Hao Jie’s uncle was extremely tense in the interrogation room and kept fidgeting. Lin Dongxue confirmed his basic information and asked, "What were you doing on November 11th of last year?"

"Accompanying my wife to shop online. Wasn’t that singles day?[1]" Hao Jie’s uncle laughed.

"We checked your phone logs. You received your sister's call on November 11th. It came in the early morning. The call lasted half an hour. What did you talk about?"

"We chat... We chatted about family stuff... You may not know, but my sister and brother-in-law have a bad relationship. She was just venting to me."

"If you don’t want to talk about it, I'll speak on your behalf. On November 10th, your brother-in-law was away for a few days on a business trip. On November 11th, a mother and son arrived at your sister's house. The woman's name was Guo Bilian and the child was Guo Niandong. Guo Bilian clearly led the child there to reunite with his biological father. Your sister allowed them to stay at the house and then opened the gas valve to let them die of carbon monoxide poisoning. After the murder, your sister was very flustered and contacted you. You two went to the suburbs to throw the corpses away the next day. Then, your sister thought of a brilliant trick to use the death of this mother and son to fight for Hao Jie's custody. She planned a kidnapping case where she masked fakes with the real deal. No doubt it was you who kidnapped Hao Jie back then! You executed your sister's script perfectly, didn’t go to get the ransom, and the police didn’t find you. Then, Hao Jie was sent to a boarding school. No one would think that you were the 'kidnapper'. You took care of Hao Jie privately while your sister was acting in front of the police. You would wait for your brother-in-law to die due to illness. When all the disturbances subsided, you’d take Hao Jie back to be with your sister again."

Listening to Lin Dongxue retell the case, Hao Jie’s uncle began to sweat intensely. Lin Dongxue twirled her pen around and calmly waited for him to speak.

As time passed by, Lin Qiupu called her through the intercom and said, "Change the interrogation room."

"Change the interrogation room?" Lin Dongxue suddenly realized that Lin Qiupu, the drunk person, didn’t want more alcohol, but something else.[2] This was so that the two would know that the other was being interrogated as well.

"Remember, don't let them speak when they meet in the corridor."

Lin Dongxue went to untie Hao Jie’s uncle’s handcuffs and he asked nervously, "What! Why? Are you guys going to use torture?"

"The air is bad here. We’ll take you to another interrogation room."

Hao Jie’s uncle was escorted out. At the other end of the corridor, Hao Jie's mother was escorted by Lin Qiupu. Lin Dongxue thought that the scene was a bit fit for a drama. Here was the sister holding the brother and there was the older brother holding the older sister.

The moment they looked at each other, they both showed a panicked expression at the same time. Hao Jie’s uncle prepared to speak, but Lin Dongxue twisted his arm ruthlessly and said, "You can’t corroborate your statements!"

Dejectedly, they brushed past each other as they exchanged interrogation rooms.

Chen Shi, who was having lunch in the conference room, suddenly stood up and said, "Oh no!"

"What's wrong, Brother Chen?"

"This woman is very clever. They wouldn't be stupid enough to not have taken any precautions before this. If that’s the case, they could completely overturn the entire case..." Chen Shi immediately called Peng Sijue, "Where are you?"

"Checking the car."

"Don't check it. Go to Hao Jie's house with me... It’s important!"

Hearing Chen Shi's tone being so serious, Peng Sijue said, "See you at the gate of the community. I’ll bring the toolkit with me."

At this time, Old Zhang found the old man who sold fungus. The old man looked at two people on the other side of the interrogation room. When he heard Hao Jie's uncle’s voice, he said with certainty, "Yes, this is this person."

"Are you sure?"

"I’m certain!"

"Thank you, uncle. I hope you’ll be there if we need you to appear in court."

"Ah? I need to come again? ... Haii, it's not easy for me to get up early and back at night. Don’t torture these old bones anymore. I still have half a car of fungus that hasn’t been sold!" The old man sighed in pretense.

Old Zhang reluctantly called everyone to go out and buy all of the old man's fungus. The old man drove away with joy in an empty car and waved before leaving. "Thank you officers! I'll bring you more next time."

Old Zhang told Lin Dongxue about this via the internal telephone. Lin Dongxue said with even more certainty this time to Hao Jie’s uncle, "An anonymous witness has just identified you. Do you still want to deny it?"

Hao Jie’s uncle grabbed his right wrist with his left hand for a while and then grabbed his left wrist with his right hand for a while. He mumbled to himself for a very long time before saying, "I confess! My sister didn't kill anyone. The mother and son went to her house that day. She affectionately hosted them and boiled two eggs before going out to buy groceries. Maybe the mother and son fell asleep, but the water overflowed and extinguished the fire on the gas stove. When my sister came back, they were already poisoned by the gas... My sister was really scared and contacted me. After all, we’ve been very close since childhood. Although I had good intentions, I came up with the stupid idea of burying the body in the suburbs. Later, with the case of the fake kidnapping, I admit that we were the ones who did it. My sister really wanted to be with Little Jie. It’s not like we took any money or lives! It’s just the love of a mother."

Lin Dongxue didn’t expect that he would say that and smacked the table angrily. "You’re still lying even when you’re at this point?!”

"You can get people to investigate it. There’s no evidence of a murder. You said my sister killed people. Isn’t this framing her?" Hao Jie’s uncle spread his hands, as if wronged. However, the corners of his mouth curled up in a cold sneer as if saying, “What can you do to me?”.

Lin Dongxue was suddenly frantic. The deceased was not strangled or stabbed, but died through gas poisoning. This could be explained as an accident. After six months, no evidence would be found.

She stopped the interrogation and went outside. She saw Lin Qiupu's expression wasn’t very good either, so she asked him what happened.

Lin Qiupu explained, "Asshole. That woman actually said that she cooked some eggs at home, went out to buy groceries, but the two of them were poisoned by the time she got back... What about your side?"

"A statement that was exactly the same!"

"The two agreed on a statement beforehand. When they ran out of options, they would sacrifice the pawn to protect the chariot[3]." Lin Qiupu walked around with his hands behind his back. "In this case, all the evidence we have can only be used as evidence of manslaughter."

"This may not even count as manslaughter. It may only be considered an accident. In court, they will only be convicted of humiliating a corpse and obstructing official duties. They will escape the murder charges."

Xu Xiaodong, who heard this from the sidelines, asked timidly, "What if this was the truth?"

Lin Qiupu was so angry that he laughed. "Look, there’s already a little fool who believes it.”

“But Xiaodong also makes sense."

"What?!"

"In the courts, the judge and the prosecutor are all outsiders. When they hear about it, it’ll just be another version of the truth."

Lin Qiupu gritted his teeth and asked, "Where’s Chen Shi?"

"He said something like ‘Oh no, oh no’ just now and then ran out. He hasn’t come back yet."

"Would he have guessed this trick in advance and gone to look for evidence?"

1. A festival that’s held every 11th of November for singles where lots of people try to pick-up a partner. There’s also a lot of extreme sales and discounts on that day. Not a public holiday. Kind of like Valentines or White Day but for single people (to go nuts shopping). Pretty sure singles day came from Korea. The shopping part started because of Taobao as of 2009.

2. They had other intentions

3. Chinese chess reference. If you look at the photo attached, the pawns are the ones closest to the other party’s pieces and the chariots are the ones at the back on either side. https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61dZouA2fDL._AC_SX522_.jpg