Silver Snow Line [Criminal Investigation]

"I did doubt you when I received Deng Jinru's severed limbs, because I never tell anyone where I live, and you are the only one among all my colleagues who knows where my home is."

Lei Heng was obviously surprised by this special thing about himself, and a crack appeared on his calm face.

"But I quickly dispelled this suspicion," Xie Qingfei continued, "because if it was really you, your purpose in doing this would only be to provide me with clues to save people."

Kang Wenxia was the only special one among the first four victims. She had a number engraved on her soles and was wearing socks to cover her up. This was very unreasonable. After interrogating Luo Yindi, it was known that Kang Wenxia's clothes were taken off and hidden by her the day after her death before she reported the case. Luo Yindi was only ordered to take away Kang Wenxia's clothes. As an ordinary woman who had never faced such a horrific scene, she was able to remember to deal with the scene in a panic, which was an extreme act of adrenaline. She would never think of taking off the socks of the deceased and taking them away. This was the biggest loophole in the No. 3 scene.

Lei Heng just found it funny: "Why should I give you a hint?"
Xie Qingfei: "Because you noticed this serial case earlier than us, and you have even started investigating it."

Lei Heng pursed his lips and said nothing.

Xie Qingfei slowly sat back on the bed, holding the guardrail and taking a breath, then continued: "You always say that you are not a good policeman and can't help others. Perhaps the depression and pain have really shaken your beliefs, but a person's inherent abilities will not disappear just because of a change in beliefs. Lei Heng, do you still remember the wallet-stealing thief we met that night a few days ago? It was a conditioned reflex for you to subdue him at that time because you knew he was not a good person, and fighting crime is your instinct."

Lei Heng still had a sarcastic tone: "Qingfei, you are too idealistic. When you find that you can get greater benefits by using your abilities in a different way than by following the rules, will you still be willing to be a 'good person'? And the reason why I acted like that was just because you were by my side at the time, and even if I had to act, I had to act in a way that would not arouse your suspicion."

Xie Qingfei didn't take his words seriously at all, and continued to talk to himself: "Not only did you leave a tip for the police at the scene of Kang Wenxia's death, you also investigated after Zheng Yuxuan's death. You should have discovered the murderer's pattern at that time - you guessed who the murderer was, and verified it, so you began to lead all the clues to yourself."
Before he could speak, Xie Qingfei said, "Lei Heng, you never told me that you have a twin brother."
As expected, Lei Heng stopped talking.

"You let him live in your rental house. Do you visit him often? I heard that twins have telepathy. Your parents don't have a good relationship, but the brotherhood must be very deep, so you will do your best to help him and teach him a lot of things. At that time, he should have finished the two cases of the Qin family father and son, and the family kept the clothes of the two men when they were alive. A few men's clothes are not uncommon, but Qin Haiyang's right leg was injured, and the inside of his right shoe was severely worn. As a former criminal policeman, you must feel strange when you see such a pair of shoes. Then you find that more than one pair of shoes is abnormal. Every pair of shoes in your brother's house has different degrees of wear on the bottom of one side, including your own shoes that you once left behind. He is obviously a healthy person. So your reaction is that Kang Zhuo may have been coerced and encountered some difficulties.

"You started to follow Kang Zhuo to see what was going on. That night you followed him to the downstairs of Kang Wenxia's house. I have always been curious about what happened to the murderer in the process of killing Kang Wenxia, ​​which made him flee in embarrassment without even leaving any marks, and even left footprints, which are the most unexposed traces. Now I think that he must have discovered you in the dark when he opened the door to send Guo Weiqiang away, so he had to run away immediately. You came in from the front door and found that Kang Wenxia was dead in the bathroom, and there was a puzzling "mysterious code" engraved on the soles of her feet, because the personal mark of the murderer X in Li Mu's novel did not appear at the scene, and you didn't associate it with this aspect at all. You didn't believe that Kang Zhuo would kill people at all, and thought that the owner of the pair of shoes in his house must have secretly instructed him to do something, so he put a pair of incompatible black socks on the body that was originally wearing only a nightgown, to hint to the police who came to investigate later that there was something strange here.

