Good and Evil Chapter 81: Identifying the Suspect

Money can accomplish many things, but it cannot do everything. We should know its proper sphere and keep it confined there. When it seeks to go further, we must drive it back. Any excessive concern for money reeks of greed.

At present, neither Xie Xintong nor Xiang Shuifeng admitted to killing Zhang Chengwang, so Xu Lang and the others had no choice but to begin by questioning the victim’s family in search of a breakthrough.

According to the recollections of Zhang Chengwang’s parents, after the wedding banquet ended last night, they first cleaned up the mess left behind. Since Zhang Chengwang had been plied with too much liquor by the villagers during the day, he had passed out before the banquet even ended and was sleeping soundly in the bridal chamber. The cleanup was handled by the old couple, Zhang An and his wife, together with the bride, Xie Xintong, while Xie Xintong’s mother, Xiang Shuifeng, had returned to Xie Family Ditch Village after the banquet.

By the time everything was put away, it was already past one in the morning. The old couple went to sleep in the downstairs bedroom, while Xie Xintong returned to the bridal room on the third floor. After such a hectic, noisy day, and with the old couple no longer young, they fell asleep quickly once they got back to their room.

It was a little after six in the morning when Zhang An and his wife discovered that their son Zhang Chengwang was dead, startled by a scream from the bride, Xie Xintong. At first, they thought something had happened to the couple upstairs, so Liu Zhongshu went up first to check. After she pushed open her son’s bedroom door, she saw Zhang Chengwang lying on the bed with a hideous expression on his face. She froze for a moment, then stepped forward and touched his hand. It was icy cold, frightening her half to death. After that, Liu Zhongshu screamed hysterically for Zhang An to come up.

When Zhang An came upstairs and saw the scene, he was shocked as well. He immediately called the village head, Zhang Bei, and the village Party secretary, Zhang Jing, and also phoned Ye Du, asking him to find Xu Lang and bring him over. After all, Xu Lang was a police officer. Although he did not come back often, word that he was a policeman had long since spread through Zhang Family Village.

Zhang Bei and Zhang Jing soon arrived at the scene. They checked Zhang Chengwang’s pulse and found that it had already stopped. Rigor mortis and lividity had already begun to appear. After discussing it, the three of them decided to call an ambulance and report the case.

By then, Liu Zhongshu had finally come to her senses. Once she confirmed that her son was dead, she became so agitated that she fainted on the spot. Xie Xintong, meanwhile, seemed to have been struck by a great terror; she collapsed onto the floor, trembling all over, her face as pale as paper, and burst into anguished sobs.

At first, Zhang An and the others did not rule out the possibility that Zhang Chengwang’s death had something to do with Xie Xintong. After all, Zhang Chengwang was not yet thirty, in the prime of life. Though he was a country man, he had undergone the necessary annual health checks and had no known physical ailments. How could he simply die like that? If he had died from alcohol poisoning, that also seemed unlikely. Zhang Chengwang was a very self-controlled man and usually drank in moderation, rarely overindulging. But when the three of them saw Xie Xintong’s reaction, they began to doubt their initial suspicion. After all, there was no conclusive evidence proving that Zhang Chengwang’s death had anything to do with her.

After the three men helped the unconscious Liu Zhongshu onto the sofa in the small front parlor, Ye Du brought Xu Lang to the scene. Xu Lang first conducted a brief examination of the room and said little. Shortly afterward, Dou Xihua arrived with a team of officers.

After hearing Zhang An and his wife recount the events, Ning Yiran asked, “Was there anyone else staying over in your house last night besides your family?”

Zhang An shook his head and said with certainty, “This is the countryside. Everyone who came to the wedding was from the village. After the banquet, they all went home. No one stayed in our house.”

“So that means, apart from the two of you, the only ones at home were your son Zhang Chengwang and your new daughter-in-law, Xie Xintong?” Ning Yiran asked.

“Bang!”

