Li Bai's rented house and the Seventh People's Hospital where he worked were both in NH District, so naturally, he went to the NH District Public Security Bureau to give his statement.
The NH District Public Security Bureau was nearly empty, with few patrol cars parked outside. Most were out "patrolling the streets," working nine to five with remarkable regularity.
After all, there weren't many major cases. It wouldn't make much sense for the police in a major provincial capital like Huxi City to be swamped every day. How chaotic would public security have to be for that?
Two officers led Li Bai into an office and even poured him a glass of water. They set a recorder, paper, and pens on the desk and started taking his statement right away.
After a few routine questions, one of the officers suddenly asked, seemingly out of nowhere, "Do you have any classmates or friends at Dongling Auto Company?"
"No!"
Li Bai shook his head in confusion.
After graduating, he'd spent almost all his time going between his rented place and the hospital. He'd never dealt with anyone who worked at Dongling Auto Company.
After all, he didn't have much money. Buying a house or a car was still a long way off.
The other officer asked, "Before you conducted Yao Bing's psychological evaluation, did anyone from the Yao Family contact you?"
"No. I only found out about the appointment evaluation that morning."
As a psychiatrist, Li Bai keenly sensed that the other man was studying him with a scrutinizing gaze, much like the way he examined his patients during consultations. The only difference was that the officer's gaze wasn't nearly as oppressive or suspicious.
That sort of look often made people with guilty consciences give themselves away, but Li Bai had nothing to hide. He remained completely composed in front of the two officers.
Still, their questions revealed something: Young Master Yao had been driven mad by the Azure Flood Dragon Demoness, and the Yao Family was furious.
Coupled with last night's bank SMS about an inexplicable deposit of one million yuan and that strange phone call, Li Bai faintly sensed that he'd been caught in the eye of a storm.
The calm would only last for now. The brewing turmoil could crash down on him at any moment.
"Then have you received this call?"
The younger officer took out his phone and opened an audio file.
"Is this Doctor Li from the Seventh People's Hospital?"
"Yes, that's me. Who is this?"
"Doctor Li, the one million has been transferred. Thanks for your help this time. I hope we can work together again."
Click. The call ended. It had lasted less than fifteen seconds.
"Did you receive the one million?"
The younger officer didn't play the audio again.
Li Bai paused. He hadn't been following the news online. Otherwise, he'd have known that everything he'd encountered was part of a carefully planned chain of events.
After all, this was a provincial capital. Having money didn't mean you could truly do whatever you wanted. Even if you resorted to underhanded methods, you still had to play by the rules.
"I did receive a bank SMS last night. Other than that, I don't know anything."
Li Bai took out his phone and brought up the message about the one-million-yuan deposit.
"Was it a bribe from the Yao Family?"
After taking a screenshot of the message as evidence, the older officer fixed his gaze on Li Bai.
"If I transfer ten thousand yuan into your bank account, does that mean you've accepted a bribe?"
Li Bai could tell the officer was fishing for a confession, so he calmly tossed the question back at him.
Most people would have panicked and desperately tried to explain themselves, but Li Bai stayed as composed as ever.
That alone wasn't nearly enough to convict him.
"Then how did someone get your bank account number?"
The two officers didn't give up.
"Come on, it's easy to use a fake ID to report a lost bank card and request an account lookup. If you've got an acquaintance at the bank, it's even simpler."
With a father who was a county Public Security Bureau chief in a remote corner of the northwest, Li Bai knew all the tricks.
The two officers weren't just taking his statement. They were trying to bait him. If you really wanted to nitpick, you couldn't call it deliberate targeting; it was just making reasonable use of the rules.
"Heh. You sure know a lot."
The older officer smiled.
"My old man is a cop too. He's the Public Security Bureau chief in a remote county in the northwest."
Li Bai was making a subtle show of force: he knew all their tricks, so they could stop wasting their time.
"I see. After returning from the Seventh People's Hospital, Yao Bing went mad. Did you know?"
The older officer got straight to the point instead of beating around the bush.
They'd originally planned to use a tip-off as a pretext to verify the situation and see if they could get any useful information. By now, it seemed likely they'd come away with little.
"I'm a psychiatrist. I diagnosed Yao Bing with a mental illness. He had an episode. What's the problem?"
The two officers exchanged a glance.
It seemed perfectly natural for someone with a mental illness to have an episode. If they didn't, they wouldn't be mentally ill.
Were they supposed to insist that Yao Bing hadn't had a mental illness at all before his evaluation? That would only make them look foolish. The Yao Family might not care about its reputation, but the Public Security Bureau, the Procuratorate, and the Judiciary did.
They absolutely couldn't be saddled with accusations of collusion between officials and businesspeople. They couldn't give anyone even the slightest pretext. Damn, this was a landmine—whoever touched it would be in trouble.
Seeing that the officers had no answer, Li Bai said, "You don't expect me to have completely cured this rich kid during a single evaluation, do you?"
The younger and older officers both looked stumped. They couldn't respond to that.
So many people suffered from mental illness, yet few were ever truly cured. Most needed long-term medication and supervision to reduce the frequency of their episodes. Once you had a mental illness, it was only a little better than having cancer.
Although plenty of people knew perfectly well whether Yao Bing really had a mental illness, what could they do with that knowledge? There was no way to make a clear case either way.
The Yao Family suspected Li Bai had done something, and he was clearly a likely suspect. But they had no evidence, whether in public or behind the scenes, so they could only resort to these low tricks. They were even willing to blacken their own name just to drag Li Bai down with them.
"The one million in your bank account has been temporarily frozen. Don't leave Huxi City for the time being, and don't turn off your phone. If we need to question you, you must be available. Here are our contact details."
After a moment's hesitation, the younger officer took out two security liaison cards, like business cards, and handed them to Li Bai.
Since they couldn't get any useful information out of him, they'd have to take their time.
Not only the Yao Family but the police also wanted to understand how Yao Bing had suddenly suffered a mental breakdown when he'd seemed perfectly fine, with no warning signs at all.
"All right."
Taking the two plain white-card liaison cards, Li Bai knew this wasn't over. If anything, it was only just beginning.
"Try to stay in for the next few days. If anything comes up, call the number on the contact card and ask for Xiao Wang—or you can ask for me."
The older officer added this as he walked Li Bai to the door.
Li Bai paused. He heard the implication in the officer's tone—or, more accurately, the warning.
The Yao Family, or netizens who didn't know the truth, might do something against him.
"Thanks!"
But Li Bai hadn't expected that, as soon as he got off the bus and returned to the neighborhood where his rented place was, four men in black suits would stop him at the entrance to his building.
"Li Bai?"
One of them held up a phone, glanced at the screen, and called him by name.
The other three immediately surrounded Li Bai.
"Who are you?"
Li Bai wondered if he should call the two officers using the numbers they'd given him. They'd clearly anticipated that something like this might happen when they gave him their contact cards.
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