Outside, Ji Xun clicked his tongue twice and mentally lit a candle for Mo Nai.
Huo Ranyin seemed to be in a particularly bad mood today.
Thinking this, he saw that there was no more immediate tension inside and turned his attention to Duan Hongwen’s interrogation. Ji Xun was watching the situation in all three interrogation rooms, and among them, the one with Duan Hongwen and Tan Mingjiu was the comedic relief of the three, and quite interesting.
Duan Hongwen, reluctantly, and with a pained expression, began his narrative:
“That day, I went to dinner with Zhuo Cangying and then went back to his house to discuss the ending of the book. Zhuo Cangying had been drinking and was dizzy, so he was lying on the sofa chatting with me. I was sitting in the single armchair taking notes. Everything was fine, but Zhuo Cangying forgot to close the door when he came in. My wife suddenly rushed in, and without a word, she picked up the bronze horse from the coffee table and started smashing it on Zhuo Cangying’s head. Zhuo Cangying was caught off guard and was stunned by the blows. She kept smashing. By the time I came to my senses from the shock and rushed over to grab the bronze horse, Zhuo Cangying was already dead. My wife said my fingerprints were on the bronze horse, and there were no surveillance cameras in the room, so the police wouldn’t be able to tell who the murderer was. I was bluffed by her and hastily wiped the bronze horse clean with a napkin and dragged her home. Later, I became more and more afraid. The way she looked at me was as if she wanted to silence me, following me every second. I had no choice—! I was in a panic and thought of hiring a killer, but in reality, I was scammed, officer. I didn’t really kill anyone, I just thought about it.”
“Where did the first blow land? Show me on the mannequin.”
Duan Hongwen picked up a paper tube next to him and smashed it on the forehead of the mannequin, which was lying down and about to get up. Tan Mingjiu stretched out a hand and firmly held Duan Hongwen’s wrist. Duan Hongwen struggled for a moment but couldn’t break free.
Tan Mingjiu: “You see, I can instantly stop you from using more force with just one hand. Your wife hit him so many times in a row, and Zhuo Cangying didn’t resist? He wasn’t dead drunk. According to you, he was quite sober and could even discuss the outline with you. Let me tell you, the autopsy report can very clearly determine the damage caused by each blow to the frontal bone, which came first, which came later. I advise you to think carefully about the details again.”
“Then my wife’s first blow was forceful, and she was above him, so it was easy to exert force. It’s normal for Zhuo Cangying to be stunned by the blow…” Duan Hongwen was sweating profusely, his eyes darting around. “Besides, is it possible she accidentally hit his temple? I heard that one blow there can be fatal.”
Tan Mingjiu rolled his eyes. “I’ll give you some space to continue lying. Tell me why your wife would kill Zhuo Cangying for no good reason.”
Duan Hongwen: “She loves to follow people so much. She probably overheard some of Zhuo Cangying’s nonsense. Officer, you also know that I heard about that place, Zhu Huan’s place, from Zhuo Cangying. Sometimes I complain to him about my stagnant marriage, and he advises me to get a divorce, or to kill my wife. He says it’s simple, and even in the worst-case scenario of getting caught, it can be pushed as a crime of passion, with a sentence of three to five years at most.”
Tan Mingjiu sneered.
“Gao Shuang,” Ji Xun prompted Tan Mingjiu from outside the one-way mirror. Duan Hongwen’s words were infuriating, but the police couldn’t let themselves be led by the nose by a suspect out of anger.
“You can even talk about this in a casual chat. Zhuo Cangying must have been wanting to kill his wife for a long time, preferably to also get some insurance money after killing her. As the saying goes, the three great joys in life are promotion, getting rich, and one’s wife dying. With this, two great joys are achieved at once, aren’t they?” Tan Mingjiu’s tone shifted, his words pointing at Duan Hongwen. “The people from the insurance company said you took Gao Shuang to the insurance company, wanting her to buy insurance for her husband. What were you thinking at that time? Did you want to modify Zhuo Cangying’s method, have Gao Shuang kill her husband, and then you could kick out your stagnant wife and marry a rich widow?”
Duan Hongwen was a little embarrassed. “Buying insurance isn’t for killing people. Not everyone who goes to an insurance company to buy a policy is thinking of murder… Gao Shuang and I are just friends, not having an affair. Don’t believe my wife’s nonsense. It’s no secret that Gao Shuang likes to flirt and is very promiscuous. That’s probably why her husband couldn’t tolerate her anymore. But I really have nothing to do with her.”
Outside, Ji Xun found this a bit strange, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what was strange for the moment.
“Yo, you even know that your wife knows you’re cheating?”
