CH 234

The police officers dining downstairs hadn’t decreased in number.

Lin Chen and Xing Conglian descended the stairs quietly. They crossed the misty and stuffy dining area, lifted the plastic curtain, and walked outside the restaurant.

The summer sunlight was bright, and the gloom of the winter night had dissipated slightly.

If they counted the unfinished last story, Shen Lian changed her testimony a total of four times.

From the perspective of criminal investigation, Shen Lian wasn’t considered an adult at that time, but she was also not a child. The factors influencing the truthfulness of her testimony were likely internal physiological factors and external motivational factors. For example, trauma-related suppression of memory, memory retrieval failure, or external factors that confused her memory were internal physiological factors, while external motivational factors could be simplified as the presence of certain motivations that led her to provide false testimony.

Lin Chen sat down by the small flower bed outside the restaurant and didn’t immediately answer the question. Instead, he said to Wang Chao, “Are the dumplings we ordered still in the restaurant? Can you go and get them?”

“Ah! A’Chen Gege, do you want to eat outside? It’s too hot, and there’s a lot of dust.” Wang Chao shuddered, as if suddenly awakened from the previous cold atmosphere.

Lin Chen looked at the police cars speeding by from time to time and said, “You don’t have to remind me again.”

Xing Conglian kicked Wang Chao and said, “Hurry back inside and do your job. Who gave you the right to question?”

Wang Chao ran back into the restaurant in a gloomy manner. Xing Conglian also sat down, and the shade from the trees wasn’t very dense, so most of their bodies were bathed in the scorching sunlight.

Xing Conglian let out a long sigh. “What a mess.”

“In fact, when you asked that question, you already had a sense of what kind of situation this is,” Lin Chen said.

“So, why did Shen Lian repeatedly modify her testimony and entangle the death of the old homeless man?” Xing Conglian leaned against the tree trunk, pretending to know nothing, as he asked.

“Clearly, Shen Lian is paranoid, but the reason behind her actions isn’t simply because she’s paranoid. Shen Lian has much more serious issues than that. She is adept at lying and has a habit of using deception to manipulate others in order to achieve her own desires,” Lin Chen tilted his head slightly and looked at Xing Conglian.

“It reminds me of Li Jingtian.”

“The people we have to face have always been a certain type, haven’t they?”

“Continue,” Xing Conglian said. “Based on your analysis, what exactly happened that night, and what was Shen Lian trying to achieve?”

“The purpose she was trying to achieve was undoubtedly to protect her personal interests,” Lin Chen said. “Of course, you might ask why she didn’t directly tell the police the truth of the matter and instead chose a very roundabout way to gradually correct her testimony. That is because the truth conflicted with her personal interests, and she chose to conceal it for the sake of her own interests.”

Xing Conglian asked, “Then why did little Shen Lian still go to find the police uncle?”

“Because concealing the truth would allow the people she hated to go unpunished, which would also contradict her personal interests.”

“It seems like a struggle between the evil in human nature, pushing people to worse outcomes,” Xing Conglian said, pulling out a cigarette.

“Your statement is very consistent with the life experiences of most antisocial personalities.” Lin Chen redirected the topic. “But regardless of how many times Shen Lian changed her testimony, we can separate the truth from lies through certain techniques.” Lin Chen shook the case file in his hand.

Just as Lin Chen finished speaking, Wang Chao happened to come out of the restaurant holding a disposable lunch box. The teenager stood by the plastic curtain and grinned at them, making everything feel warm.

However, Wang Chao quickly became immersed in his impending heavy workload.

SVA* was a procedure used to assess the truthfulness of statements. It was based on the assumption that memory statements from real experiences were different in content and quality from those based on creation or imagination. Although it was commonly used to determine the truthfulness of testimonies, it required a structured interview with Shen Lian to be conducted face-to-face. However, now wasn’t the time to focus on these standard procedures. Using the recorded testimonies that Shen Lian gave to Lao Bian back then, they could still achieve the goal of separating truth from lies, albeit with some difficulty.

*Statement Validity Assessment. It’s a tool designed to determine the credibility of child witnesses’ testimonies in trials for sexual offenses. You can read more about the methodology here. Overall, they conduct interviews with the child and assign scores based on what they think is true or false.

