murderer
Shen Bining never dreamed that one day she would be able to visit the prison for a day.
She even met the legendary murderer.
Before meeting the patient, Shen Bining went to Xie Feng's place to look at the person's information. She was furious as soon as she finished reading it.
She regretted agreeing to Xie Feng's request. Could she leave now? She truly didn't want to see that murderer.
The reason is simple: the crime that person committed was simply too heinous.
Having seen Xie Feng, such a conscientious and responsible police officer, speak highly of this person and even drove to the city to personally invite a doctor from the hospital, Shen Bining was actually curious about this person but didn't have much ill will towards him.
There are many kinds of murderers, and perhaps each one has their own reasons. For example, excessive self-defense; or the tragic death of a loved one, leaving them with no choice but to take matters into their own hands if the law cannot punish their enemy…
If these are indeed the circumstances, Shen Bining felt that the prisoner was not extremely heinous, and at least still retained a shred of humanity and conscience.
However, the information Xie Feng handed over completely shattered Shen Bining's illusions. She even cursed herself for being an idiot for being so naive as to glorify a murderer.
The murderer's crimes were utterly heinous. Shen Bining's hands were trembling after reading the information. She really wanted to ask Xie Feng why he hadn't sentenced the man to death.
The murderer's name is Zhou Nianhua, and he is fifty years old this year. He was imprisoned for murder twenty years ago and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The person he killed was his own wife.
My wife has a terminal illness.
Zhou Nianhua's wife, Tang Kexin, was diagnosed with liver cancer more than 20 years ago. After repeated treatments and relapses, it eventually progressed to terminal stage and became incurable.
Tang Kexin, who already had little time left, was brutally murdered by her husband in the final moments of her life. Afterwards, Zhou Nianhua surrendered himself to the police and confessed to the crime. The court sentenced him to life imprisonment in accordance with the law.
The matter couldn't be clearer: Zhou Nianhua must have been disgusted by his seriously ill wife for being a burden to him and ruining the family, which is why he committed the heinous act of murder.
Ironically, Tang Kexin suffered from terminal liver cancer back then. Twenty years later, Zhou Nianhua also faced death from the same disease.
"What karma," Shen Bining thought silently. Even the thought of Zhou Nianhua enduring daily pain made her want to tell him, "He deserves it."
Although this mentality does not conform to the spirit of doctors saving lives, Shen Bining really could not control her disgust and hatred for Zhou Nianhua.
Shen Bining slammed the file shut, looked up at Xie Feng with a displeased expression, and mentally prepared how to refuse this seemingly clueless prison guard.
However, before she could speak, Xie Feng said with a wry smile, "I know you must be very angry after reading these documents; your face has changed. If I'm not mistaken, you probably want to refuse to see Zhou Nianhua, right?"
Shen Bining nodded slightly. "You already know, why ask?"
Xie Feng paused for a moment before speaking, "But Zhou Nianhua really doesn't seem like such a heinous person. Many of us prison guards even think he's a good person."
Shen Bining was genuinely amused by this. She brandished the folder in her hand, her tone no longer as polite as before, and coldly said, "Murdering your own seriously ill wife, is that what makes a good person? Then please tell me, Officer Xie, what makes a bad person? Does one have to kill ten or eight people to become a serial killer before being considered a truly evil person? Officer Xie, have you been in prison for too long and witnessed too much evil, causing your moral standards to drop?"
Shen Bining retorted to Xie Feng without any politeness, which carried a hint of collusion. She knew it was unfair of her to confront Xie Feng like this, but she just couldn't suppress her indignation.
She was a woman, so naturally she stood on the side of Tang Kexin, who was also a woman; at the same time, she was a doctor, and unconditionally favored her patients.
Therefore, she couldn't treat Zhou Nianhua fairly and justly; she hated this scumbag. Even Xie Feng, who spoke up for the scumbag, was implicated.
Xie Feng was taken aback by Shen Bining's sarcasm, then shook his head with a helpless bitter smile.
To be honest, he wasn't a good-tempered person. In their line of work as prison guards, even a gentle and good-tempered person couldn't do it, since they had to deal with criminals every day, including many vicious ones.
You need to be authoritative, irritable, and ruthless enough to keep this group in check.
Normally, he would have been furious if Shen Bining had spoken so rudely. But since he had invited her, he felt embarrassed to lose his temper with his guest.
Besides, she's a pretty and delicate young girl.
Xie Feng didn't know how to explain, and he couldn't get angry, so he could only give an awkward, bitter smile.
Shen Bining was not an unreasonable person. She quickly realized that her anger was inappropriate. She pursed her lips and timidly apologized to Xie Feng.
Xie Feng shook his head and said, "I know what you're thinking. After seeing that Zhou Nianhua killed his own wife, who was seriously ill, you think he's an utterly wicked person, a complete scumbag. But do you want to hear the story behind them?"
What's the story behind this? Could there be another hidden motive?
After hesitating for a moment, Shen Bining nodded.
Xie Feng cleared his throat and began to speak in detail.
“I didn’t arrest Zhou Nianhua back then. When I came to work here, he had already been here for almost ten years. But over the years, I have learned a basic understanding of his character and the truth of what happened back then from the criminal police officers who arrested him and the senior officers who guarded him.”
"Before the murder, Zhou Nianhua was the kind of good man and husband that people talked about. The couple had always had a good relationship. Later, when Tang Kexin was diagnosed with liver cancer, Zhou Nianhua spent almost all of his money to treat her. During his wife's illness, he took meticulous care of her and never complained. These words were told to the investigating police officers by the couple's old neighbors and colleagues. Almost everyone's testimony was consistent, so there was no possibility of fabrication."
