“Wenhui, I… it was Director Tang from the machinery plant on the phone. He said my brother is a suspect in a rape and murder case. My brother isn’t that kind of person—I have to get into the city right now. Oh, and I need to call logistics first so they can send someone to look after you.”
Panicked and overwhelmed, Qiaoqiao was rushing around in a chaotic blur, completely paralyzed as to what she should do first.
“What are you panicking for? Help me into the wheelchair,” Zhou Wenhui said calmly.
Right, right—get him to the toilet first. There’s no holding back something like that.
Mustering all her strength, Qiaoqiao hoisted Zhou Wenhui up and settled him into the wheelchair, tears streaming uncontrollably down her face.
“Do you really think your brother is that kind of person?” Zhou Wenhui asked quietly once he was seated.
“Impossible, absolutely impossible! My brother is the most upright person in the world, he could never do something like that.”
Qiaoqiao shook her head frantically. Her brother was a man of absolute honor—how could he possibly commit rape and murder?
“Since you firmly believe he didn’t do it, what are you panicking for? What good is running off to the city going to do?”
“I… but… what if they’re framing my brother?”
Back in Big Willow Village, she had seen plenty of cases where innocent families were wronged.
“As long as he didn’t do it, nobody dares frame him!” Zhou Wenhui declared with absolute authority.
“Y-you… do you have a way to fix this?” Qiaoqiao asked cautiously.
“I need to use the toilet. Are you trying to make me burst?”
“Oh—right, right, I’m sorry!”
Trembling, Qiaoqiao helped Zhou Wenhui onto the toilet, transferred him back to the wheelchair with shaking hands, and flushed the bowl.
Noticing her pale face and trembling limbs, Zhou Wenhui instructed, “Call my mother.”
“Ah, I can’t! Mother said we’re not allowed to call them unless it’s a matter of absolute life and death.”
“Your brother has been grievously wronged and dragged off to a police station—isn’t that a matter of life and death?”
“It is, but… this is my family’s affair.”
“Are you trying to wait until they beat a false confession out of him?”
“I… but Mother is at the military headquarters with strict discipline. I can’t bother her with this…”
“Idolent fool! Do you think a war is fought on a fixed schedule? I said call, so call!” Zhou Wenhui’s face darkened with frustration. This woman could be as thick as a brick.
“Fine, okay, I’ll call…”
After spending the entire rainy, stormy night scouring the grounds for Kong Xiange, Yang Zheng never expected that the moment he finally returned to the dorm to take a quick shower, he would be picked up by the public security bureau.
It was only upon arriving at the station that he learned the grim truth: Kong Xiange had been sexually assaulted the previous night and pushed into a deep pool of water, where she drowned.
How could this happen? Yang Zheng hadn’t even caught a glimpse of her shadow all night.
The officer interrogated him coldly: “Last night, the only people out searching for Kong Xiange were you, Lu Han, and Liu Dabao. All three of you are prime suspects, which means we have to hold you in custody for now.”
Panicking, Yang Zheng protested, “I was searching on the east side! Kong Xiange’s incident happened on the west side—what does that have to do with me?”
With a frigid scowl, the officer snapped, “Who can verify you were on the east side? Kong Xiange and Lu Han had a screaming match last night, and she specifically accused you and Lu Han of being cut from the same cloth. Who’s to say you didn’t harbor impure intentions toward her beauty?”
Yang Zheng let out a bitter, exasperated laugh. “I barely crossed paths with Kong Xiange two or three times total. She was in love with Lu Han—me, coveting her beauty? Isn’t that utterly absurd?”
“If you had nothing to do with her, why spend the whole night searching for her?”
“Because she was out of her mind with distress! Weren’t I worried something might happen to her? Besides, Lu Han and Liu Dabao both went out to help look for her too. Are you saying that looking for a missing person automatically makes you a pervert?”
Yang Zheng was left utterly speechless by the officer’s twisted logic.
“All three of you are suspects. We are handling this strictly by the book. Once the truth comes to light, your innocence will naturally be restored.”
“Why just the three of us? Couldn’t she have run into someone else out on the road?”
“Last night’s torrential downpour kept everyone else indoors. The three of you are the primary suspects.”
Unbelievable… By that kind of reasoning, literally anyone could throw on a uniform and call themselves a cop.
As soon as the phone call ended, Qiaoqiao sat frozen and dazed in the living room. Zhou Wenhui’s stomach let out a loud, hollow rumble. Breaking the silence, he asked, “When is dinner?”
Dinner? What dinner?
Her mind completely overwhelmed by a thick fog of panic, Qiaoqiao scrambled to her feet and stammered, “I—I’ll go cook some noodles for you right now.”
Hurrying into the kitchen, she realized the stove damper hadn’t been opened in time; the coal had burned all the way down, leaving only a faint, dying trace of heat.
Fumbling for wood shavings to catch a spark, grabbing newspaper to kindle the flame, reaching for… Qiaoqiao flailed around the kitchen in a frantic panic. When the fire refused to catch, her strength finally gave out, and she slumped onto the kitchen floor, bursting into tears. “Brother… you’re going to be okay. You didn’t kill anyone…”
Wheeling himself over to the kitchen doorway, Zhou Wenhui let out a long sigh and refrained from pushing her any further about the meal.
Not long after, Zhou Zhonghai and Luo Meiyun walked through the front door.
Laying eyes on her in-laws felt like catching sight of a lifeline. Her knees buckling under the weight of her despair, Qiaoqiao dropped straight to the floor and knelt at their feet. “Dad, Mom! My brother isn’t that kind of person—please, you have to save him!”
