Insights Chapter 41: Good Friends

Chapter 41: Good Friends

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

The cause of the victim’s death, the method of the killer, step by step, gradually pieced together, like a puzzle slowly being restored, they seemed to be getting closer to the perpetrator.

Just as everyone returned to their desks, Bai Meng quickly received a call from the sub-bureau. After listening for a few moments, she hurriedly turned to report to Gu Yanchen, “Captain Gu, the Third Bureau said that Wei Yingtian has been found, and detectives from the sub-bureau are transporting him over.”

“Found him?!” Lu Ying became excited. “Did he admit to poisoning and arson?”

Bai Meng shook her head, denying, “He admitted to breaking into his sister’s house last night to steal but denied killing anyone.”

In the afternoon, Wei Yingtian was brought over. He was a tall, slightly thin man in his thirties, with stubble on his chin and slightly long hair, looking somewhat disheveled. He was the person seen on the surveillance footage last night.

Wei Yingtian sat in the interrogation room, looking somewhat defeated. When Gu Yanchen entered, Lu Ying had already recorded his basic information.

Wei Yingtian wiped his tears as he recounted the events of last night, his expression filled with apparent remorse. “I used to gamble, but that’s all in the past. Now I just want to repay my debts and live a good life. My sister clearly has money. Yesterday during the day, I arrived in Penang and borrowed a phone to call my sister, begging for help. She hung up immediately. At night, I slept on a bench in a small park. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got, so I decided to go to her house. Around two in the morning, I climbed in through the window on the second floor.

“After I got in, based on my memory, I fumbled around on the first floor in the dark for a while and only found two hundred dollars in cash. Then I went to the second floor…” Wei Yingtian paused for a moment. “I intended to see if there was anything valuable inside, but as I passed by my niece’s bedroom door, I saw a figure inside. I thought it was my sister getting up to cover my niece with a blanket. My heart almost stopped from fright. Afraid of being discovered, I hurriedly climbed out of the window on the second floor and left in a hurry… Today, when I saw someone being questioned, I learned that there was a fire at their house last night…”

Gu Yanchen asked, “Did you see clearly who the figure was?”

Wei Yingtian shook his head. “Actually, I didn’t see clearly. Later on, when I thought back, it was like a ghostly figure…”

Lu Ying asked, “Did you ever bully Qi Siwei on his way home from school?”

Wei Yingtian replied, “I did that foolish thing, but I was just scaring them. After all, she is my own sister, and Qi Siwei is my own nephew. As long as they’re alive, they can help me out a bit. At least they won’t let me starve. If they’re dead, I won’t get much money either.”

Gu Yanchen asked, “What time did you arrive in Penang yesterday?”

Wei Yingtian said, “It was probably around six in the evening. I hitched a ride in a cargo truck.”

Gu Yanchen asked, “Do you remember the license plate number?”

Wei Yingtian said, “I can’t remember. It was a Jinbei van.”

Gu Yanchen and Lu Ying asked a few more questions, confirming that the footprint was left by Wei Yingtian when he fled. The size and tread pattern matched.

After interrogating Wei Yingtian, Gu Yanchen and Lu Ying walked out of the interrogation room. Bai Meng asked directly, “How is it?”

Lu Ying summarized, “Wei Yingtian’s phone has been out of service due to unpaid bills for a long time. He was found with no money on him. He definitely couldn’t have ordered takeout or obtained drugs. He only has this one set of clothes, with no bloodstains on them. I don’t think he’s the murderer or arsonist from last night.”

Gu Yanchen remained skeptical of Lu Ying’s analysis. Wei Yingtian was a compulsive gambler full of lies, and his words should not be taken lightly. He asked Bai Meng, “Any progress on your end?”

Bai Meng replied, “The sour fish restaurant said they could only compile yesterday’s takeout orders by tonight.”

Gu Yanchen nodded. “You continue to follow up.”

After assigning tasks, Gu Yanchen checked the time. It had just passed five o’clock, the time he had arranged to call Shi Jie. Gu Yanchen had a feeling that perhaps from this witness, he could learn some truths. To ensure quiet conversation, Gu Yanchen went into the conference room, put on his earpiece, and started recording the call. After a few rings, a young girl’s voice came from the other end, “Hello.”

Gu Yanchen identified himself and explained the tragedy of Qi Siwei’s family.

On the other end, Shi Jie sounded surprised, then sobbed for a moment before saying, “Ask away, I’ll tell you everything I know.”

Gu Yanchen first asked about Qi Siwei, and the other party’s account matched what he had heard from Qiu Xiaoxue and the class committee. Then, he inquired about Qiu Xiaoxue. Gu Yanchen asked, “We met Qiu Xiaoxue this morning. Are she and Qiao Siwei good friends?”

There was a pause from the other end of the phone. “Good friends? Did she say that? In the class, only Qi Siwei was willing to be friends with Qiu Xiaoxue. I warned her early on not to sympathize with that girl. She was just being kind to Qiu Xiaoxue because no one else wanted her. She tried to help her, but it was like getting stuck with something disgusting; you couldn’t shake it off.”

Gu Yanchen sensed some resentment in her tone and asked, “Can you elaborate?”

“At first, Qi Siwei occasionally showed kindness. We worked on an assignment together with Qiu Xiaoxue. After the collaboration ended, Qiu Xiaoxue asked Qi Siwei if they could be friends. Since Qi Siwei had many friends, she naturally answered, ‘Why not?’ But from then on, Qiu Xiaoxue started sticking to her. They ate together, went to the bathroom together, left school together, and sometimes even went to school together. No matter what happened, Qi Siwei would tell Qiu Xiaoxue. They were like conjoined twins.”

