Chapter 507: Don’t Forget Me

Lin Dongxue reported the progress of the interrogation over the phone. Lin Qiupu looked at Chen Shi with a shocked expression. Chen Shi shrugged and smiled as if to say, “Was my reasoning correct or what?”

It was already 7 PM, but despite not having eaten, none of them felt hungry. They were all closely following the case’s development.

“Let’s go. The evidence is here. Time for the final push!”

“Let’s move!”

They returned to the interrogation room where Zhang Jinlei was already sitting impatiently. “I want to make a call!” he demanded.

Ignoring him, Chen Shi said, “We searched your residence…”

“Who gave you permission to search my place?” Zhang Jinlei interrupted.

Chen Shi remained unfazed, lifting two evidence bags—one containing a phone and the other a bank card. “We found these in your drawer.”

Zhang Jinlei’s face turned pale, and he said nothing.

“Records from the victim’s phone show that she was chatting with a charming and witty guy on social media before she died. They developed feelings and met a few times. Your secret phone has identical chat logs. The transactions on this card match the dates and locations of your dates with the victim. Cleverly, your last date was seven days ago, so the surveillance footage has been overwritten. Plus, you always paid in cash, avoiding places that require ID. You’ve used this method many times. We can verify it. You come from a good family, you’re handsome, and you have manners—it’s easy for you to attract girls. But they didn’t know your real motive: to kill them on Qixi Festival.”

Zhang Jinlei slowly lifted his head, his eyes changing. “Yes, I killed them, but it was you who drove me to it!”

Chen Shi and Lin Qiupu folded their arms, listening intently.

“After her murder, you useless cops investigated but got nowhere. I asked you multiple times about the progress, and every time you said, ‘We’re trying our best!’ Every time I saw you, you looked indifferent, as if it didn’t matter. You casually reopened wounds, asked painful questions, then turned away and forgot everything. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and you still had nothing. You could only catch petty thieves or rapists and then boast in the newspapers about your achievements!

“Six months later, I went to ask again. The officer called the captain, the captain called the chief, and I waited three hours just to hear the deputy chief say, ‘We’re trying our best!’ You were doing nothing! I wanted to kill you all. I bore the pain alone, tortured by memories day and night!”

Zhang Jinlei pounded his chest, tears streaming down his face in anguish.

“A year later, my family introduced me to a girl. She was shallow and pretentious, making me sick. No one could replace her. This girl even had the nerve to tell me to move on and like her. Move on? On the eve of Qixi Festival, I took that girl out, and I felt her voice whispering to me, ‘Don’t forget me, don’t forget me!’ Then, I had an idea: to get the police to continue investigating by offering a second sacrifice!”

Zhang Jinlei sneered. “I wasn’t stupid enough to kill her. I dumped her immediately and found another target. I killed her the same way, covered her with salt, and wrote the same numbers on her arm. But you idiots still couldn’t solve the case. Still, I decided to give you another chance. The third year, I did it again, and you remained clueless!

“Each year, on her altar, the offerings piled up. You never knew I was the killer, nor did you find her murderer. But I was numb inside. Like wandering in a wasteland, her spirit was the star guiding me, preventing me from getting lost. She made me keep sacrificing so people wouldn’t forget her! But even today…” Zhang Jinlei roared, “You still haven’t found the truth. You just caught me. You’re all pigs, every last one of you! Hahaha!”

His maniacal laughter echoed in the interrogation room. Lin Qiupu slammed the table, “Enough!”

“You’re all…” Zhang Jinlei muttered bitterly.

“So, you think your suffering justifies taking six more lives? One person’s death deserves six families to mourn?” Chen Shi said.

Zhang Jinlei raised his head proudly. “My love for her was so intense that nothing else mattered. Not the lives of others, not even my own. My heart died with her that day.”

This man was beyond saving. Chen Shi didn’t intend to educate him, leaving that to the prison system and the law. He mocked, “Do you know the weight of your crimes? Even if there were punishments like death by a thousand cuts, you’d still owe more than you could repay.”

“I don’t care!” Zhang Jinlei leaned back, looking at them with disdain.

“Stop saying nonsense,” Lin Qiupu chided Chen Shi, then began confirming details of the case.

The interrogation continued until 10 PM. When it ended, Zhang Jinlei asked, “Are you never going to find out the real killer?”

“You don’t need to know that,” Chen Shi replied.

“You’re all pigs, all of you!” Zhang Jinlei spat as he was led away.

As Zhang Jinlei was being escorted out, he saw Xiao Ran, who was also in handcuffs. Their eyes met, and he exclaimed, “Why?”

“I’m sorry, Jinlei,” Xiao Ran said, lowering her head.

Realizing the danger, Chen Shi shouted, “Get him out of here!”

In an instant, Zhang Jinlei understood everything. He shoved the officers aside and lunged at Xiao Ran, choking her.