Qiao Yidan outside could no longer watch and called out to Mei Qian to go in, but was stopped by Xiang Wanfeng.
"Give Ping An some more time," Xiang Wanfeng said, looking at Ping An on the other side of the glass wall. "I have confidence in him."
After Han Shi's roar, Ping An suddenly quieted down.
He waited for Han Shi to catch his breath, then stood up again, walked slowly to Han Shi's side, put his arm around Han Shi's neck, and looked him in the face.
"How do you know I can't do anything to you?" Ping An suddenly said with a smile. "Have you forgotten my methods?"
"I've already figured out your methods for these cases. I'm not a police officer, I don't need evidence. So, I know everything you and Wang Sanfa have planned." Ping An let go and said, walking behind Han Shi, "Do you want to hear my deduction? You can also see if this old man is still useful."
Wang Sanfa, Chen Fei, Han Shi, and Ajiao, pretending to submit, designed a series of plans to force Ping An out of seclusion to solve the case after receiving 500,000 yuan from Ma Delu. The half-mad Chen Fei voluntarily offered to "threaten him with death," using explosives to threaten Ping An. After the explosion, Wang Sanfa and others believed Ping An would naturally take over the case, but he didn't.
"You didn't expect Mei Qian to investigate the explosion so quickly, reaching the nursing home in just a few days, and you were almost caught by Hei Dou. According to Mei Qian's later account, I guess you went that night to inform Wang Sanfa and Ajiao that the situation was urgent and evidence needed to be eliminated immediately." Ping An said, "Chen Fei's mental state fluctuated. After his death, you discovered that when he couldn't sleep at night or had a mental breakdown, he wrote down what he was going to do, either through drawings or words, on the walls of his room and on the wooden boards of furniture. I guess what he wrote contained information that would prove you conspired together to cause the explosion, which is why you urgently needed to eliminate it."
Killing Tie Dan was to silence him. Tie Dan was the one who bought the explosives. The things in Chen Fei's room were his responsibility to conceal. As long as he was dead, all evidence would be gone. "I think, why kill Tie Dan that night?
The police were right outside, and killing someone was not a good time," Ping An said. "It was because you said a few hasty words to Ajiao while you were escaping, perhaps just one sentence to silence him! Right? Then, you escaped through another garbage chute. We have a shoe as evidence for this, and I don't think you'll deny it, right."
Thus, Ajiao, who had no intention of silencing anyone, made a hasty decision and dealt with Tie Dan with a wrench when he was unprepared. She then left the scene through another passage.
"Afterward, Mei Qian solved the case, but only found the killer of Tie Dan. Just as she was about to question further, Ajiao committed suicide," Ping An said. "Wang Sanfa naturally knew all of this, but he could only grit his teeth and watch his daughter commit suicide. Perhaps Ajiao's death was the last straw that broke Wang Sanfa. He conspired with you to kill Ma Delu and frame Su Tang, killing two birds with one stone!"
Ping An's narrative flowed like a story, but in fact, these were all his deductions. Yet, these deductions caused the seemingly arrogant Han Shi to break out in a cold sweat.
"Even so, what does it matter? The past is the past. Wang Sanfa, Chen Fei, Ajiao, even Tie Dan, their deaths are all because of you. Don't you feel guilty?" Han Shi was still unwilling to concede. The duel between the detective and the detective continued.
"Don't you feel guilty?" Ping An suddenly raised his voice and shouted, "Forcing your own father and sister to commit crimes by pretending to be caught by the police, don't you feel guilty?"
"..." Han Shi said nothing, just stared at Ping An intently.
"Did you not tell me some key information?" Xiang Wanfeng next door suddenly asked the stunned Gao Xiaofei and Mei Qian.
"God knows, I don't know!" Gao Xiaofei shook his head in shock.
In the interrogation room, Ping An's roar continued.
"You are Wang Sanfa's son, aren't you? Ajiao is your sister? Right?" Ping An walked up to Han Shi again, suddenly grabbed him by the collar, and said, "How could you bear to push your relatives step by step into the abyss of crime? To avenge your girlfriend? Or the 'consolation money' that Ma Delu has given you continuously for years?"
"As soon as 'consolation money' was mentioned, Han Shi suddenly looked up and stared at Ping An incredulously.
"You, how did you know?" Han Shi finally spoke.
"If I hadn't seen you today, I would never have known about your relationship with Wang Sanfa," Ping An said, patting Han Shi on the shoulder. "Earlier, I used your real name to check your past and found that although you are not from the same place as Wang Sanfa, he has been depositing money into your account on time since you started college at 18, and this money only stopped after you graduated."
