NOS Chapter 47
by VolareThe test tube containing Ai Xiuhong’s saliva was sent to the forensics department. Soon, Meng Changqing, who had gone to the interrogation room to pour water for Wu Jiao, returned. Wearing gloves and holding a paper cup, he asked curiously, “Master, can you really get a result from just one sip of water?”
“If you roll around on a bed, you might leave some cells behind, let alone saliva on a paper cup,” Guan Yao replied. “Just wait, we should have the results by the end of the day.”
Time passed slowly. Wu Jiao, sitting in the interrogation room, had no idea what he was about to face. He calmly watched the police officers change shift after shift, and in the evening, he was greeted by Yu Chunming, who was holding a test report.
“Another new face?” Wu Jiao asked coldly.
Yu Chunming glanced at Guan Yao, who had accompanied him, pulled out a chair, and sat across from Wu Jiao. “What was your name again?”
Wu Jiao raised his eyebrows slightly. “I believe you’ve already asked that question.”
Yu Chunming expressionlessly opened Wu Jiao’s wallet. Inside was an ID card with the name “Wu Jiao” printed on it. Besides that, there was also a photo of a boy in one of the compartments.
“Is this your son?” Yu Chunming asked.
Wu Jiao’s eyes darkened. “What are you trying to do?”
“Just a routine inquiry. What do you think we’re trying to do?” Guan Yao replied with a cold face.
Wu Jiao chuckled. “Comrade Police, I really don’t know anything. Even if you ask until the sky falls, I won’t be able to tell you anything useful.”
“Is that so?” Yu Chunming looked up at him and then uttered a name softly, “Ai Hua.”
As soon as those two words were spoken, the expression on the other person’s face changed instantly.
Guan Yao stood up and placed the test report that Yu Chunming had brought into the room on the interrogation chair. He said, “Take a good look. Is the person on this report with a parental probability greater than 99.99% your mother, Ai Xiuhong?”
“Wu Jiao” stiffened all over, staring motionless at the report beside him.
“Ai Hua, male, native of Shunyi County, registered residence in the Jin A Lin Mountain Area, Za Mu Er City, Factory Street. In theory, you should be fifty-four years old this year, unless…” Yu Chunming paused, “unless you ‘disappeared’ in the fire thirty-three years ago.”
The former Ai Hua, the current Wu Jiao, was silent at this moment, his face pale. He never expected that he would be discovered within twenty-four hours of being arrested.
“Do you have anything to say in your defense?” Guan Yao asked.
“I… I don’t know anything.” He repeated the same sentence.
Yu Chunming laughed. “Is it still useful to say you don’t know anything? I’m telling you, what you’re involved in is more than just a simple illegal border crossing. We currently have two major vicious cases that urgently need to be solved. These two major vicious cases are both related to your customer, this account named ‘H166.’ If you continue to remain silent, I’m not sure if you’ll still be able to… see the boy in this photo again.”
“You…”
“This isn’t a threat, and we’re not qualified to threaten you. I’m just stating the facts,” Yu Chunming said calmly. “Your mother, Ai Xiuhong, is outside. Just now, she admitted in front of all of us that you returned home once twenty-seven years ago, and since then, you’ve sent someone to send her living expenses every three months. We already have the remittance slips. With concrete evidence, what else do you have to say?”
Wu Jiao, or rather, Ai Hua, subtly flickered his eyes after hearing these words.
Yu Chunming saw his wavering and deliberately baited him: “Of course, I imagine you were able to leave Za Mu Er without looking back and disappear for so many years without coming home to see your mother, so you probably don’t have any feelings for her anymore. It’s a waste that your mother has been waiting for you until today. You should know that your mother has been widowed for more than thirty years. Besides a few students who occasionally visit, she doesn’t even have anyone to take care of her. She’s almost eighty years old this year. How many more years does she have to live in this world waiting for you to come back? What do you think will happen if I show her this test report and then tell her that the son she’s been waiting for all these years doesn’t want to see her?”
“I didn’t say I don’t want to see my mom!” Finally, the man who had been pretending for too long couldn’t help but shout.
Guan Yao deliberately asked from the side, “Still don’t know anything now?”
How could Ai Hua not know anything? The moment that test report was placed in front of Ai Hua, all his advantages and psychological defenses had already collapsed.
“Besides your mother, Ai Xiuhong, our colleagues just now also took your photo to the Linchang Staff Family Compound to have Jiang Min compare it, and she recognized you at a glance. Ai Hua, you’re really brave enough to dare to wander around under her building. Are you afraid that people won’t recognize you?” Guan Yao questioned.
Ai Hua’s voice trembled slightly. “I… I just wanted to see her one more time.”
Yu Chunming looked at this man coldly, not saying a word.
“You definitely won’t be able to see Jiang Min,” Guan Yao flipped out a photo from his phone and held it up in front of Ai Hua. “This is a photo we just took of your mother outside. You can take a look at how old she looks now. This time you came back, you weren’t thinking about seeing your mother, but instead…”
Guan Yao didn’t continue.
