Insights Chapter 71: Secret

Chapter 71: Secret

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

At six o’clock, at the Revival Electronics Factory. The physical evidence was being searched everywhere again, and some wiped blood stains were found behind that iron shelf. With the discovery of this evidence and the crime scene, this murder case could finally be linked to the Revival Electronics Factory.

Shang Jun was anxious and was making a distressed call to Zhang Xiaojie on the side. Meanwhile, Gu Yanchen communicated with Deputy Director Dong and applied for the arrest procedure.

Due to the large number of suspects and the seriousness of the case, it took longer than normal. By nightfall, the procedures were completed, and all the female workers from a dormitory were taken to the City Bureau by police cars and placed in different interrogation rooms.

More than ten police officers were reassigned from the detective team to conduct overnight interrogations of the female workers. Shen Junci sent the blood samples from the storage room to the laboratory and signed off on the autopsy report. Gu Yanchen had to work overtime tonight, so Doctor Shen went home by himself.

The next day, Shen Junci got up early, helped Gu Yanchen avoid the endless chatter, and went to the pet shop to check on Snowflake, who was still nursing. In just a few days, the kitten had grown quite a bit, his eyes fully open, but his fur hadn’t fully grown yet.

The female shop assistant took out a teasing stick, and the kitten followed along, jumping up and down, exercising. Shen Junci watched for a while and suddenly felt all his worries dissipate.

Upon arriving at the City Bureau, Shen Junci went directly to the Criminal Investigation Building. As soon as he entered the observation room, Shen Junci saw Gu Yanchen and Bai Meng sitting inside, already starting the morning interrogation.

Shen Junci asked, “How was it? Did anyone confess last night?”

Gu Yanchen rubbed his temples. “No progress.”

They had interrogated for a total of three hours last night. In the past, interrogations could go on all night, but now, especially in cases like this collective one, they couldn’t afford fatigue during questioning. Otherwise, it would be easy for someone to seize an opportunity for contradiction, leaving room for doubts and possibly leading to retraction of statements. So, the police were extra cautious.

This morning, they had already conducted another hour of interrogation. Despite seeming fragile, the female workers were exceptionally resolute, not one of them altering their statements.

Bai Meng sighed, “These factory girls are tight-lipped, huh? Each one as silent as the next. Especially that Sun Yushi, she’s good at playing dumb.”

Gu Yanchen raised his head, “I don’t think she’s playing dumb.”

Bai Meng replied, “Maybe… she’s just dim-witted.”

Shen Junci pondered, “Have you tried the Prisoner’s Dilemma?”

He remembered it was a common tactic used by detectives to interrogate accomplices.

“We have,” Gu Yanchen said.

The detectives had used the Prisoner’s Dilemma approach last night. Typically, accomplices, fearing others might betray them, would choose to confess first to get a lighter sentence. However, these female workers remained steadfast. Not one of them changed their statements.

Gu Yanchen hadn’t anticipated this unusual situation and didn’t know how to explain it. Although he hadn’t personally conducted the interrogations, he had observed them in the observation room. There were no significant issues with the detectives’ methods. Even if he were to interrogate them, the rhythm might be smoother, but it wouldn’t lead to any substantial changes.

That interrogation room was like a black box, and no one mentioned what might happen inside. They remained indifferent to the evidence and photos of the corpse. Even hardened criminals would find it difficult to maintain such composure, let alone these inexperienced factory girls. The detectives had never encountered such a situation during interrogations.

Gu Yanchen felt they were facing a perfectly fitted jigsaw puzzle. Though it seemed flawless on the surface, there were bound to be cracks within. To solve this case, they needed to find and exploit those cracks. To locate the weak points.

Bai Meng looked at the files in front of her, frowning. “Where is the problem?” Suddenly, she had a thought. “Is there a possibility that someone high up in the factory committed the murder, and the female workers were threatened, afraid of losing their jobs, so they stuck to their false testimonies?”

Gu Yanchen shook his head. “Unlikely. Zhou Yingying wasn’t attractive, had no money, and had limited contact with others. I think the killer is still among those in the dormitory.” He tried to recap everything, “On the night before Zhou Yingying’s disappearance, she was already killed in that storage room. Several female workers collaborated to dispose of her body, clean up the room, open the small door after the factory was closed, move the corpse to the empty space, dig a hole, and bury her. They got rid of any related items and gave consistent testimonies the next day when questioned by the police.”

Bai Meng said, “Zhou Yingying’s corpse was heavy, so at least six people were involved in the crime.”

Gu Yanchen shook his head. “Not just six, there also needed to be someone cleaning the storage room and moving the items. That iron shelf is heavy; it used to require three strong men to move it.”

Since taking over the case, Gu Yanchen had considered collective crime and collusion, but until now, he hadn’t confirmed if any of them were involved in the crime together… When all the “possible” avenues were exhausted, he needed to consider whether the “impossible” might be the truth of the case. Thinking this, Gu Yanchen tapped his desk with his hand. He squinted, deducing, “Excluding the newcomer Yin Molan, could all other fourteen people have been involved in this murder?”

