Chapter 296 Interrogating

“We caught two thieves and also arsonists. Send some policemen here quickly.”

A sharp voice of a middle-aged woman passed through the phone.

“Lady, no shouting, please. Say it slowly.”

“Slowly? Someone killed my husband and son. But your cops have not caught the murderer until now. What are you fu*king doing every day?”

“Madam, after we take charge of a case, we should investigate and search for evidence first. The case you asked about just happened this afternoon. Some time is needed before we draw any conclusion.”

“I don’t care. You must catch the murderer as soon as possible to revenge for the deaths of my husband and kid. Besides that, two b*tches were trying to set fire to the house and burn us. They must be with the murderer. Fortunately, we found out what they did, or all of us would be burned to death already.”

“Beat these two b*tches to death. How dare they set fire on us! You d*mn b*tches.”

“Ah…”

“Madam, this is the police station. Stop beating. Otherwise, we will arrest you all.”

“Humph, you police cannot catch the murderer, but can only show your authority before an orphan and a widow.”

…

Waves of loud noise together with low screams and sobs came from the outside. Fang Xiaomu was not hearing properly. But given his sensitive ears, Ding Ning could hear clearly.

The sobs that sounded slightly familiar to him made Ding Ning’s face suddenly gloomy. They were from Li Xiaoman and Liu Shasha.

“Set fire? Why would they come to the Gu family’s house to do that? Did they really want to burn the entire family to death?”

“Brother Ding, let me go out to see what happened.”

Fang Xiaomu couldn’t sit still. He was on duty for the night. If anyone found that he was absent, he would be in trouble.

“I will go to check with you.”

Immediately, Ding Ning also stood up because he wanted to see what exactly had happened.

At the moment, the reception hall of the Municipal Police Bureau was already crowded with people.

A slightly good-looking woman in her forties was there. Next to her stood a girl with a face full of makeup and a dozen tall and sturdy bodyguards. In a threatening manner, they were making a hell of a stink.

Two girls lay on the ground, sobbing constantly. They were Li Xiaoman and Liu Shasha who were beaten black and blue by the bunch of people.

Together with a group of police, Mr. Li was asking them for information. Standing in the crowd, Ding Ning quickly figured out what was going on.

It turned out that one after another, the bunch of bodyguards went away without asking for leave after the death of Gu Fangran and Gu Tianqi. After all, they were afraid of getting into trouble. Besides that, the monitoring equipment at the entrance of the Academy of Arts was out of function long ago. Though there were a lot of witnesses, no one was willing to come out to testify because Gu Fangran and Gu Tianqi had done all kinds of evil in those years. As a result, the Public Security Bureau had not yet found out how the father and the son died.

The middle-aged woman was He Xiufen, Gu Fangran’s wife, while the girl was Gu Shanshan, Gu Tianqi’s elder sister.

After the father and his son died, He Xiufen and Gu Shanshan set up a mourning hall at home for the relatives and friends to pay their condolences.

The villa of the Gu family was now wide open to receive visitors. But to everyone’s surprise, Liu Shasha and Li Xiaoman disguised themselves as visitors and sneaked into Gu Tianqi’s room, rummaging through chests and cupboards.

However, in the end, the family’s servants found them and blocked them in the room. In desperation, Liu Shasha and Li Xiaoman began to start fires inside the room, but the bodyguards there discovered the situation in time. They extinguished the flames and caught Liu Shasha and Li Xiaoman, who were then brutally beaten up and then were turned over to the Public Security Bureau.

In fact, the local police station or any sub-bureaus could take up the case. But finally, Liu Shasha and Li Xiaoman were sent to the Municipal Police Bureau because He Xiufen suspected that the death of her husband and son was related to them.

After learning about the situation, Mr. Li felt a little embarrassed. Gu Fangran was a deputy to the district people’s congress. In addition to that, this tragic case occurred on the eve of the National Day. Therefore, it drew considerable attention from those municipal leaders.

The case would certainly be handled by a criminal police team of the Municipal Police Bureau. But the leaders were discussing which criminal police team should take control of this case. The final decision had not been made yet.

As a senior criminal police officer, Mr. Li knew that the case was not so easy to be dealt with because of Gu Fangran’s special identity. He instinctively refused to take this case and was afraid that the leaders would throw this case to the No.3 criminal police team that he was in.

