Chapter 31
Inside a five-story blue-and-white building in the city center, Zhou Jiyao sat dazed in one of the interrogation rooms. A ceiling light shone as brightly as day, and the walls were padded with navy blue foam. Opposite him sat a long, empty table with a computer on it.
Zhou Jiyao hadn't seen a living person since being brought into this room. It felt like an eternity had passed. He looked up, but the round clock on the wall had only ticked ten minutes. He looked down at his cold handcuffs, where his fingers were covered in tiny barbs.
By the time he had pulled out all the barbs, the door to the interrogation room was pushed open. Zhou Jiyao checked the time; forty-three minutes had passed since he was brought here.
The visitors were no strangers; they were the two police officers who had watched their emergency drill at the company. Zhou Jiyao wanted to smile and say hello, but found his face was so stiff that he couldn't move.
Chen Jingzhou sat at the computer behind the interrogation table and skillfully typed in the password on the keyboard.
"Name, gender, age, home address, and workplace, please report."
Zhou Jiyao stretched his facial muscles, trying to relax. "Zhou Jiyao, male, 37 years old, No. 58, Building 19, Fenghua Community, Nanchi Street, head of the hydrotreating unit in the second refining department of Donghe Refining and Chemical Company."
"Do you know why I brought you here?" Chen Jingzhou asked while typing.
Zhou Jiyao lowered his eyes and said dejectedly, "It's a fatal accident, and we will pursue criminal responsibility."
Chen Jingzhou was stunned, then turned to look at Yu Lei who was sitting next to him. He saw that when his captain heard this, his eyes narrowed subconsciously, as if he was confused.
"Then tell me, where is your responsibility?" Yu Lei sat forward, his elbows on the table, and pressed the earphones in his ears with his fingers.
Tang Ruxin, standing outside the interrogation room's glass wall, was equally bewildered. She wasn't sure if Engineer Zhou was truly foolish or just pretending. Even if someone were held criminally responsible for the fatality, could they pin it on a mere device manager like him? She wasn't even sitting in the interrogation room, so how could it be his turn?
Zhou Jiyao remained silent, his head bowed, his expression invisible. It wasn't until Chen Jingzhou knocked on the table, urging him to answer, that he murmured, "I don't know."
"You'd better think it through. We ask you now to give you a chance to confess. If you confess after we put the evidence in front of you, the nature of the matter will be different." Chen Jingzhou picked up the folder next to him and shook it.
Zhou Jiyao raised his head, his eyes red.
"I really didn't know that valve was open." Zhou Jiyao choked up, his voice trembling almost like tears. "The equipment has been producing normally. There have been no abnormal fluctuations recently, let alone major operations such as starting or stopping. That valve, the manual valve for the flare, should have remained closed. We have been producing continuously for several years, without any interruption..."
Yu Lei raised his hand to interrupt him, stood up, opened the folder, took out a photo and placed it on Zhou Jiyao's small table.
"Do you know this person?"
"Liu, Liu Dong?" Zhou Jiyao said uncertainly.
"What about this one?" Yu Lei put down another photo.
"Chen Junan..."
"No need to ask about that. You're the one who installed it." Yu Lei put down the last photo and returned to the interrogation table. "In just half a month, two people died, one was seriously injured, and two were slightly injured. You're quite capable."
Zhou Jiyao's expression was as if he had been struck by thunder, and he was so shocked that he couldn't close his mouth for a long time.
"What...ah? I..."
Yu Lei leaned closer to Chen Jingzhou and whispered, "Does this acting skill rank among the top three among the suspects here?"
Chen Jingzhou nodded seriously and agreed, "If not first, then second."
"Do you think he will confess now?" Yu Lei continued to whisper to Chen Jingzhou.
"It's difficult, but you need to have strong psychological qualities." Chen Jingzhou answered cooperatively.
Yu Lei nodded and left the interrogation room with Chen Jingzhou. Usually, in situations like this, the suspect would be given some alone time to allow the interrogators to observe any changes in their mental state and adjust their interrogation strategies accordingly.
Outside the interrogation room, Tang Ruxin folded her arms across her chest, her brow furrowed, her back stiff. Seeing them emerge, she gave a slight nod before returning her gaze to Zhou Jiyao in the interrogation room.
At this time, Zhou Jiyao had completely lost his previous dejection. Instead, he was filled with shock and panic, as well as doubt and bewilderment. He was like a wronged rabbit, helpless and pitiful.
Just as Yu Lei said, if he was pretending, his acting skills were indeed amazing.
"How do you know for sure he's a suspect?" Tang Ruxin asked Yu Lei, who was standing beside her, drinking tea from a large teapot.
"I was just about to ask you something." Yu Lei spat out the tea dregs and screwed the lid back on. "The day after the Liu Dong case, our people questioned all the employees who were on duty that night. You didn't say the person in charge of the device was there that night."
Tang Ruxin was stunned. "Is he here? I don't know. He wasn't on duty that day, so why was he here?"
"You're asking me?" Yu Lei pulled out his phone and flipped through the photos to show her. "The access control system for the installation area shows that he didn't leave work that day and didn't leave until 5:22 in the morning. Liu Dong was found at 6:10."
"...overtime?" Tang Ruxin gave the possibility uncertainly.
"Zhou Jiyao often walks through this path inside the ketone benzene plant to and from work." Yu Lei swiped his phone screen to continue flipping through photos. "His workplace is directly opposite Gate 2 of the plant area. He insists on walking through the ketone benzene plant where Chen Junan works to get his car at Gate 1, which is farther away from his workplace. Why does he park at Gate 1 instead of directly at the closer Gate 2?"
"...exercise, body?"
After Tang Ruxin finished speaking, Yu Lei gave her a look that asked, "Do you believe it yourself?"
"Look at this photo again. Two days before the emergency drill, at 4:27 PM, he appeared under the valve that caused the converter explosion and stood with his back to the camera for a few seconds. Of course, due to the angle, we can only see him standing there; there's no way to confirm that he actually moved the valve."
Tang Ruxin couldn't find any excuse, not even one that was outrageous. If she saw these things, she would have arrested the person directly.
"But why did he do that?" Tang Ruxin was puzzled. "Did the company offend him?"
"We'll know after the trial."
It turns out that the motive has not been determined yet. Tang Ruxin's face fell, "What if the interrogation can't reveal it? Although the evidence you have is indicative, it's not solid enough."
Yu Lei put away his phone and said with a forced smile:
"I'll soon let you know how hard I am."
Watching Yu Lei quickly sneak into the interrogation room in two steps, Tang Ruxin's eyes widened and the expression on her face became more and more unbelievable.
—Is he making dirty jokes?!
He's wearing a neat uniform and saying something like that?!
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