Chapter 285 - 278: The Evidence You Wanted
"No, it’s none of my business! It’s... it’s Hu Zheng! He did it all! Wang Yang was the one who insisted on beating Dong Yong, and he was the one who threw the cigarette butt. It has nothing to do with me!"
Xu Chengfu rested his hands on his thighs, his fists tightly clenched. He had been about to ask if Dong Yong was dead or alive, but he suddenly stopped when he saw Xiong Xin’s pathetic display. He figured that looking at this coward, if he truly had nothing to do with the crime, he would have confessed ages ago.
Xu Chengfu got up and left the room, heading straight to Wang Yang’s interrogation room. "Wang Yang, Xiong Xin has spilled everything. Do you have anything to add?"
"What!" Wang Yang stared at him in shock. Damn it, that coward Xiong Xin had actually confessed so quickly.
Wang Yang’s eyes flickered with doubt. What if...
Xu Chengfu raised an eyebrow and spoke to the police officer beside him. "Hand over Xiong Xin’s confession, along with the audio and video recordings."
While handing them over, Xu Chengfu "accidentally" pressed the play button on a voice recorder. Xiong Xin’s terrified voice immediately rang out from it.
"It has nothing to do with me! It’s Hu Zheng..."
Xu Chengfu quickly stopped the recording and offered an apologetic smile. "My bad. Got distracted for a moment. Let’s begin."
Wang Yang’s chest heaved with anger. That son of a bitch Xiong Xin was definitely shirking responsibility. If they were going down, they were going down together! "Hu Zheng started the fire, and Xiong Xin tied Dong Yong to a tree with a rope," he confessed.
Xu Chengfu’s breathing grew heavy as he gritted his teeth. Tying a man to a tree in a fire that massive... He turned around and left the room, slamming his fist against the wall. "Those three animals!" he cursed.
With the fire raging so fiercely and Dong Yong tied to a tree, the old man wouldn’t have been able to escape even if he tried. Trembling with rage, Xu Chengfu barked, "You two go interrogate Hu Zheng." He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to hold back from beating the man himself.
The two police officers entered the room and saw Hu Zheng sitting carelessly in his chair. They exchanged a glance, sat down, and organized the documents in their hands. Hu Zheng shot them a glance and scoffed. They had no evidence anyway.
The officers didn’t waste any time with nonsense; they directly played the audio recordings of Xiong Xin and Wang Yang’s testimonies. The confident expression on Hu Zheng’s face cracked piece by piece. Shit! He had forgotten about his two idiot accomplices—one was a coward, and the other was impulsive. He hadn’t expected the police to interrogate them first.
"Those two animals!" Hu Zheng panted heavily in anger. "Where’s the evidence? You say I started the fire, but do you have proof?"
"We do. Who says we don’t?"
A calm voice rang out from the doorway. Jiang Li pushed the door open and walked in, followed closely by Xu Chengfu.
Xu Chengfu could barely contain his grin. He looked at Hu Zheng with an expression that clearly screamed, "You are finished." He hadn’t expected Jiang Li to return at such a crucial moment. Not only had she returned, but she had also brought a massive surprise for all of them!
Jiang Li pulled a carefully wrapped cigarette butt from her bag. "We’ll know once the forensics team tests this."
Hu Zheng frowned. It was his usual brand of cigarettes. But with a fire that massive—one that could reduce a person to ashes—how could a cigarette butt be preserved so perfectly?
"That’s not mine!" Hu Zheng stubbornly denied, convinced they were just bluffing.
Jiang Li raised an eyebrow. "You don’t actually think Uncle Dong is dead, do you?"
Hu Zheng’s heart began to pound with growing anxiety. "I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I don’t know this Uncle Dong you’re referring to."
"That night, you, Xiong Xin, and Wang Yang went up there looking for a tomb, but you ran into Uncle Dong, who was patrolling the mountain.
"Uncle Dong sounded warning bells for you, repeatedly urging you not to start any fires and forbidding you from smoking.
"After chasing him away, you realized the place was nothing more than a cellar."
Jiang Li stared at him. "You were furious, feeling like you had made the trip for nothing.
