Chapter 31 Bird of Paradise 16
On Monday afternoon, at Donglan No. 2 Detention Center, which is also the detention center in Donglan City specifically for female prisoners.
Luo Siwei brought Ni Xiang in and interrogated He Jin again.
He Jin, now dressed in a striped prison uniform and handcuffed, looked up at the two policewomen, a look of bewilderment on her childish face. "I've already confessed, what are you doing here again?"
Luo Siwei placed a stack of information on the table in front of He Jin: "The police have made some new discoveries."
He Jin nodded softly, she seemed not to care at all.
Luo Siwei said, "Regarding the burns on your arms, we went to the bar you visited that night and interviewed witnesses. They confirmed that the burns were caused by several men who had sexually assaulted you that night."
"Really?" He Jin tilted her head. She thought for a moment and then shook her head. "I can't even remember what happened that night..."
Luo Siwei produced a test report: "Your memory of that night is hazy because you were drugged in the bar. Police detected a substance called gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) in your blood, commonly known as "obedient water." This drug affects the central nervous system and can cause temporary memory loss and confusion. The individuals involved have been arrested, and police have found evidence of their drug purchase."
Luo Siwei said this and pulled out a few more photos. They were the prison photos of Pink Hair and Troublehead from the bar. She was trying to jog He Jin's memory.
"After being drugged, someone tried to assault you. You struggled out of the bar, took a taxi back to where you lived, and kept wandering downstairs."
He Jin hugged his head when he heard this, his eyes full of confusion: "I remember a little bit, I walked around in the yard, but I'm not sure if I went upstairs..."
Luo Siwei said, "I conducted a simulation test with the forensic doctor. When the murderer's knife stabbed your brother's body, it cut his internal artery and caused heavy bleeding. The murderer must have been standing across from your brother at the time, so he would have been stained by the splattered blood."
When the police saw He Jin, she was clean, which was also circumstantial evidence that could prove He Jin's innocence.
The girl in front of me may not be the real murderer of that case. She may be the lucky one who survived the disaster by chance. If she was also at home that night, then she might have died like her family?
Luo Siwei looked up at the girl sitting in front of her: "Let me ask you again, how much do you remember about that night? Did you really kill your brother? Did you really set the fire?"
He Jin sat there blankly for a moment, then she suddenly burst into tears. "I can't remember clearly. My memories of that night are fragmented. I did say some venting words online before, but I didn't really want to kill them."
At this point, big tears fell from her eyes. He Jin wiped the tears with the back of her hand, "But they are all dead... I am very scared. I am not sure if I did it. I know that you all doubt me... Even my mother thinks I did it. I have told so many lies, but I did not lie about this one."
Luo Siwei made a gesture, and Ni Xiang, who was responsible for taking notes, went to get a pack of tissues and handed it to He Jin.
"Can you tell me the truth about your relationship with your parents?"
He Jin raised his head and looked at her with tearful eyes: "I..." She was speechless again.
Luo Siwei emphasized: "I don't want to hear those lies. I want to hear the truth about what happened to you."
"The truth?" He Jin asked in a low voice. She seemed not to understand what this simple sentence meant.
Luo Siwei said: "We went to see Teacher Tang..."
"Teacher Tang..." He Jin's tears flowed again when she heard the name. He was a person who had once entered her heart, but later, she gradually froze herself away.
"Teacher Tang talked to us a lot, including your past and your parents' neglect of you. She said she didn't believe you would do such a thing." At this point, Luo Siwei looked up at her, "I believe you too."
He Jin suddenly felt that the layer of ice that wrapped around his heart seemed to be hit hard by something, and cracks appeared on the hard shell.
Luo Siwei repeated the question: "So, can you tell me the exact relationship between you and your parents?"
He Jin lowered his head and suddenly covered his face with his hands.
"As far as I can remember, my mother never got close to me or hugged me."
