Chapter 312 - 310: Interrogation

Chapter 312: Chapter 310: Interrogation

The police station.

After Su Miaoyi and the others arrived, they waited for a while for the sign language interpreter.

Chu Xingrou felt a bit anxious. Standing beside Su Miaoyi, she fidgeted with the fabric of Su Miaoyi’s pants.

Su Miaoyi looked at her. "What’s wrong?"

"I’m a little nervous," Chu Xingrou said. "What if it’s not Tian Min? We’d just be reopening old wounds..."

Chu Xingrou had always felt a deep sympathy for what Tian Min had been through.

"Couldn’t this make her condition worse?" Chu Xingrou asked.

"She’s a person of major interest right now." Su Miaoyi shifted slightly to the side, but Chu Xingrou just shuffled sideways with her. "This is a necessary part of the process."

Chu Xingrou nodded and said no more, but her fingers continued to grip the fabric of Su Miaoyi’s pants.

Su Miaoyi glanced at her, then at her fingers, then at her own pants and thigh. Her lips moved as if to speak, then moved again, but in the end, she said nothing.

Once the sign language interpreter arrived, they went to see Tian Min.

She entered the interrogation room with Chu Xingrou, Duan Wenrui, and the interpreter.

Su Miaoyi had never been inside an interrogation room in Jinghai.

But with the application to handle the case in a different jurisdiction, she was permitted to enter the interrogation room and conduct the questioning.

When Tian Min saw them, she began to sign.

The interpreter said, "She’s asking... why did you bring me here?"

"We need to ask you some questions," Chu Xingrou said. "Just answer them truthfully."

Tian Min looked at them, then at the video camera on the side, and nodded.

"Have you seen this before?" Su Miaoyi asked, taking out the mask.

Tian Min jumped in fright at the sight of the mask. She waved her hands, paused, and then began signing again.

"She says... she saw you holding it at the scene of her father’s death."

"Any other time besides that?" Su Miaoyi asked.

Tian Min shook her head.

Su Miaoyi studied her expression for a few seconds before asking, "Where were you on the day Wan Shuang died?"

She stated a specific date and time frame.

Wan Shuang was killed that morning.

The interpreter watched Tian Min and then said, "She says... she was home all day and didn’t go out."

"You didn’t go out at all?" Su Miaoyi pressed.

Tian Min nodded, then shook her head.

"She says... I went out once at night to buy some glue. I was at home all day making a storage box. By the evening, I ran out of glue, so I went to buy some more."

"Making a storage box?"

Tian Min nodded.

The interpreter continued: "I often use little wooden sticks to make things. Sometimes, I’ll work on them for a whole day without even eating. I used up all the glue I bought that night, so I went to buy more the next morning. That’s when I ran into you all. I saw you at the convenience store. The storage box I made is still put away at home."

"We didn’t see anything you’d made when we were at your house," Su Miaoyi said.

A look of sadness flickered across Tian Min’s face.

"My mother doesn’t like me making those things, so I usually keep them hidden. Otherwise, if she saw them, she would smash them, throw them out, or burn them," the interpreter relayed.

"What did you think of Wan Shuang?" Su Miaoyi asked.

Tian Min bit her lip. Her hands remained still for a moment before she finally raised them to sign.

"I didn’t like Aunt Wan Shuang. She said awful things and would say them deliberately for me to hear. I didn’t like her. That’s why I would always avoid her, staying out of her sight if I could. Otherwise, she would always say nasty things, as if she were just joking. I didn’t like it."

"What kind of things did she say?" Su Miaoyi asked.

Tian Min looked at her, her eyes trembling slightly. She didn’t move for a long moment.

Duan Wenrui seemed about to urge her to hurry up, but Su Miaoyi stopped him. They waited for Tian Min, waited until she finally lifted her hands and began to move them.

"She said... Aunt Wan Shuang said I was seducing men, that I slept with them for money to pay off my father’s gambling debts. Every time I saw Aunt Wan Shuang, she would greet me so warmly, but as soon as I walked away, she would say things like that. I could actually hear them. I don’t like people saying that about me. I didn’t do it. I’ve never done anything like that, but no one believed me. So many people didn’t believe me."

As she signed, Tian Min’s eyes turned red.

"Someone believes you," Su Miaoyi said. "We believe you."

Tian Min looked at them, pressed her lips together, and tears began to fall.

Chu Xingrou handed her a tissue.

Su Miaoyi continued her questioning. "Did Gao Hui say things like that too?"

Tian Min looked at her.

"She’s asking who Gao Hui is."

"Tian De’s wife," Su Miaoyi said.

Tian Min nodded.

"Gao Hui said those things too, and even worse. Gao Hui also said she saw me on the mountain being intimate with a man from another village. The way she described it was vulgar and explicit. Gao Hui was always starting vicious rumors. I hated her too. I didn’t want to see either of them, so in the village, I wouldn’t go out unless I had to work in the fields or buy something."

"You were at your aunt’s dried fruit shop. Why did you come back? When did you get back?" Su Miaoyi asked.

"The crops in the fields needed to be weeded and treated for pests. They needed to be sprayed with pesticides several times, so I came back. I’ve been back for almost ten days. I have to wait about another ten days before I can go back, after the pesticide spraying is finished," the interpreter relayed.

"What about Wu An, also known as Uncle Wu? What do you think of him?" Su Miaoyi asked, closely observing Tian Min’s expression.

Tian Min shook her head.

"I rarely see Uncle Wu. He lives quite far from my house, and I don’t go out much. I know who he is, but I don’t know him well."

"Yesterday, I heard your mother say that your father once tried to sell you. Is that true?" Su Miaoyi asked.

At this, Tian Min’s hands tightened around the tissue. After another moment, she began to sign.

"She says... my father gambled in another village and owed a lot of money. Around that time, a family with a foolish son was looking for a wife and offering a large betrothal gift. My dad wanted to marry me off to him. My mom disagreed, saying he was selling his own daughter. My younger brothers grabbed knives and said they would cut down our father if he married me to that fool. After that, my father gave up the idea and never mentioned it again. What my mom said about selling her daughter must have been about this incident. There was nothing else."

"Did you hate your father?" Su Miaoyi asked.

Tian Min signed a few gestures.

"Can I choose not to answer that question?"

Su Miaoyi looked at her.

Tian Min lowered her head.

Su Miaoyi watched her for a moment, then decided not to press the issue. After another moment of silence, she rolled the edge of the file in her hands and asked, "Back then, when Tian Dajiang assaulted you... why didn’t you report it to the police?"

Tian Min furrowed her brow, her face filling with resentment.

Tears welled up in her eyes again, and her signing became much faster, much more forceful.

The interpreter watched her, then said, "She says... my parents thought it was shameful. My father needed the money, so they settled it privately."