Eyes that are the same as those of evil

Chapter 6: The Elopement Murder Case
Luo Zhiyong and Wang Yong knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Mi Junfang.

Zheng Yan immediately realized something was wrong. A year ago, Mi Junfang said she didn't want to live anymore. The neighbors said she had an affair with her brother-in-law. Putting aside the issue of the timeline, and combining the facts, he made a bold guess: maybe the adultery was not true at all, and the relationship between Wang Yong and Mi Junfang was rape.

However, Luo Zhiyong and Wang Yong knelt down and kowtowed together to beg for forgiveness.

Why did Luo Zhiyong help Wang Yong seek forgiveness? What role did he play in this? And why did Wang Yong frequently associate with Mi Junfang afterward?

Zheng Yan stopped and, instead of going into Luo Zhiyong's house as originally planned, returned the way he came.

On the way, he notified the others: "Summon Luo Zhiyong and Wang Yong to the station again, check their cell phones, and have Tan Ming and Xiao Chen go to their homes to question those children, focusing on what happened a year ago. Remember to keep Luo Mei away from them."

The second interrogation of the two men began quickly.

Wang Yong was interrogated first. This time, Zheng Yan's interrogation style was very sharp. He went in and slapped a photo of Mi Junfang that was unrecognizable in front of him, which made Wang Yong tremble. Facing Zheng Yan's silent and serious black face, he was terrified and uneasy.

"Wang Yong, how long did your illicit relationship with the deceased Mi Junfang last?"

"No, soon we will be..."

"Did you force yourself on her when you were drunk a year ago? Someone heard crying that night. Mi Junfang didn't even like you, did she? You forced her and forced her into this relationship, didn't you? You even threatened her that if she didn't cooperate, you would expose this, but you went there too often, and this matter was still discovered."

Wang Yong shifted his posture slightly, lowered his head, and said, "I didn't force her; it was consensual."

"Mi Junfang is dead. It's not necessarily consensual, but it's true you were the one who liked her. Did you get a thrill from this affair, so you wanted to keep harassing her until you found out she wanted to run away with her lover, away from you and Luo Zhiyong, those two disgusting people, so you chased after her and killed her? Was it you?!"

"It wasn't me! It wasn't me!" Wang Yong shouted, protesting his innocence. "Didn't you already ask? I was sleeping at home that night, I didn't have time to do anything. Besides, I had no reason to... I didn't lose anything in this... I don't even really like her, I would never divorce my wife for her. If those young people hadn't come to mediate and insisted on stirring up trouble to make Luo Mei and me divorce... her lover would be the most suspicious person..."

Stared at by Zheng Yan, he couldn't help but want to say more to clear his name, but he also knew that it would be shameless to say such things, so he stammered.

It's clear that his affection for Mi Junfang was so shallow that he could easily discard it.

Zheng Yan stared at him for a while, then suddenly asked something else: "I heard you often text and call Mi Junfang? But there are no chat records between you on her phone. What about your phone? Show me some evidence."

"Luo Mei smashed my phone, and my new phone is in her possession."

"What a coincidence?"

As luck would have it, the night before the mediation, Luo Mei discovered that Wang Yong was still looking at photos of Mi Junfang on his phone. Enraged, she threw the photos off the building, smashing them to pieces.

The new phone was indeed kept by Luo Mei, and there was no information on it.

However, Zheng Yan was not disappointed. After Wang Yong finished his interrogation, he began to interrogate Luo Zhiyong, who had been left hanging for a long time.

Two days had passed, and Luo Zhiyong seemed to have aged several years, with a few strands of white hair making his back appear even more hunched.

With the same fear and panic, when he saw the photo of Mi Junfang in front of him, his lips twitched twice, and he looked away.

"Don't you dare look at her again? She was killed by you. Wang Yong has already confessed..."

There was a brief pause, but Luo Zhiyong remained with his head down as if he hadn't noticed.

Zheng Yan then continued, "Wang Yong confessed to what happened a year ago. He bullied your wife, so why did you still help him seek forgiveness and cover it up?"

