Chapter 212

Qin Huairu's pillar strike.

Like a sharp blade.

It heavily chopped onto Yi Zhonghai's body.

Yi Zhonghai, who originally wanted to show off his clear conscience.

After hearing that Qin Huairu had slammed headfirst into a pillar, blood streaming from her head, been sent to the hospital and unconscious.

Contradictory anxiety immediately arose on his illusory kindly face.

His calm composure instantly turned into nothingness.

He seemed to have aged many years in an instant.

The interrogating comrade could see with the naked eye that Yi Zhonghai had aged over ten years in the blink of an eye, looking almost like a seventy- or eighty-year-old man.

His body also became hunched.

The inside story of Qin Huairu's pillar strike, outsiders may not understand the details, but Yi Zhonghai, who deeply knows Jia Zhangshi's nature, knows exactly what happened.

Jia Zhangshi unleashed her divine skill.

Specializing in screwing over her own teammates!

He sighed in his heart.

Jia Zhangshi harmed me.

Surely Jia Zhangshi saw Yi Zhonghai being taken away by the comrades, mistakenly thought the case of Long Laotaitai's killing was settled, and that the real culprit was Yi Zhonghai.

Thinking that the Jia family couldn't enjoy Yi Zhonghai's benefits, and still had to spend money for Huaihua.

Profit-driven Jia Zhangshi publicly revealed the truth about who Huaihua's biological father is.

Qin Huairu, driven to desperation.

In a fit of anger, she slammed into the pillar.

While whitewashing her own persona, she also completely placed Yi Zhonghai on the pillar of shame.

Bitter feelings welled up in Yi Zhonghai's heart.

If he were in Qin Huairu's position, he would also have to use such miserable life-or-death means to whitewash his persona, just as Qin Huairu did.

Push the blame onto Yi Zhonghai.

This is the only solution Qin Huairu can find.

If there were no Huaihua.

Yi Zhonghai would very likely think that Qin Huairu was trying to dump the blame on him.

Because of the Huaihua connection.

Faced with Qin Huairu's blame‑shifting tactic, Yi Zhonghai developed certain reservations.

After all, Huaihua bears the surname Yi.

She is the bloodline of the Yi family.

Even if Yi Zhonghai does not consider himself, he must consider the Yi family's bloodline, Huaihua.

Qin Huairu told Yi Zhonghai, by slamming into the pillar, "Take the blame, and I will raise Huaihua for you, so your Yi family line will not be cut off."

"Ah!"

A sigh sounded.

Yi Zhonghai knew that Qin Huairu's blow had cut off all his retreat; even if he gritted his teeth and refused to admit killing Long Laotaitai, contrary to Qin Huairu's wishes, he would still be driven to a dead end.

All are dead ends.

Whether he confesses or not, it's no longer so serious.

Perhaps moved by the scene, Yi Zhonghai gave a full and detailed account of the events.

As close as his grudges with Long Laotaitai.

As far as his interests entangled with Jia Dongxu.

When a person is about to die, their words are good.

Yi Zhonghai now has exactly this mindset.

"Long Laotaitai's death is related to what I did."

The questioning comrade habitually furrowed his brows.

Yi Zhonghai's account differed somewhat from their speculation.

Just now, while reviewing the interview records, the comrades discovered that Yi Zhonghai is an extremely shrewd person, a wise man as people say.

Thus.

Then it would be impossible for him, knowing full well his grudge with Long Laotaitai and having struck her, to go on and kill her.

Long Laotaitai's revelations were unanimously rejected by the parties involved and her mother-in-law.

Under such circumstances, killing Long Laotaitai under cover of night is totally an unnecessary overreach.

The comrades speculated that Long Laotaitai's death had other underlying circumstances.

That troublesome Siheyuan's Bangeng, who turned out badly, is a major suspect.

At such a young age, he somehow earned the nickname "Holy Thief," yet why was his homework notebook missing at the case scene?

This is a huge mystery.

The comrades speculated that Bangeng very likely, having been egged on by Jia Zhangshi or Qin Huairu, sneaked alone under cover of night into Long Laotaitai's house to steal.

It is not saying that Bangeng is the killer of Long Laotaitai.

A ten‑something‑year‑old child could not possibly commit such a vicious act.

It is possible that, during the theft, he inadvertently witnessed the killer's act and saw the murderer's true appearance.

The clue lies on Bangeng.

But Yi Zhonghai, however, admitted that he killed Long Laotaitai.

How can we continue like this!

Yi Zhonghai, do you know what you're saying? Do you know what consequences saying this will bring?

