The Fourth Interrogation

The iron door to the detention center's interrogation room opened again in front of Lin Feng, and the familiar coldness rushed out. He was led by the bailiffs to the interrogation chair that had bound him so many times, sat down, and the handcuffs were locked on the table rings, making a crisp clinking sound. He looked up and looked at the person opposite him.

Zhang Qian sat in the presiding judge's seat, but her demeanor was completely different from any other time. She was still wearing her police uniform, but the epaulets seemed to be covered with a layer of gray. She did not straighten her back and have sharp eyes as usual, but was slightly hunched over, with deep-set eyes, dark circles under her eyes, and a numb weariness and lingering dejection on her face.

She didn't even begin the interrogation immediately; instead, she lowered her head and flipped through the thin file, her fingers unconsciously tracing the edges of the pages, as if everything she had lost was contained within them.

The young police officer accompanying the recording dared not breathe, keeping his head down and pretending to organize the record paper.

The lengthy and mechanical procedural Q&A session was barely completed in an extremely oppressive atmosphere. Zhang Qian's voice was dry and flat, as if she were reading from a script.

When the last procedural question was asked, a brief, suffocating silence fell over the interrogation room.

Zhang Qian slowly raised her head, her gaze unfocused, landing on Lin Feng's face, yet seemingly piercing through him to gaze into an even more distant, ethereal void. A twitch appeared at the corner of her mouth, a bitter smile more painful than tears, and her hoarse voice broke the silence:

"You ruined me... Now, are you satisfied?"

Lin Feng's expression remained calm and expressionless, his eyes like a deep, still pool, revealing not a ripple. He tilted his head slightly, his tone carrying just the right amount of doubt, as if he truly knew nothing:

What are you saying?

This nonchalant denial, like a needle, pierced Zhang Qian's feigned composure. Her breathing suddenly quickened, her chest heaving, and a flash of anger at being utterly ignored and scorned crossed her eyes. She leaned forward abruptly, her hands gripping the table, her nails almost digging into the lacquer, her voice rising with emotion, trembling uncontrollably:

"Your Great Lawyer Zhou! Those underhanded tactics he used outside! Those recordings! He ruined me! Don't tell me you didn't know?! You fucking know?!"

Her emotions were on the verge of spiraling out of control; profanities spilled from her mouth, and she completely lost her composure.

Lin Feng remained calm as he looked at her, his eyes devoid of even a hint of mockery, only pure, cold unfamiliarity. He repeated himself, his tone unchanged:

I don't know what you're talking about.

"You don't know? Fine! Fine! I'll tell you!" Zhang Qian seemed to be completely enraged. She spoke rapidly, with a kind of desperate madness, recounting the recording incident that had surfaced online from her own distorted perspective.

In her narrative, she is a pitiful victim who was secretly recorded by a "treacherous villain," attacked without cause by "cyber mobs," and framed by a "mastermind." All her actions are excused as being "forced" or "a moment of confusion."

"... That's how it is! Now everyone's cursing me! My job's over! My future's ruined! You wanted to destroy me, and you've achieved your goal!" She gasped for breath, staring intently at Lin Feng, her eyes filled with complex emotions—resentment, despair, and a hint of fear she herself didn't want to admit. "This... this should be the last time we see each other!"

Lin Feng listened quietly to her flawed and self-justifying account, and finally a faint reaction appeared on his face. He nodded slightly, his tone as indifferent as if discussing the weather:

"So it seems we shouldn't say 'goodbye'." He paused, met Zhang Qian's gaze, and clearly uttered a few words:

"They must be... gone forever."

This calm, even cold, farewell struck Zhang Qian like a final, heavy blow, slamming into her taut nerves. The string of "reason" in her mind snapped with a snap!

"You!" She stood up abruptly, slamming her hands on the table with a loud bang! Her body trembled violently from extreme anger and despair, her eyes instantly bloodshot, glaring at Lin Feng with an almost crazed look, a suppressed, beast-like growl emanating from deep within her throat:

"What exactly do you want?! Huh?! A petty thug like you! Scum! You should just obediently confess your crimes! Go to jail! Why?! Why do you always have to cause trouble?! Why won't you accept your fate?! Do you think you can escape the law like this?! Do you think you've won?!"

Her roar echoed in the cramped interrogation room, making the young police officer recording the proceedings turn pale and instinctively shrink back.

Faced with this hysterical madness, Lin Feng neither backed down nor became angry. He simply stared quietly and intently into Zhang Qian's bloodshot and crazed eyes, as if trying to see through them to the depths of her soul, revealing all the baseness and depravity within her.

Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

For a long, long time.

Lin Feng took a slight breath and spoke slowly, in an extremely slow tone, yet carrying a certain heavy weight:

What do I want?

Sudden--

"Clang!!!"

Lin Feng suddenly leaned forward, his handcuffed hands slamming hard onto the small table in front of him! The metal struck the wood with a piercing clang! His entire demeanor changed dramatically in an instant!

His previous calm and composure were completely replaced by an intense emotion like a volcanic eruption! His cheeks were flushed red with excitement, the veins on his neck bulged, and his eyes, like burning flames, were fixed on Zhang Qian Qian's face, which was distorted with shock!

He used almost all his strength to unleash a thunderous roar, a roar that had been suppressed in his heart for far too long, directed at Zhang Qian, at the cold interrogation room, and at this distorted scene:

"What the hell do I want?!"

"All I want are two fucking words—fairness!"

"Fair! It's fucking fair!!!"

"Is this fucking hard?! Huh?! This isn't something you should be doing, fucking in this police uniform?!"

His voice was like thunder, every word filled with blood, tears, and accusations, striking Zhang Qian's heart hard and making the entire interrogation room buzz.

"I didn't fucking ask you to be like Holmes! Like Bao Qingtian! To investigate the case thoroughly! I just fucking wish you were even a little bit more responsible! If you fucking listened to a single word I said! If you fucking had even a little bit of reasonable doubt about that fucking bullshit confession! None of this! None of this fucking would have happened!!!"

"I just want to study! I want to graduate! I want to live like a normal person! Who did I offend?! What the hell did I do?! Why?! Why am I being framed?! Why am I locked up here?! Why are my parents being insulted to their faces?! Why?!"

Intense emotions erupted like a tsunami, unleashing all the pent-up grievances, anger, resentment, and hatred for the derelict official before them!

The roar subsided, and the interrogation room fell into a deathly silence. Only Lin Feng's heavy breathing and his body trembling slightly with excitement could be heard.

In that instant, he seemed to have all his strength drained away. His tense back relaxed, and he leaned heavily back against the hard chair. The flush of excitement on his face quickly faded, replaced by a deep, bone-chilling exhaustion and emptiness.

He raised his eyes and looked at Zhang Qian, who was stunned by his sudden outburst, her face drained of color, the madness in her eyes gone, leaving only confusion and a barely perceptible tremor.

His voice became low and hoarse, carrying a calm that came after exhaustion, as he spoke, word by word:

"This is what I wanted."

"It's just... about fairness."