The 80s Female Detective's Guide to Self-Preservation [Criminal Investigation] - Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Rong Zhiyan remained incredibly calm after her arrest, quietly following Xia Qiuyuan and Liang Guangqi into the police car. Meanwhile, the police station was already in a state of total chaos.

Hou Ming had been stuck in the Chief’s office, grinding out a self-reflection report. He had managed to fill two pages with rambling nonsense that nearly made the Chief faint from frustration. Just as he was preparing to draw a final period and call it a day, Qin Yi came bursting up the stairs.

“Captain Hou! Captain Hou!”

“What is it? I’m not dead yet, why the constant shouting?”

Qin Yi scratched his head. “Captain, the missing suspect from the Fu Ze case… he came in to turn himself in. He says he killed both Fu Ze and Fu Juan.”

Hou Ming and the Chief exchanged a stunned look. Hou Ming stood up instantly, following Qin Yi downstairs while asking for details. “What happened? Have Qiuyuan and the others finished their stakeout?”

“They aren’t back yet. Xiao Sui and I finished our interviews and returned to find the security guard pointing at a man standing by the gate. The man wouldn’t speak or leave, so we went to check. As soon as he said his name, we froze.” Qin Yi’s mouth twitched at the memory. “We pinned him down, cuffed him, and dragged him to Interrogation Room 1 immediately.”

After multiple identity checks, Xia Sui and Qin Yi confirmed the man was Lu Jingming—the researcher who had been missing for years.

Lu Jingming’s sudden surrender was as improbable as the entire investigation team finding gold and grain coupons on the street at the same time. Everyone stared at him as the veteran Zhuo Yuanqing searched him for weapons. Lu Jingming was clean. He wasn’t nervous; in fact, he politely asked, “Is there anything else I need to do to cooperate with the police?”

It felt like seeing a ghost.

Because the “presumed dead” Lu Jingming had suddenly appeared, the team was at a loss. The Fu Ze robbery case had long been closed; reopening it required formal applications. This was why Qin Yi had run to find Hou Ming. Overturning a closed case often meant previous officers would be criticized or forced to write self-reflections—a sure way to offend colleagues. Only the Captain could handle it.

Hou Ming looked Lu Jingming up and down, realization sinking in. He felt bad for the officers who had handled the original case. Back then, with bandits roaming the area and Fu Juan refusing to press charges, “robbery” was the logical conclusion based on experience. Now, the biggest problem was how to reopen the case without making the previous team look like fools.

Hou Ming opened his mouth to speak, but Lu Jingming interrupted calmly.

“I didn’t just kill Fu Ze. I killed Fu Juan too.”

The room went dead silent.

“You killed Fu Juan? Wait—if you killed her, why did Rong Zhiyan run? Why would you even kill Fu Juan? What’s your motive?”

“And where have you been hiding all these years? We’ve done city-wide sweeps; how did we never see you?”

Just then, Xia Qiuyuan and Liang Guangqi walked in with their suspect, arriving just in time for this explosive news. Two groups of people stood in the small office, faces filled with confusion.

Xia Sui pointed at Lu Jingming. “He says he’s the killer for both cases.”

Xia Qiuyuan: “Huh?”

Liang Guangqi looked at Rong Zhiyan, who was handcuffed, and fell into a deep, bewildered silence. If Lu Jingming was the killer, what was Rong Zhiyan’s deal?

Regardless of who was telling the truth, both needed to be interrogated. In the world of criminal investigation, the first person to speak isn’t necessarily the killer—there must be evidence and a logical chain. Currently, the team couldn’t see a logical link between Lu Jingming and Fu Juan.

Before the interrogation, the team drew lots to see who would go in. Xia Qiuyuan had a lucky hand; she picked the paper with the red ink dot. Grabbing her notebook, she followed Hou Ming into the interrogation room.

Lu Jingming remained serene. He even offered a shy smile to Qiuyuan as she entered, looking nothing like a murderer.

“Tell us about your conflict with Fu Ze, why you did it, and the process,” Hou Ming started. “And tell us where you’ve been hiding. We searched for you dozens of times.”

“Conflict? I thought you’d already figured out what kind of person he was,” Lu Jingming said.

“What kind of person do you think he was?” Qiuyuan asked.

“A hypocrite. A sinister villain,” Lu Jingming replied. “Honestly, I don’t even remember his face clearly anymore. When I think of him, I only remember his pathetic face as he begged for mercy before he died. He said he was wrong, that he shouldn’t have stolen my research, and promised to give it all back if I saved him…”

Lu Jingming lowered his eyes and smiled. “To be honest, I was terrified when I stabbed him the first time. I can’t even kill a chicken. When that warm blood sprayed onto my hands, I was in a daze. I wanted to run more than he did. He could have survived then.”