Ai Hua turned his head away and closed his eyes.
“See clearly?” Yu Chunming asked. “If you’ve seen clearly, then answer every question we ask you properly. After you sign your statement, we’ll apply to let you see your mother from a distance before you go to the detention center.”
Ai Hua pursed his lips tightly, as if he had made a huge decision before agreeing to this request. He said, “Okay, I agree.”
Guan Yao nodded and put away his phone. “If you agree, then let’s start now. First of all, the same question, what’s your name?”
“My name is… Ai Hua.” Although unwilling to admit it, the man who had been “Wu Jiao” for more than thirty years still answered, “My name is Ai Hua, and I should be fifty-four years old this year.”
“Then are you clear about why we summoned you to the police station today?” Guan Yao asked again.
“Clear,” Ai Hua took a deep breath and looked up at Yu Chunming. “Because you recognized me. At the entrance of the Linchang Staff Family Compound, you recognized me. Today, you chased after us to the Forest Ranger Station not to catch snakeheads, but to catch me. Comrade Police, can you tell me, who are you? And where have you seen me before?”
Yu Chunming was focused on typing out the statement. He glanced at Ai Hua and didn’t give any answer. “According to information provided by the masses, you’ve been going to the Linchang Staff Family Compound almost every morning for the past few days and lingering under Building 5 for a long time. You also claimed that you’ve seen Jiang Min’s performances before. Are these facts true?”
Ai Hua’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he answered, “True.”
Yu Chunming continued to ask, “Who is Jiang Min?”
“Jiang Min is…” Ai Hua paused slightly, “Jiang Min was my old colleague at the No. 2 Timber Factory. She used to be a performer in the performing arts troupe. I’ve been wanting to see her one more time before I leave these past few days, but… I never mustered the courage.”
Guan Yao frowned slightly. “Then talk about what specifically happened after the 9/24 fire, and why you’ve been living under a false name until now.”
Ai Hua’s expression froze, and then he slowly lowered his head.
According to him, it was September 23rd, thirty-three years ago. Ai Hua remembered clearly that on that day, he had sent Jiang Min a love letter expressing his true feelings.
“It was probably in the afternoon, maybe the evening, but it wasn’t dark yet. I remember it very clearly,” Ai Hua said. “The person who went with me to deliver the letter was called Qian Guowei.”
“Qian Guowei,” Yu Chunming interrupted Ai Hua’s memory. “First, describe this person in detail.”
Ai Hua licked his dry lips and answered, “Qian Guowei was my friend at the No. 2 Timber Factory. His family had some connections. After graduating from the factory’s school, he had been working at the No. 2 Timber Factory. We met because… once, the unit organized a social event. I had just joined, and a veteran worker was deliberately getting me drunk. He helped me deflect some of it, and later, we became friends.”
“What was Qian Guowei’s social circle like?” Yu Chunming asked again.
“Qian Guowei’s social circle…” Ai Hua pondered.
Yu Chunming looked at him. “It is said that Qian Guowei had a childhood friend named Lin Zhimin. Do you know him?”
“I don’t know him, but I’ve heard of him.” Ai Hua answered immediately. “Lin Zhimin was a driver for the leaders of the No. 2 Timber Factory. He lived in the same building as Qian Guowei when they were kids. The years that I was good friends with Qian Guowei, he was transferred to Lin City. I haven’t met this person, but I know that Qian Guowei and him have an unusual relationship.”
“What about Jiang Min? What was the relationship between Qian Guowei and Jiang Min?” Guan Yao asked from the side.
“Jiang, Jiang Min,” Ai Hua stammered, “Qian Guowei liked Xiao Min a lot, but as far as I know, Xiao Min hated him quite a bit.”
“Hated him quite a bit?” Yu Chunming raised his head.
Jiang Min’s reaction when she mentioned Qian Guowei before did show that she hated this person quite a bit, perhaps related to Qian Guowei’s behavior, or perhaps related to the lingering, entangled relationship between the two.
But Ai Hua gave a completely different answer. He said, “Because Qian Guowei ruined Xiao Min’s first marriage.”
Yu Chunming’s typing hand paused.
“Qian Guowei was very good to his brothers, but not so good to women, but Xiao Min… was the only woman he truly liked,” Ai Hua said. “He didn’t expect that Xiao Min would actually run to Songlan to escape him, and in order to stay in Songlan, she married someone with power and influence.”
“He chased after her to Songlan back then?” Yu Chunming asked.
“Yes, and he brought me with him.” Ai Hua pursed his lips, seemingly hesitating about how to say the next words.
“Brought you with him?” Guan Yao asked strangely, “Specifically… when did this happen?”
“The second year Xiao Min got married, which was the year the fire happened, around… May, I followed Qian Guowei to Songlan and found Xiao Min’s workplace through connections,” Ai Hua sighed softly. “I didn’t know what Qian Guowei was planning to do at that time. If I had known, I would never have let him do that.”
