heart poison

Under the bright light of the inquiry room, Man Guojun's silver hair looked particularly lifeless.

His eyes were lifeless, like old foggy glass beads that wouldn't move.

"You knew a long time ago that Man Xiaocheng is not your biological son?" Hua Chong asked.

Man Guojun was silent for a long time, his old hands were slowly clasped together, the loose neck skin heaved with the twitch of his Adam's apple, and the sound of a mouthful of phlegm came out of his mouth, and he answered the irrelevant question: "Why do you want Tell me the truth? I don't have a few years to live, so give me some hope for the rest of my life, okay?"

Hua Chong didn't expect him to have such a reaction, and his brows furrowed quietly.

"You're not sure, you just guessed that Man Xiaocheng is not your biological son?" Liu Zhiqin asked: "You have almost confirmed this guess in your heart, but you haven't verified it?"

Man Guojun rolled his old glass bead-like eyeballs with difficulty, "Whether I am his biological father or not has something to do with the case you are investigating? He has been crushed to death for many years, and you are still holding on to him?" Let it go. Someone died, what does it have to do with him? What does it have to do with me? I've already said it, I got what I deserved, I never thought of anyone to take revenge on, and I don't know anyone who would do it for him revenge."

Hua Chong's eyes dimmed, and he stared at Man Guojun. After a few minutes, he suddenly stood up and walked towards the door of the inquiry room.

Liu Zhiqin turned around, "Flower team?"

"I'm going to smoke a cigarette." Hua Chong said, "I'll be back soon."

When the door was closed, Liu Zhiqin looked at Man Guojun again, and saw many complicated emotions in the other's cloudy eyes.

Man Guojun was not surprised by the result of the paternity test, nor was he angry, but he said, "Why did you tell me the truth?"

Obviously, for some reason, Man Guojun guessed that Man Xiaocheng did not come from him.

In the past few years, his attitude towards Xiang Yunfang and Man Xiaocheng also proved this point.

But he was still unwilling to believe it, or rather, he hoped that it was all fake.

He lived in doubt, wanted to prove it, but dared not.

Like Li Liwen, he is afraid to face reality.

A day without knowing the truth, he can deceive himself for a day, but he is also struggling with pain for a day.While hating the betrayed wife and the "son" who shouldn't have been born, he longed for the truth not to come.

The reason for this contradictory reaction is probably because he once loved Man Xiaocheng, his "son", very much.

It was difficult for him to accept that the child he had poured his heart and soul into was the flesh and blood of another man.

What will be the result of such complicated emotions and human nature?

Liu Zhiqin crossed his fingers, propped his chin, stared at Man Guojun, thought deeply, and asked tentatively, "Do you know who Man Xiaocheng's biological father is?"

The muscles on Man Guojun's face twitched a few times, "I don't know."

"This person may be related to the recent case." Liu Zhiqin asked forcefully, "Do you not know, or are you unwilling to say?"

"I don't know." Man Guojun shook his head, "I don't know anything."

In the time of a cigarette, Hua Chong came back.

As soon as the door opened and closed, a gust of cold wind poured in.

Hua Chong threw the cigarette case and lighter on the table, holding the investigation report of Man Xiaocheng's family in his hand.

The loud sound of the lighter hitting the table made Man Guojun subconsciously look in his direction, but he quickly looked away.

"Before Man Xiaocheng started working, your wife Xiang Yunfang was the financial pillar of your family. She worked in a measuring tool factory and was a team leader. Although her income was not high, she was stable and had an iron job. "Hua Chong said: "But you, the money you spend showing people around the store can only subsidize your family."

Man Guojun's eyes were blank, and his lips moved a few times, as if he wanted to argue, but he didn't say anything, he just shrugged his shoulders.

"However, when you married Xiang Yunfang, you also worked in the measuring tool factory, and you were a model of production and an outstanding worker representative in your factory. Your salary is higher than that of Xiang Yunfang, and your position is also higher than hers." Hua Chong said in a tone. Pingping, such as telling an unimportant matter, "You could have lived steadily, but when Man Xiaocheng was 7 years old, you encountered a production accident and a steel thorn pierced your intestines."

