Huojin asked, "So you ca early today to talk to Kong Chuanli?"
"Yes...I was extrely nervous. My wife had practice what I needed to say. But as ti ticked closer, my mouth went dry. I couldn’t muster up the courage. Then as usual, I headed for so coffee to clear my head. When I returned, I was still shivering. I knew it was the ti to talk to him. I finally did. I knocked on the door, but I didn’t hear any response."
"Then?"
"I went inside and saw Sir Kong on his seat. He looked really still to . I ca closer and then..."
Zhang Feiyu heaved breathlessly and clutched his temple. "I don’t rember much."
Xiyang blinked. "What do you not rember?"
"About what happened next. I don’t really know what is wrong with . But ever since this stress has started to overwhelm , at tis, I feel...I don’t know how to explain," he licked his lower lip, trying to find his words, "l-like I blank out. It gets too much for to handle and then...I just zone out."
Huojin stared at him. "So you an to say you rember going inside but you don’t rember what happened next? You don’t rember talking to Kong Chuanli?"
"...No. I am not really sure if I talked to him or not."
Huojin turned to look at Bojing. "Do you know what he is talking about?"
Bojing nodded. "Yes. Th-that can happen. Extre stress, lack of proper sleep and -ntal burnout can cause cognitive difficulties that include mory issues. That person m-might experience gaps in his mory during stressful periods. Too much stress re-results in cognitive fatigue which impacts a person’s concentration and mory."
"So that ans he doesn’t rember how he got behind Kong Chuanli or had his tie on his palm?"
"G-guess no. Not until he rembers, but there are v-very low chances of those mory gaps coming back to him."
Shilin gave a nod as well.
Xiyang whispered in his ear. "Inspector Mo. Zhang Feiyu forgetting the crux of the incident seems too...coincidental, doesn’t it? I am not saying he is lying, but it’s a little difficult to digest when he has been caught in an incriminating position."
Huojin found it hard to argue with that.
Bojing asked a question to Zhang Feiyu, "Are you t-taking any dication for it?"
"No. I an I just thought that the blank outs were because I wasn’t properly sleeping at a stretch. It was inconvenient, yes, but it wasn’t really causing any major problem. So I didn’t look for any treatnt. Th-though my wife had indeed felt sothing was wrong with and urged to visit a doctor. I planned to, but it just kept on getting postponed because of work. I couldn’t even find ti to eat, much less get an appointnt..."
Zhang Feiyu rested his hands over his head, tightening his brows. "Did I really kill Sir Kong...? Could I really have done it? I...What will happen if I really did...? What about Luqi...?"
The thought of the future panicked him. What would his wife do if he was really proved to be the murderer?
"Th-there is nothing left to prove, right?" Tears fell as he broke down. "Zou Haoran saw killing him...What is there left to be said?"
Huojin wanted to correct the detail that Zou Haoran actually didn’t see him in the ’act’ of murder, but he let it go.
The graver question was what he should be doing next. He gave it a thought and went outside. The employees jolted back into positions who were peering to know what was going inside the conference room.
He took a seat opposite Zou Haoran and Hu Linglu as they were part of the sa team.
"How was Kong Chuanli as a manager?"
"He was a good manager," Zou Haoran somberly said, "I an, yes he was strict and all but then which manager isn’t? Like any other manager, he had his faults. But we learnt to deal with it."
Hu Linglu’s expression twisted. "Only you would say that about him, you ass-licking moron! Hmph, you even wore a coat today to impress him."
"Hu Linglu, mind your tone!" Zou Haoran glared at her.
"No screaming and shouting," Huojin said with a deadpan voice. He glanced at her. "You seem to hate him."
She looked dumbfounded. "Everybody hates him! He was a an son of a-"
"Miss. Hu," he warned.
She cleared her throat and forced herself to calm down.
"There is a difference between being strict and being a pain in the ass. It was just too stressful to work under him," her eyes teared up, "Do you know I had to miss celebrating my Dad’s birthday last week? Why? Because I was stuck in resolving a God damn error and he wasn’t letting go!
I begged him that it was my Dad’s birthday, but he refused to even look at ! He would force us all to stay late at night for work. He set unrealistic deadlines, talked so rudely and was such a freak particular about the smallest things. It was hellish!"
Zou Haoran frowned. "You know the IT field is demanding. Why are you complaining?"
She returned him a blank stare. "Does that an I should stop eating, sleeping and enjoying? Forget that I have family, friends and a LIFE? But here I am stuck in front of a computer the whole day! What’s worse is that we are supposed to put in only 8 hours of work but we were forced to work for 16 hours instead at tis! It’s double the work ti policy and we aren’t even getting any overti compensation for it! It feels like a cri!"
Huojin let the tense air settle down. "Was Zhang Feiyu the first and only person to et Kong Chuanli? Nobody else went before him?"
Zou Haoran shook his head. "I was working at my seat."
Hu Linglu had the sa answer. "Yeah. Zou Haoran and I have adjacent cubicles. We never left. But I didn’t notice when Zhang Feiyu went inside. I was completely buried in my docuntation work," she bitterly said.
"Are there no caras here?"
She frowned. "Not inside the workzone here. We have caras outside in the corridors and reception area. W-Why are you asking? Are you doubting us? I an, isn’t this a very simple case? Zhang Feiyu killed him."
"Simple things are often not so simple. Do you know that Zhang Feiyu tends to blank out at tis?"
"...Sotis we have indeed seen him in a daze and then when I ask him, he would say he wasn’t sure what he was thinking about. Totally like he is in his own world."
Zou Haoran asked, "Is that what he said? That he blanked out? It definitely didn’t feel that way to though. His shock looked genuine...like he couldn’t believe he did sothing like that."
"Let’s see. We are still investigating."
Huojin waved them off with a smile and entered Kong Chuanli’s office. The cri scene was surrounded by tapes. He put his arms behind his back and took slow steps towards the front of the desk. The head seat and desk were along the entry door’s line, which was situated at the right side.
The air felt still and undisturbed.
It’s too undisturbed to be honest. Not just the air but the things here too. Didn’t Kong Chuanli struggle at all?
How can his desk still be so neat and tidy?
He looked around the shelves, files, books, drawers and the whole space in its entirety. He noticed a picture fra on the desk and picked it up.
It was Kong Chuanli himself. The picture was clicked right here in his own office. He was in his seat, smiling. The office in the picture and in real ti now looked like carbon copies.
He stared at the picture for a long ti. Then he looked beyond it towards the desk. He went back and forth like this many tis.
Huojin then smiled.
Xiyang stepped in and was surprised. "Why are you smiling, Inspector Mo?"
"Have you ever played that ga where you have to spot differences between two exactly identical images?"
He scratched his head. "Yeah when I was a kid."
"It was my favorite ga too. It seems like I got the chance to play it once again. And I won."
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