Chapter 97: He Who Did Not See Blood

The three of them went back to the Criminal Investigation Unit.

Tang Yuanchu was the chauffeur as well as the rookie detective, the adorable mascot of the team.

“Boss, you’re really marvelous! You’re so good that I totally don’t know what you’re going to ask next!”

He was a rookie detective as he had not joined the police force for a year yet. He was particularly intrigued by the way Bai Muchuan handled cases and interrogations. Hence, he was in awe and admired his Captain’s abilities.

“Boss, you totally ate that woman up! How did you think of those sentences to make her talk?”

“Hm?” Bai Muchuan was sitting on the front passenger seat, closing his eyes for a rest. “When did I eat someone up?”

“Heheh!” Tang Yuanchu went straight to the point. “The part where Sun Shangli and Kong Xinqiong were fighting at the balcony. How did you know all those details?”

“I’ve already said so, Sun Shangli told me that.”

“…” Tang Yuanchu took a glimpse at him. “Don’t tease me, boss. How could a dead person talk!”

“Of course the dead can talk.” Bai Muchuan looked at him from the sidewayse. “You have to be more flexible in thinking and the dead could talk to you as well.”

“…” Tang Yuanchu felt his scalp going numb.

“Sun Shangli’s fingerprints were on the flowerpot that fell off the balcony,” stated Bai Muchuan casually.

Uh! So that’s how it is , thought Tang Yuanchu.

Now that he got enlightened, he complimented his Captain.

Xiang Wan, who was sitting at the back passenger seat, was seemingly in a daze.

She recalled that when she told Bai Muchuan about that incident, although he had gone to the scene, he did not seem to be concerned at all.

Who would have thought that he would actually go search for the broken flowerpot and even manage to obtain a fingerprint there?

This man was really meticulous in handling cases. He was also tight-lipped by not telling her anything.

Xiang Wan continued the topic by asking, “What about Wu Hongliang’s weight? Don’t tell me another dead person told you that as well?”

Bai Muchuan looked at her from the rearview mirror and showed a teasing b*dass smile. “Of course not, it’s your NICE neighbor who told me that.”

My nice neighbor?

Xiang Wan took a second to realize who he was referring to, and felt amused.

He was referring to Cheng Zheng.

That was a finding by the forensics team after they did the examination of the corpse.

“So, you suspect that the one who helped Kong Xinqiong is Huo Shan?”

“No.” A severe look appeared on Bai Muchuan’s face. “I think he’s indirectly involved in the murder!”

What? Xiang Wan was floored.

So was he going to totally deny her profiling analysis?

“If Huo Shan had a hand in the murder,” contemplated Xiang Wan as she furrowed her eyebrows, “there is no need for Kong Xinqiong to conceal that fact? Although the two of them used to have an affair, didn’t they stop keeping in contact all these years?…”

Bai Muchuan grunted a laugh. “Not every woman has a heart of stone like you. Once a lover, always a lover.”

Xiang Wan glared at him, gradually he stopped smiling and put on a stern expression. “Besides, haven’t you realized that Huo Shan gets what he wants through the hands of another?”

No doubt, Tan Ziyang died in the hands of Wu Hongliang.

If one looked at the case generally, Huo Shan seemed to have played some tricks to deal with his love rival, and they couldn’t charge him for killing someone on purpose with that reason. The law would not allow that.

Yet Tan Ziyang died because of him.

Hence, after Tan Ziyang’s death, would Huo Shan use a similar method to get Wu Hongliang killed as he could have feared he would get implicated?

The moment Wu Hongliang died, no one else would know that Tan Ziyang’s death had something to do with him.

“Even when Kong Xinqiong was dying, she never knew that she was simply a ‘weapon’ in Huo Shan’s eyes.”

…

Is human nature really so vicious?

…

Silence prevailed in the car for a long time.

This was Huo Shan’s third time to get interrogated. He appeared to be quieter than the previous two times.

He did not cry bitterly and did not lament about the pain and helplessness he had suffered. Instead, he seemed a little weary with his eyelids half-opened and sat on the chair lazily. He used a soft stance to refuse to communicate with the police.

“I don’t know.”

“Beats me, too.”

“I don’t understand.”

These “three word” replies were used smoothly by him.

No matter how Tang Yuanchu asked the questions, it would boil down to these three words.

And when they asked him those critical questions, he would frown and suggest, “Look, why don’t you talk with my lawyer?”

