8. He is not that kind of person
It’s time to open the window, Tang Sizhu thought.
In the stagnant air, breathing was almost futile. Her heart, deprived of oxygen, pounded wildly, but the blood she pumped out went nowhere. Even her fingertips turned pale. Zeng Xiasheng looked at her, just looking at her, cold and distant, even the panic he had just been anxious to explain subsided.
"I'm not in a position to judge you."
After he said that, he turned around, rinsed the dishes in the sink neatly, dried them and put them back in the cupboard, then took out Tang Sizhuo's access card from his pocket and placed it on the sink.
"You told me the door lock code yesterday, remember to change it."
Zeng Xiasheng walked her home, cooked for her, and filled her refrigerator before leaving her eager gaze. He was like a hunter with no desire to hunt, not bothering to hide his tracks. The sound of the door closing finally activated Tang Sizhuo's perception, and she slumped onto the sofa, sweeping all the undelivered gifts to the floor.
Fortunately, it was Saturday, so there wasn't anything urgent to do. But she'd been sitting there for a while, barely getting herself together, when her phone started buzzing on the dining table. Tang Sizhuo didn't bother answering, but the caller was persistent. If she didn't answer once, she'd call again. She had no choice but to slowly get up and retrieve her phone. Fortunately, it wasn't a work number.
"Come down for breakfast. I'll be there in five minutes."
Tang Sizhuo said weakly, "I've eaten."
"Oh my, is Lawyer Tang firing?" The man on the other end of the line exclaimed exaggeratedly, "Then come down and have dinner with me. I'll tell you if I find something."
Zeng Xiasheng stepped out of the elevator, left his apartment, and followed the crowd across the intersection. Then the crowd dispersed, leaving him disoriented. His mechanical brain finally woke its human master, and the pain was belated, exploding along his nerves. The clamor of traffic approached and receded in his ears, gradually blurring and distorting into the sound of a little girl's cry. They asked the same question, but he had lost his childhood courage.
You shouldn't say that.
Regardless of everything else, Tang Sizhuo still meant two hundred thousand in favor to him. He knew the weight of that answer to her, and he shouldn't have said it. But Zeng Xiasheng honestly realized that maintaining distance was the optimal solution his brain could calculate. It was his mental hesitation that had brought this relationship, which should have been severed long ago, to a standstill. He looked at the scar on his right arm and even regretted not being more resolute in the prison workshop that year. In the final moment, he let his survival instincts take over.
For the past ten years, his sleep and sleep routine had been incredibly regular. After spending the night yesterday caring for Tang Sizhuo, he was physically exhausted, yet mentally uncharacteristically high. Unable to muster the energy to return home, and unsure where else to go, Zeng Xiasheng leaned against a wall in the shade, watching the people passing by in a daze.
After watching for a while, suddenly a familiar figure appeared across the street. It was Tang Sizhu coming out of the apartment.
At first, Zeng Xiasheng thought she was coming downstairs to take out the trash. She was dressed rather casually, in sweatpants and a down jacket, her hair unkempt and tucked behind her head, as she slowly walked out. Tang Sizhuo had been strictly controlled by Xiao Tong since she was a child, so she always looked refined and beautiful in public, even at home, always wearing a set of pajamas. Zeng Xiasheng, thinking she had finally let him go in private after escaping family control, soon noticed she wasn't holding anything. Instead, she stood at the apartment door with her hands in her pockets, looking listless, her head tilted to the left, as if waiting for someone.
Zeng Xiasheng suddenly felt an indescribable bitterness in his heart. He thought he knew who Tang Sizhuo was waiting for, but he was unwilling to believe it. After all, he had never seen her look so unkempt in his history.
Sure enough, a car drove over from a distance. It was the one that had been parked downstairs of Tang Sizhuo's office.
After Tang Sizhuo got in the car, they turned around in front, drove to this side of the road, and stopped in front of the breakfast shop next to Zeng Xiasheng.
A young man in a black jacket, tall and with a crew cut, got out of the driver's seat. He must have been chatting in the car, laughing. Tang Sizhuo got out from the other side, gathered his down jacket, and walked side by side with him into the store, not noticing Zeng Xiasheng in the corner.
Zeng Xiasheng heard intermittent voices from two people over the breakfast shop's loudspeaker, seemingly Tang Sizhuo asking the man why he wasn't going to work. The man replied, then cast a concerned look at her, saying she was hoarse and looked unwell. Tang Sizhuo, her hands tucked into her pockets, looked listless. The man lifted the plastic curtain to let her in first, and she didn't hesitate. Zeng Xiasheng vaguely heard her say "drinking," perhaps explaining why she was feeling unwell. But he didn't expect that these two words seemed quite sensitive to the man. He paused in his movement to hold the curtain, and his expression almost instantly became serious.
After the hawking advertisement was played, the world seemed to be quiet in the few seconds between plays, and then the man's question could be heard clearly.
"Just drinking? No medication?"
Zeng Xiasheng looked over in shock, but the two men had already walked into the store. The heavy plastic curtain fell, and the loudspeaker sounded again, covering up all other sounds.
Tang Sizhuo found an empty table in the corner as soon as she entered. She was about to sit down when her heart skipped a beat when she heard his words. She subconsciously tried to hide it. But Lin Feng's sharp eyes scanned her in an instant, and she had no choice but to admit honestly, "I took three alprazolam tablets, but not with alcohol, and I didn't exceed the dosage."
