Insights Chapter 87: Deception

Chapter 87: Deception

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

After the preliminary inquiries were completed, the detective guarding the room sat quietly opposite without continuing the questioning.

Gu Yanchen didn’t rush to interrogate Zhao Meng’an. Interrogation was always a psychological game. Just like the arrest, interrogation followed the principle of power dynamics, where one side’s strength was at the expense of the other’s weakness.

Sitting in the interrogation room, Zhao Meng’an grew increasingly uneasy. As a key suspect, his hands and feet were shackled to the interrogation chair. He tried to move, but the iron chains held him firmly in place, securing him to the seat.

When the time was right, Gu Yanchen entered the interrogation room. Zhao Meng’an lifted his head, blood still on his forehead, traces of injury at the corners of his mouth. His eyes were red, and he licked the wound at the corner of his mouth with his tongue.

Ignoring his provocation, Gu Yanchen directly said, “You can confess to the crimes now.”

Pretending to be confused, Zhao Meng’an turned his head and asked, “What crimes? I just woke up today, played a game, and got arrested. I’m completely clueless.”

Gu Yanchen asked, “Are you claiming amnesia for the three murders, the hostage threat, and assaulting officers with a knife?”

Zhao Meng’an remained silent, his eyes staring straight at Gu Yanchen, his fingers picking at the table in the interrogation room.

Gu Yanchen stood up and presented several photos, placing them one by one in front of Zhao Meng’an. “Ten nights ago, you evaded surveillance, sneaked into the Qingwang Mansion, and murdered three people in succession. You left wearing security guard Song Ran’s raincoat.”

In the surveillance footage, even the shoes he wore were exactly the same as now, a stolen pair, limited edition, which he dared to wear only outside of school.

“Five days later, when the police found Jin Yuewen’s corpse, you appeared at the crime scene investigation site, returning to the scene of the crime.”

At that time, Lu Ying’s phone captured Zhao Meng’an, who was hiding behind the crowd, wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a mask, observing the police’s every move.

“Four days ago, you took security guard Song Ran’s phone and went to find Zhou Ru.”

Afterwards, the police found him in the relevant video footage.

“We found several strands of hair in the deceased security guard Song Ran’s hand, which matched the hair found on a comb left in your dormitory. The DNA was a complete match.”

“Then we found records of your purchase of restricted bladed weapons.”

It was because of this evidence that the police subsequently focused on Zhao Meng’an, held a press conference, and eventually apprehended him.

After presenting the evidence, Gu Yanchen looked up and said, “After your arrest, we found the blood-stained clothes you wore on the day of the crime at Xin Xiaomei’s residence. They still contain the blood components of the three victims. Xin Xiaomei has revealed everything you did. You’ve attended university, so you should have some legal knowledge. Don’t waste any more time, okay?”

Because of the conclusive evidence, Gu Yanchen didn’t waste much time on him or beat around the bush. He wanted to extract a confession from him.

Zhao Meng’an looked up at him again, licked the corner of his mouth with his tongue, and this time, he touched the wound, letting out a hiss of pain. He lowered his head, blinked a few times, and finally stopped resisting futilely.

“It was me.” He understood what he was about to face. But delaying time was meaningless to him.

Lu Ying began to question, “You came from a poor family since childhood, with a disabled father and a mother with dementia. You’ve been receiving assistance from Jin Yuewen since high school, and later, you were given over 100,000 yuan for university education. Why did you kill him?”

Zhao Meng’an shrugged, “Something happened recently. I failed two exams and couldn’t graduate smoothly. I needed a sum of money for re-examination fees. Half a month ago, I went to ask him for it, but he said he didn’t have money recently and told me to figure it out myself.”

This information was also provided during the previous questioning of Zhao Meng’an’s classmates and teachers.

Zhao Meng’an studied statistics and should have graduated, but because he failed exams, he was ordered to retake them to meet the credit requirements for graduation. The fee for retaking one course was 500 yuan, and he failed two courses, totaling 1000 yuan.

And until now, Zhao Meng’an had not paid this 1000 yuan.

Lu Ying continued to ask, “Did you kill him just because of this?”

Zhao Meng’an replied, “It’s not just because of this. There were also some accumulated grievances. After college, I suddenly realized that our education system is a scam. I refused to be deceived any longer and wanted to break free from that trap. But I found that struggling was futile. Later, I grew more and more resentful.”

As he spoke, Gu Yanchen remained silent.

Lu Ying, who was questioning on the side, frowned. “What scam? Going to school, working, isn’t this the life of an ordinary person? If you don’t strive for improvement yourself, why blame society? And what does all of this have to do with killing Jin Yuewen?”

Zhao Meng’an said, “I killed him because I hated him.”

He hated him so much that he thought about it day and night, wanting to kill his benefactor. He had planned the entire process for several months, taking the opportunity to visit Jin Yuewen’s home, prying open the slate multiple times, and then sneaking into the water from outside the community under the moonlight, cutting off the iron wires one by one.

Gu Yanchen leaned forward and asked, “Why?”

Zhao Meng’an’s face twisted for a moment. “Because he supported me but didn’t tell me the truth, because he chose this worthless major for me, because he gave me hope.”

