Chapter 401: Was It a Made-up Story?
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
That matter had been settled.
As Bai Muchuan strode inside, the corners of his lips lifted upwards.
Cheng Zheng followed quietly along as well.
However, this time, he tried to catch up to Bai Muchuan.
“Thank you!”
If Bai Muchuan did not help him out, this incident would have smeared his reputation, although he had done nothing to warrant such a stain in his name.
Cheng Zheng had always been a well-disciplined man. He hated the idea of a.s.sociating himself to those disreputable women.
Maybe this matter, although resolved quickly, would disgust him for the rest of his life.
Originally, he had thought Bai Muchuan might add insult to injury, yet he actually lent a helping hand.
That was unexpected.
However, Bai Muchuan seemed confused.
“What did I do? Why are you thanking me?”
“…” Cheng Zheng was left speechless.
Bai Muchuan squeezed Xiang Wan’s hand while he leaned closer to Cheng Zheng. “I’m just a little curious,” he spoke softly while snickering, “did you actually spent the night with that woman?”
“Scram!” Cheng Zheng was gritting his teeth!
Bai Muchuan cackled at first, but he quickly restrained himself when he looked toward the questioning room up ahead.
“Want to go in for a look?” he asked.
None was sure if he was asking Cheng Zheng or Xiang Wan.
Nonetheless, since no one raised any objection, Cheng Zheng followed along as well.
From the looks of it, their relationship was similar to that of a triangle, an awkward triangle—
…
Inside the interrogation room…
Lima was like a cat.
She curled herself up on a chair; she shrank her neck and her shoulders. It seemed as if her eyes were staring warily at the detectives inside the questioning room…
Those anxious and fearful eyes somehow reminded Xiang Wan of Blackie.
Yesterday, when she picked up Blackie from the pet care center, his eyes seemed to have the same look as hers…
“Detective Bai!
“Detective Bai, you’re here!”
Lima cried out for Bai Muchuan the moment she saw him entering the interrogation room.
Her eyes were wide-opened, and her excitement was clear for us to see. She was like a lost puppy who had seen her owner; he was like her redemption and all that she had…
The rest of detectives were silent. “…”
It was difficult for them to understand what was happening.
No one spoke a word.
Bai Muchuan said nothing either.
Only Lima was nervously looking around her, breathing heavily.
“Shh!” She suddenly lowered her voice to speak to Bai Muchuan. “Quick! Save me quick! Please… get me out of here. All of them wanted to kill me…”
It was silent in the interrogation room.
The detectives looked at each other. They shrugged and stretched out their hands at Bai Muchuan. They all looked so puzzled.
“Captain Bai, she didn’t seem to be quite right in the head…”
The detectives who came back with Bai Muchuan from Xi City, besides having puzzled looks, they were also rendered speechless by Lima’s behavior.
“She had been spouting nonsense. When she saw us, she seemed as if she had seen her enemies! She insisted on calling you earlier just now… She said that she will only talk when you’re here. We agreed to her demands so as to calm her down…”
Although they did so to rea.s.sure her, they must have run out of options.
Lima must have been kicking up quite a fuss last night.
After all, they had to do all the trouble of tying her feet and her arms.
They bound this woman to the only metal chair in the interrogation room.
There were three detectives inside too.
Bai Muchuan walked past them and stood in front of Lima.
“Say it! What do you want to tell me?”
His voice had no ounce of emotion.
He was not cold, but he was not warm either.
Lima quivered in fright at his att.i.tude. Her beautiful face seemed a little twisted.
She tilted her head and stared at Bai Muchuan like a terrified cat.
“Do you want to kill me as well, Detective Bai?… I like you so much. Please don’t kill me…? Save me. I like you, save me, please…”
“…”
There really was something wrong with her!
Xiang Wan did not know if she should feel uncomfortable or if she should laugh at her.
A woman was confessing to her boyfriend right in front of her—
Well, Detective Bai sure was eye-catching and appealing to women!
Xiang Wan pursed her lips as she looked at his emotionless face.
As for Cheng Zheng, he found himself sitting on an empty chair and continued to keep quiet.
Inside the room, Lima started to shout and scream.
That hysterical look of hers was similar to how she sounded like over the phone.
There was hysteria and pain—
She looked as if she wanted to dash toward Bai Muchuan and hug him. However, since her limbs were tied to the chair, she couldn’t reach him at all. She could do none of the actions that she wanted to do. She started to get exasperated and her screams went louder. It felt like those desperate screams similar to those people who were facing their impending doom. Her beautiful face and her s.e.xy red lips seemed dry and hideous.
Xiang Wan could not believe that the woman she was looking at was actually Lima.
Just a few days before, Lima was still leading her new life as a starlet.
Xiang Wan felt a chill inside her heart.
Bai Muchuan turned toward the detectives. “When did she start behaving like this?”
“When we brought her here,” replied one of the detectives, “she already did not seem quite right. However, she only refused to talk back then. No matter what we asked, she simply won’t open her mouth—”
The detective paused for a while before he lowered his tone. “Later on, when we asked her about Abdul and Cui Ming, she suddenly went crazy… She started shouting that she’s a famous celebrity and that we have to release her immediately. She also said that she has lots of fans and if we don’t release her, we will suffer the consequences since her fans might seek revenge for her sake…”
As the detective said so, he started to chuckle a little bitterly, shaking his head.
Perhaps she might have looked quite laughable when she said that on his face.
