Chapter 9
One hour ago, the field staff got the location of the house where Chen Hao was taking drugs. According to Xiao Yuncheng's instructions, they investigated one by one and found a bunch of photos and several transaction orders in a locked drawer. After receiving the information, Xiao Yuncheng hurried back to interrogate Yajie. Apart from Shi Qian and Lin Chen, not many people knew the inside story of Wu Tong's case. They knew that there must be some unknown secrets behind this case.
"Haha... this painter and that kid are both ungrateful bastards who can never be tamed!"
"Who is 'that kid'? What's his name? What does he do? Where is he now?! Answer truthfully!"
"His name is Xu Ze. I heard he's a famous doctor. I don't know where he ran off to."
Yajie suddenly lowered his voice and leaned closer to Xiao Yuncheng, saying, "That kid has a leaf-shaped scar on the inside of his left wrist... It was burned by Brother Hao's father with a cigarette butt."
Yajie pointed at the wrist of the person in the photo and continued, "Xu Ze is such a shrewd kid! Every time Brother Hao is doing something, he always comes to interfere. He's just playing tricks on people and then leaves."
Xiao Yuncheng secretly made a gesture to Lin Chen outside the glass, and Lin Chen immediately understood and ran out of the interrogation room.
"Who is that painter?"
Yajie seemed to be trying hard to recall information about "this painter". After a while, he spoke: "I don't know much about this painter. It is said that he was just caught by Brother Hao's father to move goods. He seemed to be a very good kid at first, but he ran away and was not caught. I don't know what he is doing now. Anyway, he is still with Xu Ze!"
"What does Zhang Hao's father do? Where is he now?"
"Brother Hao's father? He died ten years ago!"
At this time, Lin Chen's voice rang out in the headset: "Indeed, that man's name is Chen Xiuping. In 2015, a corpse in Myanmar was found with his ID card attached."
Xiao Yuncheng waved his hand and asked someone to look after Yajie, then he walked out.
Who exactly was Xu Ze? Wu Tong was now completely connected to this case. How was he supposed to face Wu Tong now? Should he tell him everything that had just happened and ask him to confess? How much truth would he tell? Xiao Yuncheng stood in the corridor, thinking for a long time. He stretched and prepared to go find Lin Chen.
"I can't take it anymore, why are you so sinister? I'm telling you, it makes me sad just looking at you. Do you have any sadistic tendencies... You're such a... Hey, hang on! I'll come find you after tonight."
Xiao Yuncheng was walking on the street and complaining to Wu Tong on the phone - due to someone's shameless "request", Wu Tong inexplicably had a new friend on WeChat. This gave Wu Tong a headache because he had to call every once in a while, just like a fool who had nothing to do but chat with his wife every day.
"Everyone else would rather keep out of trouble than worry about more, but you're the only one looking for trouble every day!"
Wu Tong answered Xiao Yuncheng's call for the nth time and angrily warned him that he would be blocked if he continued to annoy him. Only then did the other party give up in disappointment.
"Captain Xiao, based on Yajie's confession, there's a high probability that Chen Hao will flee back to Guangxi. What should we do?"
Xiao Yuncheng frowned and said, "He can't get out. Where can he go after the higher-ups issue a joint investigation notice? Old Lin! Have you found out what his purpose is in coming here?"
"Drug deal. Here, the list is here." Lin Chen "flew" the list to Xiao Yuncheng, slurping down his instant noodles. Xiao Yuncheng took a quick look. The list was basically under police control, but that was it? Chen Hao had traveled all the way from Guangxi to Heilongjiang just like that? This didn't make sense.
"Keep checking. Keep an eye on the seaside checkpoints, subways, planes, and trains. He couldn't possibly have come up here just for this little thing. Everyone, take five-hour shifts! Everyone on duty should go catch up on some sleep now, the rest of you."
This group of people have been working for two days and three nights straight. If they don't let them go back to rest, there will probably be a few more bodies here. Lin Chen walked up from behind and bumped into Xiao Yuncheng's shoulder. He raised his eyebrows and asked maliciously, "Hey, where's Tongtong?"
"Tong, your sister! You don't want to do anything serious all day long!" Xiao Yuncheng scolded angrily, but Lin Chen shrugged and said, "I'm just concerned about our brother, why are you so anxious?"
"He's, good, very! Get out of here!"
Xiao Yuncheng drove out of the police station under Lin Chen's contemptuous gaze. Lin Chen turned around and angrily scolded Xiao Yuncheng's behavior to Wu Tong on the other side of the phone: I just care about you! He scolded me!!!
Wu Tong: I can’t take it anymore, can you two be quiet? ······
A little while later, in the ward, Xiao Yuncheng placed the fruits he bought on the table next to the bed, sat down on the edge of the bed, and bared his teeth at Wu Tong.
"What are you grinning about?"
"Ajie admitted it."
Wu Tong seemed to have expected this. He calmly drank the hot water Xiao Yuncheng had just poured and said, "Even if he didn't recruit me, I would still admire him."
Xiao Yuncheng laughed heartily, grabbed Wu Tong's shoulders, and pulled him towards him: "Little painter, your methods are quite clever. Tell me, what made you so heartless as to come up with such a shady trick? Hmm?"
Wu Tong chuckled softly, but didn't answer him. Xiao Yuncheng brushed a few strands of Wu Tong's sleep-ruffled hair and finally said, "Yajie mentioned you."
Wu Tong paused while drinking water and glanced at Xiao Yuncheng: "Oh? What did he say?"
"Aren't you curious why Yajie knows you?"
