As long as the case remained unsolved—no one had been found—the police would not let Yu Bo go for now.
He seemed to be tired; his hand was stroking the table on and off. He was restless as he kept adjusting his position on the sofa…
He was impatient.
Burning with impatience…
Yu Bo lifted his eyelids when he saw them enter, but he remained quiet.
They sat down respectively, but no one spoke a word.
This was because Xiang Wan was the one who wanted to question Yu Bo again, so they waited for her to start.
Xiang Wan's glance swept past everyone in the lounge and sat down calmly.
This was important as it was related to her searching for Bai Muchuan. She need not, and would not be polite with anyone—
"Yu Bo, do you know why we are here again?"
"I'm not sick!" Yu Bo repeated this again.
Xiang Wan sneered as she looked at the unnatural expression he had on his face.
"To be frank, your acting skills are good, and when it's acting, it's not real. How can that escape our eyes?"
Xiang Wan had said this sentence in absolute confidence.
Cheng Zheng swept a glance at her, pondering over her words.
Cheng Xin, on the other hand, showed a disparaging smile.
Xiang Wan did not care about them at all. Her attention was on Yu Bo as she looked at him calmly. "Are you afraid of me?"
Yu Bo paused for a moment. "I'm not."
While he said that, he tried to sit further back as he adjusted his buttocks to move backward.
This was the behavior of a normal person facing danger or someone who wanted to escape the situation—
Xiang Wan did not want to wrangle over this issue but smiled at him. "How old are you now?"
Since the change of topic was unexpected, Yu Bo was stunned for a moment but quickly replied, "Nineteen."
He was so young.
Xiang Wan did not expect him to be so young. She squinted her eyes. It seemed as though she wanted to look at Yu Bo's heart through his eyes.
"Don't be so nervous. We're just here to have a chit-chat with you."
Yu Bo paused for a moment.
About a second later, he asked, "Did you find it? That pair of eyes… did you find it?"
Xiang Wan shook her head. "That's why we're here to ask you again."
"When I was taking pictures," sighed Yu Bo, "that pair of eyes were behind the windows at the attic—"
Oh! Another version of the same story.
Quan Shaoteng frowned in annoyance and knocked his temples.
It was clear that there was no hope in getting anything out of Yu Bo, who seemed to have some sort of mental issues.
The room fell still.
Xiang Wan, on the contrary, showed interest as her eyebrows were raised. "Tell me about it!"
Eh? Yu Bo looked at her for a moment, and he told her the story of how he entered this villa once again.
Everyone else showed disdain on their faces after hearing the fourth version Yu Bo said.
After she finished hearing him out, Xiang Wan asked with a laugh. "Your house is 10 miles away from here…"
"Yes! The police have asked me so many times. They told me they will verify it… I don't dare to lie about this."
"Well, you're right. They've verified the location of your house."
Xiang Wan nodded at him but her eyes were suddenly stern. "However, you still lied to us."
Yu Bo looked at her, his eyes slightly dimmed as he showed rejection.
He had never been so frightened in the previous rounds of questioning.
Xiang Wan saw his fear. She showed a smile like a pleasant elder sister.
"Don't be afraid, we just wanted to hear some true stories. For instance, you can tell us about you and your mom's story? I'm a little curious; will your mom say the same thing you said?"
"…"
Everyone was dumbstruck.
Yu Bo stayed in the village 10 miles away from Vulture's Mouth.
They had sent men over to verify and found out that Yu Bo used to live with his mom.
However, several months ago, Yu Bo's mom had already passed away.
She was dead…
Did any of them tell Xiang Wan about Yu Bo and his mom?
…
It was all quiet in the lounge.
"… Is she crazy?" Cheng Xin gasped softly.
"…" Everyone could not understand Xiang Wan, so they chose to keep quiet.
Xiang Wan was as cool as usual. "Can you tell me about it?"
Yu Bo seemed to be distracted and looked at her for quite a while. "May I have a cigarette?"
"Of course, you're not a suspect."
Xiang Wan smiled at him gently. She then glanced at Quan Shaoteng.
Although Quan Shaoteng could not understand her behavior, he was very cooperative.
Not only did he offer Yu Bo a cigarette, but he also lit it for him.
"Thank you!"
Yu Bo's smile was a little stiff. He ruffled his long red hair as his expression distorted into something that seemed strange.
"The story is a little long…"
Xiang Wan took a breath and sat straight on her chair to show her sincerity. "We have a lot of time."
Everyone grunted. "…"
They were in a hurry to find the missing people!
But she actually said they had a lot of time?
Cheng Xin looked at her, eyes filled with disgust. There were a lot of words she wanted to say.
If Cheng Zheng was not around, she would definitely refute Xiang Wan.
"Okay!" Yu Bo did not see what was on the faces of these people. His attention was on Xiang Wan whose focus was also on him. "Then I'll start talking."
"Go ahead, I'm all ears." Xiang Wan smiled.
"My name is Yu Bo. I lived in the village 10 miles away to the west of Vulture's Mouth. Our village… I heard from my mom that the village was rather wealthy many years ago… Later on, it became poor… currently… there are only two to three people still living there.
