Insights Chapter 77: Beast

Chapter 77: Beast

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

In the morning, outside the Penang City Bureau medical examiner’s office. Frowning at this cryptic poem, Shen Junci furrowed his brows.

Gu Yanchen handed over the suicide note, “But this is just speculative. We still need to investigate whether it’s true or not. How’s the autopsy going here? Any results yet?”

Shen Junci replied, “The autopsy has just begun, and it has been determined that the cause of death was asphyxiation, occurring around four o’clock yesterday afternoon.”

Rubbing his chin, Gu Yanchen mused, “So, Qi Wenhui’s alibi seems solid.”

During that time, Qi Wenhui happened to be at a bank dealing with business. Both surveillance footage and witnesses corroborated his absence.

Shen Junci said, “I suspect there’s something off about the corpse, but we haven’t confirmed what yet. You guys go ahead and investigate. I’ll message you when we have results.”

After chatting with Gu Yanchen, Shen Junci returned to the autopsy room. Pondering the words on the note, Shen Junci suddenly had an idea. He said to Qi Yi’an, “Go get some sodium thiosulfate.”

The autopsy room’s cabinet stored some commonly used test reagents. When Qi Yi’an retrieved an appropriate amount of sodium thiosulfate, Shen Junci had already extracted a small amount of urine from the deceased. The pale yellow urine, when mixed with sodium thiosulfate, gradually changed. With a gentle shake, it turned into a deep green.

Qi Yi’an exclaimed, “Teacher, it’s positive! That means… the deceased might have been poisoned before death! And this green color, along with fibrosis in the lungs, could be…”

Shen Junci nodded, making his judgment, “Paraquat.”

This highly toxic herbicide could precisely affect the victim’s lungs, matching the symptoms observed.

Qi Yi’an asked, “But how did Paraquat get into her system?”

It’s a deadly poison, as the name suggests, leaving nothing alive where it touches. Contact with Paraquat causes skin ulceration and blisters, and when ingested, it leads to internal lesions. They had previously examined the victim’s body surface without significant changes, indicating probable ingestion. Qi Yi’an understood that the strange smell might have come from the toxic bodily lesions.

Starting from the esophagus, Shen Junci examined the old woman’s digestive system. “The esophagus is normal, the stomach is normal, the liver slightly enlarged…” Finally, he opened the mesentery of the deceased, “The small intestine mucosa is swollen, with hemorrhages and ulcers. Paraquat may have entered the body along the intestines.”

With this point confirmed, it was like solving a puzzle. All the signs and phenomena now made sense. After finishing the autopsy, Shen Junci instructed Qi Yi’an to further prepare tissue and organ sections for examination.

Before long, the test results came out, confirming Shen Junci’s inference. He then sent a message to Gu Yanchen, “It’s basically confirmed. The deceased ingested Paraquat before death.” Shen Junci added, “The dose was sufficient to cause death, but it required a certain incubation period. The victim chose suicide before the onset, probably about three days after ingestion. I suspect Paraquat was placed in enteric-coated capsules.”

Gu Yanchen had also heard of Paraquat’s notoriety. “The kind of poison without an antidote?”

Shen Junci nodded, “Yes, its harm to the human body is irreversible.”

Paraquat is an extremely toxic herbicide that has long been discontinued. It’s rarely seen in the market nowadays, but it used to be widely sold in the past, lingering in some places. Many poisoned individuals, after initially ingesting Paraquat, might feel less severe after gastric lavage treatment, even imagining they might recover. But in reality, they were already in the clutches of death, beyond cure.

In short, it’s a slow, agonizing process of suffocation. To date, there’s still no effective antidote for Paraquat. Even a small amount can lead to poisoning, followed by organ failure, pulmonary fibrosis, and eventually death by suffocation. This painful and protracted process could last for days or even weeks. More cruelly, during this time, the consciousness of the poisoned remains clear.

They have plenty of time to regret or await death. According to the course of poisoning, the old woman had begun to react, experiencing difficulty breathing, unbearable abdominal pain, and difficulty eating. She should have known she didn’t have much time left. The gradual anticipation of death is the most tormenting. It’s likely she chose suicide in this state.

