Reborn in 97, I solved a cold case at the Municipal Bureau

Chapter 359 Where's your wife?

"Moreover, you started withdrawing small amounts of cash from the bank starting April 11th. Your previous explanation was that you discovered Zheng Guangming's disappearance through Zheng Tianlan and were afraid that you would be implicated because of the falsification of accounts, so you prepared to withdraw money and run away."

"But you said that on the premise that you were pretending not to know that Zheng Guangming was dead."

"But now, you have confessed to hiring someone to kill Zheng Guangming."

Zhou Yi sneered, "Come on, explain yourself again, why is this?"

Xia Yu flipped through the previous interrogation records and found that it was true. He had forgotten about this information, but Zhou Yi still remembered it.

Fan Zhongliang was extremely panicked and uneasy when he faced Zhou Yi's psychological encirclement and suppression.

However, after confessing his crimes, his emotions and mindset gradually calmed down.

In fact, this is a common occurrence during interrogations. Many criminal suspects will keep their crimes to themselves, but this anxiety and fear can be very agonizing.

Only those who have committed crimes but have not yet been caught know what it means to live in constant fear.

Therefore, many criminal suspects feel a great sense of relief when they finally confess, as if the weight that has been tormenting them has finally been lifted from their hearts.

Fan Zhongliang was in this situation.

However, when faced with Zhou Yi's questioning, he visibly became nervous.

"I...I was just being prepared, thinking...if I ever had to run away, I could...I could..."

Zhou Yi chimed in, "So you can just run away anytime?"

Fan Zhongliang nodded quickly, as if he had grasped a lifeline.

“But you’re a middle-aged man with a wife, children, and an elderly mother in the countryside. Are you planning to abandon your family and just leave?”

"But I can't explain it to them. I... I had no choice."

"Fan Zhongliang, on March 17th, you casually put Zheng Guangming's ID card in the car's glove compartment, right?"

Fan Zhongliang nodded, his eyes flickering.

What did you do with this ID card afterward?

"It's burned...it's burned."

"You just said that on the night of March 17th, you took your wife and daughter out for hot pot, and that you got drunk. You said you were already home when you woke up the next day, is that right?"

Fan Zhongliang nodded repeatedly.

"Who was driving the car?"

"I...my wife..."

Is it possible that your wife discovered the ID card that very night?

As soon as Zhou Yi finished speaking, Fan Zhongliang suddenly looked up at him, but immediately lowered his head again.

"I...I don't know, I...I don't think so."

"you sure?"

"I...I don't know. Anyway, when I went outside to burn the ID card the next day, it was still inside, and it looked like no one had touched it."

“I have two questions I’d like to ask you,” Zhou Yi asked, looking down at him.

Fan Zhongliang dared not utter a sound, sweat trickling down his temples.

"My first question is, did you go to Ding Wenyuan's place last Tuesday, April 16th?"

"Yes, I went."

"What to do?"

"I...I'll go and say hello for my wife; she doesn't want to continue working here."

"why?"

"She...she said she was too tired, so...she didn't want to do it anymore."

Zhou Yi nodded, seemingly convinced by this flimsy reason.

Then he asked, "My second question is, where is your wife now?"

"She...she...she..."

Fan Zhongliang said "she" three times in a row, and finally said something that shocked Xia Yu.

Fan Zhongliang said, "She passed away last week."

But Xia Yu didn't know that Zhou Yi had already told Pan Hongjie that Chen Ting might be dead when he brought Fan Zhongliang back.

Zhou Yi remained unmoved and asked, "On what day did you pass away?"

Fan Zhongliang trembled violently and stood frozen in place, speechless.

Zhou Yi slowly walked back to his seat, looked at Fan Zhongliang who was standing like a block of wood, and sneered, "Fan, you've told too many lies, haven't you? You've forgotten them yourself and can't cover them up anymore, can you?"

"Since you say Chen Ting is deceased, not missing, then that means she went through the normal funeral procedures, which we can easily verify. You can't lie."

"Come on, explain clearly what you mean by 'we already know' about what happened later."

Zhou Yi knew that this time it should be about right. Chen Ting's sudden resignation was too abnormal.

If it were just a completely unrelated isolated event, that would be fine.

However, when it comes to Fan Zhongliang, who hired someone to commit murder, things can't be that simple.

Based on Fan Zhongliang's final confession, Zhou Yi deduced that Chen Ting discovered the ID photo in the car on the evening of March 17th.

She couldn't help but find it strange, because Ding Wenyuan had said that Chen Ting used to work at Zheng Guangming's company with Fan Zhongliang.

