Wang Hongwen subconsciously shook his head.
Xu Dayuan’s lips curled up, and he smiled with satisfaction.
"When his parents died, he found out that Ho Dongi was pregnant, but what you don’t know is that Wang Hongzhan had a car accident back in 2008 and permanently lost his ability to conceive. The mont he learned Ho Dongi was pregnant, he knew what had happened."
Wang Hongwen’s eyes widened, a look of disbelief on his face.
"It’s surprising, isn’t it? As a man, to preserve his dignity, of course, he wouldn’t tell Ho Dongi about such things. She was the goddess he had pursued for many years, the most beautiful existence."
Wang Hongwen was silent. After a long while, he lifted his head, his eyes now filled with regret, his bloodshot eyes tearing at his hair, indifferent to the clinking noise of the handcuffs.
"I was wrong. I should not have been greedy. I never thought I would kill Dongi."
Zhou Ning let out a sigh of relief, dragged a chair over to sit down, while Xu Dayuan lit a cigarette for both himself and Wang Hongwen.
"Take your ti."
Wang Hongwen took a couple of deep drags, tears choked out. After wiping the tears from his face, Wang Hongwen looked up as if reminiscing and said:
"When I first t Ho Dongi, I knew who her boyfriend was. After all, Wang Hongzhan was a top student who pursued such a famous school beauty; everyone in Jiaotuan Village knew it. And the initial reason I approached her was simply that I thought she was beautiful, can you believe that?"
Xu Dayuan nodded, signaling Wang Hongwen to continue.
"My grandfather’s na is Wang Chaozu. He was once an adopted son of the Wang Family. After the upheavals, the Wang Family received compensation. While others might not care much, my grandfather felt he deserved a share of that money. After all, we were very poor back then, and the denunciations and exposures were rely a product of the tis.
Four years ago, when I returned to my hotown, my grandfather froze for a mont when I ntioned Ho Dongi. He then sent all my cousins and uncles out, before asking in detail whether Ho Dongi was the wife of Wang Hongzhan from Jiaotuan Village.
At that ti, I thought my grandfather was telling to stay away from Ho Dongi, so I volunteered that information. But to my surprise, he then shared his past with and ntioned that his partner hid an iron box with a combination lock in a false wall of the Wang Family’s house when they were building it.
My grandfather told to get closer to Ho Dongi. Wang Hongzhan was rarely at ho, and I could help out by taking care of Ho Dongi. He suggested I persuade her to stay at her parents-in-law’s house now and then, to build a good relationship with them, to be as good to them as I would be to my own parents.
Then it dawned on , and I said that I really liked Dongi and didn’t want to hurt her. My grandfather grabbed my hand and said that if I liked her that much, I should marry her. Our family wouldn’t mind a divorced woman, and there’s no harm in trying to get a little more money if we’re truly going to be together.
After going back and thinking about it for a long ti, I believed what my grandfather said, and for the next half year, I was extrely considerate towards Ho Dongi. On the last day of the National Day holidays, when she returned from Shen City, we had a dinner gathering. She drank too much, and I escorted her ho. I also got what I wished for and we had sex.
The next morning when she woke up, she threw a glass at . I didn’t dodge, and it cut open my forehead. I told her I loved her and wanted to marry her, even if her anger ant taking my life. Seeing covered in blood, she cried for a long ti and said nothing else.
I followed her every day, and she gradually got over her anger. However, during the winter vacation, her in-laws suddenly died in a car accident. I didn’t attend the funeral because I was afraid the old director would recognize . Then she fainted, saying she was pregnant.
But Wang Hongzhan was in a hurry to leave, saying that there was a design project he had followed for a year, and a showcase had to start early; he had to return to Shen City. I, along with my colleagues, went to see Ho Dongi in the hospital and arranged for soone to help her take care of the ss, and then I took care of her ticulously.
Our relationship got closer, and one ti while we were drinking, she told that after his parents died, Wang Hongzhan had opened the safe for Dongi to take a quick glance—it was full of gold bars, lots and lots of them gleaming gold.
I teased her, saying she just had the pleasure of seeing them. She was too drunk to guard against and pointed at the key box behind the door, saying she knew both the key and the combination. When I heard that, I continued to probe for more, but she was completely drunk by then, and no matter how much more I asked, she wouldn’t say a word."
Xu Dayuan was very interested in this point and tilted his head to ask:
"Whether it was the house key or the safe key, you had them made, we’ve detected that. How did you find out the combination?"
"A diary. Last sumr, when I was on duty at the office, I took a closer look at Ho Dongi’s personal belongings and found her diary. It ntioned both and Wang Hongzhan. Inside a flap, there was a piece of paper with drawings on it. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was the safe combination.
One weekend, when Ho Dongi asked to help buy so baby formula, I took a lot of stuff over to see her. Naturally, staying in the old house with no air conditioning and a baby wasn’t comfortable. Ard with so many groceries, Ho Dongi was very touched.
We were intimate for a while, and then she asked to watch the kid for a bit while she took a shower. She said that there had been so tile work in the afternoon. Watching Wang Jiahan, I checked the position of the safe, found it behind the partition, and confird that two sets of combinations matched two locks. I was reassured.
On the night of August 13, I took off the car’s license plate and snuck through the path along the Baisha River into the village without daring to turn on the headlights. Then I sneaked in through the back to the front door, put on gloves, and entered the room.
