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Kapitel 16

"What were you doing between midnight on August 19th and 8 a.m. on August 20th?" he repeated the question.

"Of course I sleep at home. I usually don't get up until 10 o'clock to go to work."

Can anyone prove this?

I live alone.

"That means no one can vouch for it. But someone saw you at Ruijin Hospital during this period. What's your explanation for that?"

"Is that the cleaning lady? You think the person in the surveillance video is me? I can only say that he has mistaken me for someone else." It turned out that the person wearing those cotton shoes who said to me sternly, "This is the person," was the only eyewitness to the theft at Ruijin Hospital, the cleaning lady.

"You seem to know the case very well, even the cleaning lady and the surveillance footage." The policeman looked at me with a half-smile, he must have thought that I, this incompetent suspect, had given myself away in a ridiculous way.

"The reason I'm interested in this case is the same as before, which I can't explain in detail right now. But you should know who told me this; it's Guo Dong from the Special Affairs Department. I hope you can contact him."

"Captain Guo?" Both policemen raised their eyebrows in surprise.

They whispered to each other for a moment, and one of them got up and went out.

“This is a misunderstanding. I hope you can call the cleaner over to take a closer look and carefully compare him with the person in the video,” I said to the policeman who remained.

"You know Captain Guo?" His tone softened a bit, and I think he was starting to doubt his own judgment.

"When I met him, he was already the deputy director of the Special Affairs Department. He treated me to a meal once because of something related to the Special Affairs Department," I said casually.

He paused for a moment, and if he knew what the Special Affairs Department handled, he would be very surprised by what I said.

“The cleaner, Wang Runfa, was quite certain that you were the person he saw that day, based on your reaction at the time…” He hesitated and said, “But you’d better be able to find an alibi.”

“You can ask the security guards in the community. I always leave the community after 10 o’clock. If I went out early one morning, it should have attracted their attention.” That was the only answer I could give him. It happened three months ago. Which security guard could remember it clearly? It’s really hard to find an alibi.

As they were talking, the policeman who had gone out came back in, and the two of them whispered a few words to each other.

"Captain Guo will be here soon. Let's pause the interrogation for now and ask Wang Runfa to examine it more carefully."

I never did such a thing, and it has nothing to do with whether Mr. Wang has good eyesight or not. Of course, I wouldn't argue back on the spot; this is someone else's turf.

I was put into a small detention cell, and I was the only one there. I guess that was considered special treatment; otherwise, I might have suffered a lot.

Guo Dong didn't come as soon as they said. I ate lunch in the detention cell. It was a boxed lunch that I bought on purpose, with a large pork chop and a braised egg.

This matter will eventually be resolved, so I'm not in a hurry. My attention has been drawn back to He Xi's pregnancy. How will He Xi handle it? She looked unhappy after finding out she was pregnant, which speaks volumes; she'll probably have an abortion. Will she mention it to me?

With a clang, the iron gate was opened.

When I went back into the interrogation room, I saw Guo Dong sitting inside, and there was another person outside who wasn't wearing a police uniform. I guessed that was Wang Runfa.

Guo Dong nodded at me without saying anything.

I sat down on the chair opposite me, feeling a bit annoyed. Was this some kind of three-way interrogation?

"Wang Runfa, are you sure this person is the same one you saw at the hospital that morning?" The question came from one of the two policemen from that morning.

"Yes, it's him." The despicable middle-aged man nodded vigorously, making me glare at him in anger.

"Na Duo, please stand up."

I stood up as instructed.

“Wang Runfa, go over to him and take another look.”

Wang Runfa walked up to me, looked me up and down, and even circled around me twice, making me extremely uncomfortable.

"Think back to the time when you met that person in the hospital."

Wang Runfa glanced at the policeman who was speaking to him, seemingly not quite understanding what he meant.

“Take a closer look, look at his height,” the police officer reminded him.

Wang Runfa suddenly opened his mouth wide and gestured with his rough palm.

"Hmm, well, that person seems to be a bit taller."

The two detectives looked helpless: "Then take a closer look and see if it really is him."

Wang Runfa stared at me, looking me up and down, his expression growing increasingly uncertain.

"Officer, I did think that person was dressed strangely that day, so I took a few more glances, but my memory is terrible, hehe... You know I have a bad memory. In the morning, I only saw the side view, and it really did look like him. But from the front, hehe, hehe."

"Hey, this isn't something you can just brush off. Are you still sure?"

"The height is indeed wrong. Is that so? Looking at it now, I really can't be sure."

"Oh dear." The two policemen sighed heavily in unison.

"Sir, I'm so sorry. This morning, we were planning to take Wang Runfa back to the scene again, hoping to help him recall something. But when he saw you, he said... and you reacted the way you did back then, which caused the misunderstanding." A policeman apologized to me while unlocking my handcuffs.

"Well, thankfully I haven't suffered too much," I said, flexing my arms. I hadn't suffered much because of Guo Dong; otherwise… even if I understood the situation, he'd at most nod and let me go, and I might not even hear a simple apology.

"Thank you this time. Bringing up your name really worked," I said to Guo Dong as we walked out of the detention center.

"Oh, no, I'm so sorry about this." Guo Dong said apologetically, "These two kids were really careless in handling the case. How could they do this? I was really startled when they called me. The first thing I did when I got here was to pull up the video footage. The height difference is too obvious, at least five centimeters. Ordinary height-increasing shoes can't reach that height. If it was done intentionally, without training, there would be a slight abnormality in the walking posture, but none of the videos showed it."