Wang Chao squatted by the flower bed and opened his laptop while Lin Chen flipped to the first page of the testimony. He said to Wang Chao, “We will divide the events described by Shen Lian into several parts and analyze the corresponding contents of these testimonies based on standard foundational content analysis. We will use a scoring system to calculate the truths and lies within them.”

Wang Chao’s eyes lit up. “That’s so scientific. I like it!”

Lin Chen turned to the first page. “First, all of Shen Lian’s testimonies are obviously disorganized narratives. She first describes the core event of ‘Chen Jianguo killing the old homeless man’ and then goes back to describing what happened at the beginning. Victims who have been sexually assaulted tend to present their accounts in an unorganized and incoherent manner.”

Wang Chao paused at that moment. “What the hell? Shen Lian was sexually assaulted?!”

“Now that you brought it up, let’s look at Shen Lian’s description of the main triggering event in the case,” Lin Chen said.

Wang Chao nodded vigorously.

“In the second version of the testimony, Shen Lian described the encounter between Chen Jianguo and Li Wanru like this: ‘The two of them were hugging against the wall. I don’t know what they were doing. Chen Jianguo took off his pants, and Li Wanru was moaning.’ However, in the third version, this part of the testimony changed to ‘The girl told Chen Jianguo to back off, but Chen Jianguo covered her mouth tightly and smiled. The girl’s pants button was undone, and she started crying.'” Lin Chen spoke calmly. “The latter version includes more descriptions of interactions between the victim and the perpetrator, which can be deemed relatively truthful and given a score of 1.'”

“Why is it 1 point instead of 2 points?” Wang Chao was puzzled.

“Because this is not her eyewitness testimony. She claims to have witnessed Chen Jianguo doing those things to the girl, but her perspective is subjective.”

Wang Chao pushed the laptop away. “Shen Lian was the victim of assault by Chen Jianguo?!? Why didn’t she report it to the police?”

“Because there’s no evidence.” Lin Chen shook his head. “Next, let’s evaluate her next statement. Regarding the details of the old homeless man interrupting Chen Jianguo’s attempt to harm the girl. Shen Lian said she was very scared, and luckily the old homeless man arrived, dropping his bag of garbage like a god descending. The old man had a dirty face and smelled of leftover food, but it made her feel safe.” Lin Chen paused and continued, “In this segment of the testimony, there are many details, including the sense of smell, and many aspects of her subjective psychological description that score 2 points.”

“So, Chen Jianguo didn’t succeed because the old homeless man saved Shen Lian?” Wang Chao said. “Shen Lian wasn’t truly harmed, so she didn’t tell anyone that Chen Jianguo wanted to harm her that night?”

Lin Chen lowered his eyes. “In fact, I really think she didn’t tell anyone that Chen Jianguo wanted to molest her that day. I also think that no matter how many times she repeated this incident, no one believed her. Therefore, when faced with the police at the end, she changed her testimony.”

As they spoke, Lin Chen felt a weight on his shoulder as Xing Conglian rested his hand there. “Don’t overthink it,” he said.

Lin Chen nodded and continued, “Now we come to the most crucial point: how did the old homeless man die? I’ll give you the conclusion directly. Shen Lian mentioned that many neighbors witnessed the dispute between the two, which is true. It’s difficult to determine whether Chen Jianguo intentionally sought revenge and killed the old homeless man. It’s also difficult to determine whether Chen Jianguo accidentally pushed the old homeless man and caused his death. But among all the possibilities, there’s one thing that is true—she did see the ‘corpse’ of the old homeless man that night.”

“So we can’t determine for sure if Chen Jianguo actually committed murder?” Xing Conglian asked.

“I would say that I can’t determine that from Shen Lian’s testimony. I tend to believe that she only knew the outcome of the old man’s death but didn’t witness the actual crime taking place.”

