I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 225: Chapter 223: Attempted Bribe? Hospital Arrest

”What’s your name again?” Kang Hong suddenly asked. ”Your last name is Su, right? My mom said your parents are super rich, that your dad’s the big boss of some major corporation.”

Su Miaoyi glanced at him.

Kang Hong continued, ”I saw you’re on good terms with that guy from earlier. We’re relatives, and we almost ended up together. Get me out of here. It should be easy to arrange, right? I have a lot of money, more than your dad. I’ll give it all to you when I get out.”

’He’ll live longer in here. If he gets out, he’ll just get himself killed,’ the voice in her head said. ’Still clueless.’

”I’m a bit of a clean freak. I don’t touch dirty money,” Su Miaoyi said.

Kang Hong fell silent instantly.

”How did you get hooked on drugs?” Su Miaoyi asked.

Kang Hong sighed. ”I accidentally smoked a cigarette laced with drugs and got hooked. I just wanted to make money from this stuff. Otherwise, who would want to take it? It’s lethal. I didn’t have a choice.”

”You know this stuff destroys people, yet you still helped them manufacture it! Do you have any idea how many people it will kill, how many families it will ruin?!” Su Miaoyi raised her voice.

”What do I care about other people?” Kang Hong said dismissively.

Su Miaoyi clenched her fists, then took a deep breath after a moment. ”And that’s why you’ve ended up like this.”

”I don’t regret it. At least for the past decade or so, I’ve had more money than I could spend,” Kang Hong said.

”With your abilities, you could have made a lot of money at a legitimate job,” Su Miaoyi said. ”If you had, what kind of life do you think you’d have now? A loving marriage, a happy family, good health.”

”They forced me! It was them who forced me!” Kang Hong cried. ”It wasn’t me! I didn’t want to!”

”You’re always trying to paint a better picture of yourself in your own mind. Were you really forced? Did you really have no other choice?”

Kang Hong went silent again.

Su Miaoyi took another deep breath. ”Was Ding Ruoyan involved in any of this?”

”Ding Ruoyan?” Kang Hong repeated the name. ”Who’s that?”

”Your university department head,” Su Miaoyi said.

Kang Hong immediately remembered. ”What does she have to do with it? Is she involved in this too?”

”You don’t know about her relationship with Zhang Bai?” Su Miaoyi asked.

Kang Hong stared at her, shocked and confused. After a long moment, he said, ”They have a relationship? What kind? Are they related?”

Zhuang Yanzheng returned from outside and sat down.

”Zhang Bai didn’t even finish middle school. How could he possibly be connected to my department head?” Kang Hong said in disbelief.

Su Miaoyi looked at him. ”Do you know Zhang Yan Yu?”

”Who’s Zhang Yan Yu? Is he connected to Zhang Bai, too? His dad? His brother? His younger brother? Is he also a relative?” Kang Hong asked.

Zhuang Yanzheng also looked at him.

Seeing that neither of them spoke, Kang Hong asked again, ”What’s the relationship between Ding Ruoyan and Zhang Bai? Do they know each other? Have they known each other all along?”

”While you were a student, you were reported for frequenting adult entertainment venues and running phone scams. How was that handled afterward? Why weren’t you disciplined?” Su Miaoyi glanced at the readings on the monitor beside him.

”Zhang Bai said he’d handle it, that he knew someone at the university who could make it go away.” Kang Hong suddenly struggled. ”Was it my department head? Was it Ding Ruoyan?! It was her! How could it be her?!”

”So... so... Zhang Bai suddenly targeted me because of Ding Ruoyan? I had the best grades in my major. If it weren’t for my skewed focus, I would’ve been in the chemistry department at Jinghai University.” Kang Hong gave a bitter laugh. ”They needed someone to manufacture drugs, and Ding Ruoyan picked me out, so Zhang Bai started getting close to me.”

Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng didn’t say anything.

This was just Kang Hong’s speculation. No one knew what really happened.

However... Su Miaoyi suddenly noticed something.

”Did you contract HIV from frequenting those adult entertainment venues?” she asked abruptly.

Kang Hong’s eyes suddenly darted away.

Su Miaoyi clenched her jaw.

’I’m starting to think the doctor outside is here for me,’ she thought. ’I’m about to die of anger.’

After leaving the hospital room, Zhuang Yanzheng spoke with the police officer on guard and then had a word with the doctor.

Su Miaoyi stood to the side, trying to calm herself down.

When Zhuang Yanzheng was finished, the two of them walked toward the elevators.

He glanced at her. ”From what he and his parents have said, you can’t feel any love for his parents. So how much love could he have had for Xie Lili?”

Su Miaoyi sighed. ”Xie Lili... so pitiful.”

There was so much she wanted to say, but in the end, she only managed those two words: ”So pitiful.”

Whether it was the oppressive environment Xie Lili grew up in, or her choice of a partner.

She discovered Kang Hong was using drugs, but she didn’t leave. She chose to stay with him...

The person was already gone. Su Miaoyi didn’t want to say any more.

Her choices led to her tragic fate.

The two of them walked to the elevators and waited for one to arrive.

There were two elevators, both moving at about the same speed, so they waited in the middle.

Hospital rooms were in short supply right now.

This floor already had the fewest approved visitors.

Both elevators arrived at the same time. The doors on the right opened slightly faster, so they walked toward that one.

As they stepped inside, the left elevator opened.

Someone was pushing a cart out.

Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng entered the elevator, pressed the button for the first floor, and as they waited for the doors to close, they saw the person from the left elevator pushing the cart down the hallway.

It was a man wearing a standard hospital janitor’s uniform, complete with a matching hat and mask.

He was pushing a cleaning cart.

The elevator doors slowly closed as Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng watched his retreating back.

Just as the doors were about to shut, Zhuang Yanzheng suddenly lunged forward to stop them, while Su Miaoyi simultaneously slammed the ”open door” button.

But by then, the man with the cleaning cart had already turned down the corridor and was out of sight.

The elevator doors closed anyway, and the car began to descend.

Su Miaoyi immediately pressed the button for the next floor.

”I think that was Zhang Bai.”

They had only seen his back. It looked a lot like him, but they couldn’t be sure.

”Yeah,” Zhuang Yanzheng said, quickly calling the officers guarding the floor above to warn them.

The elevator doors opened, and the two of them bolted out, shoving open the fire escape door and racing upstairs.

It was only one floor, and they took the stairs in a few bounds. When they reached the landing, they ran toward the room and saw that one of the police officers on guard had been stabbed.

Zhang Bai was trying to get into the hospital room but was being blocked by the other officer.

The officer on the ground was also gripping his leg tightly.

When Zhang Bai saw two more people running toward him, he glanced at the hospital room, broke free, and sprinted down the other end of the hallway.

”Doctor!”

Su Miaoyi knelt and pressed her hands against the bleeding wound of the injured officer.

Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at the wound and the blood on the floor, then looked toward Zhang Bai, who was running for the other stairwell, and gave chase...