Chapter 4: The Fifth Time Cycle (III)

Chapter 4: The Fifth Time Cycle (III)

Li Shiqing is no exception to the rule that any ordinary person has a certain reverence for the police profession.

When she was a child, she was constantly scolded by adults with the words "If you do something bad, the police will arrest you", and she never did anything wrong like running a red light or littering.

So when the two police officers said to her, "Ms. Li, there has been a traffic accident and we would like you to assist us in our investigation," Li Shiqing was dumbfounded.

"Traffic accident?"

Li Shiqing, baffled and shocked, said, "Could I have been hit by a car for my concussion?"

The two officers looked at each other, and when they looked at her again, their expressions were a little helpless.

"Don't be too nervous little girl, we're just here to find out what's going on and we know from your doctor that you've suffered a blow to the head, but the consequences of this traffic accident are very serious and we'd still like you to try and remember."

The older of the two, the police officer, was quite kind and spoke slowly.

"At 1.45pm this afternoon, a 45 bus hit a tanker truck head-on at the River Road entrance to the river crossing bridge, causing a violent explosion and leaving no survivors in either vehicle involved."

His voice was low and hoarse, "The explosion also caused a chain of car accidents, which, along with the explosives splattered everywhere, resulted in a number of casualties in the surrounding area, and I'm sure you just saw the injured patients brought in at the emergency room."

The more Li Shiqing listened, the more astonished she was, and she was unable to speak for half a day.

When those injured were brought in, there was talk of a bus hitting the tanker, but at the time the patients' families were just whispering and she was listening in the clouds.

Now that she had heard the definitive answer, and had heard that more people's had not even survived, she was inexplicably more upset.

As the older officer recounted the incident to Li Shiqing, she could feel the other officer's eyes keeping a close watch on her expression.

It was the first time she had ever been stared at by a police officer like that, and she was a little flustered and more than a little aggrieved.

"But what does that have to do with me?"

She wasn't a prisoner, why did she need to stare at her like that?

"Because you and one other passenger were the only two survivors on this bus."

As he spoke, his expression also began to turn serious.

"To investigate the cause of the accident, we looked at the CCTV footage along the route. It was discovered that just before the accident, the bus pulled over temporarily and you got off the bus with another male passenger."

She got out of the car with another person?

"I got on that bus?"

Li Shiqing drew in a breath of cold air, "But I don't remember anything! I can't remember anything!"

"We saw on the CCTV that you darted away as soon as you got out of the car. Just under five minutes after you got out of the car, that car crashed, hitting the tanker truck in the opposite direction."

The older officer was nicer to her, but there was no denying that as he recounted the case, his expression was stony as if he had seen the two cars explode in front of him.

Maybe he really did see the blast site with his own eyes, more than once ......

In the surveillance footage.

"You did get in that car earlier and you did get out of the car early, and those are recorded on surveillance."

The younger officer was probably more impatient, "Think about it again, can you remember anything? Why did you get out of the car early and run away as fast as you could as soon as you got out? Did you know the man who got out of the car with you?"

Hearing that she might be one of the only two people involved, Li Shiqing did her best to think back, even if her head was particularly uncomfortable right now, because after all, lives were at stake.

"I can only recall until I went out at noon ......"

She swore I really tried hard to recall, but a recent memory was really blank.

"...... I remember getting up late and having a random bowl of noodles down the street before getting ready to go shopping in Jiangbei District."

The two officers looked at each other again, exchanging glances about something she couldn't know.

Normally, Li Shiqing hates this feeling of rejection: "I'm right in front of you but you won't understand what we're thinking", but now, in addition to a deep sense of panic, she feels more sorry.

With such a big event happening, the doctors at the hospital, the families of the patients in the emergency room, the police officers who were out on the road investigating, everyone was running around and working on the event.

Li Shiqing points at herself, jaws dropping as she repeats.

Why did she understand every word he said, but together she didn't understand any of them?

The time that followed was a nightmare for a patient.

The two officers, who had suddenly changed their attitude, stopped saying "get some rest" and even her request to "call my family" was denied.

The two sturdy men who had carried her into the ward earlier were guarding the door straight away. Li Shiqing had thought they were hospital orderlies, but now it seemed they were plainclothes police officers, and even the female nurse who had come to help her use the toilet had to be questioned by them when she entered the room.

However, it was Li Shiqing who was questioned the most.

"Think again, did you know in advance that the car would be in trouble?"

"What is your relationship to the male passenger who got off the bus with you? Do you know him?"

"Did someone coerce the driver? Or did you ever find out anything?"

"What did you get on this bus for? What do you want to buy when you go to Jiangbei? Why don't you choose to shop online?"

"Why did you run as soon as you got out of the car?"

Not to mention her inability to remember anything and her concussion symptoms, even if she had nothing wrong with her, being bombarded with such a barrage of tired questioning would most likely drive her crazy.

No matter how much she explained "I really can't remember anything", they continued to question her relentlessly, and she even threw up a few times in the middle of the conversation, but they only asked someone to come in and change the sheets for Li Shiqing.

Apart from the exhaustion and shock, what chilled Li Shiqing even more was the attitude they displayed.

In their eyes, she looked like some kind of vicious bad guy, and this little single ward was suddenly turned into a cold and unforgiving questioning room, and it was an ordinary college girl like me they were treating so harshly.

The diagnosis of "concussion" and "retrograde amnesia" given by the doctors seemed to them at the moment to be an illusion that she was faking, and even her bewildered shaking of her head in the face of repeated questioning was probably taken by them as an uncooperative "resistance".

They say that things like memory loss can be faked.

But what could she say in her defence?

She really doesn't know anything!

Li Shiqing, an ordinary schoolgirl, was terrified by this attitude, she cried and lost control of herself, and at the height of her headache she even cried out in anguish.

"I don't know! I really can't remember! I don't know why I got off!"

But no matter how much Li Shiqing cried and shouted, it did not help because they would not stop asking the questions she could recite.

Exhaustion and fright made her lose track of how much time had passed.

In the time between questioning, Li Shiqing's mind was also in turmoil.

Sometimes she wondered if her disappearance would make her family anxious. Sometimes she worried that the police locking her up would give the teachers at school a bad impression of her and perhaps be misunderstood in the future.

The thought of it made her almost immediately frustrated again.

Will there really be a future for her after being caught up in this strange affair?

For a moment, Li Shiqing thought she might as well just die. If she hadn't thought of her family and friends, she might have chosen to "die to show her will".

The sky outside the window went from bright to dim and difficult, and from dim to bright again - it was the officer who had turned on the lights in the ward.

After the long questioning, both Li Shiqing and the officers were tired.

The officers had lost their initial serious and stoic appearance, even the older one, whose eyes were slightly bloodshot, had gone out once midway and returned with a strong smell of smoke.

" Li Shiqing, have you remembered anything? Why did you get out of the car at that time?"

Officer Jiang's eyes locked on hers and he asked again.

This most mentioned issue was the last straw that broke the camel's back, and Li Shiqing's already tense nerves could not hold out any longer.

"I don't know anything!"

With a cry of exhaustion, Li Shiqing passed out as she had hoped.