Chapter 317: Three-Party Joint Investigation! A Shocking Speculation

Chapter 317: Chapter 174: Three-Party Joint Investigation! A Shocking Speculation

Xu Huo suddenly spoke.

“What is it?”

Zhang Liang paused, asking suspiciously.

“It’s not confirmed yet.”

Xu Huo shook his head, paused for a moment, and then said:

“Bring Zhou Hou to the interrogation room again. I need to confirm something.”

‘Another interrogation?’

Li Jianye and Zhang Liang had already interrogated him twice, and Xu Huo had done it once.

Three interrogations in a single morning.

He had only just been taken back, and now they were going to question him again…

“It’s not an interrogation. I just need to confirm a few things. Just bring him over.”

Xu Huo said, then turned and walked toward the interrogation room.

Without overthinking it, Li Jianye set off to bring the man over.

A short while later…

CREAK~

As the sound echoed, Zhou Hou’s figure appeared at the door again.

When he noticed Xu Huo was still the one inside, he paused, but didn’t ask why. He simply sat down silently across the table.

“We meet again.”

Xu Huo greeted him casually.

“So, have you felt any particular emotions recently?”

Zhou Hou would not get out of this alive. He had killed too many people. On top of that, the victims’ family members had their minds destroyed and their bodies horrifically altered; they would never recover.

Of course, perhaps he never intended to go on living anyway.

“No particular emotions,” Zhou Hou said.

“I went to see the others. They’re not recovering well, but at least they’re showing some signs of improvement,” Xu Huo added.

Zhou Hou just nodded, his expression as placid as ever.

Until…

“So? Do you regret the murders?”

Xu Huo asked, scanning him up and down.

“Or rather, do you regret going after their families?”

If he hadn’t gone after the families… given the extenuating circumstances and a psychiatric evaluation, he might have been able to get a suspended death sentence.

A suspended death sentence wasn’t a true death sentence. As long as you didn’t commit another crime within two years, it would usually be commuted to life imprisonment.

But he had gone after them.

Once he did, even if the victim was in a vegetative state, there was nothing that could be done for him.

“I don’t regret it,” Zhou Hou said.

“Why?”

Li Jianye asked.

‘Many of the people I’ve seen before are terrified and horrified when they’re caught, but this guy shows no emotion at all.’

‘No, it’s not that he has no emotions, it’s more like…’

“Because…”

“It felt good.”

Zhou Hou smiled, and a hint of amusement seemed to appear in his vacant eyes.

“Just thinking about how those people will be just like me from now on… it feels great.”

‘Feels great…’

‘That reason…’

‘Well, I guess that counts as a reason.’

Li Jianye didn’t know how to respond.

“Alright, let’s get to the point.”

Xu Huo interrupted their conversation and spoke up.

Then, he paused and asked a question.

“How did you get to the ‘Celestial Kingdom’?”

“Sima Kong took me. He told me there was a stage that needed my skills, so he took me there.”

“I’m talking about the mode of transport.”

Xu Huo took out a notebook, a pen in his hand.

“Did you go by car or by boat?”

“Both.”

“He blindfolded me, said the location was secret and couldn’t be revealed.”

‘Blindfolded, his sense of sight blocked…’

Xu Huo paused, then said, “Did you feel the hull of the boat rocking at all?”

“Yes.”

Zhou Hou nodded.

“Was it rocking hard?”

Xu Huo asked again.

After thinking for a moment, Zhou Hou shook his head.

“Not hard. If you weren’t paying close attention, you wouldn’t have even felt it.”

“And the duration? How long did the rocking last in total?”

After mulling it over for a moment and resolving a few questions in his mind, Xu Huo continued his questioning.

“I don’t know. They took all my electronic devices, including my phone. There were no clocks or calendars there, so I couldn’t tell what time it was.”

Zhou Hou shook his head.

Zhang Liang frowned.

‘Right now, Zhou Hou is the police’s biggest lead in this investigation.’

‘But based on what he’s saying, their hiding place is… just too well-concealed!’