Luo Meiyun immediately stepped forward and pulled Qiaoqiao up by the arm. “Qiaoqiao, we are a military family. You must not kneel so casually.”
Standing up on shaking, boneless legs, Qiaoqiao knew she would gladly stay on her knees forever if it meant saving her brother.
“Qiaoqiao, if your brother didn’t do it, you have nothing to fear. If he did do it, not even the immortals could save him,” Zhou Zhonghai said with grim seriousness.
“My brother would never! Dad… I want to go see my brother.”
Consumed by terror, her mind was entirely anchored on her brother; she was completely incapable of functioning.
“Qiaoqiao, go tidy up. You’ll accompany Father to the Huailin City Public Security Bureau. I’ll stay here and look after Wenhui,” Luo Meiyun instructed gently.
“Yes, yes—thank you, Mom.”
Shortly thereafter, escorted by Tang Ping, Zhou Zhonghai and Qiaoqiao were led into the visitor’s room to see Yang Zheng.
The moment they walked in, Qiaoqiao threw herself into her brother’s arms and sobbed uncontrollably.
Once the siblings managed to compose themselves, Zhou Zhonghai asked, “What on earth is going on here?”
Yang Zheng explained everything in detail. “Last night, I was reading at the Cultural Palace. When I got back to the dorm a little past nine, I heard Lu Han and Kong Xiange arguing fiercely, with a crowd of single workers gathered outside.
“Kong Xiange accused Lu Han of sexual assault. In response, Lu Han pulled out a stack of love letters she had written to him, declaring he had never once reciprocated her feelings. Completely humiliated, Kong Xiange bolted out the door. Figuring it wasn’t safe for a young woman to be wandering around alone in the middle of the night, Lu Han and I rushed out to look for her.
“Out on the sports field, we ran into Liu Dabao, who was equally worried. The three of us split up to search. Then the torrential rain started pouring down, making me even more anxious. I searched until morning without finding a trace of her.
“When I finally got back to the dorm, washed up, and prepared to report for my shift, the police hauled me straight down to the station.”
With a fierce frown etched across his brow, Zhou Zhonghai turned to the local police chief standing nearby and demanded, “Is this how you conduct an investigation?”
“We… we were just carrying out routine questioning. We haven’t formally charged him yet.”
Slamming his fist down hard onto the table, Zhou Zhonghai thundered, “You call this routine questioning? You’ve slapped the label of murder suspect onto their heads! Let me ask you—what actual evidence do you have proving they raped and murdered Kong Xiange?”
“Well… the investigation is still ongoing,” the chief stammered, his heart hammering against his ribs in sheer terror.
“What is standard investigative procedure? Evidence comes first, then arrests! You hauled people in without a shred of evidence, and what do you think the local public even thinks now? Even if they’re completely innocent, their reputations have already been dragged through the mud.
“As far as I’m aware, Lu Han is a senior engineer at the Huailin Machinery Plant, currently drafting the factory’s crucial modernization proposal. You rounded people up en masse and threw them in a cell—who takes responsibility for the factory’s losses? Do you?”
Zhou Zhonghai’s face was dark as a thundercloud. Far from feeling intimidated, Qiaoqiao found herself looking at him with immense awe—he possessed such incredible presence and backbone.
“I am deeply sorry, Division Commander Zhou! We will release them immediately.”
“If you aren’t competent enough to hold the position of police chief, step aside and let someone else do the job. Acting like you own the town—arresting whoever strikes your fancy! What purpose does the law serve if you operate like this?”
“Yes, yes! We will write a formal self-criticism report and report our misconduct to our superiors,” the chief said, staring down at the floor, too terrified to even meet Zhou Zhonghai’s eyes.
Giving the chief one final, severe look, Zhou Zhonghai turned to Yang Zheng. “Let’s go. I’m taking you back to your unit.”
Glancing at the chief, Yang Zheng watched as the man hastily chimed in, “Comrade Yang Zheng, I am terribly sorry—our handling of this was entirely out of line. Please, hurry back to your work.”
As they stepped out of the police station, Tang Ping sighed in relief. “Old Zhou, I’m sorry for dragging you into this. I tried reasoning with the chief myself, but he was completely fixated on the three of them being prime suspects and refused to budge. That’s why I had no choice but to call your home.”
Zhou Zhonghai said grimly, “These local bureaus are getting entirely out of hand. Detaining three people simultaneously over a case completely devoid of physical evidence? Tang Ping, I had to step in. If I hadn’t, three promising young lives would have been utterly ruined. They went out of their way to do a good deed, only to be branded murderers—if this happens, who on earth will ever dare do a good deed again?”
“Quite right, quite right. Well, Old Zhou, you head back; I’ll take it from here with Yang Zheng.” Zhou Zhonghai glanced at Qiaoqiao, silently gauging her reaction.
Though she desperately wanted to visit her brother’s workplace, she was terrified of holding up her father-in-law’s official duties and hesitated.
Sensing her internal conflict, Yang Zheng reassured her, “Little Qiao, you head back home. Once I get a day off, I’ll come visit you.”
“Aunty… alright then, Brother. Take good care of yourself.”
“Don’t worry, your brother would never do anything to bring shame upon our family name.”
“Since that’s settled, Yang Zheng, come visit Qiaoqiao whenever you have leave. I have urgent matters back at the military headquarters, so I must be off,” Zhou Zhonghai said.
“Understood. Thank you, Uncle Zhou,” Yang Zheng said, bowing deeply.
“You silly boy, we’re all family—why make things so formal? Alright, Uncle’s heading out.”
Giving Yang Zheng a warm, paternal look, Zhou Zhonghai knew with absolute conviction that a young man raised with such sterling character could never, under any circumstances, be a rapist and murderer.