“Between 2:10 and 2:15, there was a gap when you returned from the lobby to the third floor to look for Bai Chicheng. The listening device didn’t pick up any sound during that period. Dr. Gong must have switched it off. Do you remember what the two of you talked about?”
“I’ve already told you. We didn’t discuss much. We were just predicting what Bai Chicheng might say next and where the guests from Room 1206 might be hidden.” Ren Yi slumped in his chair, his face utterly lifeless and unusually pale. He was openly hostile toward the person questioning him.
He had never been hostile toward the police before. He knew many officers from the Hongwu District Sub-bureau and had always worked with them. But Shen Pei, the officer interrogating him now, had been transferred from the municipal bureau. From the moment he sat down, he had treated Ren Yi like a criminal under interrogation—cold, severe, and incisive. His attitude had ignited Ren Yi’s anger.
However, that wasn’t why Ren Yi refused to reveal the actual conversation he had had with Gong Yingxian. The real reason was that he couldn’t trust the man sitting in front of him.
He was still in the hospital. Although he had been hospitalized countless times before and had woken up in hospital beds on many occasions, this was the first time he had opened his eyes to find the police waiting for him.
The moment he regained consciousness, he had anxiously asked where Gong Yingxian was. From the other man’s expression, he had already seen the answer: They didn’t know. What followed was a series of questions—or, more accurately, an interrogation.
“Captain Ren, if you’re withholding information from us, it will make finding Dr. Gong more difficult.”
“You’re the ones who started withholding information from me. What exactly happened to Gong Yingxian? If he was simply kidnapped, your focus shouldn’t be on me, and you certainly shouldn’t have sent someone from the municipal bureau to interrogate me.” Ren Yi glared at Shen Pei with bloodshot eyes. “Don’t fucking treat me like an idiot. I can refuse to say another word.”
Shen Pei fell silent for a moment before saying, “If you cooperate with me and give a truthful account of everything that happened at Jianxing Hotel that day, I can answer your questions.”
“I don’t need you to tell me anything. I can ask someone else.” Ren Yi turned his head away, searching for his phone.
“Captain Ren, aren’t you curious why, when you woke up, none of your acquaintances were here with you? Why am I the only one here?” Shen Pei asked calmly. “It’s because your freedom of movement has been temporarily restricted until we can rule out your involvement.”
Ren Yi whipped his head around, his eyes widening. “What did you say?!”
“Your freedom of movement has been restricted. You’re suspected of assisting Gong Yingxian in murdering Yue Xingu and helping Bai Chicheng escape.”
Ren Yi felt as though he had been struck on the head with a heavy club. The world spun around him, and his head throbbed with excruciating pain.
What? What the hell was this man talking about?!
“What kind of nonsense are you spouting? How could Gong Yingxian possibly have killed Yue Xingu?” Ren Yi tried to get off the bed in agitation, but his body was so weak that he nearly toppled onto the floor.
Shen Pei reacted quickly, catching him and pressing him back onto the bed. He watched as Ren Yi coughed uncontrollably.
It took Ren Yi a long time to stop coughing. In a hoarse voice, he managed to say, “Why… What… are you talking about? Yue Xingu was killed by Bai Chicheng.”
He even suspected that the sedatives in his system hadn’t fully worn off. Otherwise, how could he possibly be hearing something so absurd? Gong Yingxian had killed Yue Xingu? Was this man insane?!
“If we didn’t have evidence, we wouldn’t—and wouldn’t dare to—suspect a police officer without cause,” Shen Pei said coldly. “How long have you known Dr. Gong? Not even a year, right? Why have you been so eager to help him investigate cases and get involved in a case from nineteen years ago? Does it have something to do with him providing your father with high-end medical treatment worth over a million yuan?”
“I’ve already explained that matter to the brigade headquarters, and I provided all the documents proving my innocence.” Ren Yi gritted his teeth. “We’re friends. My father even saved his life once. My father received treatment through a charitable program at their hospital. There was no exchange of money or favors between us, and I never accepted any bribes.”
“So, as a firefighter, you’ve become this deeply involved in police investigations simply because you’re friends?”
Ren Yi snapped, “That X cult has tried to kill me over and over again! They killed my brother and so many innocent people! What’s wrong with wanting to catch them? If you don’t even have that much passion, what kind of man are you?”
“During his investigations, did Dr. Gong have any private contact with members of the X cult?”
“No. If he had, they would have been arrested long ago. He’s been tracking those people all along.”
“Why are you so certain? Because he tells you everything?” Shen Pei was clearly an experienced veteran police officer. His gaze was sharp, and every question struck directly at the heart of the matter.
This method of questioning only made Ren Yi angrier. His worry for Gong Yingxian had pushed him into an extreme emotional state, as though he could explode at any moment.
“He does share updates on the investigation with me from time to time. As for whether he tells me absolutely everything, I don’t live inside his stomach! How would I know? What evidence do you have that makes you suspect an outstanding police officer?”
“The audio recording from the scene, the physical evidence collected there, and some evidence found in Zhang Wen’s rental apartment have given us reason to suspect him. We were already aware that he and Captain Qiu had been secretly investigating the case from nineteen years ago. Some of their actions involved disciplinary violations, and we’d been monitoring the situation. After Yue Xingu was burned to death and Gong Yingxian disappeared along with Bai Chicheng, we formally began investigating him. We discovered a great many suspicious points. He may have allowed his obsession to drive him into doing things a police officer should never do. In fact, there’s no conclusive evidence that his father was murdered.”
