Insights Chapter 25: Mother

Chapter 25: Mother

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

“That day…” Xu Ziyue stopped her tears, took a deep breath, “That night, my sister came home and quarreled with my mom. Even if I had my headphones on, the piercing sound still came through, making it impossible for me to concentrate. At that time, I was doing my internship and preparing for the graduate entrance exam.”

“I didn’t know what they were arguing about, but it was really intense. Later, my sister started packing her things to move out. I said, ‘If you leave, don’t bother coming back.’ That one sentence angered her, and she came over to fight me. She said, ‘Have you been talking bad about me behind my back while I’m not at home? Do you think I’ll leave everything to you, you little bitch?’ She grabbed my hair, kneed me, and I couldn’t take it anymore, so I pushed her, and her head hit the bedside table. She bled a lot, and then she stopped moving…”

Xu Ziyue started crying again, “I called her, but she didn’t answer, so I went to touch her nose. She was grabbing her hair with her fingers. Then my mom came in, and I asked if we should take my sister to the hospital. My mom said…”

Suddenly, a commotion outside the door interrupted her. A woman’s voice could be faintly heard from outside, “Why did you arrest her? She doesn’t know anything…”

Xu Ziyue hesitated.

It was Tang Lu’s voice. Gu Yanchen ignored her, took a step forward, and pressed his hands on the armrests of Xu Ziyue’s interrogation chair, his narrow eyes staring directly into the girl’s eyes, “What did she say?”

Xu Ziyue felt pressure mounting and answered instinctively, her voice trembling, “She said not to call an ambulance or the police, that she would handle it herself.”

According to the autopsy results, Xu Yapei was likely injured and unconscious in the struggle with Xu Ziyue, leading to shock. When someone is unconscious, their breathing is weak, so Xu Ziyue thought she had killed her sister. 

After Xu Ziyue finished her confession, Gu Yanchen opened the door of the interrogation room. Tang Lu stood at the door, wanting to argue, but when she saw Gu Yanchen, she lowered her head and swallowed her words. It was understood within the police station that noise was prohibited.

Tonight, Xu Ziyue had said she would come home for dinner, but after Tang Lu had prepared the meal, she hadn’t waited for her daughter. Realizing something was wrong, she rushed to the City Bureau. Now, Tang Lu stood silently aside, silently praying that Xu Ziyue hadn’t revealed too much. As long as she hadn’t said too much, she could still get a lawyer and have some room to maneuver…

But Gu Yanchen said, “Ms. Tang, your second daughter has confessed to her crime. Now, you are a suspect in the murder of your eldest daughter, Xu Yapei.”

After saying this, he opened the door to the opposite interrogation room and gestured for her to enter. Tang Lu was stunned for a moment, feeling as though her body had suddenly plunged into icy water. She was too late. Her daughter had already spoken.

Mechanically, Tang Lu stepped into the interrogation room, looking at the walls on all sides and the police officers opposite. Then she sat on the interrogation chair across from the table. After a few seconds of silence, the woman regained her composure and straightened her back, saying, “In the beginning, it was an accident caused by Ziyue, I moved Yapei’s corpse to an abandoned amusement park and left it there…”

Gu Yanchen looked into the woman’s eyes. Since the afternoon when the body was identified, he had sensed something was off about her. But at that time, there was no direct evidence linking her to the case. At this point in the interrogation, a crucial question arose: Did Tang Lu know that Xu Yapei was alive when she was locked up? If she did, then it was murder. If she didn’t, then Xu Yapei’s death was accidental.

Lu Ying asked, “Discarding the body? Why did you lock that room?”

Tang Lu said, “I did that because I didn’t want anyone to find her.”

Gu Yanchen didn’t beat around the bush. He pushed a picture of the corpse’s hand with peeled and broken nails in front of her. It was a gruesome sight. “Both forensic investigation and the scene evidence prove that Xu Yapei was still alive when she was locked up.”

Tang Lu glanced down at it, then lifted her head. Her gaze was calm and indifferent. “I didn’t know. I just heard about it.”

Gu Yanchen frowned at her. There was no guilt, no surprise. This was definitely not a mother’s natural reaction upon discovering she had accidentally killed her child. At this point, he became more convinced that this was a deliberate murder. But how difficult would it be to prove it with testimony and physical evidence? If Tang Lu insisted on this point, it could change the outcome of the trial.

Looking at the woman in front of him, as cold as ice, Gu Yanchen pondered how to break through her psychological defenses.

.

