original sin
The lights in the interrogation room were dim. Chen An sat down and remained silent. The longer he remained silent, the more nervous He Lili became. After a few minutes, Chen An spoke up, "Where were you in the early morning hours of April 21st?"
He Lili didn't dare look at him at all. She lowered her head and her eyes wandered around the table. After a while, she said, "I, I'm in the dormitory."
Chen An remained silent. Seeing that he seemed unconvinced, He Lili added many details, "We had a weekly test that day. It was already half past ten when we finished the comprehensive liberal arts test. There was no time to go anywhere else." She became more and more certain, "It was cold and rainy that day. I returned to the dormitory very early, really!" After saying that, she raised her head and looked at Chen An, trying her best to gain his trust.
Chen An asked, "If you thought we didn't have solid evidence, would you be sitting here now?"
He Lili twisted her hands together even harder, her knuckles turning white. After so many days, she went from being scared at first to gradually believing that the police wouldn't find out. Yi Tian comforted her again and again, telling her that she must not give up at this time.
She said stubbornly, "I don't know."
Chen An said, "You'll know whether you've returned to the dormitory or not after asking your roommates."
When she was asked about her roommate He Lili, she panicked a little. After all, she did go home very late that night. Her mind was a mess at the moment, and she couldn't think of any other solution except to deny it.
Chen An continued, "We extracted half a fingerprint from the tiles of the abandoned teaching building, and this fingerprint belongs to you."
Fingerprints? How can there be fingerprints?
He Lili tried hard to recall what happened that night.
After the heavy rain, they all came out of the examination room and prepared to return to the dormitory, but He Lili did not go back. She went to the next class to find her boyfriend Yi Tian. They agreed to get together every Tuesday, and the abandoned teaching building was their secret base.
The abandoned teaching building of No. 2 Middle School had been marked "demolished" a long time ago but no one had come to demolish it. It was pitch black here at night and the overgrown weeds were particularly terrifying in the dark. They were doing things that they shouldn't do at their age under the cover of the grass.
He Lili held on to the wall with her hands. The rough cement wall hurt her hands. The tiles on this wall had fallen off severely, with only a small piece left sticking to the wall. In a moment of excitement, she supported her hands on the tiles.
He Lili understood in an instant, it was that time!
Chen An observed her expression. A girl of seventeen or eighteen years old couldn't hide her expression, and he saw enlightenment on her face.
He Lili panicked, "I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't been to the old teaching building. The fingerprints aren't mine!"
Chen An said, "You have a boyfriend, right?"
He Lili gasped. Chen An continued, "He's also at the police station now. If he were asked the same question, how would he answer the police?"
How to answer?
Yi Tian was not a good person. He Lili knew this from the first day she met him. If she asked the same question, she couldn't guarantee that Yi Tian wouldn't sell her out.
Xu Jie looked at He Lili's colorful expression from the other end and said with a smile, "Prisoner's dilemma."
After waiting for a while, Chen An pretended to be impatient, put away his pen and stood up, "I'll go check on Yi Tian."
"Wait!" He Lili stopped him before he even reached the door, "Can I, can I admit it now..."
Chen An sat down again and said, "I will help you get leniency."
He Lili refocused her gaze on the frosted table and said as if she had given up completely, "On the 21st, Yi Tian and I made an appointment at the abandoned teaching building... but someone showed up halfway through..."
The faint moans were lost in the sound of the rain. He Lili lifted her skirt and looked at the man leaning over her. "Did you bring it?"
Yi Tian said: "No."
He Lili was very angry and pushed him away, "Why are you always like this?"
Yi Tian didn't care, "What are you afraid of? Aren't you in your safe period?"
He Lili said, "The college entrance exam is coming up. What if I get pregnant? What if the physical examination reveals it?"
Yi Tian comforted her, "It's okay. I didn't get pregnant before. Besides, I'm not in there, so the probability is very small."
He Lili couldn't do anything about him. She had raised this issue countless times, but he always made excuses for not feeling well. Seeing that she didn't respond, Yi Tian got annoyed and said, "Do it or not? If not, let's go."
He Lili hesitated for a moment and then held him back.
When she was feeling emotional, she seemed to hear footsteps, "Someone is coming."
Yi Tian also heard the footsteps, and they were getting closer and closer. The eaves they were under was a blind spot, and it was raining outside, so they had nowhere to go.
He Lili burst into tears, tears dripping onto her hands. "She was getting closer and closer, and we were afraid our actions would be exposed. Then, I picked up a stick and hit her."
Chen An asked, "Where did it hit?"
He Lili shook her head vigorously, "I don't know, I don't know, Yi Tian, Yi Tian pushed her, and she fell to the ground without a sound!"
Chen An said, "So you buried her?"
He Lili quickly waved her hands, "No, she's not dead."
"Not dead?" Chen An frowned.
He Lili was in a trance. "I thought she was dead, but she wasn't. She was lying on the ground, bleeding from her head. She stretched out her hands and called for us to save her. I was so scared that I just hid aside. Then Yi Tian picked up a wooden stick and hit her several times, and she just stopped moving."
He Lili saw Yi Tian hit her twice more and she shouted, "What are you doing?"
Yi Tian turned his head, the blood and rain on his face mixed together, his face was hideous, "You are stupid, what will happen to us if she is alive!"
He Lili was terrified and hid under the eaves, not daring to speak. Then Yi Tian found a shovel from the place where he was supposed to work, and asked, "What are you going to do?"
"Bury her. It's raining anyway, and by the time anyone finds her, all traces will be gone." Yi Tian acted unusually calm, so calm that it scared her.
She covered her face and burst into tears. "I really didn't know she would die! I really didn't mean to do that! I don't know her at all. I really didn't mean to do that, officer!"
