Chapter 135: Gambling Ruins Lives

Zhao Guilan’s reaction was chilling, and Zhu Qiang’s behavior was no better.

After treating his wounds and getting him into the car, he kept staring at Aofeng in the middle seat, the viciousness in his eyes plain to see. Aofeng met his gaze without the slightest fear. A guy like Zhu Qiang? Aofeng could take on three of him at once. If he had any family or friends living here, he might have to hold back a little for fear of retaliation. But now? He was a lone wolf, inside and out. What was there to be afraid of?

Zhu Qiang glared at Aofeng with hatred. He could actually see contempt in that dog’s face. A dog was looking down on him! Damn it, once he got out, he was going to kill that mutt! Zhu Qiang was already plotting in his mind.

Now that he’d calmed down, he realized just how foolish his actions had been the day before. These cops didn’t even have any evidence. So what if they asked him a few questions? Even if he wanted to run, he should’ve waited until they left. Bolting like that just made things worse.

How was he going to explain why he ran the moment he saw the police? Zhu Qiang’s eyes darted around as he thought it over. After a while, he decided to say he’d been out gambling and thought the cops were there for a gambling bust. He panicked, afraid they’d confiscate the cash on him, so he ran. They didn’t have any proof anyway. Yeah, that would work!

Aofeng watched him scheming with a belly full of bad ideas and couldn’t help snorting through his nose. This guy probably didn’t even know about DNA matching, did he? If he did, he definitely wouldn’t be this calm. While there was no direct evidence yet proving Zhu Qiang was the killer, his behavior made it all but certain.

With people like him, there was no need for mercy. If he dared give Aofeng that skin-crawling, murderous look again, Aofeng would give him a couple of slaps to jog his memory about what happened yesterday. He was a dog now, after all. As long as he didn’t cause any real harm, giving the guy a little pain shouldn’t be a big deal, right?

Catching a glimpse of Aofeng’s wolf-like, bloodthirsty eyes, Zhu Qiang couldn’t help shivering. His face started to throb again. Damn it, what was with this dog? It didn’t bite, just slapped. What the hell did that even mean? If he’d been bitten, maybe he could’ve sued them for letting a dog attack him. But now? He’d lost both face and dignity.

Zhu Qiang temporarily pushed down his desire for revenge, closed his eyes, and tried to sleep. Seeing this, Aofeng curled up on the seat, bored, and started to rest as well.

Song Changfeng had been watching the “interaction” between man and dog the whole time. Aofeng’s intelligence once again shattered his expectations. He was starting to think Aofeng’s intelligence wasn’t just that of a five- or six-year-old child, but at least ten.

In the canine world, Border Collies were known to be the smartest, with intelligence comparable to a six- to eight-year-old child. German Shepherds, on the other hand, typically had the intelligence of a five- to six-year-old. Their ceiling was the Border Collie’s floor. But the smartest Border Collies weren’t suited to be police dogs, because they couldn’t follow orders with one hundred percent obedience.

Now, Aofeng was proving with every action that a dog could be both highly intelligent and fully obedient. In that moment, Song Changfeng felt a sudden surge of emotion. “To have a dog like this, what more could I ask¹ for?” he thought. Meeting Aofeng was truly the greatest fortune of his life.

The hours on the road passed in a flash. As they escorted Zhu Qiang toward the interrogation room, others were leading Zhao Guilan out.

After a sleepless night of questioning, Zhao Guilan looked even more haggard and aged. The moment she saw Zhu Qiang, tears welled up and spilled down her cheeks. “Qiangzi²…”

Zhu Qiang frowned. “Aunt? What are you doing here?” A bad feeling crept into his heart.

“Don’t talk. Move!” The officers cut them off and led the two in opposite directions.

Normally, suspects weren’t allowed to meet. But given how calm and confident Zhu Qiang had been on the way over, they decided to play a little psychological game. The more flustered he got after seeing Zhao Guilan, the easier it would be to question him.

After going through the formalities, they began the official interrogation. When asked what he was doing on the sixth, Zhu Qiang gave the same answer as Zhao Guilan. That wasn’t surprising. Clearly, they’d agreed on their story in advance. When the police asked why he ran when he saw them, he gave the explanation he’d come up with in the car.

On the surface, Zhu Qiang seemed calm. But inside, his mind kept spinning. Why was his aunt here too? From the looks of her, she’d been here all night. That was plenty of time for them to get something out of her. And why did she cry the moment she saw him? Had she confessed everything?! No, that couldn’t be. Zhu Qiang forced himself to breathe slowly. Without any evidence, only a fool would confess. His aunt couldn’t be that stupid!

But what if they had evidence?

No, impossible. They had cleaned everything up back then. There couldn’t be any evidence left. These cops were bluffing, they had to be.

“Zhu Qiang? Zhu Qiang! What are you spacing out for? Do you know where you are? Get serious!”

Zhu Qiang snapped back to attention. The officer across from him was glaring, and a jolt of anxiety shot through him. He quickly forced himself to stop overthinking and focused on listening to the questions.

At first, his answers were coherent. But gradually, he began to lose focus. The questions the police were asking… it felt like they had already asked them before, or maybe they hadn’t. He knew he was exhausted. He hadn’t rested properly all night. On the ride over, sandwiched between two officers, he had closed his eyes but hadn’t dared to actually fall asleep. Now, under the relentless barrage of questions, each requiring careful thought, he was starting to feel overwhelmed.

