Chapter 29: CH 29

Chapter 29 – Qin Biyang

“Miss Wen Ruan, don’t be nervous.  You just need to answer our questions truthfully.”

“Okay, I understand.”

“Did Lu Kechen come to see you these few days and request that you represent him?  Can you tell us in detail about the discussion you had with him?”

Wen Ruan nodded, clasped her fingers together, and placed them on her knees.  Then she gave the police a statement of her conversation with Lu Kechen.

Her voice was steady and her bearing was calm.

“Alright, thank you for your cooperation.  Is it convenient to let us have your contact number?  We will contact you if a follow-up is necessary.”

“Okay.”

After the police had a better understanding of the situation, they did not inquire further.  Instead, they asked Wen Ruan for the photos that Lu Kechen gave her and then left after saying a few polite words.

She got up and sent the two police officers off.  As Wen Ruan stood on the stairs and watched them leave, she frowned slightly and her eyes darkened.

She turned around to look at the deeply worried Professor Su who was standing not far away and asked.

“Professor, do you know what happened?”

“Uh, I asked an acquaintance.  An 18-year-old boy drowned in Dongyang Lake and it so happened that he was a hooligan who had been bullying and blackmailing Lu Kechen with private photos.”

Professor Su frowned and the expression on his face looked quite serious.

“The police are still investigating whether he lost his footing and fell into the water or was murdered.  According to the people who knew about the matter, Lu Kechen was the last person the deceased saw last night.”

“It seems it was because Lu Kechen wanted to sue them and was discovered.  Someone took a photo of him coming to our office and sent it to the deceased.  So that night, the deceased asked Lu Kechen to meet him in a warehouse near Dongyang Lake.”

Dongyang Lake.

She remembered the name of this place.

Three years ago, the girl who was bullied drowned in Dongyang Lake.

Therefore, it is reasonable for the police to suspect that this is not an accident but a murder.

“Have the police found the evidence?”  Wen Ruan asked.

“There are no surveillance cameras in that area and presently, there’s no evidence to prove that Lu Kechen is the one who pushed him into the water.  Therefore, he was released after the police took down his statement.  However, everyone suspects Lu Kechen is the murderer……”

Speaking up to here, Professor Su’s tone had a trace of self-reproach.

“If I knew this matter would become so complicated and get you dragged into this, I wouldn’t have agreed to let Lu Kechen meet you.”

“It’s okay, you did it because of me.”

Wen Ruan smiled and comforted Professor Su.  Then she returned to her office and locked the door.

Only when she was alone did she finally put away the smile on her face and her expression became cold.

Today was a rest day for the office.  However, a few colleagues came back to do some work but since it was time to go off work, so there was no one on the entire floor.

Most of the lights outside have been switched off and the usually lively place with a lot of people moving around was surprisingly quiet at this moment.

Before Wen Ruan handed over those photos to the police, she had already made backup copies in advance.

Ever since that day Lu Kechen came to look for her, she felt the situation was a little strange.

In this world, it is difficult to find the existence of such a high degree of coincidence.

Why did Lu Kechen insist on waiting until her return to start a lawsuit?

Why was the photo of Lu Kechen coming to the legal office coincidentally snapped and then sent to the person who had been blackmailing him all this while?

Why did the deceased coincidentally die in the same place as that girl who died accidentally three years ago?

Wen Ruan rubbed her temples and only felt the thoughts in her head were all messed up.

But she is sure of one thing……..

She is being used……..

And she doesn’t know what Lu Kechen intends to do.

If it’s for murder, why use a method that makes everyone naturally suspect him?

While frowning, she took out the photos that Lu Kechen had given her earlier and spread them out on the table.

All of them were the same size.

Wen Ruan pursed her lips as she studied the photos.

Finally, her gaze rested on one of them.

She paused for a moment then picked up the photo that gave her a strange feeling and looked at it carefully.

Wait!

She stood up abruptly then walked out of the office and knocked on Professor Su’s door.

“What’s the matter, Xiao Ruan?  Need anything?”

""

“Professor, do you know the address of the father of the girl that fell into the water three years ago?”

***☆☆☆***

“You should smoke less.”

“Mm……”

Fu Zhihuan laughed then turned sideways to extinguish the cigarette and threw it into the ashtray in front of the car seat.

He lowered his eyes and looked at the few photos in his hands.  They were the photos that the police obtained from Wen Ruan just now.

Zhao Zichen laughed, adjusted the seat backward, and sighed.

“As a policeman for so many years, I can see with just a glance that there’s something wrong with Lu Kechen.  Since no evidence could be found, therefore, we can only handle it like it was an accident.”

Fu Zhihuan did not answer and flipped through the photos one by one when he suddenly frowned.

However, Zhao Zichen who was beside him did not notice and kept on talking to himself.

“Guess what I discovered.  This case has something to do with that little lady in your house.  Ai, that’s right, it has already been so many days…….”

“Zhao Zichen……”  Fu Zhihuan interrupted suddenly.

Zhao Zichen was stunned for a moment and then turned to look a the person beside him.

Fu Zhihuan was frowning slightly and his thin lips were tightly pursed.  His eyes were like a bottomless lake that was surging with obscure waves.

Both of them were friends for a long time and they usually handle cases together.  Naturally, Zhao Zichen knew that when Fu Zhihuan put on this expression, most of the time he had made an important discovery.

“What’s the matter?”

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“Look at this photo.”

Zhao Zichen picked up the photo that Fu Zhihuan pointed out.

