Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Before the police arrived, the refinery’s security department sealed off the scene.

And because I was the first person to discover the victim, I was taken to the security office.

Before long, my dad got the news and came back.

The first thing he did when he saw me was slap me across the face.

He reeked of alcohol, but his mind was perfectly clear. Every word he cursed at me struck right where it hurt. “You little jinx! I told you to watch one child, and you couldn’t even do that! Useless trash. No wonder your mother didn’t want you! Tomorrow, you get the hell out. I don’t want you either!”

In the end, several security guards had to drag him out by force.

I clamped my hands over my ears, but my father’s curses still slipped through the cracks between my fingers. They were like leeches, clinging to me and sucking with all their might.

If even my dad hated me this much, I didn’t dare imagine how Aunt Ma would skin me alive and tear me apart.

After that, police officers came in one after another to question me. I told them everything I knew.

…

The room was very quiet. On the wall, the second hand of the quartz clock ticked on and on.

The lightbulb overhead was painfully bright. I curled up in the corner, my mind filled with An’an’s strange, terrifying appearance.

She was dead. She had been raped and murdered, and the killer was some kind of psychopath who had even put that kind of makeup on her.

Just then, the door creaked as someone pushed it open from outside. Two police officers walked in.

The moment I saw them, I quickly lowered my head.

“Zhu Yanwei, I’m Wan Guoqing, deputy captain of the Criminal Investigation Detachment.”

Captain Wan bent down to pull me up. “The floor’s cold. Come sit in the chair.”

He smelled strongly of smoke, so strong it made my head ache.

I dodged his hand and shrank harder into the corner.

Captain Wan sat down across from me and signaled for the young detective beside him to pour me a cup of hot water.

“Yanwei, you’ll be starting ninth grade in the second half of the year, right? The neighbors said you do very well in school, and that you skipped a grade in elementary school.”

I gripped the glass cup tightly with both hands and said nothing.

Captain Wan asked softly, “How did you and An’an usually get along? Did you hate her?”

I glared at the middle-aged man across from me. “Her death has nothing to do with me! I didn’t like her much, but I really didn’t kill her.”

Once again, I recounted everything that had happened that day. I told Captain Wan that I had gone to play soccer and do homework with my classmates, and when I came back in the afternoon, An’an was gone.

Captain Wan pressed a hand lightly onto my shoulder, his gaze sharp. “You’re not lying?”

“No!”

I was getting more and more agitated. Being suspected felt awful.

Suddenly, Captain Wan took two magazines out of his trouser pocket and placed them in front of me. The girls on the covers were completely naked, with only their arms covering their private parts.

I felt all the blood in my body rush to my head with a buzz.

“These porn magazines are yours, aren’t they? The contents are extremely obscene, and some parts involve child abuse.”

Humiliated and furious, my mouth went dry as I desperately tried to defend myself. “Those books belong to a classmate of mine. He was afraid the teacher would find them, so he asked me to keep them for him.

“It’s true. I swear to God! I’m a good student. I would never read that kind of thing. If you don’t believe me, you can ask our teachers.”

Captain Wan cut me off sharply. “Stop dragging in all this irrelevant nonsense!

“Zhu Yanwei, you said you spent the whole afternoon at school with your classmates playing soccer and doing homework. But according to our preliminary investigation, you were only seen at school for half an hour. You left home at noon and didn’t return until five thirty in the afternoon. Where were you for the rest of those hours?”

“I was… I was at school.”

Captain Wan slammed the table in irritation. “Tell the truth. No lying!”