Chapter 205: Yi Zhonghai, Called Resentful

Yi Zhonghai, lost in thought, was called back to his senses by a knock at the door.

He instinctively looked out through the glass.

He saw two policemen in neat uniforms standing outside the door.

A vague emotion welled up in his heart, one even Yi Zhonghai himself couldn't explain.

The police didn't come.

Yi Zhonghai had not declined.

The police arrived.

Yi Zhonghai was terrified and anxious.

Other households are questioned by one person, but when it's my turn, Yi Zhonghai, you two came, clearly telling everyone in the Siheyuan that Yi Zhonghai has a problem.

Grumbling aside.

What needs to be faced must be faced.

Yi Zhonghai habitually put on his usual friendly face, the old‑good‑person look he uses to win people over.

Once upon a time.

This face has deceived too many kind-hearted people.

They all thought Yi Zhonghai was a good person.

Including Jia Zhangshi, who is currently profiting from Yi Zhonghai's benefits.

Yi Zhonghai's brain went into overdrive, wondering what questions the police would ask and how he should answer to satisfy them and put his own mind at ease.

He never fights without certainty, and now, at this critical moment that could cost Yi Zhonghai his life, he must prepare a concrete response.

He had been pondering like this inside the house.

Then came the news of Long Laotaitai's death.

He had even clashed with Long Laotaitai.

Yi Zhonghai could figure it out with his toes: besides asking about Long Laotaitai, there would surely be no other questions.

A creak.

The door was pulled open by an auntie.

The two policemen entered, one after the other.

Seeing them come in, Yi Zhonghai rose first, an honest smile spreading across his face, and he reached out his hands to the two policemen.

Wanting to shake hands.

To show his innocence from the bottom up.

He forgot one thing.

From entering the house to now rising to greet them, he had been squatting on the floor; suddenly standing and taking a step caused Yi Zhonghai to feel a brief faint lasting only a few seconds, his body out of control, limbs weak, and he stumbled and fell to the ground.

Although with the help of the auntie beside him, he quickly got up from the ground.

Yet he still conveyed some mistaken ideas to the two policemen before him.

The older one.

Has worked for five years.

The younger one.

Has worked for two years.

Within a few years.

Having dealt with all sorts of criminals, except for some utterly vicious desperadoes, most offenders, upon seeing the police arrive, feel the same panic as a mouse seeing a cat—extreme guilt and fear, mainly showing as weak legs, loss of strength, collapsing to the ground, and so on.

The two of them simultaneously felt a murmur of doubt in their hearts.

Yi Zhonghai has a problem.

Otherwise he wouldn't have collapsed like those criminals, legs giving out at the sight of them, especially when his old companion helped him up, his expression becoming eerily terrible.

Among the twenty-odd households.

Although many didn't outright say Yi Zhonghai was the killer of Long Laotaitai, their words pointed at him, saying he should bear specific responsibility for her death.

It's not because he struck the Dayuan ancestors.

But rather, the investigating comrades reached a conclusion.

The cause of Long Laotaitai's death.

Was asphyxiation.

The condition of death was extraordinarily miserable.

The sight made Xinding Danzi Liu Jianguo vomit repeatedly, seven or eight times.

This is also why the two of them came to question Yi Zhonghai.

They had the idea of stalling, the thought of perfunctorily dealing with Yi Zhonghai, and also the motive of surveillance.

In the back courtyard, the room of Long Laotaitai is still being examined.

Let the facts speak.

The neighbors' testimonies are just that—testimonies; they do not prove Yi Zhonghai is the killer, but they do confirm the fact that Long Laotaitai was beaten by Yi Zhonghai.

Long Laotaitai was smothered to death by someone, which has little to do with being beaten by Yi Zhonghai.

Unless someone personally witnessed Yi Zhonghai killing Long Laotaitai and reported it to the questioning police.

As of now.

No related testimony has been received.

Among the testimonies of the twenty-odd people, there is no human evidence that Yi Zhonghai killed Long Laotaitai.

