Chapter 156: The Stunned Li Fengzhi Couple
In criminal cases like this, the authorities were obligated to notify the family after an arrest, so it wasn’t long before Li Gang learned what had happened.
"Attempted murder during a home invasion?" Li Gang was dumbfounded when he heard the news.
"What’s wrong?" Li Fengzhi asked, her curiosity piqued when she saw Li Gang standing there in a daze, especially after overhearing the charge he’d just muttered.
"Okay, okay, I’ll be right there." Snapping back to his senses, Li Gang replied before hanging up.
He then turned to Li Fengzhi and said, "Something’s happened to Ah Tie."
"Ah Tie? What happened to him?" Li Fengzhi’s heart sank as she recalled the charge Li Gang had just mentioned.
She thought Li Tie had been hurt.
"He... The police said he attempted murder during a home invasion. He’s in custody now." Even as he said it, Li Gang was in a state of utter disbelief.
"What?" Li Fengzhi was just as shocked to hear the news.
Back in the village, Li Tie was known as the honest, dutiful, and quiet type—a man of few words.
He was a lot like Li Gang.
He seemed thoroughly honest and dependable.
He didn’t seem like the kind of person who would do something like this.
So how could he suddenly be involved in an attempted murder during a home invasion?
"Could there be some kind of misunderstanding?" Li Fengzhi ventured.
"Maybe. Ah Tie would never do something like this. He doesn’t even have the guts to kill a chicken at home, so how could he possibly kill a person?" Li Gang was also at a complete loss.
He quickly got his things together, told Li Mingyu to behave and stay home, and then he and Li Fengzhi rushed to the police station.
「Inside the police station.」
Chen Mo was sitting inside, giving his statement.
After all, he was one of the parties involved. The only reason the police hadn’t brought him in immediately was because he’d told them he needed to clip the surveillance footage first.
Now that he had finished editing the video, he received a call from the police, requesting that he come in to give a statement.
Chen Mo was familiar with the procedure. Though he was so exhausted he barely wanted to move, he still did his best to go and cooperate.
Normally, a student who had gone through such a terrifying ordeal would have been immediately sent for psychological counseling by the police.
But Chen Mo was so composed that the police completely overlooked the fact that he was just a student.
When Chen Mo arrived at the station, many of the officers who had seen the video gave him looks of admiration.
’To be so young and have such clean, efficient moves without any formal training... this kid’s a real talent!’
"Don’t be nervous, son. Have a sip of water. Even though we have the surveillance footage, we still need to record everything that happened from your point of view."
"Your security camera doesn’t have audio, so all we can see is him attacking you after he entered. We can’t ascertain any other information from it."
The officer did his best to help Chen Mo lower his guard.
After all, regardless of whether someone was a good person or a bad one, they would subconsciously grow tense upon entering a somber place like a police station.
Of course, Chen Mo was an exception. ’Coming back to the police station feels like coming home. It’s great.’
’If this line of work wasn’t so exhausting, I really would have loved my old job.’
Not long after Chen Mo started giving his statement, Li Gang and Li Fengzhi arrived at the station in a hurry.
"Officer, has there been some kind of misunderstanding?"
After finding an officer, stating their identities, and confirming the case details, Li Gang anxiously grabbed the man’s arm and asked his question.
"There’s no misunderstanding. Come and see this for yourselves. We have surveillance footage. It’s crystal clear, and there’s no way to deny it."
"This is the security footage from the victim’s home. It recorded the entire incident," the officer said grimly, immediately playing the video from Chen Mo’s house for Li Gang.
After all, Li Tie was about to be formally detained. If they held someone’s relative without providing a reasonable explanation, the family would have every right to cause a scene, and the police wanted to avoid that kind of trouble.
As the video began to play, both Li Gang and Li Fengzhi were stunned.
To their astonishment, they saw Chen Mo in the video.
The two exchanged a look, their faces filled with utter disbelief.
Li Fengzhi instantly recognized the person at the door as Chen Mo, and her heart leaped into her throat. "That boy is..."
At that moment in the video, Chen Mo hadn’t fully opened the door. He was speaking to Li Tie through the narrow opening permitted by the security chain.
They hadn’t yet seen what was about to happen.
"He’s the victim in this case," the officer replied.
"What!?" The words struck Li Fengzhi like a bolt from the blue. A wave of dizziness washed over her. Just last night, she’d had a pleasant conversation with Chen Mo at the hospital and even asked him to bring money to her daughter. ’How could things have turned out like this...?’
Li Gang, also stunned, glued his eyes to the screen.
On the screen, Chen Mo finished speaking with Li Tie, unfastened the security chain, and let him into the house.
And what happened next was the most shocking moment of all for the two of them.
The instant Chen Mo removed the chain and opened the door to invite Li Tie inside—Li Tie’s face, the simple, honest face they knew so well, twisted into a vicious snarl. He abruptly pulled a fruit knife that glinted coldly from his coat and, with lightning speed, lunged and stabbed ferociously at Chen Mo’s head!
It was clearly a premeditated attack. The knife was aimed straight for Chen Mo’s head in a move meant to kill, as if the two shared some deep, irreconcilable hatred.
"Ah—!" Li Fengzhi let out a terrified scream, instinctively clapping a hand over her mouth. She began to tremble so violently she could barely stand.
Li Gang quickly steadied her, his own eyes wide with disbelief as he stared at the screen.
The video continued to play.
Onscreen, Chen Mo’s gloved hand shot out and precisely caught the blade. His left fist struck a pressure point on Li Tie’s arm like a bolt of lightning. He disarmed his attacker, sent the knife flying, applied a joint lock, and kneed him in the lower back... The series of moves was as fluid as running water, almost too fast for the eye to follow.
Li Tie was pinned to the door, whimpering in pain like a beaten dog.
The entire sequence, from the attack to the takedown, lasted only a few seconds, but it was enough to make Li Gang and Li Fengzhi’s hearts pound in their chests, their backs instantly drenched in cold sweat.
"This... this is impossible! Ah Tie... How could he..." Li Gang’s lips trembled. His voice was dry and hoarse, as if all the strength had been drained from his body.
The Li Tie he knew, his younger brother, was famous back in their village for being an honest man, so timid he would flinch at killing a chicken. How could that same person commit such a brutal and decisive act of armed home invasion and attempted murder?
And his target was the very same boy he had just met last night—someone who was practically an acquaintance to them all?
As for Li Fengzhi, a chill ran down her spine. She was completely engulfed by a wave of terror and overwhelming absurdity.