Unstoppable

Unstoppable

Yao Donghu, who had stubbornly refused to say a word, suddenly became an open book, telling them everything and holding nothing back. In an instant, he had brought Officer Xiao Wang and Li Bai closer.

Once the young police officer got talking, he couldn't stop. Even after he'd seen Li Bai's Santana out through the gates of the Nanhu District Public Security Bureau, he was still waving his arms behind it.

"Leave finding a place to me. Just wait for the news."

Guo Wenkai drove his own police car into the Nanhu District Public Security Bureau, ready to follow up on the interrogation of Yao Donghu and the latest developments in the major smuggling case on the outskirts of Beilun. He heard someone shouting something about finding a place to live and glanced over toward the voice. The person looked strangely familiar, but no matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn't remember who it was. Nor could he think of any acquaintance who would still be driving an old Santana 2000.

"Who's in that car?"

The Santana roared away, and Guo Wenkai called out to Xiao Wang, who was about to leave.

Xiao Wang recognized him as Director Guo Wenkai from the Provincial Public Security Department, who had personally risked going undercover to crack the major smuggling case. He hurriedly said, "Director Guo, he's an outside interrogation expert. He's incredible—he got Yao Donghu to talk in no time. You should go take a look!" As he spoke, he couldn't help raising a thumb in admiration.

"Really?"

Guo Wenkai knew that the Provincial Department's interrogation experts and several veteran criminal investigators from the district bureaus had spent two days and two nights trying to get Yao Donghu, the mastermind behind the major smuggling case, to utter even a single word.

But he hadn't expected anyone to break through the hard case's psychological defenses so suddenly, without any warning.

Could someone have gotten through to Yao Donghu's wife, using the bonds of family to appeal to his feelings and reason, and persuade the major smuggler to confess and throw himself on the mercy of the court?

Once his attention turned to the case, Guo Wenkai quickly forgot the strangely familiar figure he'd just seen. When he arrived at the interrogation room, he realized his guess had been completely wrong.

This wasn't an interrogation at all. It was an interview—question and answer, smooth as could be.

Wasn't he supposed to keep his mouth shut?

Wasn't he supposed to resist to the bitter end?

What about his dignity?

Had he thrown it all to the dogs?

Like beans pouring out of a bamboo tube, Yao Donghu calmly revealed one shocking secret after another, as if no one else were in the room. Any one of them was enough to keep him in prison for life or earn him a bullet. He spoke as if the crimes weren't his, but someone else's, without the slightest change in tone.

Guo Wenkai stared, dumbfounded, as the interrogation transcript was recorded. A phone was filming the whole thing, and it seemed there was nothing left for him to do.

Interrogation expert Jia Zixuan and several veteran criminal investigators from the district bureaus took turns asking questions, prying open a staggering case. It was far more than an ordinary smuggling operation: more than a dozen lives were involved, and the value of the case exceeded three billion, matching the total assets of the entire Yao Clan.

The legendary big tiger gradually emerged from the testimony. Sweat appeared on the foreheads of the interrogators present, but none of them dared to stop.

The veteran investigators' mouths grew dry from asking questions, while Yao Donghu kept talking as if nothing were the matter.

An hour and twenty-five minutes into the interrogation, Yao Donghu suddenly convulsed. His rigid expression quickly relaxed. He blinked and looked at the police officers in the interrogation room, glancing around in confusion. Something seemed wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on what.

Through clenched teeth, he rasped, "You can forget it. I'm not saying a thing!"

What was going on?

Guo Wenkai was completely baffled. This guy had been eagerly confessing just a moment ago. Now he was acting like a different person. He'd already confessed to everything, so what was the point of clamming up now?

Was this guy trying to be funny?

Pfft!

Someone burst out laughing.

Director! Director! Drag this idiot out and give him eighty strokes! How dare he call "cut" in the middle of a take!

As if a chain reaction had been set off, several of the veteran investigators turned away, unable to hold it in. Jia Zixuan, the interrogation expert sent by the Provincial Department, shook all over, holding back so hard his liver hurt. He was about to die.

Watching this bunch of lunatic cops, Yao Donghu was now the one left completely bewildered. What on earth were these people getting at?

"Write up the report!"

Officer Old Zhang nodded to Sun Mu, his colleague from the bureau.

"All right!"