At this moment, Shen Junci had changed into his work uniform and arrived at the Criminal Investigation Building with several test reports in hand. Entering the observation room, he saw Bai Meng, who was responsible for recording. Shen Junci placed the test report aside and said, “The DNA comparison results are out. The deceased is indeed Xu Yapei. The blood at the door matches the direct blood relation of the deceased and is consistent with Tang Lu’s blood type.” Then he asked Bai Meng, “How are things going?”

Bai Meng replied, “Xu Ziyue confessed. Captain Gu is questioning Tang Lu now. Currently, her statement is that Xu Ziyue pushed Xu Yapei, causing her head injury. Tang Lu only admits to helping her second daughter dispose of the body but denies killing anyone.”

Hearing this, Shen Junci looked through the observation window towards the interrogation room.

Bai Meng added, “Don’t worry, Captain Gu is like a human lie detector. Lies can’t escape him. It’s just that this woman has strong mental resilience; we don’t know how long this interrogation will last.”

In the interrogation room, Gu Yanchen’s brows furrowed as he looked at the documents on the table. Tang Lu was answering his questions, “I didn’t stay there for long. After dragging her in, I sat at the door for a few minutes and then left.”

As Tang Lu answered Gu Yanchen’s questions, she reached for a scar on her left arm.

Gu Yanchen also noticed this detail. “Was the wound on your arm caused at the scene?”

Tang Lu glanced down, didn’t deny it, and replied, “It was when I dragged Yapei in.”

Shen Junci squinted and carefully examined it. It was a scar caused by a nail, about four centimeters long on the left forearm. Based on the length of the iron nail and the degree of blood staining at the time, the wound was approximately 1.5 centimeters deep, at a location where only a branch of a vein could be cut.

After listening for a while longer, Shen Junci suddenly thought of something and sat up, saying, “I have a method that can prove she is lying.”

Curiously, Bai Meng asked, “What method?”

Shen Junci replied, “It may take some time.”

“Don’t worry, this woman is already detained for tonight.” Bai Meng reassured him.

Shen Junci returned to the medical examiner’s building. There weren’t many medical examiners on duty, and the whole building was quiet. He found several photos of the crime scene, including one of the bloodstains on the ground, with a ruler beside it, measuring the length and width of the bloodstains. Although the blood had dried, the area of the blood could still be roughly calculated, along with how many drops of blood had fallen onto the ground. Since there was no surveillance at the scene, they couldn’t know how long Tang Lu had sat there. This bloodstain as physical evidence could indicate this.

Based on his experience, Shen Junci estimated that it couldn’t have been left in just a few minutes. For a more accurate calculation of time, a simulation experiment was the best option. Shen Junci took out a piece of gridded paper. He traced the edge of the bloodstain and then placed a glass container on top.

Preparing artificial blood for the test required someone’s cooperation and had a large margin of error. The best way was to use a person with a body fat percentage similar to Tang Lu’s… Thinking of this, Shen Junci calmly rolled up his sleeves and looked at the same spot on his arm. He chose a similar nail and disinfected both his arm and the weapon.

The height of the chair had to be precise. Prepared, Shen Junci’s hand was steady as he pierced into his arm. After a brief moment of pain, fresh red blood began to drip, gradually losing drop by drop. He was getting closer to the truth…

.

Gu Yanchen was still in the interrogation room, questioning Tang Lu. He didn’t believe that this woman was as emotionless as she appeared on the surface. Tang Lu was a smart woman. She was a former doctor who worked in a research institute, studying advanced chemical materials. After her husband’s death, she chose not to remarry but raised her two daughters to adulthood.

It’s often said that a tiger does not eat its cubs, so Gu Yanchen couldn’t understand how Tang Lu could completely disregard her dependent daughters without any emotions. Details of the case, the process of the crime, before and after the incident, testimonies, and physical evidence—all details were being questioned.

A comprehensive confession was gradually unfolding. Time passed by, and Tang Lu had been detained here for two hours already. She seemed very cooperative, disclosing everything, but she always held onto the inner wall of her heart, firmly sticking to her story that she thought her daughter had died and she only disposed of the body.

“If you made the call to the hospital, there might have been a chance to save Xu Yapei.”

“I didn’t know at the time.”

“Why didn’t you call the police?”

“I thought if I did, Xu Ziyue’s situation would be exposed. Out of the desire to protect my second daughter, I didn’t call the police.” Tang Lu kept her composure, as if she were discussing not the life and death of her daughter but rather a chemical formula with the police. “Xu Yapei was your first child. Do you have no feelings at all about her death?” Gu Yanchen asked. He no longer pursued whether Tang Lu knew whether her daughter was alive or dead when she locked Xu Yapei in the room but began to play the emotional card.

