Good and Evil Chapter 110: The Elaborately Designed Murder Chamber

The wooden planks at the crime scene were placed exactly as Xu Lang had instructed. Once they were in position, Xu Lang had everyone vacate the warehouse, and he stepped out as well.

Not long after Xu Lang emerged, Zhu Hongfang and Yang Xuewen were brought over. The handcuffs had been removed from their wrists, but their eyes were covered with black cloth as they stepped out of the vehicle.

Ning Yanran and the rest of the Second Criminal Investigation Team were puzzled by this display, unable to fathom Xu Lang’s intentions. All eyes turned toward him.

After four officers led Zhu and Yang to him, Xu Lang looked at them and said, "Do not be afraid. I am simply asking you to reenact what happened on the night of the crime. Just repeat everything you experienced that night. If you do it well, you can prove that you did not kill Shen Jun. Do you understand?"

Zhu and Yang nodded eagerly, promising their full cooperation.

With their consent, Xu Lang had them taken into the warehouse and then told Ning Yanran, "Turn off all the floodlights."

With that, Xu Lang followed them inside and shooed the four officers out.

Ning Yanran was completely bewildered by Xu Lang’s behavior; she could not grasp his objective. Nevertheless, she followed his instructions and ordered the lights to be shut off.

As the floodlights died, the brightly lit scene plunged into absolute darkness. Everyone instinctively squinted, waiting for their eyes to adjust.

About ten minutes passed before there was movement inside. First, Xu Lang began to speak, followed by the muffled responses of Zhu and Yang. Then, those standing outside heard the sound of pounding against a door—not the warehouse’s main entrance, but an inner door. After a while, the sounds ceased.

After another interval, Xu Lang emerged from the room alone. He whispered a few words to an officer, who then entered the warehouse and did not come back out.

Xu Lang followed the officer inside. A short while later, he reappeared carrying two door panels, then went back in. It was unclear what he was doing, but after another twenty minutes, he finally walked out, closed the warehouse door, and locked it with a wire that had been prepared in advance.

Only then did Xu Lang approach Ning Yanran and say, "Have them turn the lights back on."

At that moment, it finally clicked for Ning Yanran. Xu Lang had been playing the role of the victim, Shen Jun, while Zhu and Yang played themselves. Initially, she had understood the roles, but after the officer entered and Xu Lang came out, she realized Xu Lang was not playing Shen Jun, but a fourth party present at the scene. That was the part she hadn't understood.

The floodlights blazed back to life, illuminating the dark scene once more. Xu Lang turned to Ning Yanran and said, "Let’s go knock on the door."

Confused, Ning Yanran followed him to the warehouse entrance. Instead of opening the door first, Xu Lang began to knock. Upon hearing him, the anxious Zhu and Yang inside immediately responded and rushed to the main door to pull back the latch. At that instant, Xu Lang used a pair of pliers he had prepared to snip the wire securing the door. It swung open. Only Zhu and Yang emerged; the officer who had gone inside was nowhere to be seen. Everyone was stunned.

The team rushed into the warehouse with flashlights, only to find the officer lying stiffly on the large kang, motionless.

Zhu and Yang gasped at the sight. "Ah... officers, he isn't dead, is he? I didn't kill him!"

"Yes, yes, I swear to heaven, I didn't kill him! Even if you gave me ten times the courage, I wouldn't dare kill a police officer," Yang Xuewen added frantically.

The others stood in the warehouse, exchanging bewildered glances. The scene felt hauntingly familiar. Suddenly, they realized: this was exactly how the scene had looked when the Second Criminal Investigation Team first arrived to find Shen Jun’s body. It was an exact replica.

Ning Yanran finally understood, yet some doubts remained. "Xu Lang, what is going on here?"

Xu Lang smiled at her, walked out of the warehouse, and approached Liu Maocai, who had been waiting outside all along. "To understand what happened, you must ask him. He knows the truth."

Turning to Liu, Xu Lang added with a smile, "Isn't that right, Liu Maocai?"

Liu glanced at Zhu and Yang, who were still pale with shock, then looked at Xu Lang with a complicated expression. He sighed and said, "Officer Xu is right. I know exactly what happened. I killed Shen Jun."

"What?"

"You killed Shen Jun?"

Following his confession, shock washed over Zhu and Yang. They had never imagined that the killer was not one of the men sharing the room with Shen Jun, but the very person who had once rescued them from the warehouse. They were still struggling to comprehend how Liu had done it and why.

With Liu’s confession, Ning Yanran left a team to process the scene and returned to the Public Security Bureau with the others.

In the first interrogation room of the Second Criminal Investigation Team, Liu Maocai sat with his wrists in gleaming handcuffs. Ning Yanran and Zhao Hua sat opposite him, while a group of people, including Xu Lang, watched from the observation area.

Once inside, Liu began his confession without prompting.

The afternoon before the crime, Liu had written two notes and placed them in front of Zhu and Yang’s homes, knowing their addresses as the head of the security team.

After leaving the notes, he found Shen Jun and lied, claiming there were valuable parts in the abandoned factory that could be stolen and sold for a small fortune.

Shen Jun, a petty thief, took the bait. Because Liu was a fellow villager, he trusted him. They went to the factory together, where Liu incapacitated Shen with a heavy dose of chloroform.

After stashing the unconscious Shen in another warehouse, Liu waited for Zhu and Yang to arrive. He ambushed them one by one as they approached, using a chloroform-soaked towel to knock them out. He placed them on the kang in a specific, deliberate orientation. He then returned to ensure Shen Jun remained unconscious with an extra dose of chloroform.

Everything was ready. Liu entered the warehouse and locked the door. At that point, it was not a locked-room mystery; anyone could enter or leave.

Inside the dark room, Liu used a raspy voice to wake Zhu and Yang, telling them the door had been locked from the outside. To convince them, he led them to the right side of the warehouse where he had set up a "fake door"—the two wooden boards he had prepared. Since it was pitch black, they couldn't tell the difference.

Once they were convinced they were trapped, Liu suggested they lock the main door from the inside to prevent anyone from harming them. Zhu and Yang agreed.

In reality, the warehouse was still not a locked room. The person who locked it from the inside was Liu, but in their disoriented state, Zhu and Yang believed it was Shen Jun.

Liu handed them a brick for "self-defense," which was actually the murder weapon. He then used chloroform to sedate them again, wearing a mask to protect himself. Once they were unconscious, Liu moved them into the positions they were found in later. He then brought in the unconscious Shen Jun, placed him between the two men, and beat him to death with the brick.

Afterward, he lit a few cigarettes to create the illusion that someone had been smoking in the room.

Finally, Liu exited the warehouse, rigged the latch to look as though it had been fastened from the inside using a stick, and then locked the outside of the door with wire to complete the illusion of a "double-sided" locked room.

The next day, he waited for someone to arrive. When Qin Yumei appeared—having followed the address Zhu had left behind—Liu staged the "discovery" of the warehouse. By having her witness the "rescue," he ensured that the police would immediately suspect Zhu and Yang.

Liu’s plan was brilliant and calculated, intended to lead the police in circles. As for his motive, it was a story that went back over a decade.