Chapter 208 Surrender
Chen Zhenzhu's words were undoubtedly a thunderbolt.
The people below the roof were stunned for four or five seconds, then looked around for tools.
Dongbao had gone completely mad. Grandma Tong held him tightly, pleading, "Bao, we'll admit you've done something wrong. Grandma will walk with you to the underworld."
"Dongbao doesn't want this mother anymore! This mother is a bad person!" Dongbao said angrily, "Dongbao wants Grandma, Dongbao wants friends, Dongbao wants mother, Dongbao doesn't want you anymore. Waaah, you're all bad people, you're all bad people. You bully Dongbao and Grandma, you bully Dongbao and friends, and even mother doesn't want Dongbao anymore, waaah."
"Dongbao, I promise you I won't hurt your friends or your mother." Chen Zhenzhu squatted on the roof. There was a mark at her feet that had been frequently disturbed, probably left by Dongbao.
Chen Zhenzhu jumped down from the roof. Wu Zhongguo measured the dimensions of the inner and outer walls and said, "There is enough space. We need to clear away all the clutter next to it."
Shen Zhenzhu said, "Then let's get started."
Seeing the impatient crowd outside, Xiaobai closed the gate and told everyone else in the courtyard to go back to their rooms.
The police officers forcibly escorted him into Grandma Tong's room. He stared at Chen Zhenzhu the entire time, as if he had been deceived and used by her. His eyes were filled with pure anger and disappointment.
Shen Zhenzhu waved to him, and seeing that Dongbao was completely unable to calm down and his mind was occupied by a mad beast, she could only say, "You go inside first, and I'll come in and talk to you later."
Seeing that there was no way out, Dongbao wiped her tears hard with her sleeve and stepped heavily across the threshold, saying, "Dongbao doesn't want you anymore."
Shen Zhenzhu said, "I want Dongbao, let's be together."
Dongbao snorted: "Dongbao doesn't like you."
The agents quickly cleared away the surrounding debris, and Wu Zhongguo measured the space and said, "It's about five or six square meters."
"Make way, the iron cage is coming out."
The agents dismantled the iron cage from the north room, and Chen Zhenzhu walked to the wall and knocked on it.
A while later, there was a faint knocking sound from the other side of the wall.
Xiao Bai was overjoyed: "There really is someone here!"
Shen Zhenzhu shouted, "We are police officers. Please hold on, we'll get you out soon."
Then came several more impatient knocking sounds, indicating that there was more than one person inside.
Qian Minghai shouted from behind, "I told you it was done by an idiot! Look, who else could it be but him?"
Zhao Qiqi walked past him and sneered at his bruised and swollen face.
Shen Zhenzhu stepped aside, and the operatives with tools stepped forward and began smashing the wall.
A stench wafted from inside. Chen Zhenzhu pinched her nose and said, "No wonder she could ask Grandma Tong to help her wash up, but she acted unclean and deliberately made herself smelly. It turns out she was afraid that others would discover the secret behind the iron cage."
The walls of the bungalow were thick for insulation. Zhao Qiqi gripped the iron hammer and smashed a crack with brute force. With each heavy blow, the wall, covered in cobwebs and dust, crumbled with dirt and lime.
Shen Zhenzhu fanned the dust in front of her when Lao Jiang's voice suddenly came from behind her: "Captain Shen, I have something to report."
Shen Zhenzhu turned her head and frowned, saying, "Why didn't you say so earlier?" The sound of banging on the wall continued intermittently. She walked into the courtyard and coughed twice.
Old Jiang could tell that Shen Zhenzhu was unhappy. His left arm hung limply, and his right hand was wrapped in gauze. He said awkwardly, "I only remembered after all that commotion. There used to be an empty house on the west side where Widow Li lived. After she left, no one went there anymore. Once I saw a cat chasing Huang Daxian inside, and it turned around and ran out meowing, covered in blood. Then I took a look, and there was indeed some blood inside."
Shen Zhenzhu said seriously, "Why didn't you call the police at the time?"
Old Jiang said, "I thought it was the blood of Wong Tai Sin. You don't know, that wild cat is very powerful."
