Chapter 115 I killed him.

Shen Zhenzhu looked at her silently.

Yuan Juan stood up and stretched out her hands in front of Chen Zhenzhu: "Comrade, please arrest me."

She said "ask," not "please."

Outside the door, Aunt Wu and Wu Yan, who were being blocked, started cursing loudly; their necks were red and their blood pressure was high.

From initial speculation to the "murderer's" confession, Aunt Wu and Wu Yan were so angry they wanted to tear Yuan Juan apart.

Aunt Wu, who was initially hesitant to give false testimony, assumed Yuan Juan was scared when she saw this and pointed at Yuan Juan, saying, "I said I saw her kill my son! The hairdresser has already turned herself in, so you should handcuff her and shoot her right now. I want her dead, she must die!"

Wu Yan was also jumping up and down: "Make her pay with her life, but don't leave her a single penny of that family. My brother is dead, and everything belongs to my son."

"They caught them?" Chen Junsheng came upstairs after hearing the commotion and heard many people talking about it downstairs.

The neighbors didn't come up, but they did come up with their ears.

He saw that Shen Zhenzhu was not moving, and he heard Aunt Wu shouting, "I saw her kill my son with my own eyes this morning. My poor son died at the hands of a hairdresser."

Chen Junsheng took out handcuffs and was about to cuff Yuan Juan's wrist with one hand when Shen Zhenzhu reached out to stop him: "I have a few questions to ask you." She was referring to Yuan Juan.

"Yuan Juan, please sit down first." Shen Zhenzhu turned to Chen Junsheng and said politely, "Please go outside and close the door."

"Yes, Section Chief Shen." Chen Junsheng went out alone, crossed his arms after closing the door, and stared directly at Aunt Wu and Wu Yan. After standing there for a while, he realized that Shen Zhenzhu had sent him out again.

“What my mother-in-law saw was me, but not when I had just killed Wu Dahai, but when I was hiding the murder weapon.”

Yuan Juan resisted looking at Wu Xue, whose body was stiff beside her, and said calmly without any emotion, "I killed him at two in the morning while he was asleep. After killing him, I closed the window because I was worried that people outside would smell the blood. When I woke up, I remembered that the fruit knife was still stuck in his heart, so I got up at six-thirty in the morning to hide the fruit knife. My mother-in-law saw me hiding the fruit knife."

Shen Zhenzhu continued, "Where did you hide the fruit knife?"

Yuan Juan said, "It's hidden in Niu Niu's schoolbag."

Wu Xue shuddered and lowered her head to twist the clothes.

Shen Zhenzhu gave her a deep look, then said to Yuan Juan, "Think about it again."

Yuan Juan shook her head, biting her lip as if she had made a great decision. She said to Wu Xue, "Niu Niu, be good and go to your room to wait for a while."

"Mom, no, I—" Niu Niu opened her mouth to speak, but Yuan Juan scolded her sharply: "Go now!"

The stubborn girl stood up, choking back tears, glancing back into the living room every few steps, before finally returning to her room.

That one word, "Mom," gave Yuan Juan the courage to take off her shirt, revealing her scarred skin.

Yuan Juan pointed to her shoulders and showed them to Chen Zhenzhu: "The cigarette butt was burned by him when he was drunk. The tattoo was because he saw me washing another man's hair, and that man touched me inappropriately. When we got home, he used a needle dipped in ink to prick me. The overlapping scars were all from when he whipped me with a belt, including the one on my neck."

As she spoke, Yuan Juan unbuttoned Gao Xi's shirt, revealing gruesome ligature marks: "I just got this done, I almost died. Because of this, I wanted to get revenge on him, so I killed him."

"Why didn't you call the police when you were injured?" Shen Zhenzhu knew the answer perfectly well.

Yuan Juan said, "He said at most it would be detention, and he would kill me when he got out in a few days. I was so scared that I didn't dare to call the police."

Shen Zhenzhu asked again, "What about Wu Xue's injuries? I saw bruises on her wrists."

Yuan Juan lowered her eyes, considered for a moment, and gritted her teeth before saying, "I took the call."

Shen Zhenzhu said, "Yuan Juan, I hope you can tell me the truth."

“I’m telling the truth.” Yuan Juan said with a firm expression, “If I don’t kill him, I’ll be tortured to death by him sooner or later. I take my anger out on Niu Niu when I’m hurt. Her dad… her dad is very good to her, it has nothing to do with her. Officers, you are all experienced and will surely understand my position. I really can’t go on living like this.”

Shen Zhenzhu said, "I understand you, but the law has its dignity."