Fu Lijuan, a bedridden old woman, and the prime suspect became her own son, Qi Wenhui. If his inference was true, administering such poison to his bedridden mother was simply barbaric.

Having understood the case, Gu Yanchen said, “I see. I’ll expedite the verification process here.”

During Shen Junci’s autopsy, Gu Yanchen had already arrived in the community where Qi Wenhui lived. This was originally a village near Penang. Gu Yanchen didn’t rush to arrest anyone but first inquired with neighbors about the situation. 

The neighbors were also aware of the old woman’s death yesterday, “Oh, that internet-famous family? They struck it rich a couple of years ago. Look at the house they built, it’s the most luxurious one around here.”

“The relationship between him and his mom might not be as good as people think online. You don’t know, in the past, his mom used to cry loudly at night, calling him an unfilial son. Then Qi Wenhui built a new house and replaced all the windows with soundproof glass, so we couldn’t hear it anymore.”

“Lately, not many people have been going to their house. It’s just the two of them. Even the cleaners take a long time to go up there. Last time I went, I noticed his mom hadn’t changed her clothes for several days.”

Combining the testimonies of the neighbors, Gu Yanchen quickly applied for an interrogation warrant and a search warrant for Qi Wenhui. When the police arrived at their villa, Qi Wenhui was still live-streaming, crying as he recalled memories with his mother, surrounded by used tissues.

Lu Ying sneered, “This is a virtual mourning hall, crying online.”

Qi Wenhui looked at the police badges, wiped away his tears, “I’ll cooperate with your investigation and come with you, but wait a moment, let me bid farewell to my fans.”

Gu Yanchen said, “Make sure you bid farewell properly.”

If he indeed poisoned his mother, who knew when he would have the chance to livestream again, or if he would even have the chance.

After Qi Wenhui was taken away, the police officers began a thorough search of the villa, rummaging through it as if they were digging three feet underground. Qi Wenhui’s house didn’t look big from the outside, but it had many blind spots inside. Soon, the officers found an empty bottle of Paraquat produced in 1982 in their basement and discovered Qi Wenhui’s fingerprints on the bottle.

Lu Ying was in charge of searching upstairs. He focused on the old woman’s room, inspecting every medicine bottle. Then he reported the results to Gu Yanchen, “Captain Gu, there’s an empty space on the table here, the medicine bottle that was originally here is missing.”

Obviously, the poison had been disposed of. To find these medicines, the police expanded their search area, even bringing in several police dogs. In the afternoon, the detectives began to interrogate Qi Wenhui at the City Bureau. At first, he denied it, insisting he knew nothing about Paraquat, only claiming his mother died by suicide.

At three o’clock in the afternoon, Gu Yanchen entered the interrogation room with an evidence bag containing several colorful capsules. Seeing this, Qi Wenhui’s expression finally changed, and he lowered his head slightly.

“We found drugs dumped in your sewage system. Can you explain where these drugs came from?”

Qi Wenhui bit his lip and remained silent in the face of questioning.

Gu Yanchen glanced at the drugs, then back at Qi Wenhui, “Thanks to your choice of enteric-coated capsules, which are insoluble in water, preserving the evidence intact. Now, the evidence is irrefutable. It would be better for you to confess sooner rather than later.”

“I don’t know where those drugs came from, and it has nothing to do with my mother’s death,” Qi Wenhui replied hesitantly.

“Do you think our medical examiner wouldn’t detect the poison in your mother’s body before it took effect? The test results have come out. We found traces of Paraquat in your mother’s body, indicating that she had recently ingested small amounts of Paraquat, a highly toxic substance.” Gu Yanchen shook the evidence bag in his hand. “The evidence is clear. It’s time for you to come clean.”

Even the thought of the word ‘Paraquat’ made Qi Wenhui feel as though his organs were withering. The evidence was irrefutable; there was no room for denial. Initially filled with hope, Qi Wenhui hadn’t expected the truth to be uncovered by the police in just one day.

Qi Wenhui trembled, “Even so, even so… my mother died by suicide.”