She may not have paid much attention at the time, but she must have deliberately looked into Zheng Guangming's situation and discovered that he had mysteriously disappeared. So she began to suspect that her husband, Fan Zhongliang, was the murderer.

After learning about this, Fan Zhongliang used some method to kill Chen Ting and disguised it as an accidental or natural death.

Fan Zhongliang looked at Zhou Yi blankly, all his secrets now exposed to the world.

"Ah—" Fan Zhongliang suddenly broke down emotionally, and began to shout and cry.

Xia Yu was startled and almost stood up.

But when I turned my head, I saw Zhou Yi sitting there with his arms crossed, not moving at all, watching the suspect in front of him as if he were watching a play.

Fan Zhongliang made a ruckus for more than ten minutes before finally getting tired and gradually falling silent.

Zhou Yi asked without changing his expression, "Have you had enough of this? If you have, then we'll continue."

Zhou Yi thought to himself, "Your antics are nothing compared to Xu Jiaguang's emotional outburst back then. You're far inferior to Xu Jiaguang in terms of acting skills."

At this moment, Fan Zhongliang, just like Zheng Tianlan when his lies were exposed, was limp and lifeless, like a Shar Pei.

"I said..." Fan Zhongliang said weakly.

"Could I... have another glass of water?" The half-glass of water that was left earlier had been spilled by him while he was making a fuss, along with the glass.

Zhou Yi smiled slightly and said decisively, "No! Unless you confess first!"

Xia Yu suddenly realized why Zhou Yi had suddenly gone out to get water.

Holy crap, this interrogation pace is incredible! It'll take him at least five years to learn!
Fan Zhongliang was like a man lying in the desert; when he was dying of thirst, nothing was more important than a glass of water.

And Fan Zhongliang finally confessed everything.

He admitted that he was responsible for the death of his wife, Chen Ting.

Fan Zhongliang said that less than six months after Zheng Guangming founded Guangming Trading Company, the workload surged due to business expansion, and he felt overwhelmed, so he suggested to Zheng Guangming that they hire another accountant.

Zheng Guangming agreed and told him to make the arrangements directly.

Thinking that he should keep the benefits within the family, he brought his wife, Chen Ting, into the company to assist him.

Later, we recruited a number of more people.

Logically speaking, he was Zheng Guangming's confidant, and it would be ideal if the couple managed the money in the same company.

However, by the end of 1994, he began to notice that his wife was acting strangely. She would mysteriously disappear during work hours, and her clothing style was becoming increasingly flamboyant.

At first, he thought he had money, and Chen Ting started to show off. Chen Ting was aware of his falsification of accounts for Zheng Guangming, and even participated in it at one point.

However, in order to protect his wife, he did not allow Chen Ting to have too much or too deep contact with him.

One day, while he was at work, he suddenly felt dizzy and unwell, so he drove home to rest.

He was resting in the bedroom when he suddenly heard the door open. Judging from the sound of high heels, it must be Chen Ting returning.

But he remembered that Chen Ting should have gone to the tax bureau today, so why didn't she go back to the company and instead went straight home?

He didn't pay much attention at the time, and was just about to get up and ask when Chen Ting went straight into the bathroom and started taking a shower.

Their bathroom has a wet and dry separation design, with the washing machine located next to the sink outside.

He didn't say anything, but quietly walked over and found Chen Ting's clothes and skirt thrown into the washing machine.

Strangely, there were underwear inside, but no stockings.

He clearly remembered that Chen Ting was wearing stockings that morning.

On my way to work that day, I even made a couple of jokes, saying that she was wearing stockings and high heels, what was she up to?

Chen Ting jokingly retorted, "I can't even get enough to eat at home, and you won't let me go out and find handsome young men?"

Fan Zhongliang didn't take it too seriously at the time, thinking it was just a joke.

Little did they know that sometimes what was said half-jokingly was the truth.

Then, Fan Zhongliang reached into the washing machine and took out Chen Ting's underwear.

Upon examination, he said his brain exploded.

He was so angry he was trembling, and immediately remembered the joke he made that morning.

He flung open the bathroom door and rushed in, grabbing Chen Ting by the neck and demanding to know who the man was.
Chen Ting, who was taking a shower, was terrified by him and started crying loudly, but she vehemently denied Fan Zhongliang's accusations, calling him a lunatic.
Then, wrapped in a bath towel, Chen Ting cried and made a scene in the living room, even accusing Fan Zhongliang of not trusting her and deliberately spying on her, and threatened to kill herself.

Fan Zhongliang knew she was lying, but as the saying goes, to catch someone cheating, you need to catch them in the act. He didn't have any solid evidence to prove that Chen Ting had cheated on him.

But he didn't know that from that moment on, the gears of death began to turn.

(End of this chapter)