Chapter 68: Evidence

He Jueyun had someone pull Ding Xihua’s personal file, including all major events that had occurred around him during his school years, and any students or teachers who had given him notable evaluations.

Based on the current evidence, Qiong Cang had Shen Sui come to the police station to assist with the investigation.

Ding Xihua had accompanied Shen Sui, standing obediently by her side and asking passing officers for details with a touch of shyness. Dressed in a white shirt, he looked completely innocent and harmless.

Shen Sui was led away for interrogation, while Ding Xihua remained in the waiting room, waiting patiently. He Jueyun had intended to approach Ding Xihua to see if he could draw anything out of him, but Qiong Cang raised her hand to stop him.

Qiong Cang shook her head, signaling him not to try for a direct breakthrough with Ding Xihua to avoid alerting him. It would be better to inquire at Ding Xihua’s school about what time he returned last night. He Jueyun agreed.

Qiong Cang then singled out the boisterous young officer from before, telling him to join her for the interrogation. The young man’s eyes lit up. He shed his jacket with a flourish and followed her eagerly.

Holding the files, the two of them entered the interrogation room one after the other, closing the door behind them.

The crisp click of the lock made Shen Sui, who was already seated inside, look up. Looking at the shadows looming before her, she pointed at the light and said, “Excuse me, could you dim that a bit? My eyes aren’t good, and this light is making me very uncomfortable.”

Qiong Cang said with regret, “I’m sorry, our lights aren’t that advanced. They don’t have a dimming function.”

“Oh.”

Facing them alone, Shen Sui seemed highly insecure. She kept shifting slightly on her stool, adjusting her posture as if the chair made her extremely uncomfortable. She did not even seem to know how to position her feet.

“We meet again,” Qiong Cang said. “Didn’t expect it to be so soon, did you?”

“Why did you bring me here?” Shen Sui asked. “Didn’t you already question me this morning?”

“Because some other questions have come up,” Qiong Cang said. “It’s quite normal. We’ve brought in others as well. Hong Jun was just here, and he just left.”

Hearing the name, Shen Sui grew tense. “What did he say? How could you just let him leave? Isn’t he the Murderer?”

“I can’t tell you that,” Qiong Cang said playfully. “But you can guess.”

“What?” Shen Sui said in disbelief.

Qiong Cang propped up her folder, looking down to flip through the contents. She asked casually, “I have a question. How do you know who Hong Jun is?”

Shen Sui froze, then said, “Of course I know. Isn’t he the suspect who killed my husband? Didn’t you tell me this morning?”

“Is that so?” Qiong Cang looked at her over the top of the folder. “When we met earlier, I never mentioned Hong Jun’s name in front of you. To you, he should be someone who only met your husband once, and with whom there was no contact for twelve years. You haven’t seen him in so many years, yet you still remember his name?”

Shen Sui wrapped her arms around herself and said flatly, “After all, there was that unpleasant car accident. He left a deep impression on me.”

“I don’t doubt that you remember his face, but human memory isn’t as powerful as you think,” Qiong Cang said. “Many people graduate from college and already forget the names of most of their elementary school classmates. And those were friends they spent six years with.”

Shen Sui grew angry. “I just remember!”

Qiong Cang smiled, pulled two photos from the folder, placed them side by side, and slid them over with her finger.

“Just a moment ago, I recall you saying that you didn’t go out last night. Please explain, what is this?”

The top of the photo was stamped with a time, showing it was past eleven last night. The person in the photo was driving a small white car and wearing a black baseball cap. Unfortunately, the cap failed to cover her face, and the angle of the roadside surveillance camera happened to capture her face clearly.

Shen Sui glanced at the photo and quickly looked away. Although she tried her best to remain calm, the prominent collarbones on her neck were enough to betray her tension.

“The surveillance footage was retrieved from a location near the crime scene. Following this road leads directly to where Ding Tao died.” Qiong Cang said mockingly, “It seems you not only went out, but also went to ‘visit’ your husband?”

Shen Sui had clearly thought about this question. She answered quickly and enunciated clearly, “I was only passing by that area yesterday. When I heard you say my husband died there, I was afraid of being suspected, so I lied instinctively. I really didn’t think that much of it.”

“Wasn’t your relationship with your husband quite good?” Qiong Cang asked. “Why would you worry about being suspected?”

“Many murder cases turn out to be committed by family members or friends,” Shen Sui said. “Your police investigation would definitely start with me.”

The young police officer deliberately typed loudly on the keyboard, making a sharp, aggressive clattering noise.

