Silent Testimony - Chapter 23

“Zhou Lin, 28 years old, bachelor’s degree, business manager for one of the four major insurance companies, resigned half a month ago…” Xiao Liao walked close behind Li Hewei, relaying Zhou Lin’s basic information to her.

Li Hewei couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “I already know all of this. Get to the main points.”

“She and the victim, Yang Guang, were deeply attached, and usually, when they had conflicts, Zhou Lin was the one who compromised. Therefore, I believe the woman was only superficially tolerant but was secretly accumulating hatred and ultimately struck the fatal blow.”

Li Hewei turned, frowning at him. “Drawing conclusions so easily?” No wonder Qiu Wan felt the need to handle everything personally; it seemed her subordinates were not giving her peace of mind.

She was unaware that before Bureau Chief Liu was transferred to Puchen, the Major Case Team’s discipline was lax. A few of the men frequently used field duty as an excuse to leave early, or openly chatted and smoked in the office. Elder Sister Wang tolerated it for a long time, then used her pregnancy as an excuse to leave. Bureau Chief Liu then sought out Qiu Wan to discipline them, establishing strict rules, designating a smoking area, and emphasizing that casual chatting was allowed during working hours but needed to be kept in check.

“What about the most important chat records? Do I have to spell it out?” In fact, Li Hewei already knew the preceding information; all she needed were the chat records between Zhou Lin and Sun Hao.

Xiao Liao fumbled, handing her a thick stack of papers.

“All of it?”

“Team Leader Li, Team Leader Hou from the Intelligence Information Squadron just gave me the chat records; I haven’t had time to look at them yet.”

Li Hewei couldn’t be bothered to waste words. She flipped through them as she walked, and within two minutes, she found the key points, stuffing the remaining papers back into Xiao Liao’s arms. “On January 18th, Zhou Lin actively added Sun Hao on WeChat. They must have had previous phone contact. Zhou Lin started with a simple self-introduction, then introduced insurance products to Sun Hao.”

“The beginning was quite normal. But after the contract was signed, Zhou Lin started intentionally or unintentionally looking for opportunities to get closer to Sun Hao.”

Xiao Liao exclaimed the scandal: “Double infidelity? One with the mother, and one with her son. The ethical relationships are so complicated.”

He was, naturally, most concerned with the sensational gossip.

“Did Zhou Lin actively seduce him?”

“Don’t put it so harshly, and it takes two to tango. Sun Hao also frequently reached out to Zhou Lin, even arranging times to meet.” Li Hewei maintained her pace. “Come on, let’s go downstairs.”

The interrogation rooms are on the far left of the first floor, a series of three rooms. Zhou Lin was led into the first interrogation room by other colleagues. Li Hewei pushed the door open, sat down across from her, and asked, “What is your name?”

“Zhou Lin.”

“I am the officer in charge of this interrogation. Every word you subsequently say to me will be fully recorded. Is that clear?”

Zhou Lin looked composed. “Clear.”

“Where were you on July 23rd?” Li Hewei got straight to the point, cutting directly to the main subject.

Zhou Lin seemed to have prepared her statement, answering calmly, “I went to retrieve something from a friend.”

She was smarter than Sun Hao; she had already guessed the police were investigating Wanfeng City.

Xiao Liao, who was assisting with the recording, couldn’t help but question her. “Weren’t you at your hometown? Why are you suddenly changing your testimony?”

Zhou Lin cried out she was wrongly accused. “Officer, are you not allowing me to forget things? It’s been half a month, and it wasn’t anything important, so it’s normal not to remember.”

Xiao Liao’s anger was provoked. “You!”

Li Hewei continued her line of questioning. “Which friend? And the specific address?”

“Sun Hao of Rongke Group. We have a business relationship. I went to Wanfeng City to pick up some fruit he brought for me.”

“Didn’t you resign half a month ago?”

Zhou Lin analyzed the facts clearly. “He is my client. The insurance was signed at the beginning of the year. Through interacting back and forth, we became friends who could chat. You can get the contract records from my former company.”

Li Hewei’s questioning pace was unhurried. “How do you usually communicate? WeChat or phone?”

“Phone.”

Li Hewei lowered her voice to instruct, “Xiao Liao, check the call records.”

“This is your WeChat account, correct?” Li Hewei presented a screenshot.

“Correct.”

“This is Sun Hao’s account. Before June 10th, you communicated via WeChat. Why the sudden switch to phone calls? Or did you switch to another account for private chats?”

Li Hewei knew that at this point in the timeline, WeChat did not require real-name authentication, so switching phones and accounts could easily hide the communication.

Xiao Liao got the definite information. “Team Leader Li, there are no call records between her and Sun Hao.”

“Oh?” She turned to stare at Zhou Lin, a hint of a chilling smile escaping her lips. “Is it possible that even the mobile number is unique? What is your relationship?”

Zhou Lin took a deep breath, prompting herself to stay calm. Her mouth was sealed shut, and she remained silent.

“No answer? Don’t assume that deleting chat records will give you peace of mind.” Li Hewei showed the ambiguous messages to the other woman, frowning at a few of Sun Hao’s explicitly suggestive requests.

Zhou Lin bit her lip as she scanned them, admitting, “Yes, we are in a relationship as lovers. He is willing to spend money and is much more generous than Yang Guang.”

Just then, there was a soft knock on the interrogation room door. Li Hewei was closest to the door and walked over to open it.

“Why are you…?”

Standing outside the door was Qiu Wan, holding a stack of papers, exactly as Li Hewei had done earlier.

“I just called Sun Hao in. If he doesn’t speak, we will proceed directly with detention.”

Li Hewei gave a thumbs-up. “Well done.” She then asked her, “How long did you sleep?”

“Half an hour. It’s enough.” Qiu Wan held the doorknob. “OK, I won’t disturb you. Carry on,” she said, pulling the door shut from the outside.

“Sun Hao is indeed more generous than Yang Guang.” Li Hewei walked back to her seat, confirming Zhou Lin’s statement. She rested her elbows on the interrogation table, interlocking her fingers, and leaned slightly forward, then smoothly changed the subject. “But that is not a reason for you two to kill someone.”

“Officer, I admit that Sun Hao and I had an improper relationship, but that doesn’t mean I committed murder.” Zhou Lin looked directly into Li Hewei’s eyes, her expression unchanged, typical of someone who has spent years navigating the complexity of society.

“Is that so? Then it was Sun Hao’s personal act?” Interrogation is like a game of chess. Li Hewei needed to anticipate Zhou Lin’s next move and plan a counter-strategy in advance, or dig a trap for her to step into.

She was gambling on human nature, betting that Zhou Lin would push all the responsibility onto Sun Hao.

In that scenario, the snipe and the clam fight, and the fisherman benefits.

There was another option: Zhou Lin might believe Sun Hao could protect her, or that the police had no concrete evidence of Sun Hao committing the murder.

“How would I know if he killed someone? Besides, he and Yang Guang had no prior grievances.”

Indeed, Zhou Lin was also gambling against the police.

Li Hewei knew that the Major Case Team had not disclosed the truth of Yang Guang’s affair with Sun Luying to Zhou Lin, so she chose to bluff. “Truly no prior grievances?”

“Tell me, is it possible that Sun Hao knew your boyfriend was Yang Guang, and so he killed him to have you all to himself?”

Zhou Lin remained silent.

“We have already secured evidence that Sun Hao committed the murder; we are just temporarily unclear about his motive. My colleague is questioning him in the next room, and we should have news soon.” Li Hewei was communicating with Qiu Wan, preparing to play a psychological game with them. She would focus on Zhou Lin, finding a way for her to either confess to Sun Hao’s involvement or provide some critical clue to clear her own name.

Time ticked by slowly. Fine cold sweat beaded on Zhou Lin’s neck due to the prolonged high pressure, but she still kept her mouth tightly shut.

Next door, in the second interrogation room, Qiu Wan was still facing a silent subject. She first attacked the person who had instilled confidence in Sun Hao. “The person at the door is Lawyer Zhang, correct?”

Sun Hao looked up at her, saying “Mmm,” with an indifferent expression.

Qiu Wan’s tone was calm, carrying a hint of derision. “You say he is brilliant? I haven’t dealt with him, true, but Lawyer Qin Zhongyi, a leader in the Shu River legal community whose defense experience ranks highly in the country, also had to watch helplessly as I arrested his patron and locked him in the detention center.”

“What does that have to do with me?”

“Their lawyers are indeed effective in court, but only if the defendant has not committed a crime, or if the evidence has been destroyed.” Qiu Wan paused for two seconds and asked him, “You are the latter, aren’t you?”

Sun Hao gave a cold laugh. “Officer, if you have evidence, just say so. Don’t try to scare me, and don’t waste my time.”

Qiu Wan also produced the chat records between him and Zhou Lin, picking out a few phrases that were appropriate to read aloud. “Sun Hao, I heard you like older women? On March 17th, 2015, you said this to a woman nicknamed ‘Cat in Fortune’s Belly’: Older women bring good fortune; how could I ever look down on you?”

“You… where did you find this filth?” Sun Hao’s breathing became slightly ragged, and his hands began to fidget. He denied it.

“You think this is filth? These are the only words I can actually say aloud.” Qiu Wan threw the printed chat records at him. “Don’t you remember your private account?”

“Furthermore, Zhou Lin has already confessed that you are her extramarital partner.”

Sun Hao’s mind instantly went blank. “She said that?”

“Why wouldn’t she? When solid evidence is right in front of you, who can deny it?” Qiu Wan was aggressive. “Continue. Confess why you murdered Yang Guang and the entire process of the crime.”

Sun Hao’s counter-strategy was identical to Zhou Lin’s, as if they had discussed it beforehand. “We didn’t kill him.”

“You didn’t?” Qiu Wan’s eye twitched. She threw the traffic light surveillance photos over. “What is this? You were supposed to be in Lang City on the 23rd, yet you were disguised as a woman, sneakily transporting the body to the Liu Min River.”

“It wasn’t me! You have the wrong person!” Sun Hao shoved the photos away, scattering them on the floor. “The police can’t find evidence, so they’re fabricating things! Hurry up and let me go!”

Qiu Wan saw the change in Sun Hao’s previously calm demeanor and began to try and reconstruct his motive. “You believe Yang Guang was constantly spending your mother’s money, and was even involved in greater financial interests, so you murdered him?”

“Nonsense! That’s all just your wild guesses.” Once a psychological defense line is breached, it is difficult to restore. Sun Hao’s eyes darted around, and he kept blinking.

“Wild guesses? You’re right, after all, that’s not the only reason. You also wanted Zhou Lin entirely for yourself and were unwilling to continue a secret, underground relationship.” Qiu Wan separately produced a photo from their chat records. “On April 30th, 2015, you used a photo of Yang Guang and Zhou Lin together to question Zhou Lin’s intentions.”

“You…” Sun Hao could no longer remember all the messages he had sent to Zhou Lin, yet every point was potentially fatal. His breathing grew more labored.

“So you knew Yang Guang was Zhou Lin’s boyfriend, and then you planned to kill him.” Qiu Wan’s voice seemed to drift like a dream in his ear. “Confess for leniency; you might earn a reduced sentence if you surrender.”

“Confess what? I do hate him. I envy that he met Sister Lin first, and I also despise that he often asks my mother for money.” At the mention of Yang Guang, Sun Hao ground his teeth. “But does that mean I had to kill him? Officer, you’re an adult; you must have hated quite a few people, right? Would you kill them? I have basic legal knowledge; I know that a life must pay for a life.”

He was truly stubborn. Qiu Wan decided to try a different approach.

In the next room, Li Hewei was close to victory. Zhou Lin had already been led to believe the police had concrete evidence of Sun Hao’s murder. She slowly loosened her tightly-bitten lip, confessing word by word. “Perhaps Sun Hao accidentally found out about General Manager Sun listing Yang Guang as the beneficiary on an insurance policy?”

“Insurance beneficiary?”

“Yes. Normally, Sun General Manager giving Yang Guang two or three million wouldn’t matter to Sun Hao, but a policy worth tens of millions might be a different story.” Zhou Lin admitted she had learned about Yang Guang’s affair from Sun Hao, making her feel even more justified in her own actions.

Li Hewei questioned in detail, “Was the insurance policy finalized?”

Zhou Lin recalled, “No, I heard General Manager Sun suddenly changed her mind.”

“Heard from whom?”

“My immediate supervisor. She was responsible for negotiating General Manager Sun’s insurance.”

“So, you went to see Sun Hao because you knew he had committed murder?”

Zhou Lin pushed the responsibility away entirely. “I didn’t know he killed anyone. I simply told him everything I knew.”

“I see.” Through their brief interaction, Li Hewei felt a slight admiration for the woman before her—calm and composed in the face of trouble, neither offending Sun Hao nor seemingly concealing anything from the police, thus protecting herself better.

“That’s right.”

Right after she finished speaking, Xiao Zhou from the Major Case Team knocked on the door and called Li Hewei out for a talk, saying they had a major discovery.

“Team Leader Li, how many colleagues are left on the Technical Group who haven’t finished work?”

“Why?”

Xiao Zhou lowered his voice. “Team Leader Qiu told us to search for that Audi car. We finally contacted the buyer through the used car market, and the car has now been brought in.”

“Where is it? I’ll call Sister He and the others to go.”

“It’s in the outdoor parking lot.”

Li Hewei messaged He Ying, asking her and Xiao Meng to go over and not miss any details.

Qiu Wan called Li Hewei and deliberately let Sun Hao overhear the details of Zhou Lin’s confession regarding the insurance. Sun Hao started to grow restless. “Why is she saying everything?”

“Shouldn’t she? Zhou Lin is cooperating with us, so I ask you to learn from her.” Qiu Wan gave a half-smile. “I forgot to tell you that the Audi car used to transport the body has already been found by the police.”

Sun Hao clung to Lawyer Zhang’s instruction—not to confess until the police obtained undeniable evidence. He made a desperate struggle. “I’ll say it again: what does that have to do with me?” He had hired people to clean the car inside and out six or seven times and was confident that even if it had been soaked in blood, no trace could be found.

“You’re acting tough right until the end. Let’s see how long you can hold out.” The recorder had been working consecutive night shifts for this case. He hadn’t been able to sleep well, and food didn’t taste good. Looking for a place to vent his frustration, he didn’t care whose son this man was and coldly mocked him.

“Is the police threatening me?” Sun Hao picked a fight. “I forgot to file a complaint this afternoon. Her name is Qiu Wan; what is your name?”

“Hey, you!” The recorder slammed his hand on the table, standing up. “Team Leader Qiu can tolerate it, but I can’t.”

Sun Hao, having roughly figured out that the police had no other evidence, smiled mockingly at the recorder. “Oh, do you want to hit me now?”

The recorder recited a classic line from a criminal investigation drama. “Justice has a long arm; you think you can escape the law’s punishment?”

“Why waste so many words on him? Xiao Lu, file the application for 48 hours of questioning and detention. I’m going out to check on the Technical Group’s progress.” Qiu Wan stood up, walked to Sun Hao’s desk, and looked down at him. “Without my signature, no lawyer can save you.”

With that, she pushed the door open and left, leaving behind the stunned recorder and Sun Hao, who was staring fixedly into the air. He felt the woman’s determination to see the job done, and for the first time, he thought he might never leave the police station…

Outside, the misty air concealed the faint moonlight. A strong wind was blowing, suggesting a heavy rainstorm was imminent.

In the parking lot, four or five people surrounded the Audi. Two people were bent over the car’s interior. Tao Ling stood nearby, observing. To speed up the process, she also wore gloves, a mask, and a cap, bending slightly to meticulously examine every hidden spot in the trunk.

Suddenly, from a seemingly inconspicuous spot deep within the left-side seam, she used tweezers to pick up a small, white, loose diamond.

She did not know that the diamond was named “General Star”, only able to truly shine its brilliance at night.