Chapter 267: When Dealing with Evil People, My Bottom Line Has Always Been Flexible

Half an hour later.

Outside the hospital's hospice ward.

"Officer, I'm sorry — he doesn't want to see you."

He Tianxin's wife blocked the ward door, looking at Yu Dazhang with an apologetic face, but with no intention of stepping aside.

"I figured he'd do that."

Yu Dazhang took a bound document from his bag and handed it to her:

"Give this to him. Once he's read it, he'll see me."

The woman took it, holding it in her hands and looking at it with puzzlement.

"Go on." Yu Dazhang urged her:

"If after reading it he still insists I leave, I'll go right away."

From this one can see that sometimes falling ill is a form of self-protection.

Otherwise, given the crimes He Tianxin had committed, he would have been detained long ago — it wouldn't have been his turn to refuse a meeting.

After the woman went into the ward, Yu Dazhang found a chair against the wall and sat down, arms crossed over his chest, waiting patiently.

About ten minutes passed.

The ward door opened, and He Tianxin's wife walked out from inside, saying to Yu Dazhang:

"He's agreed to see you."

As she said this, her face carried curiosity and puzzlement — clearly unable to figure out why He Tianxin had changed his mind.

Yu Dazhang stood up and smiled at her:

"The document I just gave him — he won't let you read it, will he?"

"That's right." The woman nodded, then asked:

"How did you know?"

Yu Dazhang sighed:

"He's afraid of scaring you."

After saying that, ignoring the woman's reaction, he stepped around her and walked into the ward.

Once inside, Yu Dazhang first glanced at He Tianxin, whose face was deathly pale on the hospital bed, then turned and said to Liu Miao:

"Step outside for now. I need to talk to him alone about some things."

Liu Miao hesitated at the words, but in the end asked nothing, nodded, and withdrew from the ward.

Going to the window, Yu Dazhang took a chair and sat before the hospital bed. After a long silence, he finally spoke:

"What you people did back then went too far."

His voice wasn't very loud, but in the quiet ward it sounded especially clear.

Hearing this, He Tianxin's hand holding the document unconsciously tightened. A complicated look flickered in his eyes as he replied in a low voice:

"So karma came. Cancer, severed finger — every torment I've suffered is atonement for what happened back then."

"The person who had your finger cut off yesterday — do you know him?" Yu Dazhang asked, looking at him.

"I don't know him, and I don't want to." He Tianxin's expression was very calm.

No anger, no agitation — as if he were talking about someone else's business:

"But I believe every word he said. If I don't do as he says, my family will definitely be retaliated against."

The truth… Yu Dazhang saw no trace of lying on his face.

He had originally hoped to learn the suspect's information directly from He Tianxin, but now it seemed that wasn't going to work.

"Tell me about Han Lianwen. What did you people do to him back then?"

Yu Dazhang pointed at the document in his hand:

"You don't want me to blow this up either, do you? I chose to talk to you alone precisely because I don't want this to get out — at the very least, your family mustn't know what kind of person you are."

He Tianxin's head slowly drooped, his hands clenched tight, but he gave no response.

"I've looked into it. Your child is only seven."

Yu Dazhang continued:

"If he finds out his father is a man like a demon, what do you think he'll feel?"

Hearing this, He Tianxin suddenly raised his head, staring at Yu Dazhang in shock:

"You… what are you saying? You're a police officer!"

This was the main reason Yu Dazhang had Liu Miao step out.

When it comes to threatening people, it's best to do it alone — even if something goes wrong later, no one else gets dragged in.

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.

Besides, the man in front of him was no good sort either; Yu Dazhang felt not a shred of pity for him.

"First, I'm a person. Only after that am I a police officer." Yu Dazhang's face darkened:

"Since you know what you've done can't see the light of day, you should tell everything you know. That is the true atonement."

"Otherwise, I won't be speaking with you in the capacity of a police officer."

"I can guarantee you — your child's heart will be wounded. He will feel shame for the crimes you've committed, because… you are his father."

The document he had handed to He Tianxin's wife was none other than Han Lianwen's injury assessment.

Before coming, he had gone to a copy shop and printed a copy.

Yu Dazhang was certain that once He Tianxin saw this injury assessment, he would agree to see him.

The reason was simple.

He Tianxin was afraid of his family finding out about this.

So Yu Dazhang had already thought this through before coming.

Since the suspect could use He Tianxin's family to make him harm himself,

then he could likewise use his family to make him reveal the truth of what happened back then.

!

The same method, but with a different purpose.

Most of the time, the reason the police are at a disadvantage is that their bottom line is too high.

At this moment Yu Dazhang could not afford to worry about all that — the He Tianxin before him had gone through yesterday's finger amputation, and his physical condition was even worse now.

If he didn't use some tactics, once he died, the chance would be gone forever.

"You have to promise me you'll keep it secret first."

He Tianxin stared at Yu Dazhang with a pleading look:

"Even after I'm dead, you can't let my family know."

Yu Dazhang nodded:

"Don't worry. As long as you cooperate, I promise I won't breathe a single word to your family."

Having gotten the assurance he wanted, He Tianxin adjusted his sitting posture; apparently he had touched his wound, and he frowned and hissed "sir" through his teeth.

Then he took two deep breaths, after which he raised the hand with the severed finger and looked at the wound.

"Are you going to talk or not?" Seeing him deliberately stalling, Yu Dazhang urged with some impatience.

"I'll talk, I'll talk." He Tianxin hurriedly nodded and replied:

"That day we took Han Lianwen to a rented room nearby, and then… and then we just…"

As though recalling something that filled him with terror and fear, even He Tianxin's voice began to tremble.

"We took turns beating him. Every one of us laid hands on him. From a little past five in the afternoon we beat him all the way until nine at night, until… until…"

As he spoke, his throat seemed to be blocked by something; his voice cut off abruptly, and his eyes had already turned bloodshot.

He gasped for breath in great gulps, and only after quite a while did he continue:

"Until he lay motionless on the ground, not responding in the slightest."

"During those three and a half hours, he kept begging for mercy, begging us to let him go."

"I'll never forget the look in his eyes back then — a look full of pleading and pain, pitiful beyond words."

"He was like a trapped beast, brimming with the will to live, yet carrying despair and helplessness, with nowhere to escape."

At the last words, He Tianxin closed his eyes, and his body began to tremble slightly.

A pack of inhuman beasts… Yu Dazhang clenched both fists, his eyes of hatred seeming as though they could spit fire.

He strained to control himself.

Just as he himself had said, he was first a human being, and only then a policeman, so he could not be absolutely rational.

The hospital room was so quiet that even breathing could be heard.

A moment later…

"From what I know, Han Lianwen was an honest, introverted person — he couldn't possibly have provoked you people."

Yu Dazhang's gaze carried a thick disgust as he asked through gritted teeth:

"So why did you beat him like that, and so brutally at that?"

(End of chapter)