Chapter 49: Shattered Illusions

“What’s your name?” the officer asked sternly.

“Su Bao.”

“Last night, around 10 PM, where were you?”

“I was at the pavilion by the artificial lake,” Su Bao replied without the slightest hesitation.

Hearing that she had been at the pavilion, the officer’s expression immediately became more cautious.

“Any witnesses? And what were you doing there?”

Su Bao’s lips curled into a mischievous smile. “Oh, there were witnesses. A few unlucky guys. I saw them leaving the police station just as I arrived!”

Just mentioning those unlucky guys seemed to brighten her mood.

After all, beating them up had been so satisfying.

“And as for what I was doing there…” Su Bao paused thoughtfully. “I was out for a walk.”

Yes, just a walk.

She just happened to encounter a few little mice along the way.

“Why did you get into a conflict with them last night? Were the injuries on them caused by you? And during the conflict, did you accidentally push someone into the lake?”

The officer’s questions were carefully layered, each one leading into the next.

Su Bao’s round eyes were wide and innocent.

“Last night, I was sitting in the pavilion, looking at the moon, when they came over to bother me. I told them it’s wrong to bully girls, but they wouldn’t listen!”

Su Bao said this with a straight face.

She even tilted her head slightly, her cat-like eyes meeting the middle-aged officer’s gaze. “And there were so many of them bullying just me, a girl, and they still couldn’t win. Don’t you think that’s pretty pathetic?”

The middle-aged officer almost nodded instinctively.

Adorable!

This little girl’s serious and innocent demeanor was so cute it could make someone bleed!

His own kid at home was a brat. If only they could balance each other out, how great would that be?

But the officer quickly restrained himself. Stay professional! Remember your duty!

“I counted five of them bullying me. After I beat them up, I stacked them up,” Su Bao said matter-of-factly.

Five?

Shouldn’t it have been six?

Including the deceased, Dong Xuan, there should have been six.

“You only saw five people?” the officer asked, skeptical.

Su Bao nodded confidently. “There were six at first, but one of them ran off like he’d seen a ghost. While the others were busy bullying me, he sneaked away.”

“And then…” Su Bao’s eyes curved into a smile, her tone sweet and innocent, but her words sent chills down the officer’s spine. “He accidentally fell into the lake!”

The middle-aged officer: …

For some reason, the adorable little girl from a moment ago now seemed… unsettling.

“Officer, did you call me here because he died?” Su Bao blinked curiously.

Then she frowned slightly, looking troubled. “But he fell into the lake on his own.”

The middle-aged officer: …

Alright, he officially felt like his earlier impression of her had been completely shattered.

Because beneath her sweet, smiling demeanor, he could sense a chilling indifference and coldness.

Maybe even a hint of schadenfreude… (tln : pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune).

After all, what kind of sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl could sweetly say, “Oh, he died. I didn’t save him. Am I going to get arrested for that?”