Attending ex-girlfriend's wedding, arresting the groom's officer on the spot

Li Ming frowned and asked seriously, "And then? How did you dispose of the body? And how did you cover up your crime?" Wang Kai took a deep breath and continued to confess, "I was terrified at the time and didn't know what to do. After calming down, I thought that if I hid the body, I might be able to escape this predicament. I tied his body to my body with a rope and dragged him all the way to the riverbank, intending to throw him into the river to destroy the evidence."

“During the dragging, I noticed what looked like my skin tissue under his fingernails, so I quickly cut off his nails and disposed of them. Then, I threw the body into the river and weighed it down with stones. I also cleaned up the scene, treating any areas that might have left traces with bleach.” Wang Kai’s voice grew softer and softer, as if each word was spoken with all his might.

Wang Shuai asked again, "Then why did you contact an overseas account, saying things like 'the trouble is over' and 'the secret can't be leaked'?" Hearing this, Wang Kai's face turned deathly pale. He hesitated for a moment and said, "I... after I killed someone, I was terrified of being discovered by you. I met someone online who said he could help me; if I gave him money, he could settle things. Desperate, I believed him, contacted him, and transferred money. Those were the things I said to him; I thought he could really help me escape legal punishment."

As the interrogation deepened, faced with irrefutable evidence, Wang Kai finally confessed to the entire murder and the details of his subsequent cover-up. His voice was filled with remorse, but it was all too late to undo the damage. When the interrogation ended and Wang Kai was led out of the interrogation room, his steps were unsteady, his eyes vacant, as if he had lost his soul.

On the morning of the 17th day after the incident, a thin mist shrouded Eagle Valley like a damp veil. Three police cars rolled over the gravelly dirt road and stopped at the valley entrance, splashing mud onto Wang Kai's pale trouser legs. He was handcuffed and shackled, supported by two officers on either side, his hiking boots screeching against the ground, each step feeling like walking on a red-hot iron.

The air in the valley still carried the chill of last night, mixed with the fishy smell of wild grass and earth. Wang Kai's gaze was forcibly lifted, and when he saw the area on the riverbank cordoned off by the police tape, his Adam's apple bobbed violently, and he suddenly bent over and dry-heaved, only vomiting a few mouthfuls of bile. Lu Chuan stood behind him, his voice as cold as the morning mist in the valley: "Starting from the place where you arranged to meet Li Pengcheng, explain every single detail."

Wang Kai was shoved towards the bushes on the west side, his shackles rattling loudly as they got stuck in the cracks in the rocks. He pointed to a clump of broken wild roses, the dewdrops on the petals reflecting an eerie light in the morning sun: "I waited for him right here. I told him I'd found a new climbing route, and when he came over with his backpack, he laughed and asked if I'd found another 'treasure.'" His fingers curled up, as if he were still holding his phone. "His phone was playing music at the time, a rock song."

"Where did you get the murder weapon?" Wang Shuai shoved a photo of the steel pipe from the evidence bag in front of him. Wang Kai's pupils suddenly contracted, and his body trembled uncontrollably. "I hid it in the crevice of the rocks over there beforehand." He pointed to a pit three meters away, where only a few clumps of withered grass remained. "The steel pipe was wrapped in black cloth; it was easy to grip. I smashed it down while he turned to look at the map."

The drag marks left a deep, twisted trench in the ground, the direction the grass blades were broken as if crushed by a giant python. Wang Kai was ordered to kneel at the starting point of the drag marks, his knees hitting the sharp stones, but he felt no pain. "He wasn't dead yet, his hands were gripping my trouser leg, my blood was under his fingernails." He lifted his trouser leg; there were no longer any marks there, but he was still unconsciously rubbing it. "I was afraid he would cry for help, so I strangled him with a rope and dragged him all the way to the river."

The river water gleamed coldly in the morning light. Wang Kai pointed to a bluestone slab in the shallows, where dark brown marks still remained. "He died here, his eyes wide open, staring at me." He suddenly slammed his head against a nearby rock, only to be sternly stopped by a police officer. "When I untied the rope, I found him clutching my carabiner, the one with the serrated pattern that I had forcibly broken and thrown upstream."

Technicians immediately began surveying the area he pointed out. Yang Sen's metal detector quickly beeped, finding half a deformed carabiner twenty centimeters below the riverbed. Wang Kai watched as the evidence bag was raised, then suddenly let out a chuckle: "I even stuffed stones into his mouth, trying to make the body sink. But the current was too strong, and the stones were washed out again."

As they pointed out the dumping site, a strange gust of wind suddenly swept through the valley, whipping up fallen leaves that stung Wang Kai's face. He abruptly knelt down, his fingers digging into the soil: "That's where I pushed him! I even moved three large rocks on top of him, thinking that once the water level rose, no one would find him." His voice was torn apart by the wind. "Later, I cleaned everything with bleach and threw a steel pipe into the deep pool downstream."

Lu Chuan's powerful flashlight suddenly pierced the thin mist, its beam like a sharp sword, precisely pinning itself to a spot on the riverbank cliff. "What's that scratch?" His voice, cold as ice, echoed through the silent valley. Wang Kai followed the beam, his pupils contracting sharply, as if burned by the intense light—the silvery-white scratch now appeared infinitely magnified in his eyes, the 0.45% carbon-containing metal fragments gleaming coldly in the sunlight, like a wound deep in his memory that would never heal.

His Adam's apple bobbed as he tried to swallow, only to find his throat parched like a desert. His shoulders slumped uncontrollably, and he swayed as if his spine had been ripped away, bound by shackles. "It was from the second blow that it hit me," he said, his voice broken and incoherent, thick with a nasal tone. Memories flooded back, the scenes of that day playing uncontrollably in his mind: Li Pengcheng struggling to get up after falling, his blood-stained hands scratching wildly in the dirt, while he himself held up the steel pipe wrapped in black cloth, his arm trembling from the excessive force.

“I was so panicked.” He suddenly looked up, his eyes staring blankly into the void, as if he were back in that blood-red dusk. “His skull was too hard; the first blow didn’t knock him unconscious. When he turned to look at me, his eyes were full of disbelief.” Wang Kai’s fingers began to spasm, clenching unconsciously in the air, as if he were still holding that heavy steel pipe. “I wanted to hit him a second time, but I slipped, and the pipe slammed against the rock wall. Sparks landed on the back of my hand, burning me intensely.” He instinctively shook his right hand, as if the burning pain still lingered. (End of Chapter)