“So that’s how it was.” Yu Zheng crossed his hands under his chin, “Although you couldn’t kill Ding Jing, you successfully shattered Jiang Chengyi’s perfect world. You won and won quite beautifully. So for a long time afterward, you lost interest in Jiang Chengyi and Lu Yan, shifting your focus to finding the third ‘Li Xiaolan.’ I imagine if the Deng Man incident hadn’t succeeded, you would have kept trying other methods until you managed to break up Jiang Chengyi and Lu Yan.”
Cheng Zhou’s eyes gleamed in the dimness, showing pleasure.
“In any case, you got a taste for it from this incident, and subsequently targeted the Winter Solstice website, regularly selecting the next ‘Li Xiaolan’ from among the users making wishes. But you discovered that the ‘Li Xiaolans” wishes weren’t so easy to fulfill—most were related to money, sometimes requiring certain social status.
“Though you were eager, you couldn’t find the perfect victim matching your three elements until after you graduated from university and switched careers to become a makeup artist. Once you slowly gained financial means, you found your first victim in years—Li Liwei. Hmm, according to the records, she wasn’t short of money, so her wish probably wasn’t money-related. Can you tell us how you fulfilled her wish then?”
Cheng Zhou sneered: “What grand aspirations could such a stupid woman have? She just wanted her unfaithful husband to come back to her. That was too easy. I stalked his mistress for a month, originally planning to make that mistress die in an ‘accident’—”
His tone was as casual as if discussing grocery shopping.
“Hmm, and then?” Yu Zheng waited for him to continue.
But he suddenly lost interest, puffing out his cheeks and blowing out a bored breath, refusing to speak further.
“Did you happen to discover one day that the mistress also had a lover?”
Silence.
Yu Zheng watched him for a while, taking a sip of coffee to stay alert: “It seems I’ve guessed correctly again. That made things much easier. All you had to do next was find a way to let Li Liwei’s husband know about this. When Li Liwei’s husband learned the news, he indeed dumped that mistress and temporarily returned to Li Liwei’s side. You fulfilled Li Liwei’s wish and naturally made her the third Li Xiaolan. This time, you felt it necessary to give her death an aesthetic quality, even specially designing a ritual for her.”
Cheng Zhou seemed to recall something embarrassing, grimacing: “Unfortunately, that waterproof bag broke halfway through, and the body sank. By the time it was found, she had already started decomposing. Oh, not beautiful at all, it was terrible.”
Yu Zheng also seemed to feel “regretful”: “For you, Li Liwei was a broken chrysalis, unable to achieve metamorphosis. You must have reflected on this for a long time afterward. So by the time it was Wang Wei’s turn in B City, you could arrange the scene perfectly—for instance, preparing a very good waterproof flotation body bag, successfully allowing her to achieve rebirth. Moreover, by this year, you had already become a well-known makeup artist. With your current financial means, I imagine there were a few wishes you couldn’t fulfill. So, before you killed Wang Wei this year, what wish did you fulfill for her?”
“Her?” Cheng Zhou’s laugh was full of mockery, “Her wish was the simplest—a one-month tour of four European countries.”
“That was easy to fulfill. But I can’t figure out how you did it.”
Indeed, half a year ago, before her death, Wang Wei had traveled to Europe during her vacation, but before discovering the Winter Solstice website, the B City police hadn’t connected this to her death.
When Cheng Zhou didn’t continue, Yu Zheng had to speculate: “Did you pose as a travel agency staff member, waiting by the roadside to have her participate in a travel agency lottery through flyer distribution, making her think she’d won? Or was it some other method?”
“Something like that.” He sneered, not wanting to waste his breath.
“So it was indeed related to a travel agency. What about Wang Qianqian?” Yu Zheng showed great interest, “She had just gone through a breakup. I guess her wish must have been related to her current boyfriend.”
Cheng Zhou pursed his lips, moving lazily, leaning sideways against the chair’s back. If he weren’t in the prisoner’s chair, he looked like he wanted to cross his legs.
Officer Zhou glared at him, wanting to scold “Behave yourself,” but was stopped by Jiang Chengyi.
After a while, Cheng Zhou lowered his eyes to look at the metallic gleam in the darkness and finally raised his eyebrows after a long time: “When she went traveling, I took the same flight as her. I deliberately dropped a local singles’ club VIP card at her feet. That hypocritical woman immediately picked it up.”
“What a brilliant idea,” Yu Zheng’s eyes lit up, “I imagine that club is quite famous in this city.”