Rolling his eyeballs, Mr. Li look at Fang Xiaomu. “Xiaomu, today, your team is on duty. How about you interrogating the two suspects in connection with theft and arson?”

But Fang Xiaomu was not stupid. When he was about to refuse, he saw Ding Ning nodding at him. Then, he hurriedly said, “All right. I will interrogate the two suspects first.”

“Fang Xiaomu, the captain is in a meeting. You accept the case without the approval of the team leader. Who will take responsibility for the case if anything goes wrong?”

But Xu Yang, Fang Xiaomu’s teammate, said in a voice dripping with sarcasm. Obviously, he was reluctant to do that.

“I am responsible for possible problems. We are the police whose duty is to handle cases. We don’t deserve to be the police if each of us thinks that the case is the responsibility of others only because we are afraid of taking the responsibilities.”

Grumpily, Fang Xiaomu refuted.

“You… Ahem! OK, when something happens, and our superiors want to find out who is to blame, don’t accuse me of shirking the responsibility at that time.”

Xu Yang said with rage, blushing at Fang Xiaomu’s righteous speech. In his heart, he scolded, “What a big fool! What a reckless young man! Mr. Li wants to throw this troublesome case to you, don’t you see? I kindly offered you the help, but you actually did not appreciate it.”

Mr. Li’s face reddened all over, feeling angry and ashamed in his heart. He knew that by ostensibly pointing to Xu Yang, Fang Xiaomu was abusing him. However, Mr. Li couldn’t explain it away because it was so uncool for him to get rid of this case in this way.

Looking on coldly as a bystander, Ding Ning secretly shook his head in his heart. “One craftier than another, these people are very cautious in order to save their own skin. What qualifications do they have to be the police?”

Xu Yang had a good relationship with Fang Xiaomu. Though Xu Yang was furious, he still carted Liu Shasha and Li Xiaoman away in handcuffs, poker-faced. Then, he brought them into separate interrogation rooms.

Mr. Li made some small talk with He Xiufen. He repeatedly promised to her that the police would crack the case as soon as possible, and finally, he managed to send the impetuous He Xiufen and her daughter away.

A touch of cold light flashing across Ding Ning’s eyes, Ding Ning immediately told Xiaocui to follow He Xiufen.

The trial was not going well. Crying all the time, Li Xiaoman and Liu Shasha said nothing.

Fang Xiaomu had no idea how to deal with them, so he went out to pour himself a cup of tea. By taking this opportunity, he went to ask Ding Ning what he should do next.

While touching his chin, Ding Ning said after a moment of thinking. “If you believe me, let me talk to them.”

“This… Well then, Brother Ding, Xu Yang and I are interrogating Liu Shasha. You can go to talk to Li Xiaoman!”

Fang Xiaomu was a little hesitant. “It is a breach of our discipline.” But when he thought of the relationship between Ding Ning and Xiao Nuo, he immediately agreed, gritting his teeth.

“You… why are you here?”

In the No. 7 interrogation room, the quite nervous Li Xiaoman heard the door open. She looked up and found it was Ding Ning. Much frightened, she asked.

“Li Xiaoman, you don’t need to care about why I am here. What you only need to know is that I am here to help you.”

Slowly, Ding Ning walked to the interrogation table and lit a cigarette, leisurely taking a long draw from it.

“Help me? No one can help me.”

The rims of Li Xiaoman’s eyes suddenly went red. She constantly shed tears, feeling helpless and desperate.

“The police have suspected that it was you and Liu Shasha who stamped Gu Tianqi to death. Do you know that? The footprints of you and Liu Shasha are good evidence.”

Ding Ning dropped this bomb on her, lightly.

“I, I didn’t. Well… we stepped on him in the chaos, and at most, it was an accidental injury.”

Li Xiaoman’s expression became evidently tenser, and she explained in a flurry.

Taking a long drag on his cigarette, Ding Ning blew a smoke ring and said casually. “I understand that you don’t believe me. After all, we have had conflicts before. But now, the situation is different. We are no longer enemies, and I sincerely want to help you.”

“Why will you be so kind?”

In handcuffs, Li Xiaoman clasped her hands tightly together, twisting them nervously.

