Chapter 4 The Informant 3

  Wang Yanan couldn't help but feel anxious. She looked up at the wall clock in the interrogation room. The crucial DNA test report had not arrived yet. Was she going to let her go just like that? All the clues pointed to her, but there was still one missing link.

  At this time, the phone rang. Wang Yan hurriedly picked up the phone. The number displayed was a call from the forensic office.

  "How is it?" Wang Yanan made her voice sound very calm.

  Three DNA samples were isolated. One of the DNA samples on the steering wheel was unknown. Another DNA sample matched the reference sample provider. However, there was another DNA sample on the gearshift that had four genetic matches with her. This sample also contained a trace amount of blood from victim number two. In other words, it is possible that the real suspect is someone else and has a direct blood relationship with the reference sample provider.

  Wang Yan hung up the phone without a word. After thinking for a while, she stared straight at Ding Rong: "You're fine now. You can go. But before you leave, I have a question."

  "Say."

  "Where is your son? I want to have a talk with him."

  As soon as she heard this, Ding Rong's eyes narrowed into a slit. Her words were full of vigilance: "What do you want with my son? He has nothing to do with this matter. You can't wrong a good person."

  Wang Yanan and Zhao Yun exchanged a glance. Calmly, she said: "We didn't say we were looking for him because of this matter. We just want to ask him about the situation. Please cooperate a bit."

  Ding Rong could no longer calm down. A hint of panic flashed in her eyes. She pulled the chair and quickly stood up: "Sorry, Captain Wang. You don't have any evidence to detain me. I'm leaving. We'll meet again."

  Zhao Yun was about to speak, but was stopped by Wang Ya Nan. She slightly shook her head, indicating that she wanted Ding Rong to leave and not block her way. Once she was sure Ding Rong had entered the elevator, Wang Ya Nan immediately ordered Zhao Yun: "Quickly follow Ding Rong, she will definitely lead us to find the real murderer."

  Sitting in the car, looking at a point more than 20 meters ahead. Ding Rong's face was filled with anxiety, her calmness gone. She got out of the taxi and hastily walked into a suburban villa. Wang Yan couldn't help but marvel at the power of motherhood. The woman's carefully crafted defenses had been thoroughly broken. Although Wang Yan wasn't a mother herself, she knew that every mother's greatest weakness was their child.

  The phone finally rang. Wang Yanan answered the phone. After listening to a brief report, she nodded: "I know."

  Hang up the phone. Wang Yanan and Zhao Yun opened the car door, got out of the car, and quickly approached the villa.

  This is a gray villa with a Baroque style exterior. It has been around for some years. The mottled walls are covered in green ivy. The villa has three floors. The garden in front of the villa has clearly become somewhat desolate, with only unknown wildflowers and disorderly overgrown weeds. Apparently, the owner's mind is no longer on their own life. If Ding Xiang hadn't just walked in, Wang Ya Nan would have suspected that this place was uninhabited.

  The doorbell emitted a harsh sound, as if grinding an old sand wheel that had been there for years, just like this old house. Before coming because of the rush, so did not have time to apply for an arrest warrant. This time Wang Yanan could only stand on the steps in front of the villa under the name of visiting.

  The doorbell rang for a long time but no one came to open the door. Wang Yanan felt somewhat anxious and glanced at Zhao Yun beside her, "Will something happen?"

  "I don't know. How about... Do you want to..." Zhao Yun meant to ask if they should force their way in. He reached his hand towards his own back.

  Wang Yanan also took out the pistol she had been carrying with her. She made a gesture, indicating that the two of them should split up and move forward from both sides of the house to find an entrance.

  Zhoa Yun nodded and quickly walked away towards the left.

  The villa didn't look very big, but the horizontal area was not small either. After walking more than 30 meters of winding path piled with miscellaneous objects, Wang Yan finally found a small door that could enter the villa. She turned the doorknob and the door was quickly pushed open. Wang Yan looked around and then quickly walked in.

  Suddenly, everything in front of her turned pitch black. This was a narrow passageway. The passageway on both sides was piled up with all sorts of things, covered with canvas. Wang Yan made an effort to open her eyes wide and grope forward towards the faint light at the end of the passageway.

  She walked towards the bright light and found it was a door gap. She pushed the door open with force. Suddenly, everything in front of her became bright. She discovered that she was standing in the hall on the first floor of the villa.

  The first thing that caught her eye was a very large photo hanging on the wall in front of her, treated with oil painting techniques, as tall as a person. The two people in the photo were familiar to her. They were Hou Junyan, who had died by suicide, and his wife, who had died in a car accident. However, there was no trace of sadness on their faces in the photo. Both of them were smiling happily and contentedly.

  Wang Yanan furrowed her brow. Could it be that the original owner of this villa was actually the late Hou Junyan couple? Then, why did Ding Rong have the key to this villa?

  The entire hall was spotlessly clean and dust-free, a stark contrast to the scene outside.

  At this moment, Zhao Yun appeared behind him. He also came out of that small door.

  "How's it going? Still haven't found anyone?"

  "No. Let's split up and search again. I'll go upstairs. You check the basement. Call out if you find anything."

  "No problem."

  More than ten minutes later, when Wang Yan stretched out her hand to push open the door of a room on the second floor, the scene in front of her stunned her.

