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The rain in Dragon City had stopped, leaving a fresh scent in the air. Jiang He had been following Wei Linghui for some time now. They both got out of the car in the northwest suburbs, where two blue taxis stood out, as no one would typically choose to take a cab to this place.
Wei Linghui stood still, and Jiang He did the same. Without needing to think, Jiang He knew that Wei Linghui had already noticed him. As the two taxis drove further away along nearly the same route, Jiang He understood that he had been exposed.
Wei Linghui turned to look at Jiang He and asked calmly, "Why are you following me?"
Jiang He stepped in front of Wei Linghui and said, "From the very beginning, I knew you were the murderer."
Hearing Jiang He's words, Wei Linghui felt no stirrings within her; the moment she learned of Lu Zhengye's death, her heart had died along with him.
"I'm curious to hear how you discovered I was the murderer," Wei Linghui said as she casually sat down on the ground.
Jiang He remained standing and slowly replied, "When I found you in the cellar in the suburbs, I suspected that you were behind all of this. Old Shao often talked about Locard's exchange principle: a person inevitably exchanges substances with a crime scene. The longer you stay there, the more likely you are to leave traces."
"What did I expose?" Wei Linghui looked up at Jiang He while absentmindedly picking up a stone from the roadside and playing with it in her hand.
Jiang He raised three fingers and said to Wei Linghui, "First, when we arrived at the cellar, there were no footprints outside. Everyone speculated that the murderer was unable to take you away in time and had to hurriedly erase their own tracks. But if the murderer had time to erase footprints, they also had time to kill and silence witnesses. Yet, the murderer didn't do that; they left you behind."
Wei Linghui extended her hand and stared at the stone in her palm without saying anything.
Jiang He continued, "Actually, we can think from another angle: it was because you had been outside. Letting the police find you imprisoned was a key point of your plan. Before this happened, the Criminal Consultant must have briefed you on important information to prevent any slip-ups. You succeeded; your description of the murderer completely guided the police to investigate Wang Chao."
"That's correct," Wei Linghui nodded and picked up a few more stones.
Jiang He looked at the stones in Wei Linghui's hand and said, "Second point: after I suggested that Lu Zhengye might have killed you, you violently pushed me down. When I fell into the cellar, I realized it was not what I had imagined. I thought it would be filthy, but in reality, the floor was quite clean."
"It wouldn't be possible for it to be that clean if no one ever cleaned it," Jiang He sat down as well and looked at Wei Linghui seriously. "You all indeed made significant efforts to disguise things, including waste and food, but you still couldn't accept sleeping on muddy ground, could you?"
"Is it really because of these details?" Wei Linghui smiled and said, "Your deductions seem a bit far-fetched, don't you think?"
"No," Jiang He pointed at Wei Linghui's eyes and said, "I'm different from others. My reasoning doesn't start with existing clues leading to a conclusion; rather, the conclusion appears in my mind first, and then I recall how I arrived at it."
"The key information lies in your eyes." Jiang He withdrew his hand.
"My eyes?" Wei Linghui asked, somewhat curious.
Jiang He nodded, looking at the pile of stones in Wei Linghui's hands. "I carefully observed the ventilation openings in the cellar. Only a faint ray of sunlight can filter in every hour or so. You told us you've been imprisoned there for several months, but that's actually a lie."
"When a person is kept in a dark environment for an extended period, and the murderer only brings you food at night, the amount of sunlight you can access over these months is pitifully small. Therefore, your eyes have adapted to that dark environment. When strong light shines in, your eyes would struggle to cope, potentially causing temporary blindness."
Jiang He looked into Wei Linghui's eyes. "But you showed no such reaction. When sunlight hit your eyes, you didn't seem uncomfortable at all."
"When I gathered these three clues, I began to suspect that the murderer never imprisoned you at all. However, I still don't know your motive." Jiang He shook his head. "Finding the murderer's motive has never been my job, but there's no choice; we are in the light while you are in the dark."
"Old Shao has long suspected you, but he hasn't come forward," Jiang He said. "I couldn't understand before, but now I do."
Wei Linghui suddenly smiled and said, "Motive? What motive do I have?"
"Lu Zhengye is your motive," Jiang He stated firmly. "We learned that Lu Zhengye has been avoiding you since he got out of prison; he doesn't want to see you. When I found that train ticket in your house, I understood what happened ten years ago."
"So what?" Wei Linghui clenched the stones tightly in her hands, producing a clattering sound.
"This is my first time guessing someone's inner thoughts," Jiang He supported his chin with his hands. "If I'm wrong, I hope you'll let me know."
Wei Linghui nodded and shrugged.