"Then you returned to Kang Zhuo's residence. You didn't see any movement from him until the second half of the night, so you left. Who knew that he went to Fang Yutong's house and killed Zheng Yuxuan at dawn? Since then, the murders of Qin Haiyang, Qin Guodong, Zheng Yuxuan and Kang Wenxia have all been announced by the police. Although the specific identities of the deceased will not be clearly stated in the notice, Qin Mouyang may be an exception, but with the names Qin Moudong and Zheng Mouxuan that you are most familiar with, how can you not associate them with who they are? You returned to the rental house to question Kang Zhuo, but he had disappeared long ago. There was nothing in the house except four sets of the victims' clothes, so you rushed to Zheng Yuxuan's house to confirm."

Lei Heng had the impression that Zheng Yuxuan was a lawless, bullying rich second-generation who should live in a luxurious villa, but the place he found was just an ordinary residential building, even shabby. The furnishings in the small house were simple, with more girls' things. As a former criminal policeman who was well versed in on-site investigation, he quickly made a preliminary judgment of the environment, but these answers confused him until Fang Yutong walked in at this moment.

Lei Heng would never have thought that the girl living with Zheng Yuxuan was Fang Yutong, who had been disfigured and blinded by him. He had a deep impression of this girl and had felt guilty about her for so many years, so he recognized her at a glance.
This fact was simply unbelievable. Originally, he had some thoughts about Zheng Yuxuan's death, but after seeing Fang Yutong, he suddenly didn't know what to do. Then he saw a photo of the two of them on the photo wall in the living room. The clothes Zheng Yuxuan was wearing were particularly familiar. Lei Heng remembered that he had seen this clothes in Kang Zhuo's house, and immediately realized that this series of cases were not accidental.

Kang Zhuo is the person who knows him best in this world. He knows everything he has been through, so there is no real culprit behind the scenes. Kang Zhuo is the only mastermind.

Lei Heng was still in shock from this huge blow, but Fang Yutong recognized him and knew that he was the policeman who wanted to help her. She also identified him as the murderer at the same time. Lei Heng did not make any excuses. He remembered the shoes with abnormal wear on Kang Zhuo's left foot and guessed that he pretended to be lame during the crime. But Fang Yutong's purpose of recognizing him was not to thank him for helping her get revenge, but to hope that he would kill her too.

That’s right, she finally had someone who was willing to take care of her for the rest of her life. Now that Zheng Yuxuan is dead, how can she live in the future?
Fang Yutong knew that the murderer would not do anything to her, and pretending to be ignorant was the best way to save her life, but she pointed out his identity, which meant she was determined to die. She even blamed herself for whether it was her unsuccessful life that forced a good police officer to take an extreme path and killed her "brother". After struggling between love, hate and guilt, she calmly asked for death.

What is the final conclusion of good and evil? The view of human nature has never been single. If we only judge the good and evil of human nature based on a specific behavior, it is a generalization. Zheng Yuxuan died under such a biased view. After Lei Heng realized the truth, he found that he had once again ruined Fang Yutong's life. True and false, right and wrong, he could not find a reason to convince himself.
At this point, it no longer mattered to him who the real murderer was. He was also one of the murderers, so he was too lazy to hide any fingerprints or traces.

"Then you came to me," Xie Qingfei said, "You found me that night because you were helpless at the time, but I didn't realize it."
Lei Heng closed his eyes in pain and said in a hoarse voice: "These people... are all my enemies. I have every motive to kill them. Your speculations are just excuses for not believing that I would kill anyone. Honest police officers will not protect criminals."
"An impartial police officer will not betray his original intention after he stops being a police officer." Xie Qingfei obviously noticed that Lei Heng's eyelashes trembled after he said this. "I know what kind of person you are. You know it better than me."

Lei Heng remained unmoved.