Ren Yi clenched his fists. “There is evidence. He was just gathering more to secure a retrial. What did you find? Let me hear the recording.”
“You can’t access the recording for now. As I said, we have to rule out your involvement first. When he left the hotel with Bai Chicheng, he believed Tan Haochun had shut down all the hotel’s surveillance cameras. Initially, that was to prevent Bai Chicheng from monitoring them. What he didn’t know was that the underground parking garage and the indoor surveillance system operated on separate circuits. The garage cameras were still running. Bai Chicheng wasn’t holding him at gunpoint when they left the hotel room. He willingly got into the car with Bai Chicheng. But when they drove out of the garage and broke through the police blockade, Bai Chicheng was threatening him with a gun and forcing the police to let them pass.”
“…Maybe Bai Chicheng was coercing him in some other way. If all he did was point a gun at Gong Yingxian’s head, Gong might not necessarily have complied.”
“Then what was it? Yue Xingu was already dead. What could Bai Chicheng have used to threaten Dr. Gong?”
“I don’t know. And what makes you say Gong Yingxian killed Yue Xingu? Yue Xingu was kidnapped by Bai Chicheng!”
“Yue Xingu wasn’t kidnapped by Bai Chicheng. He was Bai Chicheng’s accomplice and entered the hotel voluntarily. According to the audio recording from the scene, Dr. Gong angrily accused Yue Xingu of various things. He had a much stronger motive to kill Yue Xingu than Bai Chicheng did.”
“Bullshit!” Ren Yi shouted angrily. “Yue Xingu’s daughter was kidnapped, and Purple Flame was behind it. Yue Xingu had already broken with the organization. Otherwise, why would Bai Chicheng use Yue Xingu as a hostage? Gong Yingxian may hate Yue Xingu, but he would never bypass the judicial system and execute him himself. He would have done everything possible to keep Yue Xingu alive so he could use him to gather more evidence of the organization’s crimes.”
“That’s how things appear on the surface, but this could very well have been an act staged by Yue Xingu and Bai Chicheng. Not long after Dr. Gong entered the room, he cut off the listening device. We have no idea what happened after that. There are simply too many suspicious aspects to this case.”
“By any normal person’s reasoning, you should know that Bai Chicheng killed Yue Xingu to silence him.”
“Why?” Shen Pei stared steadily at Ren Yi. “Why are you so certain that Bai Chicheng killed Yue Xingu?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Yue Xingu confessed his crimes to me and took responsibility for everything that happened nineteen years ago. All Bai Chicheng had to do was kill him, and then there would be no witnesses left. It would become much harder to reopen the case.”
“You’ve got it exactly backward. And I suspect this is what Dr. Gong has been putting into your head as well.” Shen Pei continued, “Let me ask you something. When Yue Xingu confessed all his crimes to you, did you tell only Gong Yingxian?”
Ren Yi hesitated. “Yes. There wasn’t enough time.”
“That means if Yue Xingu died, you would be the only witness. But your testimony wouldn’t be supported by solid evidence. It would amount to nothing more than your word against everyone else’s. And because you have a stain on your record involving suspected bribery, your testimony would most likely be discredited.”
Ren Yi opened his mouth, but Shen Pei didn’t give him a chance to interrupt.
“On the other hand, if Yue Xingu remained alive and personally confessed to his crimes, he knew the case from nineteen years ago inside and out and could provide plenty of details to corroborate his account. His testimony would carry considerable weight. Given that nineteen years have passed, the statute of limitations will expire in another six months, and evidence is missing, the judicial authorities would have to weigh whether reopening the case was worth the enormous expenditure of manpower and resources. Under those circumstances, Dr. Gong might actually fail to achieve his goal. So, with Yue Xingu dead, who benefits more?”
Ren Yi was stunned.
“Yue Xingu must have had something the organization could use against him. He also knew he couldn’t escape the law, so he may well have chosen to take all the blame to shield the real culprit. But now he’s dead.” Shen Pei narrowed his eyes. “According to our analysis, Bai Chicheng never intended to kill Yue Xingu. Dr. Gong was the one who refused to hand Yue Xingu over to the police, so he killed him. As for why he left with Bai Chicheng, we suspect he’d been in secret contact with the organization for a long time. In his efforts to clear his father’s name, he may have done many things behind the scenes that we don’t know about. The entire matter is concealed beneath a massive web of mystery.”
Ren Yi stared motionlessly at Shen Pei. Somewhere in his blank mind, a voice was shouting in protest against every single thing this man said.
Yet he couldn’t utter a single word.
He knew he shouldn’t readily suspect Gong Yingxian. But the entire sequence of events really was suspicious. The thing he found most incomprehensible was why Gong Yingxian had left with Bai Chicheng. After all, he had personally watched Gong Yingxian leave the room.
But he didn’t dare say that aloud.
Now, only finding Gong Yingxian could explain all these unanswered questions.
But where was Gong Yingxian?
More than the truth, more than anything else, all Ren Yi could do now was pray with all his heart that Gong Yingxian was safe.