"The first thing I remember is that I fell down one time and my mother was standing next to me. She didn't help me, but leaned over and let me stand up on my own. I tried for a long time until she lost her patience and turned away. I watched her back getting farther and farther away, terrified. I struggled to my feet, crying and limping behind her, crying out, 'Mom, please don't ignore me...' For many years, this scene has been a nightmare for me."
"The second thing I remember was my parents arguing. I was watching them through the crack in the door. I couldn't understand what they were saying. I just remember it was a very intense argument. Mom seemed to have lost. She noticed me standing at the door and turned to look at me. Her eyes were very scary and cold..."
"I was about three years old that year. The next day I was left at my hometown and thrown away like trash."
"I wasn't taken in by my parents until I was eight years old. I discovered I had a little sister. She was chubby and cute, and she was learning to walk. One time, my mom went to get something and asked me to look after her. She suddenly fell down, and since she wasn't hurt, I let her get up on her own, just like my mother did to me."
"My younger sister was crying the whole time, lying on her stomach and acting like a spoiled brat, refusing to get up. My mom saw this and ran over from the other side of the garden. I thought she was coming to take me home, so I happily opened my arms to welcome her, but she came over and slapped me down. She yelled at me, 'Why didn't you help your younger sister up? How could you be so heartless?' She ignored me, picked up my younger sister, blew on her lovingly, tried to calm her down, and asked if it hurt."
"At that time, I fell to the side. My leg was cut and it hurt so much that I cried. But my mother blamed me: 'Don't cry. Why are you always like this? I shouldn't have given birth to you. I don't want you anymore. I'd rather starve you to death.'"
"I don't understand why." After many years, He Jin finally told this matter to outsiders and raised this question.
"When I was little, I always walked by myself. But why was my mother so gentle when she was with my sister? She picked her up and walked forward with big strides. I cried and ran desperately behind her to catch up with her. All I saw was her back..."
"When I was very young, they left me to my grandmother and ignored me. Why, now that I have grown up, do I need to help others, take care of my younger siblings, and be responsible for others? I realized at that time that my parents no longer seemed to belong to me. No matter how hard I try, no matter what I do, my mother will always be prejudiced against me."
Luo Siwei looked at the thin girl in front of her. She was just a child at that time, but she had to take on things that were not in line with her age.
Unfortunately, not every parent likes all of their children. He Jin is the least popular one in this family.
She lives in a family with both parents, but she always feels like an orphan.
"There were so many things like this. One time, I made a small mistake. My mother looked at me with cold eyes and said, 'I regret giving birth to you. I don't want to see you.'"
"When I heard this, it felt like I was being sentenced to death. I was terrified. I tried my best to please her, crying and telling her that I was wrong and I would never do it again. But she ignored me for the next week. She didn't invite me to dinner, didn't care about my studies, and acted as if I didn't exist."
"My dad would come and talk me out of it. He said I shouldn't make Mom angry. He was already so busy with work, and he had to deal with all this mess because of me. He said it was all my fault and that I was the reason for the unhappiness in our family."
"I was so upset I couldn't eat. But Mom and Dad were happily circling around my sister. Later, Mom got pregnant again, and after we had a younger brother, the situation got even worse. He's a boy, and he's the root of our He family. Every holiday, they'd take us to visit relatives. They'd talk about my sister's academic performance and achievements, and how lively and adorable my brother was. They'd give them New Year's money right in front of me, but I got none. I could only sit in the corner."
As He Jin spoke of this, tears welled up in her eyes, seemingly even more heartbroken than if she had known her family had been killed in a fire. As she cried, her prison uniform, which was too large for her, hunched over her frail shoulders, made her look even more pitiful.
"When they bought the house they later lived in, I was very happy at first because it was in the school district and I could go to a good school nearby. I thought, maybe my parents still care about me. But then I passed by their room one day and heard that the house was bought for my younger siblings to go to school, and I just benefited from it."
"After moving to our new home, I thought I would have my own room, or at least live with my sister. But my mother made me live on the balcony. For the first few years, there were no screens on the windows, and there was no air conditioning on the balcony. When I slept with the windows closed, I felt like I was in a steamer. Once I opened the windows, the mosquitoes would swarm around me and bite me."