Wu Tong clearly felt Xiao Yuncheng's hands tightening, and he was almost being rubbed into his body. He covered his shoulder in pain, pushed Xiao Yuncheng away, frowned and lowered his head.
Xiao Yuncheng almost wanted to grab Wu Tong's shoulders and force him to confess everything, but he couldn't. He couldn't help but feel distressed when he saw Wu Tong's expression. He raised his hand and apologized: "I'm sorry, I hurt you..."
The atmosphere between the two of them was extremely strange, an indescribable feeling that was almost devouring their sanity.
"Just ask whatever you want to ask."
After a long moment, Wu Tong spoke first. Xiao Yuncheng looked up at him, and Wu Tong could actually feel his body temperature rising. The ward was so quiet that even Xiao Yuncheng's breathing was amplified.
"If I ask you, will you answer me truthfully?" Xiao Yuncheng just said in a muffled voice, and reached out to hold Wu Tong's wrist. Wu Tong's heartbeat was disturbed by him, and he unconsciously found that he had subconsciously held his breath.
"Wu Tong, what are you hiding from me?"
Wu Tong suddenly smiled, but there was ice in his eyes: "Officer Xiao, with what capacity are you asking me now? Are you a police officer, or..." He paused deliberately, his eyes sweeping over the two people's folded hands.
"Yes, I doubted you."
Xiao Yuncheng admitted frankly, looking up at Wu Tong with sincerity in his eyes: "But when you appeared in front of me again, these doubts were dispelled."
"Why?"
This is not the way a criminal investigation police officer should think. Personal emotions should not overshadow the case. This will cause the police to lose their normal thinking and judgment of the case and confuse their reasoning. This is quite taboo. You may even think that this person is not worthy of being a police officer.
But Xiao Yuncheng laughed the next second and winked at Wu Tong: "You've been exposed, you know?"
The back of Wu Tong's head seemed to be suddenly wrapped in clouds, hazy and heavy. He looked at Xiao Yuncheng, and even the touch of the air with his fingertips was unusually clear.
"Why did you get involved in this case in the first place? This is what I've been thinking about since I first met you. I've researched your background, but your file is incredibly sparse. The expression on your face when I was interrogating Chen Hao completely betrayed you—did you know? There's a definition in psychology called instrumental aggression and emotional dissociation."
Xiao Yuncheng took out his cell phone from his pocket and swiped his finger across the screen, finally presenting a photo in front of Wu Tong.
That was when he was standing outside the glass window listening to Xiao Yuncheng interrogating Chen Hao. In the photo, he had his hands folded across his chest in front of him, his fingers unconsciously curled up, tightly grasping the thin fabric of his clothes, but there was no expression on his face, and it could even be said that he was extremely indifferent.
"What does instrumental aggression look like? It's when someone retaliates with a cold, emotionless expression, or even disgust, but continues the behavior."
Xiao Yuncheng's smile remained as he stared at Wu Tong's face. Wu Tong looked up at him helplessly, her face stiff as she spoke, "But what if... I just think he's disgusting or something? Can you still define this behavior as me?"
"Indeed, I can't."
Xiao Yuncheng suddenly grabbed Wu Tong's wrist and turned his palm upwards: "What about this?"——A leaf-shaped scar exactly the same as the one on Xu Ze in the photo was clearly visible.
"You..." Wu Tong looked at Xiao Yuncheng in surprise and wanted to pull his hand back, but Xiao Yuncheng held it tightly. After trying several times without success, Wu Tong gave up.
Xiao Yuncheng gently wrapped his cold hand, warming it with his body heat, and said slowly, "Do you know what your expression was when you first saw Chen Hao?"
"You ask me?"
Xiao Yuncheng immediately scoffed and said, "Okay. You were experiencing a typical case of emotional dissociation: your fists clenched, your body trembled violently due to certain actions of Chen Hao, but your face was expressionless at the time—you could control the emotions on your face, but you couldn't control your body's initial reaction in time, or rather, you couldn't control it."
Xiao Yuncheng raised an eyebrow at Wu Tong, and Wu Tong finally smiled. He leaned back against the headboard, looked at Xiao Yuncheng sideways, and said, "You're amazing, really."
"Not really. I'm just better at psychology... Then can you tell me, little painter?"
Wu Tong smiled bitterly, exhaled slowly, and then said, "Do you know why I don't have any guardian information?"
Xiao Yuncheng shook his head, and Wu Tong continued, "I have parents, but they can't register my information, otherwise I wouldn't be alive today."
Wu Tong lowered her head as if recalling something, and her hands, which were wrapped by Xiao Yuncheng, tightened unconsciously.
"In our village, women are kidnapped from nowhere and brought to the mountains to be wives. They don't register the women or their children. It's either because they have some unspeakable secrets or they simply don't want to."
"When I was born, my father just looked at me and left, without even asking whether my mother was dead or alive. Later, when I grew up a little, he sent my mother and me to another small house and asked us to live there. I didn't know where he went all day. Then, when I was three years old, my mother told me that he was dead."
Xiao Yuncheng stared at Wu Tong with wide eyes. Wu Tong shrugged and said, "I don't know how I died. It was quite strange. Then I lived with my mother until I was six years old..."
Wu Tong paused unconsciously and spoke again: "My mother is dead too. She was killed by someone, right in front of me."
Xiao Yuncheng was really shocked this time. He opened his mouth wide and said, "You..."
"You want to ask who killed her? But I didn't even see the man's face clearly. I only know that my mother took me out to buy bubble water. When she told me to go home, I turned around and saw her lying on the ground, covered in blood. I couldn't wake her up..."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
