Chapter 60 Red Leaves 21
At the same time, the interrogations in other interrogation rooms also gradually made progress. The criminals gradually could not withstand the pressure and began to reveal the truth, everything was just as the police had previously inferred.
In some cases, they helped Qi Moxue. Especially when Bao Hongyuan was murdered, they grabbed his hands, immobilizing him. These people are accomplices.
Chi Li sat in the observation room, watching intently the confrontation between Luo Siwei and Qi Moxue. Luo Siwei's reasonable inference forced Qi Moxue to retreat step by step, standing on the edge of the cliff.
He seemed to have already known the outcome of this duel...
In the interrogation room, the interrogation continued.
"Zhai Yifei knew the landlords. He told you that Niu Liangyu was a womanizer, so you set up a honey trap to blackmail him. Later, he realized this, and perhaps he wanted to call the police? You realized the situation was not in your favor, so you chose to kill him?"
Luo Siwei deduced that those recordings were most likely made under Qi Moxue's guidance, so she prepared to present them as evidence.
"As for the murder of Bao Hongyuan, you must have made an appointment with him and were about to sign the contract. Bao Hongyuan arrived in the room defenseless, and you suddenly pulled out a knife and stabbed him..."
If Shen Lili's first death was an accident, the second and third times were outright murders.
Just as Luo Siwei had analyzed before, the killer's violence was escalating.
Qi Moxue walked forward step by step, gradually sinking deeper into the quagmire.
The interrogation room fell silent again.
Luo Siwei knew that what she said must be the truth. If it was not the truth, Qi Moxue would loudly refute the accusations, defend herself with grievance, or even get angry and fly into a rage.
But now Qi Moxue is very quiet. She acquiesced to all this. Such a reaction just shows that those might be her true thoughts and actions.
Luo Siwei concluded: "This is the truth you have been hiding, and also your true murderous intention."
Qi Moxue's previous lies were still trying to maintain her "good person" image. However, the moment Luo Siwei pointed out her true murderous intentions, her "saintly" image collapsed in an instant. She was an out-and-out serial killer.
Qi Moxue smiled as she sat in her seat: "Even if some of what you said is true, so what? I saved so many people. If it weren't for me, those old people would have died long ago! I did this for them, so I had no choice..."
"Did you really kill for those old people?" Luo Siwei shook his head slightly, looking at her with a look full of pity. "Did you really have no choice?"
Qi Moxue froze for a moment, her lips trembling a few times, and she asked her palely, "Then what am I doing this for?"
"After all these years, you've done this. Are you really as desperate as you say? You haven't actively sought any other positive help. You killed the landlord and stole the pension. This is how you solved the problem!"
After hearing Luo Siwei's accusation, Qi Moxue's hands trembled violently.
Luo Siwei continued to question.
"I even doubt whether those elderly people are truly homeless. Or are they staying here for some reason? Why can't the police find them? They have no mobile phone numbers, no contact information, no fixed address. They can't contact their relatives, and they don't even know if their relatives have died. They can't speak or make phone calls. They have lost contact with the whole world, as if people have covered their eyes, ears, and mouths and trapped them in those shared apartments."
It was Chi Li's hint that helped her figure this out.
Hearing Luo Siwei's words, Qi Moxue suddenly collapsed. She tore at her hair and said, "Stop talking! Stop talking!"
During this interrogation, Luo Siwei peeled off the other party's lies layer by layer, until she was completely defeated and collapsed on the spot.
"You've been so caught up in your own emotions that you can't extricate yourself. You insist on gathering those elderly people together and maintaining the status quo. Is it really just for them?" Luo Siwei paused, then pointed out the problem pointedly, "You're doing it for yourself. That's your utopia."
This is what Luo Siwei concluded based on the clues in the case. Qi Moxue has a severe Madonna complex. She will fall into self-sacrifice, self-touching. She will try hard to do things that she has no control over.
So far, many things were told to her by Qi Moxue to guide the police, and those were all Qi Moxue's one-sided statements.