Why would Wang Sanfa deposit money for Han Shi? Even if Han Shi was Chen Meiqi's boyfriend, and even if Chen Fei and Wang Sanfa joined forces for a common goal, Han Shi shouldn't have any contact with Wang Sanfa. Unless, they knew each other before, such as... father and son!
"It's difficult to find paper records from over twenty years ago, and I didn't have time to prove the relationship between you and Wang Sanfa. In fact, I only realized it inadvertently from something you said," Ping An said. "Young man, your tone and demeanor when you said 'What can you do to me?' to your father were exactly the same."
"Actually, even if you are Wang Sanfa's son, it could at most prove that Chen Meiqi and Ajiao knew each other long ago and went for further studies together, but it would be useless to this case," Ping An said. "However, I am a reporter, not a police officer. I am more curious about the evidence and the truth. And the truth is that the money Ma Delu gave Wang Sanfa was far more than 500,000, wasn't it?"
The interrogation room suddenly became very cold. Han Shi was no longer as aggressive as before, but stared intently at Ping An. If he were free at this moment, he would surely strangle Ping An.
"After the explosion, Ma Delu spared no expense to talk to me. It seems he cared a lot about this matter. In fact, I guess he never expected that the two girls he sent away back then would be able to smuggle back," Ping An said. "Wang Sanfa has been complaining for so many years without success, and he has been looking for me for so many years without finding me. There can only be two reasons for this: someone has been obstructing him."
There is no way to guard against thieves for a thousand years, so Ma Delu could not have been watching Wang Sanfa all the time. And as Wang Sanfa's son and Chen Fei's prospective son-in-law, Han Shi naturally took on the responsibility of daily complaints and contacting Ping An.
"You never complained, nor did you look for me. Instead, you used this matter to extort Ma Delu all along, right?" Ping An said. "You are a smart person, at least you still care about your reputation, so you gave all the money you extorted to Wang Sanfa each time. Judging from the 500,000 yuan you asked for in one go this time, you should not have asked for a small amount each time, especially the first time, which should have been a million yuan. Oh no, you are Chen Meiqi's boyfriend, you should have asked for more, right?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Han Shi's head felt like it was being washed, and sweat was pouring down.
"I heard from Mei Qian that Wang Sanfa should be quite satisfied with his current life. Life goes on. Compared to Chen Fei, his children are all together. Although Ajiao is disfigured, the money Ma Delu gave is also quite a lot, enough for your family to live happily," Ping An said. "But, among this money, there is ultimately a sum that belongs to Chen Fei, isn't there? What should we do? Han Shi, tell me, what should we do?"
"What do you mean? I don't know what you're talking about! We didn't ask Ma Delu for money," Han Shi said.
"Right, how did you know you would be jailed for fifteen years?" Ping An suddenly squatted in front of Han Shi curiously, saying with an innocent expression, "Did you calculate it yourself?"
"No, no, I was talking nonsense, I was talking nonsense," Han Shi became restless, and sweat from his face dripped onto the table.
"Accessory after the fact, ten years or less, right? Extortion, if the amount is huge or there are other serious circumstances, the sentence is three to ten years imprisonment, and a fine; right?" Ping An said, counting on his fingers as if reciting numbers. "As someone who studied law, you naturally know your situation, and even know basically how many years you will be sentenced. Am I wrong?"
"Congratulations! My dear former student! You answered correctly. Your major was indeed not learned in vain!" Ping An stood up and said. "Since you've taken the charges of accessory after the fact and extortion, what about murder? You are so clever that you would naturally not do it yourself—so, you used the crazy and foolish Chen Fei to send him to his death, and Tie Dan, who was devoted to your sister, to get the explosives. After the incident, seeing that the situation was not good, you even handed over the task of silencing witnesses to Ajiao. That was your sister! How could you let her commit a crime? You beast worse than a pig or a dog!"
"Stop talking," Han Shi's psychological defense finally broke.
In the adjacent room, the group of people watching felt a sense of dread.
"This damned Ping An is truly amazing—" Lai Xiang, who was nominally in charge of the case, wiped the sweat from his face and said, "This is the first time I've seen someone solve a case by telling a story. I'm impressed."
"How could Ping An guess that Han Shi would extort Ma Delu more than once? Was it based on the fifteen-year sentence?" Mei Qian wondered, stroking his chin.
"Remember those two bodyguards? They actually didn't follow Ma Delu for a long time, and as soon as Wang Sanfa spoke, Ma Delu would give money, and it was transferred through the bank. What does this mean? It means Ma Delu had been extorted more than once, and he was willing to use this method to silence the matter," Gao Xiaofei said with some belated realization. "I finally understand why Ma Delu didn't trouble Wang Sanfa even when he troubled Ping An. It's because he received money, and it was a very tacit understanding—hey, I'm so stupid, how could I not have thought of this?"