Chapter 197 - Pretending to Laugh at Someone Else’s Misfortune
Translator: Lav
Editor: Seliniaki Ilikia
He was taken into an office. It looked like just an ordinary office. Shi Lei pulled out a chair and sat down.
Police A glared at him and shouted, “Who let you sit down?”
Shi Lei glanced at him but ignored his outburst. Police B pulled his colleague back. “That’s his seat,” he said to Shi Lei. “Maybe you can sit over there?” He pointed at the opposite side of the table.
Shi Lei finally nodded and sat down over there. Police A snorted, unable to understand why his colleague was being so polite. He pulled out his own chair and sat down heavily. “Tell us what you were doing last night,” he said gruffly.
Shi Lei looked at him and found the situation to be quite funny. “You just said yourself that it was night. What can I possibly do at night besides sleep? So I was obviously at home, sleeping!”
“Don’t play innocent! You should know exactly where this place is and where you stand! Don’t think of lying about anything when you’re here. Speak honestly!”
Shi Lei sighed. “Police, sir, please pay more attention to your tone of voice. I’m only here to help with the investigation. If you continue to have this att.i.tude toward me, then I have nothing to say.”
“Help with the investigation?! I’m telling you, even if you are only helping, I can detain you for up to forty-eight hours! I think it’s best if you behave yourself.” Police A smacked the table and glowered at him. “Don’t think that just because you watched a few dramas, you can sit here pretending you know how things are run around here. Are you going to wait until your lawyer is here to speak the truth?!”
Shi Lei tilted his head back and looked at Police A, then at Police B. He shook his head, choosing to remain silent.
Police A smacked the table again and howled, “Are you mute? I’m asking you, what did you do last night?”
Shi Lei ignored him, but was more or less panicking inside. He just had to wait until Zhang Meimei arrived, since he could only carry out the next step of the plan with her help.
“Hey, are you playing dead? Hmph! Let me see if I can force your mouth open…” Police A stood up, walked to the door, checked outside, then slammed it shut again.
When he turned around, his face was occupied by a sinister smile.
Shi Lei put his hands in his pockets and clutched his phone. If anything went wrong, he wouldn’t mind being possessed by a martial arts master to deal with this officer.
Police B saw that something was wrong, so he quickly pulled Police A over and whispered something into his ear, then forced him into the chair. “Mr. Shi,” he said as nicely as possible, “since you bothered to come and help with the investigation, why not say something? You’re already here, so we should all relax a bit and quickly clarify the situation. This would be better for both of us. What do you think?”
Shi Lei finally nodded. He crossed his legs and said, “It’s not that I don’t want to, but your colleague is being too unusual. You were saying that someone’s house was damaged and someone was injured, and he acted as if, from the very beginning, I have to take the blame. Although I don’t know what happened, this has nothing to do with me, so I can’t just admit that I did it if I didn’t actually do it, right? He asked where I was last night, so I told him that I was sleeping at home. Isn’t that a normal response? How am I not cooperating?”
“Don’t use your silver tongue on me! You said you were sleeping last night, but who can prove it?” Police A smacked the table again. Perhaps out of consideration for his colleague, he didn’t get too worked up.
Shi Lei smiled. “My mother can prove it!”
“You and your mother are directly related. She can’t be a witness!”
“I have nothing to say then. What you’re saying is stupid. I’m sleeping at home, so who else can prove it other than my mother? I can’t just have someone sitting next to me when I sleep to prove that I was actually sleeping, can I? What were you doing last night? Oh, you were probably on shift here. But besides your colleagues, I a.s.sume no one else can prove it? And your family…you should be married at this age, right? Your wife, your child, your parents, what were they doing last night? Can they find a witness to prove that they were sleeping at home?”
“Stop the f.u.c.king nonsense!” Police A was extremely agitated and threw a stack of files at him.
Shi Lei reached out and blocked the files that had already scattered in the air. His eyes turned cold.
Police B quickly stood up and pulled his colleague to the side. He almost carried him out of the office while saying, “Xiao(1) Song, go out and have a cigar. Let me talk to him.”
Xiao Song, who was Police A, cursed as he left. Police B closed the door and said, “Mr. Shi, someone specifically reported that is was you who demolished half of their house and injured someone who is still in the hospital right now. And from our investigation, you threatened that person yesterday. We do things officially here, and it’s our duty to find out the truth. Now you should know who I’m talking about, right?”
“Qin Huaiyuan?” Shi Lei asked, pretending to be surprised.
At Police B’s nod, Shi Lei suddenly laughed out loud. “His house was demolished? That mansion at the factory? Qin Huaiyuan was injured and is in the hospital? Hahahaha, this is karma! G.o.d should’ve just taken him! Hahaha…”
“Mr. Shi, you…” Police B was speechless. Although he was very experienced, he couldn’t tell whether Shi Lei was pretending or not.
“Hahaha, which hero did this? Hahaha, this is so funny! Sir, if you catch the person, you have to notify me immediately. I will make a banner for him that says ‘eliminating the villain, protecting the public’!”
Police B was completely speechless. He tapped the table lightly with his knuckles. “Mr. Shi,” he said seriously, “I need to ask you this once more. Where were you last night?”
“Seeing that your att.i.tude isn’t bad, I’ll answer you once more. I was sleeping at home last night. I had dinner with my mother at the hospital, but my father never woke up. At around 10 PM, my mother and I went back home. Then I helped her to sleep and went to bed as well. I woke up early in the morning and had breakfast in front of the hospital. As soon as I went to my father’s room, the nurse told me that he woke up once in the middle of the night. I was happy about it. Then you came.”
“But what happened to Qin Huaiyuan’s side?”
“Being the kind of person he is, someone will look for trouble soon or later, right?” Shi Lei said, unconcerned. “Sir, tell me, how beaten up was he? Did he smash open his head? Did his leg break?”
“Qin Huaiyuan should still be in surgery right now,” Police B replied helplessly. “The doctor’s initial conclusion was a cerebral hemorrhage and some scratches. But he said that it was probably not caused by a man. Rather, his condition was caused by him having a cerebral hemorrhage and falling down the stairs. But this was only the result of the initial examination. As for the details, we will have to wait until he comes out of surgery for further investigation.”
Shi Lei sighed and said, “Ah, what a shame. Why didn’t he smash his head or break a leg? If it was me, I would definitely break his leg and let him have a taste of what it’s like to have thick layers of bandages wrapped around his head!”
Police B didn’t want to talk to Shi Lei anymore. “It looks like we can’t get any useful information at the moment,” he said. “What about this? You can sit here for a while, make yourself at home. I’ll head out for now, and we’ll talk again later.”
1. Xiao: used to address someone younger/inferior