"You police sound great when you talk, but turn around and act like strangers. How can I trust you?" Zhang Qian picked up the book on the table and began flipping through it. Her phone rang, and after a brief exchange, she hung up and continued reading.
"Which part of this book is your favorite?" Xiao Lin shifted the topic to the book. "If I'm not wrong, it should be the part about the hospital nurse's twisted psychology, right?"
Zhang Qian's light brown pupils stared directly at Xiao Lin. His words were few, but each one was etched into her heart, leaving her unable to find reasons to refuse. This ti, he easily guessed what she was thinking. To her, he was not a fear but an impenetrable mystery.
"A woman who worked at a care center all her life was eventually replaced by a newcor and couldn't balance her inner turmoil. As a result, she began targeting the elderly around her before her resignation. Over a month, she mixed poison into their nutritional supplents, and as ti went on, on the night she finally left the care center, these elderly whom she had cared for for many years died one after another. When the police found her, she was already dead in her ho."
"How did you know?" As Xiao Lin revealed one of the plot points, Zhang Qian's emotions began to unravel. Her hand tightly gripped the bedsheets, as if restraining herself, but more like controlling the frenzy deep within her.
"I don't know anything!" Xiao Lin hesitated for a long ti before lighting a cigarette. Zhang Qian's aversion to smoke was obvious, and her endurance was noted by Xiao Lin.
"I want to believe the poison found in Zhang Qiang's corpse wasn't your doing, but your mistake lies in your hand. You wanted to make your brother's death look like a murder to draw police attention, but when you received Director Zhao's notice, you were disappointed, leading to the scene when Officer Wu first found you. Your reason for not collecting the body was hoping soone would take it seriously, correct?"
Though there was no wind, the cigarette smoke filled the small space quickly. Xiao Lin's smoking wasn't fierce; instead, it had a faint aroma—his own specially crafted mixture, infused with Shanghai tobacco leaves, soaked, dried, and rolled, hence his cigarettes weren't comrcially available.
"Even though you're right, I still can't trust you," Zhang Qian's defenses were stronger than Xiao Lin imagined, and breaking them down required ti and facts. "Here, nobody can resist them, and the hospital is also theirs. You're just from downtown; how long can you stay here? Heh, I won't cooperate with you. If you have evidence, just arrest ."
Words might betray, Xiao Lin's prompting was to get Zhang Qian to speak, allowing him to capture more information. Wu Shuang closed her notebook, having found a breakthrough in Zhang Qian's words. Xiao Lin, sharing the insight, left the opportunity to her.
"With Zhang Qiang dead, do you think they'll let you off?" Wu Shuang's stern expression expanded the situation appropriately. "Zhang Qian, you have a child, trying to evade those people by staying silent, but I can responsibly tell you, only dead people shut up, so Zhang Qiang is dead, and you'll be next, followed by your child, who might beco the most innocent. Do you want to see this happen?"
"No way, he promised to protect my child."
"Is that so?" Xiao Lin asked. "If you really believed that, you wouldn't be ready to take your child to death."
"What nonsense are you spouting?" For Wu Shuang, Xiao Lin's patience also seed to reach its limit, as a woman, she sympathized with Zhang Qian. Although, in the work process, she couldn't let such sympathy affect her handling of cases, she could at least do it tactfully. After all, a woman's heart had already shattered into pieces; she didn't want to shatter those fragnts into powder.
"Zhang Qian, where is the child?" Xiao Lin lowered his voice. Zhang Qian couldn't be without any surveillance, and though he had secretly arranged people before finding Zhang Qian to capture anyone imdiately, the child wasn't within his control. "If you still want your child, speak quickly; where is he? You have no man."
"What?" Wu Shuang turned to face Xiao Lin, surprised. After hesitating for a few seconds, she addressed Zhang Qian. "You have no other choice but to trust us. Only we can help you."
"At the kindergarten, I left him at the kindergarten." Xiao Lin didn't make other assumptions, already bursting out of the room. He hoped he could still make it in ti, hoped the dispatched personnel could still make it in ti.
"He..." Zhang Qian anxiously got off the bed, seeing Xiao Lin suddenly disappear from in front of her made her tense up. "What will happen to my child?"
"I don't know!" Wu Shuang blocked Zhang Qian at the bedroom door. "But with him involved, the outco shouldn't be too bad."