But as a police officer, you have to look for evidence, find out the truth, and clarify the facts.
Once you open the beautiful wrapping paper called hypocrisy, the reality revealed inside is the truth.
Those shabby shared apartments have curtains drawn all year round, with no sunlight visible.
It was even Qi Moxue's one-sided statement that the elderly could only go downstairs in the middle of the night. The neighbors could only see the lifeless elderly people being carried downstairs.
They just curl up, take medicine, eat, and live.
That's why the old people would stand at the window and secretly drop down banknotes with unclear words asking for help.
Qi Moxue would even go to shared houses to recruit new elderly people who were alone.
That's why she married a disabled husband.
That's why she asked the police to help Auntie An who had a heart attack tonight.
It is precisely because of this that she colluded with others and was willing to take all the blame and complete "self-sacrifice."
During the interrogation, she continued to distort the facts and beautify her image.
In criminal psychology, such criminals are not common, but they do appear, such as some "loving" mothers abroad who keep adopting abandoned babies. Their adoption behavior far exceeds their ability, thus causing new tragedies.
The woman in front of him kept saying that she didn't like her father and didn't agree with his actions, but she was actually the same kind of person as him. She would never give up in order to achieve a goal.
Qi Moxue would not hesitate to drag everyone around her down, get heavily in debt, or even commit crimes.
All her disguises were exposed, and Qi Moxue's complexion turned bloodless. Tears flashed in her eyes and she couldn't help but cry.
She actually understood all those principles herself. It was not so much that the elderly people needed her, but rather that she needed the elderly people.
She was enjoying the fact that they were entrusting their lives to her and enjoying her own efforts. The feeling made her intoxicated and unable to extricate herself.
Luo Siwei sat opposite, looking at Qi Moxue crying bitterly.
People are too complicated.
There is no contradiction between the fact that Qi Moxue is a ruthless murderer and the fact that she is a good person who cares for the elderly.
Moreover, this distorted Madonna spirit is tied to justice, and others will be guided and infected by her.
Qi Moxue used love, the collective, and even her life to coerce her other accomplices, making them feel that they were right, just, and had no choice but to do so even after they had done such a thing.
The landlord's death was used to save many elderly people's temporary lives...
This is a seemingly righteous evil.
Even though maintaining the livelihood of those elderly people is difficult and helpless, we cannot rely on killing to solve the problem.
Moreover, Luo Siwei understood that once this started, if their actions were not discovered by the police, more landlords would die at their hands.
"Also, the third victim died of poisoning. Why did you kill him too?" Luo Siwei could feel that the mystery hidden here was actually extremely crucial.
Qi Moxue went from crying at first to wailing loudly.
After calming down, she stopped crying and told the truth and the specific process of killing several landlords and the old man.
"I wanted to reform nursing homes. I made three demands on the elderly."
"The first thing is that they must hand over all their property, including pensions, real estate, and pension allowances, and the nursing home will manage it. Only in this way can I ensure that they receive medical treatment when they are sick, and that I support them until they die."
"Secondly, we need to reduce the number of caregivers in nursing homes to just two. This way, those who are still able to do simple labor can help each other. Those who can move can help those who can't, and those who can cook can help those who can't."
"Third, follow the unified arrangements of the nursing home and eat, work, and sleep according to the prescribed times. Everyone lives a collective life."
"It's like an invisible agreement between the two parties. Hongye Nursing Home is responsible for the elderly's care, while the elderly have to contribute all their property, work for the collective, and obey the collective's arrangements. As long as they are willing, I can take them out of the nursing home and live a different life."
"A person cannot resist aging." Qi Moxue raised her pale cheeks and slender neck. Innocent, cruel, cold, beautiful, gentle, these contradictory words coexist in her.
Her lips parted slightly. “I hope they can coexist, help each other, and be selfless.”
That's ideal.
This is a so-called utopia.
But utopia has only ever existed in people's imagination.
