The reception room wasn't large.
A small coffee table, a two-seater sofa, and beside it a single-seater – Xu Ruyi sat bolt upright on the two-seater. As the door opened, she was reaching for a disposable paper cup to drink water. Seeing Qin Guan, her hand jerked, she hastily put the cup down, and stood up immediately.
Her face was full of timidity, nervousness, and panic.
Acting.
She's really good at acting.
Qin Guan walked slowly into the room, his cold eyes fixed on this once most familiar woman – she should have been discharged from the hospital by now. She'd lost weight, her face was pale, she probably hadn't slept well either, dark circles under her eyes were obvious. The bruises at the corners of her eyes and on her face were still there. The gauze plastered on her nose bridge made her face look somewhat unfamiliar, even a bit ridiculous.
Just to prove that "Qi Min had never returned," to incite him, Qin Guan, to confront Qi Min at the Xinhe Hotel, this vicious woman had actually inflicted such severe injuries on herself.
The only pity was that now, she too had been "invited" by Old He.
Naturally, it was because of Li Yang that Old He had dragged her out.
Old He sat on a chair against the wall, arms folded, eyes narrowed, watching them lazily and silently. His subordinate, still gentle, guided Qin Guan to the single armchair: "Sit here. We'll just have a simple chat. Once we're done, you can sign and leave."
This was no simple chat.
Qin Guan saw through Old He's scheme at a glance – this He guy was probably truly at his wit's end, unable to find any concrete evidence, so he simply brought him and Xu Ruyi face-to-face for a confrontation.
Xu Ruyi, of course, denied everything at first.
"I... I don't know any Li Yang. I only saw him once at my doorstep. At the time, he was following you... your Captain He. They were... were looking for trouble with Qin... with him, saying he was involved with Qi Min... He was crying and shouting right at my door then, Captain He was present..."
"No, Qi Min never told me about her boyfriend, never. We weren't that close... I've already explained about the car keys. It was me. I was just so angry at them, them sneaking around behind my back... So, I thought... I thought I'd break them up. I know it was stupid, interfering with your investigation. I'm sorry, I... I really didn't mean to..."
"I was just heartbroken, angry... My husband actually had a mistress..."
She spoke plaintively, her eyes rapidly reddening.
Qin Guan watched her coldly – he never knew before that this woman was such a good actress.
Only now, not just him, but even Old He could see the deep cunning beneath that "white lotus" face – Old He blinked, arms folded, saying nothing, leaving all the questioning to the young officer.
"You say you never knew Li Yang and had no contact with him at all, correct? But according to information provided by Li Yang, an unfamiliar mobile number contacted him several times, sending him messages. It was this number. Do you recognize it?"
The officer placed a piece of paper with the number written on it on the coffee table. Xu Ruyi's hand jerked, splashing a few drops of water from her cup.
Keep acting.
Qin Guan calmly "appreciated" her increasingly refined acting skills – this idiot had gotten used to acting and fabricating stories lately. But did she think this was a place for her to spin tales and perform?
The fact that the police had invited her here meant they had already dug up all this information clearly.
"The owner of this mobile number is named Dong Wei, an adult male. We contacted him personally. He's a courier working at the Xinya Road delivery station. His delivery area includes Guanlanting Residence where you live. About four months ago, he accidentally lost his ID card while delivering a package. It was picked up by your housekeeper, Feng Xiangping,"
"Feng Xiangping even posted on her social media looking for the owner. Here, this is it," the officer showed his phone screen to Xu Ruyi.
Xu Ruyi blinked in panic, not daring to look closely. Her face turned even paler.
Qin Guan's lips tightened, the corners of his mouth involuntarily lifting – women, always so self-righteously clever, trying to strategize like men, not realizing their web was already full of holes.
Using a found ID card to get a SIM card was a decent idea, but didn't she think to check that lackey Auntie Feng's social media before doing it?
