Cui Xiaoye offered no resistance, submissively following Lu Linjiang into an interrogation room. Once inside, she froze at the sight of the person already there. Cui Wenxing, sitting dejectedly, also turned a cold face toward her the moment he saw her.
"Sit," Lu Linjiang directed. Cui Xiaoye took a sharp breath and silently sat across from Cui Wenxing.
Cui Wenxing looked at her with a complex expression, eventually letting out a resentful grunt. Cui Xiaoye was utterly bewildered by her husband's behavior, but she knew this was not the time to ask questions. She stole a timid glance at Lu Linjiang and helplessly lowered her head.
Lu Linjiang placed a printed report on the table. "This is the laboratory report for the hair samples I found. Do you know where these things came from? Cui Qian has already confessed. You, your father, and the old village head—the three of you cannot escape this simply by remaining silent."
Cui Wenxing bore a striking resemblance to Cui Shihai, particularly the way his eyelids drooped halfway. Stripping away the factor of age, the two faces could almost overlap perfectly.
Lu Linjiang looked at him coldly. "Or perhaps there’s one person missing from this list." He turned to Cui Xiaoye. "You’ve been married to Cui Wenxing for so long. If you tell me you were completely in the dark, how much credibility do you think that has?"
Cui Xiaoye didn't understand why the policeman, who had seemed so kind during the day, had suddenly changed his temperament. She looked at Lu Linjiang with terror and confusion, then at the indifferent Cui Wenxing, seemingly unable to process what had gone wrong.
"You've been married to Cui Wenxing for several months. Did you really know nothing about his family's smuggling business?"
Cui Xiaoye shook her head frantically. She sensed something was terribly wrong and stared intently at Cui Wenxing. But he refused to look at her, his expression one of cold detachment, completely ignoring her silent pleas for help.
"It doesn't matter, though. The lab reports are out, and we’ll likely have the ledgers and other records within the next half hour. When that happens, we won't need you to speak. Once the chain of evidence is complete, your confessions won't be nearly as important."
Cui Xiaoye couldn't fathom why Cui Wenxing was suddenly so cold to her, but she understood Lu Linjiang's words. The Cui family’s crimes were significant—it wasn't just a matter of some wild game. She instantly understood the motive behind her mother’s uncontrollable excitement and her blatant attempt to drag her mother-in-law down with them.
The two elders of the Cui family hadn't been warm toward her, but in truth, aside from being guarded and aloof, they hadn't done much to her. Given the fact that her mother came to their door every few days demanding money, their attitude wasn't actually unreasonable. Moreover, Cui Wenxing had always been good to her. Though she didn't love him, he had been meticulously caring during their months of marriage, defending her before his parents and repeatedly enduring her own parents' behavior.
Cui Xiaoye asked herself honestly: Cui Wenxing had never done her wrong.
Lu Linjiang asked, "Cui Xiaoye, do you really have nothing to say?"
Cui Xiaoye looked at the aggressive Lu Linjiang, then at the silent, head-bowed Cui Wenxing. Her mind flashed to Zhang Di, who was waiting outside with an expectant, excited face. "...I have nothing to say. Whatever Cui Wenxing confesses, that is my answer."
Cui Wenxing snapped his head up, looking at her in disbelief. Cui Xiaoye, having finally understood everything, remained calm.
Lu Linjiang gave a mocking smile. "So, I take it you don't plan on looking after Cui Bin outside?"
"Cui Bin?" Cui Xiaoye's eyes lost focus for a moment, and the hands resting on her lap trembled involuntarily. But she quickly regained her composure and looked firmly at Lu Linjiang. "Between him and me... my greatest regret is not paying back the tuition money he helped me with before. If I can ever get out in the future, I'll find a way."
Cui Wenxing was stunned. "You and him... weren't you and him...?"
Cui Xiaoye looked at her husband. "Yes, we were, once. But after I married you, there was nothing else between us. I just felt it wasn't right to owe someone money. I haven't been able to work, so I'm still quite short on the savings I need to pay him back."
A dazed expression appeared on Cui Wenxing's face. "But... what about the child?"
At the mention of the child, Cui Xiaoye's body trembled instinctively. "The child is gone..."
But that wasn't what Cui Wenxing wanted to hear. He opened his mouth, suddenly realizing something was amiss, but the words wouldn't come out. Lu Linjiang seized the opportunity. "What is it? What exactly did Cui Dongming say to you when he came over that afternoon?"
Cui Wenxing looked at Lu Linjiang blankly, his gaze shifting back and forth between the detective and Cui Xiaoye. "He said... he said..."
"That the child belonged to Cui Bin?"
Both of them looked at Lu Linjiang in shock. Cui Xiaoye let out a sharp cry, her eyes instantly filling with tears. "What nonsense was the old village head talking!" She turned to Cui Wenxing. "How could he say such a thing!"
Cui Wenxing still seemed unable to believe it. "It was really mine?"
