I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 47: Chapter 45: Interrogation

”Sister Miaomiao, are you okay? Feeling all right?”

Back at police headquarters, Chu Xingrou was very apologetic.

On the way back, she’d seen Su Miaoyi leaning against the car door, silent for the entire ride.

”I’m fine. With a body as strong as mine, what could happen?” Su Miaoyi said. ”Don’t worry, I’m okay.”

”Captain Zhuang told me not to ask you questions like ’are you scared?’ anymore,” Chu Xingrou said.

Su Miaoyi patted her shoulder. ”Mhm, you should listen to him. We won’t ask anymore, okay?”

Chu Xingrou nodded repeatedly, like a chick pecking at grain.

Su Miaoyi also nodded and leaned back in her chair.

Zhuang Yanzheng had gone to interrogate Liu Fan.

After the jars were brought back, they were all taken to the forensic center.

’Yan Cheng must be busy right now, too.’

Su Miaoyi rested on a chair in the reception area.

Chu Xingrou had nothing to do for the moment, so she kept her company.

After a moment of silence, Su Miaoyi broke the ice. ”Are you really scared of Zhuang Yanzheng?”

Chu Xingrou nodded. ”Captain Zhuang is really fierce, and he’s so loud.”

Su Miaoyi agreed.

’He really is intimidating. He even *looks* intimidating, with an oppressive aura about him.’

’But he’s also a total smart-ass.’

”But he treats all of us really well,” Chu Xingrou said. ”There’s no discrimination in the workplace, especially not against women.”

Su Miaoyi nodded again.

’That’s true.’

”Sister Miaomiao, you’re not afraid of him at all.” After Chu Xingrou finished speaking, she quickly covered her mouth.

’I’m not supposed to ask if she’s scared.’

”It’s okay. We can talk about it now,” Su Miaoyi said.

”You don’t feel sick?” Chu Xingrou asked cautiously.

”No.” Su Miaoyi thought for a moment.

’Actually, she was afraid of Zhuang Yanzheng too.’

’But most of the time, she didn’t really feel it.’

’And being around him was comfortable.’

’Even though he’s a smart-ass and brutally blunt...’

’...it was just comfortable and reassuring to be with him.’

’Maybe this was just one of those strange, wonderful twists of fate.’

”Sister Miaomiao, why don’t you go to the interrogation room?” Chu Xingrou asked.

Su Miaoyi looked at her and said nothing.

’In her current capacity, she couldn’t go in.’

’She thought of that contract again.’

’And that voice inside her...’

「Interrogation Room」

Liu Fan remained silent, refusing to answer any questions.

It wasn’t until he saw the photos of the jars that he suddenly went berserk.

”What did you do! What did you do to them! Those are mine! They’re mine! Don’t you touch them! Don’t you dare touch them!”

”How are they yours?” Zhuang Yanzheng frowned. ”What? You grow five pairs of hands and five pairs of eyes?!”

”They’re mine! They’re mine!” Liu Fan screamed.

”Quiet down!” Zhuang Yanzheng snapped.

Liu Fan tried to stand, but he was restrained by the interrogation chair.

An officer beside him held him down, giving him a moment to calm down.

Once he was quiet, Zhuang Yanzheng asked, ”Why did you kill?”

Liu Fan fell silent for a moment. ”You’ve already caught me, haven’t you? Just kill me and get it over with. Why bother asking all these questions?”

Zhuang Yanzheng watched him. After a moment, he glanced down at the file in his hands, recalling Su Miaoyi’s question about whether Liu Fan was single. He asked, ”Your parents said... you had a girlfriend back in school. Why did you two break up?”

Liu Fan stared intently at Zhuang Yanzheng. There was anger in his eyes, and hatred, but more than anything, there was killing intent.

Seeing his reaction, Zhuang Yanzheng pressed, ”What happened between you two? Bad blood?”

Liu Fan cracked his neck, a muscle in his cheek twitching. ”Not a single one of them is any good.”

Zhuang Yanzheng frowned.

As if remembering something, Liu Fan’s chest began to heave. ”I was so good to her! I worked multiple jobs while I was in school to support her. And what did she do? While I was out working, she was hopping into bed with another man!”

Zhuang Yanzheng didn’t speak.

Liu Fan continued, ”And the other guy? Just because his family had a little money? Just because he had some piece-of-shit car? She went to bed with him. I caught them at a hotel, and then she had the nerve to apologize and ask me to forgive her.”

”Fine. I forgave her. And what did that forgiveness get me?” Liu Fan looked at Zhuang Yanzheng and screamed, ”It got me her bringing another man back to our apartment, where I walked in on them!”

He started laughing again. ”HAHAHA... It got me cheated on again and again! And my parents still dare to bring her up! Are they completely blameless in all this?”

Zhuang Yanzheng frowned.

Liu Fan snorted. ”They clearly had money, plenty of it, but they made me work my way through university, forcing me to live like some poor kid, getting looked down on everywhere. And for what? To ’build my character’? Medical school is demanding enough, but they still made me go out and work. Do any of you have any idea what I went through during those years?”

No one interrupted him.

The only sound was the scratching of the pen as the officer next to Zhuang Yanzheng took notes.

”It was like they were sick, and the disease made them love hitting people,” Liu Fan said. ”They came down with it as soon as I started school. If the top score was a hundred and I got a ninety-nine, I got a beating. If I came in second place, I got a beating. If I went to bed earlier than I was supposed to, I got a beating. If I didn’t get up on time in the morning, I got a beating. You people...”

He looked around at the people in the interrogation room. ”Have any of you ever been beaten with a leather belt until your vision goes black and you can’t breathe? That feeling of being on the verge of death?”

He scoffed. ”And even after all that... they still said it was all for my own good. I couldn’t wait for ’my own good’ to be over. I went to middle school, then high school, then university! I finally got away from them. But then what? The physical torture just turned into mental torture.”

”Every phone call, it was always about how hard they worked, how they scrimped and saved for me,” Liu Fan said. ”But our family had money. They received compensation for two different demolitions, a payout for each. And the place they live now will be torn down sooner or later, too. All that money, what were they saving it for? We all could have had a much easier life. I could have gotten into this school without all the beatings.”

”My girlfriend left me for being poor, and then they turned around and nagged me all day to find another one.” Liu Fan poured out years of resentment. ”I had a great job in Luo City—good salary, great benefits. Then they started in on how I was their only son, how I was too far away in Luo City for them to rely on me. They raised hell and threatened to kill themselves to force me to come back!”

”Isn’t that a joke?! A complete joke! I’m a man in my thirties, and I have no control over my own life!”

Zhuang Yanzheng glanced down at the file, then at the officer’s notes beside him, before asking again, ”So why the murders?!”

Liu Fan laughed. ”If you have to blame someone, blame them. They had the same eyes as that bitch... and the same beautiful hands!”

Zhuang Yanzheng narrowed his eyes.

Liu Fan said, ”Do you have any idea how rare that is? To find eyes like that, and hands like that, together? It’s almost impossible to find someone who meets both requirements.”

A crazed, twisted smile spread across his face.

”Eyes like that... they should belong to me. They should be looking at me, always,” Liu Fan grinned. ”And hands like that... they should be held in mine! They’re all mine! No one can ever take them away!”

...