It all matched up.
After hearing Wang Dachuan and Xiao Zhang's accounts, Xu Mo realized that his earlier suspicions were correct.
This was indeed a case of using someone else's hand to kill!
In this murder case, Ren Qin was not an accomplice; she was the mastermind.
As for the man who had previously been considered the mastermind, he was merely an unlucky soul who almost took the fall.
The man's act of killing was a fact, but it was also an accident—an accident that could have been avoided.
The deceased's supposed business trip was all a lie concocted by Ren Qin. Her aim was to lure the man into her home, where a confrontation with the deceased would inevitably occur upon his return.
Come to think of it, even if the deceased was a foster child with no blood relation, after decades of raising him, some affection should have developed. Even if the foster child died an accidental death, Ren Qin should have been deeply grieved and would take time to recover. How could she immediately concoct a scenario of the foster child committing suicide by slashing his wrists?
Unless she had already planned everything from the start.
"Is Ren Qin still in the interrogation room?" Xu Mo asked.
"Yes, she is," came the reply.
Xu Mo nodded and made his way to the interrogation room.
Inside the interrogation room, Ren Qin sat in the interrogation chair. Even after confessing, she still seemed uneasy, her face lacking the frankness of someone who had revealed everything. It was as if she still had something on her mind.
Xu Mo, holding a paternity test report, pushed the door open and entered, taking a seat opposite Ren Qin. He had a questioning expression on his face.
Ren Qin, sitting in the interrogation chair, was first taken aback, then asked doubtfully, "Officer, I've already confessed to the facts."
She thought Xu Mo didn't know she had confessed and was preparing to interrogate her again.
"I know you've confessed," Xu Mo said, his gaze fixed on Ren Qin as if trying to pierce through her. "But you haven't finished confessing, have you?"
In an instant, Ren Qin's expression changed repeatedly.
Xu Mo watched her closely, becoming even more certain of his suspicions.
He picked up the paternity test certificate he had just brought back from the identification agency and said with a meaningful tone, "We've just learned some information... the deceased was not your biological child."
Ren Qin remained silent, biting her lips. After a moment, she nodded faintly.
Her voice was as soft as a mosquito's buzz: "Mm..."
"We've talked to your neighbors, and they said they often heard commotion coming from your house. It was your adopted son beating you, wasn't it? After all the hardships you endured raising him, he turned out to be a ungrateful wretch. You must have hated him deeply."
Before Ren Qin could deny it, Xu Mo waved his hand, signaling her to stay silent, and continued speaking.
"We also inquired at the deceased's company. The night before his death, his boss hadn't assigned him any business trip. He was just told to entertain clients that evening. You knew the deceased would either be back that night or the next day. I want to know why you told Qin Guofu that the deceased was going on a week-long business trip."
After saying this, Xu Mo leaned back in his chair, watching Ren Qin, waiting for her response.
However, Ren Qin merely opened her mouth but couldn't utter a word.
After about a minute, Xu Mo lost patience and simply stated his conclusion.
"You harbored resentment toward your adopted son for frequently beating you without reason. You wanted to kill him but didn't dare to do it yourself, fearing that as a woman, you couldn't handle a strong, middle-aged man. So you schemed to use Qin Guofu as a scapegoat to kill your adopted son, right?"
"No! That's not it! I didn't!" Ren Qin hastily explained.
Xu Mo slammed the table, trying to intimidate Ren Qin into telling the truth.
"Then why did you tell Qin Guofu that the deceased was going on a week-long business trip when you knew he only had plans for that evening?"
In the dim light, Ren Qin couldn't see Xu Mo's expression, but she could sense the anger in his tone.
"I... that's what he told me. He said he was going on a business trip for a week. It was all him. He told me he was going on a trip." Ren Qin's voice was weak.
"How did he tell you that? Over the phone? A text message? Or did he tell you in person?"
In the age of big data, everything leaves a trace. Call records and chat histories are easy to check.
As for someone's whereabouts, that's even easier to track, with surveillance cameras everywhere.
Whether the deceased had contacted Ren Qin the night before his death, what messages they exchanged, or if they had met, would be easy for the police to uncover.
Ren Qin fell silent.
She lowered her head.
Her previous statement had been a desperate attempt to fabricate an excuse.
Xu Mo was right. The deceased's business trip was entirely fabricated by her, with the sole purpose of luring Qin Guofu into her home.
Qin Guofu and the deceased had never gotten along. They couldn't even share the same space. The deceased disapproved of Qin Guofu's relationship with Ren Qin, let alone allowing him to stay overnight in his house. A fight between the two was inevitable.
At that point, Ren Qin would fan the flames, and the heated confrontation would escalate to a life-and-death struggle.
After a moment, Ren Qin lifted her head and looked directly at Xu Mo, her expression calm as she admitted to the truth.
"You're right... I raised that beast for decades. Although we weren't related by blood, we had a bond that was almost like mother and son. What about him? Ever since he found out we weren't blood-related, he started beating me from time to time, showing no gratitude. I'd had enough."
"Even a dog knows to wag its tail for its master. But I raised a ungrateful wretch... That night, he told me he had to entertain clients and wouldn't be home. That's when I came up with this plan. I lied to Qin Guofu, saying that beast was going on a week-long business trip and asked him to stay at my place for a few days. In reality, I wanted him to help me deal with that beast. I couldn't handle him on my own."
At this point, Ren Qin stopped.
She was calmer now, her earlier unease completely gone. Having confessed everything, she had nothing left to worry about.
The subsequent events didn't need to be recounted, as she had already mentioned them before, and Xu Mo was already aware.
Wang Dachuan, who was sitting beside Xu Mo, widened his eyes in disbelief. The conversation between Xu Mo and Ren Qin had completely overturned his understanding of the case.
Wow... so Ren Qin was the mastermind!?
And that Qin Guofu was just a scapegoat. What's more, the old man still had no idea he had been used as a pawn.
Xu Mo is amazing!
If it weren't for Xu Mo suddenly realizing this, the case might have been hastily closed.
"However..." Xu Mo spoke again, "I still have one thing that puzzles me. Qin Guofu killed your adopted son, which was what you wanted, right? Why did you go through the trouble of staging a suicide scene?"
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
