Chapter 25

Xu Man was stunned.

"Captain, do you mean there is something else going on here? Is it related to Lu Yajun's parents?"

Influenced by the conversation between Li Shijie and the others, she subconsciously linked this case to Lu Yajun's parents.

Qin Shen shook his head. "They will definitely investigate, but that's not the point."

He took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it with a lighter, leaned back in his chair and started smoking.

The smoke slowly dissipated and filled the office. The choking smell of smoke made Xu Man's throat itch. She wanted to cough, but she tried hard to hold it back and didn't make a sound.

"The focus is still on Lu Yajun." Qin Shen exhaled, "When I asked her what she thought about this matter in the interrogation room, do you remember what she answered?"

"She said she regretted it and felt she was too impulsive." Xu Man replied with a hint of confusion, "Is there anything wrong with that?"

"Generally speaking, criminal suspects will show some regret after being arrested. One is regret that they killed someone, causing the other person to lose their life, and feel guilty towards the victim." Qin Shen replied calmly, "The other is regret that they did not clean up the traces when they committed the crime, which led to them being caught by the police and having to accept the punishment of the law."

He slowly took a puff of cigarette and exhaled, the white smoke swirling upwards: "What kind of regret do you think Lu Yajun has?"

Xu Man was silent.

After a while, she slowly spoke: "Even if Lu Yajun regrets the second scenario, the fact is that she killed Zhang Xiaojuan and was arrested by us. Whether she really feels guilty towards the victim or not...what difference does it make?"

As soon as she finished speaking, she coughed twice. The smell of smoke was so strong that it made her throat itch like hair. It was fine when she didn't speak, but as soon as she started talking, the itching came back in waves and she couldn't help it.

"How come there is no difference?" Qin Shen glanced at her, extinguished the cigarette in his hand in the ashtray, and stopped smoking. "If she belongs to the latter type of psychology, then there is still room for investigation. An 11-year-old child killed her classmate on impulse. Not only did her grandfather help dismember and dispose of the body and conceal the case, but her emotions were also extremely stable. She remained calm in the face of two police inquiries. Either she is born with antisocial personality disorder and lacks a sense of shame, or she had planned it in advance."

"——The victim's death was not a tragedy caused by her impulse, but a long-planned wish."

Lu Daonan's interrogation was scheduled for 7:30 p.m., still presided over by Qin Shen and recorded by Xu Man.

The old man's psychological defenses were not strong. Qin Shen only asked him a few questions and made him confess to a series of crimes including dismemberment and disposal of corpses. His confession was basically the same as what Lu Yajun said, but there were differences or supplements on some details.

Although Lu Yajun confessed that she killed someone on impulse, the specific process was vague. The stage in which she revealed the most details was the quarrel with Zhang Xiaojuan before the murder. According to her, she was frightened after the first knife was cut, and she was completely dazed, so she didn't remember the following events very clearly. It was not until her grandfather Lu Daonan came home and helped her deal with Zhang Xiaojuan's body that she gradually came to her senses with his comfort and cleaned up the scene with him.

Lu Daonan's answer filled in this gap, but what surprised Xu Man was that the old man was not the one who proposed dismembering and burying the body. As an ordinary retired carpenter, although Lu Daonan's cultural level is not high, he also knows that killing is illegal. After learning that his granddaughter accidentally killed her classmate, he was even more at a loss than Lu Yajun. He didn't know what to do. It was Lu Yajun who calmed down first and told him that as long as he disposed of the body, no police would come to his door.

After hearing this, the old man, who loved his granddaughter very much, hesitated for only a brief moment before deciding to help his granddaughter deal with the body. After all, the classmate was dead, but his granddaughter was still alive, only eleven years old. He couldn't let her go to jail at such a young age, as that would ruin her whole life. So he dismembered Zhang Xiaojuan's body, put it in the garbage bags at home, and buried it in batches in the woods of the park.

Most of the traces at the scene were cleaned up by Lu Yajun. After he came back after disposing of the body, Lu Yajun's mood had stabilized. She told Lu Daonan that she had looked up relevant information on the Internet. She was under the age of fourteen and did not need to bear any criminal responsibility. She only needed to pay some money for killing someone and did not have to go to jail. The only thing she was worried about now was that her parents would scold her after knowing this, because the compensation required a large sum of money, so she still hoped that the police would not find her, so that she would not have to pay anything.

"That's what she said?" Qin Shen asked, emphasizing the point, "Is this what Lu Yajun herself meant?"

The old man behind the interrogation table nodded slowly: "That's what Junjun said... Police comrade, this should be true, right? Junjun would not lie. I'm old now, so I'll go to jail. I don't have many years left to live anyway, but Junjun is still young and naive, and she didn't kill on purpose. Can you please show some leniency and not hold Junjun accountable? I can pay for her life."

"Conviction and sentencing are not our business. The court will make the decision." Qin Shen closed the file. "We don't know what will happen to your precious granddaughter, but we still have to thank you for your cooperation. It has given our investigation a new direction."