Rich people were sometimes very sharp, and they would always hire a lawyer to deal with others as and when they felt like it. It was exhausting for the police when dealing with such people since they need to be extra careful. If they were not careful, they might get reported or might even lose their job…

Huang He was still in the detention center.

With that as a warning, Tang Yuanchu was cautious in his speech.

However, after wasting more than 30 minutes, besides what they already knew, there weren’t any progress at all.

“Huo Shan, is this your last-ditch effort?” Tang Yuanchu was so frustrated that there were perspiration on his forehead.

He knew that Bai Muchuan had assigned him to interrogate Huo Shan so as to train him up as well as because he had trust in him. Nonetheless, handling a criminal case of such magnitude and faced with Huo Shan, a real estate developer who knew how to protect himself, he was unable to daunt Huo Shan with his presence, despite putting in his greatest effort.

“Kong Xinqiong has already confessed, when are you going to stop being stubborn?”

Tang Yuanchu gritted his teeth and said those words with ferocity.

Compared to Tang Yuanchu’s agitated state, Huo Shan was as cool as cucumber. He rolled his eyes and snorted. “Detective, who doesn’t know how to sprout nonsense? Where’s the evidence?”

These was his third time in the interrogation room. He was now obviously more experienced in how to deal with these detectives.

Xiang Wan sat on the sidelines and observed the small, skinny man with a protruding face and chin like an ape. She suddenly realized that she had really underestimated Huo Shan in her profiling analysis…

This man, who would lie and cry bitterly in front of the police, actually had quite a strong mentality.

He knew when to be weak but was never afraid. He was full of confidence in himself.

Otherwise, how could he be able to become and stay as a real estate developer?

Xiang Wan smiled self-mockingly, while Bai Muchuan suddenly got up from his seat.

“Huo Shan, helping others is helping yourself as well! Don’t make this whole thing turn ugly and end up worse than you expected…”

“Detective Bai!” Huo Shan howled, wearing an agonized, innocent face, “I’m a law-abiding citizen, and I’ve tried my best to cooperate with you all. By doing that, I’ve done my duty as a citizen. The police can’t be forcing me to admit to committing murder, right?”

Bai Muchuan’s eyes flickered coldly. “You’re very smart! You know that it’s difficult for us to find evidence to convict you as six years has already past.”

Then he gave a menacing laugh and continued, “It’s difficult to find evidence, but it doesn’t mean we can’t find it. Huo Shan, by allowing you to confess everything, we’re giving you the opportunity to turn yourself in, which is a given for being a Jin City entrepreneur. Once the test results are out, we won’t need your explanation anymore, and you won’t be turning yourself in anymore.”

Having an aura was indeed a good thing.

The moment he stood in front of Huo Shan, the aura was much stronger than Tang Yuanchu.

Huo Shan’s expression was also not as collected as before. His originally small frame seemed to have shrunk.

“Detective Bai, I’m really innocent!”

In an instant, he transformed back to the Huo Shan who would cry in front of them.

“I’m so d*mn unlucky to have come across such stuff… none of the women are good. I thought only Sun Shangli’s a slut. Never did I expect Kong Xinqiong to be worse than her, she actually dared to accuse me? She’s the one who seduced me and we got together. Otherwise, how would I get to know people from that kind of social class? Look, with my status, what kind of beautiful women have I not seen? That dead look of hers, if not for some provocative tactics she’s got up her sleeves, besides Wu Hongliang that wuss, who else would get into a bed with her?”

…

At the hospital.

Huo Shan’s ferocious look and abusive words were being shown to Kong Xinqiong.

She was so infuriated that her eyes were red, and her shoulders were shuddering uncontrollably.

At that time, the sky had turned dark, and only a light was on inside the ward. Xiang Wan and Bai Muchuan were together. As the light was not bright enough, they took quite a while to realize that Kong Xinqiong was quivering not because she was crying, but because she was laughing.

She was laughing due to pain of heartbreak.

“Men… hurhur… this is men… I didn’t… I didn’t seduce him… He coerced me…”

She squeezed out that sentence while gritting her teeth; her voice was hoarse and weak.

Maybe she had held it in for too long. As she gave an account of how it all started, she suddenly burst into tears, covering her face in her palms and wailed.

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Previously, she was just sobbing and did not cry uncontrollably like that. Now, it was as if all her deepest pain were being exposed, and she could no longer control her emotions.

