Li Hua was taken away. Mr. Zhao clicked his tongue and shook his head, the rare smile on his face disappearing.
"If I were her, I might also choose to kill those few people. They are simply too vile."
Liu Yongxin sighed.
"What she hates most isn’t those three people, but the fact that her childhood was neglected. Her parents focused all their attention on her outstanding older sister, completely ignoring her. Even after Li Fang’s death, they didn’t care about Li Hua. That’s her deepest pain and burden, all of which she projected onto those three, believing all her misfortune stemd from their bullying."
Xu Dayuan stroked his chin and didn’t say much. Zhu Yufen hadn’t been brought up yet, but his phone rang first. It was Liu Yufei calling, so Xu Dayuan quickly answered the phone.
"Leader, we’ve arrived downstairs. The doctor has co with us. Should we not question Ai Qingsong first? After all, once we’re done, we need to take him to the hospital for intravenous fluids and oxygen imdiately. Without the monitoring equipnt, we can’t control his physical condition, and he’s not in great shape after the long flight."
"Then hurry up and co up, just go directly to the interrogation room."
After hanging up, Xu Dayuan hurried out and gave instructions to Zhang Chunbo and Tao Zhenshan. Zhang Chunbo quickly went to arrange for soone to take Zhu Yufen to wait in the next room.
Soon, with a flurry of footsteps, Liu Yufei and the others hurried back. Liu Yufei held an oxygen bag in her hand, Mr. Zeng was pushing a wheelchair, and a doctor on the other side was holding an IV bottle.
The man on the wheelchair was curled up, not short in stature, but so thin that he looked like a skeleton draped in skin.
What was shocking was his abdon. Despite the emaciated body, there was a belly as big as a barrel. Zhou Ning knew the man had lung cancer with liver tastasis and ascites. In such a condition, for Ai Qingsong to have co along, he probably hoped to take all the bla upon himself.
At this thought, Zhou Ning remained silent. In fact, at this point in the investigation, the truth about the case was no longer important. At least from his perspective, the case was considered closed, with only Zhu Yufen’s DNA left unexplained.
Liu Yufei whispered sothing to Xu Dayuan, who nodded and motioned everyone to move to the neighboring interview room, also instructing them to move out a chair. Then Ai Qingsong was wheeled in, the doctor was asked to wait in the rest room, and Mr. Qu gave him a computer to watch the interview room’s video, although without sound.
Zhou Ning and Liu Yongxin followed to the observation room next to the interview room. Xu Dayuan and Tao Zhenshan entered together. Zhang Chunbo sat with the clerk. Before any questions were asked, Ai Qingsong already smiled at Xu Dayuan.
"Officer, I rember your voice. You’re investigating the headless serial killings, aren’t you? There’s no need to search anymore. I am the murderer. You can ask anything you want to know. However, because of my illness and the many dications, my mory has declined, and I honestly can’t recall many details clearly."
Xu Dayuan nodded, placing the photos of the three deceased, as well as those of Li Hua and Zhu Yufen, in front of Ai Qingsong.
"Before you ca, Li Hua just underwent questioning. She spoke about her childhood and how it was marred by the abuse from the three deceased, even losing her ability to reproduce as a result. She planned the hunting and killing of the three deceased and chose the dumping site for the bodies. As for you and Zhu Yufen, she coerced both of you."
Ai Qingsong laughed. In such a frail state, his laughter seed effortful, but it was clear from his expression that Ai Qingsong had been quite handso when he was younger.
As the laughter stopped, Ai Qingsong lifted his eyes to look at Xu Dayuan.
"You are a police officer, you have your own judgnt. How could these be the truth? The fact that those three scumbags abused Li Hua is real, and it’s also true that they caused Li Fang’s death. Although there’s no evidence, they confessed that they hoped Li Fang would die.
Because Li Fang hindered their sche, she rejected their prepared proposal for the municipal project tender at the eting and chose a design institute from Qindao instead. This move touched on their interests, involving subsequent material supplies and construction issues.
Therefore, on Baisha River Road, they spread oil on the bridge surface and even tampered with the street lights. They had a young girl lure Li Fang back to the city center, leading to the traffic accident. By the ti the traffic police arrived at the scene, they had already cleaned the road surface, even spreading a layer of sand on top.
These are just the processes they described verbally. I have no evidence to prove it, and even after Li Fang’s father had people investigate, the final investigative and autopsy reports remained unchanged. That’s when I knew we couldn’t rely on the law for justice."
Ai Qingsong paused, grabbing the oxygen tube and gasping for breath after that long speech, which had clearly been strenuous for him. After resting for a mont, he smiled apologetically at Xu Dayuan and then continued.
"However, I did collect so evidence and reported Zheng Chuguang’s issues to the leadership. But before Zheng Chuguang’s investigation ca, the leadership called in for a talk and even threatened to give a derit. That’s when I truly understood what leadership ant—they were in cahoots with them.
Late in October 1993, Li Hua found , saying that Zheng Chuguang had approached her. I told her to hold Zheng Chuguang steady, and I also contacted Zhu Yufen to borrow the house at Hongqi Road No.29, asking Li Hua to lure Zheng Chuguang there on November 3rd.
