Xu Mo didn't have much truth serum to begin with.
So unless absolutely necessary, he was reluctant to use it.
But now there was no choice.
The psychologist named Gou Yong sitting across from him and Han Fei had incredibly strong mental fortitude.
They had taken turns questioning him for hours, but it was completely useless.
This Gou Yong was a tough nut to crack - he either kept repeating that he was a law-abiding citizen who would never commit crimes, or he just maintained complete silence.
Xu Mo had run out of options, which was why he finally decided to use the truth serum.
Xu Mo stood up and walked over to where Gou Yong sat in the interrogation chair.
When the latter saw Xu Mo approach him,
He immediately looked up at Xu Mo with vigilance.
"What are you trying to do? Force a confession? Let me warn you, coerced confessions are illegal. I know the law, and if you dare lay a finger on me today, I guarantee you won't like the consequences."
Xu Mo simply ignored him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm warning you too - deliberately concealing information and refusing to cooperate is also illegal. Being stubborn will only make things worse for you. If you confess honestly now, you might get a reduced sentence. But if you keep being obstinate, you'll get nothing good out of it... Do you have anything to do with those suicide jumpers? Leniency for those who confess, severity for those who resist."
By this point, Han Fei was nearly at his wit's end dealing with the stubborn Gou Yong.
During the previous period, aside from illegal methods, Han Fei had tried everything he could think of but still couldn't get Gou Yong to confess.
As for what Xu Mo just said to Gou Yong, Han Fei thought those words would be completely useless.
Because he had already said similar things countless times before.
The "leniency for confession, severity for resistance" line might work on suspects with very poor psychological resilience.
But against this psychologist Gou Yong with his extremely strong mental fortitude... it was utterly useless!
He was like a stone in a latrine - both foul and hard.
To the point where Han Fei was considering giving up the interrogation and thinking about approaching this from another angle, looking for some solid evidence that could convict Gou Yong.
But after brief consideration, Han Fei abandoned that idea.
What solid evidence could they possibly find?
So far, they only had one witness testimony.
But in this case, witness testimony alone wasn't enough - the chain of evidence was incomplete and couldn't secure a conviction.
Moreover, because of the killer's very unique method, there likely wouldn't be any physical evidence.
The only thing that could convict Gou Yong would probably be his own confession.
That was the crux of the problem - besides witness testimony, there likely wasn't any other evidence, and Gou Yong refused to confess.
Even though Han Fei knew the person before him was the killer, he was completely helpless.
Thinking about this, Han Fei couldn't help but get a headache.
Come to think of it, the most troublesome types of killers for Han Fei were psychologists and lawyers.
Compared to other professions, these two were very special - definitely high-level intellectuals.
And it wasn't just about their education either.
Psychologists had strong mental fortitude and methodical thinking, making them hard to trick into revealing information.
As for lawyers, they knew the law, had extremely strong logic, and were completely impenetrable.
Han Fei rubbed his temples, trying to figure out how to make Gou Yong confess.
But just then, the most unexpected thing happened...
Right after Xu Mo told Gou Yong: "Leniency for confession, severity for resistance."
The man in the interrogation chair did a complete 180-degree turn in attitude.
Previously he had kept insisting he was a law-abiding citizen, maintaining a completely impenetrable stance.
But in the blink of an eye, he actually confessed!
"I was the one who instigated their suicides."
Han Fei: "???"
Is there something wrong with my ears? Han Fei was bewildered.
He widened his eyes in disbelief, looking back and forth between Xu Mo and Gou Yong.
He confessed just like that??
Was that "leniency for confession, severity for resistance" line really that powerful?
He confessed right after hearing it?
But wait... I said that line several times earlier, and he didn't react at all. Why did he suddenly confess when Xu Mo said it?
What exactly happened here? Han Fei couldn't figure it out.
What he didn't know was,
It wasn't the "leniency for confession, severity for resistance" line that worked, but Xu Mo's truth serum.
Earlier when Xu Mo put his hand on Gou Yong's shoulder, he had secretly injected him with truth serum, which was why he confessed.
"Isn't this better?" Xu Mo returned to his seat. "Now tell us, why did you kill them, and how did you do it?"
"They were guilty, they deserved what they got. I killed them because I needed to punish these bad people," Gou Yong answered.
After his brief surprise, Han Fei quickly regained his composure.
Even though he was still confused about why the same words had different effects when spoken by him versus Xu Mo,
He knew this wasn't the time to dwell on that.
The urgent matter now was to properly interrogate the suspect. Han Fei decided to save his questions for later.
"You instigated their suicides just because you thought they were guilty?" Han Fei stared at Gou Yong. "Even if they were guilty, they should have been judged by the law, not punished by you."
Hearing this, Gou Yong's eyes immediately turned red, filled with bloodshot.
"He bullied my brother. If I didn't handle this, he would have kept bullying him. My brother was already timid and withdrawn - if the bullying continued, his life would have been ruined."
Xu Mo and Han Fei exchanged glances.
The surname Gou was uncommon.
Coincidentally, they did know someone with the surname Gou.
That person was Gou Hao.
The same student who had been constantly bullied at school by the deceased Lu Yu.
Based on Gou Yong's words, they believed the brother he mentioned must be Gou Hao.
Earlier, they had suspected Gou Hao and brought him to the police station for questioning.
They hadn't expected that while the killer wasn't Gou Hao, it was someone related to him - his brother.
"Your brother? You're talking about Gou Hao, right?" Han Fei asked.
Gou Yong nodded: "Yes, our parents passed away early, and I've been taking care of him ever since. Because he barely saw our parents when he was young, he developed serious psychological issues from childhood - withdrawal, low self-esteem, timidity... That's why I studied psychology and became a psychologist. I wanted to cure him, and I wanted to help other children like him who were timid and had low self-esteem. I wanted to change them."
"I successfully treated many children with psychological problems, helped them become optimistic and cheerful. But Hao was the only one I couldn't cure. By then, his psychological issues were already deeply rooted and couldn't be solved quickly. I thought it was fine, I had plenty of time, I could slowly help him rebuild his confidence and regain optimism."
"But... I discovered that no matter how hard I tried, he stayed the same, and even resisted communicating with me, preferring to lock himself in his room. Later I found out that he became like this because someone was constantly hurting and provoking him during this time. He was being bullied at school - they mocked him for not having parents and made fun of his surname."
"I realized that providing psychological counseling for Hao was just treating the symptoms, not the root cause. I couldn't let things continue like this, so I killed Lu Yu, the one who led the bullying against Hao."