"You're a veteran detective, you should leave some room for the young people to improve, right?" I laughed it off, but my mind wasn't really on that. To be honest, the joy of being released was completely overshadowed by this discovery.

What Wang Runfa just said was like a bolt of lightning, suddenly illuminating the doubts in my mind and making those previously incomprehensible points clear!

So that's why.

Thinking about all this made me feel even more depressed and troubled.

When I arrived at Xinjingyuan, it was already past 3 p.m., which was the latest I had arrived in recent days.

Of course, there's no work schedule here, and I wasn't much of a help anyway, so no one blamed me for it.

The situation here is that only one patient remains on the entire basement level, and he is still in a state of heightened agitation. There have been no new confirmed cases for over twenty-four hours. The remaining survivors across the three buildings are thirty-three, with a total death toll of eighty-eight, including a police officer and a nurse.

The lone patient was in a terrible mood. The surrounding cubicles, once filled with fellow patients, were now eerily silent. Behind the strong smell of disinfectant in the air lingered a persistent stench of blood. It was the scent of death.

The patient was injected with a strong sedative because before that he had been intermittently roaring loudly and pounding his hands or head on the plastic partition of the ward. The civil servant, who was in a deep state of fear, also nearly tore a nurse's protective suit.

It seems that the disaster is coming to an end. If there are no new cases within ten days, the lockdown of the community can be lifted. Originally, it was only seven days, but it was extended by three days as a precaution.

"Are you free tonight? I'd like to treat you to dinner," I said to He Xi.

"Hmm, why the sudden change?"

"Do you really think this is sudden?"

There were some things I needed to talk to her about formally, but for some reason, I changed the words to this one.

He Xi looked at me, her eyes revealing nothing, and then walked away.

"I'll pick you up from the hotel before six o'clock," I shouted at her retreating figure.

Turning around, he saw Rembrandt watching from a short distance away.

It was a little awkward, but I still went over.

"I need to speak with you, Rembrandt."

The taxi stopped in front of the New Jishi Restaurant. A van in front of it had a ridiculously old "Beware of Bears" sign on its back. I thought in a place like Xintiandi, a "Beware of Beautiful Women" sign would be much more appropriate.

Since this was He Xi's first time in Shanghai, I specially brought her here to eat local Shanghainese cuisine. Actually, as a Shanghainese myself, I rarely go to local Shanghainese restaurants when I eat out.

Grilled fish, dried tofu with malan, Grandma's braised pork, shredded pork belly, crab roe tofu, and crystal shrimp. Two cold dishes, four hot dishes, plus a snack of glutinous rice and red dates.

As the dishes were served one by one, I smiled when I picked up my chopsticks.

"What, am I holding the chopsticks wrong?" He Xi asked, comparing the way we both held the chopsticks.

"No, you're right. My parents always tried to correct this gesture when I was a child, but they just couldn't change it."

He Xi finally smiled, but when she saw me steadily picking up a piece of crab roe tofu with the wrong hand gesture, she immediately widened her eyes: "You can actually pick up tofu, that's amazing."

"So don't worry about whether the gesture is right or wrong, what matters is whether it works," I said smugly.

He Xi tried several times, and after breaking down three or four pieces of tofu, she finally gave up and used a porcelain spoon instead.

The deliciousness of the crab roe and the smooth texture of the tofu brought a smile to He Xi's face: "It's really delicious. I've had this dish in Hong Kong, but this one is even better."

"Grandma's braised pork is the restaurant's signature dish, it's very famous. Food is a very important part of a vacation, isn't it?"

He Xi was slightly taken aback and said, "I almost forgot that I came here for vacation."

"Yeah, you don't look like you're here on vacation at all."

He Xi understood what I meant, but remained silent.

“I heard about Van Zürcher from Rembrandt.”

He Xi's face immediately darkened.

"Is that him in the photo? You suspect he's the one who took Cheng Gen's internal organs?"

He Xi put down her chopsticks, her eyes as cold and stern as icebergs, her eyelashes trembling.

"What do you know?" she asked warily.

"I do know some things and I really hope I can help you, but only if you extend your hand to me."

I wasn't going to back down. I looked directly into her eyes, which were as sharp as icicles. But when I thought about how hard she was struggling, I felt a pang of sadness and tenderness, and my gaze softened.

He Xi lowered her head, avoiding my eyes. My stubbornness surged up, and no matter how turbulent my emotions were, I stubbornly suppressed them and refused to say anything more to show my goodwill.

After that, we didn't say anything more, and our eyes never met again.

The meal was incredibly dull; none of us had any appetite for the food. Twenty minutes later, I hastily paid the bill.

I sat in the front passenger seat, and He Xi sat in the back. The awkward atmosphere between us was something I think even the taxi driver noticed.

As we approached the Ruijin Hotel, He Xi asked me in a low voice, "Do you really want to help me?" Her voice was so soft and indistinct that it was hard to hear.

I didn't answer; I think it didn't need an answer.

I really wanted to slap myself. I could tell her voice was off, but I just couldn't bring myself to speak. I'm usually very eloquent, but love always manages to throw everything into chaos.

The car stopped in front of the Ruijin Hotel, and He Xi got out silently. I watched in the rearview mirror as she shielded her eyes with her hand, lowered her head, and quickly walked away.

The car started again.

I closed my eyes, leaned my head back in the seat, and after a long while, let out a long sigh.

"Back to Ruijin Hotel," I said to the driver.

The Passat made a swift and stylish 180-degree U-turn down the long street, its tires screeching sharply against the pavement. I tried to sit up straight, but then I heard the driver say:

"That's right. I've never seen such a beautiful girl before. How could you be so heartless?"