According to Jiang Chengyi’s previous investigation, Wang Qianqian had indeed been a member of a club called Dingrui before her death. The club’s members were all local wealthy and famous people, and ordinary people found it very difficult to obtain membership cards. However, they could never figure out how Wang Qianqian had gained membership, and when they asked her current boyfriend, he didn’t know either.
“I imagine Wang Qianqian was desperate to find a better boyfriend than her ex at the time. When she found that card, she must have treasured it like gold. Soon after, she went to the club and successfully met her current boyfriend, right?” Yu Zheng continued.
Such a stupid question.
Cheng Zhou couldn’t be bothered to respond, just lazily rotating his neck back and forth.
“What about Lu Yan?” Yu Zheng was curious, “She never made a wish on the Winter Solstice website. Let me think—after eight years, you suddenly targeted her again. Was it because that day when you killed Wang Qianqian—she happened to see you?”
After a long while, Cheng Zhou said coldly: “Haven’t seen her for eight years, I had almost forgotten about this woman.”
“Yes, eight years without seeing each other. When you ran into each other that day, you were dressed as ‘Deng Man,’ and she saw you—she must have looked very surprised. You must have recognized her immediately too. You knew this woman was cunning and worried she might figure out what happened back then, so you wanted to kill her right away. But she left quickly, and later you thought, why not just make her the next Li Xiaolan? But then, what about the wish requirement?”
“I could slowly guide her to make one later.” He said casually.
“I think that might have been a bit difficult.” Yu Zheng smiled wryly, “You’re so clever, you should know everyone is different. Given Lu Yan’s personality, she tends to rely on herself rather than placing hope in divine beings. But you just mentioned Deng Man—as your second ‘Li Xiaolan,’ she died eight years ago, yet even eight years later, you still occasionally disguise yourself as her. For you, when did this pleasure of ‘substitution’ begin? Was it from the first ‘Li Xiaolan’—Zhou Zhicheng’s wife Lin Chunmei?”
Cheng Zhou tilted his head lazily: “Every time I went to Zhou Zhicheng’s house to visit, seeing that woman lying in bed like death, I couldn’t help wanting to beat her. But I was afraid of leaving marks that Zhou Zhicheng might discover, so I had to content myself with destroying her things. I went through her wardrobe and found she had quite a lot of clothes, so when Zhou Zhicheng wasn’t paying attention, I stole several pieces. One time I tried on her clothes and found it quite interesting.”
“Yes. Looking at the entirely new Lin Chunmei in the mirror, you felt extremely satisfied. You couldn’t quite tell whether the person in the mirror was your ideal mother, companion, or lover. In any case, the bad ‘Li Xiaolan’ was eliminated by you, and a new ‘Li Xiaolan’ was born. You became addicted to this feeling. So starting with Lin Chunmei, you repeatedly dressed yourself up as the ‘Li Xiaolan’ of your imagination. Sometimes under cover of night, you would go out dressed that way. Over time, your disguise and mimicry skills became increasingly sophisticated. But as the frequency increased, I guess you might have accidentally frightened some people. For example, when you were impersonating Lin Chunmei back then, did you ever go to Central Park?”
Yu Zheng glanced at Jiang Chengyi. This was something Jiang Chengyi had told him earlier, but it was merely speculation—now they needed further confirmation from Cheng Zhou.
Cheng Zhou felt this wasn’t worth mentioning and didn’t respond, though he didn’t seem to deny it either.
Yu Zheng nodded knowingly: “No wonder. I think you might have frightened Ding Jing at that time, and in the following years, such chance encounters occurred occasionally. Of course, sometimes you knew about them, sometimes you didn’t, but either way, you were intoxicated by it and couldn’t stop anymore.”
Cheng Zhou laughed neurotically.
“By the way,” Yu Zheng exchanged glances with Jiang Chengyi and spoke slowly, “Can you tell us about Zhou Zhicheng? Why did he commit suicide after you called him? How exactly did you manage that?”
“The prerequisite was that I knew Zhou Zhicheng very well.” Cheng Zhou sneered, “After Deng Man’s ‘suicide,’ he seemed to have been greatly impacted, being depressed every day and losing a lot of weight. And all this was because of the second Li Xiaolan, that utterly foolish person.”
“I guess he developed depression. Is that what you thought too, and your assumption was quickly confirmed?”
Cheng Zhou remained indifferent.
Officer Zhou grew anxious on the side—this person’s mouth was like it had been sewn shut, too difficult to pry open.
Yu Zheng, however, showed no signs of impatience and continued to entice Cheng Zhou to speak: “Was it because he regularly went to the hospital for medication, or did you sneak a look at his medical records?”
“Moderate to severe depression. Hmph, this person was too stupid. Once he even tried to commit suicide by gas, but was discovered by neighbors in time and didn’t succeed.”