“What was Qian Guowei planning to do?” Yu Chunming suddenly raised his voice, causing Guan Yao to startle involuntarily.
Ai Hua didn’t notice anything unusual. He continued, “Before going to Songlan, Qian Guowei specifically approached Xiao Min’s parents and asked for a handkerchief embroidered by her mother. He told me that Xiao Min’s father had injured his leg while working in the mountains and urgently needed Xiao Min to go home to see him. I believed it at the time, so I took the handkerchief and found Xiao Min, and Xiao Min believed it too.”
“And then?” Guan Yao felt vaguely uneasy.
“And then…” Ai Hua closed his eyes. “Then, I followed Qian Guowei’s request and led Xiao Min to a dance hall. The bartender at that dance hall had already been bribed by Qian Guowei, but I, but I didn’t know at all. To make Xiao Min happy, I bought her a drink, that drink… had a problem.”
What was the problem? Ai Hua hadn’t had time to say it clearly, but Guan Yao had already frowned deeply. He could already guess what method Qian Guowei had used to ruin Jiang Min’s first marriage.
That was thirty-three years ago, the spring breeze of reform had not yet blown, but the seeds of chaos had already been sown.
Ai Hua couldn’t say exactly what was in that drink, but when he and Jiang Min woke up together, they had already entered a state of no return.
“I swear I didn’t touch Xiao Min, but the bartender testified that he saw Xiao Min and I embracing each other,” Ai Hua said with difficulty. “I couldn’t argue at all, and Xiao Min couldn’t argue either. This matter spread to the Songlan Grand Theater and then to Xiao Min’s ex-husband’s workplace, and eventually it became uncontrollable. I was sent directly back to Za Mu Er and even given a disciplinary action. I heard that Xiao Min’s ex-husband filed for divorce because of this matter, and Xiao Min was returned to the Linchang Performing Arts Troupe a month later.”
The light in the interrogation room was dim, so no one noticed that Yu Chunming was shaking slightly. He stared intently at the computer screen, typing out every word that Ai Hua said, one by one. No one knew that he had actually heard of these things before, but at that time, Yu Chunming didn’t know that the protagonists of the story would be Ai Hua and Qian Guowei.
“What your mother did back then, if you have the chance, you can ask her in person. There’s no need to blame me here for treating you badly. I’ve already done my best,” Yu Zhenshan had once said.
Yu Chunming was extremely angry: “What she did is her business. Why are you imposing what she did on me?”
“Why am I imposing what she did on you?” Yu Zhenshan let out a cold laugh after hearing this question. He said, “You are Jiang Min’s son. I won’t say bad things about your mother in front of you, but you better remember this, you are just Jiang Min’s son.”
You are just Jiang Min’s son…
Yu Zhenshan’s words still echoed in Yu Chunming’s ears. He slowly exhaled and interrupted Ai Hua, who was still talking incessantly: “Alright, continue. What happened on the night of September 23rd, you don’t need to talk about this matter anymore.”
“Oh, good, good…” Ai Hua also breathed a sigh of relief. He turned to recall, “On the night of September 23rd, after Qian Guowei and I sent the letter to Xiao Min, we went to the supply and marketing cooperative to drink.”
“Was it just the two of you?” Guan Yao asked.
“There was one more, there was a colleague named Xu Wen, the three of us have always had a good relationship,” Ai Hua answered.
“What time did you three drink until?” Guan Yao asked again.
“Around eleven thirty at night.”
“What did you do after drinking?”
This should have been a very ordinary question, but who knew that after hearing it, Ai Hua actually revealed an expression of unspeakable suffering.
Guan Yao was suspicious: “On the night of September 23rd, besides drinking, what else did you do?”
“I, I can’t remember clearly.” Ai Hua held it in for a long time and came up with an answer that was obviously concealing something.
“Can’t remember clearly?” Guan Yao’s face darkened. “You can remember the matter of sending a love letter to Jiang Min so clearly, but you say you can’t remember what you did after drinking.”
Ai Hua pursed his lips tightly, unwilling to speak.
“Think about your mother waiting for you outside,” Yu Chunming interjected, “I know you don’t care about her, but she cares about you. If you don’t explain things clearly, you won’t have a chance to see her.”
“If, if I say it, can you, can you let bygones be bygones? After all, this matter has already passed for more than thirty years…” Ai Hua began to bargain.
“You have to say what it is first before we can judge whether we can let bygones be bygones,” Guan Yao knocked on the table. “If you were the one who set the fire thirty-three years ago, we definitely won’t let bygones be bygones. Of course, if you just got drunk and stole two corns from someone’s cornfield, we wouldn’t severely punish you for it.”
Ai Hua bit his teeth, a war raging in his heart. He looked at the slogans on the wall that read “Confess leniently, resist strictly,” took a deep breath, and said, “That night, the three of us, Qian Guowei, Xu Wen, and I, after drinking… harmed Xiao Min.”