Free Web NovelChapter 304: Chapter 298: Patricide_1
Wang Hongwen subconsciously shook his head.
Xu Dayuan’s lips curled up, and he smiled with satisfaction.
"When his parents died, he found out that Ho Dongmei was pregnant, but what you don’t know is that Wang Hongzhan had a car accident back in 2008 and permanently lost his ability to conceive. The moment he learned Ho Dongmei was pregnant, he knew what had happened."
Wang Hongwen’s eyes widened, a look of disbelief on his face.
"It’s surprising, isn’t it? As a man, to preserve his dignity, of course, he wouldn’t tell Ho Dongmei about such things. She was the goddess he had pursued for many years, the most beautiful existence." fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
Wang Hongwen was silent. After a long while, he lifted his head, his eyes now filled with regret, his bloodshot eyes tearing at his hair, indifferent to the clinking noise of the handcuffs.
"I was wrong. I should not have been greedy. I never thought I would kill Dongmei."
Zhou Ning let out a sigh of relief, dragged a chair over to sit down, while Xu Dayuan lit a cigarette for both himself and Wang Hongwen.
"Take your time."
Wang Hongwen took a couple of deep drags, tears choked out. After wiping the tears from his face, Wang Hongwen looked up as if reminiscing and said:
"When I first met Ho Dongmei, I knew who her boyfriend was. After all, Wang Hongzhan was a top student who pursued such a famous school beauty; everyone in Jiaotuan Village knew it. And the initial reason I approached her was simply that I thought she was beautiful, can you believe that?"
Xu Dayuan nodded, signaling Wang Hongwen to continue.
"My grandfather’s name is Wang Chaozu. He was once an adopted son of the Wang Family. After the upheavals, the Wang Family received compensation. While others might not care much, my grandfather felt he deserved a share of that money. After all, we were very poor back then, and the denunciations and exposures were merely a product of the times.
Four years ago, when I returned to my hometown, my grandfather froze for a moment when I mentioned Ho Dongmei. He then sent all my cousins and uncles out, before asking me in detail whether Ho Dongmei was the wife of Wang Hongzhan from Jiaotuan Village.
At that time, I thought my grandfather was telling me to stay away from Ho Dongmei, so I volunteered that information. But to my surprise, he then shared his past with me and mentioned that his partner hid an iron box with a combination lock in a false wall of the Wang Family’s house when they were building it.
My grandfather told me to get closer to Ho Dongmei. Wang Hongzhan was rarely at home, and I could help out by taking care of Ho Dongmei. He suggested I persuade her to stay at her parents-in-law’s house now and then, to build a good relationship with them, to be as good to them as I would be to my own parents.
Then it dawned on me, and I said that I really liked Dongmei and didn’t want to hurt her. My grandfather grabbed my hand and said that if I liked her that much, I should marry her. Our family wouldn’t mind a divorced woman, and there’s no harm in trying to get a little more money if we’re truly going to be together.
After going back and thinking about it for a long time, I believed what my grandfather said, and for the next half year, I was extremely considerate towards Ho Dongmei. On the last day of the National Day holidays, when she returned from Shen City, we had a dinner gathering. She drank too much, and I escorted her home. I also got what I wished for and we had sex.
The next morning when she woke up, she threw a glass at me. I didn’t dodge, and it cut open my forehead. I told her I loved her and wanted to marry her, even if her anger meant taking my life. Seeing me covered in blood, she cried for a long time and said nothing else.
I followed her every day, and she gradually got over her anger. However, during the winter vacation, her in-laws suddenly died in a car accident. I didn’t attend the funeral because I was afraid the old director would recognize me. Then she fainted, saying she was pregnant.
But Wang Hongzhan was in a hurry to leave, saying that there was a design project he had followed for a year, and a showcase had to start early; he had to return to Shen City. I, along with my colleagues, went to see Ho Dongmei in the hospital and arranged for someone to help her take care of the mess, and then I took care of her meticulously.
Our relationship got closer, and one time while we were drinking, she told me that after his parents died, Wang Hongzhan had opened the safe for Dongmei to take a quick glance—it was full of gold bars, lots and lots of them gleaming gold.
I teased her, saying she just had the pleasure of seeing them. She was too drunk to guard against me and pointed at the key box behind the door, saying she knew both the key and the combination. When I heard that, I continued to probe for more, but she was completely drunk by then, and no matter how much more I asked, she wouldn’t say a word."
Xu Dayuan was very interested in this point and tilted his head to ask:
"Whether it was the house key or the safe key, you had them made, we’ve detected that. How did you find out the combination?"
"A diary. Last summer, when I was on duty at the office, I took a closer look at Ho Dongmei’s personal belongings and found her diary. It mentioned both me and Wang Hongzhan. Inside a flap, there was a piece of paper with drawings on it. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was the safe combination.
One weekend, when Ho Dongmei asked me to help buy some baby formula, I took a lot of stuff over to see her. Naturally, staying in the old house with no air conditioning and a baby wasn’t comfortable. Armed with so many groceries, Ho Dongmei was very touched.
We were intimate for a while, and then she asked me to watch the kid for a bit while she took a shower. She said that there had been some tile work in the afternoon. Watching Wang Jiahan, I checked the position of the safe, found it behind the partition, and confirmed that two sets of combinations matched two locks. I was reassured.
On the night of August 13, I took off the car’s license plate and snuck through the path along the Baisha River into the village without daring to turn on the headlights. Then I sneaked in through the back to the front door, put on gloves, and entered the room.