Wu Shuang spoke without confidence because even the most capable cannot counter ti. They had spent too much ti here, and this woman was too stubborn. She... Wu Shuang sighed silently.
"I'll cooperate with you, but I must see my child safe and sound first."
Xiao Lin was running on the street while confirming the location of the kindergarten with the person following in the shadows. The person closest to the kindergarten had already quietly infiltrated the outer periter, and upon confirming no one had acted against the children there, Xiao Lin appeared in the dark surveillance's view from across the street.
For convenience, Zhang Qian left the child at a privately run kindergarten, which was more like a courtyard. Two or three middle-aged won watched five or six children playing in the yard.
Today's sun was pleasant, not cold when shining on people. Xiao Lin scanned the children's faces trying to locate Zhang Qian's son, but facial recognition symptoms weren't very apparent in childhood.
He pushed open the small iron gate of the kindergarten and walked in.
"Excuse , sir, is there sothing you need?" The creaking sound of the small iron gate drew a woman's attention. She put down the child in her hands and walked over.
"Where is Zhang Qian's child? She asked to pick him up." Xiao Lin took off his sunglasses, revealing a kind smile.
"Zhang Qian? What is your relationship with her?" The woman didn't quite believe Xiao Lin. Mostly because he wasn't a local, and from his attire to deanor, he didn't seem like soone who would be associated with Zhang Qian.
"Friend!"
"Friend? How co I've never seen you before?" The woman still scrutinized Xiao Lin with suspicion.
"You can call Zhang Qian to confirm if she sent to pick up her child." Xiao Lin brushed off the woman's suspicion with a smile. "If possible, I hope to take her child quickly."
"What's going on?" Another woman ca over from the side, appearing to be older.
"Director, this gentleman wants to take away Zhang Qian's child."
"What is your relationship with Zhang Qian?" The director also looked Xiao Lin up and down. "Zhang Qian instructed us not to hand over the child to anyone other than herself, so we can't give you the child."
Surprisingly, this unlicensed daycare seed to have so sense of security. "I just told this lady, if you don't believe , you can contact Zhang Qian right away to check if she sent ."
"Try giving Zhang Qian a call. May I ask your last na?" The director pondered for a mont, thinking this thod would work because if Zhang Qian confird it, then it wouldn't be their responsibility.
"Xiao." Xiao Lin stood in the courtyard. "May I ask which of those children is Zhang Qian's?"
"He's inside, he's been having gastroenteritis since early morning, so he's resting in bed." The director furrowed her brows as she ntioned Zhang Qian's child.
"I'm a doctor, may I go in and take a look?" Xiao Lin rembered sothing and took out his ID from working at Yan University Hospital.
"Oh, you're a doctor. Please follow ." The director held onto the railing and walked up the steps slowly, even though there were only five or six steps, it took quite so ti.
"Does the director have a knee problem?"
"It's an old problem, rheumatism for many years. It acts up in this weather." The director seed like a kind person.
"I'll take a look for you soti." Xiao Lin stepped forward to help the director.
"Ah, thank you!"
Opening the outer room's door, the whole kindergarten was just a three-bedroom residence. Two rooms were combined into a large room, the smaller room was the teacher's office and break room. The kitchen and bathroom were at the other end, and since the children were young, the bathroom was modified to resemble a proper kindergarten toilet for convenience. The kitchen was where they bought groceries and cooked; as they passed by they could sll the aroma of food.
"This must be the director's house!" Xiao Lin glanced at the structure of the house; although there wasn't any apparent danger, having a load-bearing wall knocked down did pose so risk.
"I now live here with my son, and this place is used as a kindergarten." The director indeed had knee problems, leaning against the wall for support. "Zhang Qian's son is sleeping in the big room ahead, he just took dicine and should still be asleep." The director pointed to the room ahead.
"I'll go myself." Xiao Lin walked forward, initially quickening his pace, but as he was four or five steps from the room's door, he slowed down. Suddenly, he turned around, seeing the director behind him rubbing her knee and smiling kindly, with nothing seemingly odd.
Hand resting on the doorknob, an indescribable aura emanated from the room. Everything seed to be going smoothly, but the smoothness made Xiao Lin frown.
The child seed to be sleeping soundly, and the person holding the child seed equally deep in slumber. Only the pair of blades resting on the tatami didn't appear to be very comforting. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, feel free to vote on Qidian with recomndations or monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)
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