14
The shock of seeing the corpse overwhelmed the memory module in my brain. When I regained consciousness, I was already in the police station, in a room with blue walls and a white ceiling.
I knew this was the interrogation room, the place where police officers questioned the public about cases. As a child, my father often brought me there to do my homework under his supervision. I was familiar with the station, but I never dreamed I would ever report to a place like this as a witness.
"I'm only here to compile a case file. As an eyewitness at the scene, I'm asking you to explain the situation."
The detective in charge spoke kindly. He was a young man with acne still on his cheeks, a long, narrow face, a pointed chin, and a smile on his lips. He looked like the kindly fox that guides a lost woodcutter in a fairy tale. I didn't know him; he might be a new officer who had recently arrived.
"So, where do I begin?" Under normal circumstances, being pulled into a room and questioned alone by the police would have made me feel very uncomfortable. But now, I couldn't care less. I felt like I had to get it out. I urgently needed to find someone to talk about what I had seen and heard, to vent the suffocating tension.
"Don't worry, just relax. Just think of it as a chat between classmates and friends. I'll ask some questions, and you just answer truthfully."
But no matter what I said, I couldn't calm down. My heart was pounding, and my palms were covered in sweat.
He poured me a cup of lukewarm green tea. Like a thirsty animal, I gulped it down in one gulp, not even leaving a single tea leaf.
"It's really pitiful. I sympathize with your experience. It would be difficult for an adult to recover after witnessing such a bloody scene."
His words reminded me of Li Zitong and her brother, Li Tianci. Compared to me, they were the ones who truly needed my care. Their mother had just passed away, and their father had followed suit. It must have been difficult for underage children to bear this pain.
I asked the acne-faced policeman about the Li siblings, and his answer surprised me.
"I don't know the girl's situation; other colleagues are taking care of her. She seems to have stayed with relatives last night. The boy's situation is relatively good; after all, he didn't directly witness the scene and still doesn't know his father has passed away."
It turned out that when Gao Yang discovered the door was unlocked and barged into the Li family's house, Li Tianci had just woken up. He knocked on his father's door, but there was no response. Li Xueqiang had come home drunk last night and might have slept until noon. So he didn't find it strange. He was about to wash his face and brush his teeth when he was startled by the sound of our intrusion and hid in his sister's room.
"Did Li Xueqiang drink last night?" I asked the acne-faced policeman.
"He drank quite a bit, so drunk he couldn't even walk. His coworkers had no choice but to carry him home. They said Li Xueqiang had a low alcohol tolerance and rarely drank before. But since his wife's unexplained death, he's become a completely different person. Whenever he goes out to eat, he's invariably drunk. To put it bluntly, it's like he was deliberately drinking himself to death."
This feeling seems not difficult to understand.
"But there's one thing that's strange," he said, frowning. "The coworkers who sent him home all said they closed the door properly when they left, and there wasn't a problem with the lock. Li Tianci said the same thing. But when you and your friend arrived the next morning, the door was ajar."
"Isn't this obvious? Someone must have broken in at night by picking the lock. It's most likely Li Xueqiang's murderer."
The acne-faced policeman nodded rapidly, looking as if he understood.
"And I think his death is closely related to the 'videotape murder' two months ago. A large number of videotapes have appeared at the scene this time. Who knows, the murderer might be the same person."
"I see, you have a point—but then again," he said, his tone suddenly becoming serious, "why on earth would you go knocking on someone else's door so early in the morning?"
"Well, we know his daughter, Li Zitong. Gao Yang is still in the same class with her..."
"We've confirmed that they were classmates. When Gao Yang reported the case to the police, he said he was commissioned by his teacher to deliver study materials. But we inquired with the school, and they confirmed that his homeroom teacher did commission him once, but that was two weeks ago."
“Hmm…”
It seemed I had no choice but to tell the truth. I honestly confessed Gao Yang's plan to force his way into the house and find the person. The acne-faced policeman narrowed his eyes after hearing this.
"You two are very brave. This is considered a premeditated crime. Aren't you afraid at all?"
"No, it won't get that serious." I denied it flatly. "This is all Gao Yang's plan. I didn't agree with it in the first place. If an unexpected conflict really happened, I would definitely stop him to prevent the situation from getting worse."
"According to you, the entire plan was led by Gao Yang?"
I nodded. It felt vaguely like I was shirking responsibility, but it was the truth.
"But from what we know, Gao Yang and Li Zitong seem to be just classmates, not even friends. Although they live close to each other, they don't interact much and never speak to each other in class. High school students these days are so idle, would they go to such lengths to commit a crime for a classmate?"