"I...I..." Yuan Juan hesitated for a moment, opened her mouth, but didn't dare to continue. She knew that the more she said, the more mistakes she would make, so she might as well go with the flow.

Seeing on TV that there were eyewitnesses and his own testimony, he's sure he'll get shot this time.

So be it, he's dead. At least Wu Dahai is gone. If Niu Niu can endure a few more years, she can get into university and fly far away to see the vast world she has never seen before.

Wu Zhongguo came out of Wu Xue's room and found the evidence bag empty: "No fruit knife was found in the schoolbag, and the girl didn't know anything about it."

“Let’s talk separately,” Chen Zhenzhu said. “Brother Aye, please keep an eye on this place for me and make sure she doesn’t do anything foolish.”

Chen Junsheng knocked on the door and shouted, "The witness is going to jump off the building. Quickly handcuff him and take him away!"

“She wouldn’t dare jump off the building,” Shen Zhenzhu said firmly before walking into Wu Xue’s room.

Wu Xue's room was simply furnished, with a beautiful old boat-shaped single bed, and a bookshelf filled with thick test papers and notebooks, as well as scattered junior high school materials.

"You like reading 'Snow White'?" Among a pile of rigid books on the bookshelf, this flashy "Snow White" stood out from the crowd.

Wu Xue and Yuan Juan hadn't coordinated beforehand, and she was on high alert for Shen Zhenzhu's arrival. She looked neither like Wu Dahai nor Wu Yan; her face was delicate and stubborn, and her chin was held high.

“I don’t like this book. I can never empathize with Snow White,” Wu Xue replied curtly to Shen Zhenzhu’s friendly question.

Snow White had a wicked stepmother, but she didn't.

She has a stepmother who loves her very much and is willing to die for her.

Snow White would run away, but she wouldn't.

She would kill that villain herself and free her mother from this cage.

Can you tell me why?

"No."

How old are you this year? What grade are you in?

"Fourteenth, next month will be the fourteenth, I'll graduate from junior high."

"You skipped a grade?"

"...Um."

Chen Zhenzhu nodded, pulled up a chair from the desk and sat down in front of Wu Xue, opened her notebook and said, "Can you tell me where the fruit knife is?"

Wu Xue's alarm bells rang loudly: "How should I know?"

Shen Zhenzhu said, "Your mom said she put it in your schoolbag."

Wu Xue breathed a sigh of relief. She looked at Shen Zhenzhu and for a moment wanted to confess that she had killed someone, but when she heard Yuan Juan's soft sobbing coming from the living room, she gritted her teeth and held back.

"I threw it away." Wu Xue bit her lip and suddenly burst into tears.

Shen Zhenzhu sighed; such cases are heartbreaking.

The case itself wasn't difficult; the difficulty lay in understanding people's hearts.

She reached out and hugged Wu Xue, patting her gently: "Don't be afraid, think about it slowly."

The forensic team members outside began transporting the body away. Standing at the door, they greeted Shen Zhenzhu, "Sister Zhenzhu, we're heading back now. Fingerprints and footprints—"

Shen Zhenzhu said, "I'll go back and talk to Section Chief Qin about the arrangements. Thank you all."

Lu Xiaobao wondered why Shen Zhenzhu was so anxious to get physical evidence every time, but this time she wasn't in a hurry at all.

He glanced at Wu Xue, who was in Chen Zhenzhu's arms, and his heart skipped a beat.

No, really?

"I heard you came back yesterday, what did you do?" Chen Zhenzhu coaxed, "Did you see Wu Dahai bullying Yuan Juan?"

Wu Xue wiped away her tears, her eyes filled with hatred: "He's not human, he's a beast. If only he had died long ago."

"He hit you, what else did he do to you?"

“I didn’t do anything else.” Wu Xue thought of Wu Dahai’s words yesterday, which were the underwear that Yuan Juan had secretly saved up with the money from selling her hair to buy for her.

Wu Dahai's eyes dirtied it.

He deserves to die.

The sound of wailing and screaming came from outside the door again. Wu Yan roared, "Why haven't you shot her yet? My mother is about to jump off a building. Are you police officers just sitting around doing nothing?"

Chen Junsheng tried to persuade her in broken Mandarin, but Wu Yanzhao spat in his face: "You pretentious bastard, you can't even speak properly and you're trying to stop me? If you don't arrest this hairdresser, I'm not done with you today!"

Chen Junsheng couldn't control the situation on his own. When Wu Zhongguo opened the door, he saw six or seven people gathered there again, all shouting for Yuan Juan to pay for her murder.

