It was nighttime in the city.The glittering lights in the city were like stars in the sky.
Criminal Investigation Unit, Xi City, in an interrogation room.
When Bai Muchuan led his team of tall and well-built detectives and walked along the corridor, the surrounding officers could feel the cold, imposing aura from them.
The atmosphere at the Criminal Investigation Unit was also cold but heavy.
When they arrived at the entrance of the interrogation room, Bai Muchuan stopped in his tracks and pointed at the room.
Captain Zhang was the first to speak. "Meng Chi."
The corners of Bai Muchuan"s lips turned upwards. "Let"s have another chat with him."
Before dinner, they had a brief interrogation session with Meng Chi.
However, they got nothing from him.
Everyone huffed a soft sigh since they were quite skeptical that they would get anything out of him.
Bai Muchuan glanced at them; his hand was now holding the handle to the interrogation room. Captain Zhang, who was behind him, quickly told him another piece of information softly.
"Meng Chi"s lawyer is now waiting in the reception room! Captain Bai, we still have three more hours to go!"
In three hours" time, they could not hold Meng Chi back at the station anymore.
This was a 24-hour interrogation with an additional 24-hour extension—
It was the highest limit the law stipulated.
That meant after three hours, if they had enough evidence to prove that Meng Chi was indeed a murder suspect, they could hold him in-custody or even arrest him, otherwise, they would need to release him…
"The lawyer is even waiting for him now? This person knows what to do!" Bai Muchuan laughed casually. "Serve the lawyer a cup of tea!"
"Okay!"
They opened the door.
The atmosphere inside an interrogation room was still the same as usual.
No matter if it was in Jin City, the Capital, or Xi City.
The interrogation rooms in these places had the same smell.
It was a smell Bai Muchuan was familiar with.
The detectives took their seats, respectively.
Bai Muchuan sat in the center, directly facing Meng Chi, who was sitting on the "interrogation chair".
In Meng Chi"s area, there was only one chair. There was a circle of strong light s.h.i.+ning on him from top to bottom, directly enveloping him in it.
At the center of the light source was where the only light in the room was; when he looked elsewhere, it would be dark.
Most people would think such tactic was enough to scare the h.e.l.l out of a suspect.
However…
Meng Chi seemed calm, and behaved appropriately. He was polite and relaxed. The way he sat on the chair looked as if he was attending a board meeting. He was tall and had fine looking features that const.i.tuted to his handsome and elegant face. One could conclude that he also had a lot of charm.
No one said anything as both parties looked at each other.
Sometimes, the interrogation was a comparison of power.
Even if both parties did not say a word, the pressure, although invisible, was present.
It was hard for the weak to ask anything out of the mouth of the strong…
Meng Chi might not seem imposing but he was distant.
He observed the "interrogation team" Bai Muchuan had brought with him this time and waited quietly.
They thought that calm demeanor of his deserved their praise.
Bai Muchuan looked at him quietly and indolently like it was a meeting between old friends.
Their eyes met in that constrained s.p.a.ce.
Just one look was enough to let the others feel as if these two were pitting against each other quietly.
"Meng Chi."
Bai Muchuan"s face was solemn and indifferent.
"That"s me." Meng Chi smiled faintly at him.
For experienced detectives, having encountered all kinds of people during numerous interrogation and questioning sessions, they had to take their hats off for Meng Chi, who could hold his ground and stay calm.
In places like the interrogation room, they had never yet seen anyone as calm as him.
Especially since he could still look like this even after experiencing almost 48 hours of practically being "kept" inside a confined s.p.a.ce…
For other people, they would have thrown a fit or confessed all that they knew.
Yet Meng Chi did not seem to be nervous at all.
Not even the slightest.
"Do you know who I am?" Bai Muchuan suddenly asked.
"Oh?" This startled Meng Chi for a moment then broke into laughter. "Captain Bai, you"re too humorous. I might not remember the others, but how could I not know who you are?"
"It"s good that you know." Bai Muchuan spoke in a tepid tone. "I"m worried since you"re always losing your memory!"
Meng Chi looked at him with intent. "…"
He did not talk; he just smiled.
There was a laptop inside the interrogation room which was emitting a cold, white light.
Bai Muchuan glanced at it and pa.s.sed the laptop to Tu Liang before he talked to Meng Chi as if he were chatting with him.
"Do you know why we didn"t let you leave the police station?"
"I know." Meng Chi placed both hands on his lap. He was polite, respectful, and relaxed. His mellow tone of voice sounds pleasant to the ear. That voice felt so familiar to them that it stirred their hearts a little. "A fellow impersonated me and committed a major crime. Because of him, I"ve become the suspect, and to date, the police have yet to solve this case!"
Wow.
He put the blame on them instead.
His words were full of mockery, mocking their incompetence.
Bai Muchuan grunted with a smile. "So I hope you"ll cooperate with us."
Meng Chi replied with the same smile, "I"m always cooperative."
"Please give a detailed description of what you did on the 15th day of this month," said Bai Muchuan, "to be exact, tell us what you did after you left Wuming Village at Vulture"s Mouth."
"Tell you what I did?" Meng Chi couldn"t resist letting out a sigh. "Captain Bai, I"ve answered this question to the detectives many times. You can find that in my statement. You also have the video recording whenever you interrogate me. Are you perhaps expecting to hear a different answer from me?"
"If there is a difference, of course, I want to hear that."
"Fine!" Meng Chi felt speechless. "Prior to bringing Yu Ning to Xi City, I never left Nanmu and stayed in Nanmu Hotel. You should be very familiar with it as well. You can investigate my whereabouts… during that period, there are many people that can prove the legitimacy of what I"m saying."