Man Guojun lowered his head and murmured, "It happened a long time ago. I am no longer a measuring tool worker."

"The Measuring Tool Factory has borne your treatment and nursing expenses, but although you have recovered from your injuries, your body has suffered from permanent illnesses, and you will not recover at all. After you are discharged from the hospital, you are no longer qualified for your original job. The Measuring Tool Factory is sympathetic to your family and will transfer Xiang Yunfang In your position, the salary is a lot, and some subsidies have been added, and you were transferred to guard the warehouse. Originally, this arrangement was a good thing for you, with a leisurely job, suitable for recuperating your body, and a stable income. Hua Chong paused, and then said: "But you don't want to. After guarding the warehouse for half a year, you left the measuring tool factory and started doing odd jobs in various private shops."

Man Guojun didn't speak, but his eyes kept moving from side to side uneasily.

Hua Chong leaned forward, "Can you tell me why you don't want to stay in the measuring tool factory to guard the warehouse?"

Man Guojun remained silent, and his eyeballs moved more and more frequently.

Liu Zhiqin looked at the two people who were confronting each other, and found that he hadn't been able to guess the purpose of Hua Chong's question.

"Don't you want to say it?" Hua Chong raised his chin slightly, "Then I can only guess casually. If the guess is wrong, please don't mind too much."

Man Guojun moved his body uneasily, and issued a few monotonous syllables from his throat.

The syllable sounded like a rigid refusal.

Hua Chong ignored, "Man Guojun, you used to be a proud person. In your family, you are the pillar and the highest earner. You have the right to say what you say, and you regard yourself as the head of the family. But the accident Let you lose your health, and then lose your proud position. Xiang Yunfang not only replaced your position in the factory, but also replaced your position at home."

Man Guojun clenched his fists and said softly, "No, nothing. We, we are a family."

"Of course you are a family. After you were injured, your personality changed drastically, and you often fell ill. Going to the hospital is a common occurrence. Xiang Yunfang insisted on taking care of you and never ignored you. The old workers and old leaders of the measuring tool factory said that the two of you The relationship is very good. But you, gradually can't bear the change of status, you can no longer stay in the factory, you feel that you have become a joke of others."

"No." Man Guojun shook his head, "I didn't think so."

"How did you and Xiang Yunfang meet?" Hua Chong suddenly changed the subject, as if illogical.

However, Liu Zhiqin knew that this seemingly illogical jump was actually a way to disrupt the mind of the person being questioned.

Man Guojun was stunned for a while, opened his mouth in confusion, and said after a long time: "We are all employees. The workshop director introduced us."

"You dated for three years before getting married."

"Yes."

"At that time, you loved Xiang Yunfang very much."

Man Guojun hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

Hua Chong said slowly: "Xiang Yunfang also loves you very much."

Complicated expressions appeared in Man Guojun's eyes, his sparse beard trembled violently, and he refused to speak for a long time.

Liu Zhiqin understood it, it was bitterness, anger, unwillingness, and helplessness.

"Xiang Yunfang also loves you very much." Hua Chong repeated it on purpose, and added: "You are getting married with the blessing of your family."

Man Guojun shook his head slightly, his dry and deep laughter was particularly piercing, "Love? No love. She betrayed me early on."

Hua Chong stared into his eyes, "No, she loves you very much, otherwise why would she never leave to take care of you after you were injured?"

Man Guojun's mood fluctuated obviously, "That's because she feels guilty! She knows she's sorry for me!"

Looking at the protruding meridian in Man Guojun's hand and the sullen look between his brows, Liu Zhiqin finally understood why Hua Chong asked these "meaningless" questions.

Man Guojun is not the murderer, but his behavior is strange, and there may be important clues on him.But from the beginning to the end, Man Guojun showed a non-cooperative attitude.

Man Guojun must be allowed to speak.

In the past, some veteran criminal police used torture to extract confessions, but now torture is strictly prohibited. If you want to make a person tell the truth, you have to find another way.