I know what I'm saying, and I know what consequences saying this will bring.

You are a smart person; you could never do something like putting the knife handle into the enemy's hand—you are not the murderer who killed Long Laotaitai.

A surge of impulse rose in Yi Zhonghai's heart.

He really wanted to follow the comrades' line of questioning and answer in one sentence: Long Laotaitai's death has nothing to do with me, Yi Zhonghai.

The words reached his lips.

He chose not to say them.

Who killed Long Laotaitai?

Yi Zhonghai faintly felt a glimmer of understanding in his heart.

From Long Laotaitai's miserable death, one can see that the killer hated her to the bone, so before she died, she suffered inhuman torture.

Inside the courtyard.

Those who hated Long Laotaitai to the bone.

First and foremost is the First Aunt.

Raising a child is one matter, adopting a child another; Long Laotaitai exerted great effort in both. Furthermore, Yi Zhonghai betrayed the promise he made to the First Aunt, and the First Aunt, who bears extreme resentment toward Yi Zhonghai, is very likely to employ a 'kill with a borrowed knife' plot to do away with both Yi Zhonghai and Long Laotaitai.

A couple of many years.

Yi Zhonghai understands the First Aunt just as the First Aunt understands him.

He is certain that the First Aunt has a hidden move.

Rather than risk provoking the First Aunt into unleashing her hidden move and taking revenge on Huaihua, Yi Zhonghai would be better off complying with her wishes.

Regardless of whether Long Laotaitai's death is related to Yi Zhonghai, forcing Qin Huairu means Yi Zhonghai cannot have a good ending.

Yi Zhonghai chose to resign himself to fate.

"Dark under the lamp."

Three ordinary words.

He took up the accusation of having exterminated the Dayuan ancestors.

He acted contrary to the norm.

This often catches people off guard.

To enhance the credibility of his statement.

Yi Zhonghai shifted the focus of his speech.

He explained Jia Dongxu's death.

"Having come this far, is there any need to conceal anything? I hated that Long Laotaitai exposed my forcing Qin Huairu, I publicly beat Long Laotaitai, and I feared Long Laotaitai would reveal this, so I harbored ill intentions."

"You all know I am the Head Steward of the Siheyuan and a Level 8 Technician at the Yagangchang; my reputation cannot suffer the slightest blemish."

"At night, under the cover of darkness, I sneaked into Long Laotaitai's room and saw her off."

Doing so carries risk.

"After all, the neighbors saw me strike the Dayuan ancestors, but that same scene could also serve as evidence that I did not kill Long Laotaitai, just as you just said—I am a smart person; how could a smart person do something that traps himself?"

"Can you explain how you did it?"

It is obvious.

The comrades did not believe Yi Zhonghai's nonsense.

An admission is an admission.

But you also need to describe the specific course of action.

"I don't want to talk about Long Laotaitai; I want to talk about Jia Dongxu."

"Your disciple? Qin Huairu's husband? According to the Yagangchang's report sent to us, Jia Dongxu died in a fatal accident."

"I designed it."

The comrades heard this.

Their faces all changed.

None of them are stupid.

They realized that the four words 'I designed it' in Yi Zhonghai's speech represented a certain fact.

Human manipulation.

A major case.

If Yi Zhonghai's words are true, then they have encountered a major case.

"My forcing Qin Huairu became known to Jia Dongxu; I thought he would confront me angrily, but instead he came to me, threatened me with this matter, and demanded five hundred yuan."

On Yi Zhonghai's face.

A mocking smile appeared.

For Huaihua.

He went to great lengths.

While constantly going along with Qin Huairu's process, he still didn't forget to put a basin on Jia Dongxu's head.

Killing Jia Dongxu.

You need a motive.

"Jia Dongxu came to me demanding five hundred yuan, saying that if I gave him five hundred yuan, he would pretend not to have seen my affair with Qin Huairu."

"Besides money, did he mention any other demands?"

He brought it up, telling me to cut off my relationship with Qin Huairu.

Qin Huairu isn't being threatened by you, so why is Jia Dongxu asking you to cut ties with her?

The slightly older comrade.

His eyes gleamed with a sharp light.

It was because of a gut feeling.

He always felt that Yi Zhonghai's claim that he threatened Qin Huairu was a bit unreliable.

Sever my ties from threatening Qin Huairu and stop bullying her.

Upon realizing Yi Zhonghai had let something slip, he hurried to cover it up, quickly inventing an excuse.

According to some logic.

It can also be explained.

I agreed.

