Through the specially designed glass window, Lao He could clearly see every movement and expression of Xu Ruyi, unobstructed.
The interrogation room was next door.
Strictly speaking, bringing Xu Ruyi into the interrogation room for questioning was against protocol—there was currently no solid evidence linking her to the case.
But Lao He was unwilling to question her face-to-face in the reception room.
To be precise, he simply couldn't bring himself to do it.
From the very first time he went to Guanlan Court to investigate "Qi Min's disappearance," the moment he laid eyes on the suspect's wife, Lao He had felt a hazy sense of familiarity. She was around the same age as his sister-in-law, shared similarly gentle eyes and a delicate, fragile appearance. Like his sister-in-law, she had defied her family's disapproval and objections for love, marrying a man they saw as an opportunistic climber, only to suffer similar betrayal, deceit, and manipulation by that man…
The difference was, Xu Ruyi was still alive.
His sister-in-law, however—that girl who had always obediently followed him and his wife, calling them "Sis" and "Brother-in-law"; that thoughtful aunt who had tirelessly helped their working-class couple care for their child; that sensible and considerate young woman who had often acted as the glue holding their marriage together—was long gone. Separated by life and death.
A victim of unnatural death.
And he, her brother-in-law, the deputy captain of the criminal investigation team, knew exactly who the murderer was, yet remained powerless. He could only watch as the killer walked free.
Not just his parents-in-law and his wife—even he couldn't forgive or accept such a useless, pathetic version of himself. He began to spiral, constantly picking fights, smashing things, drowning himself in alcohol, never coming home at night…
He dragged himself through the days, he wasted time, he hid, he avoided… until finally, he exhausted his wife's patience. She placed divorce papers before him.
…
A colleague handed Lao He a cup of hot tea.
Lao He took the cup, drew a deep breath, and gulped down a large mouthful, trying to push aside the tangled thoughts constricting his heart.
He faced the glass window, his tightly furrowed brow pressing down on his swollen, puffy eye sockets, squeezing his already somewhat clouded eyes into two narrow slits.
His gaze remained fixed on Xu Ruyi—Xiao Wu and Xiao Lu were handling her. Xiao Lu wore a smile, eagerly bringing her coffee while casually explaining that the station was busy today, the reception rooms were all occupied, so they'd temporarily brought her to the interrogation room just to chat. It was definitely not an interrogation, just a routine inquiry, thank you for cooperating…
"It's fine, I'm okay anywhere," Xu Ruyi nodded repeatedly, picking up the coffee and drinking it. She seemed to accept Xiao Lu's explanation smoothly.
She was also cooperative, responding directly to every question Xiao Wu asked after a brief moment of thought.
This naturally included the several calls she had answered on the afternoon she fell.
To be precise, the calls received by the "secret" number ending in 5677, registered under Feng Xiangping's name.
"That afternoon and evening, so many, many things happened. Xu Ruyi was stuck in the hospital, unable to leave. She had to keep contacting Feng Zhi, by phone,"
Her own commonly used number, ending in 3666, showed no suspicious or unknown calls that afternoon. Her WeChat was also clear.
Her other number, ending in 5677, had been registered three months earlier using Feng Xiangping's ID—shortly after Xu Ruyi's father passed away.
Feng Xiangping had never used this number. To be precise, Xu Ruyi hadn't formally used it herself for a long time after obtaining it.
Later, she used this number to contact Li Yang privately a few times—sending him messages informing him of Qin Guan and Qi Min's affair, notifying him that Qin Guan had murdered Qi Min, which led to Li Yang confronting and assaulting Qin Guan at the entrance of Yongfa Supermarket.
On the afternoon Xu Ruyi fell, this number ending in 5677 had received three different internet-based calls.
Lao He had traced these numbers. They were all virtual numbers, dialed via the internet, originating from three different IP addresses. Each call lasted roughly two minutes.
"Three? I'm not really sure. Auntie Feng probably answered them. I had two phones with me that day. When a phone rang, Auntie Feng would answer it. I only took one call myself, in the evening. I was feeling drowsy and couldn't really hear what the person on the other end was saying. Later, I gave the phone to Auntie Feng, and she answered it for me too. She said it was actually some kind of sales call," Xu Ruyi said.
They were indeed sales calls.
Lao He had tracked down the sources: health supplement packages, Taobao investment projects… all three calls were sales pitches.
None of the three calls came from Feng Zhi.
This severely contradicted Qin Guan's deductions.
Because, according to Qin Guan's theory, from that afternoon into the evening, if Xu Ruyi had truly used herself as bait in a scheme, employing a self-inflicted injury to trap Qin Guan's attention while Feng Zhi took Qi Min away, and Qi Min greedily refused—amidst so many sudden changes, Feng Zhi had to maintain contact with Xu Ruyi.
But there was none. No contact at all.
Yet, to say Feng Zhi was completely innocent wasn't right either.
The figure appearing in the surveillance footage, though the face was never visible—that identical jacket, Lao He had finally found it.
That jacket was worn by Feng Zhi—it wasn't in the photo album from Feng Xiangping, but it was in Xu Ruyi's album at Guanlan Court.
It was from a day during the October holiday in Feng Zhi's freshman year of university. He was wearing that jacket—black, short, with a tiger head design on the back—in a photo taken with Xu Ruyi in the city's largest park.
Lao He rubbed his temples in agitation—a piece of clothing alone was still insufficient for a conviction. Moreover, on the day of the incident, Feng Zhi had been attending classes at school the entire time. His teachers and classmates could all provide him with an alibi.
Seemingly true, yet perhaps false. Seemingly false, yet perhaps true.
This case, once seemingly clear-cut, had now become shrouded in fog, intricate and bewilderingly complex.
Many details mentioned by Qin Guan had been verified, but the verification was incomplete. Xu Ruyi seemed truly implicated, yet there was no concrete evidence to confirm it. Yet, to completely exclude her also felt wrong; her suspicion seemed only to deepen…
Lao He was unbearably agitated—his phone vibrated. Qi Zhifei was relentlessly pressing him to wrap up the case and submit it.
But he had to keep investigating. The crucial piece of evidence in the homicide—the black stockings bearing epithelial tissues from Qin Guan and Qi Min—if their origin couldn't be clearly established, they would be inadmissible in court. They might even overturn the entire trial direction of the case.
He absolutely had to clarify their source.
More importantly, there was what Qin Guan called "that night," the night Xu Ruyi fell and was hospitalized—Qin Guan claimed that was Qi Min's actual time of death.