Duan Hongwen became anxious and raised his voice excitedly, “I’m really not cheating! Those photos my wife has were all taken from clever angles. She, she just wants to use these things to threaten me for more money. She’s a leech sucking my blood!”
Tan Mingjiu’s mind started working. Why would Duan Hongwen get so agitated over this question?
Apparently, Ji Xun had the same question.
He suggested that Tan Mingjiu pause for a moment and let Duan Hongwen speak freely.
Duan Hongwen launched into a long speech, saliva flying, vehemently defending himself against any infidelity. At the end, he emphasized, “So I absolutely have no motive to kill Zhuo Cangying.”
The interrogation room was quiet for a moment. Tan Mingjiu flicked away a piece of dead skin he had just picked from his lips, as if he hadn’t heard Duan Hongwen’s defense at all, and asked, “Did you not see Gao Shuang when you arrived at Zhuo Cangying’s house?”
Duan Hongwen affirmed, “No, she wasn’t home. Zhuo Cangying said she had gone to her parents’ house in the afternoon.”
“Gao Shuang’s parents said she didn’t go back. You’re lying again,” Tan Mingjiu sighed. “The police really want to help you get a reduced sentence for confessing, but unfortunately, the suspect himself is not cooperating. Good advice cannot persuade a person who is about to die.”
The police officer taking notes next to him quickly gave Tan Mingjiu a look.
You’ve gone too far. If you say any more, you’ll get a pay cut.
Tan Mingjiu returned the look: If you’re a brother, don’t write it down!
Duan Hongwen didn’t understand this exchange of glances. He felt a wave of bitterness and anger. “That’s Zhuo Cangying who was lying! I just saw that the sports car wasn’t in the garage and asked, and that’s how he answered.”
“Can you imitate how your husband killed the person?”
Wei Zhenzhu picked up the paper tube and struck the mannequin’s head from an upper diagonal angle.
“Did the deceased resist?”
Wei Zhenzhu nodded and then shook her head. “My husband controlled Zhuo Cangying’s hands with his own, so he couldn’t resist. You can check his body. I remember there was a nail scratch on his left elbow, which should have been left by Zhuo Cangying.”
Wen Yangyang’s heart leaped with joy. If Wei Zhenzhu’s previous testimony was ambiguous, where it could have been either her or Duan Hongwen who killed him, then this nail scratch was concrete evidence that could prove Duan Hongwen and Zhuo Cangying had indeed had physical contact.
“Mo Nai, you destroyed the body to confuse the time of death. Combining this with the fact that you knew Gao Shuang and your deliberate testimony emphasizing that Gao Shuang died before Zhuo Cangying, what kind of speculation do you think the police will make?” Huo Ranyin said, word by word. “We would guess that it was Gao Shuang who killed Zhuo Cangying—because a person cannot kill after they are dead. This is your motive as Gao Shuang’s accomplice for confusing the time of death.”
Mo Nai’s breathing became heavier. His expression changed back and forth, one moment angry, the next moment pleadingly looking at Huo Ranyin.
“But Mo Nai, just now, we found the murder weapon that killed Zhuo Cangying. The person who used the weapon was not Gao Shuang as you thought, but another pair of suspects, a husband and wife. Your arrogance almost made the police miss the real killer, just like nine years ago, when your self-righteous confession only let the real r*pist remain at large to this day.”
The anger and pleading froze. Mo Nai’s eyes widened, and he roared, “You’re lying! This is impossible!”
Huo Ranyin’s gaze was like a torch. “Why are you so sure it was Gao Shuang who killed him?”
“I…” Mo Nai’s mind was in chaos.
Huo Ranyin sneered. “You went to Gao Shuang’s house with a purpose. You knew before you went that Gao Shuang was going to kill her husband. When you arrived at the scene, you saw two bodies. You instinctively believed that this scene matched what Gao Shuang had told you before, so you followed the agreement and dealt with the two bodies at the scene. Mo Nai, why did you help Gao Shuang deal with the bodies? What did she promise you?”
Mo Nai just kept repeating “you’re lying,” his expression extremely resistant.
Huo Ranyin tilted his head, and the officer beside him took out the live video of today’s arrest and showed it to Mo Nai.
“The bronze horse in the video is the murder weapon that killed Zhuo Cangying. The man who was caught has been lingering near the river for the past two days. His wife has already confessed that it was this man who killed Zhuo Cangying at around seven o’clock that day. The way she described the blows completely matches the autopsy.”
Mo Nai watched the video over and over again. The resistance and wavering on his face disappeared. After a long time, he looked up blankly. “If they were the ones who killed him, then why did Sister Shuang commit suicide?”
The fish, finally, had taken the bait.
