Chapter 105: Chapter 48: Truth and Hidden Secrets (Requesting Monthly Tickets and Subscriptions)
Cheng Wei watched himself in the surveillance footage, confirming it was the video of him leaving that night. His face was ashen, and he didn’t speak.
"And this is the shoeprint you left by the iron railing at the back of the neighborhood. We’ve already compared it, and it’s definitely your shoeprint." Luo Fei said as he threw out two more photos of shoeprints taken from the forensics lab.
Cheng Wei’s expression turned even uglier.
"And then there’s this, your online purchase records from the past three months. On January 7th, you bought a knife online, the exact same model as Lin Gang’s."
"Now can you explain why you were there on the night of the incident? Didn’t you say you were with your girlfriend the whole time? And why were your shoeprints found by the iron railing at the back of the neighborhood? Why did you buy a knife exactly like Lin Gang’s, and where is it now?" Luo Fei coldly asked.
"I don’t know." Cheng Wei leaned back in his chair, his ashen face slowly returning to normal.
Luo Fei stared expressionlessly at Cheng Wei, whose demeanor clearly signaled he was going to deny everything to the end.
"Cheng Wei, do you think denying it will make the problem go away? With the evidence the police currently have, it’s more than enough to charge you with murder, whether you admit it or not." Luo Fei said coldly.
Cheng Wei still leaned back in his chair, silent.
Luo Fei coldly watched Cheng Wei. Although the evidence they currently had was sufficient to charge Cheng Wei, they were still missing one thing: the motive for the crime. Why did Cheng Wei want to kill Cheng Zhiyou? Without discovering the reason, even with charges, the likelihood of a conviction was low.
What was Cheng Wei’s motive for the crime?
Luo Fei and the others had previously suspected that Cheng Zhiyou abused Cheng Wei, but investigations showed that reason didn’t hold up. Reports from Cheng Zhiyou’s relatives, friends, and neighbors revealed that Cheng Zhiyou was a kind person who had never beaten Cheng Wei.
So why did Cheng Wei want to kill Cheng Zhiyou? For a son to kill a father, he must either hate him intensely or have a twisted anti-social personality.
From Cheng Wei’s behavior, the latter seemed less likely. So, Cheng Wei probably hated Cheng Zhiyou deeply enough to kill him.
But why did Cheng Wei hate Cheng Zhiyou so much?
For a son to hate a father so deeply, Cheng Zhiyou must’ve done something extremely important to Cheng Wei, even severe enough to make Cheng Wei want to kill his own father.
To a normal person, the most significant matters tend to be family and love relationships. Other than these, what else could it be?
Love?
Doesn’t seem like it. Luo Fei had met Zhao Yi, and from the conversations, it was clear there were no issues between Zhao Yi and Cheng Wei in their relationship. It wasn’t a clichéd story of a father assaulting his son’s girlfriend, leading the son to take revenge and kill the father. Crucially, the relationship between Cheng Wei and his father had been poor since childhood, suggesting the motive to kill Cheng Zhiyou arose when Cheng Wei was young, before he even knew Zhao Yi.
Family?
Suddenly Luo Fei recalled a neighbor mentioning during an earlier investigation that Cheng Wei’s mother died of cancer when he was very young, and the relationship between Cheng Wei and his father had been poor from the start.
Could Cheng Wei’s hatred for his father be related to his mother? Luo Fei suddenly had this thought.
"Cheng Wei, I know you hate your father because of your mother?" The next moment, Luo Fei abruptly spoke, eyes fixed on Cheng Wei to test this idea.
Indeed, upon hearing Luo Fei’s words, Cheng Wei’s emotions visibly fluctuated strongly. Despite his effort to remain calm, his slightly trembling lips betrayed him. Luo Fei was certain that Cheng Wei’s killing of Cheng Zhiyou was deeply related to his mother.
Then a bolder speculation formed in Luo Fei’s mind. Could it be that Cheng Zhiyou had something to do with Cheng Wei’s mother’s death, which fueled this intense hatred?
"Did your father kill your mother, which is why you hate Cheng Zhiyou so much, even to the point of killing him, am I right?" Luo Fei pressed, intently watching Cheng Wei.
Upon hearing Luo Fei’s question, Cheng Wei’s face turned flush, with veins bulging on his neck, and his hands clutched tightly onto the desk, clearly indicating Luo Fei’s words deeply agitated him, putting him on the verge of an emotional outburst.
Seeing Cheng Wei’s reaction, Luo Fei knew he had guessed correctly. It must have been that Cheng Zhiyou killed his wife and Cheng Wei witnessed it or found out somehow, turning it into a persistent, unerasable trauma.
"You killed Cheng Zhiyou to avenge your mother, didn’t you?" Luo Fei continued to provoke.
"Yes, I killed him. He deserved to die. Can you imagine a husband killing his own wife to avoid being burdened by her?" Cheng Wei said loudly, tears slowly streaming down his face.
"My mother had cancer and could have had surgery, but when he found out how much money it would cost, both for the surgery and subsequent chemotherapy, he gave up. He never took my mother for surgery, just gave her random medication. Days passed, and my mother’s condition worsened, eventually leaving her bedridden, needing help with even basic tasks like eating and using the toilet."
"He treated my mother more and more poorly. Sometimes when she called for him, he pretended not to hear. Many times when she needed the toilet, he acted like he didn’t hear, and mother... feeling that kind of shame, she felt worse than death."