Before Tang Jia had even finished speaking, He Shu exchanged a glance with Zeng Yongjia. The meaning was clear to the two of them.
He Shu gestured for the visibly nervous Tang Jia to sit down on the sofa. The woman’s red lips were pressed tightly together, and her entire body trembled slightly. Despite her impeccable makeup, her face was still deathly pale. What followed was a long silence. Neither He Shu nor Zeng Yongjia rushed her. They simply sat quietly across from her.
As the seconds ticked by, the woman finally seemed to break through her psychological barrier. Lowering her head even further, she said: “I hate him.”
“Who?”
“Nie Han. I hate Nie Han. I hate him enough to want to skin him alive, eat his flesh, and drink his blood…”
Although she never raised her head, the hatred suppressed in her voice was unmistakable. It was difficult to imagine what kind of crazed expression might be hidden beneath the curtain of hair covering her face.
“But when we first came to Yuheng Plastic Steel for our preliminary investigation, that’s not what you said,” Zeng Yongjia frowned and challenged her. “Even after I contacted you a second time, you still insisted that you and the deceased were nothing more than ordinary coworkers and that your relationship was quite friendly. So why come here today and suddenly claim you hated him?”
“…” Tang Jia clasped her hands together on her knees and slowly raised her head. Her eyes were red-rimmed. Her lips moved, but no sound came out. She seemed unsure how to answer.
“Because I requested your company’s personnel department to provide employee attendance records, including leave requests and absences. After weighing the pros and cons, you decided it would be better to come clean?” He Shu said directly, sparing her any struggle. She didn’t try to soften or sugarcoat her words.
“That’s right. Because this whole thing has been a nightmare for me.”
“The last time, at the company, there were other people around. I was too ashamed to talk about it! I didn’t want anyone to know what I’d gone through. Everyone would look down on me and gossip behind my back.” As she spoke, the tears she had been holding back finally spilled over. Covering her face with her hands, she began to cry. “I was violated by Nie Han, and that disgusting relationship continued for a long time… right up until he died.”
“Yes, you’re right. At the company annual banquet several months ago, I got drunk. When I woke up, I discovered that I was… injured. That’s why I took more than a week’s medical leave.”
“I knew sooner or later you’d trace it back to me. I figured it would be better to confess now. I just couldn’t stand living in fear every day anymore, constantly wondering when the police would come knocking on my door.”
“Why didn’t you call the police?” Zeng Yongjia asked.
“At the time, I was terrified. When I woke up in the hotel room that morning, no one else was there. I don’t know whether it was because of the hangover or something else, but my mind was a complete mess. All I could think about was getting myself cleaned up and then going to see a doctor…”
“By the time I calmed down a little, I had already destroyed most of the evidence. I could only comfort myself by telling myself it was like being bitten by a dog. After all, if the matter became public, the person who’d be humiliated would be me.”
Her tone had been relatively calm at first, but after speaking for a while, she suddenly became agitated again. “I never imagined… I never imagined that that beast Nie Han would come looking for me with videos he had taken that night…”
“To stop other people from finding out, I had no choice but to give in…”
“To be honest, when I heard he was dead, I was surprised, but more than anything else I felt relieved. Happy!”
“At least heaven finally opened its eyes and sent him straight to hell!”
“Miss Tang, are you saying that during those several months in which you were assaulted and controlled, it never once occurred to you to call the police or use some other means to protect your legal rights and bring the perpetrator to justice?”
“Officer Zeng! You’re a man. Of course you can say something like that. I’ve never expected someone of a different gender to truly understand what I’ve gone through.”
Zeng Yongjia took a deep breath and said nothing more. Inwardly, he kept repeating one sentence to himself: The victim is innocent.
He Shu, meanwhile, did not dwell on reporting the crime.
“According to the police investigation over the past two days, and as confirmed by Nie Han’s wife, Zhang Shengnan, he maintained another residence outside of his home. Perhaps Secretary Tang can provide some useful clues?”
To sustain such a twisted relationship, a private location was clearly necessary. Places like hotels were not discreet enough and certainly wouldn’t meet those requirements.
At He Shu’s question, Tang Jia’s body trembled slightly. Then she nodded.
…
The shrill wail of police sirens shattered the afternoon calm.
Pedestrians instinctively slowed to stare at several police cars that had suddenly stopped along the roadside. Even people from nearby shops poked their heads out, munching on sunflower seeds while speculating about what major incident had occurred.
Dechang Street lay in the city’s old district. Several long-established shopping centers stood nearby. Some had already gone out of business, while most of the remaining ones were barely hanging on. The area was no longer particularly bustling.
As Jinghuai City’s new urban districts and economic zones gradually developed, the working population had shifted elsewhere. Naturally, the old district was no longer as crowded as it once had been.
