Volume 1: Everything in the Name of Love (Typing with Fists) Chapter 12: The Harm Caused by Love's Name

  Xu Nuo put the jade lotus flower in front of Wang Ming again: "Today, you should tell a completely different story from last time."

  Wang Ming's hand trembled as he tried to pick up the jade lotus, but just as he was about to touch it, he hesitated. His hand stiffened in mid-air, finally clenched into a fist and withdrew.

  It had been a long time since anyone spoke, and just as Li Kexin was about to lose his patience, Wang Ming suddenly opened his mouth: "My family is in a poor mountain valley in the Northeast. From a young age, I never saw my mother. My father made a living by blasting rocks on the mountain to raise me. The children in the village would bully me and call me 'a wild child without a mother'. Every time my father heard this, he would pick up a stick and chase them away. Seeing other children snuggled up in their mothers' arms, I would always ask my grandmother, who couldn't bear my repeated requests, and lied to me that my mother had gone out to work for me and would return on my tenth birthday. I believed it was true, counting the days with my fingers every day, and on my tenth birthday, I dressed neatly and sat at the door from dawn till night. No matter how my father tried to persuade me, I refused to go back to sleep, crying and saying that I must wait for my mother. My father slapped me in anger: 'Your mother will not come back, she ran away with another man.'"

  From that day on, I started hating the woman I had never met. Originally thought I would never see her in my life, but unexpectedly, when I was 12 years old, she came back dressed up and said she wanted to take me away. She also said my dad was stupid for raising someone else's son for over a decade, and she would compensate him with some money. My dad sat at the threshold, smoking silently for a while before saying in a low voice: "Actually, I knew long ago that Mingzi wasn't my son. Now that you've come out, take the child away. There's no future in this poor mountain village, and when he grows up, he'll end up doing hard labor like me."

  "No matter how much I cried and threw a tantrum, it couldn't change the fact that I had to leave home. That woman tried every way to please me, sending me to the best school, buying me a computer and brand-name clothes, but I still hated her. Lying on my Simmons bed listening to MP3s, what I thought about was the kang and my dad's snores back in our old home. I secretly vowed to study hard, make a name for myself, and bring my dad and grandma to the city to live a good life. But when I finally got into college and went back home with money I earned from part-time jobs, I found out that Dad had been killed in an accident while blasting rocks, and Grandma had passed away soon after due to lack of care."

  "After I went to college, I never went back home except for money and was always hanging out outside. Until I met Vivian again, she changed me." Wang Ming looked up at the Yulan flower, "She is my Yulan flower, so pure and beautiful, I am willing to give her everything as long as she can be happy."

  "People say marriage is the tomb of love, but after marrying Vivian, I feel like every day is a honeymoon. After getting married, I've been looking forward to the birth of our child, and I want to give him a different childhood from mine, a happy one. But there's no news yet, so I secretly asked Vivian's doctor, who said that Vivian just has a weak physical foundation but it won't affect her fertility. One after another test full of hope ended in disappointment, and Vivian seems to be getting anxious too. A year passed, and I'm starting to wonder if the problem is with me."

  "At the beginning of this year, I saw an advertisement for Antai Maternity Hospital online and after several phone consultations, I finally made up my mind to go for a check-up. Unexpectedly, the result was like a bolt from the blue - the doctor said I had congenital infertility. For those few days, I felt as if I were in a dream. Every time Vivian looked at children on the street, stood still in front of a children's clothing store, or counted her fingers to calculate her menstrual cycle at home, I felt ashamed but didn't know how to bring it up."

  However, Vivian suddenly stopped paying attention to these issues and often stared blankly at home. One time I was about to take a bath, she said she wanted to go online. After I finished washing up and walked into the study, I saw her hurriedly closing the webpage. On another day not long after that, as soon as I got home from work, she excitedly threw herself into my arms and said: "Ming, I'm pregnant! We're having a baby!" At that moment, looking at her smiling face, I felt it was especially dazzling, seemingly overlapping with that woman's face. I tried my best to suppress the urge to give her a slap.

  That night, I made an excuse to work overtime on a new project and sent Vivian back to her mother's house. But my mind kept thinking about this matter, and at night, I couldn't sleep well, unable to tolerate her betrayal. After repeatedly thinking for several days, I finally came up with a nearly perfect plan. On the 17th of that month, I left home at 4:50 in the morning and arrived at my mother-in-law's house at 5:10. I watched as my mother-in-law left the neighborhood, then put on the hat from my clothes and walked into the neighborhood through a side door, which was only open during the day, so there were no security guards. After going upstairs, I opened the door with my key because I knew that my wife and her sister slept very soundly, remembering how I used to tease her that once she fell asleep, only an earthquake could wake her up.

  "Officer, can I have a glass of water?" Wang Ming suddenly stopped and asked.

