The First Order

Chapter 994: Luo Zongren speaks

Translator: Legge

Zhou Qi’s interrogation had been going on for nearly 26 hours already. Luo Zongren’s constant screams in the basement went from loud and clear to feeble.

Sometimes, an interrogation would take several days or even several weeks due to the requirement of human rights. The interrogators could only use methods such as not letting the criminals sleep or starving them slowly so they would break down. Such methods were also very effective, but it would take slightly longer to work.

As for the crueler torture methods, they would basically only last a day or two before speaking.

For Luo Zongren to be able to endure for 26 hours, he was an extremely determined person.

During this time, Luo Zongren’s screams were even heard in the other basement levels where other spies and officials unrelated to the case were held. His screams were so horrific that everyone started feeling fearful and uneasy.

As a result, while Luo Zongren was still enduring his torture, the people from the other floors confessed before they were interrogated. This was really unexpected.

During these 26 hours, Zhou Qi only slept for three hours. For the rest of the time, he did not say anything and just kept thinking of ways to torture Luo Zongren without asking a single question.

Several times, Ren Xiaosu felt that Luo Zongren was almost close to speaking, but Zhou Qi did not give him a chance to do so.

At some point, Ren Xiaosu even thought Zhou Qi might be planning to silence the suspect.

Luo Zongren really wanted to debate Zhou Qi. He knew a person like him must have his own logic in an argument. It did not matter whether they were mature or not, such people were completely self-absorbed in their own world.

This self-proclaimed intelligent criminal had laid low in Luoyang City for two years and meticulously planned a grand murder case. Actually, he was very anguished and wanted to pour his heart out to others. He wanted to tell them how great he was, or perhaps he wanted to kill himself so he could put a perfect end to his plan and become a so-called martyr.

However, Zhou Qi did not ask him anything, nor did he allow him to die.

During the break, only Luo Zongren and the thick scent of blood remained in the basement. Zhou Qi walked to the neighborhood’s garden and lit up a cigarette as he thought silently.

Luo Lan asked, “How are things? Based on your experience, have you made any progress?”

Ren Xiaosu listened in. However, he knew Zhou Qi had his own plans, so he did not interfere.

But based on what Luo Lan said, it seemed like Zhou Qi had also carried out a lot of similar work before.

Zhou Qi thought for a moment and said, “The time is not ripe yet. It’s been more than 20 hours, but I can feel that he’s still putting up a stubborn resistance. So I paused the interrogation for a while because I want to think about how to destroy his self-esteem. A criminal like him thinks he’s extraordinary, so we have to completely destroy his self-esteem in order to break him.”

Zhou Qi fell into deep thought again.

Suddenly, Zhou Qi extinguished his cigarette and turned around to walk back to the basement.

Luo Zongren was already on his last gasps. Anyone who saw him would think he was on the verge of death, but Zhou Qi firmly believed he still had the will to resist.

Zhou Qi called over a soldier and said, “Prepare a rack that you can tie someone on. I’ll need it later.”

Then he picked out a steel needle from his toolbox and stabbed it into Luo Zongren’s right abdomen.

All of a sudden, Luo Zongren lost control of his bladder and bowels when he got pierced by this needle. This was the first time Ren Xiaosu had seen such a precise technique.

As a matter of fact, Zhou Qi was very professional in this domain.

Luo Zongren roared angrily as though he could not accept the reality of his incontinence.

Right after, Zhou Qi said to the soldier, “Tie him up on the rack and show the people of Luoyang City how pathetic he is. Tell them that Mr. Jiang Xu’s murderer is just this revolting nobody.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Ren Xiaosu realized Luo Zongren’s eyes glazed over for a moment. It was as though he could not accept the fact he was going to be displayed to the public.

Luo Zongren despised the common people he had toyed with and deemed them to be less than ants. So he was even more unable to accept being publicly exhibited in front of those people and get despised by them.

However, Zhou Qi noticed the change in his expression. He silently breathed a sigh of relief as though he had finally found a breakthrough in the interrogation.

Zhou Qi ignored Luo Zongren and said to the soldier, “Hurry up, it’ll get dark soon. Remember to strip him and wash his face clean so everyone will remember what he looks like.”

Luo Zongren’s weak voice could be heard in the basement. “Whadyawanano? Aye falk!”

What Luo Zongren meant was: “What do you want to know? I’ll talk.”

Zhou Qi said with a smile, “Weren’t you quite insistent on not talking?”

Luo Zongren said resentfully, “Ba-chew-di-nuh-ash-anyfing!”

“Oh, so that was why.” Zhou Qi laughed. “Leave, set aside the prepared rack and find a suitable set of dentures for him. It’s too much of a hassle to listen to him talk like that.”

Ren Xiaosu also felt relieved. 27 hours after the interrogation started, Luo Zongren finally spoke!

The Qing Consortium’s people found over a dozen sets of dentures and tested several of them before they found a suitable one for Luo Zongren. Off to the side, Luo Lan asked, “That’s pretty efficient. Where did you find the dentures?”

“Oh, they were donated by a few elderly people in Luoyang City. They said it was their way of contributing to the investigation of the murder,” the Qing Consortium soldier said.

Luo Lan and Ren Xiaosu were stunned. These were taken out of other people’s mouths? The two of them turned around and looked at Luo Zongren, who nearly vomited.

Luo Zongren turned 29 this year. The humiliation he had suffered all his life was not as great as everything he went through today.

Zhou Qi did not care so much and directly asked, “Who instigated you?”

Luo Zongren panted as he said, “The Wang Consortium. My immediate superior is called Wang Wenyan. He’s the one who arranged for me to enter Luoyang City. Initially, there was no intention to kill Jiang Xu, and I operated covertly for the plan to seize the satellites in Luoyang City. But since I wasn’t needed for that operation, I chose to bide my time and continued lying low.”

Luo Lan and Ren Xiaosu looked at each other. They had already started treating the Zhou Consortium as their imaginary enemy. But they did not expect Luo Zongren would point all of the suspicions at the Wang Consortium the moment he opened his mouth!

Zhou Qi asked, “Tell me about Wang Wenyan.”

Luo Zongren answered, “He has an oval face and is 176 centimeters tall. He likes to drink Iron Goddess and lives in Stronghold 62 at 12 Tongqu Road.”

Luo Lan could not help but ask, “You should’ve met Wang Shengzhi before too, right? You should be very familiar with him since you’re such an important superhuman, isn’t that so?”

However, Luo Zongren shook his head and said, “Wang Shengzhi isn’t my direct boss, so how could I possibly jump ranks and interact with him? I’m not familiar with him.”

Luo Lan had wanted to take the opportunity to ask Luo Zongren much more confidential questions to test whether he was telling the truth. However, he was stumped by this answer.

Zhou Qi asked, “When did you guys start planning the assassination of Jiang Xu?”

Now that Luo Zongren had spoken, Ren Xiaosu and company would have to find stronger evidence to prove Luo Zongren was really from the Wang Consortium.

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