Lin Feng sat down opposite her, staring at her all the time. After confirming that she was not lying, he sighed helplessly.
"I'm just worried about you. Don't make things the same as before."
"It's okay, I know my limits."
Tang Sizhuo put his feet on the chair lining, seemed very cold, and curled up into a ball.
"Let me tell you something else first. I have a divorce case here. The client is being threatened by her husband who took nude photos of her, but we currently have no evidence. Tomorrow I'm going to teach her how to make a phone call and get a recording of the man with the photos. The man is a tough guy, and I want to resolve this quickly. Once I get the recording, can I bring her directly to you?"
"Sure." Lin Feng nodded. "I heard a few days ago that a colleague seemed to be checking for nude photos. I'll call him tomorrow. He's more experienced in handling this kind of thing."
Tang Sizhuo hummed, his eyes dull, his head resting on his arms. He asked him, "What did you find out? Can I retrieve the files?"
Lin Feng shrugged, took off his coat and placed it on the empty chair next to him. "It can't be adjusted. I asked my master, but he couldn't do it either." He ordered a large bowl of pickled cabbage beef noodles with egg for himself and a glass of soy milk for Tang Sizhuo. "But I found a veteran police officer who worked on this case before, Li Jianjun. Do you remember him? He retired two months ago."
"I don't remember. I may not have seen it. I only remember a female police officer coming to question me a few times."
Lin Feng looked around. It was breakfast time. A long queue had formed at the door in the few minutes since the two of them sat down. Tang Sizhuo had chosen a good seat, sitting in the innermost corner. As long as he didn't shout too loudly, others should not be able to hear him.
"A few days ago, I found an excuse to visit him on behalf of our group. I went to have dinner with him and reluctantly chatted about the Sun case. After a few drinks, he told me that there were indeed some suspicious points in the case, but they were not serious. After sending it to the procuratorate, it was not returned for further investigation, so we just let it go."
Noodles and soy milk were served to the table. Lin Feng was hungry and picked up his chopsticks to start eating. Tang Sizhuo had no appetite at all. He just held the soy milk cup to warm his hands and waited for him to continue.
"It's been so long, he doesn't remember the details clearly, but he did discover one suspicious point, so it left a deep impression on him." Lin Feng took three bites, and half of the noodles disappeared. Sweat oozed from his forehead, and he wiped it away carelessly with his hand. "At that time, the suspect—Zeng actually went into the room where you slept, after Sun was beaten to death."
Tang Sizhuo said nothing, only nodded slightly. There was no surprise on her face, which made Lin Feng feel strange. After all, this situation had not been mentioned in the prosecution materials of the procuratorate.
"You know?"
"I have no idea."
"We found footprints covering about a quarter of the carpet in the room. The carpet is difficult to remove, and the front of his right foot was stained with blood, so we found it. Lao Li said he admitted it during interrogation, saying he wanted to escape, but his injuries were too severe and he didn't have the strength to go upstairs. He was worried about surveillance if he left through the main door, so he searched the first floor to see if there was an escape hatch on the security grille. However, as soon as he entered your room, he heard sirens and gave up when he realized he couldn't escape."
He said as he ate that he still felt unsatisfied after finishing a bowl, so he wiped his mouth and asked for another roujiamo for himself.
Tang Sizhuo asked, "What's the doubt?"
Lin Feng lowered his voice, leaned closer, and whispered in her ear, "Old Li found a little blood on the sheets of the bed you slept in. It was very light, as if it was accidentally wiped on. It was identified as Zeng's blood."
Tang Sizhuo gradually frowned, recalling the layout of the villa, "But——"
Lin Feng knew what she was going to say and nodded.
"But in that room, the bed and the window are in opposite directions. The window is on the east wall, and the bed is against the west wall. The door is in the middle, even closer to the window. If he wanted to see if there was a fire escape in the security grille of that window, he should have gone straight to the window, not turned toward the bed."
The waiter brought the roujiamo, but Lin Feng didn't rush to eat it. He looked a little embarrassed and squeezed the crispy skin of the roujiamo all over the table. Finally, he said carefully, "So Lao Li's first reaction at that time was that he was... he might want to -"
"——Impossible." Tang Sizhuo said firmly.
"Later, Old Li also felt that it was impossible. After all, he had several broken ribs and his head was cracked open. Anyway, this little bit of blood had no impact on convicting him of murdering Sun. At most, it would be considered whether he had intended to harm you, but you were completely fine. Even if he had any thoughts, he never even started. So, Old Li finally recorded a few sentences in the materials and did not investigate further. The procuratorate did not find any problems."
Tang Sizhuo buried his head in his knees, as if lost in thought. Then he heard Lin Feng ask, "Hasn't he come out yet? Why don't you just ask him?"
"If you ask, just say it's consistent with the verdict, murder based on grudges."
Lin Feng finished the roujiamo in four or five bites and burped with satisfaction.
"I told you not to get angry. If this case were my responsibility, this little doubt wouldn't really matter. The physical evidence matches his confession, and even if I could go back in time and let you use this doubt as a defense, what would you be able to accomplish?"
Tang Sizhuo lowered his eyes and finally let go of the soy milk cup that she had squeezed out of shape, muttering in dissatisfaction.
"But he's not that kind of person."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
