Chapter 84
Xiang Siling was stunned and blurted out: "No! Absolutely not!"
Li Meiling held her hand tightly, so tightly that it hurt her: "I killed someone just to save you! Do you want to send your mother to jail? Do you still have a conscience? Before I came, this guy had almost beaten your father to death, and my few hits didn't matter! He was the one who killed the person! He was the one who killed him!"
Xiang Siling held back tears and shook her head desperately. Li Meiling also cried and said, "I did this all for you. How can I, as a mother, watch someone kill my daughter? Siling, please, can you just say this? I don't want to go to jail. Is this boy more important than me?"
…
Chen Pu: "So from that day on, you helped Li Meiling to give false testimony?"
Lost in memories, Xiang Siling raised her head, her eyes clear and her expression sad: "I didn't want this to happen... I've already said it just now, the police at the time should also have records - I was completely speechless that night, as if I had lost my soul, and then I had a high fever. After the fever subsided, I forgot all these things."
Fang Kai sneered and said, "You forgot at the right time."
Xiang Siling looked helpless: "I didn't understand the brain at that time."
However, what Xiang Siling did not tell the police was that what she faced at the time was not just the oppression from Li Meiling using their mother-daughter relationship.
Of course, there was also Luo Hongmin's anger after he learned about it, and a series of quick response measures. The threats she faced were nothing more than nude photos, videos, human trafficking, and ruined reputation, which were the things that the girl feared the most at that time. Of course Luo Hongmin had to protect Li Meiling, otherwise she would definitely fight him to the death. Naturally, his thoughts and methods are incomparable to Li Meiling's.
As for the fate of Luo Huaizheng, this innocent poor child, in their view, it was natural and not worth mentioning.
Of course, many years later, when Xiang Siling recalled herself at that time, she felt somewhat cowardly and stupid when those adults covered her mouth for the second time and made her unable to make any sound. But later on, Xiang Siling no longer blamed herself repeatedly like she did in the past.
Underage children, who only long for the love of their parents, are like young cicadas and innocent fledglings. Adults are like mantises holding knives and axes, and vultures with insatiable appetites. At that time, she was not as cunning, sophisticated, or ruthless as them, so it was normal that the child could not defeat them.
And when Li Meiling picked up the iron candlestick, what she was thinking in her heart was whether to save her daughter, kill Xiang Wei, or save her the biggest bargaining chip to become Mrs. Luo... Later, Xiang Siling never asked.
…
Chen Pu did not put pressure on Xiang Siling with cold words like Fang Kai, nor did he show any sign of relaxation because of her perfect words.
He just raised his head, stared at Xiang Siling with his black eyes that seemed to be soaked in snow, and asked: "The rag was not among the evidence collected by the police. Did someone hide it?"
Inside and outside the interrogation room, everyone nodded to Si Ling under the nervous gaze.
…
After being threatened by Li Meiling, Xiang Siling was in a trance, as if he had fallen into the state of separation of soul and body in the past few days. Li Meiling thought she had been obedient, so she calmed her breathing, called the police, and disguised herself as the victim's family member, crying in grief.
Xiang Siling looked at the bloody young man on the ground and wanted to call his name, but found that no sound came out of his throat.
She really lost her voice unexpectedly during those days. Otherwise it would be impossible to hide it from the police.
But Li Meiling was not a professional criminal after all. After she finished the call, she noticed a rag with her fingerprints and Xiang Wei's blood on it. She panicked and asked, "What, what should I do?"
She picked up the rag and went to the kitchen, trying to set it on fire. Xiang Siling snatched it away, shook his head at her, and said with the last bit of his remaining breath: "The police...will be here soon..."
Li Meiling also realized that the police would definitely become suspicious when they saw a pile of freshly burned ashes in the trash can. And if the police come when the house is half burned, it will be even worse. She seemed to have heard the alarm bells.
"What should we do then?"
Xiang Siling suddenly walked to the window, and without waiting for Li Meiling to react, he raised his hand and threw the rag out of the window.
"You're crazy!" Li Meiling rushed to the window and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the situation downstairs.
There was a big garbage truck parked downstairs and the rag fell into it.
The big garbage truck stops here every night, and both mother and daughter know it. But what Li Meiling didn't know was that the garbage truck would not be towed away until 5 a.m., would stay at the garbage station for half a day, and would not be thoroughly cleaned until the afternoon.
At that time, Xiang Siling was still anxious and struggling fiercely. She didn't dare tell the truth to the police, nor could she bear it. After all, that was her mother, and he had just killed someone to save her. But she could never let Luo Huaizheng take the blame and go to jail. That was something she could never accept.
She hadn't figured out what to do yet, so she remained silent in front of the police.
The mother and daughter returned from the police station early the next morning. Li Meiling was very satisfied with her daughter's performance of "pretending to be mute". As soon as she got home, she fell asleep exhausted.
Xiang Siling slipped out the door while she was asleep and ran to the garbage station.
During the period of wrestling with the police, Luo Hongmin did not dare to visit or contact the police easily. He would either send his younger brothers to pass on the message, or secretly come to his house through the secret passage. Luo Hongmin taught Li Meiling everything step by step afterwards.
But Xiang Siling naturally would not mention this to the police, and only said that it was Li Meiling's idea alone.
…
Next door, Li Qingyao, who never shed tears easily, had tears in his eyes and stared at Xiang Siling.
She now knew what a dark and pitiful past this woman had, enough to shock and distress anyone. She also understood that she might have been young at that time, being controlled by others and having no control over her own actions. But she still wanted to ask one question -
Why?
Why did she only produce this crucial evidence that could have cleared Luo Huaizheng's name seven years later?
At this time, Chen Pu in the interrogation room asked for her: "You should have had countless opportunities in these seven years, why didn't you produce the evidence?"
Xiang Siling raised her watery eyes, and her crystal tears seemed to overflow uncontrollably: "As I said just now, because of post-traumatic stress disorder, I forgot a lot of things, including the existence of this evidence. I just remembered it today."
"Bang." Li Qingyao slammed his fist on the table and tears fell. It is very rare for her to show such emotions. All the other detectives in the room looked at her. Zhou Yangxin sighed and patted her shoulder.
Facing the sharp gazes of the policemen, Xiang Siling lowered her eyes again and reached out to gently wipe the tears from her face.
What else could she say? The girl seven years ago was truly not afraid of death and wanted to save Luo Huaizheng.
But she was afraid of the terrible torture and ending described by the adults, and was afraid that she would be condemned and reviled by everyone. Not to mention that they kept telling her every day that Li Meiling was trying to save her, to save her, to save her. She wants to send a mother to jail for a boy who has already seriously injured someone. She is a beast.
Didn't she think she was a beast? She clearly thought she could die for Luo Huaizheng, but when her mouth was covered and her hands and feet were tied, and she was tortured mentally and physically every day, her final choice was to make herself feel better. Perhaps it is because she is Li Meiling's child that selfishness is engraved in her bones.
At that time, she was not only cowardly and stupid, but also ignorant and fearless.
On the day she learned that Luo Huaizheng had been sentenced, she made up her mind to wait. When the day comes that she is no longer afraid of them and when she has the ability to fight back, she will produce this evidence to exonerate Luo Huaizheng.
But at that time, she didn't know that she would have to wait for seven whole years.
It was Chen Pu's steady voice that interrupted Xiang Siling's thoughts: "Can we still find that rag now?"
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