He hoped that Tang Lu’s guilt over her daughter’s death could be stirred up, even if just a little.

“I still have some emotions,” Tang Lu adjusted her hair and said. “Conceiving Yapei was an accident, and she almost cost me my job. It was my husband’s insistence that prevented me from aborting her. She was premature, weighing only four pounds and eight ounces when she was born. She was so small, like a kitten. At that time, my husband said she might not survive. The nurse put her in an incubator, and she reached out her little hand and touched mine…”

At this point, a glimmer of something different finally appeared in Tang Lu’s eyes, a bit of warmth that only a person, a mother, could have, “But why did your relationship deteriorate later?” Tang Lu’s voice slowed down, “Why did it change? My work was busy, and I often neglected taking care of them. Until they were two years old, there were always elders helping with childcare. I only held them a few times. Then I had Ziyue. Yapei was excellent from a young age, but she wasn’t obedient. Her height, temper, and personality were nothing like mine.” Tang Lu paused and continued, “You probably haven’t had children. When you face your parents and your children, you’ll realize. The relationship between parents and children is never equal. Parents only have obligations when facing their children, to feed them, clothe them, and provide everything they can. This unequal exchange creates expectations. The love, money, and emotions invested want returns. We want our children to be obedient, to study well, to treat us well. But children don’t give adults these things.

“Just like children have favorite dolls, toy cars, dinosaur models, they all have their favorite toys. Adults also have their favorite ways of dealing with children. Complete and equal love doesn’t exist. As long as there are more than two children, a comparison will arise.” In the interrogation room, Tang Lu spoke eloquently, as if she were discussing parenting experiences with a friend, exploring life experiences.

Gu Yanchen shifted the topic to the small dark room, “Your daughter said that when they were young, you would lock them in a small room without food or water.”

In front of weak girls, a small room could create helplessness and fear. It could also create enormous psychological shadows.

“That’s because they were so disobedient. When Yapei was five, my husband found out that she had stolen money from the house, so he locked her in a small dark room as punishment. I thought that method seemed good at the time.” Tang Lu paused and continued, “Children are different from what you imagine. They are independent individuals who might suddenly say things you never taught them, even lie. Even to their closest parents, they will lie. They will cause trouble and make mistakes that they can’t bear the consequences of.”

“So which daughter do you care about more, Yapei or Ziyue?”

“Initially, I focused on nurturing Yapei, but after she refused my requests, I turned to Ziyue. Later, I found that my favoritism towards Yapei could stimulate Ziyue’s ambition.”

“So you make them compete with each other, provoke each other?”

Tang Lu said, “Isn’t that everything that will be experienced in society? Resources in this society are limited. If you don’t become the best, you’ll be eliminated. I hope they realize this early. The competitive relationships in school, the scheming in the workplace, haven’t you experienced these?” Tang Lu lowered her head and nodded. “I think I’m an enlightened parent. I haven’t even forced them into marriage or forced them to have children. I just ask them not to associate with bad men, which is for their own good. But even with such a small request, Yapei deliberately defied me…”

“Why did you choose that youth center to dispose of the body?” Gu Yanchen asked.

“That’s a place I used to take the children to during holidays. Whoever studied well and behaved well recently would get a reward. They could play inside all day, while the disobedient one would be kept in the center and listen to lectures all day. They often held some educational activities there, such as the dangers of drugs and the heroic deeds of revolutionary martyrs. I made them memorize the words there.”

“Are you using these to replace ideological education for your children?” Gu Yanchen asked again.

Tang Lu thought for a moment and nodded, “My life is under great pressure. With days of overtime work, dealing with noisy children is simply a disaster. So sometimes I get a bit irritable, which might cause some harm to the children. I have reflected on this later. But what I have given to my children has always been the best. Whatever others have, they have too. Even if I’m busy at work, I still cook three dishes and a soup for them, so they can grow up healthy. I sacrifice my rest time to take them to various training classes…”

Shen Junci’s sudden appearance in the interrogation room brought a shift in the atmosphere. Dressed in his medical examiner attire, he approached Gu Yanchen with a request to ask a few questions to Tang Lu. Gu Yanchen gestured for Shen Junci to proceed, understanding the protocol that required at least two police officers present during questioning, along with the medical examiner’s involvement.

Shen Junci placed a stack of test reports and experimental results in front of Tang Lu on the small table, “Tang Lu, according to the bloodstains and traces found at the crime scene, your stay there wasn’t just for a few minutes, but for at least an hour and a half, possibly exceeding two hours if there were any attempts to stop the bleeding. Can you tell me what you were doing during that time?”

