Si Ren followed the operator's instructions, carrying out the steps one by one.
First, he pulled back the quilt covering Li Wenjing, then performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, breathing air directly into her.
The moment the breath was delivered, Li Wenjing's complexion changed noticeably, regaining some color, and her body warmed up slightly.
As soon as the breath was given, he crossed his hands and repeatedly pressed down on her chest area, while praying continuously in his heart.
"Miss, please don't have anything happen to you, or I'll never wash myself clean even if I jump into the Yellow River."
With Si Ren's efforts, Li Wenjing's heartbeat resumed, and her breathing grew smooth.
Seeing this, Si Ren could not hide his smile, and ran to the bathroom to find a bath towel to cover her.
Before long, an ambulance arrived at the door, wailing its sirens.
With the help of the rescue team, Li Wenjing was successfully sent to the hospital and rushed into the emergency room.
As the person involved, Si Ren followed her to the hospital and proactively paid the fees.
"Are there any family members of Li Wenjing?" A nurse walked out of the emergency room and asked.
"I am. How is she, nurse? Is she alright?" Si Ren immediately stood up and asked the nurse.
The nurse looked at Si Ren and smiled as she spoke.
"The patient is fine. I heard that you performed artificial respiration and CPR when the patient's breathing and heartbeat stopped, is that right?
It's a good thing you performed first-aid measures within that golden four-minute window, otherwise, even if she were saved, her brain would have suffered permanent damage from oxygen deprivation.
The patient is still unconscious and probably won't wake up anytime soon. Go pay the hospitalization fees first; she'll need to remain in the hospital for observation for a while after she wakes up."
Si Ren thanked her and went to pay the fees.
Holding the billing receipt and looking at the bank text message alert on his phone, he let out a long sigh.
Before he even had time to feel a pang of heartbreak over his remaining balance, two men and a woman walked straight toward him. They were wearing police uniforms and looked unfriendly.
"Mr. Si, please wait a moment. We're from the Lianhua City Criminal Police Brigade, and we need you to assist us with an investigation." The leading man handed his identification to Si Ren, asking him to verify his identity.
Si Ren merely glanced at the ID with his eyes without checking it carefully.
Only a moron would impersonate a police officer in this part of China.
"What can I help you with?" Si Ren's mind raced. The criminal police coming after him could only have to do with Li Wenjing's family. The crucial question was how to clear himself of any involvement.
The female criminal police officer beside him wore a gloomy expression, her tone stern and leaving no room for maneuver.
"We now suspect that you are connected to a serial murder case. Please cooperate with us and return to the station for investigation."
Sure enough, trouble had arrived. What kind of mess was this?
Once inside the criminal police detachment, Si Ren was left alone in the interrogation room.
The detectives observed him through a one-way mirror, watching his behavior, deportment, and facial expressions.
It was Si Ren's first time in an interrogation room. Sitting on the cold chair, although handcuffs had not been put on him, the atmosphere gave him a very bad feeling—it was deeply oppressive.
He placed his hands on the small table and continuously thought about how to deal with the police questioning.
Yet, think as he might, he could not come up with a good excuse. After all, he had trespassed into someone else's residence, and moreover, he had forcefully pried the door open.
Si Ren let out a hopeless sigh, staring blankly ahead with lifeless eyes.
Seeing Si Ren in this state, the detectives believed they had found a breakthrough and immediately went into action.
A man and a woman pushed open the door and entered the interrogation room.
The man was Wang Liang, captain of the Lianhua City Criminal Police Brigade, and the woman was Yao Yu, the brigade's beauty.
Yao Yu's expression was icy as she asked routine questions.
"Name."
"Si Ren."
"Age."
"24."
"Do you know why you were brought here?"
Si Ren cast a surprised look at the female officer and asked uncomprehendingly.
"Didn't you guys bring me here? You said there was a serial murder case and that you needed me to assist with an investigation?"
Yao Yu slapped the table hard and rebuked sternly.
"Stop playing dumb with me here.
We've seen plenty of people like you. Would we be looking for you if we didn't have substantial evidence?
Let me ask you, where were you on June 3rd?"
Si Ren thought for a moment and replied.
"I should have been in Chishuixiang. I used to work in feed sales and spent a long time in the countryside, only recently returning to the city."
Yao Yu took out photos of Li Wenjing's family and placed them in front of Si Ren.
"Take a look at these people. Do you know them?"
Si Ren's expression became exceptionally tangled; to say he didn't know them would run the risk of lying.
To say he knew them, however, would leave too many loopholes.
He picked out the photo of Li Jiacheng.
"I know this old man; his name is Li Jiacheng. I don't know the rest of them."
Seeing that Si Ren did not seem to be lying, Yao Yu's intuition told her that the man before her was heavily involved in this case.
She was just about to open her mouth to interrogate him further when Wang Liang, standing beside her, pulled her back.
Wang Liang pulled out a cigarette, handed it to Si Ren, and asked with a smile.
"What kind of work does little brother do now?"
Si Ren took the cigarette and took a light drag.
"I work at a car dealership, driving."
"Oh? Then you certainly don't make as much as when you were in sales, right?" Wang Liang seemed to be making casual conversation with Si Ren.
At the mention of his job, Si Ren perked up.
"What I earn at this car dealership is way more than what I made doing sales before. I make a thousand for just one night's work, and they even provide the five social insurances and one housing fund. I work one day and get two days off."
Wang Liang tapped a few times casually on his notebook, then frowned.
He searched the internal database for Si Ren's car dealership, but the result came back blank—that was absolutely impossible.
Every registered business could be found by him.
Could it be that their car dealership wasn't a registered company?
He immediately checked Si Ren's social security status.
The records showed that Si Ren indeed had the five insurances and one fund, but the contributing employer was also listed as blank.
This situation left Wang Liang feeling somewhat uncertain. Only an employer could pay employee social security, yet the system didn't display the company.
That left two possibilities. First, the system had experienced a glitch and would display it once repaired.
Second, the company had connections reaching the heavens and deliberately concealed itself.
But his intuition told him it had to be the second one.
There were no such coincidences in the world: searching for the company yielded a blank, and searching for the contributing employer also yielded a blank. Surely both systems couldn't be malfunctioning at the same time.
"Did you go to the detective agency today?" Wang Liang simply dropped beating around the bush.
"Yeah, I went.
I had him help me investigate Li Wenjing's family." Since Wang Liang had proactively brought up the detective agency, Si Ren saw no need to hide or cover it up, speaking out openly and generously.
"Can you tell me why you wanted to investigate her family?" Wang Liang stared intently at Si Ren; as long as there was a single lie, it would certainly not escape his eyes.
Si Ren gathered his thoughts, sighed, and said in a low voice.
"Three days ago, I suppose, Li Jiacheng found me. He asked me to protect his granddaughter, saying someone was going to harm her.
But since I didn't know the exact location, I had no choice but to ask a private detective for help."
Upon hearing Si Ren's words, Yao Yu's eyes lit up, and she said in a deep voice.
"Your fox's tail is finally showing.
Li Jiacheng died eight days ago.
You wouldn't happen to want to tell me that his ghost told you this, would you?"