“He used the construction project of ‘The Palace’ to threaten me… that if I don’t sleep with him, he would not let my husband continue the project… We had already invested too much money into the necessary equipment and materials, so we couldn’t afford to lose the project. He’s too loaded, money talks and we’re at his mercy…”

The woman’s cries grew louder and louder until she almost howled in agony.

“I’m very stern toward Wu Hongliang. Outsiders tend to say that I shouted at him and scolded him as I hated him… But nobody looked at the fact that when I married him, I was only 20 years old. He was my first man. Maybe I did not love him that much, but I did everything I can for the sake of my family. I want him and my son… I want the three of us to live a good life.

“I never told Wu Hongliang about Huo Shan’s threat… I was worried he might be rash and everything would be ruined. I tolerated everything on my own… Later on, maybe Huo Shan got sick of me after a few times, he doesn’t look me up anymore.

“… If nothing ever happened to Tan Ziyang, I had thought this would be blown over and no one else would know…

“But the moment a person did something wrong, sooner or later, one would receive the punishment by heavens… I was wrong to have made Wu Hongliang a cuckold, and he killed someone because of me. I accepted my fate even though he beats me up and verbally abuses me. But one day, Huo Shan suddenly came to my house to look for me. No sooner when I opened the door, he pounced on me, wanting to kiss me… And Wu Hongliang heard everything as he was hiding at home.”

“That day, Wu Hongliang knew he had killed the wrong person and got to know the adulterer was actually Huo Shan. He was so ashamed and furious that he charged at us… And I, I accidentally killed him with the stool… No, I thought he was dead. I was too livid with anger that I used too much strength… Boohooo…”

“When I saw his entire head covered in blood, I was also appalled. Huo Shan was terrified as well… He was the who helped me seal him into the wall…”

By now, Kong Xinqiong’s face was full of tears.

“At that time, I really didn’t know he was still alive… From the wall, I heard his weak sobs; I heard him trying to scratch the wall as well as his pleads… I was soft-hearted and wanted to let him out. But Huo Shan said… if he came out, we’ll be finished…”

This twist in this case happened so quickly that it went beyond Xiang Wan’s expectations.

She looked at Bai Muchuan in astonishment.

It turned out that his purpose of interrogating Huo Shan for the third time was to force Kong Xinqiong to confess.

On the contrary, Xiang Wan did not even notice that and only listened to Kong Xinqiong’s sob story, feeling quite overwhelmed.

Xiang Wan took a piece of tissue to Kong Xinqiong and waited for her to calm down before she asked a question, “That being the case, why did you want to defend Huo Shan and not tell the police about him?”

“I… feel ashamed,” whimpered Kong Xinqiong, followed by a bitter laugh, “I thought the police did not know about my affair with Huo Shan… I was worried that others might say I did that because he had money… He’s so ugly, no one in the right mind would want him. Besides money, what else did he have?…”

“…”

So, that’s the reason?

Xiang Wan found it unbelievable. “But you’re actually protecting him indirectly?”

Kong Xinqiong lowered her head, the weeping sounds came from the gaps of her fingers as she covered her face in her palms.

“I’m the one who killed someone. He… had nothing to do with this. All these years, he had been helping me to keep this a secret so I could get away scot-free and live in peace with my son. To me, he’s considered a righteous person. We from Ha City valued righteousness. I had thought that since I’m going to die anyway, there’s no need to drag him into all these…”

Xiang Wan was silent for a moment.

She was sad for this silly woman before her.

“Sister Kong, he had not kept in contact with you for so long, why didn’t you think of the reason why he suddenly looked you up that particular day?”

Kong Xinqiong stopped crying and looked up at her, stunned.

“I thought that he had specially looked me up as my husband had absconded with the money…”

Xiang Wan laughed helplessly and said nothing more.

After all, these guesses about Huo Shan were merely guesses.

An unconfirmed guess that she was unable to prove currently.

Huo Shan was really too smart.

They did not have enough evidence to prove that Huo Shan had murderous intent. Moreover, he did not know beforehand that Kong Xinqiong would kill her husband, so he could not even be considered her accomplice. His greatest crime was to help destroy and fabricate evidence, and lastly, crime of covering up for a criminal…

“Bai Muchuan, can I take back my profiling analysis?”

On the way back, Xiang Wan heaved a helpless sigh as she asked the question.

“I’ve misjudged Huo Shan,” she asked Bai Muchuan directly, “that profiling analysis has failed.”

