Min Manager's interrogation continued for two days.
The reason was simple. She had a stubborn head. When contradictions in her confession were pointed out, she went silent and refused to cooperate, dragging it out with the police.
Lao Gao had originally proposed that he play the bad cop role to scare her a bit, but Ji Feng said, "This woman is not simple. Without solid evidence, if she sees through you, she may think she has a chance."
"It's rare to see such a tough woman," Lao Gao sighed. Appearances can be deceiving. After working at the police station for a while, he had often seen big men who would burst into tears or shirk responsibility after just a little intimidation. Women's resilience was actually stronger than men's.
Ji Feng said, "He Xinmin didn't graduate and went straight into working as a hostess bar girl. She's suffered hardships and seen things, so she won't bend easily."
Lao Gao readily agreed, "Then you take over."
Ji Feng's approach was to play the sympathy card, presenting evidence to nail down the facts of the murder, while speaking gently to persuade her to repent.
"Ms. He, we've already looked into your connections with the deceased," he said, bringing her lunch the next day and taking the chance to chat with her further. "Your brother once worked at his company and later became its legal representative. But then the deceased ran abroad with debts he owed, and your brother was forced to take responsibility, finally committing suicide by jumping off a building."
After days of interrogation, Min Manager looked haggard and much older.
Hearing this, she gave a cold laugh. "You already know everything, so why keep asking?"
"I'd like to hear your side of the story," said Ji Feng.
"There's nothing much to say."
Ji Feng smiled. "Let's chat, don't be nervous." He brought up a topic. "Your brother was the same age as you, and it seems like he didn't go to college?"
Min Manager's eyes darkened, clearly affected. "My parents died early, and our family circumstances were poor. My brother and I took the college entrance exam the same year. I tested into a first-tier university, while he only made it into a third-tier one. But our family didn't have money to support us both going to college. At that time, there were no student loans or financial aid options. My brother said since I had tested better, I should be the one to go. He would work to pay my tuition."
"That's a lot like my family," said Ji Feng. "I have a younger sister who just took the college entrance exam this year."
"Oh?" Min Manager was skeptical. "Your parents also..."
"Passed away," he said.
The room was quiet for a moment. Slowly, she began recounting her own story: "Those years were hard for both of us. I worked part-time jobs while going to school, sleeping only four to five hours a night. My brother worked at an antique shop, one of those places that sells fake antiques targeted at seniors. He was able to earn a few thousand yuan each month.
"I know he wanted to earn more money so I wouldn't have to work so hard. He said as a man, it was his duty to make money to support the family, and told me not to worry about anything.
"One day, he came happily to tell me that his company boss thought highly of him. Because the company's business was changing, they needed to change the legal representative, and had asked if my brother would be willing to represent the company and also receive company shares. We were young and naive back then, so we thought it was a good thing. We even went out for a celebratory seafood buffet."
Ji Feng nodded, listening patiently.
"But not long after, things went wrong," she said, her expression turning cold. "The boss ran away with all the money in the accounts. The seniors who bought antiques from the shop came to make trouble, saying they wanted to find the boss to settle accounts. My brother was the legal representative, so who else could they come after? He was beaten and hospitalized several times. Then they reported it to the police. Not only did my brother have to pay them back, he also faced jail time. Overwhelmed, he jumped off a building and killed himself."
"You had been planning this for a long time, right?" Ji Feng asked.
"Yes," Min Manager replied. "I recognized that man as the one who caused my brother's death six months ago when I saw him again. So I specifically switched jobs to his club because I wanted to find a chance to kill him."
"I planned very carefully: First, I needed a scapegoat. I had originally chosen Old Zhao. I had a friend investigate his background long ago. He was the one who reported my brother back then. But Zhao was too cunning, and it was hard to control his nighttime activities, so I had to keep waiting.
"Then Xiao Tan came along. He was arrogant and bad-tempered, with terrible interpersonal relationships. It didn't take much effort for me to get close to him. He had allergies but didn't know what he was allergic to. He also had contracted an STD without knowing if he infected the boss or vice versa. But it didn't matter. This was already enough motive for murder."
She recounted all this unhurriedly and dispassionately, as calmly as if she were talking about how to prepare the fish for dinner tonight.
"I thought I had planned foolproofly: the allergy medication, the moldy clothes, the pottery, the fingerprints - everything was ready. But human schemes are inferior to those of Heaven. I was caught off guard when Wang Boss suddenly showed up a day early. He was supposed to come tomorrow. Fortunately Xiao Qian played dumb and deaf, otherwise I thought we were done for. But I didn't expect..."
She took a deep breath without continuing.
Ji Feng glanced at his colleague who was transcribing. She printed out the confession and handed it to him.
"This is your statement. Take a look and see if there are any issues. If not, go ahead and sign. Copy the last line verbatim so you don't make a mistake," said Ji Feng. "The food is getting cold."
Min Manager pulled up the corners of her mouth and signed her name.
Ji Feng asked, "Want anything to drink? We'll take you to the detention center shortly."
Min Manager shook her head.
He took the statement and left the room.
Upon entering the office, the words stuck in his throat. He looked at his desk incredulously and asked Lao Gao, "There were only two coffee cups here yesterday. What's all this stuff today?"
Looking at his workspace, the documents messily stacked to one side, the pen holder shoved into a corner, the majority of the desk surface occupied by a thin laptop, a pile of cute colorful pens, super cute sticky notes, fidget toys, two water cups - one with soda water, one with cold brew coffee.
There was a back cushion on the chair now, along with an ice pad and another large living person.
Jian Jing, Teacher Jian, sat with wireless earbuds in, fully focused on typing on the keyboard.