He Shu and her team’s destination was on this very street. It lay behind a three-story shopping mall called Dehuai Commerce, in a cluster of residential buildings dating back to the last century. The buildings were dilapidated, with only two entrances and exits: two narrow alleyways running along either side of the mall. Upon entering, they found the short alley chilly and damp. The lower portions of the walls on both sides were damaged to varying degrees and covered in moss.
Wrinkling his nose at an indescribable foul odor, Zeng Yongjia led the way, stepping carefully over the uneven ground as he muttered: “No wonder we haven’t been able to find much. Surveillance coverage around here is terrible, and there are plenty of blind spots. It makes sense that we’ve had trouble tracking the victim’s movements.”
“And the bastard was clever enough to rent a place in a practically unregulated area through a second-hand landlord. There definitely wouldn’t be any record of him in the official system.”
Chang Bin grunted in agreement before saying, “Hey, according to Tang Jia, Nie Han frequently brought her here. Doesn’t that mean the fourth person we’ve been looking for might not even exist?”
“Not necessarily,” He Shu replied.
They quickly made their way through the alley and, following the address Tang Jia provided, found the building.
When they arrived at Apartment 401, they pried open the old-fashioned security door lock. The next second, an indescribable odor seeped out through the crack in the door.
As members of the Special Crimes Unit, they naturally had to take the lead. Only after confirming that the interior was completely secure could they allow the forensic and technical teams to enter and collect evidence.
He Shu and the others moved quickly. The apartment was only about fifty or sixty square meters in size, so they split up and checked the rooms separately.
“Clear!”
“Clear!”
After searching the kitchen and bathroom, Zeng Yongjia and Chang Bin called out one after the other.
Bang!
Holding her gun at the ready, He Shu kicked open the wooden door to the master bedroom. The door slammed into the wall with a loud crash. After entering, she swept her gaze around the room swiftly but carefully. Once she confirmed there were no blind spots or hidden threats, she slowly holstered her weapon.
“Captain He, what’ve you got in there?” Chang Bin asked as he walked toward the bedroom. The moment he saw the scene inside, he instinctively let out a low whistle.
By then, Zeng Yongjia had reached the doorway too. After a two-second silence, he said, “Looks like this was the primary crime scene.”
The double bed in the center of the room was bare except for the mattress. The sheets and other bedding were gone, but the slightly yellowed mattress was covered with large stains of dried blood that had long since changed color.
Looking up, they saw extensive suspected bloodstains on the wall behind the headboard and even on the ceiling above. The blood patterns radiated outward in a spray formation, consistent with arterial blood spatter from a severed major artery.
“You can come in now. Time to get to work!” Turning around, Zeng Yongjia raised his voice and shouted toward the entrance.
Ding Qi entered with the forensic technicians, each carrying tool cases. They quickly began their evidence collection in an orderly fashion.
Ding Qi walked over, glanced briefly at the bed, then calmly set his toolkit in an appropriate spot. As he opened the case, he remarked, “Whoa. With this much blood loss, the victim was definitely dead on the spot.”
After saying that, Ding Qi took a sample with a cotton swab. After spraying it with a reagent, he nodded. “It’s human blood.”
He then looked carefully at the distribution of the bloodstains on the walls and other surfaces before continuing his analysis: “When I get back, I’ll conduct a blood-spatter reconstruction test. We should be able to reconstruct key details such as the victim’s posture at the time of the attack and the killer’s position. However…” At this point, he paused.
Wearing gloves, he reached out and fiddled with the handcuffs hanging from the metal rails on either side of the headboard. “This guy really went all out, huh? Even made them furry… and pink, no less!”
Chang Bin couldn’t help snorting with laughter. “I remember Zheng Jian’s report stating that the victim’s wrist bones showed signs of injuries sustained while he was still alive. One wrist even had a slight fracture, right?” Ding Qi raised an eyebrow.
He Shu nodded. “That’s right.”
“Those so-called sex toys couldn’t produce injuries like that. Specialized restraint cuffs usually have protective features designed to prevent users from accidentally hurting themselves.”
The man rattled the handcuffs against the headboard again, producing a clattering metallic sound.
“This thing, though, looks like a genuine pair of handcuffs with a layer of pink fur attached to them. If the victim realized something was wrong and struggled violently, it could certainly have caused those injuries.”
“Tsk. So he died in a bed of pleasure?” Zeng Yongjia curled his lip.
Chang Bin frowned. “But Tang Jia had a verified alibi that night. Pan Yu and Zhang Shengnan both have witnesses confirming their whereabouts as well.”
He Shu circled the bedroom, examining everything from one corner to another. Hearing their discussion, she stopped and stood beside the window with her hands on her hips.
Looking outside, there was hardly any scenery to appreciate. From here, all she could see was the green glass façade of Dehuai Commerce, reflecting the sunlight in a blinding glare.
“So,” she said slowly, “all the clues are pointing once again to…”
“The fourth person.”