Chapter 188: Prying tight lips open.
The paper went around, from the hands of one detective to another.
"He is not their son!" Weijun bellowed.
Liwu sneered. "It explains why their emotions were off."
Weijun waved the paper. "So what does this mean? Are they kidnappers?" The sketchy employment history, the lies, the eagerness to take the child out of the precinct, all of it could be explained if they stole the boy from his real parents.
Liwu nudged He Xiao Yi’s arm. "That is what we are about to find out."
While Chief Abby was making a call to headquarters to provide an update on the situation, the two detectives entered the interrogation room. Liwu slid the paper across the table, her expression grim.
She leaned back, her gaze sharp. "He is not your son. Why didn’t you mention this little fact to us."
Mr. Ji’s eyes widened. "We did not give you permission to run any DNA tests on us or our son." He thundered.
Liwu replied calmly, "Because we are not required to get your permission first. This is the SOB, not your everyday police station."
Mrs. Ji’s lips trembled. "He is our son in every way that matters. We raised him since he was five years old, We loved him. We gave him everything."
Mr. Ji’s lips tightened. "Blood does not define family. We raised the boy. We gave him a home when no one wanted him. We fed and clothed him. Blood is not relevant to us."
He Xiao Yi’s pen tapped against the table. "Yet you were not sad when you heard that he was not in good condition. You did not grieve like parents. You told lie after lie in your interview. Why? Whatever you are hiding, we are going to find it. At the moment, we are so close to arresting you as human traffickers. As soon as we put those cuffs on, we will have a press conference about the cruel couple that put their adopted son in a barrel and dumped him in the sea. Guess who the stars of that conference will be?"
Mrs. Ji’s composure cracked immediately. "We are not human traffickers and we didn’t put him in the barrel." Tears welled in her eyes, spilling down her cheeks. "We have just been so overwhelmed."
Her husband growled. Liwu kicked his leg from under the table, where cameras could not see. "Keep talking Mrs. Ji. Tell us the truth."
The woman’s sobs grew louder, her shoulders shaking. Finally, she broke. "We adopted him with good intentions. We had a farming business, in Changsha. We made some significant money over the years, but couldn’t have a child of our own. My husband convinced me that we should adopt. He had heard about a system host that can pinpoint orphaned children most likely to awaken as system hosts. For a huge fee, people pay for that kind of information. We paid. We were given a named and location. We adopted the boy."
He Xiao Yi’s eyes narrowed. "You bought him."
Mrs. Ji flinched. "We adopted him. We bought the information, but we adopted him legally. When we saw him, we thought it was destiny. We took pride in knowing that we were raising a child destined for greatness. But....he...it wasn’t like we expected. The older he grew, the more troublesome he became." She paused, bowing her nose into a tissue from the box on the table.
Liwu’s pen stilled. She reserved judgement on the hypocritical reasons for the adoption. They had adopted the boy to tap into his future wealth. It was that simple. "Troublesome? Explain."
Mrs. Ji’s voice shook, as she started listing the incidents, each word heavy with guilt and resentment. "It was little things at first. He stole money from my bag and lied that the nanny did it. He seat fire to the bicycle of the boy who lived next door and lied about it. He killed an old woman’s cat accidentally. To hide what he had done, he tied in a disposable bag and threw it through someone else’s window. If there were no cameras, nobody would have known."
He Xiao Yi pinched a paper between his fingers.
Mrs. Ji’s sobs grew harsher. "He kept escalating. He frightened us...frightened everyone. We tried to love him. We tried to discipline him but he just grew worse. He poured boiling water on his cousin’s hand two months ago. She is only six! She cried for hours."
Liwu looked at her watch briefly. Texts were coming in from Xuanji. "He was bad so you beat him! A healed fractured rib likely to be caused by a fist." She raised her eyes, "The doctor has found this after examination."
Mr. Ji’s face hardened. "I lost control. I did not mean to strike him. We attended my sister’s wedding last month, and he pushed my niece down the stairs. I just couldn’t take it anymore. Why?" He slammed his fists on the table over and over. "Why can’t he just be normal? Why can’t he just be grateful that we pulled him out of an orphanage and reward us by being a good soon?" He bellowed. "He made me hit him. It was not my fault."
Liwu;s eyes burned into him. "And then?"
Mr. Ji refused to reply. The silence in the room was deafening. Mrs. Ji’s sobs echoed against the walls.
Liwu leaned forward, her voice low, dangerous. "What did you do? Shortly after that beating, you sent him to camp and he disappeared. We all know that he did not run away."
The couple froze, their faces pale, their breaths shallow. The room was filled with dread. he Xiao Yi’s pen hovered, waiting. Liwu’s gaze was unrelenting her words slicing through the silence.
"What did you do?"
The room seemed to shrink, the air thicker with tension. The couple exchanged a glance, their eyes wide with fear. Mrs. Ji’s lips parted, but no sound came. Mr. Ji;s fists trembled, his knuckles white. Liwu’s question hung in the air, a blade poised to strike.
He Xiao Yi leaned forward, his voice calm but firm. "You must answer. Your son is at the point of death. There are many people watching this case. Someone is going to have to pay the price for sealing a child in a barrel. You cannot hide the truth any longer or else, you will be the ones to take the fall. You paid for him, adopted him under suspicious circumstances and beat him. It is not going to get any better for you from here."
Mrs. Ji’s sobs grew louder, her hands clutching at her chest. "We...we didn’t mean..."
Liwu’s eyes narrowed. "Didn’t mean what?"
Mr. Ji’s voice broke, raw and hoarse. "We didn’t want him to be hurt. You have to trust us on that. We just wanted to do what was best for him...for us."
The words shattered the room. They were almost as good as a confession. Liwu’s pen dripped, clattering against the table. He Xiao Yi’s heart pounded, his fury rising. "Tell us what you did." He slammed his hand against the table, his voice sharp as steel.
The couple flinched, their bodies trembling. Mrs. Ji buried her face in her hands, her sobs muffled. Mr. Ji’s eyes darted, searching for escape, for mercy, for anything. But Liwu’s gaze held him captive.
"What did you do?" She asked again.
Mr. Ji’s voice cracked and he finally spoke in a softer voice, "I talked to a friend about our problems and he said he could help. There is ....a network," he confessed, his words heavy with shame. "It operates through the country and internationally. The system host in Changsha is just a small part of it."
He Xiao Yi leaned forward, his pen poised.
Liwu’s eyes narrowed, her instincts sharpening. This was about to shape up into a major case. "Explain."
Mr. Ji swallowed hard, his gaze darting between the two detectives. "If you adopt a troublesome child, or one you cannot handle...they can take him or her off your hands. They said they discipline and train the child, molding them into something useful before sending them back to the parents. If it fails...if the child cannot be controlled, they send them to another orphanage in a tier four city far away. They start over with their memories wiped, as if nothing happened."
Mrs. Ji sobbed, clutching her chest. "We didn’t know what else to do. He was uncontrollable. He talked back to us. He was dangerous. He hurt others. We were drowning and we needed help."
Liwu’s voice was cold, precise. "And you decided that this network of strangers would solve your problem."
Mr. Ji nodded, his face pale. "Yes. We tried and failed. He was not a good fit for our family anymore. I could not let him destroy us. I paid the money for his lessons on discipline. If he learned, he could be brought home. If he failed, then we would all start over with a clean slate. I thought it was salvation for all of us. I didn’t think he would end up in a barrel in the sea."
