We ate heartily, finishing the portion in our hands and then looking to open another. We then opened the fish porridge, and I deliberately chewed loudly, further stimulating Kong Ziyu's stomach acid. I imagined his entire stomach churning.
He swallowed a few times, but the saliva stubbornly continued to dribble down.
Finally, he relented: "Can you please give me a bite? I'll tell you everything, really!"
"Is that so? Then speak first, or you'll never eat!" I retorted.
"Just one bite! Then I'll talk!"
"No, you speak first!" I snapped.
Only then did Kong Ziyu let down his guard and tell us: "That's right, we killed those women. But, that wasn't my idea initially; it was that bitch Tong Jing Lei who forced me!"
"Why did she force you?" I frowned, having already suspected something along these lines earlier.
"Because she hated those women. You don't know, but I'd been involved with those deceased women. Perhaps Tong Jing Lei wanted revenge, so she played the guitar and drove those animals to kill them! She has a very special power that allows her to control animals and make them obey her!"
"You didn't play the guitar, did you?" Liu Yu Ning asked.
"No, I was only responsible for sending messages inviting the victims to a certain location!"
"But how did you contact that policewoman? Don't tell me you were involved with Li Wen Juan too?" I asked curiously.
"No, Li Wen Juan once brought a Labrador to my hospital. We actually didn't have anything going on, but Tong Jing Lei thought I'd fallen for her again. Somehow, she got her contact information. She also has a way to bypass surveillance and locate people using their mobile signals."
"She's that capable? What did she study before?"
"I'm not too sure. I heard she has a brother who's a hacker!"
I continued to ask: "So, what exactly is your relationship with Tong Jing Lei?"
"On the surface, we're boyfriend and girlfriend, but in reality, I'm her servant, her dog. She injected me with a poison, an acetylcholine. I don't know how she concocted it, but I won't die immediately. However, I need to use the antidote she provides regularly, otherwise, I'll die from convulsions," Kong Ziyu said sadly.
Liu Yu Ning asked: "Is this why she's been threatening you?"
"Yes, Officer Liu. I was truly forced. It was all that bitch Tong Jing Lei's doing. At most, I was an accomplice."
As Kong Ziyu answered, I continuously observed his micro-expressions and found his reactions to be normal, suggesting he wasn't lying. However, I still needed someone to verify. I sent a message to Gao Ming Qiang asking him to search Kong Ziyu's dormitory again, then asked Xia Hou to check the police station's surveillance system, and finally asked He Xin to look into Tong Jing Lei's information again.
We eventually discovered that Tong Jing Lei indeed had a very capable hacker brother, Tong Jun Hui. He was five years older than Tong Jing Lei. Once we located him, the police immediately set out to arrest him as well.
It turned out there were so many people involved behind the scenes of this case. No wonder Tong Jing Lei could kill without a trace, leaving no evidence behind.
When we found Tong Jun Hui, he was still working at a tech company. He resisted fiercely at first, but our detectives forcibly apprehended him.
We returned to Tong Jing Lei's interrogation room and played the recording pen containing Kong Ziyu's confession in front of her.
"You can claim this is fabricated by the police, but you should be able to distinguish your voice," I said as she listened to the recording.
"Hmph, that coward is useless. How could I have fallen for a man like that? And killed so many people for him!"
"Tong Jing Lei, you need to understand, it wasn't him who wanted to kill; it was you who couldn't stand it, so you targeted those women!" Liu Yu Ning analyzed.
Tong Jing Lei vehemently retorted: "Bullshit! If they weren't prettier than me, why would I have had the urge to kill?"
"What? You killed several people just because of that?" Liu Yu Ning slammed the table and cursed.
"Hmph, Kong Ziyu is an excellent man, and naturally, many beautiful women are attracted to him. He especially likes to hook up with those women while treating their pets. I've seen him with those women in the examination room more than once..."
"To make him only love me, I had to do this!"
"You're insane! Tong Jing Lei, there are so many women in the world, are you going to kill them all?"
"Exactly! I'll kill one every time one appears! If I kill all the women in the world, then Kong Ziyu will belong to me forever!"
Tong Jing Lei roared, her expression like that of a heartless beast, baring her fierce, sharp fangs as if to tear us to shreds!
Liu Yu Ning and I were speechless. No wonder people used to say that criminals always blamed others for their mistakes. This was the root of crime.
Regardless, Tong Jing Lei had confessed, and our interrogation work could come to an end.
Thanks to Tong Jing Lei's testimony, her brother also gave up resisting and confessed.
A day later, these individuals were all handed over to the procuratorate, awaiting only the merciless judgment of the court.
Later, I realized that the love between Kong Ziyu and Tong Jing Lei was initially very pure. They were university classmates, but it was Tong Jing Lei's selfish desires that led to the subsequent tragedy. As the saying goes, "A blessing in disguise," or "Misfortune may be a blessing in disguise, and a blessing may be a misfortune." Everything has its gains and losses; blessings and misfortunes are interdependent.
This is precisely the principle at play.
After they left, I don't know how it happened, but as I returned to my siheyuan, I suddenly heard the sound of a guitar being played not far away. I opened the window and saw on the road not far away, strange neon lights were flashing. Under the light, a person, holding a guitar, was playing Chopin's Nocturne towards my house...
Human nature is inherently evil.
A child, encountering a fun toy, wouldn't consider these things and would simply snatch it to play with.
If you tell him not to do that next time, he might listen temporarily, but when faced with new temptations, he will repeat the same mistake.
An animal, upon finding food it likes, will unhesitatingly claim it. Perhaps a fiercer beast might snatch its food away, but as long as there's an opportunity, they will fight back. Thus, the animal kingdom also exists in a state of endless self-interest.
Both humans and animals are driven by infinite desires. Therefore, human nature should be considered inherently evil.
My name is He Sheng, I am 30 years old, currently a criminal investigation consultant at the Fuming City Police Bureau. I graduated from the Forensic Science department, but my grandfather was once a coroner.