He looked at Hou Ming. “Do you know what his mistake was?”

Lu Jingming was fair-skinned and cultured—an educated man. He had worked hard to get into the state factory, only for Fu Ze to become his roadblock. He hadn’t been lying; he really did want to spare Fu Ze after the first blow. But Fu Ze must have said something during his plea that triggered Lu Jingming.

“Whatever his mistake was, it wasn’t a reason to stab him to death!” Hou Ming barked.

Lu Jingming laughed lightly. “He was despicable. People like him think everyone is as filthy as they are. He should have just asked for mercy, but instead, he insulted my character. He told me that in the future, if he found other good research, he could steal it for me. He even offered to introduce me to the Factory Director’s daughter so I could climb the ladder and do whatever research I wanted.”

Lu Jingming remembered those blood-stained hands clutching his legs, promising him gold, silver, and high-status women.

“If you don’t like the Director’s daughter, I can find you someone even better! Jingming, you’re a college student! You can climb even higher!”

Lu Jingming’s face flushed—not from embarrassment, but from rage. “I told him, ‘You’re married! Why is your head only full of this climbing? I don’t need these useless things, and I don’t need to steal results to build my future. I will do what I want with my own hands!'”

Fu Ze had panicked, his breathing becoming heavy. “If you don’t like it… I can get the Director to let you lead your own team! Truly! And marriage… I didn’t want to marry Rong Zhiyan! She clung to me! If she hadn’t gotten pregnant, I never would have married her!”

“No, wait… back then I was short-sighted. I thought her family background was the best I could get. Even if their status was bad then, I thought eventually she would regain her wealth and status and help me!”

Fu Ze had actually started to laugh. “Wealth, power, connections… I can live like a king! Besides, she and her brother are both people who should have died. They’re fallen phoenixes but they still won’t bow their heads! Especially Rong Yixing! Even with a bad background, people still protected him and let him go to school! I studied so hard, yet I could never beat him. He had no money for food, yet foreign investors and friends of his father would donate to the school just to protect him and his sister!”

“And me? I’m just a speck of trash in the mud. I lost from the very beginning! Do you understand?” Fu Ze’s soul was twisted. He devalued what he had and idolized what he didn’t. “Doing it on your own is useless. If it wasn’t me stealing your work, it would be a Wu Ze, a Zhang Ze, or a Wang Ze. If you don’t have power, you’ll always be bullied. Save me, and I’ll introduce you to the world of true power. Trust me, you’ll love the feeling of controlling everything!”

Lu Jingming had roared in fury. He couldn’t allow anyone to destroy his vision of the future or drag him into such a sordid deal. He “accidentally” stabbed Fu Ze to death in a fit of rage, then took the money only so he could survive as a fugitive.

“Fu Ze wasn’t in the lab the day he died. How did you know he would leave late and how did you ambush him on that specific path?” Xia Qiuyuan asked, her intuition screaming that something was wrong.

“I was stalking him,” Lu Jingming said. “I knew his habits. He was already having an affair with the Director’s daughter. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, he would ‘work late’ to have a tryst with her in the lab. I found out by hiding in the bushes and getting eaten by mosquitoes. The Director’s daughter loved perfume. After their dates, Fu Ze would reek of it, so he’d take the long way home to let the scent blow off.”

He sneered. “That bastard wanted to climb high but wouldn’t divorce. A truly despicable man.”

Xia Qiuyuan remained calm. She zeroed in on his abnormal anger. “If you don’t envy Fu Ze, why do you care so much about his affair? Are you truly this angry just because he stole your work? Or did you actually feel tempted by the ‘benefits’ he described?”

Lu Jingming glared at her. “What are you talking about? A man unfaithful to his marriage should be despised by everyone! You’re a cop—can’t your moral standards be a bit higher? Is there a problem with me hating evil? Is there a problem with me hating him?”

Hou Ming snorted.

Xia Qiuyuan looked genuinely confused. Did a murderer just ask me to have higher moral standards?

“Stop playing word games,” Hou Ming warned, tapping the table. “Your ‘moral standards’ as a killer aren’t exactly high. Don’t act like you were doing society a favor.”

Xia Qiuyuan asked one last question: “Do you know Rong Zhiyan? Fu Ze’s wife?”

“I know her,” Lu Jingming nodded. “They lived in the dormitory; everyone knew her.”