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Within less than an hour, Zhao Jie hurried back home. The beads of sweat on his forehead indicated how rushed he was. As he closed the door, his glasses immediately fogged up, forcing him to take them off and wipe them with the hem of his shirt.
Jiang He sat quietly in a corner of the sofa, observing Zhao Jie without making a sound. As Zhao Jie wiped his glasses, he squinted to observe everyone around him. Jiang He noticed a platinum ring on Zhao Jie’s right ring finger. The color and style were quite similar to the ring found on Zhang Zong's hand; it would not be an exaggeration to call them matching rings.
Finally, Zhao Jie finished cleaning his glasses and asked, “Are you police officers?”
Old Shao was the first to stand up. He extended his hand toward Zhao Jie and said, “Hello, we are from the Criminal Investigation Team of the Public Security Bureau. We’re here to gather some information from you.”
Zhao Jie did not shake hands but instead put his glasses back on his nose. “Officer, may I ask what this is about?”
“This time?” Jiang He immediately picked up on the keyword in Zhao Jie’s statement and said, “So that means police have visited you before?”
Zhao Jie appeared somewhat flustered and coughed twice. “No, can you please tell me why you’re here?”
Zhao Jie’s grandmother spoke up, “Officer, our Zhao Jie is a good child. He has never done anything wrong; surely there must be some misunderstanding.”
Old Shao smiled and turned to the elderly lady. “Auntie, I never said Zhao Jie did anything wrong; we’re just here to understand the situation.”
Hearing this, the grandmother nodded and said, “Grandson, as long as we are upright, we have nothing to fear. Just answer whatever the Officer asks.”
“Please sit down.” Old Shao looked at Zhao Jie and continued, “Zhao Jie, as my colleague pointed out earlier, there’s no need for you to hide anything. The police have been here before; if we check our records, we’ll know why they came looking for you. However, that will take more time, and right now every second counts.”
Old Shao sat back down. “Now I have something important to tell you. Although we haven’t clarified everything yet, I can tell you clearly that no matter what happens, you must tell me everything. Otherwise, you could be in danger.”
“In danger?” Zhao Jie looked at Old Shao and said, “What kind of danger could there be? Please don’t come back; we just want a peaceful life.”
Seeing Zhao Jie hesitating and unwilling to speak, Old Shao sighed and took out a ring, saying, "This ring should belong to your wife, right?"
Old Shao placed the ring in Zhao Jie's hand. "You don't need to rush to refuse; take a good look at it."
"This ring? No, I don't recognize it," Zhao Jie hurriedly placed the ring back into Old Shao's hand, shaking his head vigorously.
Jiang He furrowed his brows, stood up, and questioned, "Zhao Jie, your lie is rather clumsy, isn't it? Since we came to find you, it means we've already discovered who the owner of this ring is. Do you know that a man can only buy one ring of this brand in his lifetime? We traced the ring's serial number, and this ring was indeed purchased by you."
The elderly woman took the ring from Old Shao's hand and held it up to the sunlight, observing it closely. She squinted her eyes as if trying to press the ring into her eye socket. Finally, she said, "Wait a minute, grandson. Isn't this the ring you bought for Yueyue? It wasn't cheap; how did it end up in the hands of these officers?"
"Oh." The elderly woman slapped her thigh. "Grandson, you should thank these officers; they returned something you lost. No wonder I remembered Yueyue always cherished this ring at first and wore it all the time. I hadn't seen her wear it in the past few months; turns out she lost it."
Old Shao smiled and said, "Yes, old sister, this ring belongs to your granddaughter-in-law. Take good care of it."
"Ah." The elderly woman trembled with joy, revealing her dentures.
"Zhao Jie, can you now tell us what happened?" Jiang He asked Zhao Jie.
Zhao Jie looked at everyone and then at his grandmother. Finally, as if making a decision, he nodded but first said to his grandmother, "Grandma, why don't you go back to your room and rest? I'll talk with these officers."
"Ah." The elderly woman nodded. "I'm getting old; standing for too long hurts my back and legs. Now that the ring is found, I'll put it away for my granddaughter-in-law. Don't lose it again. You all talk; you all talk."
Zhao Jie smiled as he helped his grandmother into her room and closed the door before walking over with a serious expression.
Old Shao made room for him. "Sit down. I don't know what happened, but from the looks of you, it seems serious."
"Someone died," Zhao Jie said through clenched teeth.