"If that's the case, why did he kill his wife?" Shen Bining couldn't help but interrupt, her tone full of doubt. She quickly flipped through the pile of documents, pointing to one page and saying, "It says here that Zhou Nianhua's wife, Tang Kexin, was already in the terminal stage of lung cancer before she died, and the medical technology at the time was simply incurable. Even if Zhou Nianhua hadn't killed her, his wife would have had at most two months to live. If he really disliked his wife, he could have simply ignored her and waited for her to die naturally. Why did he make himself a murderer?"
Xie Feng nodded and said, word by word, "That's the problem, and it's something that none of us can figure out."
"Zhou Nianhua took care of his terminally ill wife for more than two years, during which time he could be described as a model husband. Why did he suddenly become a different person in the last two months and insist on killing his wife? Just like you said, he didn't care about his wife's illness, and she would have died naturally soon. But he still killed her and turned himself into a murderer."
Shen Bining pondered for a moment, then suddenly thought of a possibility and blurted out, "He had another woman outside and wanted to elope with his mistress, so he couldn't stand his seriously ill wife and killed her."
"It still doesn't make sense. He was sentenced to life imprisonment after committing murder. How could he still be living happily ever after with his mistress? Like I said, whatever plans he had, he could have kept them to himself and patiently waited for his wife to get through it. It would only take two or three months. He wouldn't be so impatient as to not even wait a few days. Besides, the detectives who handled the case thoroughly investigated whether he had any accomplices and found no evidence of a third party." Xie Feng immediately denied it.
For a moment, the two fell into deep thought. After a while, Xie Feng spoke again: "There's something I want to tell you. Zhou Nianhua turned himself in immediately after the murder. He never thought of running away."
Shen Bining gave Xie Feng a strange look, not understanding why he looked so odd when he said that. She said dryly, "Maybe he still has a conscience. Besides, wouldn't turning himself in get him a lighter sentence? He probably regretted killing someone and thought that turning himself in would get him a lighter sentence and maybe save his life. That's why he wasn't sentenced to death."
Xie Feng immediately shook his head and said firmly, "I don't think it's because of that. Dr. Shen, you're still young and don't understand what happened more than twenty years ago. Back then, technology wasn't as advanced as it is now, and the information network wasn't as vast and convenient. There was no mobile payment or location tracking, no ubiquitous surveillance cameras, and you didn't need an ID card to buy train or bus tickets. Many criminals would kill someone and then flee to other places, get a fake identity, and hide in remote areas for more than ten years without getting away with it. To be honest, in those days, many major cases still can't be solved because the perpetrators disappeared without a trace and couldn't be found at all."
"Tang Kexin was seriously ill and unable to leave her home, and few people visited her. So if Zhou Nianhua wanted to escape, he could have simply killed her and run away. By the time the police found the body, he would have vanished without a trace, and we might not have been able to catch him. But he didn't run away; he voluntarily reported it to the police and then calmly waited for them to come to his door. You say Zhou Nianhua didn't receive the death penalty because he surrendered himself, but that's only one reason. After the incident, many of their old friends and neighbors wrote to the court to plead for leniency for Zhou Nianhua, strongly arguing that he wasn't an irredeemable villain and must have had his reasons for killing his wife..."
After Xie Feng finished speaking, the two fell silent again. After thinking for a while, Shen Bining asked, "So Zhou Nianhua really had some unavoidable reason for killing? Didn't you find out when you interrogated the criminal?"
“He wouldn’t say anything,” Xie Feng said with a bitter smile. “The detectives who interrogated him said that no matter how they asked, Zhou Nianhua would never reveal his reason for killing his wife. He kept repeating the same thing: ‘I killed someone, sentence me to death, I deserve it.’ In the twenty years he’s been in prison, people have been asking him why he killed his wife. There have been interrogations by our prison guards and casual conversations with his fellow inmates. But he just won’t utter a single word.”
Shen Bining immediately followed up with a question: "So you also want to know the reason, right?"
“We’ve asked him many times, but he won’t say anything. We thought he’d take this secret to his grave. But recently, he read in the newspaper and learned about your hospice care doctors, so he asked us if he could meet you. I think there are some things he might want to tell you,” Xie Feng quickly said.
After hearing these words, Shen Bining looked at Xie Feng with a strange expression and teased, "Officer Xie, I didn't expect you to have such a gossipy heart."
Well, actually, she was also intrigued.
Xie Feng knew from Shen Bining's tone that she had softened her stance, so he quickly asked, "So Dr. Shen has agreed to help him?"
“I can meet with him, talk to him, and sound him out. But I can’t guarantee that I will provide him with services. I’ll say it again: although saving lives knows no boundaries, and even prisoners have the right to medical treatment, our end-of-life care services are different. Call me willful or ungrateful if you will, but I have my principles. If I meet him and feel that he is a deeply sinful person, or if he makes me uncomfortable, I will terminate my services.”
After hesitating for a while, Shen Bining accepted Xie Feng's invitation.
"No problem, no problem, as long as you're willing to see him." Xie Feng rubbed his hands excitedly, letting out a long sigh of relief, as if he had finally completed a task or had a weight lifted off his shoulders. "Then, shall we go now?"
"Let's go." Shen Bining stood up and nodded to Xie Feng, indicating that they could leave.
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