Chapter 54: He Doesn't Love Me at All

Mrs. Liao put on her mask and followed the police car, leaving under the inquisitive gazes of the surrounding passersby.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Si Heng composed a WeChat message to Jiang Yuan in the backseat.

【Miss Jiang, is Mrs. Liao a suspect?】

The phone vibrated with a hum.

After unlocking it, Jiang Yuan saw Si Heng's message.

She quickly typed a few words and sent them back: 【The Goldfish trio told me that Mr. Liao was pushed off the cliff by Mrs. Liao.】

Upon reading this, Si Heng's dark eyes narrowed slightly, his expression turning solemn.

He asked: 【Why would Mrs. Liao do that?】

Jiang Yuan: 【Mrs. Liao's affair with her cousin was discovered by Mr. Liao. Mr. Liao wanted a divorce and demanded she leave with nothing. Mrs. Liao refused and told her cousin she wanted to kill him.】

【The cousin suggested she invite Mr. Liao for a hike. There are no surveillance cameras on the mountain, so pushing him off would be undetectable.】

【The youngest Goldfish sister said the cousin has been living at Mrs. Liao's house recently. When I took Jinjin to the Liao residence the other day, it was the cousin who opened the door.】

After reading the messages, Si Heng turned off his phone screen. He raised his eyes and, through the rearview mirror, observed Mrs. Liao unobtrusively.

She sat with her eyes lowered, her brow tightly furrowed, appearing somewhat restless and uneasy.

When she personally pushed her husband, Liao Xingyuan, off the cliff, would she have been this uneasy?

***

Upon arriving at the police station, Mrs. Liao was taken into the interrogation room.

Si Heng led Jiang Yuan and the others into the conference room to review the case details and plan the interrogation strategy and key points in advance.

Meng Xiaokai listened, stunned. "Boss, why do you suspect Mrs. Liao is the killer?"

"Miss Jiang discovered it," Si Heng replied, before following up with, "Has Mrs. Liao's cousin arrived?"

Xiao Xu shook his head. "Not yet. He said he's out of town and can't make it back in time."

"Interrogate Mrs. Liao first." Si Heng stood up. Before leaving the conference room, he turned back to instruct Meng Xiaokai, "Take good care of our consultant."

"You got it, Boss!" Meng Xiaokai responded immediately.

Xiao Xu followed Si Heng out, clutching his laptop.

***

Inside the interrogation room.

Mrs. Liao's hands were nervously entwined on her knees. With every passing second, her anxiety grew.

*Why did the police bring me here?*

*Did they find something?*

She carefully reviewed her answers; she shouldn't have said anything improper.

At that moment, the door to the interrogation room was pushed open.

Si Heng sat opposite her, his expression cold and stern.

Xiao Xu proceeded with the standard protocol, asking for her identification information.

Si Heng parted his lips slightly, his voice carrying a chilling edge: "Mrs. Liao, why did you push Mr. Liao off the cliff?"

Hearing this, Mrs. Liao's heart jolted. Her pupils contracted slightly, and her face filled with disbelief. "What... what are you saying?"

Si Heng repeated himself coldly, then continued, "Was it because Mr. Liao discovered your affair with your cousin?"

A massive wave of turmoil surged in Mrs. Liao's heart. The sense of dread felt like a surging undercurrent, threatening to swallow her whole.

*How is that possible...*

*How on earth did he know?*

*I was so careful with my answers just now; I didn't leak anything.*

"Are you surprised, Mrs. Liao?" Si Heng said slowly. "Are you wondering how we managed to find this out?"

He paused for a moment before continuing, "Your cousin has already confessed. He wants a reduced sentence. His testimony is that you harbored murderous intent toward Mr. Liao because you didn't want to leave the marriage empty-handed."

"Impossible!" Mrs. Liao denied vehemently. "I don't believe it!"

"Mrs. Liao, people are capable of anything when pushed into a corner," Si Heng said indifferently. "Can we talk about why you pushed Mr. Liao off the cliff?"

Tears streamed down Mrs. Liao's face, her features contorted. "What's the use of telling you? You don't know anything at all!"

In the next second, she realized she had let her emotions get the better of her and spoken out of turn. Panicked, she said, "I didn't do it! Liao Xingyuan fell off the cliff by himself. His death has nothing to do with me!"

"It's alright. Calm down, and we will talk later." Si Heng led Xiao Xu out of the interrogation room.

Seeing them emerge, Meng Xiaokai lowered his voice and asked, "Boss, did she confess?"

"Not yet." Si Heng shook his head, then asked, "Where is Miss Jiang?"

Meng Xiaokai: "She's in the Director's office."

***

Jiang Yuan had originally thought Lou Qinglin had called her for a new case, but she hadn't expected it to be for a personal matter.

"Miss Jiang, I am truly sorry to trouble you to come to my home."

Lou Qinglin had a daughter late in life. Although he was forty-three, he had a daughter who had just started kindergarten.

Recently, his daughter, Lou Xixi, had taken in a kitten. It was very clingy when it first arrived, but unexpectedly, by the second day, it began ignoring Xixi.

It wouldn't let Xixi hold it, wouldn't let her pet it, and sometimes even acted aggressively toward her.

Lou Qinglin had thought about giving the kitten away and buying a new one, but his daughter wouldn't agree. Having no other choice, he could only turn to Jiang Yuan for help.

He had originally intended to have Si Heng call her, but he hadn't expected to run into her today.

"It's a small matter," Jiang Yuan smiled. "If there's nothing else, I'll be going now."

Seeing her rise to leave, Lou Qinglin mustered the courage to say, "Perhaps you could leave your contact information? I'll have my wife add you on WeChat."

"Sure." Jiang Yuan wrote down her WeChat ID.

Walking out of Lou Qinglin's office, she happened to see Si Heng. Jiang Yuan walked up to him. "Captain Si, did she confess?"

"Not yet." Si Heng handed her the printed transcript of the conversation. "Take a look."

Jiang Yuan scanned it and frowned. "Should I try talking to her?"

Si Heng was silent for a few seconds before nodding. "Go ahead."

***

The interrogation room door opened again. Jiang Yuan saw Mrs. Liao slumped over the table, her eyes vacant and her face covered in tear stains.

"Mrs. Liao." Jiang Yuan lightly tapped the table with her fingers. "Do you have the strength to speak right now?"

The only response was a deathly silence.

Jiang Yuan and Xiao Xu exchanged a glance.

After a moment of thought, Jiang Yuan spoke again: "Mr. Liao's friends all praised him for being a good man. Even you said he was good. So why did you have an affair? Was there some hardship you were facing?"

As the words fell, Mrs. Liao's unfocused eyes finally moved.

She suddenly snapped her head up to stare at Jiang Yuan and burst into a sudden, manic laugh. "Good? He was good my ass!"

"You think he wasn't a good man?" Jiang Yuan sat down opposite her, and Xiao Xu quickly opened his laptop.

"He didn't love me at all!" Mrs. Liao's tone was indignant and filled with resentment. "He refused to touch me every single night. No matter how I seduced him, he wouldn't notice! Since he wouldn't touch me, I found other men myself!"

Jiang Yuan's slender brows furrowed. "If he didn't love you, why did he marry you?"

"Why?" Mrs. Liao sneered, hatred swirling in her eyes. "Because I look like his first love, of course! If I had known it was like this, I never would have married him in the first place!"