NOVEL NEXT Ch. 4
Chapter 4: Interrogation
“Lam Wai was this woman’s first man; this woman had truly fallen in love with Lam Wai, and before Lam Wai left, she returned to him every cent he had paid her as prostitution money……”
“After a week she even mailed the photos they had taken together to Lam Wai, but that bastard only used this woman as something to show off, bragging about her to his friends and colleagues.”
“He told me himself that those people asked him where he found that woman who paid him, and asked him to introduce her to them next time……”
“On June 30th, Lam Wai didn’t come back to her. Do you know what he was doing? He was seeing other women. At that moment he suddenly couldn’t get it up, and what followed was that horrible incident. This woman must know where the Head-Descending Curse master is.”
Dusk.
In the rented car, Wong Kam-Sun sat in the driver’s seat, Li Zhen sat in the front passenger seat, and the two of them watched a house on the street.
After returning from Tun He, at Li Zhen’s request, the group first bought some supplies and then began surveillance.
This was a tourist area; stalls lined both sides, people came and went in front of the stalls, it was very bustling.
The house they were watching stood next to a fruit stall.
Songchai was not present, so Wong Kam-Sun spoke more than usual.
After drinking some water, Li Zhen replied, “That guy really deserved to die.”
Wong Kam-Sun said, “From the standpoint of the law, merely for toying with women, Lam Wai didn’t deserve to die.”
“People who toyed with what others treasured most deserved to die — such a pity about the little girl who died miserably.”
“Yes, children were innocent.”
“This woman was ruthless too; she clearly didn’t only want to kill Lam Wai, she wanted to kill his whole family.”
Hearing that, Wong Kam-Sun, whose worry had been growing, turned very pale.
Li Zhen added, “Is Songchai reliable?”
“Reliable, very loyal by nature.”
When he said that, Wong Kam-Sun glanced at Li Zhen oddly, as if to say, how could you — someone I’d known for less than a day — ask such a question.
From his own perspective, Li Zhen didn’t think his question was strange; he casually asked, “Is this woman still living here?”
“I looked for her here only yesterday; moving wouldn’t be that quick.”
“Since you have met her, Officer Wong, how do you know she wouldn’t retaliate?”
“I didn’t expect she would go that mad.”
“Judging by what she did, she was probably already insane.”
Songchai opened the rear door with food and drinks.
After they ate, it was already dark. Tired from waiting, the few of them finally saw the woman they had been waiting for return home.
She had the typical appearance of a Nanyang woman, in her early twenties, dressed daringly; her build was taller and more voluptuous than most Nanyang women — no wonder Lam Wai had treated her as something to show off.
The three of them got out of the car in tacit agreement.
They knocked on the door.
A woman’s voice came from inside, speaking in the Nanyang dialect; Li Zhen did not understand what it meant.
When the door opened, the woman had barely shown herself before the three of them pushed her into the house.
The woman’s struggling and shouting were useless; Wong Kam-Sun, skilled in holds and takedowns, forced her onto the sofa.
Being only a woman, she was easily restrained as Wong Kam-Sun locked her hands.
Li Zhen found a towel and stuffed it into the woman’s mouth.
When the woman’s struggling slowed, Li Zhen removed the towel from her mouth.
The woman glared at Li Zhen and jabbered loudly.
Songchai, obediently performing the translation, said, “She said, ‘You bastards, you only came to look for him yesterday, what are you doing again today? He has nothing to say to you.’”
Li Zhen said, “You wanted to hire that Head-Descending Curse master to kill this Mr. Wong?”
The woman snorted and turned her head away.
Li Zhen deliberately provoked, “Mr. Wong only met you once and you want to kill people — your mind is indeed cruel. That man not returning would be the smart move.”
The woman was provoked; her eyes widened, she nearly spat fire, and she shouted incoherently again.
Songchai’s face changed slightly; he looked at Wong Kam-Sun and said, “Anyone who tried to lift the curse from Stephen Lam must die; she wanted that bastard to die under the curse, never to recover.”
Wong Kam-Sun felt both shocked and furious.
He had thought himself an outsider; he hadn’t expected Li Zhen was telling the truth — that he had stumbled into this mess the moment he arrived in Nanyang.
The absurd thing was, he had been oblivious himself.
If he had followed his original plan and left Nanyang immediately, it wouldn’t have been only him who suffered — even his wife might have been in trouble.
He wanted to explain a few words, but with things already at this stage, words would likely be useless.
For now, the only plan was to take out the Head-Descending Curse master first…
Li Zhen continued questioning the woman: “What is that Head-Descending Curse master’s name?”
The woman said nothing.
“Is it such a powerful Head-Descending Curse master that even his name is too dangerous to reveal?”
The woman said a name.
Songchai translated, “Ma Gusu.”
“Ma Gusu.” Li Zhen dropped the towel. “Have you already hired Ma Gusu to kill Mr. Wong?”
The woman said coldly, “Not yet. I haven’t collected any of his hair. I will find Ma Gusu. Anyone who tried to save that bastard had to die!”
“Can you tell us where this Ma Gusu lived?”
The woman sneered, as if laughing at Li Zhen’s foolishness.
Li Zhen pointed at Wong Kam-Sun pressing the woman down: “This Mr. Wong was ruthless; he liked to crush flowers with cruel hands, he used all sorts of methods. Do you want to try those methods? People say Head-Descending Curses are formidable, but they might not be more formidable than this gentleman’s methods.”
Wong Kam-Sun’s eye twitched at the corner, but he cooperated with Li Zhen; his subordinate tightened the hold, paying no heed to the woman’s cries, pinning her to the sofa.
As an old police officer, he had his own interrogation techniques and knew what words to use to pry suspects open.
Since entering the house, Li Zhen’s performance had been flawless; he had pried the woman’s mouth open directly, so Wong Kam-Sun had not intervened.
Pain flickered across the woman’s face, showing a twisted expression, but she remained silent.
Wong Kam-Sun said, “This woman really was mad; even violent questioning probably wouldn’t get much out of her.”
Li Zhen shook his head in speechless dismay, “She must have long had self-destructive tendencies.”
He grabbed the woman’s hair and roughly turned her head toward him. “If Ma Gusu is so powerful, why won’t you tell us where he lives?”
“You want to kill us, right? Then why not let us go to Ma Gusu and let Ma Gusu kill us — wouldn’t that be the simplest thing?” the woman ground out without speaking further.
Li Zhen spread his hands, “You want that bastard to die; we have no objection. But you dragged his family into it.”
“His daughter was killed by him, yet he had not been executed; on the contrary, he was living comfortably in the hospital.”
“If you were being tortured now until life was worse than death, wouldn’t that be even more miserable than him? When he died, how much satisfaction would you have?”
“Worse yet, you might die before him and even as a ghost you would be mocked by him.”
Suddenly the woman blurted out a flood of words.
“She gave Ma Gusu’s address and told you to go to hell.”
Songchai found paper and pen and wrote down the address.
Li Zhen and Wong Kam-Sun both breathed easier.
Wong Kam-Sun loosened one hand and secretly gave Li Zhen a thumbs-up.
“The address might not be real,” Li Zhen said.
Wong Kam-Sun nodded, “We’ll go to that address tomorrow and be cautious. If we can’t find the person, we’ll think of another plan.”
They tidied up the traces inside the house, and the three of them left with the woman under the cover of night.
The woman was quite cooperative, without any resistance; perhaps she truly wanted Li Zhen and the others to come and die.