Chapter 381: Chapter 376 Surrender Chapter 381: Chapter 376 Surrender Jiang Yan was startled when he received the call from Teacher Chi, “What did you say?”

“I received a call from the Jizhou City Public Security Bureau. They said Qi Lihong, she…” Chi Zuo sighed before continuing, “She surrendered to the Public Security Bureau for killing her father!”

Kill who?

Jiang Yan doubted he had heard correctly. Qi Lihong, committing murder?

He asked Teacher Chi to confirm again, “What did you say Qi Lihong did?”

“Don’t ask anymore, the specifics aren’t very clear to me either, but I do know her father was found dead at home the night before last, her mother is unconscious and unresponsive, and she surrendered herself to the Public Security, claiming she did it in self-defense against her father’s abuse of them.”

Jiang Yan was completely shocked, utterly unable to imagine Qi Lihong doing such a thing.

He asked Chi Zuo, “What was the implication of the Public Security calling you?”

“First, to inform me, and second, to inquire about Qi Lihong’s academic performance and personality. Jiang Yan, I’m thinking of making a trip to Jizhou. It’s not a question of whether to give up or not, but as Qi Lihong’s counselor, I at least need to understand exactly what happened.”

Without any hesitation, Jiang Yan said, “I’ll accompany you. Let’s set off now. Where are you? I’ll drive to pick you up.”

After hanging up with Teacher Chi, Jiang Yan thought for a moment, looked up Liu Wenhui’s number, and dialed it—

“Hello, Brother Yan, is there something going on?”

Jiang Yan got straight to the point, “Qi Lihong is in trouble. I’m going to Jizhou with Teacher Chi right now. Do you want to come?”

Despite this guy usually seeming like quite a playboy, ever since Qi Lihong broke up with him, he initially pretended to look for younger girls in their first year, but within days he stayed in the dorm playing video games and never went out again.

“What happened to her? What kind of trouble is she in?”

Liu Wenhui immediately grew anxious upon hearing this, “Isn’t she supposed to be working at the computer store? Why did she go back to Jizhou so early?”

With car keys in hand and heading outside, Jiang Yan said, “She asked me for three days off, saying she was going back to pick up her mom.”

After a pause, Jiang Yan inquired, “Do you know something?”

“All I know is that every time she came back from Jizhou, she had injuries on her body. She wouldn’t say who hit her when asked. You know her personality, like a closed bottle gourd. Right, you still haven’t told me what exactly happened to her?”

“Her father’s dead. She went to the Public Security Bureau and confessed that she was the killer.”

“…”

There was no further noise from Liu Wenhui’s side; Jiang Yan hung up the call, went to Qinghe Garden to pack a couple sets of clothes, and after explaining the situation to Mu Chenyan, he quickly left to pick up Chi Zuo.

As soon as the two met up, Liu Wenhui called to inform them that he was setting out from Kang City and would be waiting for them in Jizhou.

Jizhou was adjacent to Kang City, and it was much closer for Liu Wenhui to get there than for the two of them. By the time they arrived, Liu Wenhui had already gathered a general understanding of the situation at the police station and had even run to the neighborhood where Qi Lihong’s family lived, inquiring with a few neighbors from their building.

Because it involved a human life, the local police station was submitting a report to the municipal bureau, and Qi Lihong needed to be transferred to the city police department.

“Her neighbors reported that she had just gotten home when a quarrel broke out. Since her father often beat her and her mother, everyone was used to it and didn’t think much of it. It was only after both the emergency medical team and the police arrived that people realized how serious the situation was. But by the time the medical team got there, her father was already breathless, and her mother had fainted. She has yet to wake up and is still in the intensive care unit with a serious head injury.”

Liu Wenhui’s face was grim, and the cigarette he had just started to smoke was immediately crushed in his mouth.

“I was planning to see Qi Lihong, but the police wouldn’t let anyone meet her, and she herself refuses to see anyone. Professor Chi, I’ve already contacted a friend of my father’s, asking him to help find a lawyer. Do you have any connections here that could help?”

The most troubling issue now was that Qi Lihong insisted that she had killed her father. However, the fingerprints collected from the broken glass bottle were almost all her mother’s. What did this imply? It very likely meant that Qi Lihong was taking the blame for her mother.

What a fool!

Whether her mother could even wake up from her current state was uncertain, and yet she was willing to take the blame for her, risking throwing away her own life for nothing?

Chi Zuo, Jiang Yan, and Liu Wenhui were not from Jizhou, so to help Qi Lihong they could only rely on pulling strings through connections, with uncertain outcomes.

Fortunately, Chi Zuo had a classmate who worked for the city government locally, and he had already made contact while on the way. The three of them waited outside the police station for a short while when a black Mercedes slowly pulled into a nearby parking spot.

Two middle-aged men got out of the car. Upon seeing them, Liu Wenhui hurriedly went up to meet them, and said to the slightly shorter man in the lead, “Uncle Niu, you arrived so quickly.”

Uncle Niu was straightforward in his manner; he appeared to have a very good relationship with Liu Wenhui’s father. Of course, more importantly, Liu Wenhui himself was a student at Beijing University. Although he was still studying, would he worry about not having a future after graduation?

So Uncle Niu was very proactive about Liu Wenhui’s matters.

“I just happened to be nearby on business. Wenhui, this is Attorney Zhang, he often deals with criminal cases. You explain the details to him.”

Liu Wenhui hurriedly greeted the man and then introduced Chi Zuo and Jiang Yan before briefly recounting the entire situation of Qi Lihong’s case to Attorney Zhang.

As he spoke, Jiang Yan looked at him and remembered the “grandiose” words this lad had said in their dormitory, “A good horse doesn’t turn back to graze on old pastures. Dare to break up with me, huh? Just wait and see, she’ll regret it!”

Whether Qi Lihong regretted it or not was unknown, but it was quite obvious that this lad wanted to graze on old pastures.

“I’m more familiar with this place; I’ll talk with the police.”

Attorney Zhang, having listened, had a general understanding of the case. In simple terms, it was a case of domestic violence which led to resistance. As for whether it was self-defense or an accident, he would need to understand the details directly from the concerned party.

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Yan said, “Attorney Zhang, if Qi Lihong still refuses to meet anyone when you go in, ask the police to tell her about her mother’s condition. Tell her that if she doesn’t come out, no one will look after her mother.”

This was the reality, but on the night she surrendered, she probably hadn’t anticipated her mother’s condition being so severe that she might not wake up.

It was crucial for her to understand this: With her mother’s current condition, to speak bluntly, what difference would there be between not waking up and becoming a vegetable, and death?

Believing this, she should be willing to cooperate with the lawyer.

Uncle Niu, who was after all older and more experienced than the rest of them, pondered for a moment and said, “Attorney Zhang, please ask the police carefully if the girl’s father really died from being stabbed with a broken glass bottle. People who like to drink and have violent tendencies often have some health problems, such as hypertension, brain thrombosis, and heart attack, etc. So, might it be that one of these conditions was triggered during the struggle? Could we ask the medical examiner to reexamine the body to determine the actual cause of death?”

Upon hearing this, their eyes immediately lit up.