Meanwhile, Tianwei was this close to slamming the door open to confront her for that rat comment. He hated rats with an undying, unnatural passion and she knew it, after she saw him let out a horrendous screech when they were paired together to do community work for the sake of extra credit.
He would have complained to his parents, but he didn't want to add to their worries - Mother wasn't in good health, and Father's mood was always erratic as a result. It was best to deal with whatever problem on his own, or with the help of the household staff if possible.
Thankfully, Xingzi agreed to keep her mouth shut, but she also kept making squeaking sounds on purpose whenever he passed her.
Why did he end up liking her again? He honestly cannot remember.
Lies. He remembered it all too well, and then hated himself for remembering it. Just as he was reminicinsing all their times together, (a smooth road that was paved with glass shards), the door opened, interrupting his thoughts.
"She's gone for now," Officer Tang said. "But I have a feeling she knew you were there to begin with."
"You're right," Tianwei said smugly "But as long as she has no proof, it's my word against hers."
And Tianwei's words weighed heavier than hers. Xingzi knew it too, and it pleased him to know that.
Officer Tang raised an eyebrow. "While that may be true, please refrain from antagonising her unnecessarily. We'll still need to see each other over the course of this investigation, and it's best if we can all get along with minimal bloodshed."
"She antagonised me first." Tianwei replied automatically, before snapping his mouth shut. That was an uncharacteristically childish reply from a man his age, but then it was Lian Xingzi's fault. She had always been able to make him regress into childish actions like petty bickering.
"...Right," Officer Tang said. "I don't care who started it, but for now, I need you to end it because we're supposed to be focusing on the investigation."
Technically he wasn't supposed to be lecturing Sun Tianwei at all, but seeing that he was behaving like a sulky child, the dad in him emerged unknowingly, ready to lecture. Sun Tianwei, appropriately chastised, merely pushed his glasses up his nose with his middle finger and pursed his lips.
"Has the tech team gotten back to us regarding the corrupted CCTV footage?" Sun Tianwei asked.
"They've only just regained access to our own security cameras. I've received a message from them that they've got some news to share. That's why I came to get you." Officer Tang explained, leading him from the interrogation room and to the tech room.
So if there was no update from the tech team, would I have been left in the room to rot? Tianwei wondered to himself. But such a thought wasn't important to the investigation, so he kept quiet and followed Officer Tang to a small room packed full of screens, with a team of CCTV technicians hard at work.
He frowned at the half-opened snack packets and the crumbs lying around their work station and his nose twitched at the faint smell of body odour.
"Okay, you guys have been hard at work since 7 in the morning, what have you got?" Officer Tang asked, and all of them startled at a foreign voice in their room.
They nodded hello at Officer Tang, but most of them gave Sun Tianwei another look, because they've never seen him before. Was he a new detective? Or an officer?
He seemed too well-dressed, too expensive to be any of them. Maybe he was one of those hotshot lawyers that wanted to get footage of Lin Tao and Jianzhi's crimes to put them behind bars. Realising that, they shot him scowls and then turned back to their screens.
Tianwei meanwhile, paid them no mind. He didn't care if people liked him or not. He only cared if they could do their jobs.
"Officer Tang, good that you arrived so quickly," Chao Ping, the supervisor for the team replied, waving him to one of the screens. They hurriedly walked over, and Tianwei internally despaired at how sticky the floors were. He could feel it as he walked, even through his leather shoes.
"So far, the footage we've been able to recover isn't very promising."
"You called us here to tell us this?" Tianwei interrupted.
"Well -"
"What have you found out?" Officer Tang asked, shooting a quick glare at Tianwei. For god's sake that man could stand to have some patience.
Chao Ping hastily averted his face from Tianwei's impressive glower, choosing to focus on Officer Tang.
"As I was saying, the footage was most likely corrupted, doctored to show a false narrative. We recovered some clips that showed that whoever manipulated the clips knew what they were doing. They simply looped the same segment of time repeatedly, and they did it so seamlessly that no one noticed anything amiss upon first glance."
He played the night's footage to prove his point. They craned their heads closer to the screen. True enough, there was nothing new happening in the video clip of the holding cell.
It initially showed Xiumin laughing maniacally to herself as she sat on the makeshift bed, her head tilted to the ceiling, her hair in a mess. Then she tugged at her hair and cried ugly tears, before laughing again.
One time, she approached the front of the holding cell , as though someone had called for her attention. However, it was just Lin Tao, for they saw the spitting incident he claimed happened, and true enough, there was also a small packet of tissue paper thrown into the cell.
Then apparently Xiumin seemed to tire herself out with her hysterics, sitting on the makeshift bed. Eventually she fell over, falling asleep.
She remained in the same position for the rest of the clip. If a normal person saw this clip, they would think that nothing was amiss, but Officer Tang knew in his gut something was off.
"Rewind to the part where she falls asleep." Officer Tang instructed. "There's something strange about that part."
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