Chapter Forty-Five: The Interrogation Room

Page 1 of 3

At 2:31 a.m., three police cars with sirens blaring roared into the Old Street residential district.
At 2:38 a.m., the same three police cars, now carrying prisoners, sped away from Old Street.
At 2:53 a.m., Sakura District Branch of the Canglan City Police Department.

"Name."

"Li Can."

"Age."

"Twenty-one."

"Only twenty-one? Tell me your ID number."

"No problem, 62..."

In the cramped interrogation room, Li Can sat by the wall, while opposite him, a policewoman in crisp uniform and gleaming badge took notes—her manner sharp and commanding.

Her name was Tao Ya, twenty-seven years old, a probationary officer.
All this was written on her police badge.

"Wait here for a moment."
Tao Ya stood and left, presumably to verify Li Can's identity in their internal system. A few minutes later, she returned, now carrying a steaming cup of coffee.

"The coffee here isn't great. I hope you don't mind."

"Thank you," Li Can responded without pretense.

"Your identity checks out." Tao Ya sat up straighter. Her gaze had softened since before, likely having discovered Li Can’s background.

"Now, tell me exactly what happened."

"All right." Li Can cleared his throat and recounted, in brief, the incident at Flaming Kitchen two nights prior, emphasizing that it was Zhao Gang who had instigated the trouble at Ling Family Kitchen.

"So you had no idea he was a fugitive at the time?" Tao Ya watched Li Can's eyes carefully as she asked, detecting not the slightest hint of evasion.

"I truly didn’t know." Li Can nodded. "Honestly, I was provoked by his tattoo. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have acted so aggressively."

"As a citizen, I understand your feelings. But as an officer, I must remind you—your actions were inappropriate. Fortunately, you didn’t endanger public safety, and the other party, Zhao Gang, isn’t pursuing charges against you."

"That’s a relief," Li Can said with a laugh.

"Good. Now, tell me about tonight." Tao Ya’s demeanor suddenly grew serious.

"Here’s how it is: these past two days, I’ve had the feeling someone was following me..."

"Hold on. Where did this feeling come from?" Tao Ya interrupted. "Did you see something, hear something, or did someone warn you?"

Li Can’s expression didn’t change, but inwardly he was startled, thinking how sharp this probationary officer’s instincts were—almost on par with that guy Luo Yuan.

Page 2 of 3

"It was just a feeling." Of course, he wouldn’t involve Boss Ma and the others; that would be sheer ingratitude.

"Seems your instincts are pretty accurate," Tao Ya said calmly.

"Some things are just hard to explain." Li Can shrugged, his answer ambiguous. "I’m a bit obsessive—when something weighs on my mind, I can’t eat or sleep. So I decided to lure the stalker out and see if anyone was really after me."

"So you led him into the residential district?"

"No," Li Can shook his head. "I only intended to watch from behind the wall to see who was targeting me. I didn’t want a confrontation."

"But he still followed you over the wall," Tao Ya frowned slightly.

"To be honest, I didn’t even know he’d come over. He entered at a completely different spot from me." Li Can explained with a calm face, "When I was about to change position and return to the restaurant, I bumped right into him."

"Did you see a knife in his hand?"

"No. If I’d seen a knife, I’d have run," Li Can said with certainty.

"And then you two got into a scuffle? No, ‘scuffle’ doesn’t seem right for you." Tao Ya pulled out a device resembling a remote and pressed it against the wall to Li Can’s right. The entire wall suddenly turned transparent, revealing the adjacent room.

"And then you left him like that?"

In the next room sat three men—two burly officers in positions mirroring Tao Ya’s, and, five meters away on a bench, a handcuffed and shackled criminal slumped over.

The criminal’s clothes were covered in shoe prints, his exposed skin mottled with bruises, his cheeks grotesquely swollen—one eye bloodshot, the other milky and unfocused, his face nearly unrecognizable.

Yet, on careful inspection, a scar could be seen running across his left cheek, and a snake tattoo coiled around his neck.

It was the Falcon.

But compared to his previous swaggering pose, cigarette in hand, he now sat sniveling and whining to the two officers—a pitiful sight indeed.

Pfft—

Li Can couldn’t help himself.

"You still have the nerve to laugh?" Tao Ya switched off the transparent wall, her brows knitted.

"Sorry," Li Can suppressed his smile. "I really was terrified at the time—especially when he pulled out the knife. But I couldn’t just stand there and let him attack me, so I took a horse stance and threw a left hook, then a right."

"But he had incredible stamina—took both punches without flinching! Then he came to his senses and started slashing wildly with the knife. Look—he shredded the back of my shirt!"

Li Can turned around, revealing the back of his T-shirt, split wide open in a Y-shape.

Tao Ya pressed a hand to her forehead, evidently amused by his choice of words—‘backless shirt.’

Seeing her reaction, Li Can pressed his advantage, pouring out his grievances.

Page 3 of 3

"If I’d been just a second slower, he’d have torn my back to shreds. When your life’s on the line, there’s nothing else you can do but fight for it. Maybe I was lucky—or maybe he couldn’t see me properly with one eye blind in the dark—but every punch and kick landed right on target. He howled in pain, and I managed to subdue him and call the police right away."

"You’re really milking this, aren’t you?" Tao Ya listened, half-dazed, and finally shook her head in resignation. "Your actions were a bit excessive, but you did us a huge favor. That Falcon is a fugitive wanted for murder, skilled at counter-surveillance. The police have been after him for years with no leads, and you just happened to catch him by accident."

"A murderer?!" Li Can feigned just the right measure of horror.

"So, do you realize what you’ve been through?" Tao Ya said gravely. "All right, the statement is done. If we need your cooperation in the future, we’ll call you."

"Officer, do you get a reward for catching a fugitive?" Li Can asked, pretending nonchalance.

"I’ll submit the case details, but I can’t say whether there will be a reward. Given there was some suspicion of intentional assault, the chances are slim. You should count yourself lucky."

Tao Ya gathered her files and stood. "You can go. It’s late."

Li Can didn’t argue—especially since he remembered the pot of soup still simmering in the kitchen. He had no desire to linger.

After he left, a police officer in his thirties entered the room.

"Tao, if there’s nothing else, you should get some rest."

"Captain, I feel there’s something odd about this case," Tao Ya said, flipping through the statement again.

"Oh? What did you find?"

"Not exactly a discovery. According to Falcon’s confession, he followed Li Can over the wall, but once inside, Li Can had vanished for at least ten minutes before reappearing. Falcon insists Li Can admitted to stealing something from Building 11. Here’s Li Can’s statement—it’s completely different from Falcon’s account."

"Don’t forget, Falcon’s a murderer. Can you trust a word he says?" The senior officer’s expression was impatient. "We just verified Li Can’s identity, didn’t we? Considering his reputation as the ‘God of the Kitchen,’ why would he resort to theft?"

"Of course not... but something still feels wrong." Tao Ya hesitated.

"Tao, you’re the most gifted of this year’s probationary officers. Don’t let your ‘feelings’ cloud your judgment!" The captain snorted, a hint of disappointment in his voice, and left the interrogation room.

Clearly, Tao Ya hadn’t taken his words to heart. She replayed her conversation with Li Can in her mind.

He was too calm.

So calm it was as if he’d rehearsed the whole thing in advance...

(To be continued...)