Chapter 178: You Wrecked My Rebirth Perks

Sibling discord?

From Liu Siyuan's expression, Yu Dazhang could tell he seemed to hold a great deal of resentment toward his own sister.

Normally, case files do not record content of this sort.

The emotional relationship between the siblings had no necessary connection to the case itself.

Besides, feelings like these shift constantly over time.

When such variables appear in a case file, they are very likely to mislead the officers who later take over.

"Does your sister usually come back?" Yu Dazhang continued asking.

The more the other party did not want to mention something, the more he had to ask about it.

He had not come here to make friends; he could not go along with the other party's preferences.

"Not much anymore. In the past year she only came back twice in total — she didn't even come home for New Year."

Liu Siyuan, for his part, answered every question put to him, and after speaking added one more line:

"When Dad was around, she did always come home — she stayed at the house at least half the month."

Just say outright that the two of you siblings can't stand the sight of each other.

Yu Dazhang figured he had heard enough — Liu Qi had no particular fondness for this younger brother either.

After Liu Zhengyang passed away, Liu Qi simply stopped coming back; clearly she could not stand this brother of hers.

"What was your father's temper like?"

Yu Dazhang had thought this question through before asking it.

Compared with those servants, Liu Siyuan's assessment of his own father would be more objective.

"He used to lose his temper at work occasionally. In daily life he was all right."

Liu Siyuan answered:

"Ever since he was diagnosed with heart disease four years ago, Dad rarely got angry. He didn't throw himself into work the way he used to, and he became more patient with people and matters."

Yu Dazhang nodded and continued asking:

"What was his attitude toward the servants at home?"

Apparently not expecting such a question, Liu Siyuan paused briefly before answering:

"I don't think there's any need to answer that."

"We pay their wages, they come to work. As long as we don't hold back their pay, that is the best attitude toward them."

"Besides, the people who work at our house are basically all long-term."

"If we were the difficult sort, they wouldn't have stayed working at our house all this time."

That was true… Yu Dazhang also picked up on another layer of meaning.

If the Liu family were the especially hard-to-please sort, they would surely have swapped out their household servants frequently.

Work goes both ways — an employee can quit on their own, and an employer can fire them too.

Since the current servants had all worked for the Liu family long-term, it meant relations on both sides were decent.

"May I go up to the study on the second floor?" Yu Dazhang shifted the subject and glanced upstairs:

"The study where your father passed away."

"Go ahead." Liu Siyuan agreed verbally, but his body did not move.

He beckoned to the butler beside him:

"Escort the officers upstairs to the study and cooperate with their investigation."

After saying that, he gave Yu Dazhang an apologetic smile:

"I won't go up. I have something to do in a bit and need to head out, so I won't keep you company."

Yu Dazhang could see he did not welcome the few of them, but he paid it no mind — he merely gave a nod.

Being able to speak with the butler one-on-one suited his purposes just fine.

When he had entered the house, he had already noticed the butler — he just hadn't had a chance to talk to him.

They arrived at the upstairs study.

Yu Dazhang walked a circle around the room, then fixed his eyes on the butler and asked:

"Where exactly did Mr. Liu collapse?"

"Right there, in the chair behind the desk." The butler pointed at the desk as he answered.

Yu Dazhang nodded, then asked again:

"Where were you at the time?"

"Me?" The butler was caught off guard by the question, then recalled:

"Not far from the door of the room." "Show me." Yu Dazhang said this as he walked out of the study and into the corridor outside.

At this point, not only the butler but even Ma Jian and Liu Miao could tell something was off.

He had begun to suspect the butler.

"Right here."

The butler pointed at a pine table in the corridor, on which sat a small tea setup:

"When Mr. was working in the study, he didn't like being disturbed, so one of us would usually wait here. That day it happened to be me."

Yu Dazhang walked up to the table, then said to Ma Jian:

"Go inside, sit in the chair behind the desk, and act out the scene of someone falling — make it as natural as you can."

"How do I fall?" Ma Jian was completely baffled.

Yu Dazhang demonstrated a sideways fall:

"Just like this."

While speaking, he deliberately turned his back to the butler and made a pushing-down motion with both hands.

Not a single mistake, not a single word off, not a single detail out of place—read it all!

Ma Jian immediately understood.

This was to make some noise himself.

After he entered the study, Liu Miao closed the study door from outside. In no time at all, the sound of a chair scraping the floor—"creak"—came from inside the study.

Immediately followed by a "thud."

Even with the door shut, it could be heard clearly from outside.

Working with Ma is getting more and more in sync… Yu Dazhang nodded in satisfaction, then looked at the butler:

"In the statement you gave a year ago, you said you didn't hear any strange sounds from the study while you were outside."

"But the fact is, you could clearly hear the sound of someone falling inside from outside."

"Explain that—was it that you're hard of hearing, or that you were lying?"

Facing Yu Dazhang's questioning, the butler's eyes went wide:

"Impossible, how could there be such a loud sound? Although it's been over a year, I remember very clearly—I really didn't hear any sound."

He wasn't lying!

Now it was Yu Dazhang's turn to be dumbfounded.

He had just had Ma Jian deliberately make noise in order to bluff this butler.

After all, a year had already passed; even if the butler could remember, the memory was bound to be fuzzy.

If the other party had something to hide, that bluff just now would definitely make him show a crack.

He just wanted to use this time gap to let the butler show his truest side.

But while the butler was speaking just now, Yu Dazhang didn't spot any sign of lying.

His words flowed smoothly, and he didn't make any protective gestures either.

His eyes suddenly going wide could only mean he was very surprised.

"Can you be sure?" Yu Dazhang stared fixedly into his eyes, not letting any change in his expression slip by.

"I can!" The butler gave a heavy nod:

"I'm certain I can't be wrong."

No cracks!

Yu Dazhang was confident he wouldn't misread it.

No one can fully control their micro-expressions—not even someone trained in that area can do it, let alone an ordinary person.

"How was Liu Zhengyang to you when he was alive?" Yu Dazhang asked, unwilling to give up.

"Mr. was very good to me." At the mention of this, gratitude—and a touch of sadness—showed on the butler's face:

"My wife's job was also found for her by Mr., and even my child's schooling was arranged by Mr."

In your past life you didn't say it like this at all… Yu Dazhang felt his head buzzing.

He didn't let a single change in the butler's expression slip by, yet couldn't spot any crack.

The truth again!

Then why did he lie a year later?

Looking at it this way, his running off later wasn't because he had murdered Liu Zhengyang either.

Yu Dazhang's mind raced, but he couldn't come up with a single lead.

Big bro, if you keep this up, my rebirth perks are gone!

(End of chapter)