It's useless to ask blindly. If you ask "Do you know who Man Xiaocheng's biological father is" a hundred times, Man Guojun will just keep silent.

He can only "take the initiative" to speak and "take the initiative" to talk about this person!

Hua Chong seems to be talking nonsense, but he is trying to induce him to talk about it step by step.

A betrayed man, too ashamed to speak of the woman who disgraced him, and the child that woman bore.

He would never say why he was betrayed, that would be a self-exposed scar, but if the person in charge of the inquiry repeatedly emphasizes that your wife loves you very much, she is meticulous and loyal to you, he will leave soon anger--

No!she does not love me!She betrayed me!

As long as you open your mouth, everything is easy to say.

"Are you ashamed?" Hua Chong relaxed, "Are you talking about Man Xiaocheng?"

Unaware that he was being controlled, Man Guojun raised his loose eyelids angrily, "She's sorry for me, she's been lying to me all this time!"

Hua Chong said patiently: "Man Xiaocheng is 31 years old this year, and you and Xiang Yunfang were married 31 years ago. You said she betrayed you because she was pregnant with another man before she married you. child?"

Man Guojun's breathing gradually became short of breath, his chest heaved continuously, and the breath he exhaled had a rancid smell that old people often have.

Hua Chong showed a searching look, "When you got married, didn't you know that she was pregnant? Or did you not know that the child in her belly was not yours?"

"I don't know!" Man Guojun slammed the table, furious, "She lied to me! She lied to me for 18 years!"

Hua Chong turned his mind, looked to the right, and met Liu Zhiqin's gaze.

18 years.

It was when Man Xiaocheng was 18 that Man Guojun realized that Man Xiaocheng was not his child.

The 18 years of living together is enough to form an extremely deep father-son relationship.

If Man Guojun suspected that Man Xiaocheng was not his own, then even if he maintained a husband and wife relationship with Xiang Yunfang, he would not have much affection for Man Xiaocheng.

But it wasn't until Man Xiao became an adult, when he had poured all his feelings into being a father, that he vaguely learned the truth.

For others, maybe they are not willing to face the truth.

This is so cruel.

Hua Chong took a deep breath, and asked as if asking for advice: "How did you realize that Xiang Yunfang lied to you? She didn't tell you on her own initiative, did she?"

Man Guojun gasped, "He's not like me, I can't give birth to such a son!"

Hua Chong secretly completed this sentence - he is not like me, others say, I can't give birth to such a son!

Whether children look like their parents or not is one of the most common gossips of the previous generation. It is widely criticized among young people for causing unnecessary family disputes, but older people enjoy it.

The "unlike" in Man Guojun's mouth should not refer to appearance.

"I can't see anything different." Liu Zhiqin had grasped the essence of Hua Chong's question, and said deliberately: "Looks can't explain the problem."

Man Guojun was even more excited, "It's not about looks! They said, said..."

"What?" Hua Chong's voice was extremely soft.

"Say I'm so useless, so weak, how can I have such an excellent son as Xiaocheng!" Man Guojun was so stimulated that he opened up the chatterbox, and shouted hoarsely: "I am in poor health, can't make money, and rely on women to support me!" The family has no money to send him to a cram school, and there is no way to send him to the best middle school in the town, but he insisted on being admitted to a teacher's school, with a full scholarship and subsidies. Send money at home... Others say, he can't be my seed! Dragon begets dragon, phoenix begets phoenix, the son of a mouse can make holes!"

"You believe it?"

"I do not believe!"

Hua Chong laughed twice, "Your thinking is quite strange. You suspect that Man Xiaocheng is not your son, but you don't believe other people's gossip. You are very contradictory."

Man Guojun was silent for a moment before saying, "I believe it."

"Why do you believe it again?"

"Does Man Xiaocheng look a little like me?" Man Guojun smiled wryly, and heaved a long sigh, "After Man Xiaocheng went to university, I asked Xiang Yunfang. She, she couldn't answer."

"She didn't deny it?"