Gu Yanchen asked, “Was Qiu Xiaoxue good to Qi Siwei?”

“Quite good. To be precise, she was exceptionally good to Qi Siwei, even to an abnormal extent. Qiu Xiaoxue came from a well-off family. Her parents were divorced and didn’t care much about how she spent money. So, Qiu Xiaoxue started buying drinks, stationery, and even saving money to buy magazines, photos, and merchandise of celebrities for Qi Siwei, and Qi Siwei accepted them. I started warning her not to take advantage of these small favors, but Qi Siwei said if she didn’t accept them, Qiu Xiaoxue would be unhappy. Qiu Xiaoxue was just too lonely and wanted to be friends with her. She shouldn’t reject Qiu Xiaoxue’s kindness.

“They stuck together for over half a year. Qiu Xiaoxue liked to buy the same clothes, shoes, and snacks as Qi Siwei. She would silently watch Qi Siwei and even collect the food wrappers Qi Siwei had finished. At first, Qi Siwei thought Qiu Xiaoxue was just a bit clingy and overly dependent and didn’t mind much. But later, Qi Siwei discovered that Qiu Xiaoxue was possessive. Whenever Qi Siwei talked to others or did something with others, Qiu Xiaoxue would cling to her, throw tantrums, and question if she didn’t consider her the best friend.

“When it was Qi Siwei’s birthday, Qiu Xiaoxue bought her a big cake. But when it was Qiu Xiaoxue’s birthday, Qi Siwei forgot to wish her at midnight, and Qiu Xiaoxue held a grudge for a long time, saying Qi Siwei didn’t care about her. Qi Siwei even frequently mentioned this, as if it were Qi Siwei who owed her, as if Qi Siwei had let her down. Even if Qi Siwei talked a bit more with me, Qiu Xiaoxue would come over and ask her. But even the best of friends can’t only communicate with one person, right?”

At this point, Shi Jie paused. “Later, worse things happened. Qi Siwei felt that Qiu Xiaoxue was too annoying, but she didn’t want to offend her, so she had to find other ways to avoid her. Once, Qi Siwei told Qiu Xiaoxue that she would be studying at home over the weekend and then arranged to go shopping with a few of us who were close. But we didn’t expect that, halfway there, while we were eating sausages, Qiu Xiaoxue showed up. She asked Qi Siwei, ‘Didn’t you say you were going to study at home?’ Qi Siwei tried to explain, saying we had called her out later. But Qiu Xiaoxue didn’t believe her. They had a big argument on the road, almost coming to blows.

“At that time, Qiu Xiaoxue grabbed a few sausage tongs and threatened to poke Qi Siwei’s eyes out, saying if she blinded her, she wouldn’t stare at others and make friends with others. We were all terrified… Later on, Qi Siwei finally realized that Qiu Xiaoxue wasn’t normal and promptly blocked her. But then, Qiu Xiaoxue came to her, crying and begging her to be friends again, saying Qi Siwei was her only friend. At first, Qi Siwei refused, but later, she found out that Qiu Xiaoxue would knock on their door at night and shout outside, ‘Why did you block me? Didn’t you promise to be friends forever?’ And even…” Shi Jie paused, hesitating.

“And even what?” Gu Yanchen pressed.

Shi Jie hesitated before finally saying, “And even said that if Qi Siwei didn’t add her back as a friend, she would self-harm. She carved Qi Siwei’s name into her arm and sent bloody pictures to her. She said, ‘I don’t know if there will be other things, will you only add me back when I’m dead?'” Shi Jie continued, “With such incidents, we all felt that Qiu Xiaoxue was really twisted… Later, it got so bad that even the teachers came out to talk to us, asking what was going on. Qi Siwei added Qiu Xiaoxue back. But then, Qiu Xiaoxue became even more relentless. Whatever she did or said each day, she would send it to Qi Siwei. Whatever she bought, she insisted on getting one for Qi Siwei. She said that was what true friends did… She treated Qi Siwei as her only friend, and Qi Siwei had to treat her the same way.”

Was this what good friends did? There was a twisted relationship between the two girls. Qi Siwei fell into Qiu Xiaoxue’s friendship trap.

After listening to all this, Gu Yanchen finally understood why Shi Jie had such an opinion of Qiu Xiaoxue and why the class committee’s expression changed when Qi Siwei was mentioned.

“At first, we all thought Qiu Xiaoxue was just an ordinary classmate, but who would have thought…” Shi Jie sighed. “Just a few days ago, Qi Siwei happily told me that she was going to university, finally able to get rid of Qiu Xiaoxue.” Saying this, Shi Jie sounded somewhat fearful. “How did their family… How did they die? Qiu Xiaoxue didn’t kill them, did she?”

Gu Yanchen replied, “The case is still under investigation.”

Then he hung up and sent the recording to Lu Ying to organize the testimony.

Bai Meng also received a message from the sour fish restaurant. She quickly sorted through it and reported to Gu Yanchen, “Captain Gu, I scanned the contact list. Among the people Qi Siwei knew, someone ordered the same takeaway. Can you guess who it is?”

Gu Yanchen already had an answer in mind. “Qiu Xiaoxue.”

Bai Meng nodded, “Yes, it’s her!”

More and more evidence was pointing towards Qiu Xiaoxue. Despite their reluctance to believe it, they had to face and consider the possibility that a teenage girl had killed a family of three. But was this really the truth? Gu Yanchen still felt like he was missing some information.