Murder Call

Ding Gao rubbed his face, which was sore from being punched by Zhou Ziming, and said, “You seemed to enjoy punching me! Why is it so hard for you to just tell the truth?”

Ding Gao started to speak freely: “I admit, Wan Shu did delete the photos from the camera back then!”

With his secret already exposed, Ding Gao became unrestrained: “Actually… Wan Shu and I had a thing. She came to my house, cooked for me, and we were both willing.”

Mo Lin asked, “When you threatened her with the camera, did she suspect you?”

“I told you, I didn’t threaten her!” Ding Gao emphasized, “She was feeling pretty down at the time, we were just comforting each other! If Liu Quan hadn’t come after me later, maybe we’d have a one-year-old kid by now!”

“I’ll tear your mouth apart!” Zhou Ziming pinned Ding Gao to the ground and started punching him. It took a lot of effort for the criminal police to rush into the interrogation room and separate the two.

Afterwards, Zhou Ziming was handcuffed, and Ding Gao was taken back to the interrogation room.

Mo Lin watched Ding Gao on the monitor. At this moment, Ding Gao was sitting with his head down, playing with his fingers.

Mo Lin tapped his fingers on the desk twice, half-squinting as he looked at the four people on the monitor: “Find a secure place, lock these four together, and restrict their movements.”

Ten minutes later, the four suspects entered the conference room one by one, their hands cuffed to metal chairs.

Liu Quan asked, “What are you going to do?”

The police didn’t answer him. After turning on the communication speaker, they closed the door.

None of the four spoke to each other. After a while, Ding Gao looked at Wan Shu and said, “You like Zhou Ziming, so you were jealous of Liu Yun and decided to kill her, right?”

Everyone looked at Wan Shu. She kept her head down and said, “If liking Zhou Ziming makes me a suspect, then a lot of girls are suspects because many like him.”

Zhou Ziming’s eyes flickered when he heard Wan Shu’s words.

Wan Shu sniffled and continued, “I don’t want Liu Yun’s leftovers, especially not a man!”

Zhou Ziming’s back stiffened, and he lowered his head.

Liu Quan pointed at Zhou Ziming, speaking with anguish, “It must be you who killed Yunyun! You deliberately confused Yunyun, worsening her relationship with me. To uncover the truth from back then, you drove her insane! You must have found out about the past and came back to take revenge on us! You killed Yunyun and want to send me to jail! How vicious!”

Zhou Ziming looked at Liu Quan with a calm face, “General Liu, get it straight, you were the one who pushed Liu Yun to Zheng Gaoda, you drove her insane, how can you blame me?”

Zhou Ziming wasn’t fazed by Liu Quan’s words.

“You!” Liu Quan was so angry he couldn’t speak.

Wan Shu looked at Zhou Ziming, “Zhou Ziming, you hated Liu Yun for being with Zheng Gaoda, so you killed her. You’re the murderer!”

Zhou Ziming looked at Wan Shu in disbelief. After their eyes met, he suddenly sneered, “I think this is pointless. If you have no evidence, you need to show it.”

Ding Gao chuckled, “I thought the feelings were deep, turns out it’s just burning bridges.”

The room fell into a dead silence.

Outside the interrogation room, Mo Lin watched everyone’s performance, raising an eyebrow and curling his lips into a smile, “Interesting.”

Meng Lan brought over a printed document: “Zhu Jin made a call to Zhou Ziming’s office at 7 p.m. on the night of the incident, the call lasted 3 minutes and 5 seconds. Here is all of Zhu Jin’s information for you to review.”

Mo Lin quickly flipped through Zhu Jin’s information, “Did your captain go to arrest him?”

Meng Lan replied, “Yes, they went out twenty minutes ago.”

Mo Lin’s long eyes narrowed slightly, “How did Zhu Jin know Zhou Ziming was working overtime at 7 p.m. on the night of the incident?”

*

When Wang Yue returned, Mo Lin was still sitting in front of the monitor, his tie loosened, the collar of his shirt open, revealing a large area of collarbone confined under the shirt. His narrow eyes were fixed on the four people in the room, like a statue, motionless.

Gu Yuanze sat in the seat next to him, spinning a pen between his fingers.

Wang Yue sighed regretfully, “He got away!”

He deliberately raised his voice, but neither of the two in front of him paid him any attention, which made Wang Yue’s already hurt heart feel even more defeated.

But he was good at comforting himself, “But we found a black baseball cap at Zhu Jin’s house, the same style as the one caught on surveillance!”

Because of this cap, Wang Yue was almost certain that Zhu Jin was the murderer they were after.

Even though they didn’t find him, nor any suspicious items or murder weapons, Wang Yue still sealed Zhu Jin’s house, leaving a team to search the area around Zhu Jin’s home, hoping to find the murder weapon or bloody clothes.

On the way back, Wang Yue went through Zhu Jin’s leftover phone and found a delivery record in his courier history.

Sensing something unusual, the keen Wang Yue immediately called the courier company, asking them to intercept the package about to board a plane. Now, their people were rushing to the courier transit station to retrieve the package.

At one in the morning, Zheng Mao returned with the courier package. He was careful not to damage the evidence, keeping it sealed in a plastic bag.

The package was sent directly to the evidence department. Yan Ji conducted evidence collection and took photos of the courier box, wearing gloves, he carefully cut open the box with a small knife.

Inside was a bloody triangular dagger!

It was obvious that this triangular dagger was a replica, the material was much inferior compared to a real one.

Everyone present had their adrenaline surging, staring at the evidence on the table in awe.

“Really cunning, thinking of using a courier to transfer evidence!”

“Luckily, it was intercepted!”