“It’s strange since she always seemed normal, right? How did she become like this? However, with a father like that, she’s really unfortunate—”
Xiang Wan felt a cold wash all over when she thought about Abdul’s thin face and a nose that looked like an eagle’s beak, as well as Lima’s screams of despair.
“Detective Bai… Save me…
“Detective Bai… Save me, please…
“They wanted to kill me… I don’t want to stay here anymore, I don’t want to!
“I’m a famous celebrity! I’m a famous celebrity! I have a lot of fans! I don’t want to go to jail…”
Lima was screaming at the top of her lungs.
Continuously screaming away.
Even when her voice already sounded hoa.r.s.e, she couldn’t stop shouting and yelling.
Bai Muchuan just looked at her with no intention of stopping her.
The rest of them inside the interrogation room also kept quiet unanimously. They all had troubled expressions as they watched the woman who kept on struggling on the chair.
Finally, after a long time, Lima stopped struggling and yelling. She was now panting and gasping for air.
Now that she seemed calmer, they could talk to her again.
Bai Muchuan propped his hands on the table with his body slightly leaning forward while staring at Lima.
“I can let you go!” he said slowly.
Lima seemed elated; her eyes went wide-opened with delight. “Really? Hurry… Detective Bai… Let me go now, please…”
Bai Muchuan still had the same expression as earlier. “You need to tell me something first though. Who did you meet before you came here? What did that person do to you?”
Lima’s lips twitched strangely. “If I tell you that, will you really let me go?”
Bai Muchuan replied, “Yes.”
Lima bit her lower lip.
As if she was trying to contain the pain within her, she yelled with her hoa.r.s.e voice.
“Father, I met father…”
Abdul.
That devil!
Bai Muchuan narrowed his eyes. “What happened?”
Lima looked as if all her strength had gone away.
Slowly, she sank back into the chair listlessly.
“The night before, he came to my house again…
“I’ve not lived with him for a long time. It has been such a long time that I’ve almost forgotten about it…
“I’m living alone in a house, but I never expected that he actually has the keys to my house… I was bathing when the door opened… I didn’t know when the door had opened. It was all dark outside; I didn’t know that there was a pair of eyes peeping at me as I bathe and if he was sn.i.g.g.e.ring away as he did so…
“Even when I finished bathing, I didn’t know about his presence… He was still peeping at me, always peeping at me…
“He liked to peep at me. He would hide behind the sofa, the wardrobe, under my bed… Just like when I was young… He would peep at me when I was bathing, changing clothes, going to the toilet… He was always doing that. He also stares at me in a way which I find disgusting. No matter if I was sleeping or eating, he would stare at me now and then…”
Lima said this in bits and pieces.
Her voice sounded like she was sobbing.
Her expression, however… it felt like she was acting.
Frankly, it didn’t really felt genuine to Xiang Wan.
Lima looked like an actress who wrote a script and directed this scene herself, trying hard to create a horrific atmosphere for them.
“My dad was always smiling. Many people said that he’s a good man, and he really dotes on me… They said that even though I have no mom, I have a loving dad…
“Only I knew what kind of person he is. He’s not a good father. His eyes are like daggers that could slash my clothes, and he peeps at me in places where I can’t let others see… He thought I didn’t know… But I already knew since way back…
“Since young, he wanted me to sleep with him… When I grew up, he wanted me to sleep with other men… like the man who invested in his business, his creditor whom he borrowed money from as he lost money from gambling, there were many other men… I don’t even remember who they were now. I don’t even care anymore…”
She paused for a gulp.
“No matter whom I was sleeping with, it was way better than him. He is disgusting, so disgusting.”
“…”
Xiang Wan thought of Vulture’s Mouth.
Brother Steel’s villa!
At that place, Lima had suffered from violence and humiliation…
At that point in time, she had already shown signs—her reaction was not quite right.
Lima was afraid and was also nervous, but she didn’t really seem to mind much.
At the very least, her reaction differed totally from ordinary women…
It was probably because there was also Xie Wanwan around, who reacted as if this did not bother her and that Xiang Wan didn’t think too much over it.
To think that it was all because Lima had such an experience…
Lima’s eyes were blurry. There was some resentment in her eyes as she continued.
“He came back and wanted to sleep with me. I refused… I will not do that with him again. I’m now a grown-up. I can put up a resistance!”
She gasped and ended abruptly.
Silence took over in the interrogation room.
Bai Muchuan’s eyes were cold, and he leaned over.
“And?”
Lima suddenly lifted her head. “I killed him! I killed him! I won’t sleep with him ever again. I will never ever do that again—” They could hear the sound of grinding as though she was enduring some unspeakable pain when she said those words.
However, did she just say she killed him?
Well… a strange atmosphere had suddenly filled the cold, silent room.
Bai Muchuan turned his head to ask a detective.
“What’s happening?”
From the looks of the detectives present, they seemed as if they did not know if they should laugh or cry. “I think she’s crazy? Last night, we were interrogating Abdul. He said that he did not go to Lima’s house and had not seen her for a few days already. He also provided us with an alibi to prove that…”
So that meant Lima did not see Abdul at all?
Bai Muchuan thought for a second. “Where’s Abdul?”
The detective couldn’t resist a laugh. “He’s being held at the detention cell here! Alive and well, definitely not killed by her!”
Such a ludicrous claim coming from Lima made the detective laughed and sighed at the same time.
“This Lima has been making up stories… and here we thought she would tell you something useful. Never to expect that… she would come up with another story again!”
“What if…” Bai Muchuan said firmly and seriously, “she’s not making up a story at all?”
…