“…I already told you, I went to my aunt’s place to deliver some produce my grandpa grew,” Zhu Qiang said with a yawn. It felt like he’d answered this same question three times already.

“What kind of produce?”

“Didn’t I just say? Watermelons, corn, and some vegetables,” Zhu Qiang replied, a little irritated.

“Watch your tone. Just answer the questions honestly. What did you use to carry the produce?”

“A burlap sack,” Zhu Qiang answered offhandedly. But the moment the words left his mouth, he noticed the faint smile tugging at the corner of the officer’s lips, as if they had just uncovered something.

Zhu Qiang jolted awake. Wait a second, had he already answered this question earlier? If he had, what did he say back then?

Was it different? Otherwise, why would they be smiling like that?

Or had he not answered it before? Then why were they smiling? Did he answer it or not?

His brain felt like it was about to explode. His thoughts were a tangled mess. Watching the officer’s mouth move in front of him, he felt dizzy and overwhelmed. He couldn’t help but shout, “Stop talking!”

The room fell silent. Zhu Qiang’s mind cleared for a moment, and he quickly tried to recover. “Officer, I have a terrible headache. I think I might be coming down with something. I’d like to request a break from questioning.”

One officer shook his head. “A cold isn’t a valid reason to suspend questioning. And you look perfectly healthy. We have reason to believe you’re deliberately trying to avoid interrogation. Please adjust your attitude and answer our questions seriously.”

“I already told you, I didn’t kill her! What more do you want from me? You don’t have any evidence. What gives you the right to bring me in?” Zhu Qiang roared.

The two officers across from him looked surprised. “We haven’t even started asking about that. When did you say that?”

Zhu Qiang froze. He quickly tried to recall. It was true, they hadn’t asked about that yet. Up to now, they’d only been asking about trivial details from that day, even repeating questions about what he wore two or three times. After all that, his mind had gone numb. His thoughts were spilling out before he could even process them.

“I… I meant, the reason you brought me in is because of that case, right? But I have nothing to do with it. You should let me go.”

Zhu Qiang waited for their response, but instead, one of the officers pulled out his phone and glanced at it. Then he stood up and left the room. A moment later, he returned with a few sheets of paper in hand.

“You say you have nothing to do with the case? Then take a look. What does this say?”

The officer slid over the DNA test results. Zhu Qiang picked them up. He couldn’t understand the technical jargon, but he recognized the term “highly consistent.”

His DNA matched something? Could it be from that woman’s body? No way!

“According to our investigation, we found traces of blood under the victim’s right ring fingernail. Your blood is a match. How do you explain that?”

Zhu Qiang was stunned, resisting the urge to reach back and touch his neck. It was still burning, and he could still feel the sting of her fingernail digging into his skin.

“You claimed you didn’t leave the house that day. Then how did your blood end up under the victim’s fingernail? Also, during our investigation of a WeChat account, we found that an account named Xiaoping Car Repair transferred several payments to you, totaling sixty thousand yuan. That money came from the victim. How do you explain that?”

The officers’ words came at him like machine-gun fire. Zhu Qiang finally understood. All those earlier questions had just been a stalling tactic. They had already gathered the evidence. They were just waiting for the right moment to hit him with it and break him down. And now, faced with this ironclad proof, his already shattered mental defenses couldn’t hold up any longer. All he could do was confess.

According to Zhu Qiang’s confession, he became addicted to gambling last year. Before that, he had been running a car repair business with a partner, earning seven to eight thousand yuan a month. But after falling into gambling, it didn’t take long for him to burn through all his savings.

Gambling addiction is like a drug habit—once it takes hold, it’s nearly impossible to shake. When Zhu Qiang ran out of money, he first tried to coax money from his family. When they refused, he started borrowing from relatives under various pretexts. Altogether, he racked up over a hundred thousand yuan in debt. For an average person, that amount would take years to save, but on the gambling table, it vanished in an instant.

Despite losing so much, Zhu Qiang had developed the mindset of a gambler. He was convinced that the next round would be his big comeback. So he kept borrowing to keep gambling. It wasn’t until he owed three hundred thousand yuan that he suddenly realized he might never win it back.

Faced with threats from loan sharks, Zhu Qiang returned home in tears and begged the one person who loved him most—his grandfather—for help. He promised that if his grandfather helped him pay off the debt, he would never gamble again. His grandfather handed over his life savings and even forced several of Zhu Qiang’s aunts to each contribute tens of thousands, finally plugging the financial hole.

Shaken by the experience, Zhu Qiang did stay out of trouble for a while. But gradually, he reconnected with his old gambling crowd. Hearing them boast about winning eight thousand today and ten thousand tomorrow, he began to feel that fixing cars had no future. So, without telling his family, he went back to gambling.

This time, after losing money again, he didn’t go to his grandfather. Instead, he went straight to his second aunt, Zhao Guilan, the one who cared for him most, and asked her for help. At first, Zhao Guilan refused. Ever since she handed over fifty thousand yuan last time, her husband had forbidden her from managing any money. But her nephew’s repeated pleas wore her down, and she turned to the wealthiest friend she had—Liu Cuiping.

Because of this money, a once-happy family was torn apart, and they themselves were left with no way back.

Translator’s Notes