Chapter 2161 - 1179: The Letter (Part 4)

"As long as you confess honestly, consider it a contribution." Chief Zhou promised, "Being honest gives you leniency, resisting makes it severe. This is your last chance, I advise you to cherish it."

"I’ll confess! I’ll be honest!" Cui Hongying nodded fiercely, "I know why Zhou Wenqing confessed in the end, he was coerced, those people... those people beat him, I saw it!"

"They pinned him to the ground and beat him with a cotton quilt to avoid leaving marks."

"I also heard Qian Shouyi... Qian Shouyi threatened Zhou Wenqing, saying if he didn’t confess, he would call his village right away and tell his fellow townsmen what crime he committed, making his parents hold their heads down in shame in their hometown."

"If he cooperated and confessed, then he promised not to send any message to his parents, and during sentencing, they would change the charge, protecting his reputation." Cui Hongying spilled everything like bamboo shoots tumbling out of a container.

On hearing this, Chief Zhou took a deep breath, calmed down a bit, and continued: "Are these words all true, can you take responsibility for what you said?"

"Yes, I can sign and put my fingerprint!" Cui Hongying stated.

"Good." Chief Zhou turned his head to a team member responsible for taking notes at the table and asked: "Did you get it all down?"

"Got it." The team member handed the notebook to Chief Zhou.

Chief Zhou looked through a few pages, nodded, and then the team member stepped forward with the notebook open for Cui Hongying to sign, also bringing out the ink pad for the fingerprint.

Cui Hongying cooperated throughout, likely because she knew what they really did back then; they pressured a person to death.

"Let me ask you, whose idea was it to transfer you from the machinery plant?" Chief Zhou inquired further.

"It was Qian Shouyi." Cui Hongying said feebly, "After Zhou Wenqing self-immolated, I often had nightmares of him fully engulfed in flames, coming to me for justice."

"I couldn’t take it anymore, so I sought out Qian Shouyi, who, afraid I’d spill the beans, transferred me to a different job location." Cui Hongying lowered her head, the heavy burden in her heart was finally lifted after she revealed the truth.

"Was it just nightmares? Did you experience anything strange?" Yang Xiao leaned forward and suddenly interjected.

"Strange occurrences..." Cui Hongying raised her head, looking at Yang Xiao with confusion, her eyes still swollen, and tentatively asked, "What do you mean by strange occurrences?"

"Like suddenly feeling watched at night, a feeling... as if Zhou Wenqing has returned." Yang Xiao suggested.

Upon hearing this, Cui Hongying paused for a moment, then quickly shook her head, "No, never, you... you don’t scare me, I’m faint-hearted, nightmares are frightening enough."

At this time, Yang Xiao also found it strange; logically, Zhou Wenqing wouldn’t spare someone like her, it’s intolerable.

Even if he could let her go, what about the main culprit, Qian Shouyi, responsible for orchestrating this false case?

Unlike Cui Hongying, he stayed at the plant all these years, prospering as he stepped over Zhou Wenqing’s corpse into leadership positions, and Zhou Wenqing didn’t take revenge on someone like him, which indeed made little sense.

However, looking from another angle, only leaving such people could provide him a chance to reverse the verdict.

The thing Zhou Wenqing wanted most was probably to clear his name from the false accusations, prove his innocence, and let his parents and fellow townsmen know he wasn’t a criminal, but was wronged.

If that’s really the case, once the case is thoroughly investigated, it’s likely that Qian Shouyi, Cui Hongying, and those from the joint defense team involved in the coerced confession won’t escape Zhou Wenqing’s retribution.

Suddenly, a thought flashed in Yang Xiao’s mind: if Zhou Wenqing was indeed wronged, it means the real perpetrator hasn’t been found yet, perhaps... Zhou Wenqing wanted the real perpetrator to pay with their life.

Leaving these people’s lives intact also leaves enough clues for the follow-up investigation.

However... Yang Xiao frowned, these are just his personal conjectures, as he can’t predict a ghost’s thoughts.

Based on his own experience, these beings are mostly driven by remaining instincts, more precisely obsession and resentment.

"Cui Hongying, how much do you know about Zhou Wenqing’s self-immolation?" After taking a heavy drag on his cigarette, Chief Zhou asked the crux of the question.

"Was it suicide, or did Qian Shouyi and the others silence him?"

"I don’t know, I truly don’t know, but later I overheard some joint defense team members say they genuinely didn’t know either."

"The ones guarding him were tricked outside, Zhou Wenqing... he must have committed suicide." Cui Hongying recalled.

Chief Zhou then asked a few more questions, but it seemed Cui Hongying only knew so much, further pressing revealed nothing more.

Yang Xiao also found this reasonable, since she was merely a tool in Qian Shouyi’s hands, she wasn’t supposed to know too much.

Conversely, if she confessed too much, Yang Xiao could end up suspecting her as a mastermind.

After the interrogation, Chief Zhou took Yang Xiao along with him to leave; the leaders at the original towel plant wanted to keep them for a meal, hoping to get information about the case, but Chief Zhou politely declined, citing pressures from above.

On the way back, Yang Xiao felt much better because, before leaving, Chief Zhou had requested a few oranges from the towel plant.