Dongbao's voice suddenly came from inside the house. He shouted through the door, "It's the Cat King, not a stray cat, it's the Cat King!"
Old Jiang said repeatedly, "Yes, it's that pear-colored cat king. Hey, it's so shiny and smooth, it looks like it eats better than Dongbao."
Dongbao grunted twice, offering no objection. Since the Cat King wouldn't play with him, he didn't want to praise him either.
Seeing that Chen Zhenzhu didn't move, Lao Jiang urged, "Do you want me to take you over there to take a look? Maybe there are people there too?"
Shen Zhenzhu squinted at his expression and said with a forced smile, "No rush, things should be done one at a time."
Standing at the door with Aunt Liu, Mai Cuiqiu craned her neck to peek into the small house and called out, "Old Jiang, come back! What nonsense are you spouting? Saving lives is the priority. I'm waiting to go home. Your son got a good job, and look how smug you are, acting like you can command the police."
"Isn't this also an important matter for me? What if the injured comrade is over there?" Old Jiang was not angry after she said a few words, and walked into the house with a stern face.
Shen Zhenzhu beckoned to the two operators and said, "Go and take a look."
Seeing that the main force was still there, Old Jiang's face grew even more grim. Entering the room and seeing Jiang Yuan'an's panicked expression, he said, "This has nothing to do with you."
He pulled open the drawer, found a packet of medicine at the bottom, and swallowed it whole.
Jiang Yuan'an said worriedly, "Dad, are you having another attack? Should I ask Mom to come and check on you?"
Old Jiang sat on the bed, his eyes glazing over after a while. He murmured, "Don't let her see me anymore. She's divorced from me. She's not my wife, nor your mother. Jiang Yuan'an, remember that."
Jiang Yuan'an was silent for a moment, then said, "I've always remembered that she's neither your wife nor my mother."
"Hey." Old Jiang held Jiang Yuan'an's hand, feeling a sense of helplessness. In his daze, he saw Jiang Yuan'an's face becoming increasingly blurry and distorted, the figure jumping in front of him.
Outside the door, there were cries and shouts.
The solid wall was smashed, and the evening sunlight shone inside, turning it a reddish hue full of hope. A stray cat that had wandered in darted out and licked its fur in the yard.
"So it crawled in from behind the cat cage," Zhao Qiqi said in a low voice.
Several women, lying prostrate on the ground, sobbed with tears streaming down their faces as the sunlight stung their eyes.
The cramped cell was lined with thick cardboard boxes, and there were basins of water and dumplings on the floor. They were covered with dirty clothes covered in filth.
Chen Zhenzhu rushed inside, ignoring the stench, and found a woman lying in a pool of blood in the corner. Her left hand was empty, and her wound was haphazardly bandaged with dirty, dark red cloth strips. The bandaging was rough, and there was a box of anti-inflammatory and hemostatic medicine at her feet.
"Ning Dujuan!" Chen Zhenzhu scooped her up tightly and ran outside the courtyard: "Has the ambulance arrived yet?!"
Ning Dujuan is still alive.
Her lips were cracked and peeling, her face was sallow, and beads of sweat covered her forehead. Each shallow breath she took was accompanied by a painful tremor.
When Chen Zhenzhu picked her up, she didn't even have the strength to lift her eyelids, and could only tremble as she said, "No, I won't go."
Shen Zhenzhu glanced at it in surprise, then ran outside.
"They're here!" Little White pointed at Chen Zhenzhu and ran ahead, shouting, "Doctor, doctor!"
The chains on Ning Dujuan's feet rattled on the ground. Her neck draped limply over Shen Zhenzhu's arm, her eyes tightly closed.
The paramedics rushed over and placed her in the ambulance for emergency treatment. As the ambulance siren faded into the distance, Chen Zhenzhu breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank goodness, any further delay and she would have been beyond saving."
"Don't come any closer, help me—ahhh—" No sooner had Shen Zhenzhu come out than a woman's screams came from the courtyard.
