Su Hui launched an attack that broke through Lan An’s defenses. At this point, the conspiracy had been exposed. However, regardless of the questions asked by the incoming police officers, Lan An kept her head down and maintained the same posture, remaining silent.

Several rounds of questioning had passed, but the officers still couldn’t extract any relevant information from her.

Back in the observation room, Su Hui suddenly thought of something. He squinted his eyes, leaned forward, and tried to see more clearly through the glass barrier. “What is she waiting for?”

Lu Junchi also realized it. Lan An had pretended to cooperate with the police investigation before, but now she remained silent, all to buy time.

When faced with the inquiries, Lan An tightly pursed her lips, as if she hadn’t heard anything. This expression, however, only confirmed Su Hui’s suspicion.

After pondering for a moment, Su Hui said, “She may have already notified someone…”

Lu Junchi furrowed his brow and recalled, “During this period, she didn’t make any outgoing calls… Did the information leak from the art studio? Could it be those children…”

They had released some of the children detained in the art studio who had no connection to the case. Currently, the only ones still in custody were Yu Keko and Dong Anchen, who were relevant to the investigation.

The news of the sand art studio being investigated might have spread through those children.

Apart from this possibility, Lan An had been under their surveillance the entire afternoon. The art studio couldn’t have been under constant watch.

So how was the information being transmitted?

Su Hui mentally reviewed all the details from the sand art studio and suddenly remembered something. “Lan An had a peculiar action. Upon closer recollection, it seems strange. When I was looking at the sand bottles in the display window, she passed by, opened the window, and rearranged the sand bottles one by one.”

As he said this, Su Hui’s eyelashes flickered. “That might have been a signal she arranged with someone.”

His vision became blurred. At that time, he only noticed Lan An’s action but didn’t see the specific details.

Now, upon reflection, she had probably moved the position of the sand bottles when he wasn’t paying attention, leaving a mark.

“I’ll immediately send people to search her residence…” Lu Junchi said.

Lan An had been arrested only a few hours ago, and although they had located her place of residence, they hadn’t obtained the search warrant yet.

Searching now would be against the regulations, but Lu Junchi decided to handle it as a special case and applied to the superiors. Otherwise, time might run out.

In Huadu, by 5 o’clock in the afternoon, Liu Yumei returned home after grocery shopping. She passed by the sand art studio in the Jiayu residential complex. Unlike the usual brightly lit studio, there was no one there today, and Lan An was nowhere to be found.

Feeling a bit strange, she murmured softly to herself.

Then Liu Yumei looked at the sand bottles displayed in the art studio’s window.

She rubbed her eyes, making sure she wasn’t mistaken. The sand bottles had changed position, and the outermost row was all red sand bottles.

Liu Yumei’s heart started pounding, feeling a bit nervous.

She quickly walked into the residential area, looked up at the lights in the neighboring apartment, but they were also turned off.

After thinking for a moment, Liu Yumei returned home, put down the groceries, and didn’t bother cooking. She searched for a while and found two keys.

She was 52 years old, retired, and living alone.

Liu Yumei didn’t originally live here; she moved here later on. At that time, she didn’t have much money, just enough to buy a second-hand apartment on the ground floor. The building was located in the corner of the residential complex, with two bedrooms and a living room. The smaller bedroom faced the exterior wall.

The neighbor across the hall, Lan An, was a friendly woman who often visited Liu Yumei with gifts.

Once, when Liu Yumei had a heart attack in the middle of the night, she felt so unwell that she knocked on her neighbor’s door, and it was Lan An who took her to the hospital.

She owed Lan An a lot of favors and always thought about repaying them, but Lan An had only one request for her.

Lan An had left two keys at their home and asked Liu Yumei that if one day she suddenly wasn’t there, could she please feed the dog in the small house.

“You also have a dog at your place?” Liu Yumei asked at the time, “Why haven’t I seen you walking it?”

“My dog can use the bathroom by itself; it’s not much trouble,” Lan An said with a smile.

Liu Yumei had never heard of a dog that could use the bathroom by itself.

