharp.
Father Zheng was a little flustered. “Be- because… Ah Lan caught me cheating on her…”
“Beep beep… beep beep…”
“Because I discovered that I like men!”
“Beep beep… beep beep…”
Father Zheng almost shed tears. “F**k! Because our sex life was unsatisfying! Of course… it was mainly my fault! Is that good enough?!”
This time, the alarm didn’t go off…
