Chapter 204 204 She was one of the people who had scolded her mother before...
The fire in the villa area started late at night on the 24th and around the early morning of the 25th.
Because Li Miao deliberately set the fire, the fire was very large once it started. Fortunately, Li Feng used very solid materials when building the villa, and the fire was ignited from the third floor, so it did not cause much damage. After the nearest fire station arrived, the fire was put out at an extremely fast speed. Naturally, Li Miao was arrested and Li Feng was also arrested.
Within one day, the father and daughter were taken into custody by the police one after another. This bizarre incident soon caused an uproar in the entire village, especially when Pang Le and Xu Nian escorted Li Miao out of the villa, and Li Miao showed a hateful expression to Li Feng, who had a dejected look on his face. This caused a lot of discussion among the people, especially the people in the village, who looked incredulous.
Guan Xia followed Xu Nian and the others out slowly and could easily hear the whispers of the people nearby.
"What's going on? Uncle Li and Li Miao had a great relationship. One ran away with his wife and never remarried, while the other, now 30, is still staying with her elderly father and hasn't remarried. Why are they now like black-eyed chickens? Did you see the look in Li Miao's eyes just now? He was filled with hatred, as if he wanted to pounce on Uncle Li and eat him alive."
"Could it be because of money? It's possible. After all, Uncle Li is so rich, and Li Miao doesn't seem to be living a good life. What she wears all day is worse than some young girls in the village. Especially her job. Being an elementary school teacher sounds good, but she only makes about 3,000 yuan a month. What can she do with that little money? It's not even as much as half a month's salary for me working in the village."
Including tourists who came to put out the fire and watch the excitement, no one cared whether they were acquaintances or not, and they started discussing with others out of curiosity.
Guan Xia's entire attention was on Li Miao, automatically blocking out these useless remarks. She was only concerned about how much Li Miao knew about her mother's disappearance, whether she knew Wu Yang, and whether Wu Yang was also involved in the case. And Li Song, whose body had not been found until now, where was he buried? Was he really built into the wall like Lu Xiangmei?
Guan Xia stared at Li Miao without blinking. She cooperated very well at first, just glaring at Li Feng with hatred, without any other action. But when her eyes fell on the tablet of Lu Xiangmei which was still held by Li Feng, she seemed to be enraged, and she struggled violently to break free from the control of Pang Le and Xu Nian, and pounced on Li Feng.
But Pang Le and Xu Nian were both very alert. As soon as they loosened their grip for a moment, they immediately increased their strength. No matter how Li Miao struggled in their hands, it was in vain.
Unable to pounce on him, Li Miao started cursing at Li Feng without showing any mercy.
Li Miao angrily yelled at Li Feng, "Let go of my mother's tablet. What qualifications do you have to touch it? You murderer, you colluded with outsiders to kill my mother. Let it go. You are not allowed to touch it."
Li Miao's words caused an uproar among the onlookers. Li Feng's face became even more gloomy, but he still stubbornly held the tablet tightly, as if he could not hear Li Miao's voice. He neither refuted nor admitted, but just lowered his head in silence, as if he had accepted his fate.
But Guan Xia didn't believe he would accept his fate. Glancing at Li Feng, Guan Xia walked over to Xu Nian and asked, "When will the local criminal police team arrive?"
Xu Nian raised his free left hand and glanced at the time. He said, "They should be here soon. I called the task force as soon as I discovered the fire. It's been so long, they should be close."
Sure enough, as soon as Xu Nian finished speaking, Guan Xia faintly heard a series of police sirens. After another seven or eight minutes, a convoy of six or seven cars stopped outside the villa, and soon a tall and dignified middle-aged female police officer led the team in.
The next things were relatively easy. Li Feng and Li Miao were escorted back to the local police station by Wang Yu and the local police. Xu Nian stayed behind to search and collect evidence at the crime scene where Lv Xiangmei's body was found with the local police's technical team. Lv Xiangmei's body was still built into the wall, and they had to find a way to take it out as intact as possible.
Qi Bai and Jiang Yingyao were sent by Xu Nian to take the remaining local police to the ancestral tomb of Lijia Village to search for the body. As for Guan Xia and Pang Le, they naturally followed the team escorting the criminal suspect back. Guan Xia couldn't wait to watch Li Miao's interrogation scene to see whether the case they had high hopes for could really bring Wu Yang to justice as expected.
When they followed the local police to the local police station, it was still late at night, but neither Guan Xia, Pang Le, nor Wang Yu felt sleepy at all. They went straight to the interrogation room with serious expressions and witnessed Li Miao being pressed into the interrogation chair.
What surprised them was that Li Miao refused to cooperate. When the interrogating police officer opened his mouth, he shouted, "I don't believe you. I don't want to tell you. Let the two female police officers who arrested me come. I will only tell them."
