Guo Tiandi was tormented for an entire night, missed three meals, and was under bright interrogation lights for over ten hours. Fortunately, he had access to plenty of bottled water, so dehydration wasn’t a problem.
Zhao Yunzhi watched his performance, feeling a sense of superiority, like a player holding a winning hand in a game of cards.
Long De had instructed him to keep things secret from Meng Jin for the time being, just in case Guo Tiandi picked up on any clues.
Finally, Guo Tiandi couldn’t take it anymore and surrendered. He confessed that the news of He Saibing’s pregnancy came from Jennie Yang. Jennie wanted to make sure that the child in He Saibing’s belly would never see the light of day.
As for why he was helping Jennie Yang, it was for one word: “money.” He wanted to get rid of the burden of Guo Yingying, escape his current life, and go live abroad. And for that, he needed money—lots of it.
Of course, he did all of this behind Guo Yingying’s back.
Regarding his search for Guo Yingying’s biological parents, he sought Jennie Yang’s help. While she outwardly refused, she secretly helped. The so-called biological parents of Guo Yingying were actually actors arranged by Jennie Yang.
“Was the snake bite in Myanmar part of your plan too?” Meng Jin interrogated.
Guo Tiandi replied, “That was all Jennie Yang’s arrangement. She said she’d help me go abroad, but she didn’t say how. I never expected it would be like that. I almost died because of her.” He ground his teeth in anger, his eyes full of fury.
Suddenly, he froze. His body stiffened, and his gaze locked in place, as if he had been immobilized by a spell. His expression grew more vicious. “That old woman probably wanted to kill me and silence me, didn’t she?” The more he thought about it, the more certain he became. “It has to be! It has to be! That old woman is so ruthless! She wants me dead. If I die, no one will know her secret.”
Meng Jin and Zhao Yunzhi exchanged looks, quietly listening, not daring to interrupt Guo Tiandi’s self-revelation.
Suddenly, Guo Tiandi burst into a sinister, hysterical laugh. “The old woman probably arranged assassins in Myanmar! Lucky for me, you guys were following me and even poisoned me. Otherwise, I’d already be lying in a grave by now. Hahaha! The old woman calculated everything so carefully, but she didn’t count on me being so lucky! Hahahaha!”
Bang!
Guo Tiandi slammed the table in agitation.
Carefully, Meng Jin asked, “Secret? What secret?”
Guo Tiandi instantly regained his composure, cautiously eyeing Meng Jin. “The old woman’s secret, of course, is that she wanted me to get rid of the child in He Saibing’s belly.”
From his instincts as a police officer, Meng Jin could tell Guo Tiandi was lying.
Guo Tiandi quickly recovered his rationality. “If you want to know more, ask the old woman yourself. I’ve told you everything I should. I didn’t kill Liu Tianshi, and I didn’t kidnap He Saibing. At most, I’m guilty of attempted crime and stopping before committing it. If you want to charge me, go ahead.”
He crossed his legs, exuding confidence, looking completely relaxed and at ease.
With his rich interrogation experience, Meng Jin knew that guilty and innocent people displayed different expressions, mannerisms, and body language.
Guo Tiandi’s calm demeanor was unmistakably the composure of someone who believed they were innocent.
“If you’re so sure of your innocence and the law can’t touch you, why were you planning to flee to Myanmar?” Meng Jin struck at the core of the issue.
Guo Tiandi hesitated for a moment. “Like I said, I wanted to ditch the burden of Guo Yingying. Taking care of a blind and deaf disabled person is exhausting. Officer, that’s not a crime, right?”
Zhao Yunzhi’s anger flared, and he shot up from his chair, storming over to Guo Tiandi.
Guo Tiandi had been so focused on Meng Jin that he’d almost forgotten about the junior officer. Zhao Yunzhi’s sudden approach startled him, and he instinctively leaned back, adopting a defensive posture.
Zhao Yunzhi grabbed Guo Tiandi by the collar and raised his fist, landing a punch straight on his mouth, knocking against his teeth.
Stars danced before Guo Tiandi’s eyes, and the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth, trickling down the corners of his lips.
He raised his hand to strike back, but realized his wrists were cuffed, the metal cuffs clinking noisily.
His tongue swirled around in his mouth, and he spat out a mouthful of blood-tinged saliva, hitting Zhao Yunzhi squarely in the face.
Zhao Yunzhi stormed out of the interrogation room, where the forensic doctor was already waiting by the door, quickly collecting the saliva sample from his face.
Afterward, Long De swiftly pulled Zhao into the bathroom, placing his face under the faucet to wash it off.
Holding his breath and tightly closing his mouth, Zhao Yunzhi only dared to breathe and speak after several rounds of rinsing. “Damn! That guy smells like weed. Is he a marijuana user?”
Meng Jin walked in, leaning against the doorframe, looking satisfied. “Quite the sacrifice you made.”
“No kidding,” Zhao Yunzhi, proud of the compliment, puffed up his chest. “Does this count as an injury on the job, Captain?”
“Only if we find something. If not, it’s just considered assault on a suspect,” Meng Jin said, deadpan.
Zhao Yunzhi groaned, pleading for Long De to control his old classmate.
Long De shut off the faucet and carefully wiped Zhao Yunzhi’s face with tissues, more attentively than a mother tending to her child.