“So, you admit to poisoning your mother?” Gu Yanchen continued, “As for your charges, that’s for the judge to decide in court. Here, we only deal with the facts of the crime.”

“I… I was confused for a moment,” Qi Wenhui covered his face with his hands, then continued in a trembling voice, “I didn’t want to kill her… but if I didn’t, I would be tormented to madness.”

A recording officer on the side meticulously recorded the suspect’s confession.

Gu Yanchen asked, “Your mother became paralyzed over ten years ago?”

“Yes, she was paralyzed in a car accident, and I’ve been taking care of her for thirteen years.”

“When did you start your online account?”

“Five years ago… at first, I just wanted to start a live stream account, to broadcast when I was bored. For the first year or two, nobody paid us any attention. But later, we got a shoutout from a big influencer. I didn’t expect the account to blow up. As the audience grew, all kinds of things started happening, some were giving us money, some wanted us to advertise for them, some even offered to be my manager…” Qi Wenhui lowered his head. Before starting this account, he was just an honest, ordinary person. Suddenly becoming popular made him feel like he had won the lottery. He hadn’t expected the troubles that came with the money.

“Your neighbors mentioned they heard you and your mother arguing.”

“We rarely argued before. But later…” he sighed, “our thoughts started to diverge. In the past, when my mother was paralyzed, she didn’t care what I did, as long as I took care of her. But later, she started intervening more.”

Gu Yanchen listened, “When did you start to have conflicts?”

“Last June.”

“Wasn’t that when you started accepting advertisements?”

Qi Wen-hui hesitated for a moment, “I accepted those ads entirely on my own, it had nothing to do with my mom, she just had to cooperate with me. But she didn’t like it.”

Gu Yanchen checked the records, “Your advertisements included substandard products.”

At the time, many people were criticizing him online, and the incident caused quite a stir.

“That incident was the catalyst. Even though I apologized and compensated afterward, and explained everything, my mother still believed it was my fault. She started meddling in my advertisement deals.” He lowered his head, “Later on, she even started to believe that my fame was because of her. I found out that she treated that money as hers to spend as she pleased, wanting to spend more on herself. But I hoped we could both live better. I built a new house, improved our living environment, and even took my mother to better hospitals for treatment…”

Gu Yanchen listened to his confession, but these were just Qi Wenhui’s words. From the old woman’s condition before her death, this could very well be a lie.

“I served her well, but my mother was still dissatisfied. She became domineering and unreasonable. Even though the special medicines and surgeries couldn’t cure her, she started to blame me for being useless. My life was completely gone, I revolved around her every day. Sometimes, I felt suffocated, thinking my life was better when we were poor.”

Afterward, Qi Wenhui recounted many details, every trivial matter. Like his mother suddenly craving strawberries in the dead of winter, making him search all over for them. Or how his mother scolded away the hired caregivers and insisted he take care of her personally. His mother even wanted to register an account on her phone and livestream by herself. The gap between mother and son grew wider and wider.

Gu Yanchen calmly asked, “So, you had the idea of killing her?”

Qi Wenhui’s gaze froze for a moment, then he shook his head. “No… those weren’t the key factors. It was when my mom started accusing me of being unfilial. She threatened to expose me to the internet, to show everyone my true face. If people found out I wasn’t as filial as they thought, everything I had gained would disappear. And I’ve been filial to her already, how could she say that about me? Reluctantly, I feared she would cause trouble, so I confiscated her phone. When we argued fiercely, I would even withhold her meals. Then she would accuse me of mistreating her, not being a good son, forgetting my upbringing. But I didn’t want it to be this way!”

Gu Yanchen looked at the man before him coldly, realizing he was afraid of others knowing about his lack of filial piety, claiming it was all a facade. Yet ironically, his actions truly were unfilial.

