Inside the police station, the nerves of everyone in the Su family were pulled taut. Yan Qian had been brought in early, and Gu Pei had been summoned by the police at the same time.
Before the police even spoke, Su Renhua was already incredibly agitated, shouting at the officers, “What does his life or death have to do with me? I haven’t even complained about how much business I’ve lost because of his mess!”
Two officers were taking notes. One looked up and asked, “Were you aware that your son was sick and hospitalized?”
Su Renhua paused for a second before shouting even louder, “The devil only knows! He never tells me anything!”
“And where were you on that day?”
“I was at a KTV. I was there the whole night; there’s surveillance footage. So, whether he’s dead or alive, what does it have to do with me?!”
“Is Su Mingran your biological son?”
“Does this have anything to do with the case? Is being biological important?”
Irritated, the officer tapped the notebook and said, “Answer the question.”
Su Renhua snorted, “So what if he is? What are you going to do about it?”
Su Renhua wanted to arrogantly tell the police that he had connections “upstairs,” but the next sentence from the police completely crushed that thought.
“Is Qi Xinghe your adopted son or your illegitimate son?”
The police always had sharp eyes. They had long sensed something was off, and being fed up with Su Renhua’s noise, they simply pierced the veil to shut him up.
In front of so many people, Su Renhua suddenly felt guilty, and his tone weakened. “Does this have anything to do with Su Mingran’s disappearance?”
The police scrutinized him piercingly. “We found signs of a struggle/shoving on your company’s rooftop. The surveillance footage for that day was damaged, so we cannot rule out foul play. Furthermore, search and rescue efforts are still underway to determine if the victim is alive or dead. We are not ruling out domestic conflict.”
“What do you mean! Are you treating me as a suspect?!”
One officer clicked his pen and said coldly, “From the moment you sat down until now, you haven’t asked a single question about your son’s whereabouts. In fact, you seem to wish he were actually dead.” The officer paused. His words weren’t overly explicit, but the meaning was clear: Su Renhua’s agitation made it hard not to suspect him. After skipping over the obvious, he added, “We are conducting inquiries based on the facts of the case.”
Su Renhua couldn’t help but swallow hard, clearly becoming nervous.
“Furthermore, according to your household nanny, you frequently locked Su Mingran in the basement and denied him food. When both boys fell down the stairs, you didn’t care about their injuries; instead, you insisted Su Mingran pushed him and frequently verbally and physically abused him.”
“Of course, this is just basic investigation.”
“I… I…” Su Renhua’s thoughts were jumbled by the officer’s words—a classic sign of a guilty conscience.
“Therefore, based on the above points, please cooperate with the police investigation.”
Su Renhua wanted to argue, but most of what the police said were facts. Fearing he would be officially labeled a suspect, he gritted his teeth, suppressed his anger, and answered obediently.
The officer looked at his colleague, who took the cue to ask again: “Is Su Mingran your biological son?”
“Yes.”
“Was his relationship with the family very poor?”
“Yes.”
“Did you frequently abuse him?”
Su Renhua remained silent.
“Please answer.”
Su Renhua exhaled heavily. “Yes.”
“Be specific.”
“I did lock him in the basement until he couldn’t stand the hunger. In daily life, I deliberately ignored and neglected him, and often hit or scolded him.”
After he finished, the room went silent. Su Renhua’s heart was in his throat. Would they suspect him? Just as he was about to speak, the two officers stopped writing. “That’s enough. Who is Su Mingran’s mother?”
Yan Qian stood up to take Su Renhua’s place. Su Renhua walked away sullenly, no longer daring to shout.
Compared to Su Renhua’s agitation, Yan Qian was eerily calm, though she kept glancing back at Qi Xinghe. This caused the police to shift their gaze to him multiple times, leaving Qi Xinghe drenched in sweat.
Finally, Qi Xinghe couldn’t take it anymore. “Mom, can’t you just answer properly? Why do you keep looking at me? Do you think I’m a suspect?!”
Yan Qian panicked and opened her mouth to explain, but Qi Xinghe irritably turned his head away. After a moment, she said aggrievedly, “Mom didn’t mean that. I was just afraid you—”
“Afraid of what! You’re so annoying!” Qi Xinghe snapped. Yan Qian’s eyes reddened, and she silently swallowed her words.
Su Mo wanted to stop Qi Xinghe but ultimately remained silent. Yan Qian only cared about Qi Xinghe; her other children were jokes to her. Why should he bother stepping up only to be resented?
After Yan Qian was questioned, it was Su Mo’s turn.
Su Mo was different from the rest. He was incredibly composed, looking like a man with nothing to hide. He opened with a superficial remark: “How is my brother now? Is he okay? Do you need more manpower for the search?”
The officer flipped a page and said tonelessly, “We found Su Mingran’s lost phone on your company’s rooftop. The call logs show the last call he made was to you.”
“So, what were the last words you said to him?”
Those two sentences instantly stripped away Su Mo’s mask. The two officers stared at him as he suddenly fell silent.
Su Mo took a breath to steady himself. The whole family was in a panic; if he lost his composure, how could he handle the external fallout and save the family’s reputation? But just as he was about to speak, the contents of that final phone call rushed into his brain.
“Save your pathetic guesses. I have always loathed you. I don’t want to see you.” “Then you’ve got your wish.”
If he repeated those words to the police, he would undoubtedly be a suspect. Anyone else in the family could be under suspicion—he could handle that—but not him. If he were implicated, the Su family’s reputation would be ruined.