Yan Ji handed the evidence to Tang Xiaoliu, “Send it to the lab for testing immediately!”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and the reporters outside, having caught wind of the situation, couldn’t hold back any longer and swarmed in, eager to report this firsthand news.

“The test results are out!” Tang Xiaoliu hurried over to report the latest news, “The murder weapon has Liu Yun’s DNA on it, but unfortunately, there are no fingerprints left on it.”

Gu Yuan twirled the pen in his hand and asked Mo Lin indifferently, “When can we go home and sleep?”

“Tired?” Mo Lin raised an eyebrow.

Gu Yuan replied, “Do you know what time it is now?”

Mo Lin glanced at his watch, “Hmm… it seems a bit late, should I speed things up?”

Gu Yuan said, “Yes, hurry up.”

Mo Lin handed a cup of hot water to Gu Yuan, “Drink this water and then go home.”

Mo Lin walked towards the conference room, opened the door, and the four people inside looked at him in unison. His gaze lingered on each of their faces before he walked up to them, dragged a chair over, and sat down.

Mo Lin didn’t waste words, looking at Liu Quan and getting straight to the point, “A month ago, you made a will, leaving all your inheritance to Liu Yun, intending for Zheng Gaoda to marry her. Now that Liu Yun is dead and you’re in jail, the company’s decision-making power will fall into the hands of the shareholders… among you, who stands to gain the most?”

Liu Quan’s face changed, but quickly recovered, “With Secretary Wen around, those old guys can’t stir up trouble. I’ll deal with those old things when I get out!”

Mo Lin laughed, “Will there still be a place for you when you get out?”

“Secretary Wen has been with me for a long time, handles things skillfully, it’s not a big problem!”

Mo Lin asked, “Who is Secretary Wen to you? You trust him so much, aren’t you afraid he’ll betray you?”

“He won’t, Secretary Wen is loyal to me, he would never betray me!” Liu Quan said confidently.

“I had someone investigate, Wen Tao established a company overseas a year ago, called Expedition.”

Hearing this, Liu Quan froze.

Mo Lin continued, “He’s been quietly transferring funds for a long time, and the legal representative of this company is Zhou Ziming. Zhou Ziming has been working for Secretary Wen, already taking a share.”

Realizing this, Liu Quan reacted, “Oh, you guys teamed up to deceive me!”

“Don’t rush, I haven’t finished speaking.” Mo Lin smirked, “Your own daughter, Wan Shu, you knew about Secretary Wen’s plot long ago, that’s why you chose to be his lover.”

Liu Quan almost fainted from anger, pointing at Wan Shu’s face and cursing, “How did I raise such a shameless beast!”

Mo Lin cleared his throat and looked at Ding Gao, “Ding Gao, what benefits did Secretary Wen offer you to make you willing to wade into this mess right after getting out of prison?”

Ding Gao didn’t speak, his expression unusually serious.

At this point, you three are here being interrogated, each with your own agenda, not united at all, aren’t you afraid that when the truth comes out, none of you will get away?

At this moment, Wan Shu kept her head down, biting her lip.

Zhou Ziming sat upright.

Ding Gao stopped playing with his fingers.

Mo Lin looked at the four people in front of him and sighed, “Wan Shu, you guessed Liu Quan’s plot from two years ago, at first you didn’t intend to kill, you just wanted to persuade Liu Yun to turn herself in, right?”

Mo Lin’s gaze shifted to Zhou Ziming’s face, “Later, you also sensed something was wrong. To uncover the truth, you deliberately got involved with Liu Yun, trying to extract the truth from her, but you already knew the truth. The reason you insisted on not breaking up was because you had bigger ambitions.

Right after graduating from college, you applied to Liu Quan’s company, using your relationship with Liu Yun to climb the ranks, gradually blinded by money and power.

After learning about your relationship with Liu Yun, Secretary Wen deliberately roped you in. Under his constant persuasion, you strayed further from your original intentions.

You probably considered marrying Liu Yun, knowing that only by becoming strong yourself could you trample those who bullied you, so you kept maneuvering between the father and daughter.

You intended to outlast Liu Quan and take over the company, never intending to kill, right?”

Mo Lin stood up and walked behind the four, “Later, Liu Quan got involved with Zheng Gaoda, and Liu Yun was forced to have a relationship with him. Under multiple brainwashings, she finally decided to break up with you. Knowing your dream was about to shatter, you were anxious, and that’s when Secretary Wen approached you. For your respective interests, you teamed up to plan this case.”

“Evidence?” Zhou Ziming asked.

Mo Lin replied, “Don’t rush for evidence, listen to me first.

In your plan, none of you were the murderer. Although you all wanted Liu Yun dead, there was no need to do it yourselves. You had money and could hire someone to kill. Just as Zhu Jin’s case was causing a stir, you and Wen Tao decided to exploit Zhu Jin’s hatred to achieve your goal.

A dying man, knowing he wouldn’t live much longer, agreed to your terms after weighing the options, to create better conditions for his young child.

He helped you kill, and you ensured his child would be well taken care of.

So the one who actually wielded the knife was a sacrificial pawn predetermined in this game, while you acted like NPCs in a game, guiding the police in solving the case.”

Mo Lin took a few steps, found a comfortable spot to sit, “But the human heart is the most complex thing. On the night of the incident, Zhu Jin changed his mind and called Zhou Ziming’s office, demanding immediate cash. After all, once he did it, if he got caught by the police, whether you’d actually take care of his son was uncertain. He couldn’t gamble, only having the money in hand would reassure him.”

[Author’s Note]

Woke up in the middle of the night, couldn’t sleep, so I rewrote this chapter, haha.