Miss Forensics – Chapter 16
by Little PandaPart One
Hidden Motives
Who knew such a hot babe was actually a criminal investigator? What a complete waste of God’s gifts.
If not for that round of picking up a corpse1, this gang might not have ended up in the bureau. Right now, they’d all be obediently squatting in the corner with their hands over their heads.
Most of their alcohol had worn off by now. The green-haired guy had been beaten senseless; the moment he saw her appear before him, his legs turned to jelly.
Song Yuhang unscrewed a bottle of mineral water, took a sip, and wiped the moisture from her lips, mimicking Lin Yan’s style. “Don’t be scared. Assaulting a police officer isn’t some major crime. You’ll only get three to five years, along with a fine.”
The gang immediately began to wail. “Officer Song! Captain Song! Great-aunt! We really drank too much, way too much! We aren’t usually like this. How would we ever dare to have those kinds of thoughts? Even if you gave us ten times the courage, we wouldn’t dare! But you can’t entirely blame us either, after all…”
As the green-haired guy spoke, his eyes kept darting toward Lin Yan. Who could have known that such a beautiful woman was actually a criminal investigator?
She didn’t look the part at all. What a complete waste of God’s gifts.
Acting was acting, but Lin Yan knew exactly where to draw the line. Seeing his wretched, greasy gaze glued to her made her sick. Sitting in her chair, she couldn’t resist kicking out at him. The green-haired guy dodged backward, still wearing a cheeky grin.
“Assault! Assault! The police are beating people! I didn’t start it this time!”
Now that they were in the bureau, if she hit him, it’d count as extracting a confession through torture.
Several investigators stepped forward to pull her back. Lin Yan stood up with a jerk. “Fuck…”
Before she could finish her sentence, a shadow fell over her.
Song Yuhang was tall and blocked out most of the fluorescent light. She raised her chin slightly and looked toward the interrogation room, her voice a little cold.
“Step inside. One by one. None of you are getting away.”
Not only did this bunch pull picking-up-a-corpse stunts, but they were also Zhou Mo’s coworkers. The green-haired guy had even covered for him to help him evade police questioning. Looking at how organized and clearly divided their roles were, this probably wasn’t the first time they’d done something so wicked.
They really needed to interrogate them thoroughly tonight.
“Get up, get up. Move inside.” Several investigators hauled them up and escorted them in one by one. Only the last one remained.
Song Yuhang looked at him and screwed the cap back onto her water bottle. “I’ll handle this one myself.”
In the end, experience won out. Long before Zhou Mo had slipped out of her sight, Song Yuhang had already arranged for plainclothes officers to secure all the exits of Landi Bar, catching them red-handed.
She hadn’t stopped Lin Yan because Zhou Mo was a tough nut to crack, and she’d wanted to gather more information from other sources first.
Once they were inside the bureau, they wouldn’t necessarily tell the truth.
But by cross-referencing their statements with the information Lin Yan had obtained, they would easily separate fact from fiction.
“Jie, are you okay?” Duan Cheng noticed she looked a bit drained and brought a glass of water, placing it by her hand.
Lin Yan raised her head from her arms. “I’m fine. Still interrogating?”
“Yeah,” Duan Cheng replied, glancing at his watch. “It’s been over an hour.”
Lin Yan pulled open her drawer, shook out two pieces of gum from her pack, chewed them, and shoved the container back. She picked up the glass of warm water, downed it in one go, wiped her mouth, and stood up.
“I’m going to take a look. Besides, the diatom test results are out.”
According to regulations, since there wasn’t solid evidence and Zhou Mo hadn’t participated in the picking-up-a-corpse incident, his questioning had to be classified as an informal inquiry rather than a formal interrogation.
Furthermore, minors required a guardian present during the recording of a statement. Zhou Mo clung to this rule like a lifeline, refusing to say a word.
The officer conducting the inquiry suppressed his temper and slammed his pen onto the table. “Don’t think we don’t know both your parents are dead! Where are you going to get a guardian from?”
The boy sitting across from him grinned and leaned back in his chair. “Well, I wouldn’t know about that, Officer. I’ve already told you—on the day Teacher Ding had her accident, I was really sleeping in my dorm. If you don’t believe me, go ask my classmates or the dorm manager.”
“You—” Just as the officer was about to lose his temper, someone held him back.
Lin Yan turned off the camera and gestured for the officer to leave.
The officer pursed his lips. “He’s a tough nut to crack…”
Lin Yan reached out and switched off the voice recorder in front of Song Yuhang. Song Yuhang glanced at her but didn’t stop her.
“This isn’t an official inquiry. I’m not speaking to you as a police officer right now; I’m just an ordinary person seeking the truth. Teacher Ding was still young, and her child is so small. She should have had a much better life. Don’t you think?”
Lin Yan pulled up a chair and sat down, looking at him with a touch of pity in her eyes.
Song Yuhang took an envelope out of an evidence bag and slid it across. “We found this in Ding Xue’s desk. These are the letters you wrote her. She kept every single one of them.”
