The woman sat in the interrogation room, calm and composed, her figure frail and thin.
Her hair was neatly tied up in a bun at the back of her head, and the lines of age etched around her eyes. The deep wrinkles around her mouth made her look stern, a result of years of seriousness.
She was still wearing the same clothes as yesterday: a dull blue short-sleeved top, gray wide-leg pants, and beside her was a bag of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Click.
At the sound of the door, the woman looked up. Her eyes, framed by glasses, appeared cloudy and weary with age.
Zou Shuyang sat across from the woman. “Name.”
The woman’s lips moved slightly, and after a while, a stiff voice came from her mouth. “Lin Xi.”
Zou Shuyang asked, “Date of birth.”
Lin Xi calmly responded, “June 21, 1962.”
Zou Shuyang glanced at Xiao Tang, who was already prepared, and formally began the questioning. “Do you know why we brought you in today?”
Lin Xi shook her head, then after a moment, nodded. “It’s because of the jumper from yesterday, isn’t it?”
Zou Shuyang frowned. “Around 8 AM yesterday, where were you?”
Lin Xi answered immediately, “I was at the market buying groceries. If you need it, I can provide the receipt from the supermarket.”
Zou Shuyang asked again, “And after buying groceries? Did you go straight home?”
Lin Xi shook her head, replying in a rigid manner, “I was supposed to go straight home, but yesterday morning, I received a text message asking me to go to the abandoned building on Xi Yi Road at 8:40 AM.”
“So you just went without question? Didn’t you find that suspicious?”
Lin Xi adjusted her posture, spreading her hands. “What’s there to be suspicious about? I live alone, what could anyone deceive me with?”
Zou Shuyang paused for a moment before asking, “Who sent you the text?”
Lin Xi shook her head. “I don’t know. But it wasn’t the first time.”
After she said this, Lin Xi took out her phone, scrolled to the message screen, and handed it to Zou Shuyang. “Ever since my husband died, this number has been sending me messages.”
Xiao Tang, who was recording the number, froze mid-action.
Her husband… dead?
Recalling Lin Xi’s name, Zou Shuyang suddenly remembered something that had flashed by when he was reviewing Shen Tinglan’s case file yesterday. “Your husband was…”
“Shen Tinglan. When he was alive, he was a teacher at Jiangzhou No. 4 High School.”
Just as expected.
Xiao Tang’s hands paused over the keyboard, and then he helplessly glanced at Zou Shuyang. His mind was suddenly filled with thoughts of how small the world really was.
“Did you know that…”
For the first time, Lin Xi interrupted Zou Shuyang. “I know. Every time I received a message from this person, I would go and see one of the people who killed my husband die in front of me. Until yesterday, when the last one died.”
“The last one?” Xiao Tang immediately thought of Jiang Hongye. Just as he was about to speak, Zou Shuyang slapped him on the thigh, making him swallow the rest of his words.
Forcing a smile, Zou Shuyang asked, “Weren’t you curious about who was sending you these messages?”
Lin Xi thought for a moment. “At first, I was. I was still grieving over the loss of my husband. When I saw the first murderer released, despite their education being ruined, they still had money, a house, a car, and lived a flashy life. I wondered why—why did my husband have to die, while these killers lived so freely, with no sign of regret? They even boasted about it, spreading it everywhere. Later, I received that text. I hesitated for a while but eventually went, and then I saw that person, who had been living it up the day before, suddenly go ‘boom’ and become a pile of mush right in front of me.”
“At that moment, I laughed.” As she spoke, Lin Xi let out a deranged laugh, the veins on her forehead pulsing. “Then I knew—someone was avenging my husband. Since that’s the case, I decided to live well. I wanted to see with my own eyes how each of those people met their deserved end.”
Zou Shuyang leaned back in his chair, glanced at Lin Xi, who was still laughing, then lowered his gaze to the phone in his hand.
On the phone, there were sporadic text messages from the same number over the past six years, each asking Lin Xi to go to a specific place at a specific time to witness a “show.”
“Check the records of those three individuals. See if their dates of death match the times on these messages.” Zou Shuyang instructed.
Fortunately, the internet speed in the interrogation room was decent. The records for the three individuals were quickly pulled up, and their dates of death aligned precisely with the dates of the messages on Lin Xi’s phone.
Of the three possibilities that Zou Shuyang had considered earlier, only one remained.
Someone had been deliberately avenging Shen Tinglan, sending texts to Lin Xi so that she could witness the deaths of those who had killed her husband.
——
Zou Shuyang and Xiao Tang climbed the stairs. Xiao Tang puffed out his cheeks and said, “This killer is something else, letting the victims die right in front of Lin Xi. After all, Lin Xi is just a woman.”
Zou Shuyang glanced at Xiao Tang. “Sometimes, watching the killers die in front of you is the most satisfying, don’t you think?”
Xiao Tang quickly caught on. “Captain Zou, are you suspecting Lin Xi? That she’s avenging her husband?”
