Chapter Forty-Nine: Lily!

“Lovers,” Fan Lu replied with utter frankness.

I asked her the little girl’s name, and Fan Lu explained that it was Liu Yulu, a name she had chosen herself.

As for the child’s biological father, it turned out to be Chen Da, who was already dead. Fan Lu also admitted that she was the one who had killed Chen Da.

Clearly, neither of these women was telling the entire truth.

I quickly tallied things up—three people had already confessed to murder, and adding Zhou Fugui made four in total.

The sheer absurdity of it all left me dumbfounded.

As for Fan Lu’s motive, it was simple: Chen Da had treated Liu Yulu badly.

Liu Juncheng’s death was also closely tied to Chen Da, because, according to Fan Lu, three years ago, Chen Da had already killed Liu Juncheng.

But the information Fan Lu provided directly contradicted our current case. We had only recently discovered Liu Juncheng’s body on the bus, which was at odds with the claim that he had been killed three years ago.

As for the motive, Fan Lu said it was because Liu Juncheng had discovered their clandestine affair.

I felt a headache coming on and suspected this woman might not be mentally stable.

Fan Lu said, “Let me tell you the truth. Ever since I killed Chen Da, I never intended to live much longer. I knew this day would come, and I’ve made my peace with it. It’s just that the last time you questioned me, you never asked if I was the one who did the killing, so I didn’t say anything. Had you asked, I would have told you everything.”

Suddenly, Old Lin stood up and left the room. I hurried after him and asked what was wrong.

Old Lin offered a bitter smile. “Didn’t you notice this woman has mental issues? These two families—what a mess. We should have Fan Lu undergo a psychiatric evaluation as well.”

I nodded.

Indeed, the behavior of Fan Lu and Li Fengyan was deeply suspicious. I doubted even my own father had ever seen such “straightforward” murderers.

Given the urgency, we asked Old Lin to handle the psychiatric assessments of Fan Lu and Li Fengyan, while Li Hong, the others, and I went to search their residences for clues.

Both Fan Lu and Li Fengyan lived in dormitories. Fan Lu stayed in the textile factory’s dorm, and since it was a shared space, we found nothing useful after a thorough search.

But I couldn’t help but wonder: Wasn’t Fan Lu already married? Why was she still living in a communal dormitory?

We immediately sought out Fan Lu’s current husband, A Long, a laborer who also worked at the textile factory.

Our investigation revealed that Fan Lu and A Long had a very poor relationship. When we pressed for details, A Long told us Fan Lu had certain sexual proclivities and led a highly improper life, frequently meeting up with another woman and often staying out all night. On one occasion, she even told A Long outright that marrying him was just for fun, and that they were already in the process of getting a divorce.

Good grief, Fan Lu clearly had psychological issues.

But one thing A Long said piqued my interest: Fan Lu often met up with a woman and came home very late. Who was this woman?

I quickly asked A Long to describe her appearance.

A Long said, “Why don’t I just show you her picture? Fan Lu once showed me a photo and even suggested the three of us could have some fun together, but I refused.”

Heavens, what a mess.

A Long showed us the photo, and sure enough, the woman was Li Fengyan.

I asked, “Do you know if they ever rented a place together? Since she often doesn’t come home, they must have a place to stay.”

A Long shook his head. “That I don’t know, but I never saw Fan Lu use her ID to get a hotel room. She must have a private little nest somewhere.”

I nodded thoughtfully. “Alright, please keep your phone on at all times so we can contact you if needed.”

Then we went to Li Fengyan’s dormitory. She also lived in a communal dorm, but again we found nothing.

That’s when I thought of Zhou Fugui. Zhou had voluntarily confessed to killing Chen Da, so could there be some bizarre connection between him and the two women? The death of Old Wang proved that age was no barrier—perhaps Zhou was involved as well.

So we returned to the station and put the question directly to Zhou Fugui.

Zhou only shook his head and said he didn’t know anything.

I told him we’d already determined that Old Wang was the one who killed Chen Da, so there was no need for him to protect him anymore.

At this, Zhou was dumbstruck, and then broke down in tears.

It was clear that there was an unusual bond between Zhou Fugui and Old Wang.

I immediately asked Zhou why he had tried to shield Old Wang, and what their relationship was.

Zhou sighed. “Old Wang saved my son’s life.”

“How so?”

“Chen Da coveted my son’s car and tried to kill him to keep it quiet. Thankfully, Old Wang appeared in time, saved my son, and killed Chen Da. Out of gratitude, I said, ‘Our whole village will protect you—we won’t let the police find you.’”

“Old Wang said that was best, or else he couldn’t guarantee everyone in the village would survive. He was a former soldier, and if he had to, he could blow up the whole village with a bomb. That’s why we tried to obstruct your investigation. And to protect my son from Old Wang, I had to pretend to be the murderer. Old Wang said you had no evidence, and that after a while you’d release me anyway…”

I was at a loss for words. “Why didn’t you just call the police?”

“Call the police?” Zhou gave a bitter laugh. “As if we didn’t know Old Wang and your police chief were blood brothers, comrades on the battlefield with their backs to each other. If we called the police, would they really help ordinary people like us?”

Old Lin called us to his office, and Li Hong and I went over at once. Old Lin showed us the results of the psychiatric evaluations.

The results showed that both women were bisexual, with strong sexual tendencies, and seemed to suffer from trauma-induced paranoia.

According to their statements, Liu Juncheng and Chen Da had also engaged in numerous partner-swapping activities in the past, which was likely the root of all this trouble.

Furthermore, Tang Jingjing had discovered numerous explicit photos on Li Fengyan’s phone, most depicting Fan Lu and Li Fengyan engaged in BDSM. The pictures made Tang’s heart race—she’d probably never encountered anything so extreme before.

Suddenly, I noticed one photo where Fan Lu posed seductively on a street, and in the background was the second stop of Bus Route Eight—the mysterious stop where the bus never actually halted.

I immediately said, “They must have taken those photos near home. Is it possible they have a love nest near the bus stop?”

Old Lin agreed that this was quite likely.

I insisted we investigate right away, grabbing photos of Fan Lu and Li Fengyan and heading to that bus stop.

The stop was rather remote, but there were a few residential complexes nearby, so we began our search, going from one to another.

To our surprise, we actually found a lead. At the security booth of a soon-to-be-demolished complex, the guard provided a crucial clue: “The two women often came and went here, but they didn’t actually live in the complex. Every time, they arrived empty-handed and left carrying lots of things.”

I quickly asked the guard, “Do you know what they were carrying?”

He said it was all women’s clothing. At first, he checked, but after a while, he stopped bothering.

I asked if there were any clothing stores in the complex.

He shook his head, saying he hadn’t heard of any.

“What about supermarkets?” I pressed.

“There’s an adult store—does that count?”

“It does,” I replied at once, my suspicions deepening. The two women must have been coming here for adult products.

We quickly got the address from the guard and rushed off to investigate!