I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 142: Chapter 140: I Did It All Myself

After watching the surveillance footage, Qi Feng handed the memory card from the evidence bag to Zhuang Yanzheng.

”Captain Zhuang, this is the memory card Lu Qiaoqiao brought in. It has the videos and photos Wen Zouyu secretly took of her. Lu Qiaoqiao took it from his dorm the night she went to kill him.”

”That Wen Zouyu is a real piece of shit,” Su Miaoyi said.

”A real piece of shit,” Qi Feng agreed.

Zhuang Yanzheng was silent for a moment, then took out his phone and opened a map.

Qi Feng popped a mint into his mouth to ward off his drowsiness.

Su Miaoyi glanced over and held her hand out to him.

Qi Feng looked at her.

Su Miaoyi’s eyes were completely bloodshot from exhaustion.

She was keeping herself awake through sheer willpower.

Qi Feng poured two mints into her hand.

Su Miaoyi ate one. A refreshing coolness shot straight to her head.

’It feels like my forehead is freezing over.’ Her fingers couldn’t help but clench.

”About to power up?” Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at her.

”Immortal Pill,” Su Miaoyi said, giving him the other one.

Zhuang Yanzheng tossed it into his mouth. Two seconds later, the intense coolness made him choke, sending him into a coughing fit.

Su Miaoyi said to Qi Feng, ”See? His training’s not up to par.”

She patted Zhuang Yanzheng’s shoulder as she spoke. ”You’re a rookie, Captain Zhuang. You need practice.”

Qi Feng nodded.

Zhuang Yanzheng shot him a look.

Qi Feng immediately stood at attention.

Zhuang Yanzheng swallowed the mint whole, letting a wave of coolness wash through his stomach. ”Come with me to see Lu Qiaoqiao again.”

”Yes, sir!” Qi Feng said.

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at Su Miaoyi.

Su Miaoyi nodded and went to wait outside the interrogation room.

...

”Why the sudden decision to turn yourself in?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked. ”When we questioned you this morning, you were still trying to deny everything. Not even half a day has passed, and now you want to confess. Why?”

”I just suddenly saw things clearly,” Lu Qiaoqiao said. ”I figured since you’d already come to me, you must have suspected me. Unless I vanished off the face of the earth so you couldn’t find me, there was no way I could escape. So, after thinking it over, I decided to turn myself in.”

”You guys always say confession brings leniency, right? I’m hoping you’ll be a little more lenient with me in my final days.”

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at her, then asked, ”How do you know Zeng Shuang?”

”Who’s Zeng Shuang?” Lu Qiaoqiao asked.

Zhuang Yanzheng paused again. ”Let’s put it this way. Most of what you said is true, but you lied about going to Wen Zouyu’s dorm.”

”No, I didn’t,” Lu Qiaoqiao said.

”Here’s what really happened. Zeng Shuang went to Wen Zouyu and Guan Yang’s dorm first. She had drinks with them and got them to take Triazolam.”

”The effects of Triazolam are fast-acting. Wen Zouyu and Guan Yang quickly lost consciousness and passed out. That’s when you went to the dorm. You used the fruit knife you bought to kill them.”

”You stabbed both of them twice, hitting their livers. Then, trying to hide your precise knife work, you stabbed each of them three more times. The extra stab wound on Wen Zouyu was added by Zeng Shuang.”

”After that, the two of you arranged their bodies to look like they had been fighting—one trying to crawl away, the other stopping him. You then added three more stab wounds to Wen Zouyu’s back.”

”Then you staged the scene. You used the blood to cover up most of your tracks while you searched for the memory card, ransacking the dorm and knocking things over.”

”Finally, you left the men’s dorm together. Zeng Shuang left via the athletic field, and you didn’t return to your own dorm either. You went back to your friend’s place from a different direction.”

”You prepared Zeng Shuang’s clothes, didn’t you? The two of you changed on campus to disguise yourselves before entering the men’s dorm.”

”I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lu Qiaoqiao said. ”And I don’t know why you’re making someone up.”

”Actually, after the police questioned you this morning, you became worried about Zeng Shuang. As soon as the police left, you went to her workplace and her apartment to find her,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”From Jinghai University to her job, then to her apartment, and from her apartment to the municipal bureau.”

He had looked at the map. The locations were all on a convenient, direct route.

”You didn’t dare contact her by phone, afraid we’d find out you two know each other,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

”I told you, I don’t know any Zeng Shuang. Why are you so fixated on her? As a police officer, you shouldn’t be framing an innocent person.”

...

In the other interrogation room.

After receiving the new surveillance footage and evidence, Chu Xingrou and another officer were also questioning Zeng Shuang.

”You said you did everything yourself, but based on the surveillance footage we pulled, considering the time you left the school, it’s impossible for one person to have committed the murders and staged the scene in such a short amount of time.”

”But I did,” Zeng Shuang said.

”What about the fruit knife used in the crime? You said it belonged to Wen Zouyu’s dorm,” Chu Xingrou said. ”But we’ve traced its origin and used supermarket surveillance footage to find the person who bought it.”

Zeng Shuang remained perfectly calm. ”Just because the buyer wasn’t Wen Zouyu, that makes them the killer? What if the person who bought it knew Wen Zouyu, knew he needed a fruit knife, and just bought one for him?”

Chu Xingrou watched her.

She maintained a calm exterior, but inside, she was panicking.

This was the first time she had conducted an interrogation by herself.

Previously, she had always been with Zhuang Yanzheng or Qi Feng.

The calmer the person opposite her was, the more she panicked.

And she had to pretend she had everything under control.

”But the person who bought it *is* the killer. The surveillance footage has a specific time,” Chu Xingrou said. ”Your theory doesn’t hold up.”

A flicker of panic finally showed in Zeng Shuang’s eyes.

Chu Xingrou said, ”Lu Qiaoqiao was the one who told you that you could get into the men’s dorm through the side door, wasn’t she?”

Zeng Shuang opened her mouth to say something, but Chu Xingrou cut her off. ”Of all the wounds on the victims’ bodies, only one was from you. The rest were all from Lu Qiaoqiao.”

”I stabbed them. Don’t drag an innocent person into this,” Zeng Shuang said.

”Lu Qiaoqiao has already turned herself in,” Chu Xingrou said.

Zeng Shuang froze for a second. Then, she clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, forcing herself to calm down. ”I’ve already told you, I did it all. I’ve explained the whole thing in detail. I don’t know why you’re bringing up another person. I don’t know any Lu Qiaoqiao, and I don’t know what you’re trying to do.”

”How did you two meet?” Chu Xingrou asked.

”I don’t know her,” Zeng Shuang said.

”When did you meet?” Chu Xingrou pressed.

”I said, I don’t know her! I did everything myself! I did it all myself!” Zeng Shuang suddenly raised her voice.

”She’s already confessed. You should know that saying all this is pointless now,” Chu Xingrou said. ”Even if you’ve memorized your story until you can recite it in your sleep, it’s still full of holes. When two people do something, one person can never patch up all the inconsistencies, no matter how hard they try.”

”I did it myself! I killed them! It has nothing to do with anyone else! I did it alone! All of it!”

...