"She just cried. She didn't say anything." Man Guojun closed his eyes, "This is already the answer."

Hua Chong didn't give him time to be sad, "In other words, Man Xiaocheng is not your biological son—this matter is a 'secret' that was not disclosed between you and Xiang Yunfang? Does Man Xiaocheng know?"

"I do not know."

"When Man Xiaocheng passed away, you were actually very sad, but hatred covered up your grief." Hua Chong said, "It's not that you don't have no feelings for him, it's just that your feelings are too contradictory."

Man Guojun fell into a brief daze, "No, I hate their mother and son, they owe me!"

"You use their funeral and compensation money with peace of mind, do you think they owe you?"

"Don't they owe me?"

"What about that man?" Hua Chong finally turned the question around, "He owes you more, but you want to protect him?"

Man Guojun was shocked beyond words, his whole body seemed to be frozen.

This time, even Liu Zhiqin was surprised.

Hua Chong's tone remained unchanged, "If you didn't want to protect him, why didn't you want to tell me——who is he?"

"I don't know!" Man Guojun's voice trembled violently, "How could I protect him? Me, me!"

"You want to say, it's too late for you to hate him?"

Man Guojun nodded mechanically.

"Then answer two questions for me." Hua Chong said, "Where were you when Lu Ke and Luo Xingshan were murdered? Why did you stay overnight?"

Man Guojun's face was full of anxiety, as if he realized that he shouldn't follow the train of thought of the person in front of him.

Hua Chong leaned back, "You want to help him."

"You fart!" Man Guojun exploded, "I help him kill? It's almost the same if I kill him!"

"It seems that you are very sure that he is the murderer?"

Man Guojun was shocked again, and quickly looked away, "You guys said..."

"I never said he was a murderer."

Man Guojun took a few breaths, leaned on the table because he was unwell, and said nothing.

??

"It's not going well." Back in the serious crime team's office, Hua Chong leaned on the sofa, "Man Guojun clearly knows something, but he doesn't say anything."

"Why do you think that Man Guojun is protecting the murderer?" Liu Zhiqin brought a chair and sat opposite.

"I just had such a guess at first, and after dealing with him just now, I am basically sure."

"But it's inconceivable to have such a guess." Liu Zhiqin said: "The person Man Guojun hates the most should be Man Xiaocheng's biological father, who we think is the murderer."

"That's true, regardless of the complexity of one's emotions."

"Complexity?"

"Man Guojun is an extremely contradictory person. On the one hand, he hates Yunfang and Man Xiaocheng, but on the other hand, he can't let go of his feelings for them. Deep down, he loves them, and they are his wife and children." There was a man on the sofa. I don’t know who left the pen cap, Hua Chong picked it up and squeezed it in his hand to play, “But people’s anger needs a vent, and he chose cold violence, and wanton use of the money they exchanged for death. He thinks this is Revenge, he keeps drugging himself—that's revenge."

Liu Zhiqin thought deeply, "He was not indifferent to Man Xiaocheng's death. On the contrary, he was very sad?"

"I'm wondering if he and the murderer have similar ideas?" Hua Chong threw the cap of the pen into the air and caught it again, "He actually wants to avenge Man Xiaocheng."

"While hating Man Xiaocheng, you want to kill the person who killed Man Xiaocheng?" Liu Zhiqin frowned, "Is this too distorted?"

"Not accurate." Hua Chong shook his head, "He wanted Lu Ke and others to die, but he didn't have the courage to do it himself. This is very similar to Li Liwen. If someone has the ability and courage to kill Lu Ke and the others, stand From his point of view, what do you think he would do?"

Liu Zhiqin remained silent, with a serious expression on his face.

What will Man Guojun do?

Standing on the sidelines, or contributing?

"But I don't have any evidence to prove my guess just now." Hua Chong sighed, "Man Guojun left the nursing home at night, maybe he really went to have fun like Liu Qiguo. There is another thing, Xiang Yunfang and Man Xiao Why did Cheng's biological father have a relationship? Why didn't they stay together later? The technical investigation team can find limited information, and Xiang Yunfang has also passed away for two years, so far no one who had close contact with her has been found yet."

