“Xiao Liang?”

Almost instinctively, Sui Jing’s hand moved to the holster at her waist. But the moment she noticed her mentor reclining casually against the hospital bed, she realized things were far more complicated than she had imagined.

Her gaze sharpened with suspicion as she stared at Yuan Wenhai and asked in a low voice,

“Captain Yuan, you’ve known all along that Xiao Liang was hiding in Yunshe?”

“Officer Sui, don’t blame Captain Yuan for keeping it from you,” Xiao Liang said calmly. “I pulled him out of a burning police car. He knows I was framed. If he didn’t try to help clear my name, what kind of person would he be?”

He paused slightly before adding, evenly, “Of course, if you decide to report Captain Yuan, I’ll simply say that I came here today to turn myself in voluntarily.”

Yuan Wenhai almost felt the urge to kick him. That first part had been completely unnecessary.

But since Xiao Liang had already said it—and considering Xiao Liang clearly didn’t intend to meekly follow Sui Jing back to the county bureau—Yuan Wenhai simply kept silent.

“Dad, Brother—how did you two end up here?” Xiao Liang asked, turning to his father Xiao Changhua and his older brother Xiao Xiao.

“How could we possibly sit at home and wait?” Xiao Xiao replied. “We rushed to Shishan days ago. But we couldn’t get any news about you at the county bureau. Last night we heard Captain Yuan had come to Yunshe, so we rushed here overnight to try our luck. Only this morning did we finally find Officer Sui.”

For days they had been unable to eat or sleep in peace. Now that they saw Xiao Liang standing with Yuan Wenhai—and heard that Yuan had been actively helping investigate the case—they finally breathed a little easier.

Yuan Wenhai’s wife, Cheng Xia, of course knew the truth: her husband had let Xiao Liang escape at the crash site and had even secretly helped investigate the case. Both were serious violations of police discipline.

But Xiao Liang had also saved her husband’s life. Standing to the side, she found she couldn’t say a word in reproach. Instead, she understood why her husband had insisted on coming to Yunshe to work the case despite his injuries.

Sui Jing’s expression shifted uncertainly for a long moment before she finally looked at Xiao Liang and said slowly,

“I’ll take it that you’ve come here to surrender.”

“Come with me to the police station and give a statement.”

Xiao Liang extended both hands calmly, allowing her to pull out the handcuffs and lock them around his wrists.

At that moment, Gu Peijun appeared at the doorway. Xiao Liang shook his head slightly toward him, signaling him to simply watch.

Even though everyone understood that investigating the juice factory and investigating his case were essentially the same matter, it was better—if possible—to keep the two separate for now. Otherwise Fan Chunjiang might seize the excuse to stall.

Xiao Liang had no desire to spend too long in a detention center—nor did he want things to deteriorate to the point where Gu Peijun or his father had to take the evidence all the way to the provincial Fourteenth Retired Cadres’ Office.

“I’ll go with you to the station,” Yuan Wenhai said, sitting up and asking his wife to hand him his police uniform.

Xiao Liang followed Yuan Wenhai and Sui Jing on foot to the town police station. They borrowed an interrogation room there and had been recording statements for quite some time before Fan Chunjiang, Du Xuebing, Ge Jianguo, and the others finally rushed over after hearing the news.

It had only been a few days since his rebirth, yet Xiao Liang once again found himself handcuffed in an interrogation room.

But this time, he quietly enjoyed the stunned expressions on Fan Chunjiang’s faces.

By then Yuan Wenhai had already used the station phone to report Xiao Liang’s surrender to the bureau. Smiling, he shook hands with Fan Chunjiang and said,

“Mayor Fan, you guessed right. The suspect really did come back to Yunshe and turn himself in. The town comrades have worked hard these past few days. I’ve already reported it to Director Zhao. We’ll borrow the interrogation room here for a preliminary questioning—though the bureau won’t be able to send a vehicle to pick us up until this afternoon.”

“We were only doing what we should,” Fan Chunjiang said, staring at the calm Xiao Liang inside the interrogation room, his expression shifting uneasily. “Unfortunately we weren’t able to help much.”

“How could you say that?” Yuan Wenhai laughed lightly. “Without the pressure the town put on him, he wouldn’t have come forward so honestly.”

Then Yuan Wenhai shook hands with Du Xuebing.

“Director Du being here is perfect. We need to verify the previous statements again. Just routine procedure. If we can finish it here in Yunshe, it’ll save you a trip to the county.”