Zou Shuyang shook his head. “She didn’t have time. Based on the receipt from the grocery store she visited and the distance from there to the crime scene, she barely had enough time to go back and forth. There’s no way she could’ve had time to commit the murder.”
“So she wasn’t lying?”
Zou Shuyang neither confirmed nor denied it. He pushed open the office door, only to be met by the sight of Captain He, clearly seething with anger.
Seeing the situation, Xiao Tang quickly made an excuse about his computer running out of battery and slipped away, leaving Zou Shuyang to deal with Captain He’s fury alone.
“You sent me to investigate Cheng Hao’s house just to get me out of the way?” Captain He’s voice was unreadable, neither happy nor angry. “You already knew about Teacher Lin?”
Zou Shuyang turned around and shut the door. After some thought, he locked it as well. He tugged on Captain He’s arm but couldn’t move him, so he didn’t insist and instead sat down nearby, taking a sip of water. “It wasn’t like that. It was just a coincidence. Didn’t I mention it when I got back yesterday? I said I saw a strange woman at the scene, and today, someone just happened to find her.”
Captain He’s gaze lingered on Zou Shuyang’s face for a while before his anger slowly subsided. “Teacher Lin has had a tough life. When you question her again…” Captain He, his head still somewhat fogged by anger, seemed to regain some of his wits. After searching for the right words, he finally said, “Be gentle.”
Zou Shuyang pointed at his own nose. “I’m not gentle?”
Neither of them spoke again for a while. Eventually, Zou Shuyang broke the silence. “Were you that close to Shen Tinglan?”
Captain He lifted his eyelids to glance at Zou Shuyang before slowly lowering them again. “Shen Tinglan was more than ten years older than me. He was like a teacher to me. The man had such a passion for teaching that he even took me under his wing. I was just a neighbor who happened to pass out at my doorstep, but when he found me, he gave me a long lecture on taking care of my health.”
Captain He pulled a cigarette from the pack in his hand and fiddled with it. “I used to be a heavy smoker. Back then, there were a lot of cases, and the conditions weren’t as good as they are now. I was under a lot of pressure and relied on cigarettes to cope. But Shen Tinglan kept nagging me, saying how bad smoking was. Eventually, I gave in and quit smoking because of him.”
“Have you discovered anything?”
Listening to Captain He, Zou Shuyang carefully chose his words. “If we assume—just assume—that Shen Tinglan’s murder was a contract killing, then Shen Jun and the others were killed by someone deliberately avenging Shen Tinglan.”
Captain He’s cigarette snapped in half. “Someone’s avenging Shen Tinglan?”
“Every time one of the five people who killed Shen Tinglan died, Lin Xi received a mysterious text message. Yesterday’s two cases were the same.”
“A mysterious person?”
“I’ve already asked the tech department to investigate, but it might take some time.”
Captain He hummed in acknowledgment, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the armrest of the sofa. After a while, he said, “Shen Tinglan’s social circle was small. He and Teacher Lin didn’t have any children. Aside from me, the only people they interacted with were his students.”
Captain He looked Zou Shuyang up and down, shifting his position. “Captain Zou, are you telling me I should recuse myself?”
Zou Shuyang waved his hand, indicating that was a heavy accusation.
“That’s not what I meant. I’m just offering a line of thought. Our primary focus should still be on the two deaths from yesterday.” Zou Shuyang pulled out the autopsy report from the coroner. “I went back to the crime scene this morning and heard an old man’s account of Cheng Hao’s situation. I thought you’d like to hear it too.”
Zou Shuyang played back the recording he had made earlier at the old man’s house.
After a while, Captain He stroked his chin and commented, “He’s lying.”
Zou Shuyang nodded. “I already had someone bring him in. He should be here soon. What do you make of what he said?”
“Three things. First, there’s no way that canvas bag was transparent. How could he see the money inside through the bag’s exterior? Second, it’s nearly impossible to look up at someone from a lower floor, see clearly what they’re doing, and not be noticed.”
Zou Shuyang adjusted his plain clothes and continued, “Third, his sudden appearance is too convenient. I didn’t see him at the scene yesterday, yet today he recognized me as a police officer the moment he saw me, and he just happened to notice Cheng Hao’s strange behavior.”
Coincidences do happen in this world, but when investigating a case, you can’t overlook any “coincidence” that seems plausible on the surface.
Captain He nodded. “When they bring him in, we’ll interrogate him thoroughly. We might catch something big.”
“You’re not joining?”
Captain He shot Zou Shuyang a glance and patted his belly. “Me? I’m recusing myself.”
Just then, the phone on Zou Shuyang’s desk rang. He picked it up, and the first thing the person on the other end said left him frozen, as if struck by lightning.
“Captain Zou, that old man you mentioned… he’s dead.”
Be my Patron ~ Buy me Ko-Fi
✨Be a part of the story – support my translations✨
✨Buy me some Ko-FI | Paypal to support my effort✨
✨✨Advance chapter at Patreon✨✨
