"Name?" a police officer asked.
"Fang Yuan."
"Age?"
"25."
"Where are the bodies and firearms you hid?"
"This is a misunderstanding! How could I possibly commit murder and hide bodies, let alone stockpile firearms? Do you have any evidence?" Fang Yuan protested.
"According to our information, some time ago, you traded a large amount of gold with Nile Jewelry, accumulating a large sum of money. Now, that money seems to have been used up—several million, and we want to know what it was used for. Did you buy firearms?" the officer continued asking.
Fang Yuan's eyes narrowed. He hadn't expected them to uncover this much information. He thought to himself, "If you don't want anyone to know, don't do it in the first place." Clearly, he had underestimated Bai Zhi. It seemed he was getting deeper into a web of people.
Then he recalled that Wang Lili had said the owner of the Phoenix Chicken Farm was Bai Zhi. Fang Yuan felt like his connection to the Bai family was inevitable, as they kept crossing paths.
"If you don't answer me, I'll assume you're admitting to it..." the officer pressed.
"Who's admitting to anything? I used that money to buy fish. You can check it out for yourselves. I bought up all the small animals at the bird market and a large amount of fish," Fang Yuan replied.
"So what did you do with the fish? We haven't found any trace of what you bought. It's as if it vanished into thin air. Did you make it disappear like Bai Fengqing did? And what about the bodies and firearms? Did they vanish the same way?" the officer kept questioning, his face expressionless, as if he already expected these answers.
"Damn!" Fang Yuan cursed inwardly. How could these officers be so good at questioning?
"Tell me, how did you make all that stuff disappear? Where did you hide the bodies and firearms?" the officer pressed.
"Do you believe me if I say I'm innocent? You guys have no idea what's really going on. Maybe someone helped me hide it all," Fang Yuan retorted.
"So, you have accomplices? Who are they? How many people are involved?" the officer asked.
Fang Yuan felt that staying silent was his best option. He never studied criminal psychology or interrogation techniques, and he was already digging himself into a hole. Given the pace of their questions, he feared he'd end up framed with a life sentence. Even though his mind worked faster than most people, he couldn't outsmart these professionals.
From then on, Fang Yuan stayed silent, not answering anything. The officers didn't press him further, sticking to the usual procedure.
Fang Yuan kept his face expressionless, while his mind stayed alert to the outside world. Suddenly, his senses picked up a man around twenty-seven or twenty-eight entering the police station. Director Tian quickly approached him. They exchanged a few words before heading toward the interrogation room.
The door of the interrogation room wasn't fully closed, and Director Tian pushed it open. The two officers questioning Fang Yuan quickly stood up and saluted.
"Leave the room," Director Tian ordered.
"Yes, Director," the two officers said, hastily leaving. However, they didn't notice their recording devices had silently disappeared.
"Mr. Bai, feel free to ask him anything now," Director Tian said with a smile.
Bai Zhi nodded and glanced at Fang Yuan, who was handcuffed to the chair. He said, "Director Tian, I'd like to speak to him alone, if that's okay?"
"Of course," Director Tian smiled slightly and immediately left.
Once the door closed, Bai Zhi turned to Fang Yuan and said, "You don't seem nervous at all."
Fang Yuan glanced at Bai Zhi. For someone who was destined to disappear, he wasn't interested in engaging.
"Let me introduce myself. I'm Bai Zhi from the Bai family in the capital," Bai Zhi smiled and continued, "No need to say much else. If you tell me how to extract gold with 100% purity, I might be able to help you escape."
Fang Yuan's eyebrows shot up. "So the real reason you had people kidnap me was for this?"
"One of the reasons," Bai Zhi smiled. "We didn't have to make things so difficult, but your methods frightened me. Don't worry, though. While there are cameras here, there's no audio recording. No one can hear what we say."
Hearing this, Fang Yuan suddenly smiled. "You're scared, yet you still dare come see me? Aren't you afraid I'll make you disappear too?"
Under Fang Yuan's gaze, Bai Zhi suddenly felt a chill in his heart. He frowned and replied, "Although I don't know how you managed to make so many people vanish, I'm sure it must require a lot of preparation. But are you telling me you can make me disappear while being handcuffed?"
Fang Yuan curled his lips and looked at Bai Zhi mockingly but didn't answer.
Bai Zhi suddenly had an ominous feeling, but having grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth, he wasn't going to show weakness. Taking a deep breath, he turned cold and said, "Fang Yuan, I don't want to make things worse. In fact, Bai Fengqing is my competitor. Her disappearance doesn't bother me. If you tell me how to extract gold with that method, we can call it even, how about it?"
"Even? On what grounds?" Fang Yuan sneered.
"On the grounds that I'm Bai Zhi. The Bai family's power is far beyond your imagination. What you see now is just the tip of the iceberg," Bai Zhi said coldly, looking down at Fang Yuan. "You need to understand, even if you have a method to make people vanish without a trace, you are still just an ordinary person. You can't comprehend the power of a family like mine."
Fang Yuan smirked, about to speak, when suddenly his senses picked up something outside. He froze.
"You have no right to arrest Fang Yuan! What crime has he committed?" Wang Yuanyuan's voice came from outside.
In the police station's lobby, Wang Yuanyuan, Wang Lili, and Chen Xiyun had arrived.
"I'm bailing Fang Yuan out. I'll get him a lawyer," Wang Lili declared.
"That might not be possible," a police officer spoke up.
"Why not? What crime did he commit? Wasn't everything fine just yesterday?" Chen Xiyun frowned.
"Someone reported that he committed murder and hid the bodies, and that he has a large stockpile of firearms…"
"Murder? Hiding bodies? That's impossible! He's definitely being framed!" Wang Yuanyuan shouted.
"This can't be right. I've been classmates with him for so long, and I've never seen anything unusual about him. I'm bailing him out now," Wang Lili added.
"Not possible. This situation is far more serious than you think. You have no right to interfere. Leave now," Director Tian said coldly.
"No right? But you have the right to arrest someone without evidence?" a voice suddenly interrupted from outside.
At that moment, Lin Xiaoxiao from Nile Jewelry, along with a middle-aged lawyer, stormed in.
Director Tian's face instantly changed. "Miss Lin, what brings you here?"
"If I hadn't come, would Fang Yuan already have been sentenced to death? Where is he? I'm here to bail him out," Lin Xiaoxiao said coldly.
"Uh... well..." Director Tian was suddenly put on the spot.
Lin Xiaoxiao's expression changed as she glared. "What have you done to him? Have you used force?"
"Did you hurt Fang Yuan?" Wang Yuanyuan shouted angrily.
"No, no, he's still in the interrogation room..." Director Tian quickly explained.
"Take me to him now," Lin Xiaoxiao ordered.
"Uh..." Director Tian hesitated to stop her, but it seemed he was afraid of Lin Xiaoxiao and could only let her through.
Wang Yuanyuan and the other two women hurriedly followed.