Jiang He said, "It wasn't Lu Zhengye's fault ten years ago, nor was it Wei Qian's. It was all part of your design, wasn't it? If I'm not mistaken, you drugged Lu Zhengye, didn't you?"
Wei Linghui turned her head back, grinning to reveal her white teeth. She looked at Jiang He with a sideways glance, as if some monster were trapped in her eyes. She chuckled softly, and after a moment, she said, "Yes, you guessed it right. It's so accurate that I wonder if you have mind-reading abilities."
Wei Linghui continued slowly, "Lu Zhengye was very handsome when he was young and was very considerate towards me after we got married. But the more he cared for me, the more uneasy I felt. Do you know how I tricked Lu Zhengye into being with me?"
Jiang He shook his head and replied, "We only know that he was dating Wei Qian before. But when you said that, I was already ninety percent sure that you used drugs on him."
Wei Linghui nodded happily, as if resonating with an old friend. "That's right. I knew Lu Zhengye was just a thug, but even thugs can have charm, especially a handsome, carefree, and free-spirited one. You see, I'm not good-looking and my figure isn't great. I haven't been in a relationship for twenty years. When I saw Lu Zhengye, I knew I had fallen in love."
"I put drugs in his drink," Wei Linghui said with a smile on her face, as if reminiscing about a beautiful life. "After some coaxing, we ended up together. When he woke up, I told him that if he didn't marry me, I'd accuse him of rape. He got scared and agreed."
"But did he love you?" Jiang He asked.
Wei Linghui trembled all over, as if suppressing something. "Once the deed is done, does it really matter if he loves me? Whether he loves me or not is irrelevant; all I know is that I can't leave him. My love for him is enough."
"But I still don't understand," Jiang He scratched his head. "If you love him, why would you want to harm him?"
"Because I'm afraid," Wei Linghui replied. "After we got married, he seemed to have turned over a new leaf. He found a stable job and started to take care of the family. How could this be? If others found out what an excellent person he is, there might be women more beautiful, younger, and more capable than me who would try to take him away. Whatever way you gain something is also the way you might lose it, right?"
Jiang He shook his head; he couldn't understand why Wei Linghui would do such a thing. If you love someone, shouldn't you want them to be better? Who would wish for their loved one to become a criminal?
Wei Linghui suddenly sighed and said, "I can feel that he doesn't love me. Loving someone and being forced to take responsibility for them are two different feelings. The longer we live together, the more afraid I become that one day he will seek freedom and leave me. I can't passively wait for that to happen; thus, I made a plan."
"I'm actually not at work. I had poured a large amount of aphrodisiac into the thermos in advance. As long as Lu Zhengye and Wei Qian drank the water, they would lose control. Sure enough, by the afternoon, the two were already ablaze with passion. At the crucial moment, I appeared and took photos as evidence."
Wei Linghui shook her head and said, "I know Lu Zhengye drinks every noon, but I didn't expect that the combination of alcohol and aphrodisiac would leave him so dazed that he wouldn't even know what was happening. In fact, it was Wei Qian who approached Lu Zhengye first. But if that's the case, my plan would fail. I need Wei Qian to admit that Lu Zhengye raped her."
"I decided to turn the tables and told Wei Qian that it could only be that Lu Zhengye had raped her; otherwise, I would spread the photos." Wei Linghui smiled. "Wei Qian is just a fifteen-year-old girl; she had no idea what I was planning but was terrified of the photos being leaked, so she agreed."
"Then came the incident where their family reported it to the police," Wei Linghui recounted slowly. "While I urged them to report it, I kept Lu Zhengye, who was completely unaware, calm. I asked my brother for five minutes to be alone with Lu Zhengye. During those five minutes, I sold off all our family assets, including my house."
Jiang He asked, "Did you buy the house back afterward?"
Wei Linghui nodded. "The plan failed; Lu Zhengye was caught, and I had to pay more to buy the house back while waiting for Lu Zhengye to be released from prison."
"In fact, you bought train tickets that were two hours apart from Lu Zhengye's. You planned to run away with him!" Jiang He said.
Wei Linghui nodded again. "Yes, there was no turning back for me with Lu Zhengye; we might as well escape together. Lu Zhengye was terrified of going to prison, so he agreed. I bought him a ticket to Yuzhou City and told him to wait for me at a hotel there; I had already arranged everything in advance."
"But you didn't anticipate that due to heavy rain in the south, the train would be delayed. When Wang Chao and his men caught up at the train station, he was still waiting in the lobby." Jiang He said slowly. "You also didn't expect that Wang Ziyi, who had given you five minutes, suddenly changed his mind and reported it to the police early. Otherwise, you would have already escaped without a trace."
"But I don't understand why this happened," Jiang He looked at Wei Linghui.
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