“I’m sure she replied to you as well. You talked about everything under the sun—life, dreams, your future. When you said life was hopeless, she guided you out of the swamp step by step. When you started high school at the bottom of your class, she lifted you up, gave you extra tutoring, taught you, and gave you confidence and poise. She even used her own salary to pay your tuition fees. Is this how you’re repaying her?”
“And the clothes you’re wearing—she sewed that button on for you, didn’t she?” Song Yuhang tilted her head, a rare sharpness flashing in her light brown eyes.
“You can clearly afford an Omega watch, yet you can’t bear to throw away an old piece of clothing.”
The boy sitting opposite shrank under her gaze and pulled down his sleeve to cover the watch. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just found this watch…”
Lin Yan straightened her posture, her dark eyes staring intently at him. “Admit it. You loved her.”
In the adjacent interrogation room, the lights were glaring. The fluorescent lamps shone brightly, and staring at them for too long made one’s eyes ache.
It was a silent psychological tactic.
When dealing with these troublemakers, they weren’t nearly as polite as they were in the other room.
“The charges you’re facing right now are pretty serious. Harboring a criminal suspect, assaulting police officers, indecent assault2… Add all of those up, and you’re looking at at least seven or eight years in prison. You’d better confess. If you provide key clues to help solve the case, the court might be lenient.”
The two stone-faced officers in uniform sitting across from him hadn’t uttered a single unnecessary word since they entered.
The green-haired guy mulled it over in his mind. He was starving, his throat was parched without a single drop of water, and his vision was growing blurry.
“I’ll talk, I’ll talk! Is there any water? I want a sip of water.”
The officer sitting closer to the door gestured outside. After a moment, someone came in and handed him a cup of hot water.
“Speak up. When did Zhou Mo start working at your place?”
“About three months ago, I think.”
“On the night of May 14, did he show up for work?”
The green-haired guy shook his head like a rattle. “No, no. He’s always short on cash, so he basically comes every night. But I remember that day clearly because he requested time off, and I had to cover his shift.”
“Did he tell you why?”
“No, we didn’t ask.”
“He didn’t show up the entire night?”
“Nope.”
“Think back. Has he behaved unusually lately, or has he been in contact with anyone?”
“Let me think…” The green-haired guy rolled his eyes, then suddenly slapped his thigh. “Oh, I remember! The next day, he showed up for work really early. It happened to be the birthday party of one of our regulars, quite a lively crowd.”
The two investigators exchanged a look. “What was strange about it?”
“The guy who threw the birthday party, Chen Hao. He’s a wealthy kid, goes to the same school as him. The weird part is that the two of them were actually acting like best buddies, wrapping their arms around each other’s shoulders.”
The green-haired guy recalled that when Zhou Mo first started working at the bar, Chen Hao had humiliated him, calling him a pauper and shoving his head down to make him lick spilled alcohol off the floor.
Who could tolerate that? No one. The two had ended up in a massive brawl. Zhou Mo had to pay a hefty compensation that time and was nearly fired.
He spread his hands. “Yet they could just make up after that. Don’t you think that’s strange, Officer?”
The two investigators exchanged another look. One of them stood up and headed outside, likely to report to their superior.
The green-haired guy grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth, and lifted his handcuffed hands. “Officer, look, I’ve told you everything I know. Can I go now?”
The remaining officer capped his pen, ignoring him. “Whether you leave or not is up to the higher-ups.”
“Captain Song.” An officer hurried through the door, whispered something in her ear, and placed a file on the table in front of her.
Sitting across from her, Zhou Mo shifted uneasily, swallowing repeatedly. Song Yuhang waved her hand to signal an officer to pour him some water while she calmly flipped through the pages, completely composed.
“That watch was a gift from Chen Hao, wasn’t it?” Her voice was clear and resonant. No matter the situation, she remained unhurried, as if she held all the cards.
Under her overwhelming presence, the mask on Zhou Mo’s face began to shatter.
His lips trembled as if he wanted to defend himself, his fingers tightly interlaced as he picked at the dead skin around his nails.
None of this escaped her gaze.
A faint smile touched Song Yuhang’s lips, looking calm yet dangerous. “Let me guess why he gave you that watch. There aren’t many things that can turn enemies into friends overnight—unless you share a secret.”
“A secret so important that it forced you to put aside your past grudges. I really can’t imagine what kind of secret two ordinary high school students could possibly share, unless…”
Her expression turned grim as she said in a freezing voice, “You killed someone.”
Zhou Mo had kept his head lowered, but as she spoke, his expression grew increasingly agonized. His hands clenched into tight fists, his teeth grinding.
Hearing this, he stood up with a violent jerk, kicking the table in front of him aside. His eyes were bloodshot as he bellowed, “I didn’t! I didn’t! You’re lying!!! I loved her so much, how could I ever kill her?!”
