However, the newly-appointed Captain Chen wasn’t so easily convinced. Shooting a glance at Lin Xinyan, who looked as though she just had her wits frightened out of her, he barked with laugher and said, “Captain Shen, do you take me for a fool? If you shot him to death, how did the gun turn up in her hands?”
“She picked it up.” Shen Peichuan argued, trying to deflect the blame away from Lin Xinyan.
“She picked it up? Even better! The law will prove her innocence.” Here, he paused for effect before continuing, “Hopefully, your fingerprints will show up on the gun, so you’ll be implicated instead of her.”
Turning around, he barked to his subordinates, “Take her away.”
Shen Peichuan and Su Zhan exchanged a look. Instinctively knowing what the other was thinking, they jumped right into action. As Shen Peichuan knocked the policemen aside, Su Zhan grabbed hold of Lin Xinyan and tried to dash out of the room.
Unfortunately, Captain Chen seemed to have anticipated this. As soon as Shen Peichuan and Su Zhan tried to escape, more reinforcements flooded in through the door, completely blocking their path of escape through the corridor.
There was no way Su Zhan was going to be able to escape with Lin Xinyan.
Lin Xinyan still felt rather dazed. She was still processing the fear she had felt when He Ruize grabbed her hand and shot himself with the gun.
She wasn’t an easily frightened person, but when she saw He Ruize’s bloodied corpse lying on the floor, she had been frightened out of her wits.
When she finally snapped out of it, the gun in her hand clattered onto the floor with a loud bang, which woke her up to her situation completely.
Now thoroughly awake, she could guess what was happening to her.
Captain Chen ordered again, “Take her away!”
To stop Shen Peichuan and Su Zhan from jumping to her defense again, a few policemen promptly surrounded them.
Captain Chen bent down to pick up the gun with his gloved hands before carefully securing it in a zip lock bag.
He shot a withering look at Shen Peichuan, who was struggling vainly to free himself from the policemen’s grip. Waving the zip lock bag at him, Captain Chen said, “By the way, here’s the evidence.”
Shen Peichuan’s eyes narrowed into a slit. Since they had failed to talk their way out of this situation, it was time to fight their way out forcefully.
Lin Xinyan, who had sensed his thoughts, shook her head at him almost imperceptibly. This was an almost perfect setup. If Shen Peichuan and Su Zhan tried to force their way out, they would be arrested by the policemen, too. They would have no hope of rescuing Lin Xinyan then.
Calmly, she said to Shen Peichuan, “Give him a call.”
Shen Peichuan immediately took out his phone and started to call someone. Captain Chen looked extremely chagrined. He could arrest Lin Xinyan, but he couldn’t stop Shen Peichuan from calling for backup. He had to find a way to get Lin Xinyan back to the station now.
In the Zong family home, Li Zhan paced around the living room, shooting occasional glances at Lin Xichen and Lin Ruixi, who were seated on the sofa.
He mumbled, “How have I not realized this before?”
These two had turned out to be Zong Jinghao’s kids!
After knowing Lin Xinyan and Zong Jinghao’s relationship, he couldn’t sit quietly at home after finding out about this. Li Zhan had rushed down to the Zong family home at once to confirm his suspicions.
They had proven to be true.
“Teacher, are you alright?” Lin Xinchen looked puzzledly at him. It had been thirty minutes since Li Zhan arrived at their house, and he had spent the whole time gawking at the two siblings. Occasionally, he mumbled anxiously to himself, looking as though he was possessed.
Li Zhan sat down in front of the boy. “Young man, tell me honestly—have you been hiding this from me?”
Li Xichen looked at him and replied honestly, “Nope.”
“Really?” Li Zhan looked at him, his expression full of doubt.
“Teacher, you’ve taught us that we should never lie. I’m telling you the truth.”
Li Zhan was quite confident in the boy’s honesty.
“I believe you. In the future, I’ll protect you, alright?” Li Zhan threw his arms around Lin Xichen like a good friend. “I want to see your room. Give me a tour, will you?”
Cheng Yuxiu was already preparing dinner. In the past, Li Zhan would never have stepped foot into this house. If Zong Jinghao hadn’t moved in eventually, he would have gone the rest of his life without venturing near the house ever again.
Out of politeness, Cheng Yuxiu asked, “Would you like to stay and have dinner with us?”
Li Zhan ignored her.