Since Li Miao strongly requested, the two policemen, a man and a woman, who had just walked into the interrogation room could only come out with unhappy expressions. After reporting to their superiors, they stood aside and said nothing.
The middle-aged female police officer leading the team immediately looked at Guan Xia and said, "Expert Guan, the criminal suspect specifically asked you to come in for interrogation. What do you think..."
The middle-aged policewoman spoke politely and in an inquiring manner. Guan Xia naturally wouldn't refuse. After hesitating for a few seconds, she nodded and said, "Okay, let's go in."
It was the first time that Guan Xia and Pang Le led an interrogation together. The local police had normal expressions, but Wang Yu was a little worried. He couldn't help but step forward and pat Guan Xia's arm soothingly.
Guan Xia was not as nervous as last time. She gave Wang Yu a reassuring look and pushed the door open before Pang Le and walked in.
The moment he saw Guan Xia, Li Miao's entire state stabilized. His eyes lit up, and he leaned forward excitedly, looking at Guan Xia and the others and said, "You're here."
Guan Xia didn't respond to her immediately. After she and Pang Le sat down, she looked at Li Miao and said, "You can say whatever you want to say."
Li Miao was still very emotional. He looked straight at Guan Xia and asked, "Do you know that my mother was killed by Li Feng?"
Guan Xia said simply, "We have a suspicion, so we came all the way to Lijia Village to look for evidence."
Guan Xia also looked at Li Miao intently and said, "Do you have any crucial evidence to provide us?"
As soon as Guan Xia finished speaking, Li Miao asked nervously, "Is the recording of Li Feng drunk okay? And his abnormal interactions with his accomplices over the years, are they considered evidence?"
Guan Xia's heart skipped a beat when he heard the word "accomplice," but his expression remained serious. He didn't answer, but simply said, "We need to see something tangible before we can decide whether it can be used as evidence. Where is it? Is it at your house?"
Li Miao nodded vigorously. "I hid the recorder in the wall next to my bedroom dresser. I live on the second floor, so it shouldn't be burned."
Guan Xia breathed a sigh of relief, but with a serious expression on her face, she said, "We'll contact our colleagues to get it. Before we get it, you can tell me everything you know in detail."
Li Miao also looked relieved. It was unknown whether he was lost in memories or thinking about something. His expression kept changing. After several minutes, he slowly spoke.
For the next nearly one hour, Li Miao was both narrating and recalling the past.
From Li Miao, Guan Xia and the others learned some of the circumstances and details of Lu Xiangmei's disappearance.
Li Miao was five when Lü Xiangmei disappeared. Now 29, she still remembers the last time she saw her mother in 2013.
She remembered that it was a sunny day with an especially blue sky. The flowers in the yard had not yet bloomed. She had just had a delicious meal with her mother. The air was filled with fragrance. She was sitting alone in the yard playing with a wooden horse when her mother suddenly came out of the house wearing a beautiful red dress and told her to stay at home and that she had to go out for something. She would lock the gate and would be back in two hours at most.
Li Miao clearly remembered that she threw a tantrum and wanted to go with them, but her mother said that such occasions were not suitable for children. To compensate her for not taking her out to play, she would buy her candy when she came back, as long as she stayed at home obediently.
Hearing that she could have candy, the five-year-old Li Miao immediately agreed. She watched her mother in a red dress walk out of the yard, lock the door from the outside, and then walk farther and farther away in her high heels until Li Miao could no longer hear her mother's footsteps.
That afternoon she was looking forward to the candy her mother would bring back, but she never expected that what seemed like a very ordinary thing to her that day would be the last time she saw her mother.
Later, Li Miao remembered it very clearly. It was not until it was very dark at night and the moon had risen that she waited for her mother. Instead, she waited for her father who had rushed back from a long journey. Her father picked her up and asked where her mother had gone.
Li Miao felt strange. Didn't his mother go to look for him? Why did he come back alone without his mother?
She honestly said that her mother went to look for her father. She couldn't remember the expression on her father's face at the time, but she remembered that chaotic night when her father brought back many people and told them that her mother was missing and asked everyone to help find her.
The house was never quiet that night. People kept coming in and out. Until the daylight came again, someone said that her mother had left and didn't want her and her father anymore. Someone saw her mother wearing a red dress and leaving on a train with a man.
Li Miao didn't believe it. She would always remember her mother's smiling face and her mother's words that she would bring back candy.
Later, for a long time, Li Miao liked to sit in the yard, riding the little wooden horse her mother gave her, waiting for her mother to come back. But she didn't wait for her mother, but waited for the police. The police asked her if she knew where her mother had gone.