“You can’t,” Bai Muchuan replied flatly with a displeased glance. “Have you seen anyone who submitted the college entrance exam papers and asked it back so as to redo the paper again?

“…”

That night, the detectives had a small gathering for dinner.

The case was considered solved now, but there was no sign of joy on everyone’s face to the extent that not a single one of them was in a good mood.

The atmosphere was stagnant. Nobody brought up the case.

In the end, the youngest Tang Yuanchu could not hold it in.

After two glasses of wine, he started to cuss, “Huo Shan, that son of a b*tch! I really feel like taking him down with a shot.”

“Don’t, brother, it’s illegal.”

“You think I’m really going to do it? I’m just saying this to vent my frustrations.”

Sigh! “We are the police, but there are times that even the police are powerless. When you’ve seen enough, you’ll get used to it!”

All of them disliked Huo Shan as they knew that in Tan Ziyang, Sun Shangli, and Wu Hongliang’s tragic destiny, Huo Shan had an invisible hand in it… yet he would most probably be the one who would get the lightest punishment.

“It’s so unfair! It’s too f*cking unfair!”

“… When has this world ever been fair? Don’t be silly!”

They sighed helplessly—they had the righteous ardour, yet they were unable to bring this kind of people to justice.

Xiang Wan started to lean slowly on the chair as she listened.

The chair was cold as it was blown by the chilly air around them. When her head touched the cold chair, the coldness made her muddled brain somewhat clearer.

But her heart felt heavy and she did not know what to say, either.

Although there were still some doubts in this case, they had practically solved the case.

It was just that, the more they dig, the more it terrified people.

In the past, when reading novels or watch TV dramas, the characters were usually clearly distinguished. The good guy and the baddies were as clear as black and white. As one experienced more in life, one realized that love, hatred, feelings, and enmity were only superficial emotions. When the actual dark inner heart was exposed right under the sun, that would make one shudder in fright.

However, in this case, in the adult world, each of them had their own difficulties, as well as desires.

They were wrong but not wronged.

The real pitiful one was that little boy.

He was a child of a pure heart, a little one who loved and believed in the warmth of the world. When he saw Xiang Wan being kidnapped, he was the first one who voiced out what he saw amidst the numb crowd and was not afraid to shout “Mom, quick, call 110″…

And yet, he was killed by the cruel world!

Xiang Wan thought of the times the little boy called her “big sister” endearingly. She started to feel some anger burning inside her heart, but she didn’t know where she could vent such emotions….

Suddenly, she felt itchy on her calf, as if something brushed past and tickled her.

Out of reflex, Xiang Wan looked at Bai Muchuan.

He was also leaning lazily on the chair with an emotionless face. He was holding a glass of wine and sipping on it leisurely. He looked as if he was mulling over something and was not looking at her at all—it seemed impossible that he had deliberately tickled her calf.

Maybe… that was just accidental?

Xiang Wan squinted her eyes and proceeded to eat some food.

A little while later, she could sense that the same leg brushed past her calf again.

After that brief contact, the leg quickly moved away.

Xiang Wan gritted her teeth unhappily and glared at Bai Muchuan. He, on the other hand, remained unmoved as he returned her gaze lazily and stretched his legs in front of her, as if saying he was not deliberate. She could have been convinced if his pair of deep set eyes were not glowing and a smile in his slightly pouting lips wasn’t presented before her.

“My bad. My legs are too long, not much space to rest it.

“…”

Is this considered showing off his long legs?

Xiang Wan was speechless, and as he was looking at her in a focused manner, she changed the topic back to business.

“Have you ever thought of the reason why Sun Shangli had to choose that particular suite on the fifth floor of ‘The Palace’ where Tan Ziyang’s body was hidden to commit suicide?”

“What’s on your mind?” Bai Muchuan squinted his eyes as he asked.

“If only I know, but I’m unable to ask the dead, which is the scariest part.”

As Xiang Wan said this, she took a deep breath and looked at Bai Muchuan uneasily.

“The main thing is, if we don’t get this cleared, what will happen to Huang He?”

If they were unable to prove that Sun Shangli’s death was a premeditated suicide, Huang He would be made to shoulder the responsibility of her death without a doubt.

“Hm!” Bai Muchuan put down the glass of wine slowly.

“Do you want to pick up Huang He with me on next Monday?”

Eh? Xiang Wan paused for a moment.

Does he mean he has settled Huang He’s matter too?

…