“Oh…” Qiong Cang nodded, drawing out the word. “Then where exactly did you go last night?”

“To chat with my friend,” Shen Sui said, raising her hand to tidy the stray hairs by her forehead, repeatedly tucking them behind her ear. “The recent call logs on my phone haven’t been deleted yet. You can call her back and ask. She can prove when I arrived at her house. I didn’t stop at all on the way. I was just passing by.”

Qiong Cang spread her hands. “That proves nothing. You didn’t need to stop for long. You only needed to drop your accomplice off by the side of the road.”

“I don’t have an accomplice!” Shen Sui said loudly. “Why won’t you believe me? I have absolutely no reason to kill Lao Tao! I was just passing by on my way to my friend’s house!”

Qiong Cang pressed her hand down, gesturing for her to be quiet. “Enough. Stop making these nonsensical explanations. Judges have a certain ability to discern evidence. Do you think you can just talk your way out of this? You are making a mockery of our country’s judicial process.”

The young police officer had been taking notes. Hearing this, he looked up and bared his teeth at the woman opposite him.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t admit it,” Qiong Cang said. “We will search your vehicle. We can likely find out where you went last night, where you stopped, and who you carried in the car. Forensic technology is very advanced now. The development of new techniques in recent years is beyond the imagination of ordinary people, not to mention that your methods, Ms. Shen, were not very clever. I assume you didn’t think to disinfect and clean the interior of the car to destroy DNA evidence?”

Shen Sui held her ground and said, “It’s our family car. Isn’t it perfectly normal for my husband’s DNA to be in it? Don’t try to trick me.”

Qiong Cang shook her head. “Ding Tao drank so much alcohol yesterday and was fed sleeping pills. He vomited before he died. Do you think he left some saliva or other bodily fluids inside your car? Your husband probably hadn’t taken such a high concentration of sleeping pills before, right? Besides DNA testing, we can also run a chemical composition analysis.”

Shen Sui’s eyes flickered. It looked as if she had been broken down step by step and was now on the verge of collapse.

Qiong Cang said, “Surrendering can reduce your sentence, and turning in your accomplice can also lighten your punishment. This is your last chance. Ms. Shen, do you have anything to say?”

Shen Sui hesitated for a long moment before finally lowering her head. “Yes, I killed him.”

The young police officer looked delighted and winked at Qiong Cang. Qiong Cang, however, did not relax. She sat up straight, waiting to hear her confession.

Shen Sui spoke slowly, word by word. “I met Hong Jun a long time ago. I knew he hated my husband, so…”

“Save it,” Qiong Cang interrupted. “The footprints left at the scene actually prove that Hong Jun is not the murderer. They don’t match.”

Shen Sui stammered, blunting out, “Did you make a mistake in your investigation? There were so many footprints at the scene.”

“Let’s not question our professionalism, shall we?” Qiong Cang chuckled, checking the time on her phone. “I really don’t have much time to wait for your confession. If you don’t want to talk, we have plenty of ways to find out ourselves. It’s just that the outcome will be different then. There’s no need for that, don’t you think?”

Shen Sui wrung her fingers, closing her eyes as she took deep, heavy breaths.

After waiting for five minutes without any response, Qiong Cang seemed to lose her patience. “We have already sent people to Ding Xihua’s dorm,” she said. “He was responsible for moving Ding Tao yesterday. His clothes, his shoes… there will definitely be evidence left on them.”

Shen Sui snapped her head up.

Qiong Cang gave a humorless smile. “Investigate starting from the family members. Isn’t that what you just said?”

·

He Jueyun arrived at Ding Xihua’s school, got the dorm room number from the counselor, and had the roommate called back.

The roommate opened the door, and the first thing He Jueyun saw was clothes hanging on the small balcony, still dripping water. He walked over quickly, slid open the glass door, and took the clothes down.

The roommate watched him from behind with a look of curiosity. It was probably his first time seeing a police officer work a case in person.

He Jueyun sniffed them. The clothes smelled strongly of bleach. Ding Xihua was clearly much more meticulous than Shen Sui.

He asked, “When did Ding Xihua get back?”

“Late last night, I think?” The roommate yawned sleepily. “He called me at two in the morning saying he was coming back. It was so random, okay? And to top it off, he started showering and washing his clothes the moment he got back. It made absolutely no sense! I was already staying up late to write a paper, and with him making all that noise, I didn’t get a wink of sleep all night.”