Su Mo’s mind raced to find the “best” answer to clear himself. Because he hesitated too long, the officers locked onto him again.
“Su Mo, please answer. What did Su Mingran say to you at the end?”
Su Mo was startled by the sudden increase in the officer’s volume. While he was still hesitating, the officer’s next sentence came out. “We have preliminary information that your relationship with your brother was strained. Your employees saw you leave your unconscious brother in your office, and it was you who initiated the push during the stairs incident, though the victim didn’t press charges.”
“Did you and your family kick Su Mingran out and manufacture a media smear campaign against him? Is this true?”
Su Mo couldn’t say a word. Facing the police’s questioning, he had no explanation. Even though he truly hadn’t left the KTV that night and could easily prove his alibi, his previous actions had become a boomerang that struck him so hard he couldn’t even manage a simple “no.”
“Su Mo, please answer. Why are you hiding the contents of your final conversation with Su Mingran?”
Su Mo was now sweating profusely, his expression panicked. He no longer looked like the aloof and superior eldest son of the Su family. His mind was filled with memories of how he had treated Mingran—how he had driven him to collapse in his office, and how Mingran had ended up in the hospital.
He kept thinking: If I had been just a little bit kinder to him back then, would I be this terrified right now?
He told himself he only said a few harsh words; Mingran couldn’t have jumped because of that. But what if it were true? If Mingran really jumped because of those words, was he indirectly his brother’s killer?
Tortured by these thoughts for several minutes, Su Mo finally broke. He began to mutter, “It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me. I never left the KTV that night. I didn’t say… I didn’t kill him. It wasn’t me!”
Su Mo’s face was full of terror. The suffocating atmosphere of the station caused him to hallucinate. Instead of the police, he saw Su Mingran as he looked before death, whispering in his ear: “Su Mo, you’re the one who killed me. You murdered me.”
He let out a sharp scream, covering his ears and breathing raggedly. Eventually, he was led away by other officers for psychological counseling.
With Su Mo gone, the remaining family members grew even more tense—especially Su Minmin. From the moment the police appeared, she had been shaking. When her name was called, her body convulsed visibly. This reaction caught the police’s attention, and she was taken to a separate room for questioning.
Next was Qi Xinghe.
Unlike the others, Qi Xinghe answered the questions fluently.
“How was your relationship with Su Mingran usually?”
Qi Xinghe said disdainfully, “Just average. He was jealous of me taking his place. We weren’t close.”
“Can you account for your whereabouts that day?”
Qi Xinghe handled the questioning smoothly, secretly smug that he wasn’t stuttering like the others.
The officer noted everything down, then asked as if in passing, “The plagiarism incident that went viral recently—how much of that was true?”
Qi Xinghe was momentarily silenced. “Does that have anything to do with this case?”
“To some extent. Su Mingran was hospitalized. If it was because of the plagiarism incident…” The officer paused meaningfully. “We have to investigate the motives.”
If the police investigated, everything would be exposed—the fact that he bought his way into the school, and all the other things he had done. Qi Xinghe wasn’t afraid of the law; he was afraid of his reputation. His career would be over.
“I…” Qi Xinghe tried to explain, his expression no longer so calm. “Actually—”
“That’s enough. Next,” the officer interrupted, ignoring him. Qi Xinghe didn’t want to move, but this wasn’t his house. He stood up with a panicked heart, biting his lip hard.
The last one was Gu Pei.
Gu Pei was the complete opposite of the Su family. While they were indifferent to Mingran’s fate, he seemed unable to accept the disappearance. From the moment he was brought in, he kept asking about the progress of the search. After hearing the family’s testimony, he fell into a long silence.
He finally realized what kind of life Su Mingran had been living. His “friend” had been neglected and tortured by his family, and more than half of what Qi Xinghe had told him was a lie. All the talk about the parents favoring Mingran and Mingran being jealous was false.
The officer asked about Gu Pei’s activities that day.
Gu Pei said, “I went to the hospital to see him, but I wasn’t sincere then. His favorite dog died, and I didn’t even feel sorry for him.”
Gu Pei wasn’t really answering questions; he sounded like a man drowning in regret. “Did he really jump, or did his family push him? I’ll tell you anything you want to know. As long as you find him… I really… I deserve to die!” By the end, his voice was thick with sobs.
But the Su family members behind him shouted angrily, “Gu Pei, don’t you dare slander us! We have nothing to do with Su Mingran’s disappearance!”
“Exactly! Don’t act all righteous now. Everyone saw how you protected Qi Xinghe and shoved Su Mingran aside!”
“Maybe you’re the one who made him disappear!”
The officer slammed the table. “Shut up! This is a police station, not a shouting match!”
Then, he looked at the weeping Gu Pei and said coldly, “The police understand you were his friend. Personally, I’ll say it doesn’t look like it. Stop the tragic acting; this isn’t a stage.”
Gu Pei’s eyes were red. He understood why the officer said that; even he felt he didn’t deserve the title of “friend.”
Why was Su Mingran always in the hospital? Why did he always have injuries? Why was he so thin? Why was he so reluctant to talk about his family? Why did he hate Qi Xinghe so much? The signs had been there all along. Why did it take a tragedy for him to notice?
What have I done?
Gu Pei took a deep breath and said to the officer, “Please investigate thoroughly. Throw every single person behind me into jail.”