"Woof!" A black German Shepherd came rushing over to greet him around his legs.
"You brought your dog too?" Ji Feng sucked in a breath. "What's going on, did our bureau issue Teacher Jian a letter of appointment for her to officially start working here?"
Lao Gao cleared his throat. "Teacher Jian is a warm-hearted member of the community. Not only did she bring us milk tea this morning, she also helped settle an emotionally unstable victim for us."
Ji Feng: "..."
He walked over, wanting to pat her shoulder, but as soon as he reached out, she immediately lifted her hand and slapped the back of his. "What do you want?"
"I should be asking that," Ji Feng sucked in another breath, as if a wisdom tooth had just erupted. "Couldn't wait to replace me? My salary is just over 8,000 yuan. You wouldn't even want it if I handed it to you for free."
"Who said that?" She held out her hand. "What's money for if not to take? Hand it over."
Ji Feng tossed the case file over.
"Oh?" Jian Jing immediately took off her earbuds. "She confessed?"
She flipped through the contents and went silent when she got to the motive behind the murder.
Some homicide cases were like this - sensational plots hiding heartbreaking stories.
She let out a sigh, tilting back limply in her chair.
"Move over, forget it," Ji Feng gave up trying to kick her out and instead took over Lao Gao's spot. "Don't you have work to do? I'll write up a closing report."
Lao Gao scoffed sarcastically, "Bullying the meek while fearing the strong."
Ji Feng rolled his eyes.
Jian Jing also felt bad about occupying someone else's nest, and started packing up her things. "Alright, stingy, I'm going." She looked at the mess on the table, too lazy to clean it up, and just shoved her laptop and cups into her canvas bag. Done.
"Come on, Knight, time for school." She called to the dog.
Ji Feng: "Ha, dogs go to school too?"
"Dogs go to work too."
Office crowd: "Pfff—"
"I was worried it would get bored at home, so taking it to school allows it to play with other dogs," Jian Jing explained. "They have training areas and a swimming pool there. The school bus drops them home at night."
When she wasn't busy, she would take Knight to a nearby park every day, but as the weather grew hotter, she got lazy about going out. The German Shepherd needed plenty of exercise though, so she looked for a school to board it at.
Knight loved going to school, and would wag its tail excitedly at the words.
Jian Jing put on its leash, and breezed out swaggeringly.
"What about all this stuff?" Ji Feng called after her.
Jian Jing: "Gifts for you~~"
Ji Feng looked at the dazzling variety of things on the table, twitching his mouth. "She's not pranking me, is she?"
After a while, "This spinning top is pretty fun."
Mm, smells delicious.
Jian Jing sent Knight off to school, then went home to continue working on her manuscript.
Although I have only been at the police station for a few hours today, the atmosphere is really good and my inspiration is flowing like a spring. Anyway, I left all my equipment there, so next time I have writer's block I can consider going back to absorb some feng shui.
The outline for the second story is based on this case.
Of course, a place as discordant as a club is not suitable for high school students to frequent, changing it to a KTV makes much more sense.
The female protagonist attends a classmate's birthday party and gets drunk for the first time, falling into a stupor. When she wakes up, she finds herself outside the door of the crime scene.
Blood seeps from beneath the door.
She is taken away by the police as an eyewitness and suspect. This is also her first face-to-face encounter with the police.
I have to say, observing the interrogation this time has allowed Jian Jing to grasp the atmosphere even more precisely, almost in one go.
The only part I modified was the character of the police officer. Should I write someone down-to-earth like Senior Officer Gao, or someone heroic like Liang Yi?
Such a dilemma.
If I don't make Ji Feng a fat guy, that's already going easy on him.
For this reason, she made a special call to ask Kang Mu Cheng.
Kang Mu Cheng said, "A positive image?"
"Yes," she replied. Without a positive image, there would be no way to cooperate afterwards.
"Go with a woman," he said. "Otherwise there may be suspicions of a love triangle."
Jian Jing was suddenly inspired: "A melodrama..."
Kang Mu Cheng immediately poured cold water on the idea: "A high school girl can't have any ambiguity, especially with an adult male in a position of authority."
"...Oh."
These kinds of things are just inevitable when creating. Get used to it.
Since the decision was made to go with a female police officer, Jian Jing wanted to chat with Liang Yi and see if she could supplement some more details.
She messaged Liang Yi to meet for a meal. Liang Yi was very happy and said, "I was just about to look for you! I finished moving, are you free this weekend? Come over to my place for dinner. Zhu Yanan can cook, let's have hot pot!"
Jian Jing readily agreed.
But then there was a fourth person who showed up that day.
Before heading out, Ji Feng called and said, "Liang Yi bought alcohol, so I'll come pick you up."
He arrived on time and drove her to the place Liang Yi and Zhu Yanan were renting.
The house wasn't big, just two bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom, but the two girls had decorated it to be very cozy and clean.
What was most eye-catching in the living room was the layout - two large desks and chairs placed back to back.
Both desks were piled high with thick stacks of documents, but Liang Yi's desk looked messier, with cups, chargers, folders, pens strewn about, and beside the chair were two small dumbbells.
Zhu Yanan's desk looked much neater, with the documents neatly lined up vertically, the cables tucked neatly along the edges of the desk, post-it notes stuck on her laptop, and a glass teapot steeping herbal tea.
Jian Jing felt sour.
Why did this look just like a modern gender-swapped Baker Street?
The two of them looked like a great match.
While I only have one dog.
The author has something to say: Ji Feng: Dogs go to school too?
Jian Jing: Dogs go to work too!
Case closed, time to write some daily life~~