No sooner had Ning Yiran mentioned Xie Xintong than Zhang An’s face darkened. His lips trembled, and he slapped the table hard, saying bitterly, “That ill-starred wretch is not my daughter-in-law. My wife and I were against this marriage from the beginning. It was Chengwang who insisted on marrying that woman, and we had no choice but to agree. If I had known it would come to this, I would have opposed the marriage no matter what.”

Though Liu Zhongshu said little, she kept wiping away tears throughout the questioning. Clearly, she had never imagined that what was meant to be a joyous occasion would turn into a funeral after only one night, and that she would be burying her son with her own hands. One could only imagine the agony in her heart.

The questioning ended there. Since there had been no outsiders in the house and only the four of them were present, Zhang An and his wife could not possibly have killed their son. That left only the new bride, Xie Xintong, as the likeliest suspect. Of course, this was only the preliminary conclusion of the investigation; whether Xie Xintong was truly the murderer still required further inquiry.

After the questioning, and with comfort from Xu Lang, Village Head Zhang Bei, and Village Party Secretary Zhang Jing, Zhang An and his wife returned home to wait for the results of the investigation. Since it was already evening by the time the questioning ended, Ning Yiran had Zhao Hua drive them back. Shu Yue had originally intended to stay, but after Xu Lang pulled her aside and spoke to her for a few words, she also returned to Zhang Family Village.

Because Xie Xintong was strongly suspected of a major offense, she was temporarily detained. Her mother, Xiang Shuifeng, was also detained for the time being, and the two were held separately in the detention center.

Night had fallen deep, yet the police station in Fangxi County blazed with light as bright as day. The officers from the station, along with members of the Criminal Investigation Team Two brought by Ning Yiran, were all in the meeting room, waiting for news from Li Lei, who had taken the evidence back to the city, as well as the results of Ye Xuefei’s autopsy.

At half past ten that night, Ye Xuefei, who had spent several hours working in the autopsy room, finally emerged and came to the meeting room, bringing the postmortem findings with her.

The deceased, Zhang Chengwang, male, twenty-nine years old, one hundred seventy-three centimeters tall, weighing one hundred forty-five jin. After autopsy, toxic substances were found in his stomach. The deceased died of poisoning. The toxin was highly potent and acted rapidly. Based on Ye Xuefei’s initial judgment, it was likely the rodenticide known as Bros It was found that there was very little food in the deceased’s stomach, and he had consumed a large amount of alcohol before death.

Xu Lang and the others were not surprised by these conclusions. The only thing that did surprise them was that, according to Ye Xuefei’s autopsy, the deceased had been smothered over the mouth and nose shortly before death, causing a brief period of asphyxiation. In addition to fibers resembling bedsheet material found under the deceased’s fingernails, Ye Xuefei also extracted a portion of human tissue. Testing showed that it did not belong to the deceased.

With this crucial clue, Ning Yiran immediately had Xie Xintong’s biological samples collected and compared with the biological sample found under Zhang Chengwang’s fingernails.

By this stage of the investigation, the case had become quite clear. The remaining questions were these:

First, where had the poison that killed Zhang Chengwang come from? Was it already in Zhang An’s house, or had Xie Xintong brought it herself?

Second, since all evidence now pointed to Xie Xintong, what was her motive for killing Zhang Chengwang? Only by clarifying this could they truly break through her psychological defenses.

Once there were questions, there was also a direction for the investigation. Ning Yiran assigned tasks to everyone. Zhao Hua and Zhang Lei took the officers from Fangxi County Police Station to conduct house-to-house interviews in Zhang Family Village and Xie Family Ditch Village to find out how Xie Xintong and Zhang Chengwang had met. Ning Yiran and Xu Lang were responsible for interrogating Xie Xintong. Ye Xuefei was tasked with comparing Xie Xintong’s biological samples.

By the time the tasks were assigned, it was already deep into the night, and everyone left the police station. Ning Yiran and the others were staying at the guesthouse arranged by Dou Xihua.

The night passed without incident.

The next day, before six in the morning, Xu Lang had finished washing up and woke Ning Yiran and the others. After the group ate a simple breakfast outside, they went to the police station.

At ten in the morning, Li Lei arrived in Fangxi County from the city. He brought back an important piece of evidence: the medicine bottle discovered in the wardrobe. The white powder in the bottle, after being tested by the technical department, was identified as tetramethylene disulfotetramine, commonly known as Bros. In addition, chemical analysis of the milk in the cup found at the scene showed Bros residue at the bottom of the cup as well. The two were the same chemical substance.

In addition, fingerprints were lifted from both the bottle and the cup that had held the milk. Only one person’s fingerprints were found on the bottle, while two sets were found on the milk cup. One belonged to the deceased, Zhang Chengwang; the other belonged to Xie Xintong. With these two pieces of evidence, Ning Yiran and Xu Lang again brought Xie Xintong in for questioning.

When Xu Lang and the others began asking why Xie Xintong had killed Zhang Chengwang, she first denied it at every turn and tried to defend herself, claiming that Zhang Chengwang’s death had nothing whatsoever to do with her. But after Xu Lang and the others produced the two evidence bags, along with the expert findings on the bottle and milk, and the fingerprint comparison results, Xie Xintong fell silent for a long time. At last, she admitted that she had killed Zhang Chengwang with her own hands.

The day before yesterday was the day of their wedding, and also the day Xie Xintong married into Zhang Chengwang’s family. During the daytime banquet, Zhang Chengwang drank too much and was snoring heavily. After all the guests had left, she returned to the bedroom. At that time, Zhang Chengwang, having drunk too much, woke after several hours of sleep. Anyone who has drunk heavily knows that drunkenness comes from the large amount of alcohol in the liquor. After entering the stomach, the alcohol is absorbed through the stomach wall into the bloodstream, where it reduces the oxygen in the blood, leading to insufficient blood supply to the brain and causing mental confusion. When a drunk person wakes, he feels parched and wants water.

After Zhang Chengwang woke up, Xie Xintong poured him a glass of milk. While pouring it, she put the poison she had prepared in advance into the milk. After stirring it evenly, she handed it to Zhang Chengwang. On his first sip, Zhang Chengwang thought the taste was odd and asked why the milk tasted strange, whether it had gone bad. Xie Xintong told him that he had simply drunk too much and his sense of taste had not yet recovered. Hearing that, Zhang Chengwang thought nothing more of it and finished the entire glass of poisoned milk.

After drinking it, Zhang Chengwang felt sleepiness come over him again and sank into a deep sleep. More than ten minutes later, he suddenly woke up. He began vomiting violently, then started coughing up blood. He had not eaten anything all day, so there was nothing in his stomach. Very quickly, blood began to pour from his seven openings. Terrified, Zhang Chengwang tried to wake Xie Xintong, who was sleeping beside him. When he turned over, he happened to see the milk cup on the bedside table, and in that instant he understood what had happened. He tried to call out to his parents downstairs, but Xie Xintong, who had never truly been asleep, saw his state and immediately grabbed a pillow, pressing it tightly over his face so that he could not cry out. During the struggle, Zhang Chengwang scratched Xie Xintong on the body, though not on the face or neck; instead, the marks were on the back of her shoulder.

Thus, under the effect of the poison and the suffocation, Zhang Chengwang soon died a horrible death on the bed. After finishing what she had done, Xie Xintong also set the pillow aside and sat on the bed, staring at Zhang Chengwang’s wide, unblinking eyes. After watching for a while, she got up and went to the bathroom to shower. While showering, she discovered the injury on the back of her shoulder, so she changed into a short-sleeved top and let down her hair so it would cover the wound.

Once all this was done, Xie Xintong hid the bottle containing the poison in a small compartment above the wardrobe, then waited for daylight. By then, people were more or less awake. She let out a scream, drawing Zhang Chengwang’s parents to the room, while she herself pretended to have just woken up. Originally, she intended to take Zhang Chengwang to the hospital, but by then he was already dead.

After hearing Xie Xintong’s account, Ning Yiran stood up, walked behind her, lifted the hair that had fallen loose, and pulled down the short sleeves a little. Sure enough, several scratch marks were found on the back of her shoulder.