‘If it weren’t for that bastard Sima Kong being so greedy, this whole thing would never have come to light!’

Xu Huo, however, paid no mind to this. He was silent for a moment before asking again.

“On the way there, how many times did you sleep?”

Zhou Hou frowned, as if seriously trying to count.

“Too many to count. I remember being in that room for about ten-odd days.”

“Ten-odd days…”

Xu Huo mused, then, after a short pause, asked another question.

“After you got off the boat… did you feel like the ground beneath your feet was shaking?”

The ground shaking usually means an earthquake has occurred.

However, there’s another subtle phenomenon that some people experience.

Specifically, people who have been on a ship!

After spending two or three days on a ship, when you get off, you can feel the ground swaying in a dizzying way, just like an earthquake.

However…

“No, I didn’t feel it swaying.”

Zhou Hou replied.

“You didn’t feel it swaying at all!?”

Xu Huo narrowed his eyes.

“Not at all.”

Zhou Hou said.

“Okay. Thank you for your cooperation.”

Xu Huo nodded. Then, without dismissing Zhou Hou, he turned to look at Zhang Liang.

“Group Leader Zhang, how’s the investigation at the harbors and docks coming along?”

“No leads.”

Zhang Liang shook his head.

“The harbors are under strict control. Unless they’re smuggling people in shipping containers and have some way to evade searches, it’s basically impossible.”

“The docks are less regulated, but they don’t match what Mr. Zhou said.”

“I sent Zhao Gang to investigate, but he came back with nothing.”

“We’re planning to switch from an overt to a covert operation now, lie low and wait for them to take the bait.”

‘So no issues at the harbors or docks…’

“Tell me…”

“Suppose a person is out on the open sea. Could they tell east from west, north from south?”

Xu Huo suddenly changed the subject, throwing out a seemingly unrelated question.

Zhang Liang furrowed his brow but began to ponder it.

‘Could they?’

‘No.’

If you’ve ever been out on the open sea, you’ll realize that the view is exactly the same in every direction. There’s nothing to help you get your bearings.

“Similarly.”

“Now suppose you were suddenly transported to an unfamiliar place. Would you know its name?”

Xu Huo asked again.

‘What does he mean by that?’

For example.

Let’s say you were randomly dropped into a city in the Western Country, the nation of the Bald Eagle.

If you don’t understand the language, you basically have no idea where you are.

That’s just how it is.

Forget the name of the city, the average person wouldn’t even know if they were in the Bald Eagle’s country at all!

So…

“If they were transporting him by boat, why the blindfold?”

“Afraid he’d memorize the route? That’s a bit of a stretch…”

“Or were they afraid he’d memorize the name of the place?”

“That’s possible, but unlikely. People are more concerned with someone memorizing a route, not a general area.”

“So the question is, why did they blindfold him?”

Xu Huo countered with a question that seemed logical, yet paradoxical.

‘Why the blindfold?’

‘To keep him from knowing the location?’

‘But even if you had a foreigner whisper the name of the place in Zhou Hou’s ear, he wouldn’t have known!’

‘He wouldn’t understand the language.’

“A ten-day voyage, yet no signs of motion sickness… that’s also incredible. So,”

“I’m thinking…”

Looking at Zhang Liang, Xu Huo narrowed his eyes and quietly voiced his hypothesis.

“Is it possible that this so-called ‘Celestial Kingdom’…”

“…isn’t overseas at all?”

“That Zhou Hou never even went out to sea!?”

‘If it’s not overseas, then this place, this veritable Hell…’

‘…is…’

Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room turned ice-cold. Everyone froze in place.

Seeing their reactions, Xu Huo slowly uttered the final words.

“It’s…”

“Domestic!?”

In that instant, everyone was stunned.

They were all lost in thought.

…

…

That afternoon, Xu Huo walked out of the police station.

He glanced back at the municipal bureau, then sighed softly.

‘Perhaps…’

‘…they’ll be able to find something.’

He turned and left in silence.

“Tsk, this goddamn world.”