Chapter Seventeen: Confessing Everything

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“Then why were you able to give us Eileen’s address so precisely?”

“I... I...”

“According to Li An, from the moment he accepted the delivery until it arrived, the package was handled by him alone. None of the other delivery drivers had any contact with it.”

“Where were you, and what time was it, when you heard that deliveryman make the phone call? Tell me again exactly what you heard...”

Lin Xiaoyan was at a loss. What could she say? She had made up everything she said that day on the spot. If she repeated it now, it would certainly differ from her earlier account!

Looking at the policeman before her, Lin Xiaoyan drew a deep breath and asked, “What are you implying? I have nothing to do with that deliveryman. I just didn’t want to see Sister Lin get killed.”

He Qian raised an eyebrow, leaned back, folded his arms, and looked at Lin Xiaoyan. “Then can you tell me why you knew Li An was going to kill Eileen that night?”

Lin Xiaoyan lowered her head and thought for a moment before looking up at He Qian. She knew that if she did not explain herself clearly, she would be suspected of being in league with the murderer.

She sighed inwardly and looked at He Qian. “If... if I tell you everything, will you arrest me?”

He Qian regarded Lin Xiaoyan with a cool gaze. As expected, there was a secret hidden in this woman.

Could she be working with Li An?

Had Li An failed to tell the truth?

What was their real purpose?

Lin Xiaoyan did not expect the policeman before her to say anything. She looked at He Qian and began, “On the evening of the seventeenth, I wanted to take a shortcut home, so I cut through a construction site behind our residential compound.

“When I reached the middle of the site, there was a pile of lime and sand. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew, and the lime and sand got into my eyes.”

He Qian frowned and stared coldly at Lin Xiaoyan.

Behind him, Li He assumed that Lin Xiaoyan was about to confess to some crime. He had already begun writing down every word she said.

“Then my left eye began hurting terribly. I had no choice but to go to a clinic and buy a bottle of saline to wash it out. But when I got up the next morning, it still hurt badly, and it was frighteningly red. It even looked as though it was bleeding...”

Thinking about everything that had happened over the past few days, Lin Xiaoyan felt as if she were trapped in a dream. More than anything, she longed for the day she would finally wake up.

“There was nothing I could do. When I saw how serious my eye looked, I asked my company for leave and prepared to go to the hospital for an examination.

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“I took Bus Route 46 that day, intending to go to Haishi Central Hospital.

“While I was on the bus, a man tried to get off. He pushed his way past me, and when he brushed against me, a scene suddenly appeared before my eyes.”

“I saw the man get off the bus and accidentally get knocked down by an electric scooter coming up behind him. The bus driver didn’t notice and kept going. Then I saw the man being run over by the bus.”

He Qian’s brow furrowed even more deeply. At that moment, he began to suspect that there might be something wrong with Lin Xiaoyan’s mental state.

Li He, standing behind him, was also bewildered. He held his pen uncertainly, unsure whether he should continue taking notes.

The office fell silent. The lingering smell of instant noodles hung in the air. As Lin Xiaoyan caught the faint scent, she suddenly realized how hungry she was.

She had not even eaten lunch. Sighing inwardly, Lin Xiaoyan continued.

“I thought I was hallucinating. But then the bus stopped, and the man was the first person to get off. What I had seen played out in reality exactly as it had in the vision—the man was run over by the bus.”

At this, He Qian remembered that there really had been an incident a few days earlier in which a passenger had been crushed beneath a bus.

“...I arrived at the hospital and continued with the examination of my eye. But when the doctor examining me touched it, I saw another scene.”

Li He pricked up his ears and continued taking notes, excitement stirring in his heart. This sounded just like the plot of one of the novels he usually read!

He Qian remained silent, watching Lin Xiaoyan as he listened to her account.

“I saw a man come to the hospital to cause trouble. When Dr. Yang, the doctor examining me, went out to persuade him to leave, that man slashed Dr. Yang’s arm and hand with a knife...”

He Qian straightened in his chair. “What was the doctor’s name?”

“Yang Lin.”

At the name, a dark glimmer passed through He Qian’s eyes. He sat upright and fixed his gaze on Lin Xiaoyan.

“...I was terrified. I didn’t know what was happening to me. But when I heard that someone really had come to cause trouble outside, I...”

“...Before everyone left work that evening, the office had emptied out. Before Sister Lin left, she said a few words to me. The moment her hand touched my shoulder, that familiar scene appeared again.”

Lin Xiaoyan remembered the image of Sister Lin being brutally murdered and could not stop herself from trembling.

“I saw that deliveryman kill Sister Lin. She fell into a pool of blood...”

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Lin Xiaoyan looked at the policeman. “That’s why I called the police that night.”

She gave a bitter smile. “I don’t know why I’m able to see those scenes. I was afraid that if other people found out, they would abduct me and cut me open for research... That’s why I didn’t dare tell the truth.

“Of course, even if I did tell the truth, you wouldn’t believe me. Just like now—you think everything I’ve said is a lie, and that I’m mentally ill, don’t you?”

He Qian looked at Lin Xiaoyan. “Continue.”

Lin Xiaoyan went on. “After work last night, I went to Aier Hospital to visit Sister Lin. Just as I told you, there was nothing unusual at first. But when that chief physician—or whatever he was—examined my eyes, he touched me, and I saw another scene.”

“This time, I saw myself. I saw them removing my corneas during surgery and transplanting them directly into someone else.

“Then they wheeled me into a room. I wasn’t the only person there. Other people were lying on operating tables as well. Some had had their hearts removed. Others had empty spaces where their livers should have been. In short, their bodies were missing organs...”

After hearing Lin Xiaoyan’s account, He Qian gave her a long, penetrating look, then glanced at Li He. Li He nodded to indicate that he had written everything down.

“When I saw that, I tried to leave, but they wouldn’t let me. A nurse took me to complete the admission formalities. I said I wanted to go home and get some things, but she refused to let me leave.

“Later, I pretended to have a stomachache and went into the restroom. I contacted Dr. Yang Lin, and he helped me...”

At this point, He Qian pressed the tip of his tongue against his cheek. He had wondered why Yang Lin had suddenly contacted Li Hongzhi. That call had nearly exposed Li Hongzhi.

After Lin Xiaoyan finished recounting everything that had happened over the past few days, she looked at the policeman before her and waited for him to arrest her.

“Chief.”

Li He walked over and handed He Qian the statement he had just written.

He Qian quickly skimmed through it. Finding nothing amiss, he raised his head and looked at Lin Xiaoyan.

“Given the current situation, your guess was correct. You’re being watched by the people at Aier Hospital.”