Friends who killed people often all knew that the killer was either someone the victim knew or someone the victim didn't know.
Faced with He Piaojian's blunt question, Fan Daoyi froze for a moment, then nodded. "Ah, mm."
"I knew it... Huh? You, you admitted it?" He Piaojian scratched his head, puzzled. "Hiss—something's not right. It never went like this in the books. And here I was, having prepared all sorts of lines for this routine."
Fan Daoyi lifted a corner of the blanket and sat up cross-legged on the bed. He couldn't hide the look in his eyes, as though he were staring at an idiot.
The air of authority He Piaojian had established upon entering the school hospital was shattered just like that.
Because of him, Fan Daoyi now had another label for the officials the black-robed man had mentioned.
Unreliable.
The unreliable officials had raised a bandit.
All right, that made sense too.
"So that idiot is pronounced 'idiot,' right? Shadow, idiot. Nothing wrong with that."
Was this guy playing dumb in front of me?
He Piaojian's behavior put Fan Daoyi on guard.
But he looked so stupid that a normal person couldn't have faked it.
"I admitted it. What now?" He took a deep breath and resumed his performance.
"How could you admit it!?" He Piaojian sounded shocked and confused. "Listen to me. Deny it to the bitter end, and we can use this to squeeze some money out of them."
"Uh, I mean, ask for compensation for emotional distress."
The guy spoke without a filter. His true thoughts always passed his lips a step ahead of his brain.
He Piaojian offered his suggestions while Fan Daoyi listened quietly.
"You're the only one who came out of that guixu. Can you tell me what happened in there?"
So he was fishing for information after all?
Fan Daoyi thought it over, polished the events up a little, and recounted what had happened.
He left out his identity and turned himself into a timid, ordinary ability user.
He heightened the terror of the game and mixed a few lies into the truth.
Then, as a friendly bonus, he provided a video.
Plenty of people recorded game scenes and brought them back to the outside world to make walkthroughs. It was perfectly normal, so producing a video wouldn't arouse suspicion.
"Did you use this ability to kill the idiot?" He Piaojian copied the video and scrutinized every frame, his hand still busy editing.
"I never admitted to killing him."
He Piaojian's hand stopped editing the video.
He saved it, swiped a couple of times, returned to the home screen, and opened the recording app.
You're the one who killed him, right?
Ah, mm.
He played Fan Daoyi's earlier, momentarily stunned reply over and over.
His reason for playing it was clear.
"Weren't you asking about Parker at the start?"
Fan Daoyi wore the same expression, calm and indifferent to the matter.
By bringing up Parker, he had ample grounds to argue back. No one could convict him.
"Oh, so you were admitting to Parker?" He Piaojian turned off his phone's screen and placed it behind his chair.
"Yes," he admitted.
"How did you kill him?"
"I had an ability that could have brought him out with me, but I didn't do it." Fan Daoyi answered every one of He Piaojian's questions earnestly. "My mistake killed him."
"You're taking the blame on yourself."
"But isn't that the answer you wanted?"
Fan Daoyi lowered his gaze to a spot a third of the way down behind He Piaojian's chair.
The phone's screen was off, but it was still recording their conversation.
"Anyway, when you handle things, all you need is a result you think is right. You don't care about what happens in between." His words were a veiled jab at that. He looked up again and met He Piaojian's gaze. "That's what you did from the start."
He Piaojian reached back for his phone, switched off the recording in front of Fan Daoyi this time, and continued questioning him. "So the idiot's death really had nothing to do with you?"
"I didn't know him."
The answer was ambiguous, and that was enough.
"You lied."
"I, Fan Daoyi, am honest and never lie."
His face didn't redden, nor did his heart skip a beat. The words just slipped out.
"All right, thank you for your cooperation." He Piaojian got up and stretched. "Sometimes being too honest isn't good. There's a thing called editing. It's especially easy to conjure something out of nothing."
As he spoke, he demonstrated the effects of editing for Fan Daoyi again.
Did you use this ability to kill the idiot?
Mm, it was me. I killed him.
Cuts, edits, and rearranged word order—only the two of them knew the truth.
Once this recording got out, it would be tantamount to Fan Daoyi admitting he had killed someone.
No one would testify for him. He wouldn't be able to clear himself even with a hundred mouths.
"See? Irrefutable evidence."
He watched Fan Daoyi's expression, only to be disappointed by his nearly drooping eyelids and dead-fish stare.
Fan Daoyi didn't panic, or even take it to heart.
"So what do you want? To threaten me, or extort me?" Fan Daoyi reached for the cane beside him and took it in hand. "I might not be able to give you money. I'm still worrying about my own medical bills."
He Piaojian studied him a few more times, then prepared to leave when he got nothing. "Fine, then. Have a good rest, my honest friend."
On his way out of the school hospital, he got a medical bill from the school doctor, then dialed a personal number and opened with a complaint. "He's sharp as a tack. No need to worry too much."
The person on the other end was the guy who had recommended He Piaojian to the school.
"How so?"
He Piaojian told the person on the other end about his questioning.
He offered his own guess. "He had nothing to fear when he said he killed Parker because the Council Hall has no direct evidence at all and can't press charges. We'll protect him in this matter."
"His own admission can't serve as key evidence. It only shows that it was an accident."
"'I was too scared and forgot someone I wasn't close to.' That's perfectly normal." He Zhenjian sent the video over as he replied. "If they make trouble over it, we can just ask whether Parker would have saved someone."
"They wouldn't dare say yes."
The excuses for making trouble were all tricks He Piaojian had already played out. One blow of the hammer nailed the Council Hall's case shut.
"Then what's the story with this idiot you mentioned?" The person on the other end agreed with He Piaojian's analysis too.
But there was an unrelated person in the subject he had raised, which aroused the other person's curiosity.
"The Council Hall sent someone straight over to assassinate him. That idiot's dead, and the killer is unknown."
He looked back deeply at the school hospital once more and sighed. "Though that guy is very likely the one."
"He can admit to killing Parker, but he absolutely can't admit to killing the idiot. After all, the idiot died on Chinese soil, and we strictly regulate such matters. That would hand them ample grounds."
"That's why I say the guy is sharp. He may have considered all of this."
"Dui Lake." The voice on the other end suddenly turned serious.
He Piaojian said carelessly, "What? Why use my codename all of a sudden?"
"Nothing. I thought Qian Heaven had possessed you. To think that head of yours actually has moments when it thinks things through."
"Hey, you..."
"Since you put it that way..." The person on the other end changed the subject, seized on the key point, and quickly asked, "The Council Hall should have sent more than one person, right? What about the others? You didn't...?"
Word about the bodies hadn't reached the other end yet. He Piaojian's eyes darted, and he borrowed Fan Daoyi's template.
"As far as I currently know, there was only the idiot."
"Also, I, He Piaojian, am an honest man and never violate discipline."
Anyone who knew He Piaojian wouldn't believe those words.
"By the way, the Council Hall's people hurt a Chinese citizen without any grounds or evidence. That's wrong, isn't it?"
"Yes."
The trap was laid, and the person on the other end went right ahead and jumped in.
He Piaojian curled his lips, choosing to settle the score on the spot.
And so...
"Our Chinese citizen was injured in this assassination attempt and is still lying in the school hospital."
"Old geezer, drop some gold coins. I'm going to the Council Hall to demand an explanation and get him some compensation for emotional distress."