Meng Jin rolled his eyes, scoffing. “Come on, you’re a grown man being babied like a little girl.”
Long De chuckled. “Honestly, some girls’ skin isn’t even as good as his.”
Zhao Yunzhi beamed with pride, feeling like someone had finally managed to handle Meng Jin.
The forensic doctor used the fastest available testing methods, and a few hours later, the results were in.
Shockingly, Guo Tiandi and Jennie Yang had a blood relationship—they were mother and son!
Even more surprising, the blood on Liu Tianshi’s body belonged to Guo Tiandi!
This suggested that Guo Tiandi was a prime suspect and needed to be detained immediately to prevent him from fleeing.
Just as Guo Tiandi was about to leave the police station, Zhao Yunzhi stopped him, presenting the evidence. Enraged and humiliated, Guo Tiandi shouted, “It’s a setup!”
“I didn’t kill Liu Tianshi!” he screamed, “You’re framing me! You’re corrupt cops!” Suddenly, something clicked in his mind. “I remember now! The killer knocked me out! They must’ve put my blood on Liu Tianshi’s body to frame me! Are you cops stupid? Can’t you figure out something so simple? Idiots! Idiots!”
The blood on Liu Tianshi’s body had been deliberately applied behind his ear using a swab or similar tool, clearly not done by Guo Tiandi. Therefore, he couldn’t have been the killer.
Unaware that the blood was purposefully placed and not accidentally spilled, Guo Tiandi feared being misunderstood by the police. This alone indicated that he wasn’t the killer.
The killer’s behavior was indeed strange. Why smear Guo Tiandi’s blood on Liu Tianshi’s body? Was it to mimic a decades-old case? Why choose Guo Tiandi? Was it random, or intentional?
Could it be that the goal was to frame someone? That seemed most likely. But with modern forensic technology, framing someone wasn’t that simple.
Faced with the DNA report, Guo Tiandi, like a child caught doing something wrong, slumped back, looking up at the ceiling. Frustrated, he scratched his head and shouted, “Go ask the old woman! She knows everything!”
“Who is this ‘old woman’?” Meng Jin asked, feigning ignorance.
“It’s Jennie Yang, of course, Chairwoman Yang, the head of the Fang Zheng Group. My mother!” Guo Tiandi closed his eyes, slumping in defeat, resigned to his fate.
No matter what they asked next, Guo Tiandi either stayed silent or repeated, “Go ask the old woman.”
The next day, Meng Jin and his team returned to B City, while the local police escorted Guo Tiandi back.
Guo Tiandi requested to meet Jennie Yang. When she stepped into the police station once again, she was still graceful and imposing.
Before meeting Guo Tiandi, Meng Jin sat down for a face-to-face with Jennie Yang. This time, it felt entirely different from their previous encounters.
It was like a regular viewer watching a star on TV—on screen, they only saw the glamorous side. But stepping behind the screen and meeting them up close, one could finally see their true, unmasked face.
Who would have thought that the famous Jennie Yang had hidden a thirty-year-old illegitimate son?
Based on the timeline, this illegitimate child must have been born before she married Liu Tianshi. Liu probably died without ever knowing that his wife harbored such a devastating secret.
Faced with irrefutable evidence, Jennie Yang admitted that Guo Tiandi was indeed her biological son, born out of a “mistake” she made before marrying Liu Tianshi.
It was a part of her past she wished never to revisit. In that era, having a child out of wedlock was a huge disgrace. Selfishly, she abandoned the child.
But she denied instructing Guo Tiandi to get rid of the child in He Saibing’s belly. “I merely mentioned He Saibing’s pregnancy to him. Perhaps he thought he had a shot at becoming the successor of the Fang Zheng Group, and the child in He Saibing’s belly was a threat to him.”
When Jennie Yang spoke of Guo Tiandi, there wasn’t a hint of motherly affection, as if she were talking about an irrelevant employee.
“Why did you mention He Saibing’s pregnancy to Guo Tiandi? Wasn’t your purpose to use him to get rid of the child?” Meng Jin pressed.
Jennie Yang calmly replied, “That’s just your assumption. I had no such intention. He Saibing’s pregnancy poses no threat to me. There’s no reason for me to take such a risky, illegal action.” She offered a mocking smile. “Even if she gives birth to that child, and even if the child is indeed Liu’s, so what? If I don’t want to acknowledge the child, there are countless ways to handle it.”
Meng Jin’s trust in Jennie Yang evaporated overnight. He now viewed every word she said with suspicion. In fact, saying he was “suspicious” was putting it mildly—he outright believed she was lying.
If someone could hide their own son for thirty years, what else could they lie about?
Meng Jin was convinced that Jennie Yang’s true intent was to get rid of He Saibing’s unborn child. But what was her motive?
Jennie Yang’s skill lay in how everything she said appeared reasonable on the surface, making it difficult to find any cracks.
Did she really not want He Saibing to give birth because of Liu Er’s XYY syndrome?
Dr. Jin from the forensic department sent a message saying that Liu Er’s DNA samples had been destroyed. After a criminal case is closed, evidence related to the case is usually disposed of.
Meng Jin requested to collect samples from Liu Er’s former residence, but Jennie Yang demanded a valid reason. She couldn’t agree to involve a deceased person just based on Meng Jin’s suspicions.
