The development Qin Guan had anticipated arrived a bit later than he originally thought.
It wasn't until after his fifth meal inside that the taxi driver, Jin Xiaowei, who had helped Qin Guan deliver Qi Min's luggage to the Dewang Tobacco & Liquor Store near the new train station, was finally tracked down.
The reason it was difficult to find him was simple – Jin Xiaowei was neither the day-shift nor the night-shift driver for that particular taxi. That night, he had covered a shift for his brother-in-law, Huang Wu, because something had come up at Huang Wu's home.
The Dewang Tobacco & Liquor Store had no surveillance cameras. Furthermore, because it was located outside the train station where parking was prohibited, Jin Xiaowei had parked the taxi far away in a nearby alley.
Road surveillance cameras only captured a fragment of Jin Xiaowei, wearing a cap, walking with his head down. This clip was sent to the taxi company for identification, but results were delayed. It wasn't until the actual driver, Huang Wu, returned from leave and resumed work that he recognized his brother-in-law, Jin Xiaowei.
Finding Jin Xiaowei made Lao He visibly brighten.
"I'm telling you, Qin Guan, you're almost done for!" Before questioning Jin Xiaowei, Lao He made a special trip to the interrogation room. Lao He's interrogation of Qin Guan had lasted only half an hour; he couldn't continue. Qin Guan's expression of utter calm and his watertight answers made it impossible for Lao He to suppress the fire in his heart.
"You have no more chances! Even if you want to confess now, you've lost the opportunity!" Lao He's voice was buoyant.
He wasn't wrong – if Jin Xiaowei could identify Qin Guan as the man who gave him Qi Min's luggage bag near the Xinhe Hotel and instructed him to deliver it to the Dewang Tobacco & Liquor Store at the train station, then Qin Guan wouldn't be nearly as comfortable as he was now.
Qin Guan said nothing.
He sat alone in the small room. The glass window to his right reflected his face, which looked ruddy and quite healthy – he knew, of course, it was a double-sided mirror. Someone was likely watching his every move intently from the other side.
He lay back again, tilting his head up. The light overhead was dazzlingly bright, making the surrounding white walls seem to emit an unreal, hazy glow. This overwhelming expanse of glaring white could easily make a person's mind wander and lose focus.
But Qin Guan wouldn't.
Previously, when first suspected by the police, he had been flustered, confused, and repeatedly almost slipped up.
Since seeing through Lao He's scheme and shedding his facade, he had become completely calm.
A few minutes later, Qin Guan sat up. He calmly placed his cuffed hands on the railing in front of him – the specially designed chair at the police station wasn't bad quality. Made of wood and painted a dark red, it somewhat resembled the rosewood furniture his father-in-law collected.
The color made Qin Guan's hands look long and pale.
Xu Ruyi had always particularly liked his hands. "Your fingers are so long, like a pianist's! And so pale. I think the domineering CEOs in novels must have hands like yours!"
She wasn't exaggerating. Qin Guan's hands had been praised since childhood – by teachers, by classmates' parents. Even a neighbor who had quarreled with his family multiple times, once while washing clothes with him on stone slabs by the river, stared at Qin Guan's pale hands and couldn't help sighing, "Ah, looking at these hands... you should have a blessed, fortunate life. But with parents like yours... sigh..."
A pair of hands destined for good fortune.
A pair of hands capable of controlling his own life.
The room was utterly silent.
Calculating the time, that Jin Xiaowei should be arriving soon.
Qin Guan took a deep breath – he still had at least twenty or thirty minutes.
Enough. Enough for him to go over everything again.
Calmly, objectively, adopting the perspective of a defense lawyer, he would retrace all the clues from beginning to end once more.
The police had his father-in-law's will. Qin Guan still hadn't seen its contents and likely wouldn't get the chance before any trial. That was the most powerful motive, the most damaging evidence against him, and it would undoubtedly appear in court.
But it probably contained no other useful clues; otherwise, after two days, Lao He wouldn't still be fixated on the taxi driver angle. Xu Ruyi was undoubtedly behind the will – Qin Guan had long changed the safe combination. How had she secretly obtained it?
She must have installed a camera in the study – finding that camera, and any others in the house, would be the first thing he did after getting out.
Besides the will, the items currently out there were Qi Min's stockings and phone.
Both were taken by Xu Ruyi. She had her own purpose – obviously, she hadn't handed them over to the police yet. Was she saving them for the courtroom? What was her goal? He absolutely had to figure that out after getting out.
Finally, the police also had Qi Min's two travel bags.
Those were handed over because Li Yang suddenly got smart and sensed something was wrong. That fool had only been clever twice: once by handing over Qi Min's travel bags, and the other time in front of that supermarket – after Qin Guan followed "Zeng Demei" to the park, discovered Qi Min was still alive, and took a taxi back, Li Yang had grabbed him, shouting and cursing. That Li Yang, with clear logic, was a completely different person from the Li Yang before Qin Guan went to the park.
At that time, Qin Guan, annoyed and impatient by the idiot's pestering, hadn't understood what was going on with him.
But over these two days, Qin Guan had completely confirmed his speculation – Li Yang had been coached by someone.
Xu Ruyi.
Xu Ruyi, again and again and again, setting traps to ensnare him, to harm him – Qin Guan's ten long fingers danced lightly on the chair railing – but that bitch simply wasn't clever. What was the point of all this wasted effort? Without finding Qi Min's body, it was all useless.
A murder case without a body could only be called an unsolved case.
Without a body, how could they establish the fact of a crime? Without the fact of a crime, how could they "arrest" a suspect?
As long as Qi Min's body remained undiscovered, Qin Guan was safe.
And now – he looked quietly at the closed door – how he longed to open that door, to see Lao He's disappointed face with his own eyes, to see exactly how this rope was tightening around Xu Ruyi's neck!
Lao He stood in the office, his face, already showing signs of sleep deprivation, now twisted into a misshapen knot by disbelief. He stared fixedly at Jin Xiaowei before him. Seeing this, one officer cautiously cracked the door open, slipped out into the corridor, and dragged away Li Yang, who was making a racket outside: "Hey, Li Yang! Can you stop shouting? Our Captain He is busy right now!"
"Busy with what? It's been so many days! Where's my wife! Still not found? Have you ever thought about how I feel? I'm about to collapse!" Li Yang roared, squatting down and roughly running his hands through his hair. On the web of his right hand, between thumb and forefinger, was a hideous, reddish-brown long scar.
"You're absolutely sure it wasn't this man?" Lao He asked desperately, holding up Qin Guan's photo in front of Jin Xiaowei again.
Jin Xiaowei frowned, shaking his head one moment, looking bewildered the next. "I really don't remember clearly. It was several days ago, and it was late at night. I just remember the guy was pretty tall, wearing a hooded jacket, and he had an earring in his ear. I remember that—"
Lao He couldn't bear to hear more. He grabbed Jin Xiaowei and hurried upstairs, opening the door to one of the rooms. He pulled Jin Xiaowei to the glass window and pointed at Qin Guan on the other side. "Was it this man who asked you to deliver something to the train station?"
"I really don't remember," Jin Xiaowei said, growing more flustered. "I just remember he was tall, wore a hooded jacket, had an earring... ah, that's right—"
He finally remembered. "His right hand! When he handed me the money, there was a long scar right here, on the web of his right hand!"