Chapter 221: The Demon Witch Skilled in Acting, Deliberately Misguiding the Interrogation

Inside the mediation room of the Jinling Fengze Criminal Investigation Brigade.

Zhang Lifang sat uneasily on her chair, her palms pressed against the edge of the table, body leaning slightly forward, her face clearly showing visible tension as she glanced around nervously.

Beside her sat Yu Ruyi, who could not be left alone.

Completely unaffected by the current surroundings, she focused intently on the Great Compassion Mantra scripture before her, continuously chanting prayers for the dead.

Next to her lay a peach wood sword, and midway through her chanting, she would suddenly pick it up and wave it a few times, as though exorcising spirits.

…

Zhang Lifang didn’t have to wait long.

After retrieving a notebook, Lin Tian returned quickly to the mediation room along with Huang Qiang and Wang Qi, ready to dig deeper for useful clues.

As the three entered the room.

Zhang Lifang deliberately put on an even more anxious expression and immediately asked in a fearful tone.

“Officers…”

“Are you… are you going to…”

Though she didn’t finish her sentence,

the three experienced officers could clearly sense her nervousness and apprehension.

However.

This kind of nervousness didn’t raise any suspicions. On the contrary, they felt it would’ve been more suspicious if she had remained calm after arriving at the criminal investigation division.

After all, this place wasn’t like a neighborhood precinct.

In the common public perception, criminal investigations were for major, violent, or fatal cases—getting caught up in one could mean serious trouble.

So for a not-very-educated nanny to show this kind of fear and anxiety in front of them was actually quite normal.

At the very least,

based on Zhang Lifang’s demeanor alone, Lin Tian and the others had already begun to ease off their suspicion toward her.

The person in charge of Fengze Criminal Investigation Brigade—Wang Qi—sat down slowly and gently motioned for Zhang Lifang to relax, speaking kindly.

“Don’t worry, Zhang Lifang.”

“We’re not here for you. We just want to learn a bit about… any leads regarding Aunt Yu’s son—Jiang Sulong.”

“Besides, we’re still in the mediation room, not the official interrogation room, so take it easy for now. Just tell us what you know.”

Wang Qi’s words

seemed to ease Zhang Lifang’s emotions a little, and the tension on her face subsided quite a bit.

But in the next second,

she suddenly reacted as if realizing something, her eyes widening with confusion as she asked,

“Sister Yu’s son?”

“If… if I remember correctly, Sister Yu only had one son, right? I think he died overseas years ago. What… what’s going on?”

“Could it be that Sister Yu’s son isn’t actually dead? But that can’t be right either. If he’s still alive, why hasn’t he come to see her? You know, Sister Yu chants every day to help her son’s soul find peace.”

“Maybe if her son came back, Sister Yu’s dementia might even get better.”

It had to be said—

Zhang Lifang’s response was spot on. First she relaxed, then showed shock, and finally expressed sympathy for Yu Ruyi.

This seamless sequence of actions had clearly been rehearsed countless times in private.

All so that… when the police eventually tracked down Priest’s true identity and called her in for questioning, she’d be able to walk out of the station unscathed.

And clearly,

the time she’d spent practicing had paid off.

Seeing Zhang Lifang’s genuine, perfectly in-character performance as a middle-aged nanny further lowered the suspicions of the three officers across from her.

Lin Tian reorganized his thoughts, tapped the table with his fingers, and asked seriously,

“Whether Jiang Sulong is alive or dead isn’t your concern.”

“What I need to know is—did Aunt Yu ever mention anything about her son to you?”

“As long as it’s about Jiang Sulong, anything will do.”

Knowing how precious time was, Lin Tian skipped all preliminary probing and went straight to the key intel.

Zhang Lifang paused slightly, then quickly furrowed her brows and glanced up at the ceiling, putting on a thoughtful expression.

A few seconds later—

Zhang Lifang suddenly nodded, clenching her fists in visible excitement.

“I’ve got it!”

“I remembered something!”

“It was two years ago when Sister Yu’s daughter hired me to take care of her.”

“Because back then, Sister Yu’s dementia had already gotten pretty bad. She’d often forget to flush the toilet, forget her keys, forget to turn off the gas stove, and so on.”

“In fact, there were even two incidents where she nearly caused a fire, so they brought me in to look after her.”

“At first, aside from being forgetful, Sister Yu didn’t show any other symptoms. At least, she wasn’t yet completely unable to take care of herself like now.”

“Then I started to notice that when she had nothing to do, she’d often pick up the picture frame on the dining table and gently wipe it again and again, sometimes even dabbing at her eyes.”

“Normally, as a nanny, I’m not supposed to ask about the employer’s private matters, but one time I just couldn’t hold back, so I asked her…”

‘Sister Yu, if you miss your son that much, why don’t you ask him to come visit you?’

At this point—

Zhang Lifang paused again, glanced at Yu Ruyi beside her, then looked back at Lin Tian and the others and shook her head with a sigh.

“She said…”

‘Her son died five years ago. He was killed by a bomb overseas, died instantly, not even a chance for rescue.’

‘When she rushed over to the foreign country, she didn’t even get to see him one last time. All that was left was a cold urn of ashes.’

‘Then she started blaming herself, saying it was her fault for not caring enough about her son, not even bothering to really find out what kind of work he was doing abroad.’

‘She believed everything he said, and in the end, the only photo left was the one in her arms.’

“I could tell… Sister Yu was full of remorse back then. If she had another chance, there’s no way she’d let her son work abroad again.”

Hearing this—

Lin Tian and the others couldn’t help but frown slightly.

Because from what Zhang Lifang said, they could already surmise…

If Yu Ruyi only found out her son was a foreign mercenary on the day Priest faked his death, then the clues she held were probably very limited.

Trying to get a breakthrough from this angle seemed increasingly unlikely.

Just as Lin Tian was silently frustrated and preparing to move on with questioning—

Zhang Lifang suddenly looked up, as if recalling something crucial.

She immediately glanced around, shielding her mouth as she lowered her voice like a gossiping aunt from the countryside.

“Right, officers.”

“I suddenly remembered something…”

“A year ago—yes, about a year ago—Sister Yu’s dementia had worsened. She often stared into space and muttered nonsense.”

“I remember once, while she was holding that photo frame, for some unknown reason, she suddenly said this—”

‘It’s all Xiaomei’s fault. All Xiaomei’s fault. She clearly knew about this long ago, yet still helped her brother keep it from me. And in the end… in the end, things turned out like this…’