"There are many other things. I cherish things, such as the vegetables and fruits I like to eat, and I selflessly give them to my younger siblings. If I want to get something from them, my parents will say, 'You are so old, why are you still fighting with your younger siblings? Your younger siblings are still young, why do you have to argue with them? You are the older sister, you should give in to them.' If I don't do what they want, they treat me like air. They don't talk to me for a long time."
"Because my younger siblings are about the same age, and our family is better off now than when I was a child, they buy two of everything, like reading pens and learning machines. But I wanted a computer for studying, so they kept dragging their feet and finally bought me the cheapest one. My younger siblings followed suit, bullying and neglecting me. Whenever the school teachers asked us to buy or prepare something, my mom would often say coldly, 'I forgot.'"
"If I ran away from home, they would laugh at me. How could you come back? Did you run out of money?"
"My mom said to me, 'Why didn't you die outside?'"
After hearing this, Luo Siwei understood. Probably from that time on, He Jin started to lie. She didn't want people to know that her parents treated her like this. In front of outsiders, she tried her best to maintain her pitiful dignity.
He Jin continued crying, "They didn't want me to go to college, not because they didn't have the money, but because they didn't want to. My dad didn't want me to go to high school in the first place. He thought it was useless for girls to study too much, and that my high school tuition would be better spent on ballet lessons for my sister. It was a few teachers who interceded for me, and a relative who told them that middle school or vocational school students couldn't earn as much as high school students working. I was admitted to high school and earned a school bonus, so they let me stay in school for a few more years."
"Ever since I started high school, they've ignored me even more, disregarding my feelings. They've even stopped beating, scolding, and mocking me. They never look for me when I'm not home. They don't care if I'm doing well, if my grades are good, if I'm happy, if I've made friends... They don't even look at me coldly anymore."
He Jin cried until her tears dried up. Her eyes were red as she continued, "So I learned to steal money, I learned to drink, I learned to smoke, I learned to wear short skirts, I learned to go to bars, I called the police myself. I wanted them to care about me, I wanted them to be angry."
Her chest heaved as if she was holding her breath.
Luo Siwei asked: "What happened next?"
When He Jin heard this question, he was like a deflated balloon, his back bent down: "They don't care..."
She was completely defeated in front of her parents and family.
He Jin felt as if she was living in a glass cage, surrounded by cold walls that isolated her from the whole world. She screamed at the top of her lungs, cried bitterly, smashed things madly, and struggled desperately. She was so sad that she was about to die.
But no one heard, no one saw.
"Sometimes I get so angry that I post some angry words online. I even post to the Shudong account and share what my parents did. Netizens will sympathize with me and scold them. But why don't my parents get punished when they do something wrong?"
"On the day of the incident, my mother and I had an argument. I chased her and argued with her, but she didn't bother to pay any attention to me. I asked her if she would be satisfied only if I died. She said that having two children, a younger brother and a younger sister, was enough for the family. I fell into the village river when I was five years old and should not have been rescued."
"I just realized that she really didn't care. She didn't even care whether I was alive or not."
"I was furious at the time, and I said, 'Even if I die, I'll take you with me...' I've said similar things before, but I really just thought about it in my heart. I don't want this."
Having said that, He Jin lowered her head and was almost speechless. This was what happened before she ran to the bar that night.
She panted, trying hard to suppress her trembling voice, and spoke one word at a time.
"What I really want is for them to love me..."
Things that other children were born with were too luxurious for her.
Luo Siwei didn't rush He Jin, but waited quietly for her to calm down. Looking at He Jin's trembling shoulders, she felt that Chi Li was right. This was a neglected child.
Luo Siwei didn't know how much pain He Jin's heart felt when Liu Wangnan said, "It was my eldest daughter He Jin who set the fire." Was it like a sharp knife stabbing into her heart, cutting it all over again?
She saw the bloody scars on the girl's body, and it seemed that she could not be blamed for her rebellion and lies.
