Before Qin Rou could walk back to the interrogation room, she was stopped by an exasperated shout from behind.
“Qin Rou! Get back here!”
Wang Fugui, like a fat pig whose tail had been stepped on, stumbled and scrambled out of the office, his forehead glistening with sweat and oil under the corridor lights.
“Chief?” Qin Rou paused, seeing his frantic appearance, her heart sank, and a premonition of ill omen arose.
Could it be… he knew she had secretly backed up the video?
“The video! That surveillance video!” Wang Fugui rushed to her, lowering his voice, yet his tone was so urgent it was as if he wanted to devour someone, “Did you delete it? Tell me honestly, did you delete it or not?!”
Qin Rou’s expression instantly changed slightly. Looking at the Chief’s distorted face, she subconsciously wanted to tell the truth, but the words caught in her throat, stunned by Wang Fugui’s next action.
Wang Fugui’s anxious gaze suddenly flickered upwards, pausing for a second in the corner of the corridor ceiling. There, a red dot glowed faintly—it was a surveillance camera!
His expression changed drastically in that instant.
One second he was in a panic, the next, he put on a look of profound heartbreak, as if he was deeply disappointed and felt that iron could not be made into steel.
He suddenly slapped his thigh, his voice abruptly rising by eight octaves, full of righteous indignation.
“Qin Rou, oh Qin Rou! You… you really deleted it?!”
He pointed at Qin Rou, his fingers trembling, whether from acting or genuine urgency, “How could you do such a thing! For your own future, for taking credit, you would even delete crucial evidence! Is this what a people’s police officer should do? You’ve disappointed me too much! You’ve disappointed your father too much!”
Qin Rou was completely stunned.
She felt as if she had been struck by lightning, her mind blank.
What was the Chief saying?
First, he coerced and enticed her in the office to delete the video, then he put on such a show under the surveillance camera?
Was he… going to push all the responsibility onto her? Ruin her to protect himself?
She remembered her father holding her hand, saying that Uncle Wang was an old comrade-in-arms for many years and would definitely take good care of her.
Old comrade-in-arms?
This was the so-called old comrade-in-arms?!
A chilling coldness rushed from the soles of her feet to the top of her head, and Qin Rou’s whole body stiffened.
“Chief, I actually…” She opened her mouth, wanting to explain, wanting to tell everything.
“Don’t explain!” Wang Fugui waved his large hand, interrupting her righteously, not giving her a chance to speak, “If you have anything to say, come with me! Go explain to the victim, Lu Xuan!”
After speaking, he didn’t even glance at Qin Rou, turned and strode towards the interrogation room, his back as if he was truly going to uphold justice.
“Bang!”
The door of the interrogation room was suddenly pushed open.
Li Yifan, who was cowering in the corner like wallpaper, shivered in fright, almost jumping off his chair.
Lu Xuan, however, remained as steady as a mountain, merely raising his eyelids lazily, looking at Wang Fugui’s face, which instantly changed at the doorway.
As soon as Wang Fugui entered the door and saw Lu Xuan, his face, which had been full of “righteousness,” instantly transformed as if possessed by a Sichuan opera master, changing into an extremely fawning smile.
His protruding beer belly seemed to humbly retract a bit, and he rubbed his fat hands, nodding and bowing as he approached.
“Lu Xuan! Oh, Student Lu, this is all a misunderstanding, a huge misunderstanding!”
As he spoke, he suddenly turned around, and the hand that had just been “heartbroken” pointing at Qin Rou now became “righteously indignant.”
“It’s all her!” Wang Fugui pointed at Qin Rou, who had followed him in, her face pale, and accused her with a heartbroken expression.
“We have a bad apple in our team! This police officer named Qin Rou has twisted thoughts. To climb up, she actually privately deleted the crucial surveillance video that could prove your innocence! She wanted to make this case an ironclad one to claim credit! This is simply lawless, a disgrace to our police force!”
He spoke with spittle flying, acting with great emotion: “But Lu Xuan, don’t worry! Our police will never wrong a good person! For such a bad apple, we will definitely deal with her seriously and never tolerate her! We will definitely give you a satisfactory explanation!”
Qin Rou listened to these damning words, trembling with anger, her head buzzing.
Shameless!
Despicable!
She had never seen such a brazen person in her life!
“Chief… I… I…” She was so angry that her lips trembled, unable to utter a complete sentence.
Wang Fugui glared at her fiercely, and in front of Lu Xuan, he reprimanded her again: “Shut up! Don’t you know what you’ve done? Fabricating a case, destroying evidence! This is illegal! You just wait to be disciplined!”
He was determined to throw this dirty water on her today!
However, at this moment, the young female police officer, whom he had always regarded as a soft persimmon and thought had been scared silly, suddenly raised her head.
In those beautiful eyes, there was no longer confusion and fear, only the anger and determination of someone pushed to the brink.
“Chief!” Qin Rou’s voice was not loud, but it was exceptionally clear, every word like a slap, harshly striking Wang Fugui’s face.
“I didn’t delete it!”
“What?” Wang Fugui’s smile instantly froze, his expression as comical as a clown.
He even subconsciously dug his ears, suspecting he had misheard.
Didn’t delete it? What nonsense was this girl talking about?
Qin Rou straightened her back, meeting his gaze with burning eyes, repeating word by word: “I said, I did not delete the video! I just… copied a version of it and saved it to my USB drive!”
“…”
The interrogation room fell into a dead silence.
The expression on Wang Fugui’s fat face was truly spectacular.
From shock, to bewilderment, then to disbelief, finally turning into a complete embarrassment.
He felt like a clown performing strenuously on stage, only to have his pants pulled down in public halfway through the act.
“Ha… haha…” He gave two dry laughs, trying to salvage the situation, “Didn’t… didn’t delete it? That’s great, that’s great! Copied… copied well!”
“Comrade Qin’s awareness of preserving evidence is commendable! Yes, commendable!”
Lu Xuan leaned back in his chair, having enjoyed the entire farce from beginning to end, understanding everything.
He had seen too many dirty tricks of infighting and framing in officialdom.
This Chief named Wang Fugui had clearly run into a brick wall and wanted to find a scapegoat, but unexpectedly, this seemingly docile little lamb still had a trick up her sleeve.
A bit interesting.
Wang Fugui awkwardly wiped some sweat, no longer daring to look at Qin Rou, and quickly turned back to Lu Xuan, his smile uglier than a cry: “That… Lu Xuan, you see, since it’s a misunderstanding, and the video is still there, you acted completely in self-defense. You can… leave with your friend anytime now.”
He just wanted to send this important figure away as quickly as possible.
“Hehe, this matter is just going to pass like this, don’t take it to heart, it’s all a misunderstanding, purely a misunderstanding…”