Chapter Fifteen: The Water Has Dropped but the Stone Has Not Yet Emerged

  "Where is Meng Yu Si?"

  It was the same interrogation room, but this time Jimmy was sitting in the defendant's seat. In addition to Gu Hanhao, Yuan Jun, Gu's trusted assistant, was also present at the interrogator's position.

  Ling Lan and Liu Fan were still standing in the adjacent room, watching and listening through the one-way mirror and loudspeaker.

  However, what made Linglan disappointed was that Y's answer to this question was "I don't know."

  He looked at Gu Hanhao with a very honest expression and replied, "I don't know."

  Gu Hanhao felt a bit tricky, it seemed that this Jimmy was not as cooperative as he had imagined.

  Yuan Jun chimed in from the side, "If you're willing to cooperate with us and tell us where Meng Yusi is, we can ask the prosecutor for a lighter sentence."

  He smiled friendly and said, "Thank you very much, but I really don't know where Meng Yusi is now. To put it this way, the one who ordered me to kill Shao Hui was actually Meng Yusi."

  One stone stirred up a thousand waves, and it wasn't just Gu Hanhao and Yuan Jun who revealed their unbelievable expressions, but also Ling Lan and Liu Fan in the other room were stunned. The victim of this case, who was innocently implicated and still missing today, turned out to be the mastermind behind the scenes?

  It suddenly occurred to Gu Hanhao that the killer who had escaped from the window that night must have had an accomplice outside, otherwise it would be impossible for a disabled person, let alone a normal person, to jump out of such a high window. Could that accomplice be Meng Yusi? It was indeed very possible. If Meng Yusi really did encounter the killer and was taken away by him, then if the killer were a tall and strong man, it might have been possible, but if it were Jimmy, who was still not used to his prosthetic limb, Meng Yusi could easily attack his prosthetic limb and escape wouldn't be that difficult.

  He stroked his incomplete right leg, sighed deeply, "I need money, I need a prosthesis to live a normal life. You may wonder how much a prosthesis costs, but what I need is not an ordinary prosthesis, it's a new type of prosthesis invented by a research institution in the United States. With it, plus training, I can walk like a normal person, even run. Unfortunately, this prosthesis is more expensive than the sports prosthetics used in the Paralympics, because its simulation and controllability are unprecedented. Of course, its price is also staggering.

  Meng Yusi is a mixed-blood child, with one-quarter American blood, and has stayed in the United States for several years. She and I have a lot of common language, and I also regard her as a confidant. One time this little girl saw the prosthesis data I collected and learned that I needed a large sum of money. So she came to me, saying she had a rare opportunity.

  "Meng Yu Si said that she knew there was an organization in the city called 'Red Sacrifice Alliance', which consisted of young people who were all obsessed with vampires. They would often gather to discuss and share information about vampires, watch movies, or participate in cosplay activities. Although the name sounded intimidating and the website's slogan was ominous, saying things like 'willingly become a sacrifice for vampires', it was all just an act. In reality, it was just a rich person's way of entertaining themselves by hiring these young people to participate in vampire-themed activities at a zoo, where they would eat, drink, and have fun, and receive much higher pay than they would from a regular job. This 'zoo' was also funded by the same rich person."

  Gu Hanhao nodded, "But there's one thing I don't quite understand. Meng Yusi introduced you as a member of the 'Red' Sacrifice Alliance', but according to Shao Hui's accounts, which I've verified, Meng Yusi isn't among them."

  He continued: "At first, I thought she was a member of the alliance too, but she denied it, saying that she just had a friend in the alliance. Now the alliance needs a foreign-looking man to join, because these Eastern faces can no longer satisfy the core figures of the alliance, namely Shao Meiyan. The real master of the alliance, namely investor Shao Hui, needs to recruit a white person who is handsome and has a 'straight' posture. So Meng Yusi found me, and she even bought me an expensive prosthetic limb, because if it weren't for that, I'm afraid Shao Hui wouldn't have allowed me to join."

  "What were you mainly responsible for in the gatherings of the alliance during this month after joining?"

  He smiled, "I'm mainly in charge of playing the vampire who infiltrated the alliance, it's quite funny, I have to play a fake 'adult' vampire, but the fact is that I'm disabled, everyone knows, except for Shao Meiyan. I have to reveal the fact that I'm a vampire to Shao Meiyan in a pretended unintentional way, making her suspicious. In front of Shao Meiyan, I'm a mysterious and elusive suspected vampire, while in front of other people in the alliance, I'm just an ordinary worker working for Shao Hui."

