Chapter 1329: I Only Want You (27)
“Yes, Mother, it’s her.”
After receiving a great shock, the elderly lady regained her composure and said vehemently, “Like what I said, please produce the valid evidence. Don’t just accuse us blindly. I may only have a few more years left to live, but I can’t let my reputation be tarnished.”
“Evidence? I was initially planning to hypnotize you, but I’ve now changed my mind. I’ve decided to take you back to the Widows’ Village and let you have a look at your daughter-in-law. You’ll be able to hear her. How does that sound?”
Despite being rather apprehensive, the elderly lady conceded, “Sure. My conscience is clear and I have nothing to be afraid of.”
“Alright, follow me there, then. I’m not afraid of trouble at all. After all, vicious old women like you have to be dealt with the hard way.” An Xiaoning instructed Ma Jianguo to hold the elderly lady down and bring her out. “Take her son along too.”
“Yes.”
Thus, they returned to the Widows’ Village. This time, An Xiaoning was no longer wearing her mask and Fan s.h.i.+xin did not tag along either. Upon the sight of the police cars, the villagers quickly surrounded them to have a look at what was going on. In order to avoid any disruption to the process, An Xiaoning instructed the police officers to stop the villagers from entering the door.
An Xiaoning then brought the pair of mother and son to the house. They felt much more relieved the moment they saw that there was no one inside the yard.
“Where is she?”
An Xiaoning smirked and quipped, “What’s the hurry? She’s not even getting impatient. She’s staring at you guys right now.”
An Xiaoning then said to the victim’s spirit, “Don’t act rashly. You must stay calm if you want to avenge yourself. I know you’re wis.h.i.+ng that you could rip this evil old hag into shreds right now, but will you please get a grip on your emotions first?”
The spirit then said, “Okay.”
Upon hearing the invisible voice, everyone except An Xiaoning turned pale in utter shock, especially the elderly lady and her son. They had just heard the familiar voice clearly. It had to be her!
The elderly lady’s initial composure vanished completely, and she almost fell to the ground but was held back by the police officers.
“This…”
The spirit questioned, “Mother-in-law… my great mother-in-law, what are you so afraid of? Weren’t you the one who killed me with your cleaver?”
“I didn’t… I didn’t, it wasn’t me!”
As soon as she finished speaking, the spirit laughed sinisterly and quipped, “It wasn’t you? Who was it, then? How could I not know who the person who murdered me is? You didn’t expect that I would still be here, did you?”
After recovering from the shock, the victim’s husband muttered, “Wanzhen…”
The spirit yelled at the top of her lungs in a shrill voice, “Shut up! Don’t call my name. I must have been blind to marry you. My family was strongly against our relations.h.i.+p, and they told me that your mother was a tough nut to crack. However, all I cared about was the way you treated me and I decided to marry you regardless of their objections, simply because I thought that you doted on me. Yet your mother killed me with her cleaver and even minced my corpse up. She even beheaded me and hung my head on the door of my family’s home. How about you? You remarried, didn’t you? You’re living well now, huh? You’ve never once come back throughout all these years. My biggest regret is marrying you and giving birth to your son!”
“I, Wanzhen, I…” The husband, who was in his fifties, burst into tears and bawled loudly. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know that Mother killed you. I really didn’t. I’m sorry to have let you down.”
The elderly lady was at a loss for words.
It was already five o’clock in the afternoon by the time they arrived back at the police station.
Hence, the interrogation proceeded smoothly.
The elderly lady could no longer retort now that the truth was as clear as day.
At the end of the interrogation, An Xiaoning stared at the elderly lady, who had a deadpan expression, and said, “I can tell from your complexion that you’ve been living very well all these years. I bet you thought that your crime will never be exposed since there aren’t any evidence. Even though you’re already old in your years, we’re still going to expose the details of this case to the media and let the entire nation know what a vicious mother-in-law you are.”
Having nothing left to live for, the elderly lady said, “Just execute me straight away. It’s no big deal. I’ve lived for long enough anyway.”
“How can we execute you immediately? We’ll let the court decide what to do with you,” An Xiaoning said with a smile.
Pan Zhenghui popped his head through the crack of the door and asked, “Are you done?”
An Xiaoning stood up and said, “Case closed.”
Pan Zhenghui stuck his thumb up and exclaimed in awe, “Xiaoning, you’re so impressive! I really have so much respect and admiration for you. You never fail to crack major cases effortlessly, no matter how tough they may be for us.”
“It’s just a coincidence. I couldn’t have solved it easily if I didn’t possess supernatural abilities or if Liu Wanzhen’s spirit had already reincarnated. No matter what, at least this case has now been solved after so many years. I initially thought that Liu Wanzhen’s husband was aware of his mother’s crime, but it seems that he didn’t know anything at all. In that case, let’s release him.”
“I guess you’re going to start working on the second case, then.”
“No, I don’t have such plans yet. This case might be closed but I still have to find out the reason the village became the Widows’ Village, It seems rather absurd and bizarre. There might be something wrong with the water reservoir.”
“Alright, go ahead, then, but from what I know about you, you probably won’t need much time to uncover the truth either,” said Pan Zhenghui, who was in high spirits because he knew that his superior would definitely praise him for cracking the case.
“I can’t guarantee that I’ll get to the bottom of the truth in a short period of time. You’ve got lots of confidence in me, huh? It’s getting late, I have to go,” said An Xiaoning.
“Alright, drive safely.”
“Yes.”
Before she left, she instructed her team members, “You guys stay put and wait for further instructions. You’ve been working hard. You guys deserve a break. I’ll call when I need you guys again.”
“Alright. I knew I could relax a little whenever you’re around, Xiaoning. Call us whenever you need help. We’re on call 24/7,” Ma Jianguo said gleefully.
“Okay, I’m leaving now.”
After a long day of shenanigans, An Xiaoning had her dinner at a street stall before returning to the town. It was already nine o’clock by the time they arrived.
Upon the sight of the two of them, Madam w.a.n.g said, “You guys have no idea what just happened. We finally got some good news.”
“What good news?”
“There was a murder case that took place more than two decades ago, and the police came today to crack the case. We all thought that the police had already given up on the case at the start, but it turns out that they had been carrying out investigations. Great. By the way, is your husband staying here tonight?”