CHAPTER 98 — The Shi Family's Rotten Core
The interrogation room was cold, dim, and unforgiving — a place where truth came to die or to resurrect itself in blood. Roulan sat handcuffed to the metal table, her hair still damp from the storm, mascara streaking down her cheeks like dark rivers. Her lips were cracked, her jaw bruised from the struggle, but her eyes…
Her eyes burned with hysterical triumph.
As if she still believed she had a card left to play.
As if she still thought she could win.
Yunxi watched her from behind the one-way glass, arms wrapped around herself, knuckles white. She wasn't in the room — the law wouldn't allow it, not after what happened — but she didn't need to be. She didn't want to be.
If she stepped inside that room, the entire Shi family would lose more than their reputation that night.
Mu Lingchen joined her, his shoulder brushing hers. His presence grounded her, but tension thrummed heavily through his posture. His gaze, cold and sharp, was fixed on Roulan.
"She's unraveling," he murmured.
"No," Yunxi said, voice quiet but precise. "She's calculating."
Lingchen turned slightly toward her.
"Roulan never stops scheming," Yunxi continued, eyes narrowed. "Not even when she's drowning. Look at her hands."
Lingchen's brows drew together.
Roulan's fingers tapped in a strange rhythm on the metal table — uneven, frantic, almost like a code. Not literal code… but a mental map. For someone like Roulan, panic and plotting were indistinguishable. She was thinking, scrambling for the one path left that might keep her alive.
And Yunxi knew exactly what that path was.
She had lived with vipers long enough to recognize the scent of venom.
"She won't go down alone," Yunxi said softly. "She'll drag the Shi family with her."
Lingchen's jaw tightened. "Good. They deserve it."
Yunxi didn't respond, because she wasn't sure if she agreed.
The Shi family had done monstrous things — to her, to her mother, to her children — but there were still innocents tangled in that web. Servants. Relatives who never raised a voice. Even distant cousins who had never benefited from the crime that birthed the Shi empire.
Roulan wanted total destruction.
Yunxi only wanted freedom.
Before she could speak, a police inspector entered the observation corridor.
"Miss Shi, Mr. Mu," he said respectfully. "Interrogation will begin shortly. Are you sure you don't want to participate indirectly? She might react to your voice."
"No," both of them said at the same time.
The inspector blinked. "Understood."
He left.
Inside the room, Roulan suddenly lifted her head.
And smiled.
An officer entered, set down a folder, and turned on the camera.
"Qin Roulan, you are being interrogated under charges of kidnapping, child endangerment, and attempted murder—"
Roulan cut him off with a laugh that scraped the walls like broken glass.
"Oh, spare me your list," she scoffed. "Just get to the part where you think you can break me."
The officer remained expressionless. "We already have your confession."
"My confession?" Roulan tilted her head. "I haven't confessed to anything."
"You were recorded yelling at the boy. Threatening him. Endangering his life. We have footage from the quarry."
"So?" Roulan said, smirking. "You think that's enough?"
The officer didn't blink. "It's more than enough."
Roulan leaned back in her chair.
"Ahh… but I have something better."
Her voice turned sweet — poisonous.
"Shall we talk about the Shi family?"
Outside the glass, Yunxi stiffened.
Lingchen inhaled sharply.
The officer paused. "What about the Shi family?"
Roulan laughed softly, tapping her nails on the metal table again.
"Oh, officer… you have no idea the gold mine you've stumbled on. The Shi family is filth. Pure, rotting filth. You think I'm evil? I'm a lightweight compared to them."
"Speak clearly," the officer said.
Roulan leaned forward, eyes glittering with madness and triumph.
"Let's start," she whispered, "with the child experiments."
Yunxi stumbled back as if struck. Lingchen grabbed her arm instantly.
"What is she talking about?" he asked, voice low.
But Yunxi didn't answer.
Roulan didn't stop.
"I know everything," she said, smiling wide. "I know how they used illegal genetic procedures. I know about the hidden labs. I know who paid the bribes. I know why Shi Yunxi disappeared. I know why her mother died."
Her laughter rose again, high and unhinged.
"And I know who ordered it."
Lingchen froze.
Yunxi… trembled.
Roulan slammed her palms onto the table. "Would you like names? Dates? Bank accounts? I can give you everything if you give me immunity."
The officer blinked. "Immunity is not an option. Not for kidnapping."
"Reduced sentence?"
"No."
"Witness protection?"
"No."
Roulan narrowed her eyes.
"Then you'll lose the biggest scandal this country has ever seen."
Her voice dropped into a growl, low and vicious.
"Because the Shi family's sins… make mine look like child's play."
The officer hesitated.
Behind the glass, Yunxi's breath came faster, shallow and tight.
Lingchen touched her cheek.
"What did they do to you?" he whispered.
A small, broken sound left her.
Roulan continued, voice rising with feverish delight.
"You want proof? I can give you video. Files. Records. Do you want to know what happened to Yunxi's mother? Do you want to know what the Shi elders buried in their basement? Do you want to know why they needed Yunxi so badly?"
She grinned.
"Because she wasn't just their heir."
Her eyes gleamed with cruelty.
"She was their experiment."
The room fell silent.
Even the rain outside seemed to stop.
The officer stared at her, shock cracking through his professional mask.
"What do you mean?" he asked sharply.
Roulan spread her arms like a performer unveiling her final act.
"Shi Yunxi wasn't born lucky," she said. "She was engineered."
Yunxi's hand flew to her mouth.
Her knees buckled.
Lingchen caught her before she collapsed entirely.
Her entire body shook violently.
Memories she had buried — cold rooms, needles, the smell of bleach, the echo of distant crying — stabbed through her skull like knives.
Lingchen held her tighter, face pale and furious.
"Yunxi—look at me," he said, voice trembling. "Tell me what she's talking about."
But she didn't.
She couldn't.
Because Roulan's next sentence destroyed the last fragile piece of her world:
"Shi Yunxi," Roulan said slowly, savoring each word, "is the result of a genetic project the Shi family invested in over twenty years ago."
Yunxi's breath shattered.
Lingchen's grip tightened.
Inside the interrogation room, Roulan leaned closer to the microphone.
"And if I go down," she whispered, "I'm taking them all with me."
The storm outside slammed against the station windows.
But inside Yunxi…
A different storm began to rise.
A storm that would destroy the Shi family.
Forever.