Cui Xiaoye, who had always seemed somewhat weak, suddenly widened her eyes. Large tears rolled down her cheeks as she shook with rage. "Do you even know what you're saying? If I were that kind of person... if I were that kind of person, could you really not have seen it at all?"
Cui Wenxing finally realized the truth. In a panic, he tried to grab Cui Xiaoye's hand, but she nimbly dodged him. "The old village head said... that my dad thought something was wrong, so he had the child's blood tested. The blood type didn't match mine... He said he was sorry for me, that he hadn't kept a close enough eye on Cui Bin..."
Cui Xiaoye covered her mouth tightly, shock and anger intertwining on her face. The resentment and disappointment in her eyes stabbed into Cui Wenxing's heart like a blade.
"Setting aside whether that small amount of tissue could even be used for blood typing, even if it could, the child's blood type could be the same as yours, or the same as Cui Xiaoye's, or more likely a combination of both. You just believed him based on nothing but his word? Did he show you a lab report?"
Cui Wenxing went limp. That child, who had only just developed a heartbeat before being lost, was his. He wanted to feel joy, but he was so stifled he couldn't even cry. "I... I..."
Yang Bo knocked on the door and poked his head in. "Captain Lu, the deleted files have been recovered. There are two ledgers inside. I'll print them out immediately."
Lu Linjiang nodded. "Did you hear that? I don't need your confession anymore." He gave Cui Xiaoye a meaningful look. Realizing the implication, Cui Wenxing immediately said in a panic, "No, no, no! I'll talk! I'll talk! This has nothing to do with Xiaoye!"
Cui Wenxing anxiously grabbed Lu Linjiang's arm. "Xiaoye has been married to me for less than half a year. She knows nothing about my family's business!"
Still consumed by anger, Cui Xiaoye seemed not to hear what Cui Wenxing was saying. She turned her body away, completely blocking his line of sight.
"The business was run by my father and me. He and the old village head were involved in some smuggling. There's a group of people who have the connections to get things like tiger bones, tiger skins, and pangolins. These things are used in medicine. The suppliers can get the goods, and the buyers have the channels, but transport is difficult because of the checkpoints. With the old village head covering for us here, the inspections aren't strict. We served as a transit station, helping them move the goods."
"What else?"
"That's really it. The ranch was just a transit station. Occasionally, when there was a lot of stock, my family would use the excuse of purchasing supplies to help move some of it out and take a cut of the profit," Cui Wenxing said urgently.
"What exactly is buried in the woods outside the ranch?"
"Mostly offal and scraps from the shop's slaughtering. Sometimes the volume was too large and it would be too conspicuous to just throw away, so we'd bury it there to use as fertilizer." Fearing that Lu Linjiang would implicate Cui Xiaoye, Cui Wenxing was extremely cooperative and told everything he knew.
"Then why did I dig up tiger and bear hair from there?" Lu Linjiang asked, puzzled.
Cui Wenxing was also stunned. "Tiger hair? Bear hair? Tigers and bears are rare goods. Sometimes it doesn't even matter if they've been bitten by rats; no one cares about a little damage. There's no way they would be buried."
His expression didn't look like he was lying. Lu Linjiang finished his notes and asked, "How often did you help with the transit?"
"Usually my father handled it, especially since Cui Dongming has gotten older these past two years. In my memory, it happened maybe seven or eight times a year. The volume was never too large each time. If there were bears or tigers, that was a major deal." Cui Wenxing looked at Lu Linjiang earnestly. "Really, I usually only helped out when my father was too busy. My father specifically instructed that Xiaoye must never know. Officer, Xiaoye really has nothing to do with this!"
Lu Linjiang reviewed the written record, then pushed it over for Cui Wenxing to sign. "Whether she's involved or not will depend on the other evidence." He watched Cui Wenxing sign, picked up the record, and walked out, seemingly forgetting to take Cui Xiaoye with him.
Cui Xiaoye's emotions had been a rollercoaster. Now that only she and Cui Wenxing remained, she suddenly didn't know what to say. Recalling his previous misunderstanding, Cui Wenxing explained awkwardly, "I really..." He paused before continuing, "I really am a bastard. When the old village head said those things, I actually believed it all."
Seeing Cui Xiaoye turn her face away, he said frantically, "I really lost my head. When I heard someone tell me you went to meet Cui Bin, I panicked. I even heard you crying, and I thought..."
"What are you talking about!" Cui Xiaoye burst into tears. "Am I that kind of person?"
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." Cui Wenxing held his head in his hands, looking at her in agony. "I know I was wrong. I... I'll probably be going away for a long time... I don't know when I'll get out. You..."
He looked at her and said with difficulty, "Don't wait for me. I'll ask later if I can divorce you before I go to prison. I'm not worth waiting for. And don't stay on Liucheng Island. Go somewhere your parents can't find you. Don't think about them anymore; they aren't worth it either..."
Cui Xiaoye let out a wail of grief, but she tightly gripped Cui Wenxing's hand where it rested on the table.
***
