HH Chapter 24

Tian Yunxin kept her lips tightly shut, her hands resting unconsciously on the table in front of her. Her hair concealed her facial expressions. Pei Qinghuai twirled a pen in his hand and soon pulled out a piece of blank paper, clipping it to a board.

As he looked at Tian Yunxin, his usually expressionless face showed a trace of puzzlement. He raised his hand and began sketching something on the paper. Cheng Ye, who had already entered his own state of mind, was organizing his thoughts and ignored what Pei Qinghuai was doing.

Tian Mingwei had been killed, and Li Xiaoyan had confessed, only to deceive the police by falsely claiming to harbor Tian Yunxin as the murderer. This raised two questions.

Why did Li Xiaoyan choose to cover up the truth? And why was she so eager to clear her name?

Was it simply because Tian Yunxin wanted to kill her? This confrontation didn’t hold up. A middle-aged woman who graduated from middle school and worked at a fish farm could easily have chosen to do nothing or directly report to the police, rather than staging such an elaborate act to fool them.

Cheng Ye’s mind was racing when suddenly, Tian Yunxin broke the silence between them.

“It was Tian Mingwei,” Tian Yunxin said. Cheng Ye listened without much surprise, as he could roughly guess the truth. Still, hearing it directly from Tian Yunxin made him unconsciously tighten his grip on the pen in his hand.

“He started touching me inappropriately when I was very young. My grandmother always protected me, even banging her head on a bench without flinching, always holding me tightly in her arms. Later, when I went to school, that madman would go crazy looking for me. If he couldn’t find me, he would take it out on my grandmother,” Tian Yunxin said, waving her hand dismissively. “But that’s not important…” She smiled, as if suddenly relieved.

“Do you remember Chen Fei?” Tian Yunxin asked. “The person you brought back from the matchmaker’s place? Don’t you think I look a lot like her?”

Tian Yunxin raised her head, meeting Cheng Ye’s gaze. He was slightly taken aback, recalling Chen Fei’s appearance. Chen Fei’s heavy makeup and contrasting attire made it hard to connect her with Tian Yunxin at first glance.

Cheng Ye thought deeply, comparing Chen Fei’s image in his mind with Tian Yunxin before him. Only then did he realize there was indeed a resemblance.

Tian Yunxin continued, “If he was so obsessed with a substitute, what would he do if the real person was around? That day, my mother invited me over, and just as I arrived at the door, Tian Mingwei rushed out. That’s when I realized he had followed me the whole way.”

“At first, he pretended to be a caring father, expressing concern until he sent my mother out to buy groceries. When we were alone, he made his move. So, I had to kill him with my own hands.”

“And the reason for killing Li Xiaoyan?” Cheng Ye asked after Tian Yunxin finished speaking.

Tian Yunxin paused for a moment, then spoke again after a second, during which Pei Qinghuai’s frown deepened. “If she hadn’t abandoned me and run away back then, I wouldn’t be like this now. She has to pay the price.”

During the conversation between Cheng Ye and Tian Yunxin, Pei Qinghuai suddenly interjected with a seemingly casual question: “Did you know Li Xiaoyan has a hearing problem?”

Tian Yunxin, with her head lowered, answered offhandedly, “I knew.”

Pei Qinghuai’s lips curved into a smile as he tossed the pen onto the table. During their first visit to Li Xiaoyan’s home, her act had been overdone. Although she had a problem with one ear, it didn’t significantly affect her hearing. Considering they hadn’t seen each other for over a decade, it was unlikely Li Xiaoyan would have told Tian Yunxin about her hearing issue.

Pei Qinghuai called Cheng Ye out of the room, taking him to the adjacent room to repeat his recent deductions. An unmistakable excitement was evident in his eyes. Cheng Ye’s expression darkened as he looked at the person sitting in the interrogation room. “So, she’s lying?”

“She was focused on talking to you and likely overlooked my question. In such a question-and-answer scenario, there’s a high probability she wouldn’t lie. Her answer was ‘I knew.’ In this context, there are two possibilities: one, Tian Yunxin is fabricating a story for us, or two, Li Xiaoyan’s ear injury is recent.”

Pei Qinghuai leaned against the table, handing the board with the sketch to Cheng Ye. “Which do you think is more convincing?” he asked, glancing at the board again. “I’ve never learned how to draw, so it’s a bit rough. Don’t mind it.”

Cheng Ye took the paper, seeing a portrait of Li Xiaoyan. Despite the roughness, it captured her expression perfectly.

Just as Cheng Ye was about to ask what it meant, Pei Qinghuai spoke. “I can deduce a suspect’s facial features and appearance based on the crime scene, evidence, and suspect’s statements. In our field, this is called a psychological profile.”

Cheng Ye looked at Pei Qinghuai in shock, weakly muttering, “Are you kidding me?”

Pei Qinghuai chuckled lightly, his expression calm. “Do you remember when we interrogated Li Xiaoyan? She said Tian Yunxin wanted to kill her. But just now, in everything Tian Yunxin said, she didn’t mention Li Xiaoyan at all.”

The excitement in Pei Qinghuai’s eyes gave way to a deep seriousness. “Everyone thinks the little rabbit is pitiful and the villain deserves to go to hell, but the person hiding behind the little rabbit has been scheming all along.”

Cheng Ye felt a shiver down his spine as he looked into the interrogation room, where Tian Yunxin was staring straight in their direction, unmoving, as if she could see them talking.

Pei Qinghuai sighed. “Too many lies increase the things I need to rule out. Being able to sketch this much is already good.”

“How did you know?” Cheng Ye asked just as his phone buzzed in his pocket. It was a call from Yan Ya. Cheng Ye watched Pei Qinghuai answer the phone.

“Captain Cheng, a major discovery,” Yan Ya began. “We found Li Xiaoyan’s fingerprints on the leaves in the bushes not far from where Tian Mingwei’s body was discovered.”

Cheng Ye’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Is the report out?”

Yan Ya replied, “It’s being printed now.”

Cheng Ye sniffed, “Got it.”

After hanging up, the two men stood in silence for a few seconds. Pei Qinghuai turned to face Cheng Ye, a slight smile on his lips. “The human heart is like a surveillance camera. Once you see through it, all deceptions are mere illusions.”