Mo Nai believed that Gao Shuang had committed suicide because on that day, when he arrived at Gao Shuang’s house, he saw Zhuo Cangying’s body on the first floor and Gao Shuang dead on the bed on the second floor. There was a suicide note on the bedside table that said, “Dad, Mom: I’m free. Let it be. After I die, please throw away everything in my room. I don’t want you to be reminded of me when you see my things. Please take care of Xiao Jun.”
The body of Gao Shuang he saw was lying flat on the bed, her hands by her sides, the bedsheets not very messy, as if she had died in her sleep, not in particular pain.
Because she had been dead for some time, the body had already left marks on the bedsheets. He didn’t want the police to know this was the primary crime scene, so he changed the bedsheets, tore up the suicide note on the bedside table, and then bled the two bodies in the hall, creating a terrifying illusion. Finally, he moved the bodies and abandoned them on Wushan. The gun he had robbed from the prison guards was actually also buried on Wushan.
The interrogations of Duan Hongwen and Wei Zhenzhu had temporarily ended. Tan Mingjiu’s surprise attack had proved that there were indeed marks on Duan Hongwen’s hands. He was now like an old farmer who had just had a bountiful harvest, humming a tune as he gathered around Ji Xun to listen in on Mo Nai’s interrogation.
When he heard about the suicide note, a lot of question marks popped up in his head. He asked Ji Xun, “What’s the situation? According to this, isn’t Mo Nai at most guilty of destroying a corpse? And yes, why did Gao Shuang commit suicide? It can’t be that she came home at 9 o’clock, saw her husband was dead, and decided she didn’t want to live anymore.”
The smooth interrogation process sparked Wen Yangyang’s inspiration. She proposed a guess: “Could it be that Gao Shuang misunderstood? She thought the body disposal service she had arranged for had been upgraded, and that Mo Nai had helped her kill her husband along the way. So, her wish fulfilled, she committed suicide.”
Tan Mingjiu frowned. “Looking at that cowardly bear Duan Hongwen, I don’t think Gao Shuang committed suicide. She was killed by Zhuo Cangying. Those two scumbags are always talking about killing their wives. And Zhuo Cangying lied about Gao Shuang going to her parents’ house in the afternoon. Wasn’t he harboring ill intentions? It’s just that Zhuo Cangying died at seven o’clock, so it seems he couldn’t have killed Gao Shuang…”
Wen Yangyang strongly agreed with Tan Mingjiu’s description of the two trashy men. “Right, just a suicide note. How can a suicide note prove it was suicide? It’s too cursory. The key is still the timeline…”
Ji Xun: “…”
For a moment, he didn’t know how to roast these two dedicated straight people. In the end, he could only gently pat Tan Mingjiu’s bald head and say, “Did you forget that Duan Hongwen entered the complex in Zhuo Cangying’s car? The sports car that drove into the complex at nine o’clock wasn’t necessarily driven by Gao Shuang.”
Tan Mingjiu: “Huh? Then who was driving it?”
Ji Xun: “Who else could it be? Mo Nai, of course.”
Almost at the same time, Huo Ranyin in the interrogation room also mentioned this matter.
“The reason you chose the sports car with its smaller capacity over the Audi, and ultimately destroyed the driving recorder, wasn’t to hide the time you left Wushan, but to hide the fact that you once drove that car to Qi Meng’s grave. Gao Shuang gave you her car, right?”
At that time, the guard at the Jinshui Town cemetery had scolded Huo Ranyin for parking randomly. A sports car had done the same thing before.
Mo Nai nodded lightly.
Huo Ranyin: “With that car and the ID card, you were able to move freely between Chuncheng, Jinshui Town, and Ning City. Gao Shuang gave you the chance to survive in the sun. An ordinary person wouldn’t help a fugitive without reason. It’s a crime. Gao Shuang did this because she had nothing to fear anymore. She was also going to commit a crime. She exchanged these things with you for you to clean up after her.”
Mo Nai: “No, she didn’t ask me for anything!”
He tried to describe to Huo Ranyin the day they met by chance on the highway. They were strangers who met by chance and parted ways just as quickly. Gao Shuang was so cheerful, not minding his identity at all, just purely good, and so much like the wind and mist, impossible to grasp, impossible to hold onto.
“Then why did you do all this?”
But Mo Nai, who had answered all the previous questions, became as silent as a stone statue again when faced with this question. It seemed he was unwilling to speak of this alone, as if he wanted to preserve his last shred of dignity.
Ji Xun shook his head and said to Huo Ranyin, “Forget it, he won’t say it. Let’s go to the crime scene and see. We still don’t know how Gao Shuang really died.”