The situation sounded far-fetched.

Bai Meng subconsciously refuted, “That’s impossible, right? With so many people, how could they all come to a unanimous decision?”

Even in cases they had encountered involving multiple perpetrators, it was usually two or three accomplices at most, seven or eight being the extreme limit. Involving so many people in a case was unheard of. Each person had their own thoughts. Even if they all disliked Zhou Yingying, it was impossible for them to collectively murder her like this. The difficulty lay in how everyone could come to such a unanimous decision. Shielding a criminal together, keeping silent.

Shen Junci furrowed his brow, lost in thought. Gu Yanchen’s reasoning sounded illogical at first, but upon careful consideration, it had its plausibility. The cultural level of the female workers was not high. They clung to their jobs because of the dead-end wages and were afraid to leave. There were factions and some conflicts among them. And there must be some details they had overlooked.

Suddenly, Shen Junci remembered the strange wounds on the corpse’s back. When he was organizing files earlier, he had casually placed a photo of the corpse’s back in the pocket of the Doctor’s coat. Now he took it out and examined it carefully. The wounds on the back were clean, likely made by a knife.

After looking at the pictures of the corpse for a while, Shen Junci closed his eyes, and in his mind, a bizarre scene unfolded. In that narrow, dark storage room, all the female workers were expressionless, forming half a circle. They held knives in their hands, gleaming coldly, gradually closing in on Zhou Yingying standing in the middle. Zhou Yingying showed fear on her face, stepping back until she was cornered against the wall. Sun Yushi pushed her, and the girl’s head hit the iron shelf, blood flowing from her head. She fell to the ground, her eyes filled with despair. The other female workers closed in like zombies, expressionless, their knives falling one by one into Zhou Yingying’s back.

Blood flowed, staining the ground red. 

The scene in his mind seemed absurd. But suddenly, Shen Junci understood. He pressed the photo onto the table and said, “Perhaps this was indeed a collective murder, a collective lie. The complex wounds on the back were left by those female workers. Each one made one or two stabs, just enough to create these intricate wounds.”

Gu Yanchen looked at the photo and also sorted out his thoughts. “If the wounds were made by different people, then these… are their tokens of allegiance!”

Shen Junci added, “The wounds on the back were confirmed to be post-mortem injuries after testing. But the female workers might not necessarily know this.”

Gu Yanchen said, “Each person probably thinks they might be the real culprit!”

Because of this, they hid the secret well, and no one confessed. Because once someone confessed, they would be the first to become the murderer! In an instant, the puzzle was solved. What was needed next was to validate the reasoning.

Gu Yanchen chose one of the female workers with a weaker aura. Her name was Dong Qiaoying, twenty years old. This morning, under Lu Ying’s continuous pressure, the female worker remained silent, refusing to answer questions. But the cold sweat on her forehead showed she was on the verge of breaking down.

Gu Yanchen entered the interrogation room, laid a few preambles, and then asked directly, “Did you leave wounds on the corpse’s back?”

Even the detectives hadn’t asked such detailed questions before. Dong Qiaoying hesitated for a moment, and for the first time, there was doubt in her eyes. The female worker’s pupils were black, her eyeballs large, like a frightened lamb. The corners of her drooping mouth changed momentarily, and she licked her dry lips, “I didn’t.”

Gu Yanchen continued, “Are you not telling the truth because you were involved in the incident?”

Dong Qiaoying lowered her head, “Officer, I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

Gu Yanchen said, “Although Zhou Yingying’s corpse has been there for a year, the wounds on her back are still visible. If you were coerced by the murderer to act in these circumstances, we will consider it. But if you are withholding information, it will only worsen your situation.”

Dong Qiaoying didn’t speak, but her feet twisted together, indicating intense inner turmoil.

“medical examiners have scientifically verified that the wounds on Zhou Yingying’s back were post-mortem injuries, caused after her death. I hope you can tell us who the real culprit is. Tell us what happened that night.”

The female worker lowered her head, her hands trembling.

Gu Yanchen sighed and played the emotional card, “Your mother seems to have been sick all this time, right? If you don’t speak up, you might face punishment…”

These words became the last straw that crushed the girl. Dong Qiaoying felt the tension she had been holding onto in her heart suddenly snap. She burst into tears, “I didn’t kill anyone, it wasn’t me, it really wasn’t me…”

Gu Yanchen asked the detective who was recording to hand her some tissues and waited for her to start talking.

Dong Qiaoying cried for a while before starting to speak intermittently, “A year ago, that night, it was past eleven o’clock in the evening, and I was sleeping in bed, already fast asleep. Tao Ya suddenly woke me up, and then she whispered for me to go downstairs to the storage room, saying that Sun Yushi had called for me. At that time, I had no idea why they wanted me to go downstairs. I didn’t dare refuse Sun Yushi. I was still half-asleep, wearing pajamas, and followed Tao Ya downstairs, all the way to the storage room. It was dark inside, and as soon as I entered, I saw Sun Yushi and two other people. Zhou Yingying was lying on the ground, motionless…

“At that time, I wanted to call the police or call for help, but I was held down by them. Sun Yushi said to me that Zhou Yingying was injured by Zhou and was about to die. To Zhou, killing one or two people was the same… If I dared to call the police or tell anyone, they, they would kill me… At that time, there were several people holding knives and pressing me. They gestured to my neck and chest with the knives. There was no signal in the storage room, and it was well-soundproofed. Even if we shouted inside, no one outside could hear anything. I wasn’t fully awake at the time, and I… I was terrified… I told them I wouldn’t call the police, I wouldn’t tell anyone, I begged them to let me go back.