Yu Zheng nodded: “Indeed, inducing someone with depression to commit suicide is simpler than inducing an ordinary person. I think the reason Zhou Zhicheng later stalked Ding Jing was because he began to suspect she was connected to what happened back then. But what exactly triggered his suspicion of her?”
“He attended a student reunion. Don’t know what happened there, but after he came back, he started following her and kept trying to get those discs back. Stupid man.” His tone was full of contempt.
Yu Zheng seemed to appreciate Cheng Zhou more and more: “Zhou Zhicheng was always cautious, you knew this well. For this matter, did he even research lock-picking techniques online? He only felt temporarily safe after you dealt with Ding Jing. Then… what about Liu Yujie? Was that another attempt to provoke Jiang Chengyi?”
“Heh.” Cheng Zhou found it utterly boring, preferring to look up at the pitch-black ceiling rather than talk to Yu Zheng.
“You discovered Jiang Chengyi was investigating these cases and felt your challenge had come again. To provoke him, you injected morphine into Liu Yujie, who was close to Ding Jing, right under his nose. A few days later, you found he was focusing on Zhou Zhicheng, and feared Zhou Zhicheng might inadvertently expose you, so you decided to deal with Zhou Zhicheng?”
“Didn’t he want to end his life? I just helped him make up his mind.” When talking about uninteresting people like Zhou Zhicheng, Cheng Zhou almost yawned.
“So you used a voice changer to call him, telling him you’d found those discs from back then?”
Cheng Zhou rolled his eyes, and after a long while said: “You finally had a moment of intelligence.”
“I’m honored to keep up with your thinking.” Yu Zheng smiled, “I imagine to make him believe you had these discs, you described in detail every place they met. Hmm, I must say this was another perfect crime. Cheng Zhou, you impressed me.”
Cheng Zhou was smug, finally willing to say a bit more: “I told him if he didn’t give me one million, I would immediately send the discs to the school and his wife’s family. This way, he would quickly be dismissed from school and suspected of involvement in Deng Man’s suicide. His voice was trembling as he told me all his savings over the years had been used for medical treatment, and he couldn’t gather that much money. I said ‘If you don’t do as told, you can forget about your pension, you’ll soon be ruined, and neighbors will point fingers at you.'”
Before finishing, he broke into a low, muffled laugh.
“After making that call, you knew you would soon get the result you wanted, because knowing Zhou Zhicheng as you did, even if he didn’t commit suicide immediately, he would do it after being questioned by the police. Sure enough, this coward killed himself right after hanging up.”
Cheng Zhou stopped laughing as if feeling he had wasted enough breath. Not only did he ignore Yu Zheng, but he entered a state of rest with his eyes closed.
“You truly understood the weaknesses of everyone around you.” Yu Zheng looked at him with ‘admiration.’ “I think it was for this reason that you successfully lured Wen Peng and Zheng Xiaowen.”
“Ha.” Cheng Zhou lifted his eyelids slightly, his attitude casual.
Yu Zheng waited for a long time but got no continuation: “Police found electric bicycle tire tracks in that area. Let me guess, they were both people who enjoyed parties. You must have started preparing early: recordings, special invitation cards, letting them know about an interesting secret party in the city (or similar activity). And the party was scheduled to begin that dawn. To attend the party, Wen Peng specifically arranged Zheng Xiaowen’s scene for five o’clock that day, and they rushed over right after filming.”
Half an hour ago, Wen Peng had awakened in the hospital, but Zheng Xiaowen was still unconscious, so this part of the information had only been confirmed by Wen Peng.
“They arrived at the designated place on the card and saw you there. Without any suspicion, they drank the beverages you prepared. After they fell asleep, you tied them up, used an electric bicycle to transport Wen Peng first, strapped to your back, to Water Dragon Pool, then threw him in. After finishing with him, you used the same method to throw Zheng Xiaowen in. You went home to sleep, returned to the film city at noon, then pretended to wait for the crew to do Zheng Xiaowen’s makeup, but you knew she would never make it—the sewage would soon submerge her and Wen Peng—she became your sixth ‘Li Xiaolan,’ while Wen Peng became your scapegoat—”
Yu Zheng paused: “Cheng Zhou, my criminal genius, am I right?”
“Boring, truly boring.”
Cheng Zhou complained softly, his tone unconsciously becoming flippant again. To divert his attention, he began stretching in the chair.
“Click”—the lights came on.
Having been in darkness for so long, Cheng Zhou’s eyes couldn’t immediately adjust to the light. The overhead lighting seemed particularly harsh, and he instinctively closed his eyes.