Shen Zhenzhu quickly ran back and saw Feng Le and the others, whose hands and feet were bound by iron chains, screaming in fright when they saw Dongbao come out.
They shouted with their last bit of strength.
"He imprisoned us; he's the murderer."
“We saw him chop people with an axe with our own eyes, it’s true.”
"Please, take us away, don't let him come..."
Wu Zhongguo was having people give them water and keep them warm when he heard this and turned around to see Dongbao with a gloomy face, watching everything.
He opened the door at some point, coldly staring at the rescued women, his mouth opening and closing: "Mother... Mother, how did you get out? You can't come out, you can't."
"Did he really lock him up? Dongbao, Dongbao, how could you do such a thing!" Grandma Tong held Dongbao's hand, swayed for a moment, and finally couldn't hold on any longer and fainted.
"Grandma—Waaah—Dongbao didn't, Dongbao is a good child." Dongbao hugged Grandma Tong and squatted on the ground, crying bitterly. For a moment, he was like a child who had lost his pillar of support, not knowing what to do.
The doctor arrived quickly. Dongbao quietly stayed by the bedside, her eyes filled with fear as she said, "Grandma, don't go. Dongbao will be good. Dongbao is a good boy. Grandma will protect Dongbao. Dongbao will go into the cage by herself. Grandma... Waaah..."
Outside the courtyard, the accusations against him by the victims continued, one after another, causing even the unconscious old man to frown.
"He stood in front of us with an axe, shouting 'Kill!' It was terrifying." Zhou Xiaoyang, still relatively sober, drank some porridge and eagerly added, "He even chopped people up right in front of us."
Zhao Qiqi squatted in front of her, using fire pliers to clamp the iron chain around her ankle.
Chen Zhenzhu squatted down in front of her and asked, "Did Dongbao cut down Ning Dujuan? The one I took away."
Zhou Xiaoyang said, "It wasn't her, it was a male comrade who came to rescue us."
Feng Le, barely alive, leaned against Xiao Bai's chest and echoed, "It was an idiot who locked us up, and he even chased after us, trying to kill the people who saved us."
Shen Zhenzhu frowned: "Think carefully, has Dongbao ever hurt you?"
All the testimonies were against Dongbao, and Qian Minghai was already outside the courtyard making a phone call to tell Meng Wanjun's family the good news: "That idiot locked them up, what did I tell you..."
In the courtyard, medical staff were examining their bodies while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.
When Shen Zhenzhu saw Meng Wanjun wrapped in a blanket and silent, she walked over and asked, "Do you agree with the other victims?"
Meng Wanjun said somewhat absentmindedly, "I've been here before. I brought an old lady here."
Shen Zhenzhu said, "Yes, this is the courtyard you came to on the night you disappeared." She pointed to the small house and said, "You were locked behind that wall."
Meng Wanjun swayed as she raised her hand, looking much thinner, and pointed to Grandma Tong's room, saying, "She gave me dried sweet potatoes."
As she spoke, she pulled out the last half of a dried sweet potato from her pocket and said, "Without dried sweet potatoes...we would starve to death. Waaah...if it weren't for dried sweet potatoes, we would all be finished."
Chen Zhenzhu took the dried sweet potato and, seeing the bite marks on it, said, "How did you eat with your mouths stuffed up?"
Meng Wanjun choked up as she said, "Dongbao would let us go for a while, and sometimes he would bring us some food. He even gave us dumplings, I remember they were cabbage flavored. While we were eating, we would sneak a few bites of dried sweet potato, since there wasn't enough food. Sometimes it was even spoiled."
Shen Zhenzhu said, "Do you also believe that he locked you up?"
Meng Wanjun said, "He locked it up. I... I really don't want to believe it was him."
That day, she saw Dongbao when she brought Grandma Tong back. Knowing about her behavior, Dongbao was very friendly to her and even told her the secret about her buttocks.
“But he came closer with an axe, but… he didn’t chop us up. It was like he was… feeding us. Yes, feeding us.” Meng Wanjun looked at the cats in the yard and whispered, “Just like he treats them.”
Same as them?
Dongbao and the animals were friends, and he locked them up to protect them.