Qi Moxue then continued to recount all this with a blank expression: "Qiao Xiangjun supported me. She took the lead in selling her old house. There were also some other elderly people who supported me. But many more were against it. I got angry, so I closed the nursing home and kicked out those homeless elderly people who refused to compromise. I pretended to let them fend for themselves."
"That rainy night, I knew they were homeless. I went to see them when the rain was at its heaviest. They were like pieces of meat, rotting in the rain." Speaking of this, Qi Moxue smiled, a sweet smile bloomed on her face. She was not a brutal killer, but she made people shudder.
"Even the toughest ones would give in under those circumstances. They cried and tugged at my clothes, some even knelt and kowtowed. They were willing to agree to all my conditions, begging me to take them in again. Just to survive."
When she recalled that scene now, she still felt extremely comfortable. They curled up at her feet. At that moment, she could decide the life and death of these people in front of her. She was like a saint, being lifted up to the platform by them.
That was what she pursued and what she expected. She felt that she should be shining in the heavy rain.
She helped them up with compassion: "From now on, we are a community."
Luo Siwei looked at Qi Moxue and felt a sense of disgust. She was forcing those elderly people to live the way she wanted.
"So later, I found Zhai Yifei and took them in. The money was quickly spent, the elderly people died, and the amount kept dwindling. To keep this cycle going, I asked Zhai Yifei to help me find elderly people who came to him alone to rent a place, and then I took them in. Of course, they also had to follow the three principles: selflessly dedicate everything, and then surrender to me wholeheartedly, isolate themselves from the world, and stop contacting other people."
Luo Siwei asked, "Is there no one opposing you?" What Qi Moxue did was equivalent to imprisoning those old people together in a perverse way.
"Yes," Qi Moxue said lightly, "As long as there are groups, there will be conflicts. They are prone to senile depression when they stay together for a long time. Sometimes I ask Zhai Yifei to carry some of them out. I take them to take a bath, eat some good food, say some nice things, and persuade them to think more positively. If I sow discord a little, those old people will tell me everything that has happened recently and who is thinking what."
Luo Siwei felt that Qi Moxue was enjoying this perverted power.
"Didn't you guys testify that the third elderly person I threw in died of poisoning? He once tried to mobilise a group of elderly people against me. He said he regretted coming here, that he'd rather pick up trash or sleep under a bridge than leave."
Qi Moxue's face was as cold as frost: "This is a betrayal of the collective."
"So I executed him. I cooked him a handful of red beans, the kind with black and red stripes, and made all the elders watch him eat them. From then on, no one dared to oppose me."
"However, I still love most of the elderly." Qi Moxue raised her head and asked Luo Siwei, "You promised me that you would take good care of those elderly people. Is that true?"
Luo Siwei sat opposite her, and she nodded slightly: "It's true, I promise you."
Qi Moxue signed her name on the confession compiled by the police officer.
Qi Moxue asked, "Can you go check on them for me tonight? I'm worried about them. They don't have cell phones, and they can't wait for us to come home. They have no food to eat, and they're afraid to sleep. They'll die in that room."
Luo Siwei nodded slightly: "Okay, I will go check on them for you."
At 11 o'clock in the evening, the typhoon seemed to have passed a little, and the wind and rain outside the car gradually subsided.
A team of police officers came to an old residential area in the west of the city according to the address provided by Qi Moxue. The situation there was somewhat similar to that of the Fulu residential area. There were a large number of resettlement houses for demolition, and it was also a place where group rentals and sub-landlords were active.
The car entered the residential complex and stopped downstairs of Building No. 6.
Luo Siwei got out of the car and looked up at the situation upstairs. The rain was blowing hard against her, blinding her. Since it was a typhoon night, many people stayed indoors. The colorful lights upstairs were on, projecting light through the curtains.
"It should be here." Luo Siwei pointed to room 501.
Chi Li looked up in the direction she pointed: "Well, the curtains in this house are the same style as the ones in Fulu Community before."
In order to prevent others from seeing what's going on inside a shared apartment, the curtains need to be drawn all year round. They need to be completely light-proof and tightly closed. The sub-landlord had obviously considered this and replaced all the curtains.
