They seemed determined to dig up the office from top to bottom, even turning over the floor, to see if there were any eavesdropping devices underneath.
Xia Che was exasperated by this cautious approach.
"How little faith do you have in law enforcement...?"
Xia Che shook his head.
“You haven’t dealt with them as an adversary, so you don’t know how insidious their methods are. They’ll use any inhumane and underhanded tricks to solve a case.”
Feng Yang buried himself in the inspection, not wanting to miss any corner, and only relaxed after the inspection was completely finished. He sat opposite Xia Che and breathed a sigh of relief: "It's okay, there are no listening devices. Now we can talk."
“Have you thought about this? Even if no one knows what we talked about, I will still have to tell the police in the end, so your investigation for so long is really unnecessary.”
Xia Che made it clear from the outset: if they were going to arrest Feng Yang, they would definitely have to convict him first.
Therefore, their conversation must be reported to the police station afterwards.
Otherwise, how can a conviction be established?
"No... this is the real reason I want to talk to you alone. Conviction is fine, I plead guilty, but there's something I need you to keep secret."
Feng Yang let out a deep breath, his expression somewhat conflicted.
A person like him rarely experiences inner conflict, but at this moment, this emotion, which he thought he would never experience in his life, appeared in his heart for the first time.
He hadn't figured out what to say.
All of this, in the very beginning... was really just an accident.
"You speak first, and then I'll consider it."
Xia Che frowned. Was he asking him to keep it a secret?
joke.
Why should I keep a secret for a fraudster?
Wouldn't that make us the culprits who aid and abet evil?
Xia Che really wanted to refuse outright, but he was afraid that if he rejected him directly, Feng Yang would withhold crucial information. He decided to let him finish speaking before making a decision...
Therefore, Xia Che did not rule out the possibility of a definitive answer.
“In many people’s eyes, I am a vicious fraudster who deserves to die a thousand times over… In fact, they are not wrong. I am. Sometimes I think about what I have done over the years. If I put myself in their shoes, I also hate myself.”
Feng Yang sat in the chair, leaning back as if he were resting his entire weight on it. He looked up at the ceiling and suddenly asked Xia Che, "Can I have a cigarette?"
"Your smoking habit is really strong. Now, can I assume that you are a mosquito?"
Xia Che took a cigarette out of the pack, but instead of handing it to the other person, he waved it in the air and looked at Feng Yang with a smile.
He didn't want to guess anymore. He had the upper hand now, and Xia Che wanted to hear the honest truth.
"That's right, I really am a mosquito."
The mosquito paused for a moment, then let out a deep breath, and for the first time openly admitted its identity.
Seeing this, Xia Che didn't hesitate and simply tossed the cigarette over.
Although he had already made up his mind, Xia Che still breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the other party admit it himself.
This is sufficient to prove that my conjecture is correct.
I did not make any mistakes.
"In our line of work, being soft-hearted is a major taboo. From the day you choose to enter this industry, you are destined to be ruthless. Only in this way can you make money and not be bound by your conscience."
Mosquito lit the cigarette Xia Che had tossed him, took a deep drag, and exhaled a thick cloud of smoke. His face was completely obscured by the smoke, making it difficult to see clearly. "I've always done it this way," he said. "To be honest, in my eyes, those I've cheated are all customers. It's just that our line of work doesn't require respecting customers."
"On the contrary, I think they are stupid for believing such lies. The reason why I have been able to repeatedly escape the pursuit of law enforcement and have such a high reputation in the underworld is not because my tricks are so superb or I am so smart, but simply because I minimize the risk of exposure. I am cautious enough, that's all."
"From the moment I select a client, that person is no longer considered a human being in my eyes. I will investigate everything about that person... I forgot to mention, I have a standard for selecting clients. First, the person must be rich. Second, the person's money must be ill-gotten gains, because only people who make money quickly are less likely to report to the police after being scammed."
"Whether this money was clean or not is a matter of opinion, but it did give me a taste of success at first. None of the clients I swindled chose to report it to the police. Over time, I even put together a plan myself, from selecting clients to planning and finally succeeding... all of these are done step by step, and I can follow the plan in an orderly manner."
Mosquito smokes very quickly. He had just been given a cigarette, and in just a few puffs, he had finished it. He stubbed it out and looked at Xia Che with a wry smile.
"...Take them all."
Xia Che was speechless, but still tossed the cigarette pack to him.
His smoking habit wasn't as strong as Mosquito's, but Xia Che could tell that although Mosquito was talking about his past experiences and had nothing to do with the case, it was necessary.
Before a prisoner can reveal the truth, a transitional process is needed to prepare him psychologically.
Xia Che wasn't in a hurry at all.
"Thanks."
The mosquito took the cigarette, politely thanked him, and then lit another one. "Over the years, law enforcement has never stopped investigating me. They really want to catch me, so I know you should know that I have never taken a life."
"This is because I respect life, and I know that if I were just a fraudster, no matter how outrageous I went, I would not be sentenced to death if I were ever caught. But if I were to take a life, given China's determination to solve every murder case, I alone could not defeat an entire law enforcement agency. So I am very careful, extremely careful, and I have never taken a life."
"This time... is an exception."
Mosquito finished another cigarette. This time, instead of using the ashtray to extinguish the cigarette butt, he gently rubbed it between two fingers. His fingers immediately felt a sharp, piercing pain, but he had long been used to it over the years.
"You actually don't have fingerprints, right? To prevent law enforcement from finding any trace of you, you burned your fingerprints with cigarette butts every day until they were all burned away. And before you used disguise to impersonate Feng Yang, you should have had a buzz cut or a shaved head. So that's why you never left any fingerprints or hair at the scene."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com