Xing Conglian rubbed his chin and said, “That makes more sense. The old homeless man had a dispute with Chen Jianguo, and neighbors heard the commotion and came out to watch. In such situations, adults would surely send children back inside. So Shen Lian didn’t know who actually killed the old homeless man, and she could only deduce, based on her own reasoning, that Chen Jianguo was the culprit…”

Lin Chen continued, “Therefore, the reason why Shen Lian became so agitated upon learning the true time of the old man’s death also has an explanation. She thought the old man had died, but in reality, he didn’t die on the spot; he lay in the cold rain for several hours before finally succumbing.”

When Lin Chen finished speaking, Xing Conglian didn’t say anything more. They looked at each other, and all the speculation came to a halt. No one wanted to ask the next question.

However, in that moment, they both forgot that Wang Chao was there, a vibrant teenager who, unlike them, didn’t have such a keen sense for these ugly and dark matters.

“What the heck! Did the residents of Xiaolin Lane intentionally ignore and not save him? That’s too cruel! Why?!” Wang Chao exclaimed.

Lin Chen raised his hand, wanting to tousle the teenager’s hair, but in the end, he didn’t, as Xing Conglian pulled his hand away.

Surrounded by bustling police officers, Xing Conglian didn’t care about the gazes around him when he wanted to do something.

So, Xing Conglian held Lin Chen’s hand and answered Wang Chao’s question on his behalf. “Because all the residents of Xiaolin Lane are the culprits.”

Xing Conglian’s voice was low and hoarse, tinged with sorrow.

“Yes, of course, they are all culprits!” Wang Chao shouted, but he suddenly stopped at the last syllable.

Xing Conglian patted the teenager’s head with his other hand. “You just helped us find so many files about Xiaolin Lane, but you didn’t read them yourself. Many of them are complaints about that old homeless man. The old homeless man, you see, likes to sing in the middle of the night and shout at thin air. His makeshift dwelling often emits a foul smell and has scared passing children. There’s even a history of him throwing bricks at residents’ windows when he’s in an agitated state. Imagine if someone like that lived near your home and even the police had a hard time dealing with him. How would you feel?”

Although the sunlight was the same, with Xing Conglian’s narration, Lin Chen felt the surroundings gradually becoming colder. The damp and chilly atmosphere of a southern winter night emerged once again.

That day, Shen Lian was sent back into her house, and no matter what the little girl said before, none of the adults believed her.

One was a well-regarded and helpful neighbor, and the other was a mentally unstable old homeless man. When these two had a dispute, all the neighbors knew whose side to take. Except for the parties involved, no one knew what had really happened at that time. But the only possibility that could align everyone’s testimony was if these people became a community of fate. Perhaps Chen Jianguo pushed the old homeless man, or maybe it was Li Wanru who pushed him. It was even possible that the meddlesome old lady from next door, who was getting on in years, became the killer. No one knew who truly struck the blow, but when everyone came to their senses, the old man was already lying in a pool of blood.

The water in the river emitted a foul stench, black like ink.

People started to blame each other, shifting responsibility, but no matter how they argued, no one could clarify who had actually acted.

Silence fell upon these people, and at this moment, the most influential person would express their opinion.

They would say, “Since everyone dislikes this old man so much, and now we can’t determine who did it, let’s disperse. Tomorrow morning, I’ll report to the police, and we’ll all agree that the old man fell on his own, and we were all sleeping, unaware of what happened.”

This was just a suggestion, and with a suggestion came choices, and the subsequent choices would question human nature.

Numerous psychological studies have shown that, under immense social pressure, people tend to choose conformity.

Some agreed to the choice of distancing themselves from the incident, and as a result, no one made the choice to continue living for this annoying, mentally unstable old homeless man.

Wang Chao grabbed Xing Conglian’s pant leg with a grim expression as if he was about to cry. “But I can’t just let him slowly die in the cold rain just because I dislike this old man.”

“Even if it was an accident and you accidentally pushed him, so you would have to bear the legal responsibility and hefty medical expenses?” Lin Chen interrupted the conversation between Wang Chao and Xing Conglian.

“Yes!” Wang Chao said firmly.

The shadow of the tree fell on the teenager’s face, and the bright spots on his face resembled tears.

“So, you know.” Lin Chen wiped away something that might not have been tears beneath the teenager’s eyes and said to him, “You’re a good kid. There are many people like you, so don’t be too sad.”