They didn’t know what I was planning, and I didn’t intend to discuss it with them. Once the person, Zheng Chuguang, arrived, driven by lust, he didn’t think twice before drinking the red wine I had prepared, which had been drugged by . Not long after consuming it, Zheng Chuguang started getting drowsy."
I went in with an axe, and at that mont, Li Hua was terrified. She told not to get too worked up, just report his harassnt, but she was too naive. I told her to step aside. As I pushed Li Hua away, I smashed Zheng Chuguang’s head. Zhu Yufen, who heard the noise upstairs, rushed up trying to stop , wrestling with for the axe.
But I am a man; how could she be as strong as ? Yet her hand got cut in the struggle. I chopped Zheng Chuguang’s head, and threatened both of them, saying no one was allowed to talk about today’s events, or else I would claim they threatened to do it.
I had no idea how to handle the corpse at the ti. In the end, I rembered how my grandfather used to kill chickens, cutting off their heads and then letting the blood drain so they wouldn’t flutter about. Since no one in my family ate the head, thinking of this, I had them prepare a basin and a bucket, and I chopped off Zheng Chuguang’s head.
Then I began to let the blood out until it stopped flowing. I had them clean Zheng Chuguang up quickly and put his clothes on, then wrapped him in the kind of plastic sheeting used for covering greenhouses. After that, I borrowed a vehicle, and on the evening of November 5th, I took the corpse to Baisha River Central Bridge.
I wanted to arrange him in a pose of penance, revealing Zheng Chuguang’s criminal records as well. That way, even if there was an investigation, it would be linked to Li Fang’s death. But, what I didn’t expect was that, even though the news blew up, it didn’t affect anyone else.
Whether it was bribery or any other illegal activities, it was all pinned on Zheng Chuguang alone, and everyone else got off scot-free. Officer, do you know that feeling? A huge rock thrown into the water, disappearing without a trace, without even a splash, as if nothing had ever happened.
Under my threat, Li Hua and Zhu Yufen kept silent about the incident. However, my investigation into Yu Guangyao and Zhang Qiujiang never stopped. By the year 2000, I had secured solid evidence, but at that ti, I was poisoned. I coughed up blood and, despite many tests, no problem could be found.
I was marginalized, dismissed from my position under the threats of leadership. I couldn’t fight back because they threatened to cut off my parents’ pensions and refuse their dical reimbursents, sothing I couldn’t resist. I knew it was ti for to take matters into my own hands again.
I arranged for Li Hua to encounter Yu Guangyao by chance, and he took the bait. Zhu Yufen set up surveillance equipnt to capture Yu Guangyao’s confession. Zhu Yufen urged to back off, but I knew if I stopped, it would an letting Yu Guangyao off the hook, and in doing so, it would be the ti when my parents would be hard.
So, I lured Yu Guangyao to Hongqi Road No.29, and, following the sa pattern, I spiked his drink and then smashed his head. However, Yu Guangyao, being a large man, got up and lunged at . In the struggle between us, he fell into the bathtub, and all the bath salts and bombs fell in with him.
Seeing that he was dead, I directly chopped off his head. After that, I cleaned him up, dressed him, and stuffed him into his car. Both won were horrified, but I forced them. Zhu Yufen wrapped the axe, and under my coercion, Li Hua drove the car to dispose of the body in the courtyard behind the Cultural Palace.
"Do you know why I put Yu Guangyao’s corpse in the courtyard of the Cultural Palace?"
Zhou Ning rubbed his chin, and Mr. Zhao bumped into him.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, do you know why?"
Zhou Ning paused, noticing that Xu Dayuan wasn’t in a hurry to answer, he then slowly said:
"I’m thinking there must be soone living in the backyard of Hai’an City Cultural Palace, soone who could see Yu Guangyao’s death, call the police right away, and not only not suppress the news but even let it fernt further. Especially since Ai Qingsong had control over Yu Guangyao’s criminal evidence, that could co in handy."
Liu Yongxin seed skeptical, shaking his head:
"If such a person existed, Ai Qingsong wouldn’t need to go through such elaborate sches; wouldn’t it have been simpler just to find them earlier?"
Mr. Zhao, not the sharpest tool in the shed, leaned closer to the one-way glass.
"I always knew this kid was sly, with nurous tricks up his sleeve; otherwise, he would have been played to death by these people a long ti ago."
Xu Dayuan, tapping on the table, stared at Ai Qingsong.
"As far as I know, the courtyard behind the Cultural Palace is also the backyard of a hotel. In the millennium year, a new four-star hotel opened, considered the most upscale place in Hai’an City. Is there so local celebrity who was temporarily staying there?"
Ai Qingsong’s eyes lit up, and he gave Xu Dayuan a thumbs up, with his other hand pressing on the oxygen tube and taking several deep breaths.
"You really are impressive, an official of the municipal bureau. The man’s na is Chen Musheng, a Hongkonger and a director who specializes in police and gangster movies. He has his family roots in Hai’an, Ludong City. I stumbled upon his information in the news casually. It’s said that this person is quite upright.
I left the corpse there intentionally and also hid the collected account books in the car. This way, even if soone wanted to cover up the case, it would be difficult to keep it hidden."
Xu Dayuan, not surprised, handed Ai Qingsong a cup of warm water and then gestured:
"Let’s talk about the last victim, Zhang Qiujiang, shall we?"
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