Xie Qingfei was silent for a long time before he said softly, "Do you remember eight years ago when we were still in the police station, we once received a report from Tianning Park that a couple was about to commit suicide by jumping into the lake?"
Lei Heng opened his eyes, obviously remembering it.
"After dealing with their business that day, we also met a little boy who only spoke English. We helped him rescue a calico cat that was hanging on a tree and couldn't get down."
Lei Heng had a vague impression: "That little fat guy?"
Xie Qingfei said: "Not only is he not fat now, he can also speak fluent Chinese."
Lei Heng didn't know why she suddenly brought this up: "If you want to awaken my conscience through these memories, forget it. I'm already a murderer, and this fact won't change just because I helped a few kids in the past."
Xie Qingfei played the surveillance footage of Xu Siruo and "Lei Heng" having dinner that day to him. Lei Heng's face changed when he saw the person in the video who looked exactly like himself.
"There are no signs of prostheses on your legs, and the footprints on the terrace were not left by you."
"I……"
"Do you know who this boy is?" Xie Qingfei didn't give him time to refute. "It's the little fat guy you mentioned. That day, he talked about what happened in the past with the man in the video. You should know his name now, right?" Lei Heng pursed his lips, and couldn't find any trace of the boy in the video. Name... Of course he didn't know his name, because the person in the video was not him at all.

"The facts will not change - so the people you helped can still testify for you no matter how many years have passed. Lei Heng, you always say that good people don't get good rewards, but that's not true. It is because he remembers you that I have the opportunity to prevent you from being wrongly accused."

Lei Heng's chest rose and fell. He tried his best to calm his breathing. After calming down, he said lightly: "Qing Fei, can this be used as evidence?"

Xie Qingfei clenched his phone tightly.
He and Kang Zhuo are identical twins, and their DNA cannot detect any difference. If Lei Heng insists that he is the murderer, the evidence currently in the police's possession cannot prove his innocence. This is why Lei Heng is not nervous no matter what Xie Qingfei says.
The only thing that could be counted on was fingerprints. Kang Zhuo did not leave any fingerprints at the scene. Instead, Lei Heng deliberately did not wear gloves and touched the tableware when he went to Fang Yutong's house.

"Don't forget, Deng Jinru is not dead yet." Xie Qingfei took a deep breath. "There was blood in the warehouse on Xiansheng Road. At that time, I didn't understand why the murderer left these traces. Now I think it must have been you who did it. You wanted to remind me that Deng Jinru was also locked up in a warehouse. The small amount of bleeding means that she is still alive."
With a survivor as a witness, Lei Heng could no longer sit still: "No matter what, I did it. Don't flatter me anymore. It won't change anything."

Xie Qingfei was so angry that he laughed: "Lei Heng, you keep saying that as long as our enemies die, the pain will disappear, but after so many people died, do you really feel better? You have never been a person who takes hatred seriously. Li Mu treated you like that, and you didn't think about revenge after you became stronger, but used your strength to save more people. If you were really cruel, you could just let Deng Jinru die instead of saying you would surrender now."

"I……"
"Have you forgotten why I'm lying here? DNA can't detect the difference between you and Kang Zhuo. You've taught him everything you know, but do you know what he knows? Now build a bomb for me to see, and I'll fulfill your wish to surrender."
Lei Heng was speechless with no way to refute.

At this time, the door was pushed open and both of them looked over.

All Wei Cheng saw was a bed sheet covered in blood. The moment Xie Qingfei met his gaze, he subconsciously hid his hands behind his back. Halfway through, he felt that this was too cowardly, so he reluctantly put his hands back.
The atmosphere suddenly became eerily quiet.
Wei Cheng didn't even look at Lei Heng. He walked straight to the bedside and took Xie Qingfei's hand. After making sure that it was nothing serious, he relaxed his frown and disinfected the needle hole again and put on new tape.
Xie Qingfei looked at his actions and said dryly, "You are really professional."
Wei Cheng glanced at her, handed the kettle to her and said nothing.

It was the first time that Lei Heng met Wei Cheng, but he immediately figured out the relationship between the two. However, the atmosphere was a bit weird, and he didn't know what to say.

"Why does it take so long to get some water?" Xie Qingfei broke the awkwardness.
Wei Cheng changed the blood-stained bed sheet and finally spoke: "Your phone is turned off. Your mother called me to ask if you would come back for dinner on Yuandan."
Xie Qingfei glanced at his phone. The battery was already running low, and it became a complete brick after playing the surveillance video.
"What do you say?" She had time, but she didn't look like she could travel far.
Wei Cheng: "I'm busy, I can't spare the time, I'll go back after the Chinese New Year."

