CH 20

Lu Junchi cautiously walked down the stairs holding his gun in both hands. The corridor in front of him was dimly lit, with several rooms on both sides. As he walked further down, the smell of blood became stronger.

Several police officers followed him into the somewhat dim basement.

As Lu Junchi approached a room, he heard a muffled whimpering sound coming from someone. The room was not locked, and with a push, the door opened with a creak. He raised his gun, and upon confirming that there was no ambush inside, he walked in.

The room was covered in blood. The walls and floor were soaked in dark red, and even the ceiling was splattered with blood. Looking around, the scene was nauseating. It was like hell on earth.

On a metal bed inside the room, lay a woman who was tied up with her limbs. Blood was still flowing continuously from her wrists. This woman was Ning Ke, the female clerk who had disappeared not long ago.

Lu Junchi walked in and put down his gun. Although the victim was a little dazed, she was obviously still alive.

He breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Qu Ming, "Hurry up and save her!"

Lu Junchi and Qu Ming quickly removed the tape from Ning Ke's mouth and untied her from the steel bed. Qu Ming took off his own jacket and tied it tightly around Ning Ke's wrist to slow down the bleeding.

Ning Ke's consciousness was already somewhat fuzzy, but she could confirm that she had been saved. When Lu Junchi was bandaging her, tears rolled down her cheeks. She opened her mouth and whispered, "Thank you."

Lu Junchi said to her, "Don't be afraid, you're safe now. The ambulance will be here soon."

The two quickly settled the victim, and Lu Junchi thought of something else and said to Qiao Ze standing beside him, "Retrieve all the relevant information on Fu Yunchu immediately." 

Qiao Ze was stunned and asked, "What exactly do you need?" 

Lu Junchi replied, "Everything, the more detailed the better."

At this point, other police officers had already tried to open the doors one by one in the corridor. There were several rooms in the corridor, most of which were not locked.

Behind one of the doors, there were several clothes hangers with various women's clothing hanging on them, and several pairs of large-sized women's shoes were placed on the floor. In the other rooms, some were piled up with sundries, some contained various chemicals, and some were filled with empty wooden boxes used to contain limbs.

Lu Junchi walked to the end of the corridor, took a deep breath, and opened the door. This room was different from the previous ones; it had been cleaned spotlessly, with two tall shelves placed against the wall, on which several large wooden boxes were placed.

In the corner of the room, there were several large refrigerators that were still humming. Lu Junchi looked at those square boxes and had a bad feeling. They reminded him of the boxes containing limbs, but the ones in front of him were much larger.

Lu Junchi thought of a painting he had seen in the lobby earlier. He had hurried past it and only glanced at it, but he remembered the name of the painting was "Beloved." Behind the woman in the painting were several of these boxes.

Lu Junchi approached and put on gloves. He picked up one of the boxes from the shelf and opened it, only to find that it contained the same white preservative chemical as the previous boxes.

Lu Junchi's heart was pounding. He knew that the box in front of him should contain what Su Hui had mentioned before - the killer's totem. Based on the size of the box, he roughly estimated what was inside. However, Lu Junchi still couldn't believe this fact. He used his hand to move the powder aside, dug deeper, and touched human skin. Then, he saw a dense mass of black hair...

It was a woman's long hair.

An indescribable feeling arose in Lu Junchi's heart. He didn't need to look any further, he had confirmed what was inside the box. Su Hui was right, the killer's trophies were different from others, which was why he sold the limbs as a byproduct.

Lu Junchi turned around and opened the freezers. Inside were frozen remains of limbs and heads. It was difficult to tell how many there were... It looked like a slaughterhouse, or even a hell on earth, where the bodies were casually stacked together, making them no different from livestock.

Lu Junchi stood up straight. He had seen too many brutal crime scenes and various types of corpses. Even though he had a strong mentality, he still found it difficult to breathe for a moment.

"Captain Lu, the support and ambulance have arrived," Qiao Ze said as he walked into the room. He shivered from the cold air and then looked at the contents of the freezers. He covered his mouth instantly...

Meanwhile, in the Baihu Mountain Prison, Su Hui was still sitting opposite Song Rongjiang. 

Despite the blurry vision, he could still sense the hostility and brutality in the man's eyes. If Song Rongjiang had a knife in his hand, he would definitely not hesitate to plunge it into him and deeply pierce his body.

The interrogation room was equipped with central air conditioning, and the temperature was a bit low. Su Hui wore an extra jacket today, but he could still feel a bone-penetrating cold. 

At this point, the relationship that had been established in the first two meetings had completely changed

Su Hui knew that Song Rongjiang's trust in him had reached an all-time low, and he could no longer get any positive answers from this man. He had to find a different way to communicate with him to get the answers he wanted.