  Fresh blood is slowly dripping down the bedside, a lot of fresh blood, which has already formed a river of blood on the floor. The air is filled with a nauseating smell of rust.

  The bed was no better off either. The pristine white sheets had turned a deep crimson. On the blood-soaked sheets lay that person, with an enigmatic smile frozen on his face. Despite his pale complexion, consciousness and life were slowly slipping away. Yet, this person seemed content. If not for the gruesome wound on his right wrist, which exposed bone, Wang Yan couldn't have believed he was smiling in the face of death.

  This person. This face. It couldn't be more familiar. Because his name had long been engraved on a tombstone. But this time, he was really dead.

  He was Hou Junyan, the former director of surgery at Tianchang City First Hospital. In other people's eyes, he had been a dead man three years ago. At this moment, he lay quietly on the bed, his right hand tightly grasping a photo. The woman in the photo was his wife.

  After some deliberation, Wang Yanan silently let out a sigh.

  When I saw Ding Rong again in the interrogation room, her face could no longer find that invincible and arrogant aura of before. On the contrary, between her eyebrows was filled with an indescribable sadness, her eyes dull, as if the proud woman from before had never existed on her at all.

  "Ding Rong, you should tell the truth by now."

  Ding Rong nodded slightly, let out a long sigh, and with a look of despair on his face: "It's true... Hou Junyan is indeed my half-brother from the same father but different mother. He was also the one who killed him. I did this... I think you've all already guessed why. It was for my sister-in-law and her poor child, who didn't even get to see this world. Now... everything has come to an end..."

  "Then you tell us exactly what happened from the beginning, starting with that car accident three years ago." Wang Yan opened the tape recorder.

  Memories of past events. Ting Rong's eyes were filled with sadness.

  "My brother is a strong and very arrogant man. At the age of three, his mother took him and divorced my father. Since then, the mother and son have been living a hard life."

  "Four years later, I was born. But I never knew of his existence until I worked for three years and then went back to graduate school. It wasn't until then that I ended up under his tutelage by chance. One day, while looking through a photo album at his house, I saw a picture of my father when he was young. That's how I found out about our relationship. From that time on, he became the only family I had."

  "Don't you have another son?" Zhao Yun couldn't help but interrupt and ask.

  "He's dead." When she said this, Ding Rong's tone became extremely cold.

  Wang Yan frowned and nodded to Ding Rong, indicating for her to continue: "Tell me about the incident three years ago when Hou Junyan attempted suicide. Why didn't he die? And who actually died instead? I think you should know better than anyone."

  Ding Rong's lips began to tremble: "My brother, since his wife died tragically and he was diagnosed with severe nerve damage in his right hand due to a car accident, may have to bid farewell to the operating table for the rest of his life. His life is completely ruined. From then on, he had thoughts of death. But before dying, he wants to seek justice for his wife. However, it's said that a large part of the reason for the car accident was due to the poor quality of the vehicle itself, and the owner only has to bear 20% of the compensation for damages. Two lives were lost! The driver who killed them can get away scot-free. Is there still justice in this world? Heaven is blind!" Ding Rong burst into tears.

  "In a situation where all avenues had been exhausted, my brother was completely desperate. He decided to resist with death." At this point, Ding Rong suddenly fell silent. His two eyes stared straight ahead, fixedly gazing at the wall in front of him.

  "Who died instead of Hou Junyan? Is it your son?" Wang Yan's words were like a thunderbolt on a clear day. Ding Rong burst into loud sobs instantly.

  Zhao Yun was shocked and his eyes widened: "Wang's team..."

  Wang Yan nodded and let out a deep sigh: "Tell me what's going on."

  "Xiao Xin has been taking drugs and always asks me for money. When I don't have any, he beats me up. He's sold all our belongings at home. And he even threatened that if I couldn't give him the money to buy more drugs, he'd kill me. That afternoon, I went to visit my brother because his wife and son had passed away. I was worried about him. When I arrived, he was drunk and lying on the bed unconscious. By chance, I found a suicide note on the table. At that moment, I was shocked. I couldn't let my brother leave me like this. He's a good person."

  Just then, the doorbell rang. I opened the door to see Xiaoxin's gloomy face. As soon as he saw me, he came up and grabbed my neck, asking for money. I struggled desperately, but I couldn't breathe. Just as my consciousness was fading away, a dull sound followed, and Xiaoxin fell into my arms, with fresh blood splattered all over me. Behind Xiaoxin, my brother stood holding a hard dumbbell, staring at me in a daze and terror.

  "Hou Junyan killed your son."

  Ding Rong's expression was indifferent as she nodded: "He did it to save me, otherwise I would have been the one who died that night."

  "What's next?"

  "We soon sobered up. My brother wanted to surrender, but I stopped him. I didn't want his innocent life to be ruined by the child I had brought into this world. I saw the suicide note on the table and got an idea of substitution. I knew my brother had no relatives in Tianchang, no attachments, and no one else knew about our blood relationship. All everyone knew was that I was his most beloved apprentice. So if I were to appear first at the scene of the suicide, and the deceased was wearing my brother's clothes, with a similar height and build, and if I insisted on identifying the mangled corpse from the 10th floor as the one who wrote the note... then you police wouldn't ask any more questions. Besides, it was already well-known that my brother's life had been ruined long ago. I didn't need to say anything else."