Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Perhaps noticing his gaze, Su Jin seized the chance to step forward and urged, “Yuming, let go of Lu Dong first. Whatever it is, we can sit down and talk it over, alright?”

This plea almost became the last straw that broke Pei Yuming’s back. He looked at Su Jin, disappointed and confused: “You’re taking his side too? After what he’s done, you don’t blame him at all?”

“That’s not…” For some reason, Su Jin felt she absolutely couldn’t agree with Pei Yuming right now.

The moment Su Jin spoke up, Pei Yuming had already moved the knife away from Lu Dong. Perhaps his attitude had softened, or perhaps Su Jin had diverted his attention. At any rate, Pei Yucheng, standing to the side, saw his chance. He shot a look at Lu Dong, who was nearly suffocating, then suddenly lunged to grab his older brother’s knife-wielding arm, trying to use leverage to disarm him.

But he had clearly underestimated his eldest brother, who had kept up a fitness routine for years. Though Pei Yuming was much older, he was clearly stronger than his younger brother in both build and strength. Pei Yucheng may have gained the upper hand at first, but he was soon floored by an elbow strike from his brother. He collapsed, bent over on the ground, in agony.

While they were struggling, Lu Dong, though weak in the knees, was on the verge of breaking free with the help of Bai Xue and Su Jin.

But he was one step too slow. After dealing with his own brother in one blow, Pei Yuming turned and lunged straight for Lu Dong, his face twisted in rage, fury fully ignited. He no longer cared whether he held a knife or not. He stabbed at Lu Dong’s thin back, and a cry of pain rang through the living room.

Pei Yuming looked at the bright red blood on his hand, realized what he had done, and everything went black. He lurched backward so violently that he almost toppled the chair beneath him.

Cao Lei had been explaining Li Xiaoya’s behavioral logic to him. One moment Pei Yuming was listening attentively; the next, he thrashed in terror as if hit by an electric baton. If Cao Lei hadn’t steadied the chair in time, Pei Yuming would have toppled over, chair and all.

“I, I killed another person!” He stared at his trembling hands, disbelieving.

Though this was the second time, Cao Lei was still startled by his shocking words.

But he was calmer than those outside the interrogation room. He fixed his gaze on Pei Yuming’s eyes and asked gravely, “Who?”

Pei Yuming looked at him almost pleadingly. “Lu Dong! I killed Lu Dong!”

“Poison?” Cao Lei guessed, but still asked.

“No, not by poison,” Pei Yuming shook his head. “With a knife. He was trying to run, and I had to stop him. I didn’t mean to… I didn’t really want to kill him…”

Cao Lei checked his watch: nine twenty-eight. He had hit the timing precisely again.

He folded his arms, leaned back slowly, and studied Pei Yuming carefully. He admitted that in over twenty years of criminal investigation, this was the most difficult suspect he had ever encountered.

At the start of this interrogation, a strategy for Pei Yuming had already been set.

First, as the lead interrogator, he needed to gain Pei Yuming’s trust as soon as possible. By the look of things, he had already achieved that.

Then, he needed to build a persona that Pei Yuming could accept, based on his personality.

Before entering the interrogation room, the police had already gathered information from his colleagues and relatives, forming a rough picture of his behavior and logic. They deduced that he was stubborn, aloof, absorbed in academia, but meticulous in his work.
Such people, who rely on rules in life, are relatively honest compared to those who habitually break them. For interrogators, this is an extremely advantageous condition.

Therefore, as long as during interrogation, the interrogator constantly emphasizes these traits of the suspect and finds a plausible excuse for the crime committed, getting a confession is only a matter of time.

But from the current situation, he seems to have oversimplified things.

Especially now, he feels like he fell into Pei Yuming’s trap from the very beginning.

Pei Yuming may have already crafted a persona for himself right from the start of this interrogation.

The unwarranted agitation and silence, the deliberate nonsense, including that made-up story about the Flashback-he seemed to be intentionally creating an illusion of mental disturbance, admitting to the crime but distorting the course of events, turning the entire interrogation into a colossal joke.

Cao Lei licked his back teeth. This role reversal, where the cat and mouse had swapped places, was practically testing his limits.

“So in your mind, you once thought about killing Lu Dong, right?”

This question caught Pei Yuming off guard. He thought for a long moment before nodding slowly. “He slept with my wife. I hated him, I wished I could kill him with my own hands… But murder is against the law. I’ve only saved people, never killed anyone. I was torn. Even when I threatened him with a knife, I never really thought about stabbing him to death…”

“You thought about stabbing him to death, but you couldn’t bring yourself to do it, so you switched to poisoning, isn’t that right?” Cao Lei asked coldly.

But the people outside the interrogation room had already sensed something was wrong. A warning immediately sounded through the earpiece: “Lao Cao, don’t be impatient!”

“No, that’s not it!” Pei Yuming finally snapped to his senses. Looking at the aggressive Cao Lei in front of him, he shrank back a little. “I didn’t, I never poisoned anyone. Officer Cao, you have to believe me!”

Cao Lei glanced at the monitor, secretly took a breath, and exhaled slowly. Only then did he lean in slightly, voluntarily closing the distance between them. “Alright, then tell me about the process of you killing Lu Dong.”

Pei Yuming swallowed, his gaze falling on the back of his left hand. He tried to describe what had just happened in as calm a tone as possible.

……

Outside the interrogation room, everyone was watching Pei Yuming’s state, and some of them were even more agitated than Cao Lei.

Those present were all veteran detectives, and naturally, they could all see how tricky this suspect was.

In the meeting room, discussions continued unabated, with one side led by Deputy Director Zhou Zheng strongly suggesting a change in interrogation strategy.

They believed that the current approach toward Pei Yuming was too mild, which caused him to constantly run circles around the police and refuse to provide key, useful clues.

If they adopted a more aggressive questioning style, he might honestly cooperate-at least he wouldn’t keep spinning lies with his eyes open, mocking the interrogators, and evading justice, as he was doing now.

However, this proposal was ultimately vetoed by another, slightly more senior deputy director, Wei Zheng.

The reason was that building a suspect’s trust in the interrogating officer is no easy feat. If they changed their approach now, all previous efforts would be wasted.

Moreover, they had already conducted a thorough assessment of the suspect’s character; a harsh attitude might not yield better results than the current one.