Artifact Report

Chapter 85 Jin Xueli: It would be nice if she was a resident
She just wanted to sell some information and gain a favor, so how could the situation suddenly become so serious?
Over the years, she has always been cautious and careful, and has never had any intersection with the police... She even dared not speed when driving, just to avoid this moment.

I clearly haven't done anything since that incident, but why am I standing here?

Jin Xueli stood there in a daze, as if every muscle had turned into thorns, wrapping and binding her tightly - until the policewoman shouted again, she came back to her senses.

"Hey! I'm calling you, didn't you hear me? What are you standing there for? Put your left hand up here and take your fingerprint."

Jin Xueli looked at the fingerprint scanner covered by a glass plate, and then looked at the policewoman behind the desk.

She seemed to have been taken into the Central Police Station building before Chase, perhaps because she looked more harmless. There was still a commotion outside the station, probably because they were preparing to bring Chase into the building; he didn't look like a good guy at first glance, so the police were on high alert.

If the police officer standing next to her at this moment could find out what Jin Xueli was thinking, he would probably change his attitude towards her.

"What are you afraid of?" the officer pushed her arm and urged, "Didn't you say you had nothing to do with that man and just happened to get a ride? Fingerprinting is just a record. If you haven't done anything wrong, fingerprinting won't affect anything."

The hitchhiking claim was the first excuse she seized upon in her panic, a foolish one now that she thought about it, as it wouldn't have withstood cross-examination by the police. However, it was merely a minor detail, not even something Jin Xueli should have worried about at the moment.

Jin Xueli glanced at the police officer who brought her in.

...Can you take him down?
Many of the people in the central hall seemed to be civilians; as long as I could find a chance to knock him down and then escape from the police station, I wouldn't have to record fingerprints - ah, no.

They had searched her body immediately and found her driver's license in her wallet; her appearance, name, and address were all clear to them.

So... could he kill her? He was the only one who had seen her driver's license.

Jin Xueli turned her head and stared at the fingerprint scanner again.

It was too difficult. She had nothing on her, even her earrings had been taken. With only her cuffed hands, it was impossible to fight a police officer who was much taller and stronger than her. Even if she could kill him, her wallet was still in the police station's property storage area.

"Hurry up," the police officer urged again.

"I don't want to," Jin Xueli said, almost like a child. "I don't want to be fingerprinted."

She knew she was making a huge mistake, telling the world that there was something seriously wrong with her.

But sometimes, people will regress to a childlike mental state - especially when they are desperate and angry - even though they know it is useless, they will still unconsciously use childhood tactics such as throwing tantrums and crying to resist, as if in this way, the world will have pity on her and give in.

She could feel the police officer and the policewoman exchange a look.

"Why don't you want to record it?" the policewoman asked, speaking more slowly. "What have you done?"

If I could tell you, wouldn't I have recorded it a long time ago?

Jin Xueli swallowed the question, stood stubbornly in place, and clenched her fists tightly.

"She might have something on her," the officer laughed. He walked over, grabbed Jin Xueli's wrist, and pushed her hand down. "I didn't believe you were just hitchhiking... but now it seems like we've won a prize."

"Let me go," she said, trying to pull her arm back. "You're brutally enforcing the law!"

"You are welcome to file a complaint," the police officer said with a smile.

Jin Xueli's struggle and shouting attracted several other policemen in the hall to rush over. In the haste and chaos, someone smashed her head on the table, someone held down her shoulders, and the mouse and pen holder rolled off the table.

Her arm was yanked away, as if torn from her body, and she was thrown from her body. A hand pressed firmly against her temple. Besides the various office supplies that had been knocked over on the desk in front of her, she could only sense the presence of people around her and the presence of something cool, hard, and flat, which met her fingers.

It was recorded...it was recorded in the end.

"If you don't accept my offer, you'll have to pay me back," someone said. "Take her straight to the second-floor interrogation room. That other guy's coming in soon, so don't let them meet."

Jin Xueli was pulled up and walked towards the elevator step by step. The pain was not so real anymore. Every step felt like walking in the clouds.

After so many years, she thought that the incident had disappeared long ago. Sometimes she felt that it was just a distant nightmare. Sometimes, she would not even remember that there was such a scene in her life.

Therefore, even when she discovered the "candle tears", Jin Xueli never thought of using a fake image to change that period of history: she was simply unwilling to go back and face that incident again, and would rather forget it deep in her memory; more importantly, she did not dare to touch it carelessly - she did not know what she would become now after changing the event that determined the turning point of her life.

But, all these years... had it been waiting for her?

She'll never escape?
When the elevator door closed, she vaguely heard the police station door open and the hurried footsteps of more than one person, as if Chai Si was finally brought in.