Just as I was dismantling the panel to twist the combination, Ho Dongi sohow ran downstairs. She charged outside, never completing a shout for help before I pushed her down in the yard.
I don’t know how I pulled out a dagger and what I was thinking at that mont, but when I ca to my senses, Dongi was already dead. I was terrified. It all happened too quickly for to think.
After a long while, I only returned to the room, continuing to open the safe, but seeing it completely empty, my mind was blank. I knew I had been played, but whether it was Ho Dongi lying or Wang Hongzhan moving the gold, I couldn’t tell."
Xu Dayuan exhaled a ring of smoke; it was who knows which consecutive cigarette he had smoked.
"What about Wang Jiahan? Did you silence him, or did Wang Jiahan co downstairs and was seen by you?"
Wang Hongwen fell silent again. Zhou Ning leaned forward. If in this case, only Ho Dongi had died, it could be concluded that Wang Hongwen had committed a cri of passion, since what he had said before was very ’reasonable’.
But the death of Wang Jiahan had always been a knot in Zhou Ning’s heart.
In the child’s toenail residue, traces of the victim Ho Dongi’s blood and Wang Hongwen’s DNA were found. The amounts were extrely small; out of the twenty samples, only traces were found. Perhaps the child had inadvertently kicked, scraping his nails across his arm, leaving behind traces of blood and sweat, and perhaps the residues were preserved in this way.
Wang Hongwen raised his head, his eyes bloodshot as he clenched his teeth and looked at his hands.
"I didn’t find the gold bars, I lost my mind. Looking at Ho Dongi’s body in the yard, enveloped in hatred, I rushed to the second floor bedroom, grabbed a pillow and pressed it against the child’s face... After a short while, the child stopped moving, and I picked him up and stuffed him into a pickle vat under the west side eaves."
After he finished speaking the last sentence, Wang Hongwen closed his eyes, and tears stread down. In his life, he never imagined he could have a child, let alone kill his own.
When he opened his eyes again, the transcript and a signing pen were already laid before Wang Hongwen.
He stared intently at Xu Dayuan, shaking his head continuously.
"I didn’t know he was my son, I really didn’t know. If I had known, I couldn’t have possibly killed him!"
Xu Dayuan tossed the cigarette butt into a disposable paper cup filled with water, where it hissed as it extinguished, stubbornly releasing a final wisp of white smoke. Xu Dayuan waved his wrist to disperse the smoke before his eyes.
"You say it wasn’t intentional, but you killed Ho Dongi. You say you didn’t know Wang Jiahan was your son, but the hand that struck showed no hesitation. So whether the person you killed was a dear one or a stranger, what difference does it make? For gold bars, for wealth, you’ve already beco psychologically distorted.
Do you really expect to agree with you and say it’s not your fault? I’m relieved that my child wasn’t raised by you. I’m also relieved that I can bring you to justice, preventing you from leading others astray. Hurry up and sign, don’t waste any more ti."
Wang Hongwen stared blankly at the transcript before him, his eyes vacant. Liu Yufei had already approached, wearing latex gloves. She shoved a carbon pen into Wang Hongwen’s hand.
"Sign it!"
Wang Hongwen signed the docunt, and Liu Yufei imdiately called soone in. Zhang Chunbo had been waiting with his team at the door. Seeing them co out, he imdiately went to grab Wang Hongwen by the collar, but Liu Yufei gave Zhang Chunbo a look, and he unnaturally let go of his hand.
"Zhang Da, Director Xu is calling for you."
Zhang Chunbo quickly returned to the interrogation room. Liu Yufei’s gaze swept over two detectives, who gradually lowered their hands and took Wang Hongwen away by his arms.
"Director Xu, you called for ?"
Xu Dayuan looked up to see Liu Yufei and Zhang Chunbo at the door, his face showing a hint of confusion.
"Ah? Yes, have you contacted Shen City about whether the test results have co through?"
Zhang Chunbo hurried out, and with a wave of his hand, Xu Dayuan followed Liu Yufei to the next-door observation room, where everyone stood up as they entered. Xu Dayuan gestured to Liu Yufei with a nod of his chin.
"What happened just now?"
Liu Yufei shook her head, her face still taut as she looked towards Xu Dayuan.
"Leader, I want to transfer to a detective squad below, anywhere is fine, I’m not picky!"
Such a sudden remark caught Xu Dayuan off guard.
"What are you getting at, you silly girl? Is it dissatisfaction with Tao Zhenshan or with the work? Spell it out for . Wherever you want to go is fine, I’ll arrange it."
Liu Yufei shook her head, her complexion still grim. She raised her fist and slamd it against the wall, making it tremble. Mr. Zhao shrank back at the sight—the strength was not that of a typical woman.
"I want to go below for training, to take charge of cases personally. I don’t want to end up old and unable to run like Zhang Da, just knowing who the murderer is and grabbing at soone’s collar. I want to catch the murderer myself, and when I do, I’ll break his ribs."
Everyone realized and Xu Dayuan understood as well. Zhang Chunbo had gone out to handle Wang Hongwen and was seen by Liu Yufei. She thought it was a display of weakness. Xu Dayuan let out a sigh.
"I understand. I’ll arrange for your request later. Actually, I’ve been thinking of transferring a batch of people, just haven’t decided on the candidates. We’ll talk about it once the backlog of cases is cleared! Also, next ti you speak, can you please not beat around the bush?"
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