Qi Wenhui hung his head. “I thought about various ways, like limiting her live streams and finding a new partner. But the income plummeted. I tried to discuss it with her, hoping we could at least maintain our previous relationship in front of the camera, but she refused. Back when I used to take her to the mountains to pick wild produce, we had nothing. We were so poor, but we relied on each other, making the best out of a bad situation. I felt like I was filial to my mother, my heart was warm. But later, I felt like I was living with a ticking time bomb. I really wanted to go back to the way things were before… but for some reason, we couldn’t. A week ago, we had a big fight. While cleaning the basement, I found a bottle of Paraquat that my dad had bought when he was still alive… I don’t know why, but I was possessed by the idea.”

Gu Yanchen asked, “Do you know that Paraquat is a highly toxic substance with no antidote?”

Qi Wenhui’s voice trembled. “I… I didn’t know, I thought it was just regular pesticide.”

Lu Ying didn’t hold back, “You clearly searched for Paraquat in your browsing history.”

Unable to deny it, Qi Wenhui continued, “That was later, I found out afterwards…I thought, if I got rid of her, I could have a drink myself.” Qi Wenhui’s hands were shaking as he spoke. “But… I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I had only just started living a good life.”

Unable to harm himself, he ended up poisoning his mother, then allowing her to commit suicide while broadcasting it live. Gu Yanchen observed the man before him. People change. He was renowned for his filial piety, yet in the end, he committed such a heinous act. A beautiful face conceals a sinister heart. The internet only shows the world the best side of people, while the hidden truths remain concealed. In the end, this once “filial son” had a falling out with his mother and committed the most unfilial act.

Qi Wenhui continued to confess his crimes, “These past few days, my mother began to feel unwell gradually, so I told her about the drugged medicine. We cried together for a long time, and in the end, she begged me to give her a quick and painless death. It was what she wanted, she asked me for a plastic bag, paper, and a pen. When I left, she…” Qi Wenhui started crying again. “Before she died, she… she forgave me, she even left a suicide note. That note can prove that she truly intended to end her own life. After all these years… I took care of her for so long, but she felt like she was a burden to me…”

Gu Yanchen handed him a photo of the suicide note. “Did you not notice that she hid a message within the first line?”

Wiping away his tears, Qi Wenhui took the photo, looking at it blankly. He hadn’t even properly read the contents of the note before, just glanced at it hastily, relieved to see it as his lifeline evidence and set it aside.

Now, as he read those four words, his hands hung limply on the table. He had been deceiving himself. His mother despised him. He suddenly remembered his childhood, his father falling ill and passing away early, his maternal family mistreating him and his mother, refusing to take them in, leaving his mother to raise him alone. He was often sickly as a child, and his mother took care of him. Every time he woke up in the middle of the night, he could see his mother working under the lamplight. He remembered when he was young, his mother carried him on her back to pick wild produce in the mountains.

From his infancy to primary school, it was his mother who had been with him through it all. Her back was so warm, her songs always so melodious. Sitting in the mountains, looking at the blue sky, the surrounding forest, listening to the birdsong, the rustling of the wind, the melody of her song.

When he was young, he said to his mother, “Mom, when I grow up, I’ll go to the mountains with you.”

His mother smiled, “When you grow up, I’ll be old.”

He said, “When you’re old and can’t walk anymore, I’ll carry you up the mountain.”

The day his mother had the accident wasn’t any different from usual. She had packed up early and left, saying to him, “Mom’s making your favorite dish tonight, stir-fried bamboo shoots with preserved meat.”

But he never saw his mother come home. Instead, he received news of her accident, a farm tractor had run over her, breaking her spine. She never stood up again. Their already impoverished family became destitute.

When his mother was first paralyzed, he really did start to fulfill his promise. But later, he unexpectedly became famous… The first time he went out to attend an event, dressed in the glamorous clothes provided by the organizers, he didn’t even know how to walk properly. People called him “Brother Qi” and shoved microphones in his face for interviews.

He suddenly felt like he was different from before… The outside world had alcohol, meat, money, and women. He gradually wanted to shake off the old lady lying in bed.

Qi Wenhui’s testimony summarized the whole process, but he still concealed a small part of it: the true reason for his mother’s estrangement from him. He remembered his mother crying, “You’ve changed, you’re different from before! If having money will turn you into this, then I’d rather not have it! Donate all the money, and let’s go back to the days when we relied on each other.”

