Xiao Wenqiang, calculating the time, picked up her packed luggage and checked out of the hotel to head to the police station.
Officer Zhang and Officer Zhou, the two main officers interrogating Xu Xinyi and Sun Liang respectively, were reviewing the combined statements of both individuals.
"These two are quite tight-lipped," Officer Zhang said to Officer Zhou after reading Sun Liang's statement.
At that moment, Xiao Wenqiang entered the police station.
"Hello, officers! My name is Dong Zhenhua, the father of Dong Bin, who was attacked. I just heard my wife, Xu Xinyi, was also called in for questioning, so I wanted to come and understand the situation," Xiao Wenqiang stated her identity to the police.
After being led to the lounge, she showed the police photos recently sent by Dong Bin. "Officers, I now suspect that Sun Liang and Xu Xinyi might have an improper relationship. Did they collude to kill my son?" Xiao Wenqiang appeared very angry.
Upon hearing this, Officer Zhang and Officer Zhou quickly examined the photos provided by Dong Zhenhua. After making copies, they checked the hotel's surveillance footage for verification before returning to the interrogation rooms.
Officer Zhou and Officer Zhang presented the photos and surveillance video footage from the hotel. Sun Liang and Xu Xinyi could no longer deny knowing each other, but they only admitted to being close friends.
"Sun Liang and I are alumni from the same university. He used to take good care of me, so we are quite close. Nothing improper happened at the hotel; we were just resting and talking in the room." Xu Xinyi, knowing that the hotel wouldn't have footage from inside their room, insisted they were just good friends.
"Because my husband's son, Dong Bin, often disrespected me, I complained to Sun Liang a few times. He might have lent me so much money and kindly wanted to help me, so he thought of teaching Dong Bin a lesson. I believe he didn't really intend to kill him, as they shouldn't have any grudges," Xu Xinyi had gradually calmed down.
"But you previously said Sun Liang wanted to kill Dong Bin?" Officer Zhang seized on the loophole in her statement.
Xu Xinyi was not caught off guard and quickly responded, "I was nervous at the time. You were trying to trick me into saying Sun Liang told me to kill Dong Bin, and I was scared, so I made a wild guess."
"We weren't tricking you. Sun Liang did say that. If you don't believe us, we can show you the surveillance footage from his side later," Officer Zhang said, looking intently at Xu Xinyi.
Xu Xinyi's facial muscles visibly twitched. She took a deep breath, her lowered eyelashes obscuring her inner thoughts, "Then I don't know why. In my impression, Sun Liang is a kind and filial person. Perhaps he said it randomly because he was scared of being caught! Officers, please believe me, I never asked him to kill anyone."
The scene on Sun Liang's side was different.
"Officers, I've already said, Xu Xinyi and I met in college. She's a very warm person, so we've remained good friends after her marriage. This photo must have been taken when we were tired from shopping and found a hotel to rest for a while, but we really didn't have any improper relations." Sun Liang denied anything after seeing the photo.
"Resting by booking a hotel room? That's quite a peculiar habit you have," Officer Zhou was somewhat speechless, finding Sun Liang's denial to be blatant falsehoods.
"The law doesn't stipulate that friends can't book a hotel room to rest, does it? We are very good friends!" Sun Liang said, covering his head. "It's just that our friendship is so good that when she asked me to help her teach Dong Bin a lesson, I impulsively agreed. Now I truly regret it. No matter how good a friendship is, one shouldn't break the law for a friend. Right, officers?"
Xu Xinyi and Sun Liang were now caught in a mutual blame game, each pushing the responsibility onto the other to lessen their own culpability. Without any further evidence, the police could not immediately reach a verdict.
Meanwhile, in the police station's lounge, Xiao Wenqiang appeared idle, scrolling through her phone and watching videos.
After a while, Xiao Wenqiang suddenly changed her expression and walked out of the lounge to approach Officer Xiao Wu, who was at the front desk. "Officer, could you please take a look at this video?"
The video showed Xu Xinyi, wearing a mask and gloves, poisoning Dong Zhenhua's toothbrush, towel, razor, and other items.
"It's like this... A while ago, our maid quit, and my wife was pregnant. Since I travel frequently, I installed several surveillance cameras at home. I put one in the bathroom mainly in case she slipped in her late pregnancy and had no one to help her. However, I went on a business trip before I could tell her, so she probably didn't know there were cameras installed," Xiao Wenqiang had a plausible excuse ready.
"Is this the only segment of the video?" Officer Xiao Wu, who was watching, took it very seriously.
"I deleted some of the later segments. There should still be earlier ones. I installed it just in case, so I didn't check the content at first. This segment, I clicked on it out of curiosity because the thumbnail showed my wife in the bathroom wearing a mask and gloves, before I deleted it..." Xiao Wenqiang had already deleted the part where she had coated Xu Xinyi's toothbrush and towel with thallium.
"Could you please send us all these videos?"
"Of course!" This was Xiao Wenqiang's objective. After quickly sending the files, she asked, "Then do we need to have our villa inspected?"
"Of course. I've already contacted our technical department. We'll need you to guide us there shortly."
"Yes, yes, no trouble at all! You're serving us, the citizens!" Xiao Wenqiang expressed her gratitude repeatedly.
Subsequently, the police collected the towels, toothbrushes, razors, and other items that appeared in the surveillance footage from the villa. Upon returning to the station, they extracted and screened them, eventually confirming the presence of the highly toxic heavy metal, "thallium."
What was initially a case of intentional injury in a public place had now evolved into a separate case of domestic poisoning, further complicating the investigation.
"Mr. Dong, we've arranged for specialists to draw blood from you shortly. Thallium is highly toxic. Have you felt unwell recently?" the officer asked after informing him of the results.
"I was in a rush that day and slept in the guest room. I don't remember using the toiletries in the master bedroom," Xiao Wenqiang feigned recollection. "However, I don't know if she poisoned me elsewhere or at other times, so I would still trouble the officers to draw my blood for testing."
The specialists arranged by the police soon arrived to draw Dong Zhenhua's blood.
While the blood was being drawn, Xiao Wenqiang asked, "Officers, didn't you say this substance is highly toxic? Why not also check... Xu Xinyi... She was in that environment, perhaps she could be poisoned?"
Officer Xiao Wu, who was in charge of arranging the blood draw, felt a bit of sympathy for Dong Zhenhua, thinking he was still concerned about the woman who poisoned him even at this point. However, he satisfied the request and also arranged for Xu Xinyi to have blood drawn for testing.