Surrendering Voluntarily and a Sudden Breakup. The victim turned out to be Lin Weiwei, a graduate student currently enrolled at Lincheng University where Wen Qingli taught.
Lin Weiwei had been out of contact for sixteen days. The school had already filed a report, but the investigation had yielded no leads so far.
Lu Zheng looked at the portrait of the deceased sent over, a faint trace of appreciation flashing briefly in his eyes. After a moment, he gave a deep, firm instruction. “Contact the victim’s family immediately to confirm her identity in person. At the same time, pull up Lin Weiwei’s recent movements and social connections, and conduct a full investigation to rule out motives such as revenge killings, personal grudges, and romantic disputes.”
Leaving a team behind to continue examining the crime scene in the mountains, Lu Zheng led a group of officers to Lincheng University.
As soon as they reached the school gate, he spotted Wen Qingli.
Wen Qingli was talking with her close friend Ming Tang. Catching sight of Lu Zheng, she quickly averted her gaze and pretended not to know him.
Remembering that before signing the marriage papers she had asked that they act like strangers in public, Lu Zheng lowered the hand he had just raised to greet her.
Lu Zheng strode forward with Zhou Kai following closely behind.
From the corner of her eye, Wen Qingli watched Lu Zheng walk past.
Handsome, sharp‑eyed, and radiating integrity and authority, he was the very definition of raw masculinity in motion.
He must have come to the university to look into the case, judging by his hurried pace.
“Qingli, that man—he looks familiar somehow,” Ming Tang nudged Wen Qingli gently with her elbow.
Ming Tang had been her best friend since childhood and had started teaching at Lincheng University alongside her after graduation. Wen Qingli taught art, while Ming Tang taught music.
“Now I remember! That’s Lu Zheng, the one from your class in high school, isn’t it?”
Back in their days at No.1 High School, Lu Zheng had been a well‑known figure—strikingly handsome, top of his class, and an exceptional basketball player.
Wen Qingli nodded. “Yes, it’s him.”
Ming Tang pouted slightly. “Still as cold and distant as he was back then. Doesn’t even say hello to an old classmate.”
Wen Qingli fell silent. After all, it had been her own request before they got married that they act as if they barely knew each other in front of others.
“Did you know? Back in college, the campus beauty Bai Chuxue traveled all the way to the capital to pursue Lu Zheng. Word is they dated for a while, but when Bai Chuxue went abroad, Lu Zheng couldn’t convince her to stay. At the end of the day, his family background just wasn’t strong enough. If he’d been born into wealth, Bai Chuxue would never have left the country with Fu Wenzhou.”
Hearing the name Fu Wenzhou, Ming Tang turned to Wen Qingli, who seemed lost in thought. “If you’d accepted Fu Wenzhou’s advances back then, Bai Chuxue wouldn’t have stood a chance.”
“That’s all in the past. No need to bring it up again,” Wen Qingli replied softly.
Ming Tang pulled out her phone and opened the high school alumni group chat. “Did you see the announcement about the school anniversary next week?”
Wen Qingli nodded. “Yes, I did. I already told the class monitor I’ll be there.”
“You obviously haven’t checked the group lately. Both Bai Chuxue and Fu Wenzhou replied saying they’ll be back in the country next week and will attend the event too.”
Wen Qingli’s breath caught slightly.
If Bai Chuxue also showed up at the anniversary, she would surely run into Lu Zheng.
Would Lu Zheng regret rushing into this marriage with her today?
For a moment, Wen Qingli felt a tangled mix of emotions.
Lu Zheng and Zhou Kai interviewed three of Lin Weiwei’s roommates.
“Lin Weiwei was quite proud and kept mostly to herself. She didn’t interact much with us.”
“Every weekend she’d leave campus and not come back to the dorm. We once asked if she had a boyfriend, but she said no.”
“Though once, I saw her pulling and arguing with a man in the small wooded area on campus. When I asked her about it later, she said it was just her older brother.”
After noting down the useful details, Lu Zheng went to see Lin Weiwei’s academic advisor, Professor Gu Huaiyuan.
Gu Huaiyuan was in his forties, wore rimless glasses, and had a refined, scholarly air.
“Lin Weiwei came from a poor family and worked her way up from a remote mountain village. Her grades were excellent, though she was somewhat reserved and preferred to keep to herself. I’ve never heard of her having any conflicts with anyone. Now that she’s been unreachable for so many days, both I and the school administration are deeply concerned.”
Lu Zheng scanned the office calmly, his voice steady and stern. “Professor Gu, you were the first to notice something was wrong and file a missing person report with the police, weren’t you?”
Gu Huaiyuan nodded. “That’s correct. We had agreed to meet to review the latest research project, but I waited all morning and she never showed up. For several days afterward, my calls and messages went unanswered. As her advisor, I grew so worried that I decided to contact the authorities.”
Once the questioning was done, Lu Zheng shook his hand. “Thank you for your cooperation, Professor Gu. I’ll reach out again if we have further questions.”
Leaving Gu Huaiyuan’s office, Lu Zheng headed downstairs. As he passed a classroom, he heard a soft, gentle voice say, “When sketching still life, the line where light meets shadow must be drawn clearly and firmly…”
Lu Zheng glanced into the room instinctively and saw Wen Qingli standing before the blackboard, giving her lesson. She wore an off‑white knit sweater, her long hair loosely gathered at the nape, revealing the elegant curve of her slender, fair neck.
