Given Lan Hui’s position as the logistics director of a public kindergarten, Chu Wanning worried that barging in directly while the children were at the kindergarten could amplify the negative impact. So she waited until the meeting ended and her colleagues had each returned to their duties before making the call.
The ringtone played only twice before it was answered.
“Hello.”
Chu Wanning’s tone was calm but carried authority. Whether in her upright posture or her unsmiling eyes, there was absolute presence: “Hello, is this Ms. Lan Hui? I’m the captain of the Nanyun District Public Security Sub-bureau’s Criminal Investigation Unit. I need you to cooperate with the investigation into Mr. Lu Zhenglin’s murder.”
Lan Hui’s voice was measured and steady. “Hmm, how should I cooperate?”
“There’s a Volkswagen parked on the roadside to the right of the kindergarten’s main gate with its hazard lights on. Please come to the station with the colleague in the car.” Without waiting for Lan Hui’s response, Chu Wanning added, “Taking leave quietly is far better than us coming in uniform and making a scene.”
“Thanks.”
Twenty minutes later, three seats in Interrogation Room One were occupied. Chen Anyou led the questioning, Nie Fanxin handled the records, and the elegant and composed Lan Hui settled into the padded wooden chair across the desk, her every movement and word unhurried.
Chu Wanning, wearing headphones and with her arms crossed over her chest, stood behind the one-way glass, observing Lan Hui’s micro-expressions and movements.
Chen Anyou proceeded by the book: “Lan Hui, after 10:32 p.m. on December 26, where were you?”
“Home.”
“Are you sure you’re not lying?” The male officer tossed a photo to her. “License plate Jiang-B-CL-326, white Audi A7. It left Honghuai Yuanyang at 11:52 p.m. The person wearing the red beret isn’t you?”
Lan Hui’s right eye blinked rapidly twice without her realizing it. She replied, “I went out to run an errand. I didn’t kill him.”
“What errand?”
Lan Hui cleared her throat and recomposed herself. “That’s my personal privacy, isn’t it? I don’t have to tell you.”
Chen Anyou bluffed: “If you have no alibi, then add the motive and the murder weapon, and we have grounds to suspect you of murder.”
Lan Hui’s voice remained as steady as ever. “What motive? What means? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
As Nie Fanxin carefully took notes, Chen Anyou pressed on with material she’d provided him: “Your marriage to Lu Zhenglin was strained. We’ve verified that on the night of November 12, you called the police to report domestic violence, but the case was dropped for lack of evidence. On November 18, you filed for divorce. On November 27, you withdrew the suit. What was the reason?”
Lan Hui let out a derisive snort. “Lu Zhenglin was trying to extort me. He wanted an apartment and two million in cash. He didn’t contribute a penny to the houses we bought four years ago and last year. Why should he get a share?”
“So you were angry enough to kill him!”
“I repeat: I didn’t.”
A cornered rabbit will bite too. Chen Anyou was momentarily taken aback by her low, resolute outburst. To his right, Nie Fanxin noticed Lan Hui’s split-second hesitation when uttering the word “didn’t.” She tapped the side of the desk with her fingertips, signaling Chen Anyou to circle back to Lan Hui’s whereabouts that night. But he didn’t catch on and fell silent.
At that moment, Chu Wanning’s voice came through their wireless earbuds: “Fanxin, take over.”
Nie Fanxin adjusted her earpiece, tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, and stood. She walked to Lan Hui’s side, her gaze sharpening: “You didn’t? Then it must have been someone else. That night, he killed and dumped the body alone, all while keeping in touch with you.”
Lan Hui’s composure wavered. Within two seconds, her expression shifted from panic to hesitation, and she blurted out, “That’s impossible. After 1 a.m. on the 27th, I was in Wanhui and stayed with Ajun the whole time.”
Chen Anyou finally caught the key point. “Who is Ajun?”
Lan Hui fell silent again.
“That’s fine. Even if you stay quiet now, we’ll find out.” Chen Anyou said this for the benefit of Chu Wanning standing outside the glass, then wasted no time moving on: “Rogor pesticide. What did you buy it for?”
Lan Hui answered quickly: “Weekend outdoor pest control at the kindergarten.”
Chen Anyou sneered, “Pest control in winter? Pull the other one.”
Nie Fanxin’s eye roll nearly reached the heavens again. She corrected him: “More precisely, killing insect eggs.”
Chu Wanning called to an auxiliary officer in the corridor: “Old Yang, notify the institute to check the chemical composition of the soil from Yilu Experimental Kindergarten’s outdoor areas.”
Five minutes later, Chu Wanning received a preliminary report via WeChat. As she skimmed it, she murmured into the mic: “Fanxin, listen. Ye Jun, male, 31, founder of Boshi Children’s Basketball Training School, who maintains a long-term partnership with Yilu Experimental Kindergarten.”
