Chapter 7 — Neighbors Occupied My House For Three Months, Finally Their Entire Family Had To Pay The Price

The Wang family was only convicted of stealing 20,000 yuan and a few pieces of jewelry, and was sentenced to several years in prison. Hay was convicted of theft of property worth 3,000,000 yuan, facing a sentence of more than ten years in prison. I looked straight into Officer Truong's searching eyes. Don't avoid it at all.

“Officer Truong.”

“I'm sure.”

My voice is not loud. But extremely steadfast.

“What I lost was 3,000,000 yuan.”

Police Officer Truong's eyebrows immediately furrowed.

“You must be responsible for every word you say.”

“We need evidence.”

"Of course."

I picked up my phone and opened the photo album.

“Like I said.”

“I have a habit of keeping records for valuable items.”

“It's not just marking with paint.”

“Sometimes I even take pictures.”

I found a photo and gave it to him.

“This is a photo I took the night before on a business trip.”

“That day I just bought a new tree lamp.”

“I want to ask my friend which place in the bedroom would be more beautiful.”

“So I conveniently took a panoramic photo of the bedroom.”

The entire master bedroom is clearly visible. The newly purchased tree lamp is leaning in the corner of the wall. The wardrobe door was slightly open. The lens accidentally recorded that exact drawer. Inside the cabinet. The black Ho Bai safe is resting in its familiar position. Most importantly... The safe door is ajar. Through the door. It can be clearly seen that the inside is stuffed with stacks of red money. One pile at a time. It's so packed that there's almost no space left. That thickness and volume absolutely cannot be just a meager 20,000 yuan. Officer Truong's pupils suddenly shrank. Officer Truong held my phone and continuously zoomed in on the photo. His finger hovered over the screen, carefully examining every detail. The resolution of the photo is very high. Through the slightly opened door of the safe, stacks of 100-yuan bills tied with bank sealing tape could be clearly seen. They piled up so much that they almost overflowed. The visual shock is beyond description.

“This photo…”

Police Officer Truong's voice was somewhat dry.

"The EXIF information shows that the time the photo was taken was exactly the evening before the day she left home, completely consistent with her testimony."

“The shooting device is also this phone.”

“From a technical perspective, there are currently no signs of editing or cutting detected.”

He raised his head. The doubt in his eyes was replaced by a deep confusion.

“Miss Tran…”

“Why did you keep so much cash in the safe?”

“Didn't even close the safe door?”

That's a completely reasonable question. Normal people wouldn't do that. I received the phone back, a forced smile appeared on my face, carrying just the right amount of helplessness and fear.

“Officer Truong, tell you the truth.”

“After selling that house, the amount of money I received always made me feel insecure.”

“I am a woman living alone.”

“There is such a large sum of money in the house, I have trouble sleeping every day.”

“I always feel victimized, always thinking someone will target me.”

These words are a reasonable explanation for all my somewhat excessive preparations.

“That day I took out the money and counted it again.”

“I plan to bring a portion to the bank the next day.”

“After counting After I finished, I was so tired that I conveniently stuffed the money back into the safe, thinking that I would arrange it again the next day."

“Maybe I didn't close the safe door at that time.”

“After that, I took a photo and sent it to my friend, asking where to put the newly purchased tree lamp so it would look beautiful.”

“Then go to sleep.”

“The next morning I had to catch an early flight so I left very quickly.”

“Completely forgot about this.”

I looked at police officer Truong with sincere eyes.

“If it hadn't happened this time…”

“Maybe in my whole life I will never find out that I have made such a fatal mistake.”

“Now that I think about it, I'm scared myself.”

My explanation boils down to two causes: Negligence. And fear. A single woman, pressured by a huge sum of money, takes somewhat unusual actions. That makes perfect sense. Police officer Truong was silent. My explanation, combined with this photo as solid evidence, formed a complete logical circle. Wang Quan's testimony about "20,000 yuan" in front of this photo became ridiculous and weak to the extreme. The only reasonable explanation is: They intentionally reduced the amount of money to reduce the crime. That is a very common trick among thieves.

“I understand.”

Officer Truong let out a sigh. He picked up the walkie-talkie on the table.

“Attention interrogation team.”

“Immediately interrogate Vuong Quan again.”

“Show him this photo.”

“Tell him that sincerity will be lenient, opposition will be severely punished.”

“If he still refuses to declare where the remaining 2,980,000 yuan is hidden, he will face the highest penalty corresponding to the theft of property worth 3,000,000 yuan!”

A reply quickly came from the other end of the line: Vuong Quan's last psychological line of defense was about to be completely destroyed. He couldn't explain the other photo. It's also impossible to explain why after the safe fell into my hands, a safe full of money turned into a mere 20,000 yuan. He will be dragged down to the abyss by his own greed and stupidity. The rest has become simple. The police will use all their efforts to search for the "disappeared" 2,980,000 yuan.