In the interrogation room, as soon as Sanfu saw Jiayi arrive, he felt as if he had been rescued.
All the clues and reasoning against Qin Hongliang had come from Jiayi, and although Sanfu could recount them, he was worried about missing crucial details.
Now that he had successfully handed over the baton to Jiayi, the interrogation was less likely to be botched.
Jiayi sat across the interrogation table, Qin Hongliang smiling at her from the other side, his face showing no sign of fear.
“Officer, why am I a suspect? I don’t understand,” Qin Hongliang spoke evenly, pausing deliberately, her voice calm.
“Why do you have to run a flower shop? I don’t understand that either,” Jiayi said, her hands relaxed on the table, her fingers tapping rhythmically, stopping every six taps and then continuing.
Qin Hongliang quickly noticed her action, her eyebrows briefly furrowing before relaxing again, pretending not to care:
“Flower shops are wonderful. Seeing flowers bloom makes one feel good. When you wash the petals and leaves, making them fresh and tender, it feels like happiness.”
“But what does wanting to open a flower shop have to do with anything, madam?”
Jiayi frowned, staring sternly, and began to narrate Qin Hongliang’s actions from the moment she entered the victim Zhao Meini’s house, gradually, Qin Hongliang’s smile faded.
As she described Qin sitting on the couch, raising her glass but not drinking, Jiayi challenged:
“Scared to drink for fear of leaving DNA, yet you leave behind Clara’s lipstick. I must admit, you are both clever and malicious.”
While speaking, Jiayi pried off the cap of the pen she was holding and carelessly tossed it aside, making no effort to put it back on properly.
Qin Hongliang habitually noticed whether everything around her was properly arranged, and the sight of the marker discarded by Jiayi’s hand immediately knitted her brows into twists.
The pain caused by witnessing this scene was far greater than hearing the police officer across from her explain her modus operandi.
The fear of her actions being discovered could be suppressed rationally, but some instincts, deep-rooted in her bones, simply couldn’t be controlled.
Her eyes fixated on the marker, her voice lowered: “What is the officer saying? I don’t understand. This has nothing to do with me, the police should not waste my time.”
Qin Hongliang’s tone worsened, and her speech speed noticeably increased, clearly her mood was quickly deteriorating.
Jiayi smirked, continuing to describe Qin Hongliang’s subsequent actions. To others, Jiayi’s deductions might seem impressive, but to Qin Hongliang, they were shockingly accurate.
She had considered that the detectives might suspect her and even predict her actions, but the exactness of these steps and the flawless sequence unnerved her.
Initially sitting across from Jiayi, she held her in utter contempt.
In fact, she mostly viewed these fools with disdain.
Foolish nouveau riche men, obsessed only with their desires, squandering hard-earned money in dens of vice, buying pointless things for vain women who only knew how to giggle foolishly.
Those foolish women, sick and bullied, frivolously spent the money they earned, without regret even as they were swindled by merchants.
And those of higher social status weren’t any better, just better-born fools, many even more despicable than the women who worked by the hour.
But as Jiayi detailed the case, Qin Hongliang’s eyes narrowed, sensing a threat.
Her usually proud eyes now took a careful measure of the female officer sitting across from her.
“Officer, I really didn’t do the things you mentioned. Everything I knew, I’ve already reported to you. The police need the support of the public to solve cases, and I’m willing to help. But to falsely accuse me, I must refuse,” Qin Hongliang straightened up slightly, trying to shift her gaze from the dissected marker on the table and focus on Jiayi.
“Qin Hongliang, we have collected your fingerprints and other clues from multiple locations, enough to connect you with this case. Resisting and denying have no point for you. On the contrary, cooperating with the police and confessing could lead to a more lenient treatment. You are smart, you should know how to choose,” Jiayi said, while tapping the table with her finger, but this time, not tapping six times.
Instead, she tapped five times and stopped, next only four times, and then seven times the following.
Soon, Qin Hongliang’s hands clenched into fists in her lap, her face slightly reddened from holding back anger.
She glared at Jiayi, trying her best not to look at the marker, but she couldn’t close her ears.
“Do you think you can perfectly frame Clara? While you’re watching others, others are watching you too. Everyone around you has provided clues that you might be the murderer, do you know that?” Jiayi remembered the tactics used by Fang Zhenyue during a previous interrogation of Zhang Dafu, and with a smile, she raised her eyebrows, mimicking someone else’s tone:
“Ah Hong has such a gloomy personality, if anyone is likely to be the murderer, it’s Ah Hong, not Clara. Just over that flower shop. Even without Meini, Sister Yun wouldn’t have invested in Ah Hong opening a store.”