He thought for a moment, then simply stopped Lu Xiaobao, pointed to the white wall by the door and said, "Ask the suspect if he wants to take photos of his injuries. If he agrees, take them here."

Yuan Juan had already heard it. She took off her coat without caring and walked to the door, revealing her upper body in her underwear.

Facing her "kind-hearted" neighbors and the street vendor who sneaked upstairs, she showed them the scars on her body: "Wu Dahai not only helps you fix your appliances, but he also punishes me. Look, I still have his signature on my back."

Having seen many strange and bizarre corpses, Lu Xiaobao was seeing such a horrific sight on a living person for the first time. There was hardly an inch of intact skin on the chest and back, covered with whip marks, cigarette burns, or scars made by cutting with a knife.

The camera in his hand almost fell to the ground, but Lu Ye caught it with quick reflexes.

The crowd shouting wildly at the entrance, seeing this scene, all fell silent, their mouths clenched shut.

The woman on the street, her face pale, squeezed through the crowd and said, "Young lady, you've suffered terribly! Why didn't you tell me? I would have called the police for you."

"You'll get killed if you call the police?" Yuan Juan scoffed. "You like calling the police so much, have you ever thought about the consequences for the victims?"

The woman on the street was bruised and battered from being teased by Yuan Juan. She dared not look directly into Yuan Juan's calm and fearless eyes, as if she had squeezed in from one place and then squeezed out from the other.

"Wu Dahai... Wu Dahai, he deserved to die!" Someone shouted this from the crowd, almost making the old lady Wu, who was pretending to jump off the building, actually fall down.

"Damn it, if I had known earlier, I would have taught him a lesson for you. I saw through that kid a long time ago; he's incredibly hypocritical. His face when he gets a little something for nothing... I really don't want to talk about it..."

"He's usually such a nice person, I never imagined he'd do something so beastly. Did he do that to Niu Niu? Did he?"

The neighbor's attitude changed in an instant, and Yuan Juan did not answer the old lady's question directly.

Instead, some busybodies rushed up to Wu Yan and asked, "Does your family know that your brother is bullying people like this? You live right across the street and didn't know anything?"

Zhao Qiqi emerged from the house, his arms wrapped in heavy copper wire, and the bamboo basket he carried contained over twenty different kinds of spare parts from the repair shop.

"This was found under Wu Dahai's master bedroom bed. It is clearly not a personal item and looks like it was stolen from somewhere."

A young man squeezed through the crowd. He was Wu Dahai's colleague. A few years ago, it was his mother who introduced Wu Dahai to the repair shop.

"It was stolen from our factory, I swear it was stolen from our factory! My second uncle has been searching frantically for these things." The young man squatted on the ground, examining each item one by one, and shouted angrily, "That son of a bitch Wu Dahai actually stole from our own factory, making our repair team pay for it!"

Zhao Qiqi looked down at him: "Tell me slowly, what happened?"

Wu Yan's handcuffs had just been removed when she was charged with theft. She remembered all the new clothes and shoes her family had worn during the New Year, and how much money they had spent. Suddenly, she felt a sense of panic.

Wu Yan gritted her teeth, no longer daring to hurl insults, and could only keep saying, "It was picked up by Mom while collecting scraps, it was definitely not stolen by Dahai."

Her son couldn't help but laugh from behind, saying with a mischievous grin, "Who would believe that? My grandma is raised like a local landlady. If she could go out and collect scraps, pigs would fly."

"Say less," Wu Yan said, pointing at her son. "Go inside and keep your grandma company. Don't let her jump."

The young man, holding up the copper wire, said, “These copper wires and specialized parts are items that were stolen from our factory. They have serial numbers on them, and our factory manager even called the police. Who would have thought they would be in Wu Dahai’s house? If it wasn’t him, who else could it be? Look, there was a one-inch bolt here that was supposed to be used to install the motor, but he must have broken it apart and sold it. And these parts are usually bought in sets; he must have sold the missing ones too.”

Zhao Qiqi squatted down and studied it for a long time but still couldn't understand it, so she asked bluntly, "How much is it worth?"

The young man said, "Just winding the copper wire costs a lot of money, at least over a thousand yuan. No, I have to call the factory manager. We've already lost money, we can't just let it go like this."

The young man got up and went outside, probably to call the factory.

Meanwhile, Shen Zhenzhu was still "interrogating" Wu Xue in the room, taking her statement.

Where were you at two o'clock last night?

“I slept at school, and my roommates can all testify to that. Everyone from our summer program was there.” Wu Xue didn’t know what was wrong with her. She didn’t want to cry, but tears kept flowing down her face.