Sun Mu stopped recording with the phone that had served as a camera and began filling out the form to file the statement.

The on-site interrogation record included video, and the interrogators' testimony left the case practically airtight. Even if Yao Donghu recanted, he still wouldn't escape his fate. The video alone was enough to send him to the firing range for a 5.8-millimeter rifle round worth one yuan and ten cents, or for the VIP triple execution combo of sodium thiopental, Pavulon, and potassium chloride, priced at four hundred and twenty-seven yuan and thirty cents.

Chen Chu, Old Zhang, and Jia Zixuan signed one after another. Guo Wenkai looked over the interrogation he'd missed and added his own signature. Then he called to the police outside, preparing to send Yao Donghu back to the detention center. The task ahead was for the entire task force to press their advantage, follow the clues, and drag out the big tiger for a beating.

"Hey, hey, are you interrogating me? I'm not going to say a thing."

Completely in the dark, Yao Donghu couldn't make sense of these cops. They'd brought him here from the detention center, asked him nothing, and now they were sending him back. They'd even gone to the trouble of signing paperwork. Did they have nothing better to do?

"Your turn. Sign here!"

Sun Mu, the clerk, placed the brief interrogation record in front of Yao Donghu, who had been led out from behind the partition. He gave him a gleeful smile. This guy was finished!

Many of the most important questions had been prepared in advance, with a few follow-up questions added later. But to Yao Donghu's utter disbelief, answers appeared after those questions. His eyes widened further and further, and chills ran through him. Only one thought remained in his mind:

Beyond redemption!

How could these cops know his secrets?

"That's impossible. That's impossible. How did you know? It can't be!"

Yao Donghu trembled uncontrollably, like someone having a seizure. His face was full of disbelief. With difficulty, he dragged his gaze away from the sheets of paper and looked at the unhurried cops. A wounded beast's hoarse growl rose from his throat.

Jia Zixuan, the interrogation expert from the Provincial Department, said with a mischievous grin, "Of course, you told us!"

If every interrogation could go like this, with every question answered, what case couldn't be solved? It would be a breeze. The reward for solving the case would practically be free money.

Thinking of that, Jia Zixuan silently thanked Xiao Wang for bringing in this helper. Not only had he helped the task force withstand the pressure from above, he'd also led to a major breakthrough in the case. They now had plenty of time to make the most of what they'd gained.

Guo Wenkai, who had nearly missed the whole show, looked surprised. The suspect's behavior just now had clearly been the result of hypnosis: he'd confessed everything without realizing it. He hadn't expected that Yao Donghu, whom the task force had been unable to crack for so long, would be dealt with by a master hypnotist—and so effortlessly, too.

By the time Sun Mu started recording the official interrogation video, Li Bai had already left. So Guo Wenkai hadn't seen what came before. If he had, he would have been stunned: Li Bai had broken through Yao Donghu's psychological defenses with casual conversation, then seized the opportunity to hypnotize him. The skill involved was beyond imagination.

Yao Donghu's mouth hung open, his expression that of a man who'd seen a ghost. He hadn't said anything at all, so how had he obediently confessed to these things that could get him killed?

Sun Mu unlocked his phone and played the interrogation video back for Yao Donghu, but the footage didn't include Li Bai using hypnosis.

Hypnosis wasn't memory implantation. Unless it was accompanied by a series of suggestions, it was difficult to create false memories. Whether the subject's answers were logical depended entirely on the hypnotist's skill. Clearly, this subject was as helpless against the veteran investigators' questioning as if his prefrontal cortex had been removed.

Seeing himself answer every question without hesitation, as if he'd been possessed, Yao Donghu felt as though he'd taken a heavy blow. Stars swam before his eyes, and everything went dark. What was in the video was even more detailed and comprehensive than what was written on the pages before him.

And all the more damning for it.

He couldn't imagine what kind of storm this evidence would stir once it had been verified and presented in court.

The worst had happened!

"Sign it. It'll spare you some suffering. Be a good person in your next life, and don't break the law again."

Old Zhang offered a word of advice. As a veteran beat cop, he could foresee Yao Donghu's fate. If the death penalty weren't already the ultimate punishment, a bullet would have been the least of his worries.

After watching the video, Yao Donghu's mind was a fog. Dazed and dispirited, he signed the brief interrogation record and pressed his fingerprint to it.

He was utterly finished!