“Sun Yushi didn’t believe me. She said… if I stabbed Zhou Yingying’s back, she would believe me. At that time, my head was dizzy, and I was very scared… I took the knife Tao Ya handed me.” Dong Qiaoying said up to this point, covering her face, barely able to speak through her sobs, “I saw several wounds on Zhou Yingying’s back, and I closed my eyes and stabbed upwards. Sun Yushi said it was too light, that I hadn’t stabbed deep enough, so… I stabbed again, this time it went in, that feeling of cutting into flesh. Then they touched Zhou Yingying’s corpse and said she was only seriously injured, but after I stabbed her, she really died. They said I killed Zhou Yingying…

“I was terrified, but everything happened just like that. They took photos at the time, and threatened me, saying if the police came to investigate, they would show the photos of me stabbing Zhou Yingying to the police. They said if I dared confess anything, they would collectively accuse me of being the murderer.” Dong Qiaoying cried so hard that she could barely speak. That night was a nightmare for her. It was the first time she realized what it felt like to stab someone with a knife.

Zhou Yingying’s blood was warm and still had warmth. Since then, she had woken up countless times from dreams of Zhou Yingying’s corpse. What made her even more panicked was the suspicion and vigilance between them. She had also doubted whether Sun Yushi and the others were deceiving her. She didn’t even know why Zhou Yingying died. But she wasn’t sure if the police could determine who had delivered the fatal blow, or if Zhou Yingying’s death was related to her actions.

During the interrogation, she was afraid of being treated as the culprit and receiving a heavy sentence. Under tremendous psychological pressure, she clung to her confession. It wasn’t until Gu Yanchen told her that the wounds on the back were post-mortem that she revealed the truth of that night. The process of the female worker’s confession was similar to what Shen Junci had predicted.

Gu Yanchen waited for her to calm down before asking, “What happened next?”

“Then… they let me go back and told me not to tell anyone what I saw. Then they started calling the next colleague. That night, everyone was called downstairs. We couldn’t sleep when we came back, sitting on the edge of the bed one by one. We didn’t talk to each other, but I guess they might have experienced something similar to me.”

It was summer at that time, but she curled up in bed, even though she was covered with a thin blanket, her whole body was cold. She heard crying from the others, just like her. Every female worker was pushed to the limit.

“At around midnight, Sun Yushi came back. She distributed tasks to us as usual. Some people packed up Zhou Yingying’s belongings, some imitated Sun Yushi’s tone and drafted the message about leaving, and some took advantage of the night when the security guard wasn’t there to bury the corpse. I was assigned to clean the storage room. Several of us used detergent to clean up the blood stains on the floor, and then moved the boxes and stuff back into place. When the factory gate opened in the morning, Sun Yushi threw Zhou Yingying’s belongings and the murder weapon into a distant garbage dump…”

Shen Junci listened in the observation room. This was similar to what he had predicted. Only by working together could they have completed everything in a short time and fooled everyone.

On that night, all the female workers in the dormitory seemed to have been kidnapped and forced into a collective. They had to face the loss of a life.

“We were all required to keep this secret, and they taught us how to speak to the police… saying that as long as we kept silent, no one would know about this, and everyone would think Zhou Yingying just ran away. Sun Yushi also said that this wouldn’t be thoroughly investigated, that no one cared about Zhou Yingying’s life or death, and the factory management wouldn’t shut down the factory. If we didn’t complete the orders, there would be huge losses. Later, she said, the factory manager had contacted the local police station, and it was classified as a missing person case. We wouldn’t be in trouble.” At this point, Dong Qiaoying started to break down and cry again.

That night, the female workers went downstairs one by one, leaving wounds on their roommate’s back, burying the corpse together, destroying the evidence, and facing the police with lies. For a year, these secrets weighed heavily on her heart. She didn’t want to lose her job or be suspected of being a murderer. Each of them was cautious and taciturn, never mentioning that night.

The local police station hastily classified the case as a missing person case, giving the female workers hope. As time passed, they slowly seemed to emerge from that terrible night. Life seemed to slowly return to normal, but it was completely different. But the wheels of justice grind slowly but exceedingly fine.

They had thought the corpse wouldn’t be discovered. But a few days ago, they saw the news about the exhumation of the female corpse. They were like lost lambs, closing their mouths and staring ahead at the unknown future, unsure of what their fate would be. Until last night, they were investigated, arrested, and faced with police questioning, and their psychological defenses finally completely collapsed.

And Gu Yanchen also felt that they were one step closer to the truth.