As she spoke about her field of expertise, her usually soft and delicate features came alive with vivid energy.
When she finished explaining, her lips pressed together slightly, and two small dimples appeared faintly at the corners of her mouth.
“Captain Lu, what are you looking at?” Zhou Kai asked as he walked over.
“Nothing. Let’s head to the campus security office to review the surveillance footage now,” Lu Zheng replied, quickly pulling his gaze away and hurrying down the stairs.
Wen Qingli seemed to sense something and glanced toward the back of the classroom, but there was no one there.
In the security office, Lu Zheng reviewed the recordings and found that on the day before Lin Weiwei disappeared, a young man had arrived below the girls’ dormitory. Lin Weiwei came down to meet him, and together they walked into the wooded area.
There were no cameras in that section, so what happened between them remained unseen.
But that night, Lin Weiwei never returned to her dormitory.
“Track down this man immediately,” Lu Zheng ordered.
In the conference room at the criminal investigation division, Lu Zheng projected the newly gathered information onto the large screen.
Ji Chuan, male, twenty‑five years old.
He was from the same hometown as Lin Weiwei. He had dropped out of school before finishing junior high and had been working odd jobs in Lincheng ever since.
By day he labored at construction sites, and by night he worked as a delivery driver—seven days a week, without rest.
Most significantly, every cent he earned had been transferred to Lin Weiwei.
This made Ji Chuan a prime suspect in her death.
Just as Lu Zheng was about to assign officers to bring Ji Chuan in for questioning, a patrol officer hurried in to report. “Captain Lu, a man named Ji Chuan has come to turn himself in.”
Lu Zheng entered the interrogation room with measured steps, his dark eyes grave and authoritative.
Ji Chuan sat in the chair, his hands cuffed behind his back. His face was unshaven, his eyes bloodshot, and his frame gaunt and emaciated.
When he saw Lu Zheng, he spoke in a hoarse, grief‑stricken voice. “Officer, I’m the one who killed Lin Weiwei!”
Lu Zheng sat across from him, his gaze sharp and piercing as a hawk’s. “Why did you murder her?”
Ji Chuan’s chest heaved violently, his emotions flaring up instantly. “Because she deserved to die! She was nothing but a vain, greedy woman—death a thousand times over would still not be enough!”
He let out a bitter, mocking laugh. “What a fool I was! She tricked me for ten whole years!”
Once Ji Chuan had let out his surge of emotion, Lu Zheng spoke in a low, steady tone. “Tell me everything from the beginning.”
Ji Chuan closed his eyes briefly, his voice rough and strained. “Officer… could I have a cigarette?”
Lu Zheng handed him one and lit it for him.
Ji Chuan took a drag and slowly exhaled the smoke. Tilting his head back, he seemed to drift into distant memories. “Lin Weiwei and I grew up in the same village.”
“Her family favored sons over daughters. When she reached junior high, her parents wanted to pull her out of school. She would come to me every day crying, and once she even tried to drown herself in the river… I was terrified she’d do something desperate, so I told her I’d quit school and go work to support her.”
His free hand suddenly clenched into a tight fist, the knuckles turning white.
“I was only fifteen years old back then.”
After finishing her classes, Wen Qingli returned to the faculty dormitory.
She took the marriage certificate from the innermost pocket of her handbag and turned it over again and again.
In the photo, the man had deep‑set eyes, a straight nose, and a firm, upright look—serious and unsmiling.
Unable to resist, she reached out and lightly brushed her fingers over his sharp, handsome features. The next moment, she pulled her hand back quickly as if burned.
She bit her lower lip gently, feeling as though none of this was quite real.
Had she truly married the man she had secretly admired for so many years?
Back in the interrogation room.
The cigarette between Ji Chuan’s fingers had burned down to the very end. Ash fell onto the back of his hand, but he didn’t even notice.
“I worked as a waiter, a dishwasher, a factory worker assembling parts, a mechanic, and hauling cement… sometimes three jobs a day. Every penny I saved went straight to her.”
His throat tightened, and his voice trembled. “When she finished high school and got accepted into Lincheng University, I was so proud and happy for her. She promised me that once she graduated, we would get married.”
“But then she got into graduate school too. I had no choice but to keep working to pay for her education. I never imagined that the higher her degree, the more she looked down on me—deciding I was no longer good enough. Not only did she end things abruptly and without warning, but she also cheated me out of every last bit of savings I had.”
As the painful memories resurfaced, Ji Chuan’s colorless lips quivered slightly. “When my mother caught an infectious disease and was hospitalized here in Lincheng, I needed money for her treatment. I begged Lin Weiwei to return what she owed me, but she refused. In the end, I couldn’t save my mother. The hospital required cremation before I could take her remains back home. I was left holding her urn, and I didn’t even have enough money for the bus fare.”
Lu Zheng narrowed his dark eyes slightly. “So that’s why you killed her?”
“No—at that time I still hadn’t thought of killing her. But after she followed me back to my rented apartment, she did something that made my blood boil—something I will never, ever forgive her for as long as I live—”