Chapter 54: Lin Ying's Realization

Right from the beginning, when Su Yang died, Ye Sangsang had a distinct sense of being manipulated.

This did not require evidence, only intuition.

According to the description of the case files in the mission objectives, after Lin Ying grabbed a branch and survived by a hair's breadth, and Zhong Tongxin fell off the cliff, she was quickly arrested.

As for the crucial evidence, it was not described in the files.

That was likely intentional; the super intelligence always liked to play tricks in this regard to increase the difficulty for the players.

Unlike Lin Ying, Ye Sangsang spent two peaceful days at school.

The isolation still persisted, and because the bullies who tormented Ye Sangsang had all died, offending their respective families, even fewer people dared to approach her.

They were afraid of becoming one of the victims themselves, so they chose to keep their distance from Ye Sangsang.

Zhou Qingyue, however, became much more active. Certain individuals gathered around him, whispering in his ear.

In places where Ye Sangsang could not see, the gaze Zhou Qingyue cast at her was filled with pity.

It was as if he were looking at an insect about to lose its life, easily crushed to death by him.

Ye Sangsang could sense the other person's gaze; she knew all too well the meaning behind his every move.

She even began to guess what kind of mental illness afflicted his brain: antisocial personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder, or simply a pure fondness for playing such murder games.

She was starting to look forward to his next move.

On the afternoon of the second day, rumors began to spread across the campus that everyone from Su Yang to Zhong Tongxin had been deliberately murdered by Ye Sangsang, and that there was no perverted serial killer at all.

Surveillance footage of Ye Sangsang being bullied in the basketball hall, the swimming pool, and the classroom, along with screen recordings of Qian Can's dark web live streams, were released with censored faces.

It clearly documented the entire process of her being bullied, chilling enough to induce terror.

These videos and photos were posted on the school forum by someone claiming to be a champion of justice.

He claimed that Ye Sangsang committed the murders out of hatred.

He even detailed the murder process as if he had experienced it firsthand.

On the morning of the third day, when Ye Sangsang appeared at school, she was met with countless strange gazes from people, a mix of fear and admiration.

She soon saw the post on her mobile phone, and under Zhou Qingyue's watchful gaze, her complexion gradually turned pale.

Naturally, the police responded swiftly to such news.

During the second class, Ye Sangsang was taken away right from the classroom and brought into the interrogation room.

[Ah? She's arrested?]

[Zhou Qingyue is truly vicious, he plotted against our little sister Lin Ying so many times.]

[Thinking about how this scoundrel in reality didn't escape our little sister Lin Ying, I feel so much better!]

None of the viewers in the live stream room were worried about Ye Sangsang; they were all talking about Lin Ying.

Wearing handcuffs, Ye Sangsang felt their icy touch as she raised her head to meet the gaze of the interrogator across the table.

The white incandescent light hung between the three of them, illuminating Ye Sangsang's pale face.

She sat alone on one side, while the other two sat opposite her.

They stared at her intently.

This was a formal interrogation; unlike a routine questioning, this was conducted on the basis of established evidence.

Yet Ye Sangsang had no idea what evidence they held against her.

She looked at Zhang Xi with helplessness and sorrow, seeming genuinely unable to understand why she had been arrested.

At the same time, Zhang Xi found it hard to believe that the frail, slender, fifteen-year-old girl in front of her could be a brutal serial killer who had taken four lives.

She looked pitiful, but interrogation was her duty, and she had already adjusted her mindset before coming in.

Looking down at the various video angles and photos captured from the forum, Zhang Xi spoke, "Did you choose to kill these people by extreme means because you were bullied and almost buried alive by them?"

"I hope you will tell the truth about everything. If a real interrogation proceeds, you simply won't be able to bear it."

She offered a final warning.

Ye Sangsang raised her head to look at her, her face tinged with sorrow and powerlessness. "Killing them is too hard. I can't do it."

"At the swimming pool, on the night before Su Yang died, why did you go to the rooftop and stay there significantly longer than an ordinary person would linger?" Zhang Xi asked.

Ye Sangsang looked at her for a moment before replying, "My books were all soaked, so I went up there to dry them. Later, when the time I agreed to meet them arrived, I went down, came back up crying, and cried until the books dried before going home."

Silence fell over the interrogation room for a moment; Ye Sangsang's answer was both heartbreakingly realistic.

"We conducted on-site investigations, and based on the photographs taken by other students at the time, Su Yang died of a meticulously planned murder. Aside from the other victims and Zhou Qingyue, only you are very familiar with his habits. Can I assume you used his habits to kill him?" she asked again.

Ye Sangsang lifted her eyes, swimming with the moisture of her recent recounting. "Excuse me, when you say I'm familiar with Su Yang's habits, do you mean I'm familiar with his habits in the locker room? How would I even know them? I wasn't even allowed to use the swimming pool's locker rooms, neither the men's nor the women's."

Speaking of the discriminatory treatment that barred her from using the locker room, a sense of grievance flickered in the depths of her eyes, and tears moistened them, though she stubbornly held them back from falling.

She knew that familiarity with locker room habits was the accusation Zhou Qingyue had leveled on the forum.

Yet perhaps they—including Zhou Qingyue—had forgotten that she was forbidden from entering the swimming pool's locker rooms.

This knowledge of his habits might not have come from Lin Ying's observation, but rather from something they had blurted out themselves in the classroom or by the pool.

Ye Sangsang had already guessed this point beforehand.

If she linked it to Zhou Qingyue now, it meant Zhou Qingyue was the one who had deliberately leaked the information.