“I have never projected myself as your kind-hearted savior. Well, I have learned about your situation from my sister. You and Liu Shasha are different from Chen Yuxi. Chen Yuxi is happy in her own degeneration, but you two just have some vanity of comparison. You were lured into this by Chen Yuxi.”

Ding Ning took a deep breath and explained to her with sincerity. “Li Xiaoman, believe it or not, I don’t have the filthy relationship with Ye Huan and Ye Le as you have imagined. Their mother has liver cancer, lying in the hospital without the money to continue her treatment. But at such a crucial misfortune moment, their relatives forced them to pay their family’s debts. Being put into such a hopeless situation, Ye Huan and Ye Le had no other choices but to sell themselves to raise money for their mother’s cost of surgery. Well, I happened to be able to lend a hand, and so I did. From the start to the end, I have never laid my hands on them. I always treat them as my younger sisters. I don’t want to advertise how noble I am, but there are too many bad guys in this world. I want to try my best to be a good person. I hope I can help you.”

“You… Are you telling the truth?”

Looking at Ding Ning’s crystal-clear eyes, Li Xiaoman found herself unexpectedly believed all his words. She could not help shedding tears again. “Why? Why didn’t I meet you earlier? Woo, toot, toot… Why would I meet the Gu Tianqi? A beastman, pervert, and scumbag!”

“I think that he must have something on you and Liu Shasha. Tell me. Maybe I can help you.”

Untiringly, Ding Ning tried to persuade her to tell him the truth.

“No, no, no, he didn’t have anything on me. I just hate him and want to kill him. Don’t, don’t push me… Ah… I am begging you… Don’t force me to say anything…”

Li Xiaoman’s look was full of fear. With memories unbearable to recall hovering around her mind, Li Xiaoman held her head tight with both hands and curled up there, sobbing too much to speak. Her mood was about to collapse.

A touch of pity flashed past the bottom of Ding Ning’s eyes. “This evil Gu Tianqi, what on earth had he done to this girl? She would rather die than say anything about it.”

“That’s okay, relax. If you don’t want to say anything, no one will push you to do that. Don’t agitate yourself, and calm down a little.”

Ding Ning ashed his cigarette, stood up, and walked up to Li Xiaoman. Holding her hand tightly, he gently whispered the words of comfort to her.

It seemed that Li Xiaoman felt the warmth of Ding Ning’s palm. Her mood became a little more stable. She bit her lips so hard that they were bleeding, but her eyes looked terribly hollow.

“Xiaoman, the demon Gu Tianqi is dead. Try to be a little braver. Only in this way can I help you get rid of the shadows of the past. Otherwise, once you fail to get back the evidence that he used to threaten you in time and it is known to others, it will become the shadow that you have to bear all your lifetime.”

Crouching beside Li Xiaoman and holding her hands, Ding Ning was trying to persuade her with patience.

“Woo… I… I…”

Leaning closer to Ding Ning, Li Xiaoman burst into loud sobs in his arms. She felt great pains in her heart. “Why didn’t I meet this gentle and nice guy before? Why did I meet that demon Gu Tianqi?”

Ding Ning’s body froze. But he knew that when Li Xiaoman was struggling and wandering, a warm embrace might bring her a sense of security. As long as he stuck it out a little bit longer, he could make her talk.

So, Ding Ning gently patted her thin shoulders that kept shrugging because of sobbing and said, “Cry, just allow yourself to cry. After crying for a while, you will feel much better. There’s nothing you can’t go through…”

“What are you doing?”

Xiao Nuo’s angry voice came suddenly. Ding Ning turned around to look, frowning.

Ding Ning didn’t know when the door was opened, and Xiao Nuo was standing at the door with a face full of disbelief and anger.

On his side was Jiang Hongbin, who was looking at him with a sinister and challenging smile.

The awkward Fang Xiaomu stood behind him. It seemed that he was so flustered because he wanted so badly to explain, but he couldn’t do it at this time. He was afraid that Ding Ning misunderstood and thought that he had betrayed him.

“What am I doing? You should know what my specialty is!”

Ding Ning’s heart skipped a beat. But he managed to keep calm on his surface. Still, he patted the shoulder of the frightened Li Xiaoman. He knew that he could no longer stimulate Li Xiaoman at this time. Otherwise, she was likely to go crazy directly.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep