18: Chapter 18: Was he even taken to the interrogation room?

Su Yun thanked him and stepped inside.

As soon as he entered the lobby, he felt a heavy, oppressive atmosphere.

A person was standing in the center of the hall.

Dressed in a sharp police uniform, she was tall with short, capable hair; standing there, she resembled a sharp sword drawn from its scabbard.

Even from several meters away, Su Yun could feel an aura that warned others to keep their distance.

Qin Yumo.

This 'Iron Lady' of the Jiangcheng police force was even colder in person than in her photos.

"Officer Qin?"

Su Yun called out tentatively.

Qin Yumo turned around, her gaze burning like a torch as she sized Su Yun up from head to toe.

There was no handshake, no pleasantries, not even a polite smile.

"Follow me."

She coldly dropped those two words and turned to leave.

Su Yun raised an eyebrow and followed.

This attitude was quite interesting.

He had expected to be taken to a reception room for a cup of tea and some polite conversation.

Instead, Qin Yumo led him through several turns, bypassing the reception area entirely and heading down a long corridor.

The doors flanking the corridor were all closed, and the overhead fluorescent lights emitted a pale, sickly glow.

The further they went, the more stifling the air became.

Finally, Qin Yumo stopped before a heavy iron door.

Su Yun looked up at the door sign.

Interrogation Room 1.

"Officer Qin, is... is this really necessary?"

Su Yun pointed at the sign, his lips twitching. "I'm a good citizen here to cooperate with an investigation, not a suspect."

"Standard procedure."

Qin Yumo didn't give him a chance to argue and pushed the door open. "Get in."

Su Yun sighed helplessly.

It seemed this 'tea' wouldn't be easy to swallow.

Since he was already here, he might as well make the best of it.

He didn't make a fuss and swaggered inside.

The furnishings in the interrogation room were simple.

A table and a few chairs.

Su Yun consciously walked over to the chair meant for the interrogated and sat down.

The chair was specially designed; although he wasn't handcuffed or shackled, sitting in it felt uncomfortable, as if he were being boxed in by something.

Qin Yumo sat across from him, holding a thick folder.

Slap!

She slammed the folder heavily onto the table.

The sound echoed in the enclosed room, making Su Yun's eardrums buzz slightly.

An ordinary person would likely have started trembling from this display of intimidation.

But who was Su Yun?

This little show didn't scare him at all.

He even adjusted himself into a more comfortable position, leaning lazily against the back of the chair.

"Officer Qin, don't be so angry this late at night; it's easy to get wrinkles."

Su Yun said with a beaming smile.

Qin Yumo's gaze sharpened like an eagle's.

Ignoring his teasing, she flipped open the folder, pulled out a photo, and pushed it in front of him.

It was a photo of Wang Dahai's office; the floor had been pried open, revealing the cement layer beneath.

"Explain this."

Qin Yumo stared into Su Yun's eyes, her tone aggressive. "How did you know a body was buried under here? You even got the depth and the posture of the corpse exactly right."

Su Yun glanced at the photo and said nonchalantly, "Didn't I say it during the livestream? I calculated it."

"Calculated it?"

Qin Yumo let out a cold laugh and leaned forward, her hands braced on the table, creating an intense sense of pressure.

"Su Yun, do you think I'll believe that nonsense?"

"This is a twenty-year-old case. There were no clues, no witnesses, and we even have to use DNA matching to confirm the victim's identity."

"And you, a young man in your early twenties, can know everything so clearly just by sitting at home and talking?"

"Unless..."

Qin Yumo trailed off, her eyes becoming dangerous. "You saw it with your own eyes."

"Or perhaps, what is your relationship with Wang Dahai? Are you a descendant of someone who knew the truth back then?"

"Or are you his accomplice, exposing him now because of an unfair split of the spoils?"

This string of questions was logically tight and delivered rapidly, giving Su Yun no time to think.

This was a common psychological pressure tactic used in interrogations.

If someone had a guilty conscience, they would likely have panicked by now and started speaking incoherently.

But Su Yun just listened quietly, that punchable smile still plastered on his face.

Only after Qin Yumo finished did he slowly point to the surveillance camera with the blinking red light above them.

"Officer Qin, we need evidence when we speak."

"Look at my age. How old was I twenty years ago? Five? Six?"

"If I could help kill someone and bury a body at age five or six, would I even be human? I'd be a monster."

"As for being a descendant of someone who knew..."

Su Yun spread his hands. "You can check my household registration. My ancestors were poor farmers for three generations; I have absolutely no connection to that Wang Dahai."

"Besides, if I really were an accomplice or an insider, would I be stupid enough to call the police in front of tens of thousands of people in a livestream?"

"Am I that desperate for money? Or do I just have a death wish?"

His words were well-reasoned and logically sound.

Qin Yumo's brow furrowed.

In fact, before Su Yun arrived, she had already thoroughly investigated his background.

It was exactly as he said: a clean background with no suspicious points.

Even his recent diagnosis of pancreatic cancer was recorded in the hospital system.

A dying man indeed had no reason to tell such a lie.

But as a criminal investigator who valued science and evidence, she truly couldn't accept 'fortune-telling' as an explanation.

It was too absurd.

"I'm thirsty."

Su Yun suddenly spoke, interrupting Qin Yumo's thoughts.

He pointed to his throat.

"I've been livestreaming all night; my throat is parched."

"Officer Qin, how about a cup of water? I did help you guys out a lot, after all!"

Qin Yumo took a deep breath, suppressing the irritability in her heart.

She stood up, walked to the water dispenser nearby, poured a cup of warm water, and placed it in front of Su Yun.

Though her movements were a bit rough and a little water splashed out, she did it.

"Thanks."

Su Yun picked up the paper cup and took a satisfied sip.

The water was tasteless, but drinking it in this environment gave him a satisfying sense of being the one in control.

"Setting aside Wang Dahai's matter for now."

Qin Yumo sat back down, her offensive slightly softened but still keeping a close eye on him.

"What about Shen Qingzhu?"

"How did you predict that knife-wielding thug?"

"That thug is a paranoid person with a history of mental illness; his movements are erratic, and even we, the police, didn't have a lead on him."

Qin Yumo stared intently at Su Yun's face, trying to find a flaw in his micro-expressions.

If Wang Dahai's case could be explained away as a 'coincidence' or 'insider knowledge'...

...then Shen Qingzhu's case truly defied common logic.

That was a crime in progress!

And it was happening thousands of miles away!

Su Yun put down the water cup, his smile fading slightly as he adopted a more enigmatic air.

"Officer Qin, have you ever heard that 'The face is the map of the soul'?"

Su Yun began to spout nonsense with a straight face.

"That Shen Qingzhu had a darkened glabella and was shrouded in a malevolent aura; it was a classic sign of an impending bloody disaster."

"Add to that the previous comments from her third-ranked fan, which were full of extreme possessiveness and violent tendencies."

"Combining this information, is it really that hard to deduce that someone was going to commit a crime?"

Su Yun's words were half-true and half-false.

The bit about the mirror reflection was something he'd made up, but the logical deduction was self-consistent.

Qin Yumo was stunned for a moment.

She subconsciously recalled the livestream recording from that time.

Indeed, the comments from that third-ranked fan were very perverted.