Jin Xueli was so exhausted that she couldn't even feel hatred towards him.

Now that things have come to this, she can only think of other ways to save the situation; as long as she has the chance to jump off a tall building, she can use "candle tears" to prevent herself from getting into Chai Si's car today - as for what happens to Chai Si, that is not her concern.

But... once she is imprisoned, will she still have a chance to climb the tall building?

So far, the lowest floor Jin Xueli had opened was the sixteenth floor. She didn't dare try any lower. No one could say for sure whether a single floor difference would result in her body falling to the street instead of landing in the lair.

However, the police station, prison, court, and other places she might be taken to wouldn't be above the 16th floor. Bail pending trial might be her only hope, but it could still be denied; especially for felony suspects, the chances of bail pending trial were even lower.

What to do? What to do? What to do

At this moment, even the screams in her mind seemed close to those of a resident. In the dead silent interrogation room, Jin Xueli listened to the storm-like screams in her mind, and even vaguely suspected that she might really be a resident.

For the first time, she felt that if only it were so.

After all, only residents can escape from this life.

The door was locked from the outside and was very soundproof, so I couldn't hear anything; the camera in the interrogation room always had a red light on.

The red light stared at her, recording her restlessness with every passing second. It was as if the police had suddenly forgotten about her. Jin Xueli waited for an indeterminate amount of time before she was startled by the sound of a door opening. She turned quickly to see two unfamiliar detectives enter the room.

Surprisingly, they didn't sit down and question her.

"Come on," the older detective called her, "I'll take you to another place."

"Where are you going?" Jin Xueli asked in a daze.

But no one answered her; the young detective pushed her shoulder, and she staggered to her feet from the chair and was led out the door by two men, one in front and one behind.

Since the entire building is designed in a cylindrical shape, the corridor on the second floor is in an arc shape, dotted with doors.

When Jin Xueli walked out of her interrogation room, her sight was just able to cross the central hall's skylight and see the opposite side unobstructed - on the opposite aisle, several police-looking people, accompanied by a tall and thin figure, had just walked into a door, which was then closed with a "bang".

Even though it was only a blink of an eye, one could tell that the policemen were very respectful and polite to the man; and next to the door they entered was another interrogation room - which looked no different from the one he had just walked out of.

"Go quickly and don't look around," the young detective pushed her again.

"Aren't you going to interrogate me?" Jin Xueli asked, "My relationship with him, I mean Chase Monroe——"

"You don't need to teach me how to investigate a case," the young detective said without any interest.

Don't they care at all?

Jin Xueli felt that this seemed unlikely, but she couldn't help but have this feeling.

"Don't you want to know whether he killed Weisilai?" she asked again tentatively.

"Are you worried about him?" The older detective turned around and laughed. "Are you a couple? What? Do you think you're 'Bonnie and Clyde'? If you have time to worry about him, you might as well worry about yourself. We've all heard how much you resisted fingerprinting."

"Thanks to Monroe, I'll expedite the process for both of you," the young detective said with a smile. "Maybe we can get your fingerprint comparison results within two days."

Jin Xueli's heart sank - but at the same time, she couldn't help but feel hopeful.

If their only target was Chai Si, and they weren't interested in her relationship with him, then maybe they wouldn't keep her in custody? After all, when there were no clear charges, the police seemed to have a time limit for detaining people... She didn't quite understand the specifics, so she had to find an opportunity to ask to see a lawyer.

As long as I can go home, everything today can be rewritten.

Along the way, she never saw Chai Si, and didn't know whether he had been taken to the interrogation room. The cell was also empty - of course, that was before she was pushed in.

After the detective removed the handcuffs and clanged the iron door shut, Jin Xueli immediately rushed to the door and asked, "Don't I have a chance to see a lawyer? I need a lawyer!"

"Okay," the detective said casually, "Wait until I can call you."

Just as Jin Xueli was about to argue, a faint muffled sound suddenly came from upstairs - it didn't sound like a gunshot, but more like something being knocked down; the sound was blocked out a lot, but it couldn't block out the heavy vibration inside the building.

"what happened?"

She heard a shout in the hall outside, a chair being pulled away, hurried footsteps, and from upstairs came the command, "Open the door!"

"You go first," someone said in a distant, unclear voice amidst the clamor. "He's started a fight. It's very dangerous. You go back first—"

The next second, a gunshot shattered the noisy voices, echoing in the Central Police Station building, which used to be a mental hospital.

...Chai Si took action?

In the Central Police Station?
　It was so stuck before and my condition was so bad that I just took a day off... I rested a little better today, so this chapter wasn't too difficult. Maybe it's because of the change of perspective.

　　I've been showing signs of a relapse of depression lately, and I don't know what's going on. I need to make some adjustments.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)