Just as he finished speaking, Lu Shaohui and the others arrived. As soon as Xi Ming saw Lei Heng after entering the room, the apple he was playing with almost fell to the ground.
Xie Qingfei asked: "Have the Kangzhuo people been found?"
"Ah, that, not yet." Xi Ming stuttered, "Then this is Officer Lei, Officer Lei?"
Lei Heng: "Just call me Lei Heng. I'm no longer a police officer."
"Brother Lei," Xi Ming, who was very considerate, took out an apple and gave it to him, "You eat it."
Perhaps seeing Xi Ming now reminded him of Xie Qingfei back then, Lei Heng somehow didn't refuse.

Xie Qingfei asked: "Why buy so many apples?"
"Today is Christmas." Lu Shaohui was chewing a piece of cake. He stood by the bed and looked at her for a long time before asking, "Does your head still hurt?"
When he mentioned this, Xie Qingfei suddenly remembered that he was a patient. He fell limply on the pillow and began to feel dizzy.
Lu Shaohui glanced at Lei Heng and cleared his throat, saying, "I have a little news for you. The list given by Li Mu was handed over by Director Huang. Li Guangming has been suspended for investigation. Comrades from the provincial supervision team will arrive in two days."
Finally hearing good news that made him feel comfortable, Xie Qingfei relaxed a lot and tugged at Wei Cheng's sleeve: "I want to eat an apple, too."
Wei Cheng pulled the corner of his lip: "Have some pork liver."
After saying that, he took the reddest one from Xi Ming and went to wash.

Lu Shaohui grabbed a handful of hair and said, "Well, Brother Lei Heng, you said you were coming but you didn't tell us in advance. Many brothers are still looking for you outside. Do you think we should go back now, or do you want to talk to Captain Xie again?"
Xie Qingfei said: "I don't have anything to say to him. He has a recorder in his pocket. You can go back and listen to it yourself."
Lei Heng looked at her in surprise.
"What are you looking at? I don't know you yet." Xie Qingfei pressed his temple tiredly, "I'll settle the score with you when I find you."

The policeman outside was about to come to help Lei Heng, but he raised his hand to stop him. He picked up his crutches again, propped himself up, and walked towards the door step by step, not shorter than anyone else.

After everyone had left, Wei Cheng leaned against the bed and peeled an apple. Xi Ming then realized that Xie Qingfei had really woken up, and he howled without any real action: "Master, I'm so worried about you. You don't even know how I've been spending the past few days. And my brother is like he's lost his soul. I suspect that if you don't wake up, he'll..."
"Eat it," Wei Cheng shut up Xi Ming with a glance and handed the peeled apple to Xie Qingfei. "Your hand may be bruised for a few days. Tell the nurse if you feel uncomfortable."
After saying that, he went to wash his hands again.
Xie Qingfei thought that this guy had a strangely good temper recently. Could he really be scared by her?

Before she could ask, the door of the ward was knocked again, and this time a stranger came in.
The woman looked quite young, with her cotton coat open, and was running out of breath. When she entered the door, she threw her ponytail behind her head, looked at Xie Qingfei, curled her lips, and said in a crying voice: "I thought you were dead."
Xie Qingfei laughed and coughed: "It's not that serious. Why are you here?"
Xi Ming asked curiously: "Master, who is this?"
"Cheng Feng, my roommate in college." Xie Qingfei glanced at her and asked, "From the supervision team?"
Cheng Feng opened his eyes wide and looked at her: "Sure enough, everything is fine. Your brain is still working well."

She leaned against the door for a while to calm down from the "last meeting with an old classmate". She walked closer and looked at Xi Ming for a few times, then said, "Your apprentice is quite handsome."
Xi Ming blushed at the compliment and was about to say something modest when he heard footsteps from the bathroom behind him. Then he saw the person who had just praised him for being handsome staring at the back of him.
Wei Cheng wiped the water off his hands and met the strange woman's eyes with confusion.
Cheng Feng stared at him for a moment, then hissed, "I think I've seen you before."

(End of this chapter)