He Jueyun pushed open the bathroom door and saw a blue plastic basin on the floor. Inside, a pair of clean shoes was soaking in water that also contained a heavy amount of bleach.

He Jueyun walked back out and asked, “Ding Xihua is so rich, why does he still live in a student dorm?”

“He used to live in the neighborhood across from the school,” the roommate said. “He only moved back last month.”

He Jueyun asked, “Why did he move back?”

“I don’t know.” The roommate shrugged. “To make it easier to study?”

That excuse sounded far too perfunctory.

He Jueyun asked, “How did he get in last night?”

The roommate walked to the balcony and pointed. “He climbed up from right here. I opened the balcony door for him.”

Sure enough, He Jueyun spotted a faint footprint where the roommate was pointing. He stood at the edge, leaning out to look down, staring thoughtfully at the identical balcony on the floor below and the grass on the ground level.

“Wait here for a moment. I’ll be right back.”

He Jueyun ran down to the first floor and searched the grass. Other than some flattened patches, he found nothing.

He took photos of everything with his phone, then headed up to the second floor.

He Jueyun got the key from the dorm manager. Only when he reached the door did he realize there were students inside the second-floor room. Hearing movement, he knocked on the door.

After a brief rustle, a young man still in his pajamas opened the door. He stared at He Jueyun, looking utterly confused.

He Jueyun said, “I’d like to take a look at your balcony.”

Before he could even pull out his badge, the student spoke up. “Are you here for the necklace?”

He Jueyun’s hand paused over his chest pocket. “Could you show it to me, please?”

The student turned back into the room to fetch it, asking, “How did your necklace end up on our balcony anyway? Did you hang it out to dry? You look unfamiliar, though. Are you a student here?”

He Jueyun flipped open his badge with two fingers. “Police.”

The student in pajamas nearly tripped over his own feet. “Is that thing really that expensive?” he muttered. “You had to call the police over it?”

The clasp of the necklace was broken. It had likely caught on something while Ding Xihua was climbing in the dark, snapping off when he pulled away.

He Jueyun carefully placed it in an evidence bag, then went back upstairs to show the roommate.

“Do you recognize this? Is it Ding Xihua’s?”

Without a second thought, the roommate blurted out, “Yeah, that’s it. He wears that necklace all the time.”

He Jueyun said, “Alright, thank you.”

He Jueyun walked to a quiet corner with the evidence to call Qiong Cang.

The phone rang several times before Qiong Cang finally answered.

“Find something?” Qiong Cang asked.

He Jueyun said, “Ding Xihua washed all his clothes and shoes with bleach, so I don’t know how much useful evidence we can still extract from them. However, I found a necklace at the scene that he accidentally dropped while climbing the wall last night. If he was wearing it when he committed the crime, we might get lucky. I’ll send it in for forensic testing in a bit.”

Qiong Cang: “Hmm…”

He Jueyun noticed something off in her tone and asked, “Is Shen Sui refusing to confess?”

“She confessed,” Qiong Cang said. “Shen Sui has very weak nerves. It’s her first crime, so she was incredibly anxious, and she isn’t particularly smart. A simple bluff was all it took for her to break.”

He Jueyun asked, puzzled, “Isn’t that a good thing? The case is solved. Aren’t you happy?”

Qiong Cang let out a cold laugh. “She claims she killed Ding Tao and planned the entire thing. She fed Ding Tao an overdose of sleeping pills, believed he was already dead, and then coerced Ding Xihua into helping her move the body. She says Ding Xihua had no prior knowledge, did not participate willingly, and took no initiative. He even repeatedly urged her to turn herself in, but she refused to listen. Her original plan was to frame Hong Jun, and she didn’t expect the police to uncover the truth.”

He Jueyun frowned.

“Ding Xihua might have known from the very beginning that he could be exposed. He let Shen Sui leave countless flaws and clues for us to trace back to her. But he also knew that Shen Sui would cover for him and take most of the blame herself. That way, Ding Xihua is merely an accomplice to disposing of a corpse, which could reduce his sentence or even get him off entirely. And disposing of a corpse, as long as it wasn’t desecrated, isn’t a severe crime in itself.”

Qiong Cang said with heavy irony, “Using a minor offense to legally escape a murder charge. Ding Tao really raised a son who surpassed him.”

He Jueyun fell silent, not knowing what to say.

If Qiong Cang hadn’t pointed it out, he actually would have preferred to believe Shen Sui’s confession, rather than believe that someone as absurd and shameless as Ding Xihua could exist in this world.

Qiong Cang said, “I’m arriving at the school now. Wait for me.”