Lin Yan, sitting opposite, recoiled instinctively in surprise, clutching her chest. “Oh my, quite fierce.”
Song Yuhang slammed her hand on the desk and stood up. She seemed to possess a natural talent for commanding her presence at will. “Sit down!” she barked.
Several investigators rushed in and pinned him back down into his chair.
His mask had completely shattered. He covered his face and began to weep, his soft whimpers eventually escalating into loud, despairing wails.
“I didn’t… I didn’t kill her… I really didn’t… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”
“Do you think he’s telling the truth?” Lin Yan sat in her office chair, stirring her coffee with her feet propped up on the desk, turning her head to look at Song Yuhang.
Having gone forty-eight hours without closing her eyes, Song Yuhang showed no signs of fatigue as she flipped through the lab report Lin Yan had handed her.
“We’ll know whether it’s true or false once Chen Hao is back.”
The field officers are already out to make the arrest; the truth will be fully revealed within two hours at most.
Lin Yan took a sip of her coffee, her brow furrowing at the bitterness.
“I’m still quite puzzled. Chen Hao is Ge Jun’s nephew. There’s nothing wrong with him wanting to find out if his uncle was actually having an affair. Zhou Mo loved Ding Xue, and there’s nothing wrong with him wanting to find out if she was indeed involved with her superior. So, they quietly climbed over the school wall and followed her all the way to Lianchi Park.”
“But unless Ge Jun can clone himself, there’s no way he was at Lianchi Park that night. So, who exactly was Ding Xue going to meet?”
Song Yuhang stopped flipping the pages. She looked up and met Lin Yan’s eyes, an unreadable light flickering in her gaze that gave her goosebumps.
She had worn that same faint, inscrutable smile in the interrogation room. Lin Yan quickly averted her gaze.
After a long pause, Song Yuhang finally spoke. “That’s my question as well.”
According to Zhou Mo’s statement, they had followed Ding Xue all the way to Lianchi Park. By then, it was already past eleven o’clock at night. The park was deserted, and Ding Xue had taken a secluded path, walking as if she knew the route by heart.
She soon crossed the stone arch bridge. The woods in that area were dense with thick foliage, and the night was pitch-black. Fearing they’d lose her, they hurried to catch up.
The railing of the stone arch bridge wasn’t high—barely waist-deep. Ding Xue had appeared to be stumbling, and fearing something might happen, Zhou Mo had run forward a few steps. “Teacher Ding!”
At that shout, his only response was a splash. Zhou Mo had rushed forward like mad. Without even taking off his clothes, he plunged into the water. By the time he dragged her back onto the bank, she had already stopped breathing.
He wanted to call the police and an ambulance, but Chen Hao held him back in a death grip.
The two teenagers faced off in the darkness.
Zhou Mo was drenched from head to toe. Chen Hao was punched, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Both were panting heavily. The world around them was dead silent, save for the increasingly clear sound of their own racing heartbeats.
Chen Hao scrambled up from the ground, threw himself at Zhou Mo, and shook him by the shoulders. “You can’t call the police! They’ll think we killed her! My life will be completely ruined!”
By the end, his voice was thick with tears. “I don’t want to go to prison… Zhou Mo… I don’t want to go to prison.”
The body in his arms was already growing cold. Zhou Mo cradled her, whimpering from the back of his throat. He sobbed softly, too suppressed and terrified to make a sound, biting down on his own fingers until they throbbed with pain.
“Teacher Ding… It wasn’t me… It wasn’t me… What should I do… What should I do…”
He battered his own head with his fists as he spoke, then let go of Ding Xue and lunged forward to seize Chen Hao’s collar, roaring through his tears, “It’s all your fault! All your fault! What kind of terrible idea was this?! If we hadn’t followed her, she wouldn’t have taken this path, and she wouldn’t have slipped and fallen into the water!”
“Give me back Teacher Ding! Give her back to me!” Possessing superior strength, he beat Chen Hao into the mud along the bank, shoving his head downward.
Chen Hao gasped for air, his hands flailing in the empty space, using his last ounce of strength to clutch at Zhou Mo’s sleeve.
“Zhou… Zhou Mo… Don’t you want to go to school? Don’t you want to get into… into the honors class? I… I’ll help you… Let me go… cough… I can give you money…”
Zhou Mo’s hands lost all their strength. He whimpered through gritted teeth, collapsing onto his knees in the mud. Facing Teacher Ding, he began to sob quietly.
Chen Hao spat the mud out of his mouth, scrambled to his feet, walked over, and patted his shoulder. “As long as you don’t say anything and I don’t say anything, nobody will ever know about today. We’ll just say she… she…”
A cold, eerie wind swept through the reed marshes. The pale moonlight shone down, as white as Ding Xue’s face.
Chen Hao swallowed hard. “…drowned on her own.”
The author has something to say:
Implicit wife-protecting is the most lethal of all.
Here is the first update! Thank you for reading. Everyone who leaves a comment on today’s VIP chapter will receive a red envelope~
Love you all, muah~
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