Dongbao treats them like his mother. Will he lock them up as well to protect his mother?
Once Shen Zhenzhu understood this, she went to the south room and saw that Dongbao was ignoring her. She pretended to say, "They said you hit them."
Deceiving fools is unethical, but Chen Zhenzhu had no other choice but to resort to this desperate measure.
Dongbao looked over and grinned, saying, "Dongbao has never hit his mother."
Shen Zhenzhu said, "Then why do you keep shouting 'kill'?"
Dongbao suddenly stood up and, as usual, began looking for his axe. Unable to find it, he reached for the kitchen knife, only to discover it was gone too.
He stomped his feet and walked to the victim's side, surrounded by a group of police officers.
Dongbao angrily pointed at the dismantling chains and said, "If I kill the chains, you can leave, but you won't let me!"
Feng Le trembled with fear at his roar, snuggling into Xiao Bai's arms and saying, "You look so scary, who knows what you're going to kill? And you've locked us up too."
Dongbao got even angrier: "Dongbao even gave you food! Dongbao's friends didn't have enough to eat, and Dongbao gave you dumplings too! Dongbao went to bed hungry, and her stomach was making noise so she couldn't sleep!"
Xiao Bai exclaimed in surprise, "So that means Dong Bao is actually helping them?"
"Nonsense!" Teacher Fang, who came with Lu Ye, saw Dong Bao hiding behind Lu Ye and pushed Lu Ye forward, saying, "He's the one who followed me, it's him!"
When Dongbao saw Teacher Fang, she wanted to call her "Mom," but when she realized that her tone was off, she frowned and said, "What's wrong with Dongbao following you?"
Teacher Fang raised her voice and said, "You're a complete stranger, following me just to harm me, aren't you? Why haven't you police arrested anyone yet? Even after all this, you still haven't done anything?"
"Calm down, we're confirming this right now," Lu Ye said softly as he walked over to Chen Zhenzhu. "I've checked the house of that widow Li you told me about. It's been cleaned, and there was no blood. Also, I found this—"
Lu Ye pulled a bag from his pocket, inside which was a red scarf. Shen Zhenzhu recognized the brand of the red scarf, because she had an identical one.
"I found a red scarf that looks like Meng Wanjun's at the pawn shop on Dengzhou Road. I heard it was sold by a man, but I don't remember what he looked like."
Meng Wanjun recognized it at a glance and said weakly, "It's my scarf. There were only two in the whole city at the time. I remember when I was arrested, my scarf was taken by the people who arrested me. That person...that person...I...I don't think it looks like Dongbao."
Chen Zhenzhu squatted down and said, "Think carefully again, what are the characteristics of that person?"
Meng Wanjun said, "She smelled of medicine, and then she smelled of sweat. She was definitely not as tall as Dongbao."
Zhou Xiaoyang stretched his arms and legs to the side, and said angrily, "Then you must be mistaken. Who else could it be but that idiot? You forgot he killed someone?"
Meng Wanjun shook her head and said, "I haven't forgotten."
"If you ask me, it's him." Teacher Fang was led aside, looked Dongbao up and down, and then hid behind other agents.
Shen Zhenzhu called Wu Zhongguo over: "Ask Lao Jiang carefully. His evasive answers suggest something is wrong."
Wu Zhongguo said, "Okay, I'll go right away."
When Lao Jiang saw a red mark in Lu Ye's hand, Wu Zhongguo walked over, and he nervously swallowed.
Jiang Yuan'an, who was standing behind him, looked unwell. He came out with a hemostatic ointment and said, "Dad, let me apply the ointment for you."
Wu Zhongguo looked over, and Chiang Kai-shek raised his right hand and said, "Haven't we already done it?"
Jiang Yuan'an lowered his head and said, "Disinfect it again, and you should get a tetanus shot."
"I'll take your dad over after we're done here, you don't need to worry about it." Wu Zhongguo patted Lao Jiang on the shoulder: "Come with me for a second, I need to ask you something."
While they were talking, Dongbao was talking to his cat friend in the yard, ignoring the operatives guarding him who could take him away at any moment.
