I'm not a genius detective

Chapter 125 Preparing to Surrender for Crime
On Saturday, Han Ling didn't go anywhere; he just stayed home and slept. During that time, his classmates from the police academy invited him to get together twice in the QQ group, but he declined, saying he was spending time with his girlfriend.

They weren't particularly close to begin with, and dealing with this kind of interpersonal relationship held no appeal for Han Ling.

He could already imagine what the dinner party would be like. He would definitely be the center of attention, with praise focused on his first-class merit, and a couple of jokes about "not forgetting each other when we become rich and powerful," all in a joking tone to express his true feelings.

With a first-class merit award, one's future is bright. Old classmates, taking advantage of their proximity, naturally want to build relationships in advance. Since none of us have any connections, we can only rely on ourselves to develop.

What puzzled Han Ling was that Tong Feng remained silent; he should have been the most restless person during his vacation.

Something unusual must be going on; it's suspected that she might be "exchanging feelings" with Lin Muyang from the police dog squadron.

After spending this time together, Han Ling didn't realize that Lin Muyang had any romantic feelings for Tong Feng. It would probably not be so easy for Tong Feng to get what he wanted.

"Did you make plans with Team Leader Lin yesterday?"

When Han Ling saw Tong Feng on Sunday while working overtime, the first thing she asked him was this question.

Tong Feng admitted, "Yes, so what?"

Han Ling smiled and asked, "How's it going? Did you go straight to the hotel?"

Tong Feng rolled his eyes: "How can your thoughts be so dirty? We're just having normal conversations between colleagues. Now, I'm getting more and more knowledgeable about police dogs. Maybe one day I'll apply to be transferred to the police dog squadron."

Han Ling sat down and said, "You'd better leave quickly, so you don't hold me back all the time. You're more suited to serving police dogs. I'll ask you for help first when there are cases."

There weren't many people in the case-handling hall. After a few words, Fang Zhou opened the door and called out, "Han Ling, Tong Feng, there's a case. Come with me to the interrogation room."

Upon seeing this, Han Ling immediately got up and chased after the ark with Tong Feng.

Colleagues from the Second Squadron were waiting in the interrogation room. When the people from the First Squadron arrived, they handed over the man and woman present, along with the police report and interrogation records, and then left.

The man was in his twenties, and the woman was in her forties or fifties; they looked like mother and son.

Indeed, the police report clearly states that the two are mother and son, one named Lü Zhanpeng and the other Pan Xia.

The Second Squadron transferred the case to the First Squadron, possibly because it involved serious crimes.

"You two take a look first," Fang Zhou said, gesturing for the two to review the inquiry record before sitting down himself.

Han Ling and Tong Feng quickly browsed through the text, their expressions gradually showing surprise. After finishing, their gazes turned to Lü Zhanpeng in unison.

Lu Zhanpeng is 24 years old, with short hair, wearing a plaid shirt, and has an honest and down-to-earth appearance. He graduated from Qingchang University.

Currently, I work for a testing and certification company, where I conduct product testing.

Pan Xia, 50 years old, does odd jobs in her spare time.

The mother and son are not from Jiangyuan, but from another province. After graduating, Lü Zhanpeng chose to stay in Qingchang to work, and his mother, Pan Xia, took some time in the past few days to visit him.

This visit led to the discovery of a major secret while helping her son tidy his room.

Out of anger and fear, he took his son directly to the police station to turn himself in.

"You want to kill someone?"

Han Ling stepped forward, placed the interrogation record on the table, and looked at Lü Zhanpeng, saying...

After learning that the case involved murder, the Second Squadron transferred it to the First Squadron according to normal procedures, even if it was just a preparatory murder.

Cases involving attempted murder are rare, let alone cases where the perpetrator surrenders themselves. If investigated, the punishment may be mitigated or even waived depending on the severity of the circumstances.

Who commits murder and then intends to turn themselves in? If you don't want to kill, then you don't. The intentional crime is abandoned, and it's as if nothing ever happened. Everything goes back to normal.