Seeing that she was unwilling to explain, Shen Zhenzhu poked her head out and called out, "Comrade Yuan Juan, come here for a moment."

Yuan Juan stood up nervously, clenched her right fist, and encouraged herself.

"Officer, please speak."

Shen Zhenzhu stood between the two rooms, Yuan Juan opposite her, and Wu Xue sitting on her bed in her own room.

Shen Zhenzhu said, "We've already found shoe prints and fingerprints on the window, and we're waiting to go back and investigate and compare them. Do you understand what I mean?"

Yuan Juan tried her best to keep her eyes focused, but she dared not look directly into Chen Zhenzhu's gaze, which seemed to see right through her. She looked at the remaining dark brown bloodstain in the master bedroom and slowly said, "The shoe print is Niu Niu's, and the fingerprints are Niu Niu's too."

Shen Zhenzhu suddenly looked at her.

Yuan Juan smiled and said, "When I hit her, she couldn't take it and wanted to jump off the building and stomp on it."

Shen Zhenzhu was impressed. She pointed at Yuan Juan without any politeness and said, "Okay, you're quite something."

Chen Junsheng stood outside the door, utterly dejected, his face raw from rubbing himself with tissues.

He could sense the team's rejection of him, and he understood it was because of what he had said that morning.

However, Chen Junsheng could not tolerate the slow efficiency of Shen Zhenzhu's team. If this were in Hong Kong, the suspect would have already been arrested and taken to the police station to obtain a statement, and a press conference would be held to announce the case.

"Section Chief Shen, may I ask you, why are you still wasting your time here when the suspect has turned himself in and there are witnesses waiting in the room?"

Shen Zhenzhu glanced at him, deliberately trying to provoke him: "I'm happy to."

Chen Junsheng closed his eyes, suppressing his temper, and said, "I heard that your team is one of the best major crime teams in the province. Is it really possible to waste police resources like this? Such a simple case could have been solved quickly enough to get the news media to report on the police's efficiency in solving the case and thus combat crime. Why not arrest her instead of wasting time?"

Chen Zhenzhu smiled gently: "Because I want to."

Zhao Qiqi grabbed Chen Junsheng, who was about to explode, and said to the crowd outside the door, "Everyone, tell us if there's anything else you need to report. Tell our handsome young man."

Chen Junsheng wanted to leave, but Zhao Qiqi was strong enough that the hand pressing on his shoulder felt like it was made of iron.

"I...I want to report this." A frail-looking woman had just heard the news and came upstairs. While her neighbors were still observing, she was the first to raise her hand:

"Actually, Yuan Juan isn't as shameful as they say. I've been to the hair salon where she works; she's incredibly skilled, especially at perming hair. People of all ages and genders get their hair done there. Maybe because she's pretty, some men might have inappropriate thoughts about her, but it has nothing to do with her; she's innocent."

An old man behind them said, "She often gives us old folks free haircuts. If it weren't for her, we wouldn't even look like human beings."

"Officers, even if she really did kill someone, it's understandable. Please handle this matter accordingly."

Chen Junsheng asked them in confusion, "Why do you all rush into everything?"

The old man said, "We initially thought Niu Niu was being bullied, but now that we know the truth, we are all heartbroken."

"We misunderstood her before, and we were both at fault. We also want to apologize to her."

"Poor child, her parents are both dead, and she married into this family. If you say Wu Dahai died too late, he should have died much earlier."

"What are you saying? Why should our Dahai die so young?" Aunt Wu came out of the house, hands on her hips, with the attitude of a shrew.

"You and your daughter kept saying she abused Niu Niu and that she was promiscuous. The old neighbors are kind-hearted, but they ended up aiding and abetting her. From now on, don't tell us you live in building 23, we won't even know you." The neighborhood auntie had turned against Wu Dahai, not only for his domestic violence and theft, but also for this cold-blooded family.

Not only her, but other neighbors also expressed their hope that the police would investigate Wu Dahai's criminal activities.

It was noisy outside. Yuan Juan stood in the master bedroom, while Wu Xue sat in the small bedroom. The mother and daughter, who were not related by blood, were both backlit.

"Yuan Juan, are you sure you want to turn yourself in?"

"yes."

Shen Zhenzhu nodded and stood in the corridor, saying, "Then let me tell you about the policy on surrendering oneself."

Yuan Juan stretched out her hands, waiting to be handcuffed. She was also anxious to leave this place; the sooner she was shot, the sooner she would be freed from the cage.

She desperately hoped that Shen Zhenzhu would say the same thing as Chen Junsheng, but Shen Zhenzhu calmly explained the details of her surrender to the authorities. Her tone was calm, as if she were lecturing to students in a classroom.

