chapter 10
“That’s everything that happened. I didn’t start the fire-I was unconscious at the time, how could I have done it? It must have been the teacher who took He Shuyu back to the Secret Room, and He Shuyu attacked him when he was off guard, then set the fire and escaped.
“She’s the only one who could have done it. She was locked up until she had a mental breakdown, which is why she did something so extreme. Even if I hadn’t fainted, I couldn’t have locked the teacher in the Secret Room and set him on fire.
“I had no motive to do such a thing. Go ask anyone, ask my classmates at school-who doesn’t know how much I loved him? I loved him so much, and now he’s gone, in such a painful way. I’m already heartbroken. My child doesn’t even have a father now. I’m just a pitiful Pregnant Woman, and yet I’m being suspected of murdering my own husband. How could I be so miserable…”
I sobbed, tears streaming down my face.
The police silently took notes.
I continued, “I admit, I really was the despicable third party, but my love for Li Wenzhou was real. At first, I deliberately didn’t mention He Shuyu, simply to save a little face, to make my role less ugly, to keep my love with Li Wenzhou a little cleaner.
“I know you all have prejudices against me-He Shuyu is the original wife who suffered all the bullying, and I’m the intruder who took her place. She’s pitiful, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t commit a crime. She’s the murderer, the arsonist, and I’m the victim-at worst, I’m the victim’s family!”
I became a bit agitated and started feeling unwell again. I stroked my belly and groaned.
The two police officers exchanged glances and told me the session was over for now, and that I could go rest in the lounge.
I let out a long sigh of relief.
“Condemn me morally all you want, but legally, I’m innocent.” I held my head high and walked out of the interrogation room.
I could imagine how ugly the expressions of the two police officers behind me must have been.
After that, I went to the Bathroom and sat dazed in a stall for a long time.
Two female officers came in, and I happened to overhear their conversation.
One of them had just been to the hospital to see He Shuyu. He Shuyu was hospitalized for burns, but her injuries weren’t serious.
That officer said, “When He Shuyu talks about that mistress, her expression looks like she wants to eat her alive-she’s nothing like a virtuous wife, more like a demon.”
The other replied, “I get it. Who wouldn’t hate the mistress? And she was locked up by her husband for so long. Being imprisoned in the Secret Room for that long-how could anyone stay sane? Even the best temper would break. -By the way, what did He Shuyu say?”
“She insists that Yang Yi started the fire.”
“Did she see it with her own eyes?”
“Not exactly. She said she broke the Secret Door of the Secret Room and escaped that day. Yang Yi saw her and pretended to faint. Li Wenzhou was drunk, saw her escape, got angry, and hit her. She’d been locked up for so long, her body was weak, her mind was fragile, and after a few slaps she was barely conscious.
“She smelled smoke and woke up, only to find herself back in the Secret Room, surrounded by fire. She woke up just in time and managed to escape.
“She believes that after Li Wenzhou locked her back in the Secret Room, Yang Yi wasn’t satisfied and wanted to eliminate future trouble, so she set the fire to burn her alive inside.
“Li Wenzhou may have imprisoned and beaten her, but he still had feelings for her and couldn’t allow Yang Yi to commit arson, so he rushed over to save her and ended up in danger himself. He was drunk and couldn’t escape.”
The other officer sighed, “Even at a time like this, He Shuyu is still speaking up for her husband? These two women each have their own story-it’s become a Rashomon.
“In Yang Yi’s version, Li Wenzhou saves her; in He Shuyu’s version, Li Wenzhou saves her too. Li Wenzhou comes off looking pretty good. But neither of them saw who set the fire, yet both insist it was the other-it’s all subjective speculation, just venting their anger.”
“Yeah, both of their statements have issues. The Secret Room was damaged by the fire, and the evidence only shows that Gasoline was poured on the floor and the fire was set deliberately, but we can’t tell who did it. If it weren’t so hard to investigate the scene, who would want to listen to these two fighting like dogs?”
“Did you interview the neighbors?”
“We did, but no one witnessed what happened that night. The Villa Area is very private, and the fire happened inside the Secret Room, so it’s normal that there were no witnesses.”
At that, the two female officers left.
I waited a while, then left the Bathroom too.
A few days later, the case was solved. Both He Shuyu and I were released without charges.
I grabbed the police officer who had interrogated me before and, after repeated questioning, finally learned the truth.
It turned out that a month ago, Li Wenzhou had started working on a script, inspired by Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s short story “Hell Screen.”
“Hell Screen” tells an extremely cruel story. A court painter has a pathological and extreme pursuit of art. He is ordered to paint a scene of hell. To capture the horror of Hellfire, he sacrifices his own daughter.
He watches his daughter burn alive in the flames, painting the terrifying scene as it unfolds, and ultimately completes a masterpiece-“Hell Screen.”
After Li Wenzhou began writing the script, he repeatedly expressed to friends in the industry that he wanted to witness such a Hellfire himself; only then could he write the final scene with the most intense and extreme beauty.
As a genius playwright, Li Wenzhou had always been eccentric, fascinated by the bizarre, and often had such wild and frightening ideas. His friends were used to it.
No one expected it to come true this time.
“So, when you heard him say in the Bathroom, ‘Once I finish this scene, I’ll send you on your way,’ he was referring to this long-planned fire. The Gasoline poured in the Secret Room was bought by him.
“He locked He Shuyu in the Secret Room, not because he still had feelings for her, but to prepare for this fire. When to set the fire depended on his progress with the script.
“After finishing the penultimate scene, he put his idea of witnessing Hellfire into practice. But in the end, He Shuyu managed to escape, and he himself died in the flames. The script only made it to the second-to-last scene.”
I muttered in shock, “I never imagined it would be like this. It’s terrifying…”
In a daze, I left the police station.
The matter was finally settled.