This question surprised Zhang Ruobing.
"...I don't know." She answered truthfully, which was the only uncertain point in the entire case and the breakthrough point she planned to focus on during the afternoon's interrogation.
“…I don’t know.” She answered truthfully. “It wasn’t found during the search. Wang Xiaoya insisted that it was brown sugar she brought from home, but I smelled it myself, and the smell and color were wrong. It was a kind of…I’ve never smelled it before, a mixture of a rich milky aroma and a strange, bitter fragrance.”
She paused, her eyes sharpening:
“I suspect that it wasn’t snacks at all, but contraband that she brought in from outside when she met someone in the back mountain. An ordinary rural female soldier wouldn’t have any way to obtain something so unheard of. There’s probably a more complicated issue behind this. That’s why I’ve temporarily detained her and am preparing to conduct further interrogation after today’s training.”
"Connection?" Qin Ye stopped tapping and repeated the word.
Qin Ye fell silent.
In his mind, the image of Su Tang giving him that sweet and slightly bitter dark chocolate, still warm from her body, appeared clearly last night on the back mountain.
Cadbury.
In this era, let alone an ordinary rural female soldier, even Zhang Ruobing probably had never seen such a thing.
Therefore, the chocolate that Wang Xiaoya ate was 100% the chocolate that Su Tang gave her.
Zhang Ruobing's seemingly serious claims of "making contact" and "enemy infiltration" are utter nonsense.
Qin Ye's eyes darkened instantly.
He remembered the rustling sounds he and Su Tang had heard last night while hiding behind the reclining ox rock, the sounds coming from the bushes. That furtive third person…
Wang Xiaoya must have been wronged, and the so-called "eyewitness" Bai Wei... is the most suspicious.
He raised his head again and looked at Zhang Ruobing.
"Instructor Zhang, you're saying Wang Xiaoya has confessed?"
“Yes.” Zhang Ruobing nodded. “She admitted herself that she climbed out of the window and went to the back mountain alone.”
"Did she admit it voluntarily?" Qin Ye asked again.
This question made Zhang Ruobing frown even more; she felt herself being drawn into the other person's rhythm step by step.
"Instructor Qin, I don't understand what you mean. The interrogation process was completely compliant, and there was no violation of regulations."
“What I mean is,” Qin Ye said slowly, “in the absence of other evidence and with only one ‘eyewitness,’ is it possible that she was tortured into confessing? Or that she was forced to take the blame to protect someone?”
"Impossible!" Zhang Ruobing immediately retorted, "I would never use torture to extract a confession! As for taking the blame... that was her own choice. In the military, only results matter. Since she confessed, she must take responsibility for her actions!"
Her tone was resolute, carrying the coldness and unquestionable authority characteristic of military judges.
Lei Kuan listened attentively, nodding repeatedly, agreeing with Zhang Ruobing's reasoning. In the military, there's no room for joking; since she had already admitted it, there was nothing more to say.
"Your suspicions are reasonable." Qin Ye surprisingly did not refute, but instead nodded, seemingly agreeing with Zhang Ruobing's judgment.
"However, I have a question. A rural female soldier, whom you described as 'naive and timid,' suddenly, in the dead of night, risking being discharged from the military, climbed out of a window alone and ventured into the pitch-black restricted area of the back mountain, all for the purpose of 'meeting' someone and eating a snack of dubious origin. Then, after being discovered, she unhesitatingly took all the blame. Instructor Zhang, do you think this story makes sense?"
"..." Zhang Ruobing's expression changed for the first time.
She discovered that, after Qin Ye's analysis, this seemingly intractable case suddenly became absurd.
Lei Kuan also sensed something was off and chimed in, "Yeah, now that Instructor Qin says it, it does sound a bit eerie. I vaguely remember that girl; she's more timid than a rabbit. Last time during combat training, she burst into tears the moment someone pushed her."
Qin Ye's tone softened, but carried a deeper weight: "Instructor Zhang, I'm not questioning your abilities or character."
"I just want to remind you that we are not dealing with cold, hard case files, but with a living, breathing person, a soldier's future, and the hope of her family. Negligence in any link could lead to an irreparable tragedy."
Qin Ye's voice wasn't loud, but it was like cold pebbles hitting Zhang Ruobing's heart.
“Vice Minister Zheng entrusted the Third Battalion to us so that we could train a pack of wolves capable of fighting and winning battles, not a slaughterhouse for creating false accusations and miscarriages of justice. If our soldiers are not defeated by the enemy on the battlefield, but are wrongly killed by their own people in their own battalion, then we are the sinners of the Third Battalion.”
These words were a mix of soft and hard, with the last sentence taking it to an extreme, directly equating "mishandling the case" with "criminals from Battalion No. 3".
Zhang Ruobing slowly relaxed her clenched fist.
She had to admit that Qin Ye was right.
She was indeed a bit too eager to make a judgment; she was so eager to catch the person who had broken into the restricted area at night that she overlooked the illogical details of the case itself.
"Then... what does Instructor Qin mean?" She sat down again, her tone no longer as forceful as before, but with a hint of seeking advice.
Qin Ye looked at her and finally revealed his ultimate goal.
"This is just a small suggestion of mine. Instructor Zhang is very intelligent and will definitely know what to do."
Zhang Ruobing nodded: "I understand. It was my oversight. There are indeed some suspicious points in this matter. I overlooked them in my haste. I will immediately re-examine the case..."
...
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