In the past, Zong Jinghao had shared an extremely tense relationship with his stepmother. The relationship between Wen Qing and Cheng Yuxiu was even worse—they habitually fought like cats and dogs. Hence, Li Zhan felt rather inclined to behave icily towards the woman.
Li Ruixi had gotten closer to her grandmother over the past few weeks. Seeing Li Zhan’s frigid attitude towards her, she slipped off the sofa and ran to her grandmother. Throwing her arms around Cheng Yuxiu’s legs, she exclaimed, “Grandmother, are you going to make me anything to eat?”
Cheng Yuxiu swooped her up from the floor. “What do you want to eat? I’ll make it for you.”
Lin Ruixi cocked her head to the side as she pondered. However, she didn’t seem to have an answer right away.
Cheng Yuxiu set her down gently on the sofa. “Take your time to think about it slowly.”
In his study, Zong Jinghao was tidying up some documents Guan Jing had delivered to him. After glancing over at the clock, he picked up his phone and called Lin Xinyan. A whole day had elapsed since she headed out that morning to send Zhuang Zijin off.
Why isn’t she back yet?
Before he could dial her number, however, he received a call from Shen Peichuan.
As soon as Zong Jinghao picked up the phone, he heard Shen Peichuan say in a panicked voice, “Bad news. Xinyan has been arrested and taken to the police station.”
Zong Jinghao’s grip around his phone tightened. “What’s going on?”
Shen Peichuan thought it would be too difficult to relay everything to him over the phone. Instead of replying to his question, he said, “I’ll see you at the police station.”
Zong Jinghao hung up on the call. He picked up his coat from the chair and hurried towards the front door.
As Zong Jinghao zipped past her, Lin Ruixi asked, “Daddy, are you going out?”
Zong Jinghao paused for a second to look at his daughter. A strained smile spreading over his face, he said, “Daddy has something to attend to. I’ll come back really quickly, alright?”
The little girl nodded, looking like a pigeon as she flashed a smile back at him.
Upon seeing her smiling face, Zong Jinghao’s heart melted. He dashed over and planted a kiss on his daughter’s forehead, ruffling her fleecy hair affectionately.
Cheng Yuxiu glanced at the clock. It was nearing dinnertime. “Are you coming back for dinner?”
However, Zong Jinghao had already shot out of the door. Without hearing Cheng Yuxiu’s question, he jumped into his car and sped off in the direction of the police station.
He drove quickly and arrived at the police station in a flash.
Su Zhan and Shen Peichuan were pacing back and forth at the entrance, looking extremely worried. Seeing Zong Jinghao pull up in his car, they dashed up to him immediately.
Zong Jinghao pushed the car door open and stepped out of the vehicle. He was wearing a white dress shirt; the sleeves pulled up to reveal his muscular forearms. The fabric was rumpled at the front and the back. The wrinkles at the back had been caused by the back of his office chair, while those at the front had been made by his daughter when she squirmed against him.
In a low voice, he asked, “What’s going on?”
Su Zhan didn’t dare speak.
This was no small matter.
“It was our fault,” Su Zhan said, his head bowed in apology.
They hadn’t been able to protect her.
An impatient look flashed across Zong Jinghao’s face. Raising his voice slightly, “I’m asking you who took her away!”
Right now, punishing the person at fault was the furthest thing from his mind. Zong Jinghao wanted to know what exactly had happened.
Shen Peichuan walked up to him and cleared his throat. “The people in the police station.”
Zong Jinghao’s patience was running out. His veins were throbbing in anger as he snapped, “Tell me what happened!”
Shen Peichuan finally summoned up the courage to speak. “Xinyan sent Zhuang Zijin off this morning. She must have been feeling a little morose after that, so she asked me to accompany her for a drink. I agreed, so we arrived at a relatively quiet bar. Halfway through, she said she needed to go to the toilet. A while later, Su Zhan and I heard a gunshot coming from the direction of the toilet. When we ran out of the room, we saw He Ruize jump onto her. Before we could stop him, he made Xinyan point the gun at him. He then shot himself to death. He Ruize died, and everyone saw the gun in Xinyan’s hand…”
He Ruize?
Zong Jinghao interrupted him. “Didn’t you send your men to guard him in jail? How did he manage to get out?”
Shen Peichuan continued, “A few minutes later, a whole lot of policemen arrived at the scene. I believe they had planned everything—it would’ve been impossible for them to arrive so quickly otherwise. As for He Ruize, he must’ve had the backing of someone powerful if he could escape from jail so easily.”
