My online dating circle has millions of followers, why would she put a collar on me?

When the interrogation room door was pushed open, Jiang Yi was looking down at his fingers.

He didn't know how long he had been sitting there.

Ten minutes?

twenty minutes?

Still one hour?

The red indicator light on the camera in the corner flashed, like a tireless eye, recording his silence, his anxiety, and his clenched and unclenched fingers frame by frame.

Jiang Yi heard the door open and looked up.

The person who came in was not the young police officer from before.

The person who walked in was wearing a dark gray jacket over a white shirt, without a tie.

His hair was gray, but neatly combed. He had few wrinkles on his face, and his eyes exuded an aura of authority without anger.

But what stunned Jiang Yi wasn't any of that. What stunned him was the silver badge on the man's shoulder, which gleamed coldly under the fluorescent light.

Police badge.

The epaulettes of the department head.

Jiang Yi's brain seemed to have been paused at this moment, all his thoughts, all his emotions, all the self-blame and fear that he had been repeatedly chewing over for the past hour.

Everything froze in that instant into a hard, cold thing that couldn't comprehend anything.

How could this be? How could a department head personally interrogate me for something like this?

"Turn off the interrogation equipment."

Director Liu, who was following behind, nodded almost reflexively, quickly walked to the corner of the wall, and pressed the switch next to it.

The red indicator light flashed twice and then went out.

The two accompanying personnel who came in stood at the door without going in, and Director Liu also tactfully retreated to the door.

The interrogation room was now empty except for Jiang Yi, who was sitting in a chair, and the man in a dark gray jacket standing opposite him.

Zhao Zhiguo pulled over the chair opposite Jiang Yi and sat down.

His movements were casual, not like he was interrogating a criminal suspect, but more like he was in a relative's living room, finding a comfortable spot to sit down and chat with a younger relative.

He even unbuttoned his jacket, leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs, and lingered on Jiang Yi's face for a few seconds.

"Don't be nervous," Zhao Zhiguo said first, his tone as casual as if he were remarking on the nice weather. "Let's just chat."

Jiang Yi's Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

He wanted to say something, like "Hello" or "Thank you," but it felt like something was blocking his throat, and he couldn't squeeze out a single word.

In front of such an important person, Jiang Yi felt that everything about him could be seen through, and he was very restrained in what he said.

His fingers clenched into fists on his knees, his knuckles turning white, his nails digging into his palms, leaving a row of deep marks.

Zhao Zhiguo glanced at him, and the corners of his mouth curved slightly. The curve wasn't large, but it was enough to soften his angular, imposing face considerably.

He took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, pulled one out, thought for a moment, and then put it back.

"Where are you from?" he asked.

Jiang Yi was taken aback. This opening remark was completely unexpected.

He considered many possibilities.

The other party will ask him if he pleads guilty, why he cheated people out of money, what the transfer records are about, and whether he knows Su Xiaoyue, Gu Qinghan, and other girls he has never met.

He had anticipated angry questions, cold statements, oppressive silence, and even worse scenarios.

But he hadn't anticipated this.

Suzhou.

His voice was dry, like sandpaper scraping against glass, and sounded particularly hoarse in the quiet interrogation room.

Which part of Suzhou?

"From Wujiang."

"Wujiang?" Zhao Zhiguo raised an eyebrow slightly, a hint of something unreadable in his eyes. "Where in Wujiang? Songling? Shengze?"

"From Songling."

Jiang Yi's answer was almost a reflex; he didn't even have time to think about why this person would know that Songling and Shengze were located below Wujiang.

Zhao Zhiguo nodded, the smile on his lips widening even further.

He pulled an old-fashioned pipe from his pocket, twirled it between his fingers twice, but didn't light it.

"I'm from Wuxi," he said. "We're from next door. So you could say we're from the same hometown."

Jiang Yi didn't know what to say.

His brain was still processing the logical relationships between the keywords "department head," "Wuxi," and "fellow townsman," but he couldn't piece together a reasonable picture no matter what.

A police chief, sitting in an interrogation room, is chatting with a suspect accused of defrauding three million yuan about their hometown? He's calling him "fellow townsman"?

Zhao Zhiguo seemed to sense his confusion, but offered no explanation.

He put away his pipe, leaned back in his chair, and lingered on Jiang Yi's face for a few more seconds, as if examining something he wasn't entirely sure was real.

"How many people are in your family?" he asked.

"Four people." Jiang Yi's voice was still hoarse, but it was a little smoother than before. "Dad, Mom, me, and my younger sister."

"Is your sister the same age as you? A twin?"

"Yes."

Zhao Zhiguo nodded and did not pursue the matter further.

His gaze shifted from Jiang Yi's face, swept over the walls of the interrogation room, the one-way mirror, and the camera in the corner with its lights off, before finally returning to Jiang Yi.

There was no scrutiny, no disdain, and not even the sharpness that a police officer should have when facing a suspect in those eyes.

Some of them are just a very faint, almost imperceptible emotion, like the complex, indescribable emotion that elders have when looking at younger generations.

"How's your studies going?" Zhao Zhiguo suddenly asked.

Jiang Yi paused for a moment. He realized he had been stunned ever since this person walked in. "It's...it's alright," he said.

"How good is 'okay'?"

"In the top 30% of the department."

Zhao Zhiguo raised his eyebrows again, this time with a larger arc than before, as if he was genuinely surprised.

"The top 30% at Tsinghua and Peking Universities are not just 'okay'."

This person not only knows his hometown, his family, and his school, but also who his advisor is.

Of course, his situation is nothing special within the vast public security system.

However, it is unreasonable for a police chief to personally interrogate a suspect accused of defrauding three million yuan.

And before the interrogation, they investigated his background to this extent?

This goes far beyond the scope of normal case handling.

unless!

Jiang Yi thought of Su Xiaoyue.

Su Xiaoyue herself said that her family is involved in foreign trade worth hundreds of billions of yuan.

It's okay to have connections like this, right...?

It's very likely that she called the police.

"Don't be nervous." Zhao Zhiguo said those three words again, this time in a softer tone, as if an elder were comforting a frightened junior.

"I said, we're just chatting. It's a good thing you're a good student; it means you're not stupid and know what you should and shouldn't do."

Jiang Yi understood the implied meaning in those words.

Knowing what to do and what not to do. What is this implying?

He dared not think.

"What's your girlfriend's name?"

(I'm still writing the second chapter today, it'll be finished soon.)