Chapter 68: Chapter 28: Discovering a Body (Please Favorite, Request Monthly Votes)
Building Ten, Unit 625
In the bedroom, Wu Peng and his wife were sleeping soundly when they suddenly heard someone incessantly pressing the doorbell.
"Who could it be, hubby? It’s the middle of the night! Can’t people get a decent sleep?" Wu Peng’s wife turned over, grumbling angrily.
Wu Peng got up, "I’ll go check."
Wu Peng, wearing slippers, headed to the living room with the doorbell still ringing.
"Who is it? I’m coming," Wu Peng shouted.
Arriving at the door, Wu Peng looked through the peephole and saw several people outside; three were in police uniforms, and one was the young man who had visited that afternoon.
His heart skipped a beat as Wu Peng realized something was amiss. He suspected that Zhou Zhi and Yang Cheng had disclosed their past deeds to the police. His first instinct was to run, but then he thought for a moment—this was the fifth floor, where could he escape to?
The doorbell continued to ring.
After a moment of hesitation and struggle, Wu Peng, harboring a last shred of hope, cautiously opened the door.
"Don’t move."
As soon as the door opened, the young man from that afternoon grabbed Wu Peng’s arm with astonishing strength. Wu Peng felt completely immobilized, unable to budge an inch.
At that moment, Wu Peng’s heart sank completely. He was now a hundred percent sure that the police knew about the past events.
"Officers, what are you doing?" Wu Peng still shouted in disbelief.
Luo Fei immediately cuffed Wu Peng and handed him over to the policemen behind.
"Why are you arresting Wu Peng?" Wu Peng’s wife asked anxiously as she rushed out of the bedroom, seeing her husband being detained by uniformed officers.
"You must be Wu Peng’s wife. Wu Peng is suspected of involvement in a murder case. We have to take him back for investigation," Zhao Donglai explained.
"No way, my husband wouldn’t do such a thing. You must be wrong," Wu Peng’s wife cried out.
"I didn’t kill anyone, I didn’t kill anyone," Wu Peng also shouted his innocence.
Zhao Donglai frowned and looked at Luo Fei beside him.
Gazing at the protesting Wu Peng, Luo Fei calmly said, "Whether you’re wronged or not, we’ll soon find out."
With that, Luo Fei walked straight to the kitchen. Wu Peng’s face changed dramatically; how did he know? Had Zhou Zhi and Yang Cheng confessed everything? Those bastards, didn’t they agree not to mention this no matter what, even if caught?
Zhao Donglai followed him into the kitchen.
"If my calculations are correct, the body should be behind this wall," Luo Fei said, pointing to the wall behind the sink, covered in ominous black marks, to Zhao Donglai, while glancing at Wu Peng who was being restrained by the police.
Wu Peng’s face changed again, his entire body trembling.
Zhao Donglai had some doubts initially, but noticing Wu Peng’s change in demeanor confirmed Luo Fei’s likely correctness.
"Are you sure?" Zhao Donglai still asked.
"Rest assured, Captain Zhao, no mistake," Luo Fei assured, then checked around and found a large meat cleaver under the sink, which he used to tap on the wall behind the sink.
Finding a suitable spot, Luo Fei began prying off the tiles behind the sink with the cleaver, revealing the red bricks. He chiselled along the edges, working for about ten minutes, until he finally removed a brick.
The inside of the red bricks was indeed hollow. Zhao Donglai quickly turned on his phone flashlight and shone it inside, revealing a skeletal hand.
"We’ve got something," Zhao Donglai said excitedly.
Luo Fei quickly removed a second and third red brick. After removing over ten bricks, the inside was finally visible.
A body dressed in a red dress was lodged in between the walls. The flesh on the body had long since decomposed, leaving only bones, the red dress, and wavy brown hair.
"Captain Zhao, barring any surprises, this body should be that of the long-missing Yu Xiaoman," Luo Fei stated.
"Well done," Zhao Donglai commented on Luo Fei’s work, breathing a sigh of relief.
Beside them, Wu Peng seemed to lose all his energy and spirit in an instant, with a face ashen and eyes vacant.
The woman who had been weeping continually was now covering her mouth in horror, unable to believe that such a body could be hidden in the place she had been living.
That night, the arrest operation was highly successful. Elsewhere, the second and third teams’ capture of Zhuang Hai and Sun Xiaoqiang went smoothly as well.
They apprehended Wu Peng and his accomplices and found Yu Xiaoman’s skeletal remains.
At six in the morning, Luo Fei and his team returned to Ningjiang County with Wu Peng, his accomplices, and Yu Xiaoman’s remains.
Upon arriving in Ningjiang County, they first notified Yu Xiaoman’s family, asking them to confirm the identity of the body, and then had the forensic department collect samples for DNA comparison to determine if the deceased was Yu Xiaoman, and sent the remains to forensics.
Luo Fei and the others didn’t even have time to rest before immediately starting the interrogation of Wu Peng and his accomplices.
In the interrogation, Zhao Donglai and Luo Fei questioned Wu Peng, while Yang Su interrogated Zhuang Hai, and Team Three Leader Wang Dong interrogated Sun Xiaoqiang.
In the interrogation room, the questioning of Wu Peng by Zhao Donglai and Luo Fei proceeded smoothly. Wu Peng seemed to understand that he couldn’t escape this time, so he cooperated with Zhao Donglai’s questions.
According to Wu Peng’s confession, the deceased was indeed Yu Xiaoman.
Wu Peng detailed the circumstances of Yu Xiaoman’s murder.
Three years ago, on August 7th, Wu Peng was not yet married at the time.
That day was Wu Peng’s birthday, so he invited Yang Cheng, Zhuang Hai, Sun Xiaoqiang, and Zhou Zhi to his house for a celebration.
Originally, Wu Peng hadn’t invited Yu Xiaoman, because Sun Xiaoqiang had pursued Yu Xiaoman previously and was rejected, and to avoid embarrassment for Sun Xiaoqiang, Wu Peng did not invite her.
After Zhou Zhi and Yang Cheng arrived, Zhou Zhi told Wu Peng that Xiaoman was returning to her hometown, possibly for good, and hoped to invite her over for a meal with everyone.
Knowing that Yu Xiaoman might be leaving for good, Wu Peng and the others thought they should at least see her off, so they asked Zhou Zhi to call Yu Xiaoman to join them for dinner.
Yu Xiaoman arrived shortly after.
Everyone began eating and drinking, but not long into the meal, Zhou Zhi received a call stating that a guest at the karaoke bar was demanding her attention. Her boss called her, so she had to leave for the karaoke bar.
Wu Peng and the others didn’t mind and continued eating and drinking, but soon Wu Peng felt strange—he felt increasingly hot and feverish.
When he looked at Yang Cheng, Zhuang Hai, and Sun Xiaoqiang, he saw that they had already removed their shirts, and across from him, Yu Xiaoman was flushed, her shirt gone, left in only her underwear.
Wu Peng had no recollection of what happened next, but upon waking the next morning, around eight, he found himself, Sun Xiaoqiang, Zhuang Hai, Yang Cheng, and Yu Xiaoman lying naked on the floor, with clothes and shoes scattered everywhere.