It's surprising that Pan Xia was able to turn her son over to the police.

If they're unlucky, the son could very well end up with a criminal record.

If someone is preparing to commit murder and surrenders themselves to the police, they are likely to be exempt from prosecution. However, if the court sentences them to a suspended sentence of detention or imprisonment, no one can really say anything about it.

"Speak!" Pan Xia slapped her son. "Just answer whatever the police ask you! You've become too bold! Have you gone crazy from studying? You even dare to kill someone! What would your father and I do if you really killed someone and I hadn't come recently! Would you jump off a building?!"

The woman's voice trembled slightly, clearly indicating she was still very frightened.

For ordinary families, a child suspected of committing a crime is already a huge deal; if the child is suspected of murder, it is a devastating blow.

Lu Zhanpeng's lips trembled, and under his mother's urging, he finally spoke: "Yes... I'm going to kill someone."

Han Ling: "It hasn't started yet, has it?"

Lü Zhanpeng nodded slightly.

Seeing this, Han Ling and the other two exchanged glances, unsure of what to say.

It's fortunate that it didn't happen, but Pan Xia's act of turning her son over to the police was really unnecessary; a stern reprimand would have sufficed.

If Lü Zhanpeng is determined to kill someone, then even if he surrenders himself, he will still carry it out after he gets out.

If Lü Zhanpeng realizes his mistakes after being discovered by his mother, then the crime will be stopped even if he doesn't turn himself in.

Regardless of the possibility, from the perspective of the person involved, surrendering oneself is completely unnecessary.

Perhaps the mother, Pan Xia, was truly terrified. She didn't know what to do or how to stop her son, fearing that he might kill her after she left, so she had no choice but to seek help from the police.

"Officers, look! Luckily I discovered it early!"

As she spoke, Pan Xia took out a notebook from her bag and handed it to Han Ling, who then handed it to Fang Zhou. The three of them gathered together to look at it.

The notes contain three key pieces of information, like a diary.

First, who to kill.

Second, why kill?

Third, how to kill.

The victim who was preparing to commit the crime was named Du Juncai, also from another province. He and Lü Zhanpeng were from the same hometown, but different counties in the same city. Du Juncai's family lived in the city, while Lü Zhanpeng's family lived in the county. In university, the two were in the same class and shared a dormitory.

The probability of meeting someone from the same city in the dormitory when studying in another province is not high. By chance, the two became good friends.

The notes roughly mean that Du Juncai's family is a little rich, and he always acted arrogantly throughout his four years of university, and he also bullied Lü Zhanpeng.

Of course, it wasn't the kind of bullying; it was more subtle, interspersed in everyday trivialities, which made Lü Zhanpeng feel very uncomfortable, but he couldn't say anything.

For example, Lü Zhanpeng frequently helped Du Juncai fetch water and buy meals.

For example, Lü Zhanpeng helped Du Juncai with his homework design.

Then, Du Jun gave Lü Zhanpeng a small amount of money, which Lü Zhanpeng felt was almost like giving alms to a beggar, and he felt very aggrieved.

The most serious thing was that Du Juncai stole the girl that Lü Zhanpeng liked.

It's not about stealing; the girl wasn't Lü Zhanpeng's girlfriend to begin with, and people are free to date. But you knew I liked her, yet you still pursued her, which is a bit immoral.

Strangers are one thing, fair competition is another, but as a roommate, Lü Zhanpeng couldn't understand Du Juncai's behavior.

Seeing this, Fang Zhou looked up: "Are you sharing an apartment with Du Juncai now?"

This was mentioned in the notes.

Lu Zhanpeng lowered his head and hummed in agreement.

Fang Zhou asked curiously, "If you hate him so much, why do you still want to share an apartment with him? Wouldn't it be better to stay far away from him?"

Lü Zhanpeng sighed: "He also stayed in Qingchang to work and needed to find a place to stay, so he insisted on coming to me. I... I had no reason to refuse."

Fangzhou understood a bit. This should be a case of Du Juncai having a good opinion of himself, but not realizing how annoying he is, and having no sense of boundaries.

