Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The residential complex was already packed with onlookers.

Police tape had been strung around my entire building.

The fire caused by the explosion had been extinguished, and the fire engines were gone.

The people still at the scene were presumably police officers assigned to investigate the cause of the fire and explosion.

As well as the cause of the victim’s death.

They needed to determine whether it had been an accident or a deliberate act.

From the outside, the apartment did not look too badly damaged. There were some scorch marks, but fortunately, neither of the neighboring units was occupied.

That was also why I had dared to use this plan.

He Chao deserved to die, but I couldn’t drag innocent people into it.

An officer guarding the perimeter ordered me to leave. I shouted that it was my home and demanded to know what had happened.

“My husband is still in there! Please, let me in! I’m begging you!”

I screamed until my voice was hoarse, then collapsed onto the ground and wailed in despair.

Rainwater was still running over the pavement. The filthy water immediately soaked through my pants and seeped into the cast around my leg.

A red, swollen handprint stood out on my face, while blood seeped through the gauze wrapped around my forehead.

Combined with my anguished, hoarse sobbing, the sight would make anyone sigh and call it a human tragedy.

The rain wasn’t as heavy as it had been the day a certain Ping went to ask for living expenses, but it fell in a fine, dense drizzle, pattering against my face.

By then, there was no telling the rain from my tears.

Poor me. Widowed in my thirties, I had become a pitiful widow.

And my husband had died such a horrible death.

Worse still, I had no children. After suffering such a devastating blow, how was I supposed to go on living?

Those were the sympathetic comments I heard from the chattering crowd as I wept my heart out.

Thanks to my mother-in-law, the entire residential complex knew I was a hen that couldn’t lay eggs.

They also knew I was hardworking, dutiful, and obedient to a fault.

Before long, my mother-in-law and I were both taken to the police station.

Not the local precinct.

This was the kind of station that had forensic examiners and handled major cases.

The officers’ scrutinizing gazes made me uncomfortable all over.

They led me into a room containing one table and three chairs.

There were two officers inside. One was responsible for questioning me, while the other took notes.

“Ms. Lin, there’s no need to be nervous. This is just a routine inquiry. All you need to do is answer truthfully.”

I kept my head bowed, immersed in my grief.

The officer asked why all the windows in the apartment had been shut so tightly.

With every window sealed, the gas had built up to a dangerously high concentration and had nowhere to escape. He Chao had been poisoned, and when the gas later came into contact with an open flame, it caused the explosion.

I stared at him in surprise. “The windows were shut? I didn’t close them!”

“My husband must have gotten up and closed them. It was raining today, and he had a cold. Before I left, I heard him complaining that the draft was making his forehead ache.”

At the mention of my husband, my eyes reddened again.

The officer asked, “You left a pot of ribs stewing over an open flame. Why did you go out?”

I sniffled between sobs. “My husband finally had a day off today, so he could eat at home. He had somewhere to be in the afternoon, and Chinese yam and pork rib soup was his favorite. We still had ribs in the refrigerator, so I got up early to prepare everything and put them on to stew. But then I realized we were out of Chinese yam. My husband told me to go buy some at the market while he watched the stove.”

As for why a grown man would make his wife walk to the market alone in pouring rain just to buy Chinese yam, I was sure the police had already looked into He Chao and my mother-in-law’s characters.

The officer asked, “He Chao was awake when you left?”

I nodded. “Yes. We both got up early. My husband’s nose was blocked, so he got up and took some medicine.”

“His nose was stuffed up? He couldn’t breathe through it?” the officer asked.

“Yes,” I replied. “He had a cold and a runny nose.”

The medicine he’d taken would likely make him drowsy.

And with his nose blocked, he wouldn’t have smelled the gas.

The officer asked, “What time was it when you left home?”

No one normally made a point of remembering the exact time something utterly mundane happened.

I shook my head. “I didn’t notice.”

The officer asked his next question in the mildest possible tone, as though it were of no importance at all.

“After buying the yams, why did you take a different route home?”

My sudden decision to take another route was highly suspicious.

If I hadn’t gone that way, I wouldn’t have had an accident. I would have made it home on time.

If I’d been home when the gas began leaking, I would have noticed. I could have opened the windows in time, the explosion would never have happened, and my husband wouldn’t have lost his life.

“I was going to buy cigarettes,” I replied.

“Cigarettes?” the officer repeated.

“Yes. Before I left, my husband asked me to buy him two packs. The shop that sells them is closer if you take that road,” I explained.

Otherwise, I would have had to make a long detour around the entrance near my home.

“Oh, right. I couldn’t remember the brand, so my husband sent me a message.”

I opened WeChat on my phone. He Chao’s message appeared on the screen: Two packs of the 20-yuan Huanghelou. Get them from Lao Zheng.

Lao Zheng was the owner of that little convenience store. My husband often bought cigarettes there, and the two of them knew each other well.

My husband was always saying Lao Zheng’s cigarettes were more authentic.

The officer looked at the message, nodded, and recorded its timestamp.

I guessed their next step would be to use the time I left home to test how long it took to walk to the market, find the vendor who had sold me the yams, then check the surveillance cameras along my route or manufacture eyewitness testimony.

Since they hadn’t determined that this was a homicide, the investigation wouldn’t be particularly rigorous. They would simply go through the motions.

“Thank you for your cooperation, Ms. Lin. We’ll contact you again if we have any further questions.”

When I emerged from the small room, I ran into my mother-in-law.

She lost control and rushed over, striking me. I was unsteady on my crutches and fell to the floor again.

“Lin Wan, you curse! You’re the one who killed my son! You did it to get revenge! You murderer! I’ll kill you!”

I sobbed in anguish. “I’m sorry… It’s all my fault Ah Chao died… I never should have gone out…”

My mother-in-law shrieked, “You heard her, didn’t you? She admitted it herself! She’s the one who killed my son! What are you standing around for? Arrest her! She’s a murderer!”

She was as imperious as ever, but she had completely forgotten that this wasn’t her kingdom. It was a police station.

The officers immediately seized upon two words she’d used: get revenge.

But when they pressed her for details, she stammered and couldn’t give them an answer. All she did was keep demanding that they arrest me.

Naturally, the police couldn’t arrest someone without cause. So she accused them of being seduced by a temptress like me, claimed I’d bribed them, and threatened to report all of us.

It was nothing but a farce. She couldn’t stir up any real trouble.

I knew I had survived the first stage.

Next, the police would focus on that supposed revenge and investigate my marriage to He Chao, along with all our social connections.

Let them investigate.

I’d been afraid they wouldn’t.

The storm was about to break.