Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I thought that medical certificate would clear the police’s suspicions and finally give me some peace.

But to my surprise, less than three days later, I received another call from the police.

“Ms. Jiang, we found a hammer and a chainsaw in Ling Changjun’s apartment. We suspect these were the murder weapons. Your fingerprints are on them.”

I panicked.

I had indeed seen a hammer in Changjun’s place and had even moved it out of curiosity, but I had never seen a chainsaw.

The police brought out the chainsaw. It was slender and sharp, more than long enough to pierce through a person’s shoulder blade.

The officer said it was this very chainsaw that had been used to cut Jiang Mengzhou’s body into pieces.

The blood in my veins seemed to freeze. My hands and feet went cold, and my breathing grew shallow and rapid.

Even though I was so terrified that I could barely speak coherently, the police didn’t relax their vigilance. Their interrogation grew increasingly aggressive, pressing me at every turn.

Finally, when time ran out and they lacked sufficient evidence to keep questioning me, they had no choice but to let me go.

It was evening by the time I returned home. At the entrance, I smelled that foul stench again.

As the weather gradually grew warmer, the stench seemed to have intensified.

I opened the cabinet at the entrance once more. This time, I was certain the smell wasn’t coming from Jiang Mengzhou’s basketball shoes. This was the scent of a corpse.

I knelt down and inspected the cabinet thoroughly. Without even thinking, I reached out and triggered a switch inside the shoe rack-a move guided by pure muscle memory. A secret compartment popped open.

Inside was a bundle wrapped in a black plastic bag.

I didn’t know what it was, but I was certain the stench was coming from it.

I took a closer look. There was blood on the bag.

The moment I saw the blood, my pupils constricted. I didn’t dare think about what was actually inside.

In that moment, it felt as if a hand was tightening around my throat, and a suffocating sense of impending death surged through my body.

Action preceded thought. By the time I regained my senses, I had already thrown the blood-stained black bag into a trash can outside the residential complex.

I pulled my mask tight, lowered my hat, and ran back to my room. As I passed the entrance, my heart was still pounding with lingering fear.

A third email was waiting in my inbox, sent at noon today.

I opened it, and the content that met my eyes left me speechless with shock:

Nanfeng, I’m sorry. I killed him. I know he imprisoned you and tried to force himself on you. I hated him even more than you did.

Nanfeng, to me, you are the light of my life, my redemption, and my future. But Jiang Mengzhou was going to destroy you.

I tried calling the police, but my lawyer told me it would be useless. You are siblings in the eyes of the law, and I had no evidence to prove what he was doing to you. I had no choice; I had to use the stupidest method possible to save you.

That day when I went to see you, he and I got into a fight. We came to blows, and he got the upper hand, locking me out of the apartment.

But while I was outside, I heard your desperate, blood-curdling screams.

In that instant, I lost my mind.

I grabbed a locksmith’s hammer nearby and swung it at the back of his head. I hit him. I hit him again and again until he collapsed beside you. By then, you had already fainted.

After confirming he was dead, I used a chainsaw to dismember him and buried him under the five banyan trees.

In that moment, I felt a sense of relief and happiness. From then on, there would be no more obstacles between us.

However, the guilt of the murder followed. Since that day, I haven’t had a single night of good sleep.

I am a murderer. The son my parents were so proud of has become an executioner. The teacher the students trusted and loved is a monster.

The net of justice has wide meshes, but it lets nothing through; sooner or later, I must face the law. Rather than living with a ruined reputation and the hatred of my loved ones, it is better to end it myself.

Nanfeng, when you see this letter, you must be troubled because of me. The police will not give up their investigation into you. Rather than letting that happen, I will reveal the whole truth to provide my little girl one last bit of protection.

Nanfeng, please hand over the attachment of this email to the police.

If the media or Jiang Mengzhou’s other relatives continue to make things difficult for you afterward, then open the fourth email.

The attachment was a confession letter signed by Ling Changjun himself, detailing the entire process of his crime.

I hesitated repeatedly. If I handed this letter over, Changjun’s posthumous reputation would be destroyed.

But if I didn’t, I might never have a single day of peace again.

Ultimately, unable to endure the torment of the police investigation any longer, I handed over his confession with tears in my eyes.

The police completed their final investigation based on the confession. The murderer of Jiang Mengzhou was indeed Ling Changjun.

At the police station, I saw Changjun’s mother cry until she fainted. Nanda University also withdrew its memorial for Changjun. He was no longer the respected teacher in the hearts of his students.