Chapter 51: The Swapped Meteorite

Cen Lian was the first to rule out Hu Tingting.

She had even made a complete confession regarding her own crime of murder and dismemberment; there was no logical reason for her to conceal a matter like this. Furthermore, she had no understanding of a meteorite's value and absolutely could not have placed this meteorite—which did not originally belong to him—into Chen Nan's possession after killing him.

"So you're saying there's something wrong with the meteorite?" Tang Hua had been listening quietly all this while. Seeing that Cen Lian had fallen silent, he finally spoke up to ask.

Cen Lian leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling with an expression of profound exhaustion.

"Let's head back for the interrogation first. I have no idea what's actually going on right now either." Cen Lian simply closed his eyes, deciding to gather his thoughts only after interrogating Tian Xianzhong.

His brain had been pushed to the brink of overload by the successive twists and turns of the case.

Inside the interrogation room of the Jiangyuan Municipal Bureau, Tian Xianzhong readily confessed to murdering Qin Xingguo.

After all, Qin Xingguo's blood and hair DNA were scattered all over his house.

When Cen Lian brought up Zhu Yao, Tian Xianzhong hesitated slightly before answering, "I suspect Chen Nan might have killed Zhu Yao, but since Chen Nan is already dead, I can't be certain."

"How would you know that?" Cen Lian realized that the relationship between Tian Xianzhong and Chen Nan might not have been as close as he had imagined.

"When I went to borrow his car, I saw Zhu Yao's handbag in his trunk, and there were faint traces of blood inside the trunk as well. I felt something was wrong at the time, but Chen Nan told me the blood came from a dressed free-range chicken he had bought, and that Zhu Yao's bag was something she had left behind the last time they went into the mountains to collect meteorites together. I was in a hurry to dispose of Qin Xingguo's body back then, so I didn't press further."

What Tian Xianzhong claimed was easily verifiable, as he had casually dumped Zhu Yao's handbag alongside Qin Xingguo's corpse.

"Why did you kill Qin Xingguo?" Cen Lian finally posed the question that had puzzled him for a long time.

Tian Xianzhong fell silent for a moment.

"To be honest, this whole thing was actually an accident," he sighed, collapsing limply into his chair. "At the very start, the conflict was actually between Zhu Yao and me."

Cen Lian did not interrupt him, simply sitting there as he listened to him continue.

Tang Hua held a pen, scratching away busily on a notepad beside him, though his heart was filled with intense curiosity.

"Old Qin—that's Qin Xingguo—he had previously acquired a particularly valuable meteorite from several farmers in Guangxi Province. In our circle, it could easily fetch a seven-figure sum, and if I took it outside to sell, I had channels that could push the price to eight figures," Tian Xianzhong lowered his head, his expression obscured. "At the time, both Zhu Yao and I wanted to acquire that meteorite for four million. Knowing that my relationship with Old Qin was closer on ordinary days, and realizing that Zhu Yao's bid could go even higher, I grew a bit anxious."

Cen Lian's eyebrows twitched. He was hardly an amateur; the meteorite dug up from beside Chen Nan's corpse would struggle to fetch even forty thousand, let alone four million.

Having moved in this circle for many years, Tian Xianzhong could not possibly have misjudged a meteorite by such a wide margin. It seemed his earlier speculation was correct: the meteorite currently in their possession was not the one that had initially triggered the conflict between them.

Oblivious to Cen Lian's thoughts, Tian Xianzhong closed his eyes as he recalled the events of that day, his voice trembling slightly as he continued his statement.

"You might look at the villa I live in now and think I'm wealthy, but my financial situation is actually quite poor," Tian Xianzhong looked up, meeting the gazes of Cen Lian and Tang Hua. "The economy hasn't been great over the past two years, and our collecting industry has fared even worse. Many stones I bought relatively cheaply back in the day can't even sell for half their original price now. My son is studying at an international school in Hong Kong, and various expenses run up to several hundred thousand a year. I've already sold off quite a few of my past collections over the last two years, so I absolutely could not let an income of several million slip away."

"And that's why you turned on Qin Xingguo?" Cen Lian stared at him with a cold face.

"At first, I just wanted to talk things through with him," Tian Xianzhong's tone grew hurried. "Who would have thought that after we met, we had a few drinks? He mentioned that Zhu Yao was willing to offer five million to secure that meteorite. Panic instantly set in. I argued with him, practically begging him to sell the stone to me, but he refused. He even pulled the stone out and deliberately flaunted it in front of me. I had already consumed a fair amount of alcohol myself, so I lunged to grab the stone from him, but he simply wouldn't let go."

At this point, Tian Xianzhong's voice suddenly weakened.

"My head was clouded by alcohol, and I grabbed a fruit knife from nearby just to scare him. I never expected that during the scuffle, I—I accidentally stabbed him to death!" Having uttered these words, Tian Xianzhong covered his face and wept bitterly.

Cen Lian only believed about sixty percent of his testimony.

Human nature being what it was, anyone placed in such a predicament would instinctively attempt to minimize their culpability, distancing themselves from the crime as much as possible; if total detachment was impossible, they would strive to portray the events as a tragic accident.

This was entirely standard behavior. After a few more rounds of interrogation, matching evidence would reveal whether he was lying.

Based on Cen Lian's experience, aside from the detail about struggling over the stone, Tian Xianzhong had likely heavily embellished his own actions throughout the rest of the narrative.

However, none of that mattered for now. This was merely a preliminary surprise interrogation; veteran detectives who had spent decades dealing with all sorts of murderers would soon accompany him for a leisurely chat.

By then, things would no longer go purely according to his narrative.

Before that happened, however, he needed to ascertain Zhu Yao's whereabouts and uncover the truth behind this meteorite.

"What was the composition of the meteorite you were fighting over?" Cen Lian spoke up only after Tian Xianzhong finished crying.

If the contested object was not that iron-stone meteorite, then where had the original meteorite that sparked the dispute gone?

The fact that Zhu Yao was willing to bid five million indicated that the meteorite held a market value of at least that amount.

"Based on my experience, it should be a lunar meteorite. Old Qin claimed he had someone specifically test its composition and found an unidentified metallic substance within it. What exactly it was, I don't know," Tian Xianzhong answered honestly.

Cen Lian frowned. Ordinary lunar meteorites did not command such a price, and the origin of this particular meteorite remained completely obscure.

He massaged his temples before rising from the interrogation desk.

"Take us to Qin Xingguo's body." After deliberation, Cen Lian decided to tackle the issues one by one.

Find the body first, then investigate the meteorite.

Tang Hua drove, while Gao Hao林 and Zhang He flanked Tian Xianzhong, sandwiching him in the back seat as they followed his directions and drove the vehicle out of the city.

The longer Cen Lian looked at this road, the more familiar it seemed.

When the road sign for Dongling County finally came into view, he could not help feeling a sense of speechlessness.

After turning in circles, how had they ended up back in Dongling County?

Surely this trip wouldn't have some inexplicable connection to Lingxia Village as well?

Gazing at the steadily approaching River Pool Ridge, Cen Lian suddenly wondered if his initial claim of solving the case in three days had been a bit too arrogant.