"Come with me!" Old Fobole pushed open a door expressionlessly and led Xina to a wooden chair with a writing pad attached.
"Mm." Xina nodded and sat down calmly. Resting her cheek on one hand, she quietly watched Old Fobole and knowingly asked, "May I ask why you brought me here?"
"Less talking. I ask, you answer!" Old Fobole looked up and swept his gaze over Xina.
No one knew what his pen was writing in the notebook before him, but the scratching of its tip across the paper never stopped.
"Fine, go ahead and ask." Xina switched hands to prop up her cheek, speaking with complete indifference.
"Where were you all day today?" Old Fobole's pen paused as he suddenly asked.
"Just wandering around outside." Xina did not even raise her eyes, tossing out a perfunctory answer.
"Really? Just wandering around?" A dark glint flashed through Old Fobole's eyes as he set down his pen.
"What, is wandering around illegal now? Officer, instead of wasting time interrogating a frail, pitiful, helpless young woman like me, why not go catch those people looting stores for free? You might just pull up one radish and drag out the whole vine, digging up an entire nest of bad guys!"
"I'm asking the questions here! I didn't ask you to tell me how to do my job!" Old Fobole was stunned by Xina's sarcastic attitude. Were young girls these days all this bold?
Something was off! What young girl faced FBI questioning with that kind of attitude? There had to be something suspicious here!
With that thought, Old Fobole impatiently rapped his knuckles on the table and asked, "Do you know Ron?"
"There are so many Rons in the world. Which one are you asking about?" Xina pressed her lips together to suppress a laugh, casually glancing at the time on the wall clock.
Not bad. She had nothing to do at this hour anyway, so chatting nonsense with the FBI here seemed like a decent way to pass the time.
"Ron Smith."
Seeing the atmosphere had clearly turned tense, the young FBI agent beside them hurriedly tried to smooth things over. "Miss Xina, this is only routine questioning. You don't need to be so resistant. After all, your family certainly wouldn't want to see you..."
"It's okay. I'm the only one left in my family. They won't know." Xina rolled her eyes, thinking, Are these FBI agents seriously that clueless? They don't even investigate someone's family background before questioning them. The actors in movies are more professional...
"..."
Hearing Xina's devastating response, the young FBI agent's eye visibly twitched. Her words—there was only her left in her family—hit him no less hard than a slap across the face.
I actually said something like that to a young girl who lost her family. I really am awful!
With that thought, the young FBI agent actually lowered his head and silently reflected on himself.
"?" Old Fobole looked at his rookie assistant, who had somehow been emotionally wrecked, and sighed in frustration before putting on his stern old face again.
"According to our investigation, this morning, you and a group led by Ron Smith appeared at the entrance to this park. But afterward, aside from you, none of them came back out of the park. How do you explain that?"
"Explain what?" Xina lazily leaned back against the chair, teasing, "Since you were investigating, you must have gone into the park too. By your idiotic logic that anyone who happens to appear in the same place is suspicious, maybe you people made those people disappear and deliberately framed a helpless young girl like me!"
"Hmph! Sharp-tongued little thing!" Old Fobole's face darkened as he gave the opaque window beside them a meaningful look.
Before long, another FBI agent entered with a file in hand. He placed it before Old Fobole and whispered a few words into his ear.
"Little girl, I advise you to confess honestly. Our people have already found traces of Ron and the others." Old Fobole opened the file before him and coldly stared at Xina, who was sitting in the chair and twirling her hair around her fingers.
"Then talk to me once you put the evidence in front of me!"
Honestly, if Xina had not personally erased those pieces of trash down to literal dust, she really might have been frightened.
If the FBI could truly gather the ashes she had scattered and piece together a body, then she, Xina, would gladly become their Herrscher.
"You..." It was Old Fobole's first time encountering a girl so impervious to persuasion or pressure. For a moment, he felt utterly stifled, as though all his abilities had nowhere to go.
If Xina had been some scumbag with a criminal record, one round of his grand memory-restoration technique would have made that person spill everything, whether he wanted to ask it or not.
But she was an underage little girl, and he had no conclusive evidence that she had done any of this.
He could not possibly use those inhumane methods on a frail young girl just because he had his own suspicions.
Feeling that she had played enough, Xina could not be bothered arguing with the FBI anymore. She stretched in the chair, raised her right hand, and said, "I request to speak with my lawyer. Until she arrives, I won't answer any of your questions."
"?"
Where would an orphan get the money to hire a lawyer?
Though the FBI agent's face was full of confusion, a citizen's basic right to call a lawyer still had to be protected.
After some deliberation, Old Fobole reluctantly had someone take Xina out.
"Here, make your call!" The FBI agent brought Xina to an old antique landline and stared at her with eyes as wide as bells, as if she would vanish on the spot the moment he looked away.
"Tch." Xina took the receiver and silently connected to Theresa's communicator.
"Hello, Principal Theresa?! It's Xina. The FBI arrested me... I..."
"What? Outrageous! This is unacceptable! Wait there, I'll find someone to deal with it right away!"
After receiving Xina's call, Theresa did not even have time to keep reading her manga. She hurriedly jumped down from her chair and rushed out into the corridor beyond the Headmaster's Office.
It had to be said that Theresa was very reliable in most situations. Xina had only waited by the landline for a few minutes before receiving a second call.
"Hello~" Xina picked up the phone. After listening to the caller introduce herself, she handed the receiver to the FBI agent beside her. "It's the Governor!"
"What kind of strange thing are you saying, girl? Why would I have the Governor on the phone?" The FBI agent seemed amused by Xina. His rigid face finally showed some other expression.
"I'm telling you to get your chief over here to take your Governor's call!" Xina expressionlessly shook the receiver in her hand. Only then did the FBI agent belatedly react. "Huh? The Governor?!"
Before you continue