  "Your pay is much higher than theirs, this month, Shao Hui gave you 50,000 yuan. Although the photos that Shao Hui secretly took of your gatherings on his computer have been thoroughly deleted and cannot be recovered, I can imagine that your performance must be far superior to theirs, especially since you can perfectly control your prosthetic limb and not reveal any flaws in front of Shao Mei Yun." Gu Han Hao looked at Jimmy with some admiration.

  He lowered his head in shame, stroking the half-remaining leg, "Ashamed, I used my strong willpower and exquisite acting skills on this kind of thing. To be honest, every time I use a prosthetic to pretend to walk normally, I endure pain. After all, I've never used a prosthetic before. My pain was seen by Meng Yu Si, and she asked me to quit again, using the excuse that she pitied me. I refused, after all, I really needed the money urgently. As a result, Meng Yu Si introduced another job to me. Actually, I knew that her asking me to join the alliance was just the prelude, and getting me to accept this transaction was the ultimate goal."

  Gu Hanhao nodded silently, "She wants you to get rid of Shao Wei. How much did she promise to pay?"

  "Meng Yu Si said that the alliance would disband sooner or later, and when that happens, I wouldn't even get 300,000 yuan and would 'lose my job'. She promised to give me 300,000 yuan once if I successfully killed Shao Wei according to plan. She would also help out, but wouldn't take a single cent from me. I asked her who exactly wanted Shao Wei dead, but she refused to reveal it, only telling me that it was someone I absolutely couldn't imagine. I had thought about it before, wondering if it could be that friend of Meng Yu Si's in the alliance, but I really couldn't think of who it could be."

  Gu Hanhao quickly recalled in his mind, those dozen or so young men and women, who was the most suspicious, but to no avail, could only continue to ask questions. "Tell me about your murder plan with Meng Yusi, why did you choose the abandoned site of the old industrial base? Was it just because that's where the legendary vampires are said to appear?"

  Shaking his head, "We're just making plans. It was Shao Rui who asked me to go there, he wanted me to set up the place in advance and turn it into a vampire's residence, and also prepare the vampire costumes. Because his 'daughter' Shao Mei Yun is no longer satisfied with just talking about vampires with those people in the 'zoo', she has already determined that I am the real vampire and has feelings for me, so I should show up, otherwise she will really go looking for my hiding place everywhere."

  "So that's what Shao Hui meant by going to the ruins that day, was he there to inspect the results? He wanted to check out your outfit and the environment you set up?" Gu Hanhao asked.

  "That's right, he just didn't think that the funeral expenses he gave me were not used to buy a coffin. I didn't even set up the place because Meng Yusi and I knew he wouldn't have the chance to see it." Jimmy's face twisted in pain as he spoke. He was filled with regret for taking an innocent life, and Shao Hui was indeed a pathetic father who had paved his own road to doom just to cater to his 'daughter's' absurd interests.

  "We didn't find that 'blood-sucking' device at your place, nor the part of Shaohui's blood that went missing. That device should also be given to you by Meng Yusi, right?"

  "I don't know where she got that thing from, it's made of metal and is a very precise instrument, looks expensive and not too big, can be completely hidden in her black robe. Meng Yusi said, let Shao Hui die like being attacked by a vampire, because there are rumors of vampires appearing there anyway. This way, we both benefit. Meng Yusi also told me she would find two vagrants to witness the scene and leave evidence for the police that they saw a vampire, then she would wait for me at the window and pull me up with ropes and pulleys. Oh, and she even left some fingerprints on the curved railing of the window, creating an illusion of superhuman strength."

  Yuan Jun sighed, "It's just that you didn't expect the eyewitness Meng Yusi found to be not some vagrant, but her three roommates."

  "No, when I saw it was Yue Tong and Feng Jia, I was really stunned, but at the time, time was pressing, so I had to follow the original plan and escape with Meng Yu Si along the pre-arranged route. After dawn, according to Meng Yu Si's request, I called Yue Tong and asked them to go get a card, then on the phone, I told them that if they promised not to betray me, I would split the 300,000 yuan reward with them two. However, they didn't trust Meng Yu Si and insisted on hearing from Meng Yu Si herself that she was safe and sound, otherwise they would insist on reporting to the police. There was no way around it, so Meng Yu Si spoke with them and said she was very safe. Later I asked Meng Yu Si why she had implicated the three 'girls', she said she also did it out of desperation, coincidentally Feng Jia that night insisted on proposing to go explore the ruins, Yue Tong and Ling Lan also agreed, Meng Yu Si advised against it but they didn't listen at all. She could only use their plan to her advantage, removing the part about the homeless witness and having the three roommates take their place."

  "It seems that at that time, Meng Yusi had already decided to kill the three roommates and silence them, so she made herself disappear. Because if she followed the three roommates together, after the three roommates died in the explosion, only she was left, it would be too suspicious." Gu Hanhao muttered to himself.