Chapter 373: Zhang Zijun Holds His Tongue

2022-05-20

We pinned Zhang Zijun against the car. The entire ride, he didn’t say a word, just sat there like a scarecrow in an open field—nothing but an empty shell.

No matter how the three of us questioned or threatened him, Zhang Zijun stayed silent. Now, sitting in the interrogation room, that silence still clung to him.

Uncle Chen arrived just as the clock struck midnight.

Zhang Zijun kept his head buried low, deep in thought, or maybe just avoiding our eyes.

Uncle Chen asked, “Caught him that quickly? Did you find Hu Ningning?”

I shook my head and replied, “Zhang Zijun seemed to notice us following him. Thinking about it now, it feels like he wanted our attention. Ever since we brought him in, not a word out of him. That kind of silence hides something deep, and that’s what we need to uncover.”

We took our seats in the interrogation room. While Gu Chen tapped his finger on the desk for the twenty-second time, we’d already spent ten minutes locked in a tense, wordless stare with Zhang Zijun. What I saw in his eyes was pure resolve.

I finally broke the silence. “Didn’t expect we’d meet again so soon, did you, Zhang Zijun? It’s obvious—you’re the killer, but you weren’t working alone. You kidnapped Hu Ningning, murdered Li Jun and Liang Zhengyu, and Guo Li is missing, possibly dead. Isn’t that right?”

Zhang Zijun let out a low, mocking laugh, then finally spoke. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I was just bored at home and went out for a stroll.”

I shrugged. “Out for a stroll at eleven at night instead of sleeping?”

“Why not?” Zhang Zijun shot back. “Who says residents can’t walk around at night?”

I nodded. “There’s no rule against it, but let’s be real, you weren’t out for a midnight walk. When we visited your place, it was spotless—too spotless for a man living alone. Yet your shoes were grimy, out of place in that neat home. That tells me cleanliness isn’t really your thing.”

“Now I get it. You cleaned obsessively to hide something important—a woman used to live there.”

Turning to Mary, I said, “You’d know, Mary—there’s no such thing as a woman who doesn’t shed hair. He cleaned so thoroughly because he wanted every trace gone. I didn’t find any traces of a woman in the sink or trash, but there was still something he missed.”

Zhang Zijun frowned but kept quiet.

I went on, “The soap gave you away. It sat too low—out of sight, out of mind. People put things either for convenience or looks, and that spot is neither. You don’t use it—your wife left it there before she left, and she’s about five-three.”

He kept staring, silent as ever.

I kept pressing. “It’s a tiny detail, but it’s enough to make us suspicious. Your wedding photo is still hanging there, the glass spotless, which means you clean it all the time. While looking at your family photo, I couldn’t take my eyes off that wedding picture next to it.”

“You did a good job hiding your feelings. If you’d buried them a little deeper, I’d have thought you were innocent. But that’s not true. You loved your wife deeply. Your divorce was only to make this plan possible.”

“You two helped each other—committed murder together. But in the end, you disagreed. More bodies meant a higher risk of being caught. You had to decide which one of you would take the fall. Better for one to die than both of you.”

Zhang Zijun’s lips twitched, but the words never came. He stared, hiding something just beneath the surface.

I ignored his silence and kept going. “Guo Li was your third target. It was Guo Limin who took her, Guo Limin who did the killing, but you made the call. You didn’t expect her to take the blame, but she went off script. That’s why you called us before Guo Li was dead—hoping we’d search a certain area, giving Guo Limin time to drive wherever she wanted.”

I fixed him with a stare and said slowly, “We missed something. We all thought the killer couldn’t get farther than about forty kilometers in that short time. But no one considered that she could keep driving after the phone call. You wanted us to focus on that area, but I bet Guo Limin is already way outside the forty-kilometer radius.”

Zhang Zijun gave a dismissive snort. “You’re talking nonsense.”

I continued, “You don’t know where Guo Li is either. That’s why you’re holding out. If you’d surrendered now, we’d be asking about the locations of both Guo Li and Hu Ningning, but you have no idea where they are. So you stay quiet—but you also want us to know you’re the real murderer.”

“It can’t be easy for you, but do you really think Guo Limin won’t keep going without you? Even if you’re locked up, she’ll keep killing. There’s another victim, right? That boy named Yang Ting. Do you really think she’ll stop now?”

I looked at him hard. “The plan was clever—one of you bought the murder tools, the other made the call. The voice on the line was clearly a man’s. Even after audio analysis, it was still a male voice. So naturally, we only looked for a man—never once thought to check for a woman.”

Then I turned to Uncle Chen. “Track down Guo Limin. See if you can find any records of her buying fishhooks.”

Uncle Chen nodded.

I kept going. “Your plan was solid: use a man’s voice, but let a woman do the killing. At first, it seemed illogical, but it’s actually very smart. Kids are more likely to trust a woman—for me, this became obvious the moment I saw Liang Zhengyu’s body.”

“Back then, I noticed some weird marks on the tree, but I kept it to myself because I couldn’t figure them out. Now it all makes sense. Those were left by a pulley. For a man, lifting up a child is no problem. But if it’s a woman, it takes some effort and time.”

“Let me guess why you did all this.” I looked Zhang Zijun in the eyes and said seriously, “Compared to men, women often experience love and hatred more intensely. A mother avenging her child isn’t hard to imagine.”

His face suddenly looked uncomfortable.

I pressed on. “This brings us to the heart of the matter—why? Our investigation suggests your son, Zhang Zuochen, was bullied by these people. He died by suicide, and the way he did it was bizarre. Unless he’d reached total despair, he’d never have gone that far.”

“We still don’t know exactly why—and you plan to take that secret to your grave?”

I slammed my hand on the table, my voice sharp. “You were well-educated, coming from a humble place. You believed a person could keep their hands clean no matter their surroundings. But even a lotus can’t escape the muck completely. You thought your son would rise above it, but luck isn’t always on your side.”

“You weren’t there when he was bullied at school. Every day after class, he’d go home to an empty house—no one waiting for him. When you got home, he was asleep. When you left, still asleep.”

“You didn’t know how many bruises he’d come home with. You didn’t know who stole his toys. The only thing you cared about was how much money to give him each day, or how much you needed to earn.”

I spoke softly now. “You’ve made it big in this town—money’s no problem. But even if you could buy a thousand Optimus Primes, that one with the chipped paint is lost forever. To be honest, when I saw that old toy in the rundown apartment during surveillance, I knew—your wife loved you, too. Now you’re locked up, you can’t call anyone. So it comes down to two choices: first, tell us where Hu Ningning and Guo Li are. Stop your wife before she kills again.”

“Second.” I leaned in, my words slow and pointed. “We could just wait it out and let your wife take the fall.”

“But can you really sit there, silent, while she pays the price? You can stay quiet—be a coward, or you can finally tell us the truth.”

A muscle twitched in his throat—he was thinking hard.

I pushed him gently. “Think about it—Hu Ningning is innocent. She didn’t bully your son, and you know it. You only grabbed her to draw out the other kids. You know the principal’s number, you planned all this for a long time.”

“If Hu Ningning dies of hunger or thirst, won’t she become just like your own child? I get why you did what you did, but don’t let her become another Zhang Zuochen.”

“Please, think about it.”

I softened my voice.

“I…” For the first time, Zhang Zijun spoke.