As the head of the town’s Economic Management Station, Du Xuebing had been the one who organized the drinking party the night before the incident. He had also watched Xiao Liang get drunk and be taken to He Hong’s house to sleep—and had given several testimonies unfavorable to Xiao Liang.

Now that the county bureau had officially opened a case and Yuan Wenhai was the officer in charge, it was perfectly normal for him and Sui Jing to borrow the station’s interrogation room, question the surrendered suspect, and summon the involved parties and witnesses to verify their earlier statements.

Otherwise, they would have to summon everyone to the county bureau again to redo the statements.

—

“I was framed,” Xiao Liang said calmly. “That day I had been auditing the accounts of Nanting Village and the juice factory again. I was planning to return to town, but Du Xuebing came over at the last minute and insisted I stay for drinks in the village. Xiao Yujun and He Hong were there too. I couldn’t refuse.”

“Du Xuebing and Xiao Yujun kept pressing drinks on me. I’m not a strong drinker—they got more than a jin of baijiu into me. After that I remember nothing. When I woke up, I found He Hong lying beside me.”

“That’s all already in my previous statement at the station. As soon as I woke up, I pushed her away, got dressed, and tried to leave. But Xiao Yujun was already waiting outside the courtyard. He grabbed me and started beating me, shouting that I had raped He Hong.”

Sui Jing asked, “If you believe you were framed, why did you run from the accident scene?”

“Maybe I was afraid He Hong and Xiao Yujun were setting me up and I had no way to explain it. Or maybe after the accident my head just overheated and I ran. My mind was a mess. I honestly don’t know why I ran.”

“I hid in the neighboring town for three or four days. Eventually I calmed down and realized running wouldn’t solve anything. So I came back to Yunshe to turn myself in.”

“Explain in detail what you did while fleeing—how you hid and how you eventually found Captain Yuan to surrender.”

“That night I crossed Mount Suyun and caught a ride from Sucheng Town back to Dongzhou City. I called home and learned that Officer Sui was waiting there. I didn’t want my parents to see me being taken away by police, so I lied and said I was still in Yunshe.”

“At the time I really did intend to return to Yunshe to surrender to Officer Sui—I wasn’t lying to her. But on the way back I hesitated again. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to explain things clearly. So I changed direction at the last minute and stayed at the Yunqing Inn in Sucheng Town.”

“Later, the more I thought about it, the more unwilling I felt. I wanted to find evidence of the frame-up. After thinking it over again and again, I finally gathered the courage to come find Captain Yuan and Officer Sui and surrender.”

“You’re responsible for every word you say,” Sui Jing said. “Look over the statement. If there are no problems, sign each page.”

She handed the record to Xiao Liang. With the handcuffs still on, he awkwardly flipped through the pages. After confirming everything was accurate, he took the pen and signed every page.

He Hong, Xiao Yujun, Du Xuebing, and the others were also summoned to the station to verify their previous statements.

Their testimonies were mostly the same as before. If anything, after having more time to coordinate their stories, their accounts sounded even more polished.

Whenever small contradictions appeared, they brushed them off as confusion caused by the shock of the incident.

Yuan Wenhai’s arm was still in a cast, and the station had only one official officer—Qian Haiyun—who had to handle daily duties. So all the statements had to be recorded personally by Sui Jing.

By the time everything was finished, the sun was already slanting westward.

At that moment, the police vehicle from the county bureau finally arrived in Yunshe.

In 1994 the entire county bureau had only a handful of police cars—and one had already been destroyed in the accident. It was a heavy loss.

Before getting into the vehicle, Xiao Liang paused and looked at the evening sky.

The sunset burned across the horizon like a great fire blazing above the mountains.

“Secretary Wang Xingmin just called,” Yuan Wenhai said quietly as he sat in the police car, noticing Xiao Liang lingering outside. “The town held an emergency joint meeting. They’ve decided to report the issues involving the Nanting Juice Factory directly to the county bureau and request the Economic Investigation Division to step in.”

“But it may take some time to verify everything. Whether Xiao Yujun really instructed He Hong to frame you will still require a comprehensive review of the evidence.”

He added,

“You also refused to explain where you obtained those materials. Just said you ‘picked them up on the road.’ Verifying them will take time too.”

Xiao Liang simply smiled and waved toward his father and brother, who had spent the entire day waiting outside the station.

Since Yuan Wenhai and Cheng Xia were also returning to the county, the police car had no room for them. His father and brother would have to find another ride to follow behind.

Xiao Liang had hoped they would just go home and wait for news—but he knew they would never be able to rest easy.