She curled up in a dark corner and grew up stubbornly, but in the end she couldn't resist her mother's words.
That's why she lied and confessed to all the crimes like a zombie.
Luo Siwei suddenly understood why He Jin smiled while looking at the burning window even though she was unconscious after taking the obedient water. That was where she grew up, her home, but it was also the source of her pain.
She both loved and hated it.
Looking at the fire, there might have been a hint of joy in He Jin's subconscious mind.
After choking for a long time, He Jin was finally able to speak again. She said in a trembling voice: "No one wanted to listen to this before, and I don't want to tell others about this."
Then she said in a hoarse voice, "I didn't lie on purpose, even though I lie often. After this happened, what did you want me to say? If I told you the truth from the beginning, would you think I was more like a murderer?"
Luo Siwei looked at He Jin. There were some things she didn't tell her, and He Jin didn't know why she was imprisoned here.
The case had been hotly debated online for days, with He Jin practically identified as the murderer. People dug up clues and unearthed her previous anonymous posts, leading netizens to believe she had murdered her father and brother because of the unfair treatment she'd received. Some even suggested she was a born evil child.
Some people angrily went to the public account of @Donglan Police, demanding that they disclose the facts and hand over the murderer.
These matters were handled by Chi Li. Luo Siwei didn't know what methods he used to withstand the pressure.
People are always willing to believe that what they firmly believe is the truth, and it is difficult to make them trust the rumor refutators even if they shout at the top of their lungs.
Only when the truth comes to light can the facts be restored.
Looking at the girl in front of him, Luo Siwei said comfortingly: "If you are not the murderer, I will find the murderer."
He Jin suddenly felt that the pieces of ice that wrapped around her shattered.
She finally stopped crying, tears in the corners of her eyes, and she smiled and said, "Thank you, thank you for believing in me..."
Her parents ignored her, the world forgot her, netizens pointed fingers at her, and in the end, she herself gave up on herself. But only this policewoman in front of her was working hard to prove her innocence.
In the interrogation room of the detention center, Luo Siwei was still questioning He Jin.
"Judging from the surveillance footage, you returned downstairs around 1:00 a.m., before the fire. Think carefully about what you saw at that time."
According to this time, if He Jin had been wandering downstairs, she might have seen the murderer.
Luo Siwei continued: "Your testimony is very important to the police investigation."
"At that time, I at that time..." He Jin would have a splitting headache whenever she thought of what happened that night. She covered her eyes with her hands, trying to think of something.
Luo Siwei inspired her: "Don't be anxious, just close your eyes and give it a try."
He Jin felt that her mind was filled with flashing images, distorted images, like a Picasso painting. She closed her eyes, trying to see the images clearly, but the more she did so, the faster the images flashed.
Her breathing became rapid. The crying just now made her a little short of oxygen. The girl's face was pale and there was a thin layer of sweat on her forehead.
My mother's cold back, my father's furrowed brow, my brother's gloating smile, my sister's closed door. The swaying figures in the bar, the deafening music, the dim lights, the men's lewd expressions... The pitch-black streets, the warped buildings, the spinning streetlights, the windows ablaze, the neighbors looking up...
besides……
He Jin opened his eyes and blurted out: "A man..."
She calmed herself down and continued, "He was standing under the streetlight at the corner... wearing a hat... with his mask partially pulled back, smoking."
Luo Siwei and Ni Xiang were both excited when they heard this.
The case was investigated to this point and a new suspect finally emerged.
"Have you seen him? Do you know him?" Luo Siwei asked.
"I think... I've seen it once, but I'm not sure."
"Can you make a simulated portrait?"
He Jin tried hard to recall, and a picture emerged in her mind. It was last year, she was curled up on the balcony doing homework, and through the glass door, she saw a man arguing with her father.
She didn't hear what they were arguing about, she only saw the man angrily turn around, his face twisted with rage...
That face overlapped with the man in the darkness, like a ferocious beast lurking in the human world.
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