Nie Fanxin didn’t write it down but processed the key information mentally and spoke: “Ye Jun is big and sturdy. Moving your husband outside would be easy for him.”
Facing Nie Fanxin, Lan Hui slipped up again: “Ajun wouldn’t. I talked him out of it.”
Nie Fanxin pressed her advantage with calm clarity: “Talked him out of it? So he considered murder at some point? The underground parking of Building B in Honghuai Yuanyang connects to the parking of Buildings C and D in Phase Two. Those won’t be completed until early next year, so surveillance coverage is sparse. If Ye Jun entered the parking through C or D, he could have evaded the cameras and slipped into Building B’s stairwell unnoticed. He moved the body, then returned the same way. And you, to create confusion, deliberately drove out of the compound through Building B’s parking exit B2. Or perhaps you really knew nothing, and it was all Ye Jun acting alone.”
Lan Hui’s composure cracked. “No, that’s impossible.”
A faint smile finally appeared on Chu Wanning’s face. She turned to head back to her office when she heard someone shout down the corridor: “Captain Chu, a man named Ye Jun just barged into the building with a lawyer!”
“What?”
The officer finally managed to catch his breath. “He’s… he’s on his way up right now.”
“Captain Chu, hello. Pei Rong, criminal lawyer from Yunbei Law Firm. From this moment on, I am Lan Hui’s defense counsel.”
Before the officer’s echo faded, it was swallowed by the staccato click of high heels striking the floor. A woman with long, wavy cool-toned brown hair, tall and statuesque, extended her right hand toward her.
Mature, with a hint of sultry ease.
“Hello.” Chu Wanning clasped Pei Rong’s hand politely.
“Can I take Lan Hui with me now?”
Chu Wanning pointed at Ye Jun. “No. Not only can you not take Lan Hui, but he needs to stay too.”
“Oh? Is your evidence chain sufficient? Planning to hold them for the full twenty-four hours, Captain Chu?”
Chu Wanning rejected the lawyer’s stereotype of cops: “I don’t do forced holds. I just need you to wait half an hour.” She then pushed open the door in front of her and spoke into the small microphone: “Fanxin, to Interrogation Room Two.”
A minute later, Nie Fanxin emerged from Interrogation Room One and was greeted by Pei Rong with a wink and a blown kiss.
“Why are you here?”
“Helping your mom make money.”
“Catch up later.” Nie Fanxin patted Pei Rong’s lower back affectionately and entered the interrogation room, taking a seat to the side.
Chu Wanning skipped the pleasantries: “Ye Jun, where were you between 10:30 p.m. and midnight on the 26th?”
“Driving, then home. You suspect me?”
“Going home to wait for Lan Hui?”
Ye Jun looked surprised yet pleased. “Did Xiaohui tell you about us?”
“How long have you two been together? Wanting to go official, so you planned to murder Lu Zhenglin?”
Before coming to the station, Pei Rong had coached Ye Jun on how to tell the truth plainly: “Xiaohui only agreed to officially date me after she’d completely given up on Lu Zhenglin. Today marks exactly one month. As for killing that woman-beating coward, I did have the thought, but I never got the chance to act. I don’t know which hero carried out justice in my stead, but I must thank him.”
Chu Wanning probed the timeline: “Do you remember exactly when you got home?”
Ye Jun recalled, “Within five minutes after Xiaohui called.”
“Around 11:40 p.m.?”
Ye Jun nodded.
“Why put up with being the other person?”
“These days, fewer and fewer men and women are volunteering for the grave of marriage. People just want to be happy. The one condition is that Lu Zhenglin stops hitting her. If I ever catch him raising his hand again, I’ll fight to the death.”
At 4:30 p.m., Chu Wanning allowed Pei Rong to take Ye Jun and Lan Hui away, though they could be summoned at any time.
At 5:10 p.m., as the workday drew to a close, Nie Fanxin received an important message from Wan Yi: “The victim’s blood tested positive for benzodiazepines. Enough to induce deep sleep in seconds. But all other toxicology results are normal. So currently, the cause of death has been narrowed to non-pathological, non-traumatic, non-toxic acute heart failure, leading to rapid death.”
“Also known as inhibition death?”
“More precisely, inhibition death following unconsciousness.”
Nie Fanxin furrowed her brow and continued Wan Yi’s line of reasoning: “Then the killer had no reason to dump the body at all. Maybe they lacked forensic knowledge and legal awareness, panicked, and hastily disposed of it.”
Wan Yi’s reply came quickly: “But the trace evidence team found nothing usable. Could someone acting on instinct really leave no traces?”
The fewer clues they found, the more deliberate it seemed…
