Lin Qiupu brought He Jingjing back to the bureau and told Song Lang what had just happened at the Taiyang pawnshop. Song Lang was stunned. "Lie Guoxiao? I have never heard of this name. To put it bluntly, they’re just a bunch of lowlifes."

"Captain, why did you summon He Jingjing?"

"We brought her other father, Li Qiang, here to see if he is the biological father or the adoptive father!"

In order to prevent the two from colluding, Li Qiang and He Jingjing were kept in different meeting rooms. Song Lang sent some police officers to keep watch. Peng Sijue used cotton swabs to swab the mouths of the two for DNA testing. While waiting, Song Lang chain-smoked one cigarette after another. The ashtray was full of cigarettes. Lin Qiupu thought that his senior's addiction to cigarettes was too great, and was very worried about his health.

Half an hour later, the results came out. The DNA match rate of the two reached 99.9%. They were confirmed to be father and daughter. Song Lang instructed Lin Qiupu, "Go and take Li Qiang to the interrogation room!"

Song Lang then went into the interrogation room. Lin Qiupu was about to leave. Song Lang said, "You should stay and learn how to interrogate people."

Lin Qiupu sat on the chair in fear and trepidation. He had only seen this kind of scene on TV when he was young. He didn’t expect to be able to participate in an interrogation one day. The interrogation room wasn’t as dark as those in police films. A few fluorescent tubes illuminated it. It was very bright, because the whole process had to be recorded.

Song Lang adjusted the recorder, and sat down opposite Li Qiang. Li Qiang was a thin, balding, middle-aged man. His eyes and nose looked as though they were squashed together. He looked slightly uncouth. He was wearing a blue shirt faded from too much washing and he kept shaking his legs.

"Do you smoke?" Song Lang asked.

"Give me one." Li Qiang responded.

Song Lang handed him a cigarette case and a lighter. After taking a puff, Li Qiang seemed to be less nervous.

"How did you and He Taiyang meet?"

Li Qiang frowned. "He Taiyang and I are old classmates. A person’s life is really predestined. We both left our jobs to start businesses after the Chinese economic reform. I set up a factory and He Taiyang opened up a pawnshop. After a few decades, he became a big boss, but I still have no money to my name and even owe heavy debts."

"Li Qiang, stop bluffing here. We checked your files. When did you run a factory? You just had an unreliable friend claiming to be engaged in the industry and you borrowed money to buy shares of the business, but the person turned out to be a scammer. This matter also happened after you were laid off. You owed hundreds of thousands of yuan after being deceived. Also, they were high-interest loans. You could only pull down the east wall to repair the west wall, using one high-interest loan to repay another. You were still obsessed with investments and wanted to get rich overnight. You kept borrowing more money. How much do you owe now?"

Li Qiang lowered his head in shame after being exposed. "Over 3 million and I haven’t repaid it all yet.”

"Your wife also ran away because you owed debts, right?"

Li Qiang nodded. Thinking of the sad past, his eyes reddened.

"Where is your daughter?"

"I don't have... a daughter!"

"Since we invited you here, we must have your information on hand. Explain honestly where your daughter went."

Li Qiang looked up and saw Song Lang staring at him coldly. He suddenly panicked and the cigarette soot in his hand fell to the ground.

Later, Song Lang told Lin Qiupu that when facing the suspect, if you expose one of their lies, the other party will think you know everything about them. This is a bluff, but it works, because all liars have guilty consciences.

"My daughter was sold to He Taiyang as a mistress!"

"When did this happen?"

"A few years ago, He Taiyang came to my house to collect debts. Although he was polite to me, his attitude was unyielding. He made implicit threats. If I still don't settle my debts, he would find someone from the underworld to deal with me. Every moneylender is like this. Pei![1] In the end, he took a liking to my daughter, Jingjing. She was only seventeen years old. She had just returned from school, thought that we had a visitor in our home, and she even greeted him saying, ‘Hello, Uncle.’ This old pervert, He Taiyang’s attention was immediately diverted, and he looked at my daughter lecherously. In a perverted manner, he asked whether I wanted to reduce the debt. I had already guessed what he was going to say, and asked how I could reduce it. He said that he was going on a business trip soon and that it would be boring if he went alone. If my daughter could accompany him to Shanghai, he could reduce it by 100,000."

"I really wanted to slash him with a knife there and then. Saying this in front of me, the dad, is he even human?!" Li Qiang’s eyes glinted ominously. "However, poverty stunts ideals. I said, ‘100,000, are you kidding me? What good is 100,000?!’ He Taiyang said that it just costs this much to sleep with a virgin prostitute, and it wasn’t like my daughter was made of gold. 100,000 was already very fair... Did you hear that? He wanted to fuck my daughter at a clear set price, this old pervert!

"Poverty stunts ideals though. I agreed and made up a pack of lies to trick my daughter into going out with him. After coming back, my daughter never talked to me again. Later, He Taiyang came very often. He sometimes took Jingjing to a hotel and sometimes they had sex in my house, giving me a debt reduction of 100,000 each time. However, I owed too much debt. This was nothing but a drop in the bucket. He Taiyang even persuaded me to let it go since she’d be someone else’s when she grew up anyway. Letting him fuck her, I can even make money... He seemed to really like Jingjing, and one day, he suddenly proposed to me to let him adopt Jingjing. All the debts I owed him would be written off. I asked how we’d do that. He said it was easy and that we just needed to change her name, and enter her into the household registration database as his daughter. To everyone else, he would say that she was his illegitimate daughter, but in fact, she would be a mistress he kept at his house so that he could play with her anytime, anywhere. Haha, who said you can't take a concubine nowadays? As long as you have money, wouldn’t you be able to keep a concubine in your own house all the same?"

Li Qiang looked full of contempt and took out another cigarette. These words made Lin Qiupu want to throw up. Such a father actually existed in the world. Although he kept attacking He Taiyang for his perverted shamelessness, if it weren't for his nod in agreement in the first place, how would He Jingjing have been pushed into this fire pit?

"You’re a bastard of a father!" Song Lang commented calmly.

"I'm a bastard. I have no choice. Poverty stunts ideals. Jingjing was unfortunate to have been born into my family. However, from another perspective, at least she can eat and dress well with He Taiyang. It’s better than staying with me!" Li Qiang said righteously.

"Then after you settled He Taiyang's debt by selling your daughter, how much debt do you still owe?"

"In the beginning, it was around half a million, but then the interest compounded and it became three million. If only I had another daughter, it would be great." Li Qiang grinned, showing a mouthful of yellow teeth.

"Therefore, you blackmailed He Taiyang?"

"That's not blackmail..." Li Qiang was suddenly startled. Lin Qiupu saw cold sweat erupt from the pores on his forehead. Li Qiang quickly stopped talking. "I don't know what you’re talking about, Officer!"

"Don't worry, it's all recorded. The question I just asked can’t be used as evidence in court."

"Aiya, you scared me. You suddenly came up with this question, and I accidentally said the wrong thing." Li Qiang smiled in relief after the false alarm.

Song Lang sneered. His expression suddenly turned serious. "But we all understand in our hearts that you’re the one who killed He Taiyang!"

1. Imitating the sound of spitting, showing disrespect.