“The kind of person Ah Hong is, she doesn’t speak sweetly nor is she enthusiastic. What kind of store can she run? Wouldn’t the customers be scared away by her demeanor?”
“Was Meini’s house very clean when she died? It must have been Ah Hong’s doing then; she’s the biggest clean freak…””
With a cold laugh, Yi Jiayi flicked her left hand, scattering a stack of documents across the floor, deliberately not picking them up.
She then picked up the cap of a marker, knocking it loudly against the desk, stopping after just five taps, and said mockingly:
“Was Zhao Meini better than you in every way? Better at work, more popular, you’re just jealous of her, aren’t you? It’s sad really, only the ugliest and most pitiful people would envy others.”
“Do you know what Tu Guisheng said about you? We found the murder evidence you left at his place, and he immediately accused you of murder, even said you were ugly and—”
Qin Hongliang glared at Yi Jiayi’s hand, which stopped knocking after the fifth tap. Both the documents on the floor and the uncapped marker made her extremely uncomfortable.
She almost wished she could jump up and kill all the detectives in the room, rush over to cap the marker, or help Yi Jiayi strike that last tap.
She restrained herself with great effort, her knuckles turning white as she clenched her fists, her body trembling slightly.
Even as she gritted her teeth, her complexion gradually paled.
Overwhelmed by emotions, anger and discomfort tortured her to the brink of losing control.
When Yi Jiayi mocked her, looking down with contempt, her pride in her own intelligence was also affronted, her self-esteem severely bruised by a pile of other negative emotions.
Finally unable to restrain herself any longer, her gaze turned cold, her voice deepened, her speech quickened, her words forceful:
“Officer Yi, do you think you’re smart? Just because the newspaper says you have a sense of justice, you really think you’re a good person? It’s just a job, whatever glory, whatever greatness, those are just things people say to use you, only fools would take them seriously. When others praise you, they just want you to work harder for them. You? Just a poor wretch begging for praise. If you meet a criminal smarter than you, unable to catch the perpetrator, all your past glory and achievements collapse, never to regain that fame, what else do you have to live for? Do you still have the courage to look back at those who once lifted you to the heavens?”
Grinding her teeth and with a sneer, Qin Hongliang called out, “Sharpshooter Officer Yi Jiayi,” suddenly pressed her fists on the table, leaning forward to confront Yi Jiayi:
“As for that fool Tu Guisheng, haha, him of all people? He’s not even worthy to lick my boots! Does he know how filthy and stinky he is? Just thinking about him makes me want to vomit. He’s just a decoration; if I want him here, he stays here. Even the foulest pawn is just a pawn.”
She raised her hand, mimicking the motion of capturing a chess piece.
As she said these words, she tilted her head slightly, but her eyes remained fixed on Yi Jiayi:
“And Clara? She’s even more foolish, always just throwing things around the house, never listening no matter how many times she’s told. Always ready to go to extremes for others, who does she think she is? Watching her every day, I feel it’s really pitiful how she lives. A person always seeking others’ approval, even running around in heavy rain to pick up so-called friends, lending money that she never gets back… doing so many things that harm her own interests. And what’s the result? Everyone else is using her, and she’s still proud of it? Ha, it’s really laughable! Officer Yi, why do you think Clara has such a bad temper? Doesn’t she subconsciously know she’s being used? She’s just too foolish to break free. So she makes herself look fierce all day long, hoping that people will be scared of her and not bully or use her. But has she really made true friends? Has she really received others’ love and respect? No, she hasn’t. Isn’t that pitiful? Hahaha…”
At this point, a storm seemed to whirl in Qin Hongliang’s eyes, her pupils swirling with a mad crimson as she continued staring at Yi Jiayi, slightly raising her chin and narrowing her eyes with arrogance:
“Oh, and that Zhao Meini, just a hypocritical bitch! Always giggling stupidly, thinking she’s so beautiful? Those lecherous men just want to take advantage of her, play with her. And those so-called sisters, they praise her to the skies to her face, but turn around and sneer and roll their eyes to the heavens. She has a good reputation? Haha, it’s just because she likes to attract attention, a false prosperity. Madam, look at Zhao Meini’s death, did anyone shed a single genuine tear for her? Good reputation? Don’t make me sick, okay? With her looks, she even thinks of opening a fish ball shop? She’s the one selling, who would dare eat her fish balls. Sister Yun choosing her, what does that tell you? They’re all foolish! All cheap—”
“Is that why you killed Zhao Meini?” Jiayi, holding back her anger, tilted her head provocatively and stared at Qin Hongliang, controlling her tone and expression to suppress the tension, seizing the moment of Qin Hongliang’s emotional outburst to ask the most crucial question!