“Well, Auntie Liu, if one day I don’t come back on time, please take care of my home. This bigger key is for the main door, and the smaller key is for the chain on the dog. If you open the chain, it will be free. My dog gets hungry easily, so please come and feed it as soon as possible…” Lan An repeatedly reminded and instructed.

“Okay, okay. By the way, why would there be a time when you can’t come back on time?” Liu Yumei found this request strange, but Lan An had done so much for her that no matter how strange the request, it was a small favor for her. Although she agreed with her mouth full, she couldn’t help but ask an extra question.

“Ah, my phone’s battery is getting worse, and there are always various issues with the children I look after. If there’s a special situation and my phone is dead, I’ll try to leave you a message… My shop is just outside the residential complex. You’ve seen it, right?”

“Yes, I pass by it every day when I buy groceries.”

Liu Yumei once greeted Lan An when passing by there.

“If something comes up, the row of sand bottles outside the display window will be replaced with red ones. When you see a row of red sand bottles, use the key to come and open the door.”

Liu Yumei received the keys and felt like she had taken on a sacred task. “Okay, don’t worry. I’ll check every day…”

“Thank you, Auntie Liu.”

“Oh, no need to thank me. It’s just a small matter. Compared to what you’ve done for me, it’s nothing.”

Finishing the reminiscence, Liu Yumei opened the door across the hall. The room was tidy and quiet.

Liu Yumei turned on the light, nervously moistened her lips. At this moment, she remembered that she was afraid of dogs.

But she had already promised Lan An, and even if she had to brace herself, she would go through with it.

Perhaps it was just a small dog that didn’t need to go for walks.

She held the small key, thinking that if there was a fierce dog inside, she would leave some food and run immediately. Alternatively, she could wait for the dog to fall asleep before releasing it…

Liu Yumei stood at the entrance of the small house. As she entered, she didn’t hear a single bark, perhaps the dog was sleeping.

With this thought in mind, she took a deep breath, gathered her courage, and opened the door.

By the light in the living room, she looked inside and froze. There was no dog inside; instead, there was a person sitting near the window.

The person had a slender figure, their hair was disheveled, extending beyond their shoulders. The dim lighting made it difficult for her to see the person’s appearance clearly.

“Come here.” The person saw her entering as if they had known everything beforehand. They spoke, “She gave you the keys, didn’t she?”

From that voice, Liu Yumei could tell it was a man. His voice had a magnetic quality to it, somewhat enchanting.

Liu Yumei was dumbfounded. It turned out that the “dog” Lan An mentioned was actually a man…

And quite a good-looking man at that.

She thought for a moment and understood. No wonder Lan An was so beautiful but had never been married. She had once mentioned wanting to introduce Lan An to someone, but Lan An politely declined.

But why was this man… shackled at home?

The man had a collar around his neck, with an iron chain attached to it. The chain was quite long, several meters in length. It seemed that he could move to the nearby bathroom on his own, but his range of movement was limited, and he couldn’t walk out of the room.

“You can help me open it now,” the man said, using his finger to lift the collar around his neck.

Liu Yumei was still in a daze. She sensed a hint of danger and felt she should call the police or at least call Lan An to clarify the situation. But against her better judgment, she found herself looking at the man in front of her and handing over the key…

Su Hui entered the interrogation room for the second time, bowing his head, facing the silent Lan An.

“The real Fine Sand is probably a man, aged between twenty and thirty.”

“Are you willing to protect him? He might be your relative, or… do you like him?”

“We checked your family information, and there are no other people living in your house. So how did he end up living with you? Foster care? Is he also a miner’s child? Did something happen to his family?”

As Su Hui said this, Lan An clenched her fingers anxiously.

“He might have learned bomb-making from your father. Initially, you thought it was just an interest, but later you discovered that he was doing it to kill people…”

“You knew Fine Sand’s true identity a long time ago, and you were already prepared with this story.”

“Fine Sand stopped committing crimes, probably because something happened to him in these past two years, he got injured, or maybe you found an opportunity to lock him up…”

“But you still couldn’t let him go. You were prepared, ready to take the blame for him if the truth came out…”

Su Hui spoke sentence by sentence, some were questions, some were statements. His cane touched the ground, emitting a faint echo.