Therefore, Yi Zhonghai cannot yet be considered a criminal.

What are the specific results?

They will have to wait until the investigation in the rear courtyard is completely finished; if they find any clues related to Yi Zhonghai, proving that Yi Zhonghai was present in Long Laotaitai's room on the night of her death, they will directly put handcuffs on Yi Zhonghai.

No clues.

Yi Zhonghai also has major suspicion.

No matter what, I have to go with them.

As for whether I can come back.

Later.

The young comrade opened the paper notebook in his hand and began a formal inquiry of Yi Zhonghai; the older comrade stood near the doorway, his eyes warily fixed on Yi Zhonghai and the elder lady, his peripheral vision scanning the room's layout, his right hand naturally drooping at his ribs.

The leather coat worn at his waist, which carried weapons, had its buckle unfastened, ready to draw and fire at Yi Zhonghai at any moment.

Yi Zhonghai, who was already suffused with gloom.

His mind was filled with wandering thoughts.

They regarded him as a hundred percent suspect in the killing of Long Laotaitai.

What can be done about this!

"Comrade, I know why you've come—it's about the incident with Long Laotaitai in the rear courtyard. I, Yi Zhonghai, will tell you the truth: yesterday I had an unpleasant argument with Long Laotaitai over the children, I lost my temper and beat her. I struck an elder of the great courtyard; spreading that would be shameful and embarrassing, but I still did it—there was a reason. I'm a man in my forties, almost fifty."

Yi Zhonghai played the sympathy card.

He brought up his own situation of having no heirs.

This is the time.

That is the time.

If it were before.

Anyone who, to Yi Zhonghai's face, brings up his lack of heirs is considered by Yi Zhonghai to be deliberately mocking him; even a hypocrite would have to have a good talk with that person.

It's a matter of life and death.

To survive.

Yi Zhonghai brought up a topic he actually didn't want to mention at all.

No heirs.

"As the old saying goes, among the three forms of unfilial behavior, having no descendants is the greatest. We, the couple, still have no children; thinking that no one will support us in old age makes my heart feel icy cold. I took Jia Dongxu as my disciple—a disciple is like half a son—but who could have imagined that this disciple would meet with an accident and die? Seeing how difficult it is for the Jia family's widows and orphans, I lent a hand. Long Laotaitai, over a mere matter of food and drink, has been spreading rumors outside, claiming that my care for the Jia family's widows and orphans is actually because I have designs on Qin Huairu. You tell me, is that possible? I'm fine, but Qin Huairu is still young—how will she face those people in the future?"

Speaking of this, he became emotional.

In Yi Zhonghai's eye sockets, a few drops of crocodile tears welled up.

"In my anger, I beat Long Laotaitai, and the neighbors all saw it. But I want to clarify one thing: I did hit Long Laotaitai, but I truly had no intention of killing her. I am the head steward of the siheyuan and a level‑8 technician at the Yagangchang factory; I could never do something that would land myself in a trap. Even if the siheyuan's neighbors, because I beat Long Laotaitai, say I am the murderer who killed her, I still must speak a fair word for myself: Long Laotaitai's death has nothing to do with me, Yi Zhonghai; I am being framed."

The elder lady also chimed in from the side.

To exonerate Yi Zhonghai.

"Comrade, I know the character of our Old Yi; if you told him to kill fish or chickens, he could certainly do it, but if you told him to kill a person, it's not that I look down on him—even if you gave him a hundred courages, he wouldn't dare do such a thing. We ordinary folk all know that killing requires paying with one's life."

"Comrade, I really didn't kill her; if I had killed Long Laotaitai, I would have fled in the night, so why would I linger until now, waiting for you to come arrest me?"

On Yi Zhonghai's face.

Welled up with regret.

"I never expected this to happen. If I had known that Long Laotaitai would be killed tonight, I would have let myself be beaten to death yesterday rather than argue with her. Now it's come to this: just because I argued with Long Laotaitai, even jumping into the Yellow River couldn't wash away the suspicion on me."