Chen An came out of the interrogation room and handed the man over to Xu Jie to comfort him. He told Xiao Liu, "Bring Yi Tian here."
Xiao Liu said, "Okay." Before leaving, he said, "Oh, by the way, Captain Chen, you asked me to check Liu Hanxiao's remittance records. She does have her own bank card, and one hundred thousand yuan was transferred into this card on the 17th."
Chen An's eyes lit up, "Have you found the source?"
Xiao Liu shook his head and said, "No." He said embarrassedly, "Our technology here is limited, and we can't trace the IP."
Chen An nodded, "I understand. You go ahead and do your work." He turned around and called Bai Shuo, "There's an account here. Can you help me check the remitter?"
The person on the other end of the phone responded simply, "Okay."
Bai Shuo is the best technician in their group and a member of the serious crime team.
Back in the office, Chen An took a glass of water and sorted out his thoughts.
Liu Hanxiao was diligent and hardworking, but her grades dropped during the college entrance examination. Maybe she discovered the truth about her parents' divorce, or maybe not, but her parents didn't pay much attention to her during the whole year of repeating the grade. Her life, which was already difficult to maintain, became even more difficult after her grandmother fell. In order to treat her grandmother's illness, Liu Hanxiao made a deal with someone. On April 17, the other party used a complicated springboard to wire her 100,000 yuan as a deposit.
Liu Hanxiao used the money to pay for her grandmother's surgery and hired a nurse. Then it was time for Liu Hanxiao to fulfill her promise.
On April 18th, she took a leave of absence from school and returned home. She took bus No. 1 to the old city and stayed in a hotel for the night. She truly disappeared on the 19th. So, she wasn't in Changping County from the 19th to the 20th. Who took her there? And why did she appear in the abandoned school building on the night of the 21st?
Skipping the question, Liu Hanxiao's death became an accident. On the evening of the 21st, someone had asked her or arranged for her to go to the abandoned school building, but that person didn't show up. Instead, Liu Hanxiao ran into He Lili and Yi Tian. Fearing their actions would be exposed, they accidentally killed her and dug a large pit to bury her when it rained.
It seems normal that they could not find any suspicious people around Liu Hanxiao. After all, the murderer and the victim did not know each other.
It wasn't enough to sort this out; Chen An still felt like there was something fishy going on. Just as he was lost in thought, the door suddenly opened and Xie Hongfei said, "I just asked Yi Tian, and he said He Lili killed him."
"He said that He Lili picked up a stick and hit Liu Hanxiao on the head. Liu Hanxiao fell to the ground, and the wound hit the red bricks. She bled to death instantly," said Xie Hongfei. "Now they both accuse the other of being Liu Hanxiao's murderer."
Chen An decided to go and see for himself. Through the one-way glass, he looked at the people in the interrogation room and roared, "What does this have to do with me? He Lili killed the person! She hit that woman with a stick without hesitation. She framed me!"
Xu Jie sat inside and said, "Quiet!" Then she said, "He Lili has already explained the whole process over there. Didn't you participate?"
Yi Tian sneered after hearing this, "What are you talking about? How did she kill that woman?"
Xu Jie stared at him calmly for a long time. Yi Tian calmed down a little. "The abandoned teaching building is our secret base. We meet there every Tuesday. It was raining that day and we were halfway through our meeting when a figure suddenly appeared nearby. She and I were both scared to death."
The figure was getting closer and closer. He Lili picked up a wooden stick from the ground and hit the shadow directly before he could react. Yi Tian scolded, "What are you doing!"
He Lili saw the man fall down and instructed him, "Go and take a look!"
Yi Tian really did see it. It was raining at the time and he didn't dare to stick his head out too much. He only saw a girl lying on the red brick ground, with blood still flowing from her body, flowing to their feet with the rain.
They both stood there in a daze, not knowing what to do. After a while, Yi Tiancai said, "Why did you hit her?"
He Lili suddenly burst into tears, "I'm scared, I, I saw someone coming and I... Is she okay?"
Yi Tian said, "She hit her head on a red brick. Do you think she's okay?"
"Ah!" He Lili squatted on the ground and hugged herself in a defensive posture. "She won't, she won't die, right?"
At about a quarter past twelve, the rain stopped. Yi Tian checked her breath and said with difficulty, "She's dead."
He Lili burst into tears and grabbed his hand, "What should I do? What should I do? Think of a solution!"
Yi Tianxin said, "Bury it."
"You should know what happened next. The rain stopped, and we found a shovel and buried her in the lawn."
Xu Jie asked, "Where are the tools used in the crime?"
Yi Tian said: "It was originally there with the shovel. We used clothes to clean the fingerprints on it. The wooden stick was taken away. It was burned in the sunny days."
Chen An listened to the whole process outside. From the confessions of the two people, Yi Tian's was more credible. The forensic examination showed that there were no signs of multiple blows on the back of Liu Hanxiao's head, so it was very likely that He Lili hit her with a stick, and then Liu Hanxiao fell and hit his head on the red bricks and bled to death.
Xu Jie asked, "Where did you go after that?"
Yi Tian said: "I don't live on campus. I went home. He Lili went back to the dormitory."
Xu Jie looked through the documents and asked, "So you all asked for leave the next day?"
He nodded, "Yeah. We both took a long leave, so we came back after figuring you wouldn't be able to find anything on us."
Xu Jie sneered, "So confident?"
Yi Tian said, "After all, we don't know Liu Hanxiao at all, and it's raining. By the time you find us, the college entrance examination will be over. Isn't everything over after the college entrance examination?"
He was right. If they graduated, it would be even more difficult to identify the murderer, but fortunately there was that half fingerprint.
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