He hadn’t expected his mother to have such thoughts. But he no longer wanted to return to those days of poverty. It was as if money, vanity, and the internet had devoured his soul. He drank alcohol, added Paraquat to his mother’s medicine, and watched as she consumed it. But then he panicked. He didn’t want to face the consequences of imprisonment.

He had persuaded his mother to commit suicide by not providing her with food or drink, essentially forcing her hand. He knelt before her, crying, “Mom, you only have me as your son. I’ve been taking care of you for over a decade. Even if it’s repaying your kindness in raising me, please think about it. Living now only brings you suffering. If you leave peacefully, I will ensure you have a proper funeral…”

At that moment, his mother’s eyes dimmed, and she nodded. “Alright, give me a piece of paper, a pen, and a plastic bag.”

Then he left, deliberately wandering the streets, greeting people he met, and even spending half a day in the bank. He only returned home late at night, seeing his mother’s corpse and the note she left behind, he felt relieved. He felt like crying a little, but he couldn’t shed any tears. He even felt like laughing because the burden that had weighed on him for so long was finally gone, and he could finally be himself without constraints. But he needed to display extreme grief in front of the public to garner sympathy.

In the end, he became anxious and went into the kitchen. After calling the police, he once again opened the familiar live stream. He took a deep breath, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand covered in mustard.

Donations poured in, and even more people tuned in compared to when his mother was alive. He immersed himself in the money and emotions, crying tears of sorrow under the comforting words of netizens. However, the wheels of justice turn slowly but surely, and he still needed to face the consequences of his actions. He hadn’t realized that his mother’s corpse and the evidence had documented everything.

Confession concluded.

Qiu Wenhui signed the confession, and later the prisoner was to be transferred to the detention center. Once all the procedures were completed, recording devices and the like were turned off.

Gu Yanchen unlocked Qiu Wenhui’s handcuffs, and he suddenly remembered Qiu Wenhui’s ID, his gaze falling behind Qiu Wenhui. Once this man had deceived his mother, and now…

Qiu Wenhui noticed Gu Yanchen’s gaze, his face suddenly turning cold as he abruptly turned to look behind him, “Wha… what’s wrong?”

In the interrogation room, the light cast long shadows on the ground, with nothing else to be seen. What was the policeman just now looking at?

Seeing him startled, Gu Yanchen sneered, regretting his previous action. He withdrew his gaze, casually saying, “Nothing, I just thought I saw something behind you.”

In an instant, cold sweat dampened Qiu Wenhui’s back, his mouth agape, unable to close it for a moment. Having done such a thing, this internet celebrity had to face the consequences of his actions.

This case was solved in less than eight hours. With solid evidence and a complete confession, the process was remarkably fast.

After wrapping up the affairs, Gu Yanchen instructed Bai Meng to draft the police notice, reminding her, “Be careful with your wording. Many people are paying attention to this case. If it gets out, it might trend.”

Bai Meng replied, “Don’t worry, I’ll let you review it first before submitting it to Director Ding for approval.”

Gu Yanchen returned to his office and found Shen Junci waiting for him.

Having already organized his belongings, Shen Junci seemed prepared, “Captain Gu, is the case closed?”

Gu Yanchen replied, “Yes, thanks to your autopsy results, we had solid evidence, and he confessed to everything. The rest is up to Bai Meng and the others.”

There were no other suspects in this case, and now that Qiu Wenhui had admitted to the crime, it was a swift resolution. Having just finished reading the entire report, Shen Junci spoke up, “I like the last thing you said.”

Gu Yanchen responded, “Consider it a ‘gift’ for him.”

He hoped he would live the rest of his life under the shadow of matricide. Punishing evil and promoting good always left one feeling refreshed.

At this point, Gu Yanchen reminded him, “You promised me something, remember? I’ll take you to see a movie. Also, where do you want to eat?”

Shen Junci replied, “I like the places you choose.”

Gu Yanchen said, “Then let’s go to Impression City. We can buy some food and then head to the Star Ring Cinema.”

Shen Junci agreed with a simple, “Okay.”