Eyes that are the same as those of evil

Chapter 200 The Murderer Tan Jia 19
Behind the movable panel, there is a sliding door leading to the basement.

Tan Jia bent over, pushed the door open with her palm facing upwards, and poked her head in. She saw Zhou Qi'an, who had rolled to the bottom, curled up on the ground and wailing, trying to reach for his prosthetic limb that had fallen a few meters away.

She watched coldly as she walked down the stairs, standing on the last step and staring down at his legs.

"You can't get up now that you've taken off your prosthetic leg? When you were watching me through the surveillance camera, I thought you were a brutal killer with a strong will despite your disability, or like Iron Man, you designed a lot of intelligent recognition systems for your territory so that anyone who gets close will be cut into three pieces by lasers."

Zhou Qi'an was sweating profusely from the pain, but he still glared at her with wide eyes, gasping for breath as he said, "You, how do you know it's not there?"

"Your skills aren't up to par. If they were, you and your dad wouldn't need to launder money by secretly filming sex transactions."

Tan Jia looked around at the basement's layout; it was filled with computer screens, almost enveloping the central seat like a cocoon.

The screen was covered with surveillance footage from different places. You could see the rustling of grass in the bamboo forest, the bustling crowds in the commercial plaza, and even a secret affair taking place in a high-end private room.

Each person in the scene has a recognition box on their body. It seems that as long as certain rules are violated, the system will automatically issue a warning and emit a beeping sound.

For example, right now, the beeping sounds are incessant. Because the connection wasn't cut off in time, she can still see the person on the other end through the last second the monitor is on—Zheng Yan's face is wide open.

"That's really impressive, to be able to create such a system." She was genuinely praising them, but she had another thought in mind.

It's a pity they don't do anything right.

Zhou Qi'an was still wailing, her performance somewhat theatrical, as she secretly reached out to the corner while intently watching the computer screen.

Just as he was about to successfully grab something, Tan Jia stepped on his hand.

Zhou Qi'an grunted and grabbed her ankle with his other hand, trying to turn her over.

But how could someone who sits in front of a computer all day possibly have a reaction speed that can match someone who has trained in boxing? Tan Jia stabbed the back of his hand with a sharp piece of plastic.

“I’ve watched a lot of TV dramas. If the villain talks too much, the protagonist can easily escape and kill him if you’re not careful. To avoid making that mistake, I need to make sure you can’t fight back, but there are no ropes here…”

Her gaze lingered on Zhou Qi'an's clothes and pants, but in the end she chose the most brutal method, pressing his arm down and bending it backward. After a slight click, Zhou Qi'an's arm fell unnaturally to the ground.

"Ah—!" This time his wail was very real.

Looking at his pained and contorted face, Tan Jia thought of Wen Jinbing and Xiao Qian. After a while, her thoughts jumped back to the conversation they had had over the surveillance camera.

"Actually, you're right. Having too many nightmares makes me feel like I'm about to kill someone the moment I close my eyes. So sometimes I feel like I'm going to develop a split personality sooner or later, and my other personality will really want to experience what it feels like to kill someone. But the first test subject wasn't Wen Jinbing, it was you."

In the dark basement, the dim blue light from the screen made her look like a serious criminal; it seemed more fitting if their identities were reversed.

Zhou Qi'an said in a hoarse voice, "If you dare to lay a hand on me, the charges will be valid, and even a few more criminal investigation teams won't be able to save you." "So you also know that the charges against me now are invalid."

Those who fabricate charges always know better than the person involved how innocent she is.

The frustration of the past few days, coupled with hunger and thirst, made her impatient, and she asked directly, "Did you kill Wen Jinbing?"

Zhou Qi'an gave a twisted smile.

She then chuckled abruptly, "You're really stupid. Putting aside all technical reasons, your stupidity ranks second among the murderers I dreamed about. On the night of the incident, weren't you the first to swipe your room card to open room 107?"

Zhou Qi'an froze, the crooked frame of his glasses making his expression look quite comical.

"What, you watched the police investigation meeting and thought no one noticed this problem, and now you're feeling smug? So smug that you don't even consider whether your IQ is below average? Were you forced to have your pregnancy saved by some kind of technology?"

"And you can't control your facial expressions, so it's obvious to everyone that I guessed right. To put it more bluntly, it's a lack of control over your facial nerves. You're not just disabled from amputation now, you might also have some facial paralysis. Wen Jinbing actually came in later, didn't he?"

“People’s loyalty and fear can be diluted. Even if the guesthouse manager was threatened, he wouldn’t be so obedient as to help a middle-aged day worker. But it’s different with you. You made him vacate room 107 in advance, copied the room card, and waited for me to come. You also installed a lot of surveillance cameras in my neighborhood, right? That’s how you knew where I was going so quickly.”

She finished speaking to herself, then emphasized expressionlessly, "You're really stupid. Trying to deal with me while dealing with the Wen family is like trying to set up a stall to do business during the three-minute wait for the bus—it's superfluous and self-satisfying."

"There are clearly better ways and better times to perfectly resolve both issues. If you want me to doubt myself, have a mental breakdown, and kill someone, then the crime scene should be set up in a locked room where no one can enter or leave. The murder weapon should be a long-range weapon, a gun, a syringe, and a complete set of arrows. Prepare two sets of the same items beforehand, one for you to use to kill, and the other to leave at the scene as the only murder weapon. When the police examine it, they'll find only my fingerprints on the murder weapon, and since I was drunk or on drugs, I'll have the victim's bloody handprints on me. And the victim happens to be someone I've had a conflict with. I won't be able to tell whether I killed someone or not. You don't need to wait until the investigation is complete. Then you can design an accident to make me 'commit suicide,' and wouldn't that be perfect?"

Zhou Qi'an looked at her with a strange expression, as if seeing her clearly for the first time.

Tan Jia then asked, "Xiao Qian, that policeman, who did it?"

Zhou Qi'an unnecessarily shut his mouth, but seeing her raise her eyebrows, he loosened his mouth as if he had been mocked, and sneered, "Aren't you very smart? Can you guess? Then guess."

"So jealous of my intelligence? Your parents never praised you like that before? Oh, I forgot, your parents divorced a long time ago. This person in a wheelchair is being passed around like a football between two busy relatives..."

"Shut up!" The veins on his neck bulged. "Don't think this is the end of the matter. Don't be so smug thinking you've got the truth. You were allowed in here..."

"I was able to get in because those people condoned it, right? You cooperated to push me out as the murderer of Wen Jinbing, and then you made Wen Jinbing's revenge a misunderstanding, so Wenwu's death could be covered up. So you think those people outside had to come and save you in order to cover up the truth, and even if you are arrested by the police now, there are plenty of ways to get you released without charge, right?"

"Fool. You really are a fool. You dare to play mind games with those people? Don't you know your own limitations? They cooperated with you, using me as a pawn, but you were just a pawn to them too. I, the victim, couldn't take it anymore and killed you. The police arrested me, then staged an accident to erase all these surveillance videos, and they'll sit back and relax—"

“That’s what you call balancing the books. You’re the one whose accounts need to be balanced.”

(End of this chapter)