"According to Article 232 of the Criminal Law, the circumstances of surrendering oneself in the crime of intentional homicide are: when the criminal suspect or the crime has not been discovered by the judicial authorities, or although it has been discovered, but the criminal suspect has not yet been subjected to coercive measures, the suspect voluntarily and directly surrenders himself to the public security organs, procuratorates and courts, including being persuaded to surrender, or voluntarily surrendering himself during the pursuit, and truthfully confessing. All of these are considered surrendering oneself."

Although Shen Zhenzhu was looking at Yuan Juan speaking, her pleasant voice gently drifted into Wu Xue's ears.

Wu Xue thought that the police officers searching for criminal suspects would be fierce and menacing, but when she met Chen Zhenzhu, she could feel a gentleness in her. Perhaps this gentleness came from the human touch of the law.

"The law will treat defendants who surrender themselves to the authorities leniently, reflecting policy, encouraging remorse, and will consider the motive, method, and consequences of the murder..."

Shen Zhenzhu emphasized, "Especially regarding whether the victim has committed any serious wrongdoing, such as long-term domestic violence, these are key mitigating circumstances that the court will consider. Based on your and Wu Xue's situation, I can tell you with certainty that the fact that you surrendered yourself to the police, coupled with Wu Dahai's long-term domestic violence and abuse, will greatly reduce your sentence."

Yuan Juan's face did not show any joy, because when she turned her head, she saw Wu Xue wavering.

"What you fear most is what happens," Chen Zhenzhu said, changing the subject abruptly. "Wu Xue also suffered long-term violence and abuse from Wu Dahai because she was a minor, under 14. To make an inappropriate joke, minors between 12 and 14 years old are most protected by law. If she had killed Wu Dahai—"

"No, she didn't kill him!" Yuan Juan shouted. This wasn't just an inappropriate joke; it was clearly an attempt to persuade Wu Xue to turn herself in.

Shen Zhenzhu nodded understandingly and said, "Let me give you an example." She looked at Wu Xue and extended an olive branch, saying, "If you don't want to hear it, then forget it."

Wu Xue bit her lower lip, her face pale but her expression resolute: "Please continue, I want to hear it."

Shen Zhenzhu pursed her lips and nodded, saying, "Being under fourteen, long-term domestic violence, the impact of the crime, surrendering oneself to the police, and obtaining the understanding of the victim's family—these five points constitute the most powerful combination of sentence reduction measures in my country's criminal law. Even the fact that someone is under fourteen years old is given extremely special protection by law. It is completely impossible to 'severely punish them.' One can petition the court not to pursue criminal liability, which is usually approved."

Upon hearing this, Yuan Juan and Wu Xue were both stunned.

Yuan Juan's lips trembled as she asked, "Then...then will I go to a juvenile detention center?"

Shen Zhenzhu shook her head and said, "They detain minors who have already been convicted and sentenced. If they are approved not to be held criminally responsible, they are naturally not qualified to be sent there. The court may require minors to be sent to reform schools for management and correctional education due to serious misconduct. During this period, if the social assessment determines that the guardian is capable of disciplining the child, the child will be allowed to return to their family."

"How could it be like this..." Yuan Juan's knees buckled, and she suddenly knelt on the ground, covering her mouth, large tears silently streaming down her face.

Wu Zhongguo sighed deeply in the living room and said to Lu Ye, "Sister Zhenzhu really put a lot of thought into this."

"Ah, that's the real Pearl Sister." Lu Ye sighed as well, and the crowd behind him fell silent.

Shen Zhenzhu looked at Yuan Juan, bent down, and looked directly into her eyes: "Do you still want to turn yourself in?"

Yuan Juan closed her eyes. She didn't want Wu Xue's hands to be stained with blood. She hoped that Wu Xue would have a flawless life in the future and not be like her, being gossiped about behind her back.

"I surrender!" Wu Xue rushed out and hugged Yuan Juan tightly with her thin body.

"No...no..." Yuan Juan grabbed Wu Xue: "Think about it again, don't be impulsive, my child, don't be impulsive."

"Officer, I want to turn myself in. I killed him, the knife was under the bed, I'm turning myself in!"

With tears streaming down her face, Wu Xue anxiously said to Yuan Juan, "Mom, you are my guardian. Please don't leave me, Mom. You're all I have left."

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Author's Note: Pearl, her eyes red-rimmed, looked up at the sky: Sigh.

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See you tomorrow, there's a red envelope [let me see], I'm asking for nutrient solution!

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Surrender and legal references include the Criminal Law, judicial interpretations of the Criminal Law, and online resources.