Shen Zhenzhu ignored him and went straight to the secret room where she was imprisoned.
On the floor of the secret room, a yellow mink coat was found among clumps of dirty clothes.
She shook out her mink coat. Zhao Qiqi, who was examining the scene, touched the wall of the secret room and said, "Sister Pearl, there's a small door over here. Push it open and you'll find a cat cage outside... The victims all say he's the murderer. Is he really?"
Chen Zhenzhu, carrying a mink coat, frowned as she smelled the odor: "If you were selling red scarves, would you also sell mink coats?"
Zhao Qiqi glanced at it; it was a well-known international brand, and the price was undoubtedly expensive: "If it were me, I would sell mink coats even if I didn't sell red scarves."
Shen Zhenzhu said, "So the suspect knew to go to the pawn shop with the red scarf, so why didn't Dongbao take the mink coat with him to sell for money?"
Zhao Qiqi thought for a moment and said, "Because he didn't know that mink coats were valuable?"
Shen Zhenzhu said, "That's right, because he didn't know the brand or that the mink coat was valuable, otherwise he wouldn't have laid it on the ground. So the red scarf couldn't have been sold by him either; compared to the red scarf, the mink coat is more valuable."
Zhao Qiqi said, "The murderer is male and still in this courtyard, so it's either Dongbao or Lao Jiang and his son."
Shen Zhenzhu nodded: "The tenth person is hidden among them."
The sound of the ambulance grew louder as it approached. Shen Zhenzhu and Zhao Qiqi both assumed it was there to pick up other victims, but to their surprise, Ning Dujuan was being pushed down in a wheelchair.
Medical staff followed beside her, helplessly explaining to the police at the door: "The victim is very emotionally unstable and insisted on coming back. I don't know why."
Ning Dujuan's wrist was effectively bandaged, and her other hand was still receiving a blood transfusion. However, she sat in her wheelchair, looking around in terror. Suddenly, she opened her arms to Dongbao and staggered to her feet, crying out, "Help me! Help me!"
Dongbao called out "Mother" and rushed over to catch Ning Dujuan.
Ning Dujuan, panicked, hid in his arms and clung tightly to Dongbao, saying, "I don't trust anyone here, I only trust you. Please don't go, please don't go."
"Dongbao won't leave." Dongbao hugged Ning Dujuan and sobbed softly, "Mother, there are bad guys who bully Dongbao too."
Ning Dujuan knew he was mentally challenged, but she still chose to believe Dongbao, which was unbelievable to everyone present.
In particular, Feng Le, Zhou Xiaoyang, and Wang Jingjing stared wide-eyed in disbelief.
Feng Le shouted, "Are you crazy? He's the one who hurt you! He's the bad guy!"
Ning Dujuan said weakly, "No, it wasn't him. He saved me from the bad guys!"
That night was unforgettable for Ning Dujuan.
She thought she had escaped the den of evil, but little did she know that she had closed the door to her own survival.
With the main road ahead, the other person carried her around the corner and into an abandoned house where no one lived.
"The man was masked, and he suddenly swung a kitchen knife at my neck. If I hadn't reached out to stop him, my neck would have been severed."
Ning Dujuan was just passing through Liancheng on a business trip and never expected to have such a terrible experience. She took a few breaths to regain her strength, tightly gripped Dongbao's cotton-padded coat collar, and said weakly, "Later, Dongbao saved me. He rushed over, pushed the murderer away, and took me away."
Dongbao hesitated and said, "Dongbao put his hand in the ice, but they destroyed the snowman, and his hand... his hand can't live anymore."
He saw an advertisement for a refrigerator on the street and, in his understanding, thought a refrigerator was just a big block of ice. Since seafood kept in a refrigerator could remain "fresh," he thought that putting his severed hand and his cat friend in it would also make them "fresh" again.
But every time, someone would find out, and then the cat friends would disappear. Dongbao was very sad about this.
Qian Minghai, who had been watching from the side, shouted, "Impossible! You're talking nonsense! Are you trying to explain this to an idiot?"