Lin Ying, harboring murderous intent, had memorized it, and this explanation was far more plausible than her sneaking into the men's locker room to observe.

Ye Sangsang stated it directly without the slightest bit of fear.

She could clearly sense that Zhang Xi and Yan Xiyu on the opposite side had frozen.

Zhang Xi gazed at Ye Sangsang, a sigh lingering in her expression. This interrogation was undoubtedly one that ripped open Ye Sangsang's scars.

Yet as police officers, uncovering the truth was their duty, and they had to question Ye Sangsang.

"Lin Ying, then how do you explain that your hair was found in the alley where Qin He died?" Zhang Xi picked up an evidence bag and asked.

Ye Sangsang lowered her head and remained silent for a long time. "It was probably pulled out during the fight. After all, I couldn't accept being kissed by Liu Ran, so I bit her, and after my hair was grabbed, I was beaten for a long time. It hurt so much, so much. When I got home, I applied a lot of medicine and even went to see the school doctor."

"You remember it quite clearly."

Zhang Xi suddenly stood up from her chair, signaled a pause in the interrogation, and walked out.

Yan Xiyu followed her out to comfort the emotionally overwhelmed Zhang Xi.

Ye Sangsang, however, had stopped crying. Her gaze carried a hint of puzzlement, as if she couldn't quite comprehend the other person's capacity for empathy.

If she were in their shoes, she would probably have asked sharper, deeper questions instead.

For instance, pointing out the estimated time of the crime, discussing the motives, digging up clues, meticulously analyzing everything she supposedly did, and breaking her psychological defenses until she confessed to all of it.

Zhang Xi was showing her too much mercy, likely harboring a subconscious feeling that she wasn't the killer, and thus only asking about information she already knew.

Still, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing; a person with compassion was truly a good person.

The two officers steadied their emotions outside the door, and after about three minutes, they walked back into the interrogation room one after the other.

She knew that this time, it would likely be Yan Xiyu's turn to question her.

Sure enough, the officer spoke up.

"Lin Ying, may I ask, were you really at home all this time before Qin He died? You have to believe that we only arrested and brought you here because we found evidence." Yan Xiyu's eyes were filled with seriousness and gravity.

Ye Sangsang turned her gaze toward him and replied, "I was always at home. I never went out."

"However, according to our investigative visits, we found that the shortest route from your residential complex to the place where Qin He died can be shortened to two minutes, while completely avoiding surveillance cameras. As someone who has lived in that complex for over a dozen years, you were fully capable of returning home and then heading back to the scene to kill Qin He." Yan Xiyu's gaze was profound, staring directly into Ye Sangsang's eyes as if he could pierce through every thought hidden at the bottom of her heart.

Ye Sangsang chose not to keep playing the weak card. For a police officer, playing weak only worked a few times; she had to convince him and clear her name of suspicion.

Looking him straight in the eyes, she took a deep breath to maintain her composure. "If you claim I had the time to commit the crime, then produce the evidence that points to me."

"Be honest! According to the forensic identification department, the killer's height is identical to yours. Confess honestly, and we can still fight for a reduced sentence for you!" Yan Xiyu pressed further, "You had both the motive and the opportunity to kill. Just confess!"

Ye Sangsang bit her lip, her gaze locked onto him. "I have nothing to admit to. I didn't kill anyone."

Her interlocked fingers tightened, a stubborn defiance hidden in the depths of her eyes.

"Fine, then let me ask you this: when Qian Can died, did you really not listen to him and go to that studio? Aren't you afraid that if you didn't go, he would post all your videos and photos online? Or did you go every other time, and why didn't you go this time when he died?" Yan Xiyu slammed his hand on the table with a loud crash, glaring down at Ye Sangsang from an elevated vantage point under the glare of the lights.

Startled by the sudden movement, Ye Sangsang's figure trembled slightly. She raised her head with a hint of panic, her eyes gradually welling up with pain. "No... no. There was no need to wait for him to post them; I already knew back then that countless people had seen my photos and videos. He used to live-stream my habits, didn't he?"

Her fingernails dug fiercely into the back of her hand, almost scratching out bloody marks—the extreme pain Lin Ying would feel having her flesh torn open.

She could not physically feel it, but she knew what kind of emotional expression such torment would produce.

She no longer looked at them with tear-filled eyes, but stared straight ahead, tinged with an indescribable self-mockery.

Understanding everything, and yet remaining lucidly tortured within the pain.

"Some people said that when he died, the door to his private studio was locked. If it weren't someone he was familiar with, he wouldn't have opened the door at all." Yan Xiyu's hand, which had slammed the desk, clenched into a fist, demanding an explanation from Ye Sangsang.

Ye Sangsang looked at him. "You're wrong. He never locked the door. Previously, he would wait for me to enter and then lock it himself. His intention was to make me feel miserable, to make me believe everything was my own choice."

"Therefore, the killer didn't need to unlock the door to get in; they just had to walk right through it."

"Someone said—meaning someone bumped into it and saw the door locked—did that mean the killer was already inside? As far as I know, the people who could go to that so-called private studio were all his drinking buddies and cronies. Those people going there at that time... perhaps they were participants in the live stream. They... should have had keys, shouldn't they...?"

She knew very well that the "someone" being referred to was Zhou Qingyue.

That person had actually gone there on purpose, perhaps on a whim, wanting a close-up taste of what it felt like to kill.

Unfortunately, Ye Sangsang was determined to drag her down into the water with her.