Luo Zhiyong's voice was hoarse, and he still looked so pathetic: "I just didn't want to break up two families. My sister and I both have children... so it was an accident..."

"But you can't get over it, right? Especially when Mi Junfang went along with her mistake and actually maintained this illicit relationship with Wang Yong, you felt ashamed and angry. Especially after you found out that she was going to run away with her lover, you were so angry that you chased after her and killed her, right?"

“No, I didn’t! I begged her to come back, so I left… Who is that lover? Why don’t you go find that man? He must have killed my wife! I told her he wasn’t a good person, but she wouldn’t listen!” Luo Zhiyong was agitated, but his eyes trembled. No matter what he was asked, he insisted that “Mi Junfang’s lover” was the murderer, crying and shouting, “It’s all his fault!” “Why wouldn’t she listen to me?”

After the interrogation ended, Zheng Yan came out and threw the notebook on the table, saying, "Luo Zhiyong is lying. He cares a lot about Mi Junfang and Wang Yong's relationship. Strangely, he doesn't seem to care as much about his lover."

"After all, it's with his own brother-in-law. This relationship, coupled with the gossip from those around him, must be hard to bear. Should we let him go back? We can keep watch near his house and see if he tries anything funny."

Zheng Yan nodded, then said gravely, "I suspect that Liu Guanhua didn't just hide, but was also murdered."

After thinking for a moment, he called Tan Ming and Xiao Chen and asked them to inquire with the children of both families whether Luo Zhiyong and Wang Yong's alibis for the night Mi Junfang was murdered were foolproof.

At this time, Tan Ming sent back the results of the medical history investigation.

"Both Luo Zhiyong and Luo Mei have respiratory illnesses. They worked in a glass factory for more than ten years, which are occupational diseases."

The suspicion against Luo Zhiyong has increased once again.

But before they could uncover anything from their stakeout at the Luo family home, things took a new turn—

Luo Zhiyong was stabbed twice and is in critical condition. He has been rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.

The stabbers were the deceased Mi Junfang's parents, who lived far away in another province. Without waiting for the police to arrest them, they went to the police station early in the morning to turn themselves in. They were in their sixties or seventies and in poor health. They knelt tremblingly at the entrance of the police station and cried.

Zheng Yan and the others quickly went up to persuade them.

Tan Jia is now a concerned citizen under surveillance, barely able to move around freely. He arrived at the police station early in the morning, standing at a distance that is neither too close nor too far, unconsciously kneading "magical dough to calm his mind" while frowning.

Suddenly, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that a head was peeking out from around the corner a dozen meters away.

It cautiously peeked out, but then shrank back as if startled after hearing the two old people's shrill cries.

Tan Jia walked around it, and when the head popped up again, it met the cold metal zipper on her flight jacket, which startled the other person so much that they immediately turned to run away.

But Tan Jia grabbed him by the back of the neck.

"Why are you running? What are you carrying?"

Eleven-year-old Luo Xiaomin hasn't changed her clothes or tied her hair up since then. Yesterday after school, she tightly clutched her schoolbag to her chest, looking like a frightened bird.

Tan Jia shared half of the breakfast he had bought on the way with her, and squatted down in front of her: "I'm a good person. Eat up. Is no one else at home? Why are you still wearing your torn clothes?"

Luo Xiaomin hesitated for a few seconds, but hunger made her unable to resist accepting the kindness. She took it and swallowed a large piece of osmanthus cake as if it were a stone. The remaining piece was stained with salt by her tears.

She didn't answer the question, but cried silently for a while, and then suddenly said out of the blue, "My mother used to fold my clothes."

This refers to the stepmother, Mi Junfang.

The food she forced down intensified the feeling of choking in her throat. Luo Xiaomin looked down and rummaged through her schoolbag, whispering, "Dad doesn't know I wear a set of clothes..."

Inside the opened backpack was a damp gray thermal undershirt.

"...that's why I found this when I was looking for clothes last night."

A men's thermal undershirt that had been washed and appeared to have bloodstains.

(End of this chapter)