"Life got too hard that many of the villagers were unable to feed themselves. They went away to look for jobs… The two to three people left are old grandpas and grandmas who were unable to work and move about easily…
"My mom wanted me to go look for a job too. I did what she said and my mom is waiting for me at home…"
As Yu Bo said so, he changed to another sitting posture and looked at Xiang Wan in the eye.
"That's all! When are you guys going to let me go? My mom is still waiting at home for me."
"…"
Everyone fell silent.
Was this person alright in the head?
His mom already passed away a few months ago.
Perhaps he was just 'purely' following what Xiang Wan had said earlier?
"It'll be soon!" Xiang Wan replied to him with a smile. "The moment you tell us where that person is, you can go home anytime."
"That person…" Yu Bo's eyes darkened as he looked at her. "Which person?"
"The one who locked you up in the basement," said Xiang Wan.
"…!" Everyone was astonished.
Prior to questioning Yu Bo, Xiang Wan did not communicate to anyone else about what she had in her mind.
Hence, they were floored by her sudden question out of nowhere.
Why was she… so sure Yu Bo had been locked up in that basement?
After a momentary silence, Yu Bo asked the question everyone else in the room wanted to know. "Basement? How did you know?"
"Well—" Xiang Wan dragged her voice and suddenly heaved a sigh. "Firstly, if you're far away in the village, which is 10 miles away, you might not have heard those gunshots.
"Secondly, even if you did hear them, you'll only take a peek from afar. You will never go near it, much less take pictures and post them on the internet.
"Thirdly, a cat came out of the basement. There's some of its fur on you…"
As she said so, Xiang Wan's gaze was on Yu Bo's off-white colored suit.
The suit was not considered neat and tidy due to the dirt and stains on it. On closer inspection, one could really find some short and dark, fine hair on it…
"Wow, impressive!"
Quan Shaoteng also gave Xiang Wan a thumbs up.
"Teacher Xiang, your powers of observation are superb! Not to mention, your questioning techniques…"
"I learned them from Bai Muchuan!" Xiang Wan gave a quick reply and exchanged glances with him to show that she did not want him to talk about this now.
Quan Shaoteng raised an eyebrow and stopped talking. He then motioned for her to continue.
Xiang Wan smiled. Her expression toward Yu Bo got gentler.
"You hate that Brother Steel a lot, right? He locked you up in the basement that you're unable to reunite with your mom…
"Therefore, due to the shootout and the explosions, the entrance to the basement was broken and you managed to climb out of it. After that, you took pictures and posted them to the internet as you hoped that the police could come over soon…"
Yu Bo did not talk.
He had previously lied to them, so he might be embarrassed to admit that.
He also did not deny that.
Everyone started to relax slowly.
They were now more interested in how Xiang Wan continue to question Yu Bo.
The next moment, Xiang Wan changed the topic again.
"You hate Brother Steel yet you loved him and did not want him to die. Thus, you refused to tell us the truth, am I right?"
Love? What was she talking about?
Everyone's curiosity was brought up once again. They felt their nerves were about to break under pressure.
Xiang Wan looked at Yu Bo calmly. She raised an eyebrow and asked him word by word.
"Who is Brother Steel to you? Is he your dad? Maybe your relative?"
That felt like a bolt shot out of the blue.
This question took everyone by surprise. Even Yu Bo was dumbfounded.
"How-how did you know?" He stammered. His eyes burst forth as he stared at her.
So I got it right? She thought to herself.
As Xiang Wan got the answers from her remaining doubts, her face grew grim and dull.
"The villagers were frightened of the Dark Clan and left the village. Out of the remaining three people, two of them were old and the last one is you… You're so young, how did you manage to live properly in Brother Steel's territory? I know that you're not a member of the Dark Clan."
"…"
They were in awe.
Everyone inside was in awe.
Yu Bo still did not talk.
If she didn't raise all these doubts and didn't think deeply enough about it, everything would still be in square one.
Although she raised all of her doubts, she still couldn't find an explanation to what she wanted to know.
Xiang Wan's expression changed slowly. Suddenly, she spoke in a higher tone, as though there was a glimmer of hope.
"When the shootout took place at the backyard, you were here. You saw everything. You even took a picture of a Dark Clan member pointing his gun at a police officer's head. How could it be possible for you to arrive there in such a short period of time? How could it be possible for you to stay alive if you're not related to Brother Steel?"
Xiang Wan showed a cold smile and paused for a moment. "After analyzing this, the answer is very obvious, right?"
Well…
Quan Shaoteng's eyes, now wide-opened, were on her face.
Xiang Wan noticed his shocked expression. "I've seen a picture that Xie Wanwan showed me before she got abducted. After we found the basement at the backyard, I could pretty much conclude the picture was taken from that angle."
It was just that the post Yu Bo sent to the internet did not include that picture.
Xiang Wan's gaze turned cold as she stared at Yu Bo.
"Tell me, who did you send that picture to?"
"…" Yu Bo was terrified.
"Where did the missing people go?" Xiang Wan accentuated her question by speaking in a serious manner.
…