Chi Li took out the two keys Qi Moxue gave him. Luo Siwei and Guo Zhengyao were behind him, with their hands on the guns at their waists, ready to provide support at any time in case of danger.
Shen Qing and Huo Cunsheng stood in the back, holding various water and food bought from the vending machine in the Municipal Bureau.
Chi Li opened the door carefully, but just as he opened the door, the strong smell in the room came out. Shen Qing, who was standing behind him, frowned and covered his nose with his hand.
The pale yellow light from the room shone through the crack in the door into the corridor.
There was no tension or conflict; the house was safe and quiet.
Chi Li walked in first, Luo Siwei followed Chi Li into the room, and then her eyes paused.
This was a sparsely decorated shared apartment. Aside from a few places to rest near the entrance, the interior was incredibly crowded. The floor was covered in bedding, and dozens of people were lying or sitting there. They were both men and women, most of them elderly with white hair, while a few who didn't look so old also had gray hair.
Someone was coughing, the air in the room was polluted, and there was obviously a lack of oxygen, making people feel a little suffocated.
Luo Siwei's eyes swept across the faces of those people.
The old men, with their aged faces, looked up at the uninvited guests who had broken in.
Some of their eyes were numb, some were terrified, some were helpless, and some were afraid.
The young take care of the old. They don't seem like humans, but more like animals living together in a group.
This is a mobile nursing home. Once they are discovered and driven away, they will move from one place to another.
In the midst of the storm, these elderly people huddled together in this shared house. This crowded room with simple decoration became their home to spend their old age.
Red leaves, those are the red leaves of autumn. They start from a small bud, gradually turn green, grow into lush green leaves, gradually turn red in the autumn wind, and then float down from the tree with a gust of wind and fall on the soil.
That is the life of a leaf, and also the life of every person.
Chi Li's expression was extremely serious. The ends of his hair and eyelashes were soaked by the rain, and they flickered faintly under the dim light in the room.
"The police are currently investigating a case, and all those involved need to be questioned. Please cooperate with the police." Chi Li turned to Shen Qing and said, "First, check and register the elderly people here. Then, record their statements."
There was a moment of panic in the room, and someone asked, "Where is Dean Qi?"
Then someone realized: "They're not coming back, are they?"
A burst of crying came from the window. It was made by a woman kneeling in the quilt.
Crying is contagious, and the elderly people next to me also started crying. They didn't dare to cry loudly, but sobbed quietly and wiped their tears.
The old people cried for a while, and one of the old ladies looked up and asked Luo Siwei: "So... are we free from now on?"
Luo Siwei nodded: "Yes, you are free."
"How are we going to live in the future?" someone asked.
"You will survive. Someone will take care of you." Luo Siwei stood in the living room of the shared house and distributed the water and food she brought to the elderly.
The Red Leaf Nursing Home where the elderly could sit in the yard and sing while the red leaves fell is long gone.
This is not their home.
Luo Siwei looked at the elderly and thought, is this what aging is like? Everyone will face birth, old age, sickness, and death...
How helpless, cruel, and even brutal this world is.
She found her answer to this case, but it was not what she imagined.
The moment she saw the truth, she did not feel relieved, but instead felt a heavy pressure crushing her body.
Qi Moxue is a special criminal. This is the first time Luo Siwei has seen such a case in all his years as a police officer.
This mobile nursing home is deformed, and it was Qi Moxue's love and selfishness that gave rise to it.
They are prisoners of the saint.
But what if Qi Moxue wasn’t there?
What will happen to these elderly people in their later years?
They might live a more miserable life and die in a dark corner where no one knows.
Maybe you will live a very free and happy life and enjoy your old age.
Who knows?
The author has something to say:
There will probably be some more finishing touches tomorrow, and then this story will be over.
This is a story that I personally like very much. The original theme is the prisoner of the saint. I hope you like it.
Also, please don’t give out spoilers in the comment section.
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