She called Zu Dong and asked, “How are things now?”
“There isn’t anything unusual with her family. There aren’t any different leads from those obtained from the previous investigation.”
“I found the victim’s spirit in her house. Tell Ma Jianguo to go with you guys to the victim’s husband’s home tomorrow and arrest him and his mother.”
“Does that mean that the victim’s husband and her mother-in-law colluded to kill her?”
“No, the mother-in-law was the one who did it alone. However, the victim’s husband deserves to be taught a lesson too. He knew of his mother’s crime and yet he still covered up for her. Arrest the two of them.”
“Roger.”
An Xiaoning ended the call and took a deep breath before saying to Fan Shixin, “Changes are truly unpredictable. The case seemed so tricky at first. Who would have known that the truth would be out so soon?”
“You deserve all the credit, Young Madam. If it weren’t because of your ability to communicate with spirits, I doubt this case could have been cracked so soon.”
“It’s all Heaven’s will. It’s already been 22 years since the crime was committed. I bet Heaven wanted the culprits to be arrested too.”
An Xiaoning lay down. Just as she was about to speak, Fan Shixin’s mobile phone began to ring.
It was a call from Wu Pingyang, despite it being such a late hour.
“Hello, why aren’t you asleep yet?”
“It’s still early. It’s barely ten o’clock yet, what’s the point of sleeping so early? Where are you now?”
Fan Shixin answered, “Handling something in the countryside.”
“Countryside? What are you there for? When are you coming back?”
“In another few days.”
Wu Pingyang answered in displeasure, “Does that mean that I won’t be able to meet you? What if I start to miss you? We don’t even have any photos together. I must take a photo with you next time we meet.”
“Yeah, okay.”
Fan Shixin hung up soon after. An Xiaoning asked, “Why don’t you guys talk for a while longer? You two sound so distant from each other. You don’t sound like you’re in a relationship with her at all. I would have thought that you were strangers.”
Fan Shixin asked, “Strangers?”
“It does seem like it. Perhaps it’s because you haven’t gotten to know each other better yet. After all, you two met through a matchmaking session. It takes time to develop and nurture your feelings for each other.”
“Actually, I don’t feel like we’re in a loving relationship either. Besides, Ms. Mu had also told me something that left a deep impression on me. After spending so much time with Ms. Mu, I’m rather certain that her words were true.”
An Xiaoning asked out of curiosity, “What did she tell you?”
“She told me… that all the elders of the Mu family are looking forward to seeing Pingyang and I get married, except Ms. Mu’s mother. She also told me that Pingyang has an ulterior motive for getting close to me and that she isn’t true to me either.”
Upon hearing his words, An Xiaoning said, “You ought to decide whether or not to marry her only after you’ve gotten to know what she’s genuinely like. The Mu family had suffered a downfall and gone bankrupt in the past, didn’t they? The patriarch of the Mu family probably wants his granddaughter to marry you so that you can help them make a comeback. However, I find your girlfriend to be rather dense in the head. Take the previous incident, for example. I can’t believe she actually asked you to buy her grandfather a bottle of Blue Ocean. She seems like a spendthrift to me.”
“I’m also planning to consider it carefully before deciding whether or not to marry her. After all, I’ve been single for almost three decades. I don’t mind waiting a little longer. Marriage concerns my lifelong happiness. I won’t be rash or hasty when it comes to that.”
An Xiaoning remarked, “There may be lots of people in this big, big world, but it’s not easy to find the right one for you. Fate is a very important factor.”
….
An Xiaoning managed to get a peaceful night’s sleep, perhaps because there had been a major progression in the case.
She received numerous consecutive calls in the morning. Daybreak had yet to arrive when she was jolted awake.
An Xiaoning instructed Ma Jianguo to drive to the village entrance to wait for her. She could not be bothered to lie low anymore.
She and Fan Shixin proceeded to return to the city together with the police officers before they even had their breakfast.
They stopped by the town to allow An Xiaoning to get inside her own car.
They arrived back in the city at past eight o’clock.
Ma Jianguo proceeded to buy breakfast for everyone, and they headed back to the interrogation room after eating their fill.
Unlike what An Xiaoning had expected, the elderly lady, who was in her late seventies, had a tidy appearance, with her hair neatly tucked behind her ears.
The elderly lady and her son were not at all flustered and instead maintained their composure, probably because they knew that there was no concrete evidence of their crime, which took place decades ago.
They were smug and confident.
An Xiaoning was greatly angered by how calm they were; they did not show a tinge of guilt or remorse at all. In fact, they probably did not even take the matter seriously, which was why they could remain so dauntless. However, it was still unclear if the victim’s husband was aware of his mother’s crime or not.
“Madam, how old are you this year?”
“Seventy-eight years old.”
“If your daughter-in-law were still alive, she would be 54 years old this year. Poor her. You killed her when she was at the young age of 32 years old, and you even minced her corpse up with your cleaver. Madam, it must have taken you a great ton of energy to do that.”
The elderly lady retorted with a straight face, “Officer, you need to have sufficient evidence before you can accuse me. From what I know, you’re supposed to release us if you can’t collect valid evidence within 24 hours of detaining us, right?”
“Correct, but that doesn’t apply to me. I call the shots here. I get to decide how long you should be detained for. No one will dare to defy my orders and release you, even if you die here,” said An Xiaoning, glaring at her.
The elderly lady scoffed and sneered, “You’re so young and yet you’re so arrogant. Do you own the police station? Are the laws set by you?”
“That’s what I’m supposed to ask you. You’re just a villager. Who gave you the gall to live so peacefully without feeling a tinge of guilt, even after murdering someone so brutally? Well, yeah, you probably weren’t afraid since there were no surveillance cameras in the past, nor did we have any sufficient evidence. Your fingerprints couldn’t be collected either. However, things are different now. How dare you be so smug and dauntless even when you know you’ve committed a serious crime? Do you think you own the police station? Are the laws set by you? Do you know who I am?”
“Aren’t you just a police officer?”
An Xiaoning answered, “Not only am I a police officer, I’m also a psychic who can communicate with the dead. Don’t you know of my existence?”
The victim’s husband asked, “You’re An Xiaoning?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“Who’s An Xiaoning? Who on earth is that?” asked the ignorant elderly lady.
He explained, “Mother, she’s the biological daughter of our First Lady. She’s also a renowned psychic medium and fortune-teller!”
The elderly lady turned pale immediately and asked in shock, “What?”