He had confirmed that the vein on her arm was injured, resulting in slow blood flow and making it difficult for the wound to heal. To leave such a bloodstain required a considerable amount of time.

“I…” Tang Lu faltered for a moment, looking at the test data, unable to refute it because it was a fact. She had indeed sat on that chair for a long time. It had been the most agonizing two hours of her life, during which her heart had turned cold. Tang Lu tried to compose herself, attempting to appear calm. “I might have sat for a while. I was too tired at that time. I don’t even remember how long I sat.”

Shen Junci then placed a post-mortem report on the table. “The injury to the back of Xu Yapei’s head could only have caused her to lose consciousness briefly. You and Xu Ziyue then put her in the car, and you alone transported her to the east gate of the amusement park. You dragged her into the activity center, with skin contact for such a long time. How did you not realize that she was still alive?”

The sensation of touching a living person versus a dead one was vastly different. A living person had warmth and wouldn’t experience rigor mortis. Even if they were unconscious, they would have faint breathing.

“I really didn’t notice at that time,” Tang Lu’s voice began to tremble.

Shen Junci continued, “If you’re unwilling to say, then I’ll make a reasonable inference. During those two hours, you were sitting at the entrance of the room, contemplating whether to leave her there?”

Tang Lu turned her head, avoiding his question, refusing to answer.

“And at that time, Xu Yapei could have woken up. She might have cried, struggled, and even called you ‘mom’…” Shen Junci’s voice was gentle, not harsh.

But that sentence was like a sharp spear piercing through Tang Lu’s defenses. Her body began to tremble, “Please, stop…”

Shen Junci didn’t let her off. He took out a frontal photo of Xu Yapei’s corpse and placed it on the table. “This is what you didn’t want to see today, the current state of your daughter.”

The photo depicted the dried-up corpse, with almost unrecognizable features. Tang Lu didn’t want to look, but the corner of her eye caught a glimpse. The withered corpse made it difficult for her to connect it to her daughter. Tang Lu’s head began to ache, and she seemed to hear Xu Yapei’s cries again. The voice intertwined and grew louder.

“Mom… Mom…” Those two words seemed to penetrate Tang Lu’s skull like a cursed sound. When she was a child, if she put a disobedient child into the room, the child would cry out loudly. And a year ago, when Xu Yapei woke up, she also made such cries. Tang Lu could still remember vividly, “Mom, I was wrong, please let me out…”

“Mom, I promise I won’t do it again. Please forgive me. I won’t deceive you anymore!”

“Mom, please, I’m going to die!”

She recounted her childhood misfortunes and everything she had experienced since then. She screamed in despair, crying bitterly. The sound echoed in the empty amusement park. For so long, no matter how Tang Lu disguised herself, that desperate cry was still imprinted on her heart like a brand. At that moment, she sat on the chair by the door, feeling lost and helpless.

Tang Lu’s back could no longer stay straight, her body curled up.

This became the final blow that crushed Tang Lu, her once hard armor shattered into pieces, “I’ve always wanted to give them the best, but I never thought… I never thought…” Her tears fell, choked for a moment, then she said the second half of the sentence, “I never thought it would lead to her death.”

Shen Junci asked her, “So when you locked her in, you already knew she was alive?”

“She was too disobedient. I thought of keeping her locked up for a while, making her suffer a bit. I even thought about letting her out… but then she started cursing at me like crazy, so I heartlessly left. The next day when I went back, there was no sound inside.”

Tang Lu finally admitted that it was she who killed her own daughter with her own hands. Her shoulders trembled, an unprecedented loss of composure showing on her. Finally, the most important testimony was obtained. Even if Tang Lu recanted later, this footage would serve as evidence, allowing the judge to make a more accurate judgment.

Gu Yanchen looked at Tang Lu, then glanced up at Shen Junci. Shen Junci kept his head down, organizing those test results and reports. Under the lights, his skin looked particularly pale. The night’s interrogation finally ended. Tang Lu and Xu Ziyue were separately detained, awaiting transfer to the detention center early the next morning.

Gu Yanchen, as usual, waited for Shen Junci to finish work together.

In the car, Shen Junci held his toy train, and the two remained silent, seemingly still immersed in the previous case. The happiness and unhappiness of one’s original family differed so much, enough to change a person’s life trajectory. Those unfortunate children, perhaps unable to heal the wounds of their childhood in their entire lives. They might have thought they could escape when they grew up, but its effects, like a locked empty room, would erupt years later, trapping them inside. Reconciliation is only a beautiful wish. But those who have experienced it know. There’s never a way to truly reconcile.