“Although they’re all the same size, the pixel resolution on this photo is not right.  Therefore, it should have gone through cropping and enlargement.   Besides, look at the angle of these people’s line of sight……..”

Fu Zhihuan reached out his hand to point at the several people in school uniforms standing at the side and his voice sounded a little surprised.

“They are not looking in Lu Kechen’s direction.  Besides, these photos were taken three years ago.”

Zhao Zichen had handled many cases, so he understood the moment it was pointed out.

“What you mean is that, in this photo, Lu Kechen is not the only one who was forced to take these private photos?”

“Mm…….”

Fu Zhihuan nodded.  He turned his head to look at Dongyang Lake outside the car window and suddenly asked a question.

“Why do you think Dongyang Lake was chosen?”

Zhao Zichen frowned then straightened up and quickly made a call.

“Help me to find out the home address of the girl who drowned in Dongyang Lake three years ago.”

***☆☆☆***

Qin Wan.

It was the name of the 14-year-old girl who was indirectly killed by school bullying three years ago.

That year, on the third day after the court handed down the final verdict, Qin Wan’s mother, who could not bear the blow of her daughter’s death, jumped down from the thirteenth floor to her death.

One and a half years ago, Qin Wan’s father, Qin Biyang married a single mother.

When Wen Ruan arrived downstairs of his apartment, she happened to see Qin Biyang returning home with his 6-year-old stepdaughter from a tuition class.

Although half of the hair on his head had turned white, there was a loving smile on his face as if he had stepped out of that shadow of three years ago.

“Mr. Qin, it has been a long time since we met.”

""

Wen Ruan had hesitated for a long time but she still went up to greet him.

Qin Biyang who was holding his daughter’s hand was stunned for a while but very quickly, he was able to recognize Wen Ruan.

After all, the case back then was too deeply engraved in the heart of this old man who was more than 50 years old.

So naturally, he would not forget this defense lawyer who stood on the opposing side.

Qin Biyang’s smile froze in an instant.   He pursed his lips, bent down without saying a word then patted his daughter’s shoulder and said.

“Go up first and look for your mother.”

The little girl nodded and went upstairs carrying the schoolbag on her back.

“Why are you looking for me?”

Qin Biyang pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose and his tone could be described as maintaining basic politeness.

Wen Ruan paused for a while and then said.  “It may sound a bit presumptuous…….. but I just want to ask if Lu Kechen had contacted you over these few years?”

When Qin Biyang heard Lu Kechen’s name, his reaction was not as intense as expected.

He just stared fixedly at Wen Ruan for a while before he turned sideways to take out a packet of cigarettes from his pocket.  After lighting up a cigarette, he put it in his mouth without saying a word and blew out a cloud of smoke.

Wen Ruan did not ask any further questions or speak and just stood there quietly while she waited.

After smoking the whole cigarette, Qin Biyang extinguished the cigarette butt and then turned his head to look at Wen Ruan up and down before he said in a monotonous tone.

“Come up with me.”

Qin Biyang’s family lived on the seventh floor but there was no elevator as it was an old building.

The two people walked up the stairs one after the other and when they were halfway up, Qin Biyang’s slightly hoarse voice sounded.

“Lu Kechen has been sending me letters all these years.”

“Send letters?”

“Mm…….every month he would send money, a thousand five hundred, together with a letter of apology.”

Qin Biyang did not stop and his voice sounded like he had experienced inexplicable vicissitudes.

“At first when I received them, I didn’t even bother to read them.  It was either I sent them back or threw them away.  What is the use of money and apologies when they are dead?”

“After a long time had passed and the matter had faded into the distance…….but that child still kept sending those things to me so I paid a little more attention to them.”

When he spoke up to this point, he paused his footsteps for a while and then sighed.

“Don’t talk about forgiveness, I’m not even qualified to ask forgiveness from my wife and child.  I still blame him but I don’t hate him as much as before.”

“Then have the both of you met?”

“I met him two days ago.”

Qin Biyang turned his head around and looked deeply at Wen Ruan.

“Last evening around eight o’clock, he knelt in front of my door all night.”

“Knelt all night?”  Wen Ruan stopped walking.

“Uh, he won’t leave even when driven away.”

He paused for a while then turned his head and continued to walk.

“So when I saw you, somehow I have the feeling that something must have happened to that child.”

When Wen Ruan heard his words, she felt as if her heart was suspended in midair for some unknown reason.  She felt uneasy and the sense of uneasiness gradually grew stronger and stronger in her heart.

Lu Kechen had done a very contradictory thing.

On one hand, it seems he is telling everyone that he is the murderer.

On the other hand, he did not leave any evidence or clues behind and did not seem to have the intention to surrender.

When Qin Biyang reached home, he went to look for letters that Lu Kechen sent to him over the years while Wen Ruan stood at the door and swept a glance at the layout of his home.

Three years ago many reporters had come to his house to conduct interviews.  Looking at the layout now, it seems that nothing much has changed over the years.

It was just that the photos of his first wife and daughter had been taken down and some of them were pinned upside down on the table.  The original photos were replaced by new ones.

It looks like Qin Biyang had completely emerged from that shadow of three years ago.

At this moment, firm footsteps sounded and they were coming from behind Wen Ruan.

She turned her head around and saw four to five police officers coming up the stairs but only one of them wore a uniform that looked slightly different from the rest.

Wen Ruan looked up and met the eyes of Fu Zhihuan.

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