Lu Baoqiang lowered his head. "We ordered the Japanese to kowtow that day. When they left, Fujiwara scolded us. My Japanese isn’t good, but I could still understand that they were cursing us. I had also drank a lot that day. I was thinking that these Little Japans came to our country and still dared to be defiant, so I went below their apartment and scolded them. Then I vomited heaps! After vomiting, I sobered up and left."

Chen Shi said, "Didn’t you say that you had sent Old Wang back?"

"Yeah, when I met Old Wang, he was buying soda in the kiosk. I helped him back, and then I went to the Internet cafe."

"Did Old Wang know that you had vomited?"

"He did!"

Lin Dongxue wrote down his statement. Chen Shi said, "I hope you’ve told us the truth this time."

"I swear that this is absolutely the truth!"

Before leaving, Chen Shi looked at the murky Internet cafe behind them. "Young man, let me give you some advice. It’s your leisure time that decides who you’ll become in the future. If you really plan to surpass Wang Baoqiang, then you should practice your acting when you’re free."

After leaving the Internet cafe, Lin Dongxue said, "It’s rare to hear you advising people."

"Everyone has a time when they were young and had a dream, but because they were young, they felt that they had a long time to go, and let time slip away."

"Did you have a dream when you were young?"

"It’s been realized."

"What?"

"Bringing a beauty home!" Chen Shi smiled.

They didn’t go to look for Old Wang. After all, they didn’t have enough evidence. However, Old Wang was now the number one suspect.

After two days of investigation, they found out that Old Wang had once purchased a large number of Japanese language textbooks online and had also passed a Japanese language proficiency test. In addition, he had also sold his family house, but the whereabouts of this money are unknown.

Chen Shi felt that it was time to invite Old Wang over. Therefore, Wang Ying sat in the interrogation room that afternoon.

Before the interrogation began, a policeman came in and asked Old Wang to change into a pair of slippers and measured his foot size with a ruler. His feet were the same size as the footprints left at the crime scene. The shoes on his feet were exactly one size larger.

Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue sat down in front of Old Wang. Chen Shi picked up a photo. "Old Wang, this is the shoe print we found at the crime scene. The size is the same as your feet. How do you explain that?"

"What’s there to explain?" Old Wang said slowly. "There are men wearing size 40 shoes all over the streets."

"However, according to your friends, you had a pair of leather shoes before this, and the shoe prints were very similar to this one. Nevertheless, we didn't find them during the investigation, how do you explain this?"

"I have nothing to explain."

"Your alibi has already been overturned. No one can prove that you were sleeping in the dormitory that day."

"I drank three taels[1] of alcohol that day. Everyone knows how much I can drink. I was totally drunk after dinner that day."

"Really?"

"It's true!"

Chen Shi stood up and paced in front of him. Old Wang kept rubbing the back of his hands nervously. Chen Shi said, "Let me tell you a story. An unsuccessful featured extra met a Japanese person on the drama set. He had planned to go to Japan to develop his career. That Japanese person was willing to help, but he said that immigration to Japan was very difficult, and that it took a lot of money. The featured extra obediently gave money to him and the other party kept dispelling his doubts with promises. One day, the Japanese person’s friend exposed his lies with a sentence. The speaker had said it unintentionally, but the listener understood. The fooled guy was also at the scene. He welled up with rage at the time. Once the party ended, he went to argue it out with the Japanese person. On impulse, he killed the other party as well as the Japanese’s friend.”

"After killing them, he was very scared. He went to the warehouse to find a cycle rickshaw, but he accidentally saw the Japanese officer costumes. He remembered what had happened at the party that day and that it was September 18th the next day. Therefore, he developed a plan. He dressed up the two bodies and made them look like Japanese officers who were apologizing for their sins. That night, the murderer called up his roommate and pretended to urinate near the abandoned bodies. Thus, they became the people who reported the case!”

Old Wang listened as cold sweat dripped down drop by drop. He kept rubbing his hands on his legs.

Chen Shi stared at him. "The murderer's criminal technique wasn’t very clever, and the way they tried to shift the focus really underestimated the police's observation skills. Sitting here and listening to our story, what step do you think our investigation has progressed to? You still have a chance to confess now!”

Chen Shi was just bluffing. In fact, they had no key evidence at all. However, interrogation was like playing mahjong. The other party doesn’t know what tiles you have.

Old Wang, in Chen Shi's view, wasn’t a suspect with high mental fortitude.

Old Wang swallowed and said calmly, "I can provide a clue. That night, Lu Baoqiang went to the crime scene. I never said anything about this the entire time."

"Really?" Chen Shi sneered. "Where’s the crime scene?"

"It's just under the Japanese’s hom-" Old Wang suddenly widened his eyes and looked up at Chen Shi.

Chen Shi sneered. "I didn't seem to have mentioned the location of the crime scene, so how do you know about it?!"

After a brief silence, Old Wang broke down. He cried while covering up his face, "I didn't want to kill him. It was that Japanese who scammed me and then pretended as if he was the victim. I couldn’t handle my anger!"

Lin Dongxue let out a sigh of relief and the police outside were secretly excited. The suspect was finally about to speak.

Chen Shi handed Old Wang a cigarette. He took it with a trembling hand and lit it. Chen Shi returned to his seat and looked at him quietly.

Halfway through the cigarette, Old Wang said, "Tamura and I have known each other since 2014. At that time, he asked me for directions. We had a language barrier, so we communicated with each other by writing on paper[2]. We talked for quite some time. He had come from Japan and was a featured extra. He looked particularly… lecherous. He was very suitable for acting as an officer in anti-Japanese dramas and soon found a crew who was willing to hire him. Then, he mentioned me to the associate director, so I also joined the cast. In the show, we were enemies who were out to kill each other, but off the set, we were like brothers. He didn’t understand anything in China. I helped him a great deal. Later, during a holiday, he said ‘Wang-san[3], nihon e ryokou shimasu ka?’[4], and asked me if I wanted to go to Japan to have fun. I have never been abroad, so I agreed!”

"I went to Japan to have fun for a few days and I felt it was pretty great. Especially the streets full of Chinese cuisine. What did they sell? Pot-stickers, mapo tofu, shredded pork with green pepper. I wanted to laugh. Weren’t they just home cooking? I said that even I could make them. At that time, I was thinking. I wouldn’t get anywhere as an extra in China. If I went to Japan to open a restaurant and earned money, I could bring my family over and that wouldn’t be too bad. Tamura found out what I was thinking. He said that immigrating to Japan was very difficult, but there was a way - To get married. He said that he had a younger sister named Tamura Yukari who was severely paralyzed and bed-ridden. If I married her, I would be able to immigrate over. At the same time, his sister would have someone to look after her.”

"I refused at the beginning. I may not be a great catch, but how could I marry a disabled person? But Tamura came up with a medical diagnosis report and said that his sister wouldn’t have too many years left to live. If I married her, she’d pass away after a few years. I’d also successfully became a Japanese citizen. Then I met her. Although she was disabled, she didn’t look bad, she had a nice voice and she was educated as well. To be honest, if she weren’t disabled, I wouldn’t be able to find a woman like this in my lifetime, so I agreed…”

1. A tael is a Chinese unit of weight measurement. It was standardized to 50 grams in 1959.

2. Kanji is a Japanese writing system with ideograms (or characters) adapted from Chinese characters. Kanji constitutes as one of the two systems used to write the Japanese language, the other being the two indigenous kana syllabaries (hiragana and katakana).

3. ‘San’ is an honorific. Can be translated as “Mr.”, “Mrs.”, “Ms.” etc. It’s gender neutral.

4. Would you like to travel to Japan?