She also gave the same answer that she was going to find her father. She didn't remember the police's expression at the time, nor did she remember her father's expression. She only knew that as time passed, more and more people told her that her mother had run away with someone and didn't want her or her father anymore.
There was a time when Li Miao believed these words because her father looked so painful. She had seen her father crying alone in front of her mother's photo more than once, and he looked very sad.
Someone wanted to find a new mother for her, but before she could even cry, the person was scolded and sent away by her father. She heard countless people tell her that her mother had no conscience, that her father loved her mother so much, and her mother ran away with someone, but her father still waited for her mother to come back. He would rather raise her alone and be both her father and mother, and would not even think of remarrying. He also told her very seriously that she must be filial and not be like her heartless mother. She was her father's life and must not leave, otherwise her father would die.
Her father really showed that he loved her like a treasure. He personally picked her up from school and bought her many beautiful clothes and the latest toys. Not only her father, but also some uncles would often visit her and take her out to play.
Once upon a time, she really believed what the adults said. Her mother lied to her that day, saying that she brought back candy, but in fact she was just trying to coax her and get rid of her so that she could elope with someone else.
Until she and her father returned to Lijia Village.
It was late one night. She had a cold and was thirsty so she drank some water. Then she heard suppressed crying coming from downstairs.
She was used to knowing that her father was missing her mother again, until she was about to go back to her room and heard a vague "I'm sorry".
This sorry was like a bolt from the blue, leaving her completely stunned.
Her mind froze, but her body instinctively lightened her steps and walked back to the stairs. This time she heard clearly, every word of apology, and the sound of her father kneeling on the mat and banging his head on the wooden floor.
That night was like a nightmare to Li Miao. It ended what he thought was a happy life. It made Li Miao sober and more and more suspicious. It brought back memories of Li Miao when he was five years old. It made Li Miao doubt everything and urged Li Miao to start seeking the truth of that year.
Li Miao's heart was in turmoil, but she remained calm on the surface. She went to school, did her homework and played as usual, but secretly observed Li Feng in every corner.
He didn't notice it when he didn't pay special attention, but when Li Miao observed with a suspicious attitude, he easily found the incongruity in Li Feng.
For example, she used to think that her father was missing her mother when he cried while holding her mother's photo. But now that she has grown up and looks at the photo again, she is shocked to find that although Li Feng was crying, the expression on his face was not one of longing or yearning, but of guilt and regret.
Li Miao's mind was in a mess when she discovered the truth. She kept struggling with one question: why did Li Feng feel guilty? What had he done to let his mother down? And why did he regret it?
In Li Miao's frail childhood memories, before her mother disappeared, her family had always been very happy. Her father was capable and family-oriented. While other families were still struggling to feed all their members, she already had a closet full of beautiful dresses and small leather shoes to match them. Her mother was intellectual, beautiful, and very opinionated. Although she didn't work, she was always studying. Her mother would braid her beautiful braids, call her little princess, and call her baby.
In her impression, her father had never done anything to let her mother down, and they had never even had a quarrel. If there was any quarrel, it was always one-sided on the part of her mother. Before her mother disappeared, she had muttered while combing her hair that her father had been leaving early and coming back late recently. Sometimes when her mother went to her father's store to deliver food, she couldn't see him. She didn't know if he was really busy or had an affair.
In addition, the relationship between the two is so loving that it can be said to be a model of envy for all the neighbors. With such a good relationship between two people, Li Miao really can't think of anything that Li Feng has ever done to let her mother down, except for one thing, her mother's disappearance.
It was also from that time that Li Miao began to re-examine her mother's disappearance case, and as time passed, she discovered more and more details.
Maybe it was because she had grown up and looked very much like her mother. Li Feng would sometimes suddenly become dazed when looking at her. Then, Li Feng didn't know when he started talking in his sleep. He cried and said sorry in his dreams. He didn't want to do it, but he had no choice. He could only do it.
In the dream, Li Feng had the familiar expression of crying on his face, but there was a slight difference. Li Miao saw a ferocious look, and she also saw Li Feng stretching out his hands and pinching something with all his strength.
At that moment, Li Miao was also in tears, but she also found out the real reason why her mother, who disappeared with a bad reputation, disappeared. She was actually strangled to death by her father, whom Li Miao always thought loved her mother deeply.
How could Li Miao not hate? She hated it so much, and she also felt the humiliation of being fooled and betrayed. After all, for so many years, she really believed it. She really thought that her mother fell in love with someone else and left her to elope with her father.
She also felt sorry for her mother. She was one of the many people who had scolded her mother.
She hated Li Feng so much that she wanted to kill him and herself. She felt that her life was a hell and she wanted to die with everyone, especially Li Feng and his accomplices, whom she had always called uncles.
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