Xu Ruyi couldn't remember how she managed to listen that day.
She only felt Old He's voice like a saw, grating harshly into her mind. An uncontrollable buzzing filled her head.
She kept her head raised, pretending to look at the sky, but the oppressive clouds seemed about to crush her, stealing her breath.
The details of her parents' murders – known only to a few – had never been spoken in her presence, let alone these specific details.
These excruciating details, each recollection like countless knives stabbed into her heart, were now laid bare.
She had buried the piercing pain deep within herself. From the moment she decided to take revenge on Qin Guan, until his imprisonment, she had never shown a trace of it to the outside world.
But now, this seemingly disheveled, greasy, middle-aged man was brutally tearing off her disguise, forcibly wrenching out those knives.
The pain was becoming unbearable.
"Qin Guan did all of this,"
Old He sighed, looking at the rigid back of her head, stiff as a puppet's. "No matter the reason, the motive, the result is the same. He ended your parents' lives with his own hands. He is the murderer."
Xu Ruyi didn't move.
Her lips were nearly bitten through.
"Your parents were good people,"
Old He's voice softened slightly. "Truly good people. During my investigation, I found no negative information about them. They lived comfortably but were passionate about charity. Donating to their workplace, anonymous donations, sponsoring poor children's education. Two free congee stations in the city received five hundred pounds of rice from them annually. Your father was even the head of his company's charity group, always at the forefront…"
Among the many they helped, Qin Guan stood out the most.
"When they sponsored children's education, they usually only met them once or twice. Only with Qin Guan did they treat him like an adopted child. They not only paid for him, but cared for him meticulously, pouring their hearts into him…"
Even marrying their only daughter to him.
And this was Xu Ruyi's motive.
From the moment she learned the truth about her parents' deaths, she began her plan for revenge—Old He didn't know the exact details of Xu Ruyi's initial plan, but he knew that before Qi Min and Qin Guan's tryst at Lakeside Charm Hotel, Xu Ruyi was already watching from the shadows, waiting for her opportunity.
On this point, Qin Guan was not wrong.
She hid in the darkness, observing Qin Guan and Qi Min's every move, adjusting her strategy accordingly.
Therefore, someone at Lakeside Charm Hotel must have been bribed by Xu Ruyi—Old He had also investigated the hotel thoroughly. His guess was correct: after Qi Min "disappeared" from the hotel, besides "Zeng Demei," two other temporarily hired waitstaff also resigned without reason.
After Old He took Qin Guan to identify the scene, a male and female cleaner also suddenly quit.
All were temporary workers.
Old He had even managed to contact these four people—the IDs of the two young servers were fake. The two older cleaners claimed family emergencies, refusing to work anymore, even countering Old He: "Can't I just quit? So what if you're police? Is resigning illegal?"
Just like previous investigations, it looked increasingly suspicious, but yielded nothing useful.
If it was true, as Qin Guan claimed, that these hotel staff were bribed by Xu Ruyi—installing cameras in the room where he and Qi Min met, allowing Xu Ruyi to learn their intimate secrets—then why didn't she call the police immediately? They could have been caught red-handed, Qin Guan couldn't have denied it. Why wait for him to return to the city and track him repeatedly?
And if—following the trail of the hidden "Zeng Demei"—Qin Guan's claim of "Qi Min faking her death" was likely true… then Xu Ruyi must have learned the importance of the "black stockings" through those cameras. That's how she could have obtained them step by step during her subsequent pursuit.
And if that was the case, the origin of the fatal "black stockings" evidence was dubious. Furthermore, Xu Ruyi would be suspected of fabricating evidence, and potentially even being involved in the murder itself—if she could plant the "black stockings" evidence at Lakeside Charm Hotel, she could just as easily have sunk the suitcase containing Qi Min into the lake.
Did she do it?
Was Qi Min dead or alive at the time?
Would she, driven by revenge against Qin Guan, by the desire to convict him, to avenge her parents, have killed Qi Min?
The motive was sufficient. But there was no evidence. "Zeng Demei" was missing. Her only possible accomplice, Feng Zhi, had a perfect alibi.
…
He was back where he started.
Old He frowned irritably, pushing aside the tangled mess of thoughts like knotted threads. He looked at the motionless Xu Ruyi—from the very beginning of this case, he had been almost certain the murderer was Qin Guan.
Now, he wanted Qin Guan brought to justice more than ever—that couple had treated Qin Guan like a son, giving him their all without expecting anything in return. Good people should never meet such an end. In that sense, the man deserved the death penalty.
But the charge of "murder" absolutely could not be something Xu Ruyi had meticulously framed him for.
He irritably looked down. The opening of his bag beside him gaped, revealing the corner of a yellowed photograph.
The photo showed a bright, lively young woman, her hair in two braids, her face shy.
That was Qin Guan's biological mother—unable to untangle the mess, Old He had resorted to his usual blunt method: dig deep, dig everything.
"This is Qin Guan's mother," Old He handed the photo to Xu Ruyi. "I went through many places to find just this one picture. It was taken when she was a student. Back then, her family was well-off, her grades were good. But later, meeting a pen pal led to her being harmed, trafficked, beaten. When she returned, she found her parents dead, her home gone. That's when she went mad."
"You wonder why I investigated his mother, right?"
Old He's expression was serious—evil often has roots. How could a man be so cruel as to murder the in-laws who sponsored his education and cared for him? Where did the root of his evil lie?
"Qin Guan's mother was severely insane during his childhood. But during the period your father sponsored him, villagers noticed she had changed!"
"Her gaze, her behavior, were different. I even went to the hospital where she was treated—of course, the hospital is long gone. But I found the doctor who treated her back then, and the village chief who brought her home."
"I suspect she actually regained her sanity then," Old He's eyes darkened. "But not long after, she died from an accidental fall into a pit on the hillside behind the village."
"It happened at night. Why was she there? Her husband was drinking outside the village that night. Only she and Qin Guan were home. What happened that made her, still bearing unhealed injuries, struggle all the way to that place? And why, on that uneven path, did she walk safely only to fall into such an obvious pit, one even marked with a sign?"
Xu Ruyi didn't move, but a chill ran down her spine.
This was something she knew nothing about—Qin Guan had always said his mother, being insane, died accidentally.
So, that beast, he… in his childhood, had he laid hands on his own mother?
"Of course, this is all just my speculation. No evidence. The person's been dead for years. All evidence is long gone."
"Having no evidence is a deeply frustrating and painful thing. So, I understand you," Old He narrowed his eyes, gazing at the lake surface. The familiar pain he had suppressed surged up again.
"I too have lost someone dear. I know this feeling…"
Old He frowned in pain. "But we cannot do this. If everyone took matters into their own hands, society would descend into chaos. What use would the law be?"
"Just like in Qin Guan's case," he finally arrived at the main point. "On the surface, it seems clear and simple. Qin Guan, at the lakeside villa, accidentally strangled his lover Qi Min. There's motive, opportunity, ironclad evidence. The autopsy confirms the process of his crime…"
"But there are many doubts within this case. Only you, Xu Ruyi, can answer them."
He finally turned to look directly at Xu Ruyi. "It was you who perfectly laid out this evidence to nail Qin Guan, wasn't that so?"