Chapter 275 - 165: Unraveling the Threads, The Truth (Part 2)

"CLANG~"

The heavy bolt of an iron door slid into place.

The sound drew Xu Huo’s attention. He looked up from his thoughts at the person on the other side of the glass.

It was a woman.

Slightly overweight, about five-foot-three, with a pleasant face.

A woman in a prison uniform, her hands cuffed.

She was more attractive than average, but right now her eyes were numb. She sat across from Xu Huo, her expression blank, and met his gaze calmly.

"Name," Li Jianye, who was sitting beside him, spoke into the microphone.

"Liu Li."

The woman remained expressionless, showing no emotion.

They went through the motions of confirming her identity.

Only then did Li Jianye nod and look toward Xu Huo.

"It’s her."

She was being very cooperative, which made sense. After all, she was the one who had called the police.

"Liu Li, correct? I’m sure you know why the police wanted to see you."

Xu Huo nodded, dispensing with the pleasantries and getting straight to the point.

"Qin Zhong. You should be quite familiar with that name."

"Let’s talk about him. What was your impression of Qin Zhong as a person?"

"Or, to put it another way... what was your relationship with Qin Zhong like?"

As he finished speaking, Xu Huo’s eyes widened, and he stared intently at her.

[Joy Eye!]

A sheen instantly covered his eyes, giving them a fiery, all-seeing glint.

"Qin Zhong?"

At the mention of his name, a flicker of life returned to Liu Li’s eyes, only to be replaced by a shadow of gloom.

"I killed him."

"I know. The police know that. My question is..."

"How was your relationship with Qin Zhong? Dating, marriage, anything else... talk about all of it."

Xu Huo said, sitting up straight before leaning back in his chair again.

"You must know there’s something strange about your case."

"Strange?"

Liu Li frowned. "What’s strange?"

Xu Huo paused and glanced at Li Jianye.

Li Jianye sighed, shook his head, and covered the microphone. He leaned over and whispered in Xu Huo’s ear,

"She doesn’t know the status of the investigation. One, to control the flow of information. Two, because we genuinely don’t have the manpower to investigate. The plan was to stall for a while, see how she reacts, and then probe further."

’So the police hadn’t told her...’

It was standard procedure to keep a suspect or killer from knowing the progress of a case. That went without saying.

To the police, she was one of two things: completely innocent or not innocent.

Since complete innocence had been ruled out in this case, telling her anything would be leaking intel.

Of course, a normal criminal investigation didn’t always have to be by the book.

But the main issue was the second point. Jiangsan City had first been hit by ’Modern Jesus’, then came the ’Flesh Processing Plant’ and the ’Radio Station’ cases.

All four major precincts, plus the city bureau, had been stretched thin!

As a result, this case had barely been investigated. Now they wanted to look into it, but too much time had passed...

’But that isn’t a major problem.’

"You don’t know?"

"No problem. I’ll inform you now."

Xu Huo showed no sign of annoyance. He pulled out a few printed documents.

The documents were the lab reports for Qin Zhong’s bodily fluids found on the wedding dress.

And a trace analysis from the bloody crime scene photos.

"The case was built around a crime of passion. Your husband, Qin Zhong, was cheating on you with another woman, which caused you, Ms. Liu, to kill him with a knife in a fit of rage. Is that correct?"

"If things had followed a normal course, you would have been sent to court for trial."

"But... based on the police’s earlier leads and a review of the evidence from the scene..."

"This other woman doesn’t exist."

Xu Huo said suddenly, his eyes fixed on Liu Li.

"Qin Zhong had no one he was cheating with."

’He... doesn’t exist? Then all that time before...’

Liu Li’s pupils contracted. "Impossible!" she blurted out instinctively.

"He couldn’t have *not* been cheating! I heard it! I heard everything!"

"At first, he was cautious, but then he got more and more brazen. In the end, he even took my wedding dress..."

She practically roared these words.

She shot to her feet and started pounding on the glass.

Several bailiffs frowned, walked over, and forcibly pushed her back down.

Xu Huo’s expression was placid. He continued,

"But that’s what the evidence shows."

"It’s been four months since your arrest..."

"I imagine that in these four months, you’ve been wondering why you haven’t even had a trial, haven’t you?"

The reason was that the police couldn’t verify her story!

The only part of her statement that could be corroborated by evidence was that she had killed Qin Zhong.

For the rest of it, there wasn’t a single shred of credible proof!

"No..."

Liu Li’s lips trembled. She wanted to say more, but Xu Huo cut her off.

"If you firmly believe there was another woman, then please cooperate with the investigation."

"Let’s start with your romantic relationship with your husband, Qin Zhong."

Xu Huo guided her.

"Only then can we find this other woman. And only by finding her can we prove your husband was having an affair."

Hearing this, Liu Li instantly calmed down. She collected herself and began to think.

After a long moment, Liu Li’s voice broke the silence.

"My love for Qin Zhong started when we were little."

"Of course, it wasn’t really a romance. I was the one chasing him. We were childhood sweethearts, and I fell for him in middle school—this boy who was my age and lived nearby."

"But he wasn’t interested in me... and that’s how it was, all the way until graduation."

"After we graduated and were assigned jobs back in our hometown, around the time we were twenty-four, he was still single, and I was still unmarried."

"Our elders played matchmaker, and we became a couple."

’Listening to her story, this doesn’t sound like a loving relationship. It sounds more like unrequited love.’

Xu Huo quickly processed the information and asked another question: