Just as the interrogator was about to ask another question, the door opened and Xiao Wang rushed in, whispering something into one of the officers' ears.
Immediately, the atmosphere in the interrogation room turned serious.
Three minutes later, everyone was escorted out and placed into separate interrogation rooms.
The questioning restarted: name, age, occupation, what were you doing at the kidnapping scene?
At that moment, Li Qiao lounged back in her chair, answering coolly, "Rescuing someone."
Bang! The interrogator slammed the table. "A young girl like you going to a kidnapping scene to rescue someone? Do you even believe yourself?"
Li Qiao nodded casually, her tone flat. "Yes."
The interrogator was stunned. He took a sip of water to cover his awkwardness before trying to sound stern again. "Let me remind you, this is the police station. It's not a place where you can just make up stories. Look behind you—'Confess and be lenient, resist and be punished.'"
The officer seemed righteous enough, but from Li Qiao's perspective, their handling of the case today felt very off.
She looked visibly annoyed and, not wanting to waste any more time, said directly, "Can I make a phone call?"
The two interrogators exchanged glances, then flatly rejected her, "No calls during interrogation. You'd better cooperate. Kidnapping is a serious offense. If you don't tell the truth, you might get detained."
Li Qiao looked down at her nails, then lifted her cold gaze. "Either let me make a call or lock me up. Your choice."
Interrogator: "…?"
They had interrogated countless suspects over the years, but never seen someone so uncooperative and downright arrogant.
Just then, Xiao Wang came knocking again—this time with the greasy deputy director following behind.
The two interrogators stepped out, and after a brief report, the deputy director sneered, "What do they think this is, their private playground? Not cooperating? Lock them up. They can come out when they decide to talk."
"But…" one of the officers hesitated, "Deputy Director, is it really necessary to escalate like this? We feel that—"
"What? I can't give orders now? The chief's not here, so I'm in charge." The deputy scoffed, yanking up his pants and snapping, "If you don't want the job, pack up and leave!"
Rank crushes all. And he was a deputy director.
The interrogators turned pale and fell silent. This deputy had been throwing his weight around the precinct for a long time. But with powerful backers behind him, even the chief usually looked the other way.
And just like that, under the pressure from above, all six of them were pulled from interrogation and locked into a holding room.
…
At that moment, in a holding room barely 20 square meters in size, there was a line of wall-mounted chairs.
Li Qiao sat cross-legged by the wall, staring blankly at the white paint, deep in thought.
Opposite her sat the other four people, while Li Shaoquan huddled in a corner, too scared to speak.
He felt like his death was near.
If Third Uncle's family found out that Li Qiao got dragged into a police mess because of him, he might get skinned alive and dumped in the Nanyang River.
But what terrified him more was the thought—if Li San found out, would he just drive a tank over and flatten the whole precinct?
Li Shaoquan started regretting things. If he had known this would happen, maybe marrying his online girlfriend wouldn't have been so bad after all.
Sure, she was kind of ugly—but at least he'd still be alive. Worst case, he could always get a divorce later!
Just then, the girl who had been quiet for a long time finally spoke, her voice timid, "I'm sorry… I didn't think it would turn out like this…"
Li Qiao slowly shifted her gaze toward her, her voice cool as water, "How did you two meet?"