Lin Ya glanced at him and said with exasperation, “I’m not a Taoist priest, nor am I here to exorcise demons. Why would I need those things?”
“…Ahem, alright.” He had overthought it.
Li Ping’an submitted a request, and the group split into two vehicles, also bringing along the forensic expert summoned by the bureau. They drove for over two hours before reaching the suspect’s home.
Two police cars parked near the suspect’s house, provoking public curiosity, with many people daring to watch from a distance.
“The vehicle can’t go up the mountain, so let’s stop nearby. Besides, we’ll need to come down later to look for evidence.”
The suspect was led by two officers along a familiar mountain path, a wave of intense unease washing over him. He stared at the increasingly narrow path ahead, swallowed hard, and unexpectedly met the cold gaze of someone looking back at him.
Indifferent, contemptuous.
Lin Ya took a glance at him, noticing his slightly terrified expression, and then turned away coldly.
“Can you tell me what’s ahead?” Zhou Ying asked as she approached Lin Ya, holding a familiar shovel—recently used for digging. Was this another body?
“You guessed correctly,” he replied unexpectedly.
“This body is a bit special,” Lin Ya said as he stopped in front of a mound not far away.
“Go set up a cordon.”
“This is the grave of his first victim.”
When Qu Wenxi realized they had found this place, his heart sank instantly; he knelt on the ground and, with a sinister glare, said through clenched teeth, “I confess! I’ve killed many people! I’ll plead guilty when I return!”
At this point, it wasn’t just a matter of confessing; his attitude only reinforced Li Ping’an and Zhou Ying’s belief that the grave contained important evidence to incriminate him.
“Dig!” Li Ping’an made a serious decision.
Looking at the inscription on the tombstone, Zhou Ying gasped and looked at Lin Ya in astonishment, exclaiming, “This is his mother’s grave; could it be…?”
The first victim was Qu Wenxi’s mother?!
Lin Ya lowered his gaze, while Zhou Ying’s forehead twitched with rage, thoroughly disgusted with Qu Wenxi.
Beast—!
That was his mother who raised him!
“The bones have deteriorated over time; aside from clear markings on the neck indicating cuts from a sharp object, everything else needs to be taken back for detailed examination.” The forensic expert inspected the remains found in the muddy pit and instructed someone to place them in a body bag for transport.
“Nearby the bones, we found a sharp knife, likely the murder weapon; I’ve had it bagged. We will test that piece of bone back at the lab to see if it’s Qu Wenxi’s.”
Li Ping’an’s gaze swept over Qu Wenxi, who was kneeling on the ground, pale and terrified. He smirked slightly, “I believe the results will be unsurprising.”
The rough hands, shackled by handcuffs, had a visible portion missing from the left pinky finger.
As key evidence was gathered, Qu Wenxi broke down, confessing everything during interrogation—why he murdered his mother, how he had repeatedly raped and killed a dozen victims in the past three years, and his reasons for attacking Lin Ya—all laid out clearly.
Orphaned at a young age, raised by his mother, Qu Wenxi grew up. Due to his ugly appearance, with a dark spot on his face and coming from a poor family, no one wanted to look at him.
His mother, Weng Huilian, became increasingly anxious; seeing her son, who was in his twenties, still unable to marry, she considered buying a bride for him. However, they were poor and had no money.
In her youth, Weng Huilian was decent-looking and maintained some charm even as she aged. She thought long and decided to live with a widower in the village, as long as he would pay for her son to have a wife.
Her plans were good, but she failed to notice her son’s unwilling eyes.
Qu Wenxi, raised by his mother, obeyed her in all matters except this one, as he couldn’t accept it. He had been mocked for too long, and being this old without a partner twisted his mind perversely.
Moreover, in his eyes, his mother looked better than any other woman.
Therefore, just as Weng Huilian collected money from the widower and planned to go to his home the next day,
that afternoon, Qu Wenxi returned home drunk and, in a moment of overpowering desire, forced himself on Weng Huilian. As she struggled, rage filled him, and he stormed outside, grabbing a knife to cut her throat.
It wasn’t until he woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and felt the cold body beside him that he broke down, recalling what had happened while he was drunk.
After his collapse, he carried Weng Huilian’s corpse and the murder weapon to a secluded spot in the mountains to bury her. To punish himself, he cut off his pinky finger and placed it before her. Later, when he returned secretly, he erected a stone monument.
Erasing all traces from his home, locking the door, Qu Wenxi took the money and ran, leaving the furious widower, who thought they had both escaped.
When Qu Wenxi descended the mountain, all the blood-stained bedding and other items from his house were discovered.
Faced with the village people’s accusing stares, Qu Wenxi kept his head down and remained silent throughout.
None of the villagers expected a serial rapist-murderer to emerge from their midst; they had thought the two women had simply moved away.
Who could have imagined?
As for the other dozen victims, the first was an impulsive act, while the rest were premeditated. Qu Wenxi would lie in wait near crime scenes, transitioning from anxiety to ease as a hunter.
Each of them was yet another innocent life lost.
Having nearly been caught committing a crime in a neighboring city, Qu Wenxi returned to Lin City.
While searching for targets along the way, he noticed Lin Yumei, who bore some resemblance to his own mother. He followed her until she entered the police station, not long after which Lin Ya came out with her.
For some unknown reason, upon seeing Lin Ya, he was filled with disdain, mistakenly believing him to be a police officer. Without a second thought, he followed them, preparing to kill Lin Ya and provoke the police.