According to what you just said, Jia Dongxu took your five hundred yuan, and you agreed not to threaten Qin Huairu anymore—so why are you still scheming against him?

I underestimated Jia Dongxu's shamelessness; he took my five hundred yuan, then went back on his word, came to me again the next month asking for money, and this time he opened his mouth like a lion, demanding one thousand.

He said I was a Level 8 technician at the steel rolling mill, earning over a hundred yuan a month including subsidies, so one thousand yuan was equivalent to ten months of my work. He also said that if I didn't give him the money, he would spread the news that I had threatened Qin Huairu throughout the steel rolling mill, and that I would be fired from the mill.

If I were fired from the steel rolling mill, where could I earn a hundred yuan a month?

From that point on, I realized Jia Dongxu saw me as his cash cow, coming to extort me whenever he needed money.

Coincidentally, the factory was about to hold a workers' skills competition.

Jia Dongxu was my apprentice, always a Level 2 worker. Under the pretense of helping him advance to Level 3, I deliberately gave him a hard time—assigning him extra work during the day and holding meetings at the compound at night so he couldn't rest properly and lost his energy.

While he was napping during the day, I dripped lubricating oil under the table beside his feet, poked a small hole in it, and placed the defective parts he had machined around him. When he was sleeping soundly, I shouted at him loudly, watching as his foot slipped on the part, causing him to fall. As he fell, he grabbed the nearby rack, and was pierced through the chest by something on the rack.

You probably don't know that the rack could have stayed upright; I removed two bolts from its base and replaced two others with old ones instead of new.

The files, screwdrivers, scrapers, and other tools placed on the rack had all been carefully polished by me.

After the incident.

I took advantage of the situation when all the coworkers were present, directing them to rescue Jia Dongxu, but the traces I had left at the scene were destroyed by them.

The comrades kept observing Yi Zhonghai's expression and demeanor.

They sensed from him a kind of relief, as if a heavy burden had been lifted.

Such calm.

This is commonly seen among criminals who confess the truth.

This shows that Yi Zhonghai was not lying.

He killed Jia Dongxu.

And that is the truth.

He never understood, even to his death, that Huaihua is my bloodline.

The people around.

Their heads were about to explode.

Huaihua is not the Jia family's daughter-in-law; she is my daughter.

All the things I couldn't understand before now make sense.

Why, after Qin Huairu became pregnant with triplets, did I dote on her in every way, giving her precious fine noodles even though I didn't eat them myself?

He called it.

Qin Huairu needed nutrition.

Even within the courtyard house, everywhere favored the Jia family, which also made sense.

It was out of respect for Huaihua.

It might also be that I used this to silence Qin Huairu.

You guessed right—I threatened Qin Huairu, telling her Jia Dongxu had died. She's just a country girl who started working at the factory and knows nothing. If she dared to speak the truth, I would make it impossible for her to stay at the steel rolling mill even for a minute, and I would also, in the name of the head steward of the courtyard house, organize the neighbors to drive out the Jia family. Given Jia Zhangshi's shrewish nature, if I took the lead, this could easily succeed; Qin Huairu, out of consideration for the children, would have no choice but to agree.

No wonder Huaihua doesn't look like Jia Dongxu but like me; people who don't know the truth often mistake her for my granddaughter.

The answer is that Huaihua calls me father.

The deaf old lady doesn't know how she found out about this, but she's using it to pressure me into buying her meat. She's not even related to me—why should I support her instead of my own daughter? I'm feeding this white‑eyed wolf of an old lady.

Just then Xu Daming discovered she had ruined someone's marriage, and he shouted at her for a while.

That night I wrote a denunciation letter in Xu Daming's name; as a result, Laotaitai recognized the handwriting, and you all know what happened afterward—I beat Laotaitai and that night sent her away; I did all of that.

To tell you the truth, since I sent Jia Dongxu away, I truly haven't had a good night's sleep even for a single day.

Sometimes I dream of Jia Dongxu; in the dream he, covered in blood, questions me, asking why I did this to him.

I don't know how to answer.

Today.

In front of you all, saying these things out, the pressure on me instantly disappeared—I think I should be able to sleep well now.

Long Laotaitai's matter, Jia Dongxu's matter.

It's me.

A pair of shiny handcuffs were locked onto Yi Zhonghai's wrist.

Yi Zhonghai was taken out of the room.

The comrades inside also each went their separate ways.

Those who are reporting, are reporting.

Those who are verifying, are verifying.

At Yagangchang, at Qin Huairu's side, at Jia Zhangshi's side, and at the neighbors' side, all need to conduct an inspection.