  Li Kexin poured a glass of water and placed it heavily in front of him. He took a sip, paused for a moment, and continued: "I spread out the transparent plastic sheet I had prepared earlier on the floor, grasped the fruit knife, and stabbed it straight into Weiwei's chest. Blood gushed out immediately, and she opened her eyes in terror, seeing my blood-covered face. I pulled out the knife and stabbed again with force. After stabbing twice, I was frightened by my own actions and stood there stupidly for a long time. When I came to my senses, Weiwei had stopped breathing. And then I suddenly discovered that Weiwei's final pose was with her hands covering her belly. At that moment, I only felt blood rushing to my head, and I flung open her hands and stabbed her belly five times in a row." Wang Ming's face showed a ferocious expression, completely different from the gentle and affectionate man he was before.

  "After stabbing him five times, I finally calmed down and continued to act according to my plan. I took off the blood-stained outer garment, wiped my hands and face clean with a wet towel, and also wiped away the fingerprints on the fruit knife. I carefully wrapped these things in the nursing pad on the ground. Finally, I rummaged through the house, put the knife on the floor, didn't close the anti-theft door, and pretended to be a burglary murder. After leaving, I took the bus to the city center hospital because my cousin works there. I know that behind their hospital is a waste disposal site, so I climbed over the fence, threw things down, and hurried back home to change clothes and go to work."

  Wang Ming said, suddenly grinning eerily: "My luck is really bad. Today is Thursday. If I can drag it out until tomorrow, all the evidence will be incinerated and you won't have anything to catch me with."

  Xu Nuo nodded in acknowledgement: "In that case, we wouldn't have enough evidence to convict you. You're indeed very clever, but there's one thing you probably never thought of." Then he turned around and handed a file folder to Wang Ming to look at, "This is the DNA test report from the forensic department. The child in Zhang Wei's belly is indeed yours."

  The folder slipped from Wang Ming's hands, he opened his mouth in astonishment and shouted in a shrill voice: "How is this possible, impossible, impossible..."

  "Based on my speculation, Zhang Wei sensed that you were in contact with the obstetrics clinic. I found an unfinished email she wrote on your home computer, and it seemed like she was trying to inquire about your medical records from the obstetrics clinic. Although she didn't find any concrete information, she keenly felt something was off, so out of love for you, she stopped mentioning the topic of children altogether."

  Wang Ming grasped his hair tightly with both hands, arched his body in agony, and let out a wounded beast-like roar: "It's me who harmed Vivian, harmed our child."

  In the Criminal Investigation Team 4 office in the late afternoon, Liu He excitedly said: "From the case being reported to being solved, it only took three days. Our team continues to write the glorious legend of the old Major Crimes Unit and refreshes the city's record for solving major cases!"

  Chen Chen followed up with added flavor: "Our four teams, under the brilliant leadership of Captain Lü, have taken the Jingshunyuan residential district murder case as a milestone and are striving to reach new heights."

  Lü Cong smiled and looked at them, intentionally saying: "You two treasures, play around tonight and leave me to write the case report."

  "Spare him, Captain Lü! Have mercy!"

  "Yes, Lü Toudou, at this joyful moment, how can you bring up such a depressing topic!"

  Liu Ziyu furrowed his brow and thought hard: "Captain Lü, how did you refocus your suspicions on Wang Ming again?"

  Li Kexin also said: "Yes, Captain Lü, you tell us and we'll learn from it too."

  "Actually, casting suspicious eyes on Wang Ming again relies on the two doubtful points discovered by Xu Nuo. Firstly, there is no fingerprint on that fruit knife."

  Liu Ziyu was still in a fog, but Chen Chen seemed to have an epiphany: "No fingerprints of anyone outside the family were found at the scene. If it was an outsider who committed the crime, it means the killer was wearing gloves. And if they wore gloves to commit the crime, there would be no need to wipe away the fingerprints on the fruit knife, so the conclusion is that a family member committed the crime."

  "Right!" Lü Cōng nodded in agreement, "Secondly, it's the phone number of that obstetrics clinic. Facts tell us not to give up on any seemingly reasonable lead, because that's often just our assumed reasonableness."

  Xu Nu sent Zhang Xin out of the Municipal Bureau building with a broken heart, and suddenly felt that he should call Liu Yun. After Xu Nu finished telling the story of the case, Liu Yun was silent for a long time on the other end of the phone before saying: "Truly loving someone means being willing to bear betrayal oneself in order to hope for the other person's happiness. The harm caused by love is the cruelest thing in the world."

  Xu Nuo was savoring Liu Yun's words when Li Ke Xin rushed out, pulling her to the parking lot: "Hurry up, Captain Xu! Everyone is going out for dinner and we'll make it a welcome party for you. And since you cracked the case so quickly, you're the real hero! Today, let's give Lieutenant Lu a good thrashing!"

  Xu Nuo's hair fluttered in the evening breeze, and a warmth also rose up in her heart. The fourth forensic team seemed to be a pretty good group after all.

  From last night till now, Xiao Wu has been revising the first volume and finally finished it. Now preparing to go eat and sleep T_T

  Monday's promise to relatives for additional updates, Xiao Wu will definitely fulfill it, but now it's really hard to say when the update time is ~ Hope relatives can understand Xiao Wu who has been revising all night.