Chapter 320 - 318: Tian Min Is With Me
Chapter 320: Chapter 318: Tian Min Is With Me
"Who is Twenty-one? I don’t know them at all." Tian Min looked at Zhao Yongliang. "I have no idea what you’re talking about."
With that, Tian Min turned to leave.
She had only taken a few steps when Zhao Yongliang called out to her again. "They already suspect you."
Tian Min continued on her way.
"I already know you can talk," Zhao Yongliang said. "And I know you know Twenty-one. You can’t just say you don’t and expect that to settle it."
Tian Min took two more steps forward, then stopped. She walked back and picked up a branch from the ground.
Before Zhao Yongliang could figure out what she was about to do, Tian Min was behind him. She hooked an arm around his neck and pressed the sharp end of the branch against the side of his throat. "So what if you know? I can still make you die right here."
By the time Zhao Yongliang processed what was happening, a cold sweat broke out across his body.
He could feel with terrifying clarity that the slightest pressure would send the branch into the side of his neck. "You!"
"If I’m not mistaken, they’ve found the house you bought on the street behind the Sheep God Temple, haven’t they?" Tian Min scoffed. "You bought the house, so you can’t distance yourself from what’s inside. You knew you couldn’t explain it away. You panicked. That’s why you ran. As for letting me go and running with me... you just wanted to give them another target to chase, to split their manpower. That way... your odds of getting away would be better."
They hadn’t left the police station together in the first place.
Tian Min had been heading home, but he had unexpectedly pulled her aside halfway there and brought her here.
Arguing on the street would easily attract attention, so she had gone with him to this deserted place.
As she spoke, Tian Min’s voice turned vicious. "Don’t think for a second I don’t know what you’re scheming. Don’t ruin my plans with your stupidity."
"Do you really think they can’t touch you just because you’ve left no openings?" Zhao Yongliang said. "For people in their position, pinning a crime on someone or arresting them is as easy as saying the word. You think you can escape just by going back and acting like nothing happened? If they decide they want you, they won’t waste time thinking about whether they have evidence."
"That’s not your concern," Tian Min said, scanning their surroundings. They had walked over stony ground, leaving no footprints. "Go that way."
Zhao Yongliang walked in the direction she indicated, sticking to the areas with more stones to avoid leaving footprints.
...
Su Miaoyi, Zhuang Yanzheng, and the others headed up the mountain. They hadn’t been climbing for long when raindrops began to fall.
The search party members who arrived later brought raincoats.
The rain made the sky darken even earlier than usual.
"They didn’t cut through the cornfield," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "It’s all dirt in there, so their footprints would have been obvious. They must have taken the gravel path."
"Of all the times for it to rain." Su Miaoyi wiped the rain from her face. "The police station’s drones are useless now. With nothing in the sky to spot them, they can just walk openly on the gravel path instead of hiding in the corn. They’ll move even faster."
Zhuang Yanzheng held out his hand to catch the raindrops. "The rain’s getting heavier. It doesn’t look like it’ll stop anytime soon. If it gets any worse, the mountain path will become treacherous. With it getting dark, it’ll be easy for an accident to happen."
Su Miaoyi glanced at the surrounding corn stalks.
With the rain coming down like this, any footprints or traces they might have left would be washed away.
Her phone rang. It was Duan Wenrui. She answered the call.
Duan Wenrui said, "Consultant Su, Tian Min is with me."
"Tian Min is with you?!" Su Miaoyi looked at Zhuang Yanzheng.
Zhuang Yanzheng was taken aback.
The brims of their raincoat hoods were a bit short, and the rain had been hitting their faces the whole time. Now that it was coming down harder, their eyelashes fluttered under the weight of the water, and they blinked reflexively.
"Alright, we’re coming back right now." Su Miaoyi hung up.
"Tian Min is with him?" Zhuang Yanzheng asked again, still in disbelief. "What about Zhao Yongliang?"
"Zhao Yongliang isn’t there," Su Miaoyi said. "Captain Duan said he’ll explain everything when we get back."
"It’s dark now. If we haven’t found him by this point, it’s going to be much harder," Zhuang Yanzheng said.
"Mhm." Su Miaoyi spoke to someone from the branch office, telling him to call their people back.
With Tian Min now with Duan Wenrui, they were all anxious to get back.
The path down the mountain was also difficult. Zhuang Yanzheng suddenly slipped, giving Su Miaoyi a scare. She quickly grabbed his clothes.
Su Miaoyi was behind him and slightly higher up on the path. She grabbed him directly by the back of his collar, pulling his raincoat hood off in the process.
Zhuang Yanzheng felt someone lift him up from behind, stopping his fall. He breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the rain from his face.
Su Miaoyi said, "I just saved your life. You owe me one."
Zhuang Yanzheng nodded. "Deal. Jinghai is yours."
"I’ll hold you to it." Su Miaoyi clapped him on the shoulder, then shouted to the people behind them, "The path down is slippery! Help each other out and be careful! Safety first!"
A chorus of affirmations answered from behind her.
They hurried down the mountain, both anxious and careful, and rushed to the police station.
When they arrived at the police station, Lu Zhishen and Chu Xingrou were waiting for them at the entrance to the main hall.
Seeing them return, the two quickly opened their umbrellas to shield them.
They entered the hall and took off their raincoats.
Chu Xingrou dabbed the rain from Su Miaoyi’s face with a tissue. "Your hair’s completely soaked, and your clothes are too. Why don’t you go change?"
"It’s fine, I’m not that wet." Su Miaoyi took a towel and rubbed her hair. "Is Tian Min still here?"
"She is," Chu Xingrou said. "In the interrogation room. Captain Duan is with her."
"What happened?" Su Miaoyi asked.
"Brother Lu, Captain Duan, and I were in the office looking at the black robe and mask we brought back, and Tian Min suddenly showed up."
"Go ask her again in person." Zhuang Yanzheng ruffled his hair with a towel. "See if there are any discrepancies between what she says this time and the last."
"Okay."
Su Miaoyi scrubbed her hair a couple of times with the towel, casually ran her fingers through it, and went straight to the interrogation room.
Chu Xingrou followed her into the interrogation room.
Zhuang Yanzheng and Lu Zhishen stood at the door to listen, not going inside.
The sign language interpreter was also seated to one side.
Tian Min sat across the table, looking up at Su Miaoyi and Chu Xingrou.
Su Miaoyi sat down and first looked at her face, then her clothes, and finally her hands.
Her clothes were damp and so was her hair, though both had started to dry a little.
There were fresh cuts on her fingers.
Fine scratches.
Her fingertips were also stained a purplish, almost black color.
"What happened to your hands?"
Tian Min lowered her gaze to her hands, then began to sign.
The sign language interpreter translated, "After I left the police station, I went to the mountain north of town to pick some flowers, which I took to the Sheep God Temple. The cuts are from blades of grass I encountered while picking them, and the color on my fingertips is dye from the flowers. It’s white at first, but turns purplish-black over time. The stain will fade on its own after a while."
"You went to the Sheep Horn Temple?" Su Miaoyi asked.
Tian Min nodded.
The sign language interpreter translated: "After picking flowers on the north mountain, I went to the Sheep Horn Temple. I stayed there until it was almost dark. I was going to wait for the rain to stop, but it only got heavier, so I ran home through it. When I got home, I asked my mom where Tian Shi and Tian Xuan were. She told me they’d been detained and that the police were looking for me—that I was missing. So I rushed right over."