"Where is the traffic police detachment?" Liu Zhiqin asked: "The day Feng Xuemin was killed, the murderer must have been paying attention to his whereabouts. If you check the road monitoring, maybe you will gain something."

"It has been checked and no suspicious vehicles have been found."

"Then what we have now is only one set of footprints."

"Why don't you think about it that way." Hua Chong said, "We already have a set of footprints, and we have the murderer's height, weight, and age."

Liu Zhiqin put his hands behind his head and said to himself: "Dragon begets dragon, phoenix begets phoenix..."

"Huh?" Hua Chong raised the corners of his eyes, "What do you want to say?"

"Man Guojun said that Man Xiaocheng is not like him. Then think about it in reverse, will Man Xiaocheng look like a murderer?"

"You reverse engineer too much." Hua Chong smiled, "What kind of image? Do you want to search for the murderer through facial recognition?"

Liu Zhiqin's eyes lit up, "Maybe..."

"Stop, stop!" Hua Chong waved his hand, "Father and son's facial features may indeed have similarities, but there are also father and son who look completely alike, and the slight similarities cannot be recognized at all. Besides, we don't have this kind of facial features now. mass recognition technology."

"In the final analysis, the key is lack of technology." Liu Zhiqin shrugged lightly.

"Tsk, look at your expression."

"I'll try to write a program in the future."

Hua Chong did not doubt his ability, but in criminal investigation, father-son facial recognition is extremely unreliable.

Liu Zhiqin said again: "Actually, what I wanted to say just now was not to use facial recognition to search for the murderer, Hua Dui, you made a mistake."

Hua Chongxin said, is that still my fault?

"Let's just assume that Man Xiaocheng is not as good as Man Guojun. What if his talent is like his biological father?" Liu Zhiqin emphasized: "Of course, this is just a hypothesis. Others just say that he is not like Man Guojun." Jun, didn't say he was like anyone else. But could he have indeed inherited something from his biological father?"

"Advantages?" Hua Chong folded his legs and propped his elbows on his knees, "After Man Xiaocheng resigned from Xiao Chaogang's company, he couldn't find a job for four months, and finally had to become a taxi driver. Although the industry There is no distinction between high and low, but obviously, if Man Xiaocheng can find another job that matches his education and experience, he will not drive a taxi. Maybe he is not suitable for the company, but only suitable for being a teacher."

"His shining point is studying when he was a student, and teaching after entering society." Liu Zhiqin said: "Assuming he is like his father, then..."

Hua Chong pondered for a while, then shook his head, "This is ridiculous. You want to say that his father is also a teacher?"

"I know it's ridiculous, but it's just my first thought, the so-called 'serious case inspiration'." Liu Zhiqin explained: "And the reason why I think so is based on your understanding of the murderer. profile."

Hua Chong said seriously: "Me? What did I say?"

"In Feng Xuemin's case, the murderer showed the only flaw—his footprints were not covered. What was the reason? He didn't know that the residents there were used to throwing garbage at long distances. One was because he didn't observe enough, and the other was because He doesn't have that habit himself, he should be a person with certain moral cultivation and high personal qualities. You said that." Liu Zhiqin said slowly, "I don't know if it's because I met Lan Youjun not long ago—— ——Lan Jing’s father, the teacher who taught at No. 50 Middle School in Los Angeles. As soon as you told me the characteristics of the murderer, I thought of Lan Youjun. Lan Youjun is also in his [-]s this year. He has cultivation, quality, and morality. They are all above average, and he is a teacher. The quality of most teachers is already higher than the average level of society. But Lan Youjun obviously has nothing to do with the case, so..."

"So you think the murderer is someone who is similar to Lan Youjun?"

"Yes." Liu Zhiqin said: "If the investigation against Man Xiaocheng fails to identify the suspect, and Man Guojun has not made an explanation for a long time, we can try to contact this type of people. After all..."

Liu Zhiqin smiled, "'Inspiration' is also a quality that elite criminal police should have."