Gu Yanchen asked, “What do you mean by that?”

With a sigh, Zhao Meng’an suddenly asked them, “Why do people go to school?”

Gu Yanchen frowned but didn’t answer him.

Lu Ying was about to blurt out, “What’s the point of all this? Nine years of compulsory education, then high school, then college, that’s how it’s done.”

Zhao Meng’an said, “You, me, and many others have been deceived. We study for the sake of studying, but in reality, the fundamental purpose of studying is to make money. That’s the deception of education! People can only live in this world if they make money. We’ve spent so many years, put in so much effort, gone through so many exams, but in reality, working and making money are the only measures of social status!”

This was a theory of pure materialism.

As Lu Ying listened to this, his mouth opened instinctively, wanting to refute him, but he didn’t know how to refute him. At first glance, what he said made no sense at all, but upon closer inspection, it seemed to make some sense.

Once out of school and into society, the rules completely changed. Grades weren’t as important as they seemed. Good looks and a fit body would get preferential treatment, high emotional intelligence and eloquence could lead to rapid promotion, having money made life easier than others’, and people measured social status with money. This seemed to contradict the education students received over the years. And the most important methods of making money were precisely what teachers hadn’t taught their students.

As Zhao Meng’an spoke, his pace quickened. “This is a secret that the rich know but don’t tell the poor. Jin Yuewen, he clearly knew all this, but he never told me. He suggested I major in statistics, but in the end, I couldn’t find a job. I realized that even after graduating, all I could do was work as a real estate agent, deliver food, or drive a taxi!”

“He once took me to his house for a few days, showing me a different life, living in a mansion, driving luxury cars. I had only a little money in my hand, but he could spend lavishly, and by giving a little money to others, he could gain their gratitude. He ruined my life!” At this point, Zhao Meng’an became agitated, wanting to stand up. The handcuffs on his hands rattled as he shook them. “Do you think he helped us for what? He was actually enjoying it. Enjoying the class disparity it brought him. Couldn’t I borrow it? I would have paid it back, but he still didn’t give it to me! So he deserved to die!”

Zhao Meng’an’s face contorted, his hands clenched into fists, veins popping out on them. The person before them was paranoid to a certain extent.

Upon hearing this, Lu Ying wanted to curse him out. What an ungrateful scoundrel. But Gu Yanchen stopped him, signaling Lu Ying to be careful with his words during the interrogation.

After the questioning, Zhao Meng’an sporadically recounted the whole story. Zhao Meng’an grew up in a poor family, often having no food to eat, accustomed to being looked down upon by everyone. In such circumstances, his parents taught him from an early age that he must study hard, as that was the only way out. Despite their impoverished situation, his parents doted on him, giving him the only egg to eat, the only milk to drink.

When there was no money to buy exercise books, they borrowed them from neighbors, erasing the traces of others’ work and redoing them themselves. He hid in the dimly lit room, doing those exercises repeatedly. That’s how he excelled academically, topping the village in every exam. The days of poverty were like a wheel, rolling over him repeatedly, crushing every bone.

He remembered when he passed the entrance exam for high school, the family couldn’t afford to support him anymore. His father sighed, but then someone said there was a great benefactor who could sponsor people’s education. He gathered his courage and wrote a letter to Jin Yuewen. Unexpectedly, Jin Yuewen saw the letter, specially came to the village, and said he would support him through university.

At first, he felt grateful to Jin Yuewen. But as the money came every year, he gradually got used to it, and he became more and more complacent. He watched Jin Yuewen’s news, who he helped today, how much charity he gave the next day. He looked at the expensive watch on his wrist and thought, the money he gave me is just a drop in the bucket.

Even watching Jin Yuewen give more charity to others would make him jealous.

After graduating from high school as the top student, Jin Yuewen suggested he major in statistics. The neighbors cheered and celebrated his departure. Before going to college, he stayed at Jin Yuewen’s house for two days. What a magnificent house it was!

The house price was astronomical, every corner was extravagantly decorated. They could have six dishes for a meal, including fish and shrimp. He was dazzled by this luxurious world.

Jin Yuewen said to him, “Study hard, and you’ll have all this in the future.”

He was inspired by these words. In the first year, he received scholarships and was a model student. During the summer vacation, he once wanted to work, but he found that because of his accent and background, he could only do the lowest-paid jobs. Working eight hours a day in a milk tea shop, he barely earned less than a thousand yuan a month, and he was even cheated by the boss.

Moreover, he was laughed at by others, so he never went to work again after that. Later, he learned from his classmates that after graduating, most of his seniors entered large companies, but more than half of them changed careers. Some even became real estate agents, sold insurance, or drove for Didi.

Houses, cars, wives, high salaries—all these were just pipe dreams for ordinary students like them. And his roommate in the next dormitory was a rich second-generation, who spent six thousand yuan on a pair of limited edition sneakers, which was half a year’s living expenses for him. This kind of reality left Zhao Meng’an dumbfounded.

In his fourth year, earlier this year, he didn’t buy a computer, making it inconvenient to write his thesis and search for materials. Once, he went to an internet cafe and met a man… Zhao Meng’an talked endlessly, completely unaware that the appearance of that man was the beginning of his nightmare.