"The owner Feng Xiangping never found. Dong Wei himself only discovered the loss much later, over half a month after, and got it reissued immediately. The original ID card was used by Feng Xiangping to apply for this mobile phone number at the service center three and a half months ago,"
The officer pushed photos captured by the service center's surveillance cameras in front of Xu Ruyi.
Xu Ruyi licked her lips, blinking even faster.
She always did this when she was extremely nervous – back when Qin Guan was preparing to propose to her, even though he had deliberately hinted at it beforehand, sitting on the park swing, clutching the ropes pretending to be relaxed, her face flushed red and she blinked incessantly.
Qin Guan lowered his eyelids, shooing that memory away like a fly. Raising his eyes again, his gaze returned to its icy coldness – this woman had caused him so much suffering; today was his best chance to strike back.
All he needed to do was wait for the right moment.
"Your housekeeper Feng Xiangping applied for this number, but you were the one using it," the officer continued. "You used this number to contact your friend Yang Qingqing in Shanghai, and also, to send several messages to Li Yang."
The officer placed a printed sheet of paper on the coffee table.
Black letters on white paper – this was evidence.
Let's see how she kept acting now.
"The first time you contacted Li Yang," the officer pointed at the time on the paper, "was this year—"
"I... I don't want to talk about this!" Xu Ruyi suddenly put down her cup, grabbed her bag from the sofa, stood up and tried to leave. "I don't want to say anymore! I want to go home!"
Unable to respond, her first thought was to leave? To flee?
"Why the rush to go home?" Qin Guan finally spoke – he wouldn't pretend anymore, and he wouldn't let her escape easily either. Childhood sweetheart, wife, mother of his daughter – this woman was now utterly opposed to him.
"Better to clear everything up. You secretly had Auntie Feng get this phone number, used it to contact Yang Qingqing. The Tianfu Hotel incident, that was probably all directed by you, right? And Li Yang, this guy is impulsive and reckless, capable of anything. Tell me, why did you incite him?"
Qin Guan's tone was calm, but every word hit its mark.
"Just say it all, Ruyi. Stop hiding things. Yang Qingqing, Li Yang, oh, and Xiao Zhi. You had Xiao Zhi stay in Jiayuan Residential Complex, right? You had him follow me, follow Qi Min. The police have already found out everything..."
Xiao Zhi was Qin Guan's main concern – during his three days of detention, Old He hadn't mentioned Xiao Zhi at all, clearly not believing him and not having investigated.
But Qin Guan knew that Xiao Zhi was Xu Ruyi's most vulnerable spot.
Accomplice Xiao Zhi.
Auntie Feng's only son.
"What Xiao Zhi? What does this have to do with Xiao Zhi?" Xu Ruyi clutched her bag strap, glaring at Qin Guan, her reddened eyes filled with resentment – the resentment of someone betrayed and hurt in love. "You cheated yourself. You betrayed the family yourself. How does that involve Xiao Zhi? Did Xiao Zhi make you cheat?"
She was still acting.
At this point, she was still only talking about feelings?
Could it be that she truly knew nothing about what happened before?
No, Qin Guan didn't believe it.
He took a deep breath, reminding himself not to lower his guard against the woman in front of him, reminding himself to calmly examine her, analyze her, and defeat her from the perspective of a professional lawyer.
"This isn't about our feelings. This concerns Qi Min's personal safety, Qi Min's life. She's still missing. Ruyi, I know you hate her, but now is not the time to act on impulse,"
"You colluded with Yang Qingqing. She's close to you, it's understandable she'd help cover for you. You incited Li Yang against me, that's also fine. But, could you please tell us Qi Min's whereabouts soon?"
"Xiao Zhi followed Qi Min. He went to the Xinhe Hotel. Ruyi, what exactly did you have him do to Qi Min? Or... did you actually have Li Yang do it? Please, tell us. It's okay if you come after me, really. But regarding Qi Min... this is very dangerous. Li Yang has always hated Qi Min for cheating. He's so young, impulsive..."
Qin Guan sighed deliberately at the right moment and stopped speaking.
This technique of using affirmative, attribution-inducing speech had always been his specialty.