Who knows why? Anyway, since elementary school, Gao Yang has been particularly concerned about Li Zitong's affairs.
"On the contrary, it seems to outsiders that you, Su Jie, have more motivation to lead this plan." He changed the subject and said, "You and Li Zitong had a premature love affair, right?"
The ambush from the flank was so unexpected that my face felt hot. "It was just a misunderstanding, a rumor spread among classmates..."
"No way, your junior high school even has a written record of your disciplinary action. Dating someone of the opposite sex outside of school, developing an inappropriate relationship, a serious warning."
“That’s because…”
The school also misunderstood - but before I could say it, I realized that giving this reason at this time would sound no different from an excuse for desperate denial.
"Don't worry, premature love is a trivial matter that only the school cares about. We have no right to interfere." The acne-faced man comforted her. "Anyway, you and Li Zitong have a good relationship, right?"
I could only nod in agreement with him.
"But I think that even if it's for his girlfriend, breaking into someone's house is too much. It's already a criminal act."
"I've already said that we went in because we found the door lock was broken..."
"So how do you plan to prove this?"
The other party suddenly asked in a harsh tone, and I was speechless.
"Think it over now, there's still time to tell everything. You can get a lighter sentence..." Perhaps to offset the rebuke implied in his attitude, he took a sip of lukewarm tea and began to persuade again in a soft voice.
I suddenly realized that at this stage, the police's purpose was no longer simply to compile a case file and collect testimony. This was essentially an interrogation, and I was being treated as a suspect in the murder case or a member of a criminal group, and I was completely suspected.
When you get to the police station, you have to explain whether there's anything wrong or not. I once heard Besie say that.
Although these words came from a criminal with a long and ruthless criminal record, my lack of social experience made me somewhat skeptical. Worried about being wrongly accused, I changed my tone and stopped actively cooperating with Piancha's questions. I gave vague answers to whatever he asked.
The kind expression on Pianzhen's face began to disappear, and his tone became stern. "I just asked you when was the last time you saw Li Zitong. You don't even remember?"
"I'm sorry! ... I'm so sorry." I pretended to be frightened, tears welling up in my eyes. "I, I can't help but think of the scene when the body was discovered, and my mind is blank..."
Acne sighed deeply, as if remembering that the person in front of him was only a minor after all, and that he couldn't adopt an overly coercive policy. Then he changed his approach, asking questions repeatedly, asking for various details, to test whether my answers would be inconsistent.
He asked about my relationships, my grades, my recent travels, and so on, meticulously examining every detail and recording it in his diary. This line of questioning was a complete waste of time; I couldn't imagine how it related to the case. The paper was covered in dense penmanship, meticulously recording what I ate, where I went, and who I met, with specific times and dates attached. It was like a primary school diary.
The entire room had only one small window, which let in almost no light, probably because it was too close to the neighboring building. Therefore, I didn't realize until much later that it was completely dark. Hunger was also rising. I thought I wouldn't feel like eating for a long time after seeing the blood-soaked scene, but it turned out to be hungry again.
The interrogation hadn't ended, nor did it show any sign of stopping. The acne kept asking questions, and I looked down at my hands, feeling as if ants were crawling all over my body. I'd give him whatever information he needed, just stop asking him endless questions.
I finally couldn't help it and interrupted him, "I want to go home and eat. I'm hungry."
"This is going to be tough!" He cracked his knuckles, making a "crackling" sound, a look of embarrassment on his face. "For a case this serious, we need to finish the transcript as quickly as possible. If possible, I'll just hold on a little longer and get it done."
"But your questions have nothing to do with the case," I protested, "and they all concern my personal privacy."
"That's hard to say." He flipped back dozens of pages of the transcript. "Two weeks ago, you were beaten by a group of delinquent teenagers. You were injured and hospitalized. That's quite suspicious. If they were just trying to extort money but failed, why would they go to such extreme lengths? There must be a lot of kids who don't have money on them and can't pay their protection fees."
"How would I know about this?"
"Is this really the first time you've met that group of bad boys? Have you had any contact with them before?"
I was completely unsettled in my seat. "What kind of question is that? I'm the victim!"
The door was pushed open with a "click" and my father in police uniform appeared in front of me. I didn't recognize him at first glance.
My father looked very tired, but even so, his police uniform made him look even more imposing than usual. "It's getting late, how about a break?"
"Wait a little longer." Pimple fiddled with the pen with her fingers and said with difficulty, "You know, this is according to the rules."
"I know there have been so many serious crimes lately, and everyone's been working hard," the father replied. "But people are made of iron and rice is made of steel. Even adults can't stand it at this rate, let alone a child. I'll take him out for dinner and be back in half an hour. It won't delay anything."
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