Truth Talisman

Lin Chongchang rushed to the police station, and Feng Yuanlin first took him to the interrogation room, where he watched the torture of the two kidnappers, Huang Lizhi and Yang Guomin respectively, who had surrendered.

The two kidnappers, Huang Lizhi and Yang Guomin, one obese and one skinny, were easily recognizable. Lin Chongchang's eyesight was good, so he immediately identified the two as his grandson's kidnappers from the surveillance. But the more Lin Chongchang listened to the two men's confessions, the tighter his brows furrowed and traces of absurdities flashed in his eyes.

They gave a clear account of their kidnapping, yet when confessing about Lin Haoxing's whereabouts, they both said they didn't know, then they blathered about encountering a female ghost. Lin Chongchang fumed and almost drew his cane up and smacked them directly.

"Elder Lin, can I have a word with you?" Feng Yuanlin said.

Lin Chongchang took in a deep breath, held back his monstrous anger, nodded, and followed Feng Yuanlin into his office.

"Elder Lin, after our officers' investigation, the two men who surrendered outside were indeed the ones who kidnapped your grandson Lin Haoxing, not only in terms of physical resemblance, even the details of the layered indicators they explained were right." Feng Yuanlin continued, "According to their statements, a woman named Yang Yuhan, Fan Ming's mistress, paid them off to kidnap Haoxing, extort 100 million, and when the money was in hand, to kill the hostage at once."

Lin Chongchang was shocked. Collect the ransom and kill the hostage? Thank goodness they stalled. But Lin Chongchang pondered for a moment and frowned, still confused. "Are their statements accurate? It can't be Fan Ming's enemies, right?" Though he was suspicious of his son-in-law, he didn't want to wrong him either.

Feng Yuanlin raised his eyebrows and chin, gesturing for Officer Huang, who was beside him, to elaborate.

Officer Huang, who was standing beside him, took their oral confession records promptly and said, "That's what we're confused about. It stands to reason that they were bribed, but even if the deal was broken, there's no way they'd come to the police station to expose and turn themselves in." Officer Huang snickered, apparently thinking they were lying: "Furthermore, their confessions were obviously a bit exaggerated, full of loopholes, with some kind of female ghost involved. But the complexity is, if they were lying, how come several of our seasoned hawk-eyed officers can't see through them? The lie detector should also have gone off by now." The more Officer Huang spoke, the more puzzled he became.

Officer Huang could still recall how the two came to the police station to surrender. Common people would have acted apprehensively, but they'd collapsed seemingly relieved instead, as if they'd found refuge from a ghost chasing after them.

Especially their confessions, which he began recording seriously at first. But when the two rambled on about a female ghost, his face blackened, thinking that the two were just a couple of delusional idlers trying to provoke the police station order. But because Director Feng paid close attention to this case, he resisted the urge to kick them out. Even with the use of a lie detector and rounds of interrogation, the two men still said the same thing.

Seeing Lin Chongchang in deep thought, Officer Huang added, "In fact, the polygraph isn't necessarily accurate if someone's psychological quality is really up to the mark. Personally, I'm partial to them lying and planting evidence." Then, it was all a self-directed farce. Obviously, Fan Ming had offended someone out there, but there were too many holes in this man's profile.

Lin Chongchang mused for a moment, slightly relieved to hear that it was likely a frame-up, thinking inwardly that he had misunderstood Fan Ming.

"Elder Lin, don't worry. I've sent other officers to verify these statements. I've also notified the traffic police everywhere to lock down and search based on the license plate number we got. I'm sure we will find Haoxing soon." Feng Yuanlin sat upright on the sofa, his steadiness inexplicably convincing.

Lin Chongchang nodded. Although he was anxious, he still trusted Feng Yuanlin's abilities. Among the younger generation, Feng Yuanlin was notoriously steady and reliable.

Knock, knock, knock.

Sun Su came in to report, with a strange look on her face. "Director Feng, what those two said just now should be true!"

"Sun Su, on what basis is your judgement? I've said you can't make subjective assumptions, you still rely on evidence." Officer Huang stared at her disapprovingly.

Sun Su immediately cried out, "Leader Huang, how could it be my judgement? Several of the officers in the interrogation room thought so."

Sun Su immediately told them what had just happened. It turned out that the officers had done everything in their powers, but failed to find out that the two were lying. Even the lie detector was inexplicably unresponsive. Still, other police officers decided that Huang Lizhi and Yang Guomin had lied.

Until an interrogator noticed a yellow talisman behind the two men during a break and curiously tore off the one behind Huang Lizhi did he immediately change his testimony, beating himself to death to admit that he was lying.

Thinking that Huang Lizhi was playing them, the interrogator angrily slapped the talisman right on him as a warning, resulting in Huang Lizhi immediately confessing again. The contrast between before and after was so great that Sun Su noticed the talisman at once. She didn't think that Huang Lizhi, an ordinary person, had the guts to defy their police station.

Sun Su tore off that talisman and secretly stuck it to the officer just now. The officer was both famous for being a henpecked husband and his love to save face, refusing to admit even to his death that he was under his wife's thumb. After sticking the talisman to him, Sun Su asked some random questions, and he inexplicably admitted a bunch of humiliating truths: that he couldn't beat his wife, and also that he had no status at home, causing the officers in the interrogation room to burst out laughing, thinking that he was overly stimulated.

Sun Su tore off the talisman and asked again. The officer returned to his normal self, covering his mouth, looking incredulous and clearly not understanding how he could have told the truth.

Sun Su still found it hard to believe, and found another person to test it out on. She clapped it on a man in his forties, who molested an underage girl. The man, who had been refusing to admit his quibbles, quickly changed his tune, and recounted the molestation process along with his motives and desires.

Feng Yuanlin and the others looked at Sun Su in astonishment, obviously incredulous and thinking that what she said was supernatural.

Officer Huang scoffed and said, "Sun Su, you haven't watched too many TV dramas, have you? Were you hallucinating? Why are you, a cop, starting to be as feudal and superstitious as those fortune-telling charlatans? You're sort of considered a highly talented student."

Despite Officer Huang's rebuttal, Sun Su instead walked to him saying nothing and slapped the talisman on him. Officer Huang didn't hide, and shook his head in derision, unconcerned.

"Officer Huang, who was your first crush and when did it start?" Sun Su asked.

"Meng Xinyan, the first day of junior middle school," Officer Huang answered quickly.

"How many girlfriends have you had? What's your wife's order among your girlfriends?"

"I haven't had any. I met my wife on a blind date."

"When did your wife's period start?"

"Second year in junior middle school." After Officer Huang said this, he immediately covered his mouth and ripped off the yellow talisman on his body. His dark skin flushed red with disbelief all over his face, glaring fiercely at Sun Su. Was there such a subordinate who screwed her boss? But thinking of the panic that had just come over him at involuntarily speaking what was on his mind, he pondered.

Sun Su spread her hands innocently, "Leader Huang, I'm sorry." If I didn't ask something explosive, I wouldn't have been able to prove this talisman's effectiveness.

Seeing Officer Huang's reaction, Feng Yuanlin, who had experienced violent storms and waves first-hand, was inwardly shocked, but he remained calm and collected on the surface.