Although Xie Xintong had confessed to the process of her crime, Xu Lang and the others still did not understand why she had killed her newlywed husband, Zhang Chengwang, or what motive could possibly have driven her.

“Why did you kill Zhang Chengwang?” Xu Lang asked.

“For money,” Xie Xintong said, her head lowered.

“What money? Zhang Chengwang’s savings?” Xu Lang asked again.

Xie Xintong shook her head. She lifted her face to glance at Xu Lang, then at Ning Yiran, and said, “No. For the bride price.”

“The bride price?” Xu Lang and Ning Yiran looked at her in confusion.

Xie Xintong nodded. “Yes. The bride price.”

Hearing this, Xu Lang suddenly remembered what Ye Du had told him earlier. So he asked, “Before you married Zhang Chengwang, you had already been married three times, and all three husbands died not long after the weddings. Were they all killed by you too?”

As soon as Xu Lang said this, not only did Xie Xintong raise her head and stare at him in shock, but Ning Yiran also looked at Xu Lang in astonishment. If Xu Lang had not mentioned it, Ning Yiran would never have known about this.

Xie Xintong looked at Xu Lang for several seconds, then lowered her head again, nodded heavily, and slowly said, “Yes.”

“Ah?”

Hearing Xie Xintong admit that she had killed her former husbands, Ning Yiran cried out in shock.

Xu Lang turned and glared at Ning Yiran. Sensing her lapse, Ning Yiran quickly lowered her head and took out her notebook to record. Only then did Xu Lang turn back to Xie Xintong and ask, “Then tell us in detail.”

For the next several hours, Xie Xintong alone did the talking. Ning Yiran handled the notes, while Xu Lang watched her in silence, his face expressionless.

Xie Xintong had been born into a single-parent family. When she was very young, her father left home to work elsewhere. At first, he still sent money back, but after a few years, when Xie Xintong was six or seven, he lost all contact with the family. From then on, the mother and daughter never received a single cent.

Xie Xintong’s mother was also a woman of some charm; otherwise, she would not have given birth to such a beautiful daughter. In the countryside, what could a woman with a child of only a few years old do if she had no source of income? Xiang Shuifeng could only rely on farm labor and crop work to survive. During the busy seasons, she worked for others in the village to earn meager wages. At first, Xiang Shuifeng did not think much of it. Life was simply hard and tiring, but at least it could go on. Yet as time passed and she saw other families living better and better, she inevitably felt unbalanced and began to think about how to make money. It was at that moment that Xie Xintong, having failed the college entrance examination, happened to return home.

Xie Xintong attended primary and middle school in Fangxi County. Most of her classmates then came from the surrounding countryside. At first, Xie Xintong never felt she was worse than anyone else. She was only missing a father, after all. But everything changed after she went to the city for high school.

By the time she entered high school, Xie Xintong was already fifteen, right in the midst of adolescence. Compared with boys, girls generally develop earlier and mature sooner. While living in the school dormitory, Xie Xintong watched the girls in her room wear brand-new clothes, use cosmetics, and have more pocket money than they could spend. She felt a deep envy. At that time, she began to resent her father, who had abandoned her and her mother shortly after she was born.

Along with this resentment, Xie Xintong also learned comparison and vanity. She began demanding money from home more and more often. But Xiang Shuifeng was only a rural woman. How could she have so much money? Yet her daughter needed money for school, and as a mother she could not refuse. So Xiang Shuifeng began borrowing money throughout the village. The villagers were generally kind and simple, and they all felt sympathy for Xiang Shuifeng’s family. At that time, most people’s hands were gradually loosening financially, so they lent her some money.

But over the three years of high school, the number of times Xie Xintong asked for money kept increasing. Xiang Shuifeng could no longer borrow from the village, and Xie Xintong grew extremely dissatisfied. Every weekend when she came home, she would argue with Xiang Shuifeng, and the relationship between mother and daughter grew more and more strained.

Remember the eternal address of Ultimate Evil