Suddenly, he raised his head and looked at Bai Muchuan with a puzzled face.
"I"m sure you"ve done a lot of investigations and you"ve acquired the answers you wanted. A person couldn"t be in two places at the same time. I"m not present at the crime scene. I don"t understand, what else do you want to know?"
"You are very familiar with the workflow of the detectives," said Bai Muchuan calmly, his eyebrows raised, "there"s a period, which is the 16th day of this month. Are you alone with Yu Ning the whole day?"
"Yes." Meng Chi was very calm.
"What did you do together?" Bai Muchuan continued.
"What else can we do?" Meng Chi laughed. "I have a good relations.h.i.+p with Yu Ning. Of course, since he"s also the first male lead in "The Grey List", and one of the artists that the company promotes, I would value him more. That day, we went to a leisure center in the suburbs of Nanmu."
"Be more specific," pressed Bai Muchuan, "what were you doing at the leisure center?"
"There"s nothing much in a backward place like Nanmu. Just fis.h.i.+ng, badminton, swimming… that"s all."
"Be more specific, which of these activities have you done and what was the time when you did all those activities? Can you provide any alibi that could prove these?"
Meng Chi furrowed his brows slightly. "Captain Bai, I forgot some details. You can verify all these yourself."
Bai Muchuan"s voice grew louder. "Just answer!"
Meng Chi turned grim and appeared a little frustrated.
After a while later, Meng Chi answered his question accordingly as he had repeated countless times to the detectives.
Bai Muchuan nodded after listening to that. "So could you give a detailed description of what you were doing with Yu Ning when you spent the night at the leisure center with him?"
"What else do you expect us to do?" Meng Chi asked back. "After enjoying ourselves with all those leisure activities, of course, we need to sleep!"
"Sleep…" Bai Muchuan folded his arms and leaned slightly forward to stare at Meng Chi"s eyes. "CEO Meng didn"t mind sharing your privacy with him, or was CEO Meng too poor to get two rooms?"
"We got two rooms."
Meng Chi stared at him; his gaze was somewhat piercing.
"Captan Bai, don"t tell me you never verified this information?"
He was being doubted.
However, his remark did not offend Bai Muchuan at all. Instead, he showed a smile.
"That"s why I"m curious. You got two rooms but both of you slept inside the same room?"
He showed an unfriendly gaze.
Meng Chi sneered. "Seems like Captain Bai is trying to imply something?"
Bai Muchuan replied, "You"re right! It"s for the case."
Meng Chi let out a snort. "Apologies! That concerns my privacy. If this is unrelated to the case, I refuse to reply to this question."
Bai Muchuan squinted his eyes. "Who told you that this is unrelated to the case?"
Meng Chi"s lips formed a curve slowly. "Are you thinking I can go back and forth to Wen Xin Nunnery during those few hours of sleep?"
Bai Muchuan said coldly, "To be precise, you stayed in the leisure center for a day and a night!"
Meng Chi seemed a little angry as his eyebrows quirked up at the ends. "It"s true that our stay was a day and a night, but there are so many staff at the leisure center; you can verify this! Captain Bai, I hereby raise my objections to such illogical questions with no basis! This is humiliation toward me!"
Humiliation!
Those were serious accusations.
If they were not careful, the lawyer who was waiting outside could lead a team of lawyers to sue the police…
Bai Muchuan nodded and showed his hands as if he "surrendered" to Meng Chi"s "threat".
"Definitely, we must protect CEO Meng"s privacy. However… this is the Criminal Investigation Unit, and you must listen to me! Otherwise, it might be worse for you if I were to go ask around about what happened that night. Everyone might come to know of it and surely you know how bad things could turn out!"
Bai Muchuan"s tone was cool, but his imposing vibe was certainly daunting.
Although he was polite to Meng Chi, this behavior of his could not hide the fact that he was really sharp toward him as well.
Meng Chi was infuriated and couldn"t say anything for a while.
Bai Muchuan did not force him; he just looked at him patiently. There was even a tinge of a smile in his eyes.
He did not even say a word to Meng Chi, yet his coercion was undoubtedly clear to see…
"Captain Bai, my apologies. I was in a poor mood earlier. I"ve been here too long…"
Meng Chi lowered his stance and huffed a soft sigh.
"All right, I"ll talk."
Bai Muchuan lifted his chin, allowing him to continue.
Meng Chi replied thereafter, "That day after I went swimming with Yu Ning, we played some games in my room. Then I feel tired and I went to sleep. Yu Ning was more of a game addict though. He wanted to continue playing and also use my game account to get more convenience in the game. Thus, he continued to play inside my room. After that, guess he got exhausted and directly slept on the sofa…"
"You slept while he played games?" Bai Muchuan asked.
"Yes." Meng Chi nodded seriously. "That"s what he told me."
"… Why didn"t he leave?"
"We"re both men. Does it matter where we sleep?"
"You don"t know about the rumors circulating on the internet? You"re not bothered at the slightest bit?"
"…"
Meng Chi stared at him.
"Does the way I sleep have anything to do with this case?"
The interrogation room was silent for a moment.
For a good while, n.o.body spoke a word.
Bai Muchuan pursed his lips and raised his wrist to see the time.
"Fine! Have a rest, CEO Meng."
Rest? Everyone looked at Bai Muchuan strangely.
They had three hours to keep him and now 30 minutes had pa.s.sed.
"Thank you!" Meng Chi said calmly.
In actual fact, how does one rest inside the interrogation room?
Meng Chi leaned slowly against the chair. He was neither irascible nor angry; he simply waited quietly for a result.
…