Dongbao raised his fist: "Dongbao will beat you up! Dongbao is an idiot!"
"He's a martial arts lunatic, he's a martial arts lunatic." Qian Minghai finally stopped bleeding from his nose and quickly took a step back, squeezing behind the police officer with Teacher Fang.
"I see." Shen Zhenzhu understood the key point and said to Wu Zhongguo, "Bring Lao Jiang and Jiang Yuan'an over to take a look."
Wu Zhongguo waved to the operative guarding the door, who reopened the door. Old Jiang, who had just finished talking with Wu Zhongguo, came out looking pale, followed by Jiang Yuan'an.
When Ning Dujuan saw the father and son, she nestled in Dongbao's arms and examined them closely. She said in a weak voice, "They look about the same height, and they used a kitchen knife. At that time... when they kidnapped me, I saw a bicycle coming from the direction they came from."
Dongbao said, "Dongbao followed the bicycle to find her mother."
Shen Zhenzhu asked, "Who is that person riding the bicycle?"
Dongbao shook his head and pointed to the only bicycle in the yard, saying, "It's not here. But the bicycle is here, and Dongbao recognizes it."
Everyone's eyes fell on the bicycle that Mai Cuiqiu had ridden over.
Mai Cuiqiu was still watching with Aunt Liu when she was suddenly caught in the crossfire. She quickly distanced herself, saying, "I lent the bicycle to Lao Jiang for several days. I came here today to say a few words to him."
Shen Zhenzhu asked, "You mean he borrowed your bicycle?"
Mai Cuiqiu said, "It's not just the bicycle, but also the red envelopes that the child gives to people when he goes to work." She stammered, "These days, jobs are hard to find, so he gives red envelopes anyway."
Aunt Liu seemed to have a new understanding of Old Jiang. She put the sunflower seeds back in her pocket and asked seriously, "Old Jiang, where did you go on your bicycle? You're probably the only one in our yard who's been using a kitchen knife lately, aren't you?"
Xiao Bai walked over to Chen Zhenzhu and said, "The results of the hand amputation assessment haven't come out yet, but I think the kitchen knife is consistent with the cross-sectional injury of the severed hand, but I didn't see the kitchen knife in the yard."
Shen Zhenzhu said, "If it really is the murder weapon, it will definitely be hidden."
Standing behind Lao Jiang, Jiang Yuan'an couldn't believe what he was hearing. Everything pointed to Dong Bao and his son; if it wasn't him, who else could it be?
Sensing Jiang Yuan'an's gaze, Old Jiang silently went back into the room, took down half of the photo from the wardrobe, and found the other half from under the crack in the wall on the side of the wardrobe.
He slowly walked out, step by step towards Chen Zhenzhu, and said with a bitter smile, "You police officers really have some skills, finding me so quickly. Look, this is a photo of our family taken in winter during our third year of marriage. His mother thought it was too hot in the sun, so she took off the red scarf that we used to be engaged and put it in my hand. After the divorce, I found the red scarf an eyesore, and I also found myself an eyesore, so I tore up the photo."
"Dad!" Jiang Yuan'an's face was contorted with anger and disbelief as he said, "How could you do such a thing!"
Old Jiang took out a packet of medicine he had used and said, "I'm not in good spirits, and I have to take these mood-stabilizing medications all year round. If you don't believe me, you can get a blood test."
Mai Cuiqiu scolded her with exasperation, "I divorced you because you're not smart enough, but I never expected you'd get even worse over the years! I took good care of you, lending you money and a car, and you did something so heartless and insane!"
Old Jiang's lips twitched, revealing a bitter smile: "There's nothing I can do, my brain condition is getting worse and worse, and sometimes I can't control myself."
As he spoke, he turned to Shen Zhenzhu and said, "The potion you found was also mine. I felt like I was going crazy, so I injected myself. I borrowed money to buy black market drugs. I was afraid Mai Cuiqiu wouldn't lend it to me, so I said it was for my son to use at work. Officers, I surrender. Please take me away."
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Author's note: See you tomorrow, there are 100 red envelopes waiting for you! [Let me see]
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