"When you agreed to share the apartment, did you have any murderous intentions?" he asked.

Lu Zhanpeng was silent for a while, then shook his head: "I don't know. Ever since I started sharing an apartment with him, I've felt terrible every day."

Honest people are often submissive and accepting of whatever comes their way; this kind of personality is very common.

Fangzhou: "Did he break up with that girl?"

Lü Zhanpeng: "It seems not."

Fangzhou: "Do you still like her?"

Lü Zhanpeng remained silent.

Seeing this, Fangzhou continued flipping through the notebook, which detailed the method of murder.

Well, this method of murder is quite dramatic; to put it simply, it involves using highly toxic ice capsules.

First, find an empty capsule, fill it with water, and freeze it in the refrigerator. This will give you an ice capsule block.

Then, using a tool, a small hole is made inside the ice capsule, a small piece of potassium cyanide is placed inside, and after sealing with lard, it is frozen again.

The reason for using lard is that potassium cyanide has very low solubility in lard.

Thus, the ice capsule filled with highly toxic substances was formed.

By placing ice capsules into the water dispenser's water tank and calculating the melting time of the ice, they could create an alibi and delay the murder.

When implementing the plan, Lü Zhanpeng would communicate with Du Juncai in advance, asking him to buy a surveillance camera and install it in the living room, and ensuring that the camera could capture the water dispenser.

Lu Zhanpeng volunteered to be in charge of installing the surveillance cameras.

First, put in a poison capsule, then install a surveillance camera so that it captures you drinking water from the water dispenser, at which point the water is non-toxic, and then leave home.

A few hours later, when Du Juncai returned home from get off work and went to drink water from the water dispenser, the ice capsule melted, exposing the potassium cyanide in the water, and Du Juncai died on the spot.

This is the entire process of the murder plan.

After watching it, Fang Zhou was speechless, thinking that Lü Zhanpeng had watched too much Detective Conan and really thought the police were idiots.
The newly installed surveillance cameras, the conflicts between them, the source of the potassium cyanide, and the inexplicable presence of lard impurities are all suspicious points. It would be too naive to think that the ice cubes alone could delay the murder and create an alibi.

The perfect crime is never that simple.

"Do you have potassium cyanide?" Han Ling asked at this moment.

Lu Zhanpeng nodded, then shook his head: "We don't have any now, but we can access them at the company. I was thinking... we should be able to steal some."

Potassium cyanide is a highly toxic chemical and is strictly controlled by the state. Even the conditions for handling it are extremely strict, let alone stealing it. Even if there were internal theft, it would be very difficult.

Lu Zhanpeng's criminal preparations were incomplete; he hadn't even completed the most crucial step. It was merely a plan in a notebook. Even if someone reported it to the police, he could easily say, "I was just writing this for fun."

"Let's proceed according to the normal procedures," Fang Zhou said. Since he had turned himself in, the branch office had to accept the report, and the person involved had already admitted it.

Pan Xia was concerned about the consequences: "Officer, my son shouldn't go to jail, right?"

Fangzhou: "Since you turned yourself in, weren't you mentally prepared?"

Pan Xia: "He hasn't even killed anyone yet, and he's going to jail for not killing anyone?"

Fang Zhou: "Preparedness for a crime may also constitute a crime. We need to discuss it before we can give you a result. In the meantime, Lü Zhanpeng will need to be detained at the branch office. You can go back first and find a hotel to stay in for the time being. It won't be for too long."

This case needs to be discussed with the Legal Affairs Team to see if it needs to be transferred to the Procuratorate.

Based on Fangzhou's experience, since the potassium cyanide was not obtained, there should be no need to prosecute. They can be educated and released, allowing the other party to intuitively understand the consequences of murder beforehand.

But if they get their hands on potassium cyanide, then it's a serious matter.

We can't just listen to Lü Zhanpeng's side of the story. The investigators need to search the rented house, and the time is uncertain. This is one of the reasons why Fang Zhou asked Pan Xia to stay in a hotel.

(End of this chapter)