His speech was not fast; each statement was deduced from practical evidence.

According to the information, Lan An’s father, Lan Ziwen, was involved in a mining accident at the mine eighteen years ago. At that time, five people were confirmed dead, and three were missing. The police have been cross-checking the list of deceased individuals. He speculated that the man might be one of the orphans from that incident. They had a suspect, but they still needed time to verify.

Lan An opened her eyes and looked at Su Hui. Who was this person in front of her? A police officer…?

Why was everything he said true…?

Her body trembled, sweat dripping from her forehead, and her face grew paler.

Lu Junchi even suspected that the woman in front of him might faint in the interrogation room.

Su Hui continued to apply pressure, hoping that Lan An would confess sooner.

But he also understood that his words might not outweigh Lan An’s feelings for that person.

“In your original plan, when you were caught, you were going to set him free… But… by doing so, you wouldn’t gain his gratitude. Instead, it would worsen the situation.”

Su Hui said this, slightly tilting his head. He decided to use a stronger approach.

“He should know that you are willing to take the blame for him. You sitting here today shows that he has already abandoned you.”

Lan An looked up at him, her gaze complex, seemingly begging him to stop.

“How did he come into contact with Dong Anchun? Perhaps it was a window, perhaps a crack, enough for them to converse and exchange information… He catalyzed Dong Anchun’s desires and made him commit murder… Now someone is questioning Dong Anchun, even if you don’t say anything, he will confess sooner or later.”

In fact, during Dong Anchun’s interrogation, the police encountered a bottleneck. The boy did not clearly explain many of the questions. His narrative was confused.

Lan An was the one who could bring them closer to the answer.

After saying all this, Lan An’s fingers twitched slightly.

Su Hui continued, “If you release him now, he will be a hundred or a thousand times more vicious than two years ago. More people will die tragically…”

Lan An finally spoke. She opened her eyes, her lips trembling, “No… it won’t happen…”

She uttered those words as if she had exhausted all her strength.

As time passed, Lan An grew anxious and uneasy.

At this point, she still held onto a glimmer of hope, hoping that the person could be safe, could escape danger, and could reform.

Su Hui furrowed his brow tightly. It wasn’t enough; the stakes weren’t high enough. With just these, she might not confess the truth…

Just as he was about to say this, Lu Junchi’s phone suddenly rang. He turned, opened the door and left to answer the call, returning after two minutes.

“Lan An, we found the body of an elderly woman and an opened chain in your house. The deceased is Liu Yumei, your neighbor who lives across from your house! You must tell me now, who is that person?!”

The police arrived a step too late. When they entered, the house was already empty, and they couldn’t prevent another tragedy from happening.

“Liu Yumei is dead?” Lan An’s eyes widened upon hearing the news. “How did she die?”

“She was suffocated!” Lu Junchi’s voice carried anger. Liu Yumei was strangled to death by someone. What kind of beast wouldn’t spare even an elderly person?

“He also took Liu Yumei’s phone, money, and ID.”

How was it possible?!

She… she only asked Liu Yumei to help set him free.

But why did he kill her?!

Lan An’s eyes welled up with tears.

She thought that two years of imprisonment would have changed him, but now it seemed that she was the farmer who embraced a venomous snake.

Her father adopted him, they grew up together, childhood sweethearts. But in the end, this was the result they got…

Tears streamed down her cheeks, and her chapped lips trembled. “He… he is the child my father adopted, named Song Lan’en.”

Lan’en was the name her father gave him, and Song was his original surname.

Since his father died in the mining accident when he was eight years old, and his mother passed away from a heart attack, he had been living with her.

She trapped the devil for two whole years.

Lan An covered her face and cried out in pain.

Now, he finally gained his freedom, while she became an accomplice to his atrocities…

TN:

She loved him too much she ended up destroying herself. I feel bad for her but I gotta say, deserved. That poor old lady suffered for her selfish desire to protect a psychopath.