"When you came out, you smoked a cigarette and tossed the butt aside. It instantly ignited a ball of fire, but Uncle Dong discovered it in time and stamped it out.
"The three of you then proceeded to beat Uncle Dong and tie him to a tree. Before leaving, you tossed another cigarette butt on the ground.
"Soon after, the fire flared up. Fortunately, Uncle Dong carried a knife with him. He cut through the ropes, and seeing the raging flames, he had no choice but to flee first.
"And, of course, he picked up the half-smoked cigarette butt you had thrown away the first time."
Jiang Li looked at the evidence in her hand. Hu Zheng had been so annoyed at the time that he only took a few puffs before tossing it. Because Uncle Dong had put the fire out quickly, the butt hadn’t burned completely. As Hu Zheng listened to Jiang Li’s narrative, he was utterly shocked. How did she know all this? And in such vivid detail?
"I don’t know what you’re talking about," Hu Zheng said, though fear was visibly creeping in.
Jiang Li shot him a cold glare. "I already told you, Uncle Dong isn’t dead. We have both the witness and the physical evidence. Your denials are useless."
After saying that, she turned and left the room. Uncle Dong had fallen down the mountain while trying to escape and was currently undergoing emergency treatment at the hospital. She needed to go check on him.
Xu Chengfu flashed a triumphant smile at Hu Zheng. "Attempted murder, causing a forest fire, kidnapping... Just wait to rot in prison for the rest of your life!"
With that, Xu Chengfu walked out in a fantastic mood. "Where did you find Uncle Dong, Jiang Li? Thank goodness he’s alright."
"Uh, it was a coincidence." She had originally planned to go to H City to find Wu Ming, but she spotted a crow on the way. She followed it and found Uncle Dong in a nearby tree.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!" Xu Chengfu looked at Jiang Li with deep gratitude. If she hadn’t arrived in time, they would have had to argue with those suspects for quite a while.
Jiang Li chatted with Xu Chengfu for a few more minutes before heading to the hospital to wait for news on Dong Yong. He was severely injured from falling down the mountain, but at least he was still alive.
At the hospital entrance, Jiang Li remembered Aunt Cai. She took out her phone and called Wu Ming, asking her to inform Aunt Cai so she wouldn’t grieve too much and would take care of her health. When Aunt Cai woke up and learned that Dong Yong had been found, she insisted on rushing back no matter what. Seeing that she couldn’t be persuaded otherwise, and since her injuries weren’t too serious, Wu Ming drove her over through the night.
By the time they arrived, it was almost dawn.
"Old man... my old man..."
Cai He sobbed as she called out. She had almost thought Dong Yong was going to abandon her and pass away first.
"Aunt Cai, please stop crying. Uncle Dong is fine. You should get some rest. If you collapse from exhaustion, Uncle Dong will be heartbroken when he finds out." Jiang Li stepped forward to comfort Cai He. Looking at the scratches on the older woman’s face and her red, swollen eyes, Jiang Li’s heart ached with sympathy. Aunt Cai had already cried herself blind. How could her body handle crying like this again?
Cai He grabbed Jiang Li’s hands and made a move to kneel before her. If it hadn’t been for these girls, she truly would never have seen her old man again. Jiang Li pursed her lips and firmly gripped Aunt Cai’s arms, pulling her back up. "You don’t need to do this, Aunt Cai. It’s the least I could do." Since she had encountered the situation and it was within her power to help, she couldn’t just sit by and do nothing.
Cai He’s lips trembled as she shook her head. She opened her mouth, but for a long time, no words came out. At the time, so many people had refused to help her. They all claimed her husband was already dead, passing her off to one another like a hot potato. Only these girls had stayed by her side to comfort her. Now, they had even found her husband. Otherwise, she really would have believed he was dead.
"Thank you, girl. Thank you." Cai He’s grip on Jiang Li’s hands trembled continuously as large teardrops splashed onto the back of Jiang Li’s hand.
"If it weren’t for you, I... I really wouldn’t know what to do."
She was just a blind old woman with no children. Ever since their son died, she and Dong Yong only had each other to rely on. If he really was gone, she wouldn’t be able to live on either.