"Someone died?" Jiang He asked, pressing for details. "What exactly happened?"
"Can I have a cigarette?" Zhao Jie replied.
Old Shao pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. "No problem, I'm an old smoker."
"Thanks." Zhao Jie took the pack from Old Shao, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it. "This probably started about three months ago. One night, I was working late at the office while my grandmother had gone back to the countryside, leaving only my wife at home. It must have been around eleven o'clock because we lived on the seventeenth floor and didn't really worry about thieves or anything like that. It was still September, so the weather was a bit warm, and my wife had the window open while she slept."
Zhao Jie frowned deeply and suddenly threw his cigarette to the ground in frustration. "Who would have thought things would turn out this way? You must have seen it when you came up; there’s an emergency escape staircase between these two buildings. It's supposed to be there for when one building catches fire, allowing people to escape. But in reality, every household is afraid of thieves using that staircase to break in, so both doors are locked. Essentially, that escape staircase is just for show; it serves no real purpose."
"But who could have imagined that in one apartment on the seventeenth floor, the mistress would be secretly with another man? That night, her husband unexpectedly returned home from a business trip. The lover had nowhere to hide and could only jump out onto the escape staircase through the window. But the husband noticed something was off; as he pulled back the curtains, he saw that guy heading towards Building Two via the escape staircase."
Zhao Jie sighed heavily. "Our apartment is on the seventeenth floor—what a coincidence! It's right next to that escape staircase. The husband chased after him, and naturally, the lover ran away. In a panic, he saw my bedroom window open and thought he could climb onto the staircase and jump into our apartment to escape. But that's not how the escape staircase is designed; the doors are in the hallway, so there’s definitely some distance between my window and that staircase. It’s easy to jump down from a window onto the escape staircase, but jumping up from the staircase into a window isn’t so simple."
"He fell to his death?" Yuan Jun asked.
Zhao Jie glanced at Yuan Jun and sighed again. "If it were that simple, it wouldn't be such a hassle. He jumped up but missed his mark; however, he managed to grab onto the windowsill with one hand and ended up hanging there in mid-air. At that moment, he couldn't go up or down."
"My wife naturally heard all this and woke up in shock. How could she not be scared seeing someone hanging from our window? Though she didn’t understand what was happening, she couldn’t just watch him fall; she quickly reached out to grab him."
Zhao Jie grabbed his hair and said, "My wife is a weak woman; how could she possibly have the strength to pull a big man up? After less than half a minute of struggling, she ran out of energy, and that man couldn't hold on any longer either. Both of them lost their grip, and it was clear he was about to fall."
"My wife saw someone at a window and called for help, but that person immediately shut the window, pretending not to see anything. That person was the neighbor's husband, of course he wouldn't save this lover. In the end, the man fell anyway, and as he fell, he happened to pull off my wife's ring. From the seventeenth floor, he fell straight down and died on impact."
"There was a loud bang at that moment; many people heard it and came out to look. My wife was terrified and quickly called the police. Later, the police came to our house several times to investigate the matter."
Zhao Jie pounded the table and said, "The officer was quite capable; they figured it all out in just a few days. In the end, no one was held responsible; it felt like this man brought his own demise upon himself since no one forced him. That's how the case was closed. The man's family didn't react much either; they probably felt embarrassed about him dying while doing something like that and didn't want to make a fuss."
"What happened next?" Jiang He asked.
"Not long after the case, that family moved away. I heard they sold their house; maybe they thought it was bad luck. We had just bought our place not long ago and didn't want to sell it, so we continued living here. But you wouldn't believe what people were saying—they claimed my wife did something wrong, that I came back and my wife pushed her lover down. No one saw what actually happened, so my wife was released without charges."
Zhao Jie cursed, "It's ridiculous! The police investigated thoroughly; even the deceased's wife agreed with their findings, confirming her husband had an affair with that woman from our building. But somehow rumors started circulating that my wife was involved in this, leading to her being pointed at every day. We had no way to explain ourselves."
"Honestly, all we wanted was a peaceful life. If only my wife had closed the window that night, none of this would have happened," Zhao Jie said with a face full of helplessness and anger. "You see, the police keep coming to our house, making the neighbors think those rumors are true. If you don't believe me, you can go ask at the Substation police station about what really happened."
"So your wife has been wronged," Jiang He stated.
"Yes," Zhao Jie sighed.
Jiang He stood up and shouted, "This is bad; contact your wife immediately!"
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