Just as I was dismantling the panel to twist the combination, Ho Dongmei somehow ran downstairs. She charged outside, never completing a shout for help before I pushed her down in the yard.
I don’t know how I pulled out a dagger and what I was thinking at that moment, but when I came to my senses, Dongmei was already dead. I was terrified. It all happened too quickly for me to think.
After a long while, I only returned to the room, continuing to open the safe, but seeing it completely empty, my mind was blank. I knew I had been played, but whether it was Ho Dongmei lying or Wang Hongzhan moving the gold, I couldn’t tell."
Xu Dayuan exhaled a ring of smoke; it was who knows which consecutive cigarette he had smoked.
"What about Wang Jiahan? Did you silence him, or did Wang Jiahan come downstairs and was seen by you?" freeweɓnovel.cøm
Wang Hongwen fell silent again. Zhou Ning leaned forward. If in this case, only Ho Dongmei had died, it could be concluded that Wang Hongwen had committed a crime of passion, since what he had said before was very ’reasonable’.
But the death of Wang Jiahan had always been a knot in Zhou Ning’s heart.
In the child’s toenail residue, traces of the victim Ho Dongmei’s blood and Wang Hongwen’s DNA were found. The amounts were extremely small; out of the twenty samples, only traces were found. Perhaps the child had inadvertently kicked, scraping his nails across his arm, leaving behind traces of blood and sweat, and perhaps the residues were preserved in this way.
Wang Hongwen raised his head, his eyes bloodshot as he clenched his teeth and looked at his hands.
"I didn’t find the gold bars, I lost my mind. Looking at Ho Dongmei’s body in the yard, enveloped in hatred, I rushed to the second floor bedroom, grabbed a pillow and pressed it against the child’s face... After a short while, the child stopped moving, and I picked him up and stuffed him into a pickle vat under the west side eaves."
After he finished speaking the last sentence, Wang Hongwen closed his eyes, and tears streamed down. In his life, he never imagined he could have a child, let alone kill his own.
When he opened his eyes again, the transcript and a signing pen were already laid before Wang Hongwen.
He stared intently at Xu Dayuan, shaking his head continuously.
"I didn’t know he was my son, I really didn’t know. If I had known, I couldn’t have possibly killed him!"
Xu Dayuan tossed the cigarette butt into a disposable paper cup filled with water, where it hissed as it extinguished, stubbornly releasing a final wisp of white smoke. Xu Dayuan waved his wrist to disperse the smoke before his eyes.
"You say it wasn’t intentional, but you killed Ho Dongmei. You say you didn’t know Wang Jiahan was your son, but the hand that struck showed no hesitation. So whether the person you killed was a dear one or a stranger, what difference does it make? For gold bars, for wealth, you’ve already become psychologically distorted.
Do you really expect me to agree with you and say it’s not your fault? I’m relieved that my child wasn’t raised by you. I’m also relieved that I can bring you to justice, preventing you from leading others astray. Hurry up and sign, don’t waste any more time."
Wang Hongwen stared blankly at the transcript before him, his eyes vacant. Liu Yufei had already approached, wearing latex gloves. She shoved a carbon pen into Wang Hongwen’s hand.
"Sign it!"
Wang Hongwen signed the document, and Liu Yufei immediately called someone in. Zhang Chunbo had been waiting with his team at the door. Seeing them come out, he immediately went to grab Wang Hongwen by the collar, but Liu Yufei gave Zhang Chunbo a look, and he unnaturally let go of his hand.
"Zhang Da, Director Xu is calling for you."
Zhang Chunbo quickly returned to the interrogation room. Liu Yufei’s gaze swept over two detectives, who gradually lowered their hands and took Wang Hongwen away by his arms.
"Director Xu, you called for me?"
Xu Dayuan looked up to see Liu Yufei and Zhang Chunbo at the door, his face showing a hint of confusion.
"Ah? Yes, have you contacted Shen City about whether the test results have come through?"
Zhang Chunbo hurried out, and with a wave of his hand, Xu Dayuan followed Liu Yufei to the next-door observation room, where everyone stood up as they entered. Xu Dayuan gestured to Liu Yufei with a nod of his chin.
"What happened just now?"
Liu Yufei shook her head, her face still taut as she looked towards Xu Dayuan.
"Leader, I want to transfer to a detective squad below, anywhere is fine, I’m not picky!"
Such a sudden remark caught Xu Dayuan off guard.
"What are you getting at, you silly girl? Is it dissatisfaction with Tao Zhenshan or with the work? Spell it out for me. Wherever you want to go is fine, I’ll arrange it."
Liu Yufei shook her head, her complexion still grim. She raised her fist and slammed it against the wall, making it tremble. Mr. Zhao shrank back at the sight—the strength was not that of a typical woman.
"I want to go below for training, to take charge of cases personally. I don’t want to end up old and unable to run like Zhang Da, just knowing who the murderer is and grabbing at someone’s collar. I want to catch the murderer myself, and when I do, I’ll break his ribs."
Everyone realized and Xu Dayuan understood as well. Zhang Chunbo had gone out to handle Wang Hongwen and was seen by Liu Yufei. She thought it was a display of weakness. Xu Dayuan let out a sigh.
"I understand. I’ll arrange for your request later. Actually, I’ve been thinking of transferring a batch of people, just haven’t decided on the candidates. We’ll talk about it once the backlog of cases is cleared! Also, next time you speak, can you please not beat around the bush?"