He stood up and said, "This interrogation for today ends here. If there is anything else I need to ask you in the future, we will meet again. I hope you can continue to cooperate."

The old man nodded, raised his cloudy eyes and looked at him, and asked cautiously: "Comrade police, how is Junjun now? Is she okay?"

"During the investigation of the case, all relevant personnel matters are kept confidential, including the current situation of the criminal suspect." After saying this succinctly, Qin Shen turned around, opened the door and left the interrogation room.

The old man sighed in disappointment, glanced at Xu Man, his dry lips moved a few times, but in the end he chose to remain silent, lowered his head and said nothing.

After a while, Li Shijie and Zhu Zhuo came in and took the old man out. Xu Man stayed in the interrogation room and followed them out after finishing the final cleaning work.

In the corridor, Qin Shen leaned against the wall. When he saw her come out, he asked, "Have you had dinner?"

Xu Man nodded: "I ate before the interrogation."

"Then come with me," he reached into his pocket, frowned and said, "I'm out of cigarettes, I have to buy another pack... Let's go out for a walk?"

Xu Man’s answer to this was of course yes. She was not very good at rejecting others, let alone an invitation from someone she liked. Aunt Jiang would not ask him to take her with him even when buying cigarettes and take care of her, right?

Seeing her nod, Qin Shen smiled slightly, straightened his back and stopped leaning against the wall, and walked out of the detachment hall with her.

It was almost nine o'clock. The city of Mingzhou, shrouded in darkness, was lit up with thousands of lights, adding a layer of gorgeous brilliance to the night. Qin Shen did not drive, but walked on the street with Xu Man, one after the other, heading towards the commercial street not far away.

It was early July, one month away from the beginning of the dog days, and the weather had not yet reached its hottest stage. Even on a hot summer night, the wind blowing in one's face was slightly cool. Although not as cool as in the detachment with air conditioning, as long as Xu Man saw the back of the person walking slowly in front of her, she did not feel the stuffiness at all.

She followed Qin Shen closely, watching their shadows getting longer and shorter under the light of the street lamps. Cars passed by on the road from time to time, and there were occasional voices of pedestrians talking. There were also a few barking of dogs in the distance. She felt that the night was extremely quiet.

If Lu Daonan hadn't asked her some unpleasant questions, she would have felt relaxed. Some words had been lingering in her mind for a long time, but she couldn't help but ask, "Captain."

Qin Shen didn't look back, nor did he stop, he just responded verbally: "What's wrong?"

"Lu Yajun," she paused, choosing her words to accurately express what she was thinking, "what will happen to her?"

"What about conviction, sentencing, or the rest of life?"

"...Determine the sentence." Lu Yajun was certainly guilty of intentional homicide. Even if it was a crime of passion, it still fell under the category of intentional homicide. Objectively, it caused the death of Zhang Xiaojuan. Not to mention that after the interrogation just now, whether this case was a crime of passion still needs to be verified. But Lu Yajun's age was certain, 11 years old, under the age of fourteen, and did not need to bear any criminal responsibility.

Qin Shen sneered, "What kind of sentence can there be? According to the criminal law, people under the age of fourteen are irresponsible. If they cause personal or property damage to others, the guardian will pay the compensation, and the person does not need to bear any criminal responsibility. At most, he will stay in the detention center for a year or six months during the investigation of the case. After the court makes a judgment, he can be released and go home. He will live the same way as before. His criminal record will be sealed and no one can find it. It's like he has never committed a crime. It's comfortable and refreshing."

As they were talking, the two turned into a commercial street. At this time, most stores were closed, and only a few were still lit. Qin Shen walked into a convenience store and bought a pack of cigarettes at the counter. He opened it and took out a cigarette, lit it with a lighter, walked outside and took a puff, and then continued: "I told you this afternoon that this case can be dug deeper, but it's not quite accurate. It can be dug deeper, but it's useless. Even if it can be proved that Zhang Xiaojuan's death was premeditated by Lu Yajun for a long time, it only makes the situation a little more severe. It will not help the final verdict at all - unless you take into account the extra compensation."

Xu Man had heard Qin Shen say all these things in school, and she understood that this was the correct answer in accordance with the law. She also knew very well what the final outcome of the case would be, but she just didn't want to believe it. She asked Qin Shen questions only hoping that he could give her a different answer, but she was disappointed in the end.

"Is it really the only way?" She frowned. "The victim lost his life, but the perpetrator lost nothing and is still alive and well?"

"If you want to talk about loss, that's also possible." Qin Shen exhaled a puff of smoke, and the hazy smoke drifted away in the dark night. "She lost a year or two of freedom in the detention center, her parents lost a large sum of money, and her grandfather was convicted as an accomplice, probably for more than ten years. These are also losses, but they are insignificant compared to the life of the victim."

So that's it. It turned out that she was wrong before. Ten dollars destroyed the happiness of only one family, while the other family, Lu Yajun, who was the same age as the deceased Zhang Xiaojuan, would lose nothing.

The night seemed to be tinged with chill, as deep as cold water, spreading in Xu Man's heart.

Continue read on readnovelmtl.com