Su Hui admitted that Song Rongjiang was a somewhat different killer, self-confident, sensitive, and cruel, which matched his profile. Song Rongjiang's starting point wasn't very high, as evidenced by the disorder of the first case. But later, he upgraded rapidly. In the second case, he had already undergone significant changes. In the case of Pei Weiwei, he destroyed a lot of evidence, and his methods and psychological capacity for committing crimes improved significantly.

The police repeatedly collected evidence, and the judge interrogated him severely, but none of this made Song Rongjiang confess to the crime. If it weren't for Pei Weiwei satisfying Song Rongjiang's victim selection and his ample motive and conditions for committing the crime, the police would have almost no way to associate Pei Weiwei's disappearance with Song Rongjiang.

Su Hui believed that this appearance represented one thing. From the beginning, from Song Rongjiang's planning to kill Pei Weiwei, he intended to conceal the crime. He would not let anyone know that Pei Weiwei was related to him, so people could not find her whereabouts.

Su Hui remained calm and unmoved. "If you don't want to speak, then you can listen to me analyze how much I have learned about you through our recent conversations."

This made Song Rongjiang hesitate for a moment. He was not sure how much this person in front of him knew.

The interrogation room fell silent, and only the sound of the central air conditioner could be heard. The overhead lights appeared cold and merciless.

Su Hui continued, "In fact, Pei Weiwei was the first case in terms of psychological crime time, not the actual crime time. I checked Pei Weiwei's information. She was a member of the literature club when she was in school and also participated in a stage play adapted from Shakespeare's works. Although she lived on campus, because her family was in this city, she took a taxi home from the school gate every Friday night and took a taxi back to school from home every Sunday night. That happened to be the time after you finished your shift."

As he said these words, Song Rongjiang suddenly fell silent.

Su Hui paused for a moment before saying, "You noticed that female student a long time ago, didn't you? Whether it was at the bookstore or on her way home in a taxi, she might have been alone or with classmates. At that time, she may have even talked about those poems..."

Song Rongjiang looked up and sneered coldly, "Teacher Su, you're quite good at making up stories..."

Su Hui then presented evidence, "I deduce that you met Pei Weiwei around mid-June last year. From your Weibo and Moments posts, it's clear that you had some hope for life at that time... Of course, this is only your one-sided acquaintance, Pei Weiwei may not have been aware of your existence."

In a city with so many taxis and people coming and going, who would care about a taxi driver they randomly rode with? Normal people wouldn't remember what the driver looked like, how old they were, or the license plate number.

But at that time, Pei Weiwei didn't realize that the driver sitting silently in the front seat had been observing her through the rearview mirror and even had some strange thoughts in his mind...

As Su Hui spoke, Song Rongjiang forgot to smoke for a moment, and he quieted down, not continuing to refute.

"You began to tail Pei Weiwei, then you intentionally appeared at her taxi pickup point. Through her taxi journeys, you learned her address, her school, the places she likes to go... You did this because you wanted to pursue this girl."

"You weren't satisfied just being near Pei Weiwei, and gradually began to fantasize about what could happen between you two. But at that time, you should have realized that there was an insurmountable gap between you and Pei Weiwei. In terms of age, you're almost ten years older than her. In terms of family background, you're also lower than her. Education, appearance, you felt that you couldn't match her either. Your initial emotions were soon replaced by feelings of inferiority, and so you posted these Weibo posts..."

Song Rongjiang lowered his head and looked at the printed contents in front of him.

Su Hui even had a few photos of him when he was lurking outside Pei Weiwei's school, taken by a surveillance camera.

In the face of all the evidence, Song Rongjiang's fingers trembled slightly. He took another drag of his cigarette, the pungent smoke entering his lungs and temporarily calming his nerves. He still denied Su Hui's hypothesis, "Teacher Su, just because I'm about to be executed doesn't mean you can make up things." He gritted his teeth and emphasized one word at a time, "I have never met Pei Weiwei!"

TN:

Teacher Su is about to take down two psychopaths using his intelligence. 

Fun fact, well not fun but sick. Yeah so sick fact, Ted Bundy, you know that American serial killer that is said to have killed hundreds of women, he used to keep the heads of the women as his totems. He would first decapacitate the victims, then have s*x with their corpses. He also used to take those heads back to his apartment wash their hair, put makeup on them, and then continue to perform s*xual acts with them. He was a sick fu*ker. To add to why he's such a psycho is the fact that he actually worked at the suicide prevention hotline while committing these deranged acts. How is he even a human being?

Sorry I keep using the translator notes to go on my 'True Crime' tangents when y'all are here for the story. I just get carried away sometimes.