The steamer was swung like a weapon and smashed against the plainclothes officers, causing the scalding white steam to hiss and explode.
Zhou Mingyuan instinctively stumbled and ran through the billowing steam, his oily shoes slipping on the tiles. In his panic, he even grabbed a waiter who was serving dishes and used him as a shield.
The blue-and-white porcelain bowl shattered with a crash, and the scalding hot soup splashed all over the waiter's face, his screams tearing through the air.
In a private booth against the wall in the restaurant, Zi Xi's chopsticks were suspended in mid-air.
She saw Ji Yanchen's pupils suddenly contract, his muscles tense like a fully drawn bow, and the greasy man who was fleeing in a disheveled state was none other than Zhou Mingyuan, who had hit on her at the photo studio a few days ago.
"Hey! Don't..."
She had barely opened her mouth when Ji Yanchen dashed off like an arrow.
Zi Xi sighed, thinking, "This guy really holds grudges until tomorrow."
Zhou Mingyuan was clinging to the window frame, trying to climb out, when suddenly his collar was tightened.
He was pulled back abruptly, and the back of his head slammed heavily against the windowsill.
Ji Yanchen's iron-like hands gripped the back of his neck, his knees pressed against his lumbar spine, and the whole set of movements smoothly pushed him to the ground.
"Comrade, over here!"
Ji Yanchen nodded to the arriving police officer, Lao Zhang, his voice calm.
Li Xiaorou took the opportunity to slip into the kitchen, followed closely by Xiao Wang.
She knocked over a stack of steamers and darted out the back door amidst the chef's screams.
The rough brick wall chafed her elbows, but the adrenaline made her numb to the pain.
At the end of the alley, a coal truck was parked. She leaped onto the truck bed, and coal dust seeped into the cracked soles of her shoes, mixing with the blood on her feet and leaving dark red footprints on the coal pile.
*
The tungsten bulb in the interrogation room hissed, and the blinding white light pierced Zhou Mingyuan's pupils like a sharp knife.
He squinted his swollen eyelids, his eyelashes casting spiderweb-like shadows on his pale face.
"Confess your name!"
Old Zhang slammed his pen heavily on the tin table, startling Zhou Mingyuan.
"Boss, I'm innocent! I was just having dinner with that woman! We're dating!"
"Director Liu of the supply and marketing cooperative can vouch for me! I am an advanced worker!"
Zhou Mingyuan suddenly became agitated, and the clinking of his handcuffs was particularly jarring in the silent interrogation room.
His Adam's apple bobbed violently, as if he had swallowed a live toad.
Xiao Wang swiftly opened the leather file folder and took out a stack of grain coupons, which he spread out on the metal table like playing cards.
The tickets from different provinces shone with varying shades of yellow under the light, and the traces of deliberately altered ink on the serial numbers were clearly visible.
The top grain coupon from Jiangxi Province still had dark red stains on the corners, which looked particularly glaring under the harsh white light.
"Were you involved in the county's grain coupon theft case in the third quarter of this year?"
"These consecutively numbered tickets eventually appeared on the black market. The people who handled them were a man and a woman. The man had slicked-back hair, wore a Shanghai watch, and had a black mole on his left cheek."
Xiao Wang's fingertips, clad in white gloves, touched the Jiangxi grain coupon, the edge of which was stained with the coupon.
He raised his eyes and sneered, his gaze sweeping across Zhou Mingyuan's face like a knife.
Zhou Mingyuan instinctively covered the mole on his right cheek, then realized he had lost his composure and hurriedly lowered his hand.
This action prompted the two men behind the interrogation table to exchange a meaningful glance.
"It's all Li Xiaorou's fault!"
"That woman stole the grain coupons and forced me to sell them! The whole grain coupon reselling thing was Li Xiaorou's idea! She stole all the grain coupons!"
He suddenly howled, his fingernails scraping against the iron chair with a screeching sound.
Do you know where Li Xiaorou was last night?
Old Zhang suddenly slammed the folder on the table with a loud bang, like a gunshot. He leaned closer and suddenly reached out to poke Zhou Mingyuan's collar.
The yellowed wanted poster photo fluttered down, and in the picture, Li Xiaorou, with her braided hair, looked timid, completely different from the ruthless bandit in the restaurant's surveillance footage who overturned the table and smashed the steamer.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
