Chapter 314 - 312: Something’s Not Quite Right

Chapter 314: Chapter 312: Something’s Not Quite Right

Su Miaoyi and the others looked at Tian Min.

They could tell that Tian Min truly believed in the Sheep Horn God. Whenever the Sheep Horn God was mentioned, a light sparked in her eyes.

A light of... pure adoration.

Tian Min gestured with both hands.

The interpreter said, "It’s true. The Sheep Horn God is protecting me, protecting Yanjing Village, and punishing the wicked."

"Are you saying that you told the Sheep Horn God about their crimes, and the Sheep Horn God killed them?" Duan Wenrui asked.

Tian Min nodded.

"Did you want to kill them?" Duan Wenrui watched her.

Tian Min froze for a moment, then frantically shook her head and waved her hands. She forgot to sign for a moment, only starting to gesture a few seconds later.

"She said... I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t want to kill them. I just hated them, so I went and told the Sheep Horn God. I just didn’t want to hear their nasty words or see them ever again. I never wanted them dead, not for a second. Their deaths were a punishment from the Sheep Horn God."

Tian Min signed anxiously.

"I didn’t. I didn’t."

Su Miaoyi asked, "Do you have any friends in Chang City?"

The anxious look hadn’t faded from Tian Min’s face. She thought about the question, then shook her head.

"Besides helping your aunt and brother sell things in Chang City, what do you usually do?" Su Miaoyi asked.

The interpreter looked at Tian Min and said, "I don’t usually like to go out. When I’m free, I just do crafts in my rented apartment. I don’t like going out, and I don’t like making friends."

"You help out at your brother’s butcher shop."

Tian Min nodded.

"Do you know how to debone meat?"

Tian Min nodded.

The interpreter said, "I can’t speak, so when they get busy, the only way I can really help is by deboning and cutting meat. There’s not much else I can do."

Su Miaoyi nodded, indicating that she understood.

"Do you suspect me of killing them?" the interpreter asked.

"Yes," Su Miaoyi replied directly.

Tian Min’s eyes widened, and she frantically shook her head and waved her hands.

"It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me. I really disliked them, but I never wanted them to die. They died because of the Sheep Horn God’s punishment. I didn’t kill them, it wasn’t me."

"We’ll find out the truth," Duan Wenrui said.

...

Su Miaoyi and the others came out of the interrogation room just as Lu Zhishen returned from Tian Min’s house.

"I did find some of her handicrafts at her house." Lu Zhishen showed them the photos he’d taken. "There weren’t many. They were all hidden in a cabinet in Tian Min’s room. Inside the cabinet, there was another locked compartment."

Su Miaoyi and the others flipped through the photos on his phone. There weren’t many handicrafts.

Besides her handicrafts, there were also some tools, glue, paint, and the like.

"Tian Shi said most of them are in her rented apartment in Chang City; there aren’t many left at the house now," Lu Zhishen said. "He also said that when Tian Min has nothing else to do, she likes to make these things to pass the time. But Yue Hong really dislikes her doing it. If she saw any of her creations, she would smash them or burn them. So when Tian Min makes them at home, she always does it secretly in her room. After she finishes, she hides them so Yue Hong can’t see."

"That’s what Tian Min said, too," Su Miaoyi said.

"It’s probably the truth," Duan Wenrui said.

They all nodded.

"The most hidden place in her house was that cabinet where she keeps her handicrafts. Tian Shi showed us everywhere else. We didn’t find any masks, black robes, knives, or any kind of drugs," Lu Zhishen said. "We didn’t find any secret rooms or cellars either."

"They’re probably with the other killer," Su Miaoyi said.

"Right. I also asked Tian Shi and Tian Xuan about Tian Min’s friends in Chang City," Lu Zhishen said. "They both said that besides helping sell goods, Tian Min rarely goes out when she’s not busy. The three of them eat and live together, and Tian Min doesn’t have any outside friends. The only people she’s regularly in contact with are the two of them."

"We checked Tian Min’s phone. Her contact list is very simple," Duan Wenrui said. "Besides some online buyers, it’s just her parents, her brother, and her aunt’s family. No one else. We also checked her call logs—no signs of deletion. Her recent calls are simple, too, mostly just delivery and takeout services, aside from her aunt. Probably because she can’t speak, she mostly communicates by typing on WeChat or text. She rarely makes calls, and the ones she does are very short."

Su Miaoyi looked at Lu Zhishen. "When you were at their house, how were Tian Shi and Tian Xuan?"

"Because Tian Min was at the police station, they both seemed very anxious and were a bit distracted when they spoke," Lu Zhishen said. "Tian Xuan kept wringing his hands, and Tian Shi answered most of the questions. Tian Shi was also very anxious, to the point where he could barely focus on my questions."

"What about Yue Hong?" Chu Xingrou asked.

"She didn’t really have a reaction. When I came out after finishing my questions, she was asleep." Lu Zhishen leaned against the table, twirling a pen in his hand.

Chu Xingrou: "..."

Su Miaoyi looked at Lu Zhishen again. "What are you thinking?"

Lu Zhishen looked down at her. "I’m wondering if what they said was true or not. They were both too anxious and distracted when answering. I can’t be sure if they were lying, or if their anxiety and worry were mixed with some guilt."

"We’ll question them again tomorrow," Su Miaoyi said.

Lu Zhishen nodded.

「The sun was setting, and darkness was about to fall again.」

There was still no news on the composite sketch match.

Duan Wenrui and Zhao Yongliang started leading patrols again.

Su Miaoyi and the others watched the recording of Tian Min’s interrogation.

"I can’t see any flaws," Chu Xingrou said. "If everything she’s doing now is an act, then she’s terrifyingly good."

Su Miaoyi scrubbed the progress bar.

Chu Xingrou and Lu Zhishen watched alongside her.

It was the moment when Tian Min heard the sound of the restored nursery rhyme and flinched in fear.

"What is it?" Chu Xingrou asked.

"Don’t you think that flinch... is a little..." Su Miaoyi rewound and played it again. She felt something was off, but for the moment, she couldn’t put her finger on what it was.

So she looked to Chu Xingrou and Lu Zhishen.

They both looked back at her.

"A little what?" Lu Zhishen asked.

"A little strange," Su Miaoyi said. "Don’t you think?"

The two of them watched it carefully a few more times.

"Her fear seems pretty genuine. Like she was truly startled," Chu Xingrou said, looking at Tian Min’s expression. "She really looks startled, not like she’s faking it."

Lu Zhishen watched for a moment, then scrubbed the progress bar back to an earlier part—to Tian Min’s expression when she saw the mask.

At that time, Tian Min had also been startled when she saw the mask.

The three of them watched the recording over and over.

Chu Xingrou suddenly stood up and said, "I remember now! At her house, when we played the nursery rhyme from the stereo, she was startled then, too. Although her startled expression and reaction look very real—like she was genuinely scared and not faking it—her expression and reaction all three times were too similar."

Su Miaoyi looked at Chu Xingrou and nodded.

"Exactly," Lu Zhishen said. "Authentic, but programmatic."

"Right. It’s like a program was installed in her," Su Miaoyi said. "This ’program’ is her reaction to being startled, and it’s very realistic. But... this reaction appears whenever she’s startled. Because she isn’t truly afraid, she’s just executing the ’program’ every time."

...