It was around ten o'clock at night, the time when evening self-study sessions ended at the middle school. From a distance, the vast campus still appeared lively and brightly lit. You Mingxu explained her purpose to the school liaison: she had a few more questions to ask Li Biran.
She and Yin Feng stood waiting in a relatively secluded and quiet corner of the school. A streetlamp overhead cast a hazy glow.
In the distance, they saw a teacher leading someone over.
The person had his hands in his pockets, walking with the distinctive sway unique to teenagers. That somewhat defiant posture seemed to create a distance between him and the teacher.
As they drew closer, You Mingxu could see his fair complexion, bright eyes, and that he looked quite well.
But with just one glance, You Mingxu could sense a very noticeable change in the boy's demeanor compared to one or two weeks ago.
In her memory, Li Biran was still the dazed teenager curled up asleep in an internet cafe. Even later, in the car, he had kept shaking his legs, speaking incoherently, shallow and eager to show off. After seeing his relative's corpse, he was completely terrified, emotionally broken, sobbing, and unwilling to say much.
But now, there was clearly a mix of confidence and aloofness in his eyes. Even as he approached the police, he maintained a casual, nonchalant posture, exuding a cold aura. The fifteen-year-old boy seemed to have grown an icy shell.
You Mingxu wasn't sure why this was.
"Officer You, what else do you want?" Li Biran said, turning his face away, looking to the side, very much doing as he pleased.
You Mingxu stared at Li Biran's face and asked, "Do you know Liu Ruoyu?"
Then she saw Li Biran's pupils contract sharply, his whole body freezing for an instant before he said, "Wh-who is he? I don't know him!" His voice trembled slightly.
In You Mingxu's heart, it felt as if a river were slowly submerging something. She said, "Four days ago, Wednesday, between 10 PM and midnight, where were you?" That was exactly when Xu Jiayuan was murdered.
Li Biran's face slowly flushed red as he said, "I couldn't sleep that night, so I just wandered around the streets near my home. I don't remember where I went."
You Mingxu smiled and said, "It seems you remember quite clearly, answering so quickly."
Li Biran looked at her, his gaze flickering, and remained silent.
"What's your shoe size?" You Mingxu asked again.
Still just a teenager, Li Biran instinctively took a step back with his foot and replied, "38 or 39."
You Mingxu stared at his feet: "You're wearing sneakers, right? Lift them up and let me see the tread pattern. Without shoe covers, this kind of sole would leave very clear patterns if stepped in blood. Even with the same shoe model, everyone's walking habits and wear patterns are different. Some people wear out the left foot more, others the heel more. It's like how no two leaves in the world are exactly alike. How many pairs of shoes do you have in total? Where do you keep them? I see you're wearing name brands—you probably wouldn't want to throw them away."
Li Biran's lips moved several times, but no words came out. You Mingxu couldn't fully grasp how tense the boy must be at this moment. Because his face had turned ashen.
"I... don't know what you're talking about, I don't know!" Li Biran hoarsely growled out.You Mingxu gazed at the youth's delicate yet contorted features, her mind conjuring images of Xie Huifang's family of three piled up as corpses. She felt the chill in her heart accumulating like falling snow. She asked, "Your aunt was very strict with you and often scolded you. Being frugal by nature, she naturally wouldn't indulge your excessive material demands. Did you hate her?"
Li Biran's tears burst forth as he blurted out, "So what if I hated her? I wanted her dead. Is she even human?"
"What did she do to you?"
Li Biran's face turned ashen, his eyes dull and stubborn like a young mule. He said, "She never treated me as human! When I failed an exam, she promised to keep it secret but immediately told my parents. My dad came home and beat me again. That bitch went to a parent-teacher meeting and hit me, scolded me in front of all my classmates, so loud the whole school could hear. Is that treating me as human? She even stalked me, prevented me from going to internet cafes, embarrassing me in front of the owners. Why doesn't she treat her own children like this? She's the most sinister villain, just wanting to torment me. I've long wanted to stab her to death. If she died, I'd just serve a few years in prison—they'd give me a lighter sentence anyway!"
After hearing this, You Mingxu found it hard to believe, even feeling somewhat bewildered. She asked, "So because of these reasons, you collaborated with Liu Ruoyu to kill Xie Huifang? And her two children as well?"
A trace of panic and remorse finally surfaced on Li Biran's face. His lips quivered for a long moment. Meanwhile, You Mingxu's backup was arriving, police sirens wailing outside the campus. Li Biran stood frozen like a block of wood for a while before saying, "We didn't plan to kill those two originally. Brother Liu had everything arranged, but we didn't expect them to be home that day. Though they were annoying too—always reporting to that Xie woman—they didn't deserve to die."
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