Zhang Lihua's outrageous statements left everyone present in shock. People were all very curious about how her logic had formed, and who had told her that as long as she considered herself a victim, she was guiltless no matter what she did?
Zhang Lihua was taken to the police station, where officers specializing in criminal psychology were already waiting. These psychologists believed her mindset was a significant and typical case, holding considerable research value.
Lin Xi was also extremely curious, so she continued to stay invisible and followed Zhang Lihua into the interrogation room.
Under the police's masterful interrogation techniques, Zhang Lihua readily confessed everything about her relationship with Li Fuming.
"Li Fuming and I have been together for over ten years. We were classmates in high school. He was handsome; although his grades weren't good, he excelled in sports. Many girls liked him, and I was one of them. Later, I went to university, and he dropped out to work. In my third year of university, we met again, and he pursued me fiercely." As Zhang Lihua spoke, scenes from over a decade ago seemed to reappear before her eyes.
Back then, Li Fuming truly loved her and treated her well, which was why she found it even more unbearable that the present Li Fuming no longer loved her.
According to her confession, about six months into their relationship, they became intimate. After that, she discovered Li Fuming had some peculiar fetishes during sex, often coaxing her into doing very humiliating things.
For example, making her crawl on the floor and call him 'Master,' or going out without underwear to expose herself. Before being with Li Fuming, Zhang Lihua had been a good girl who had never done anything outrageous. Regarding these acts, she felt both her self-respect was wounded and an uncontrollable thrill.
Boundaries were broken step by step like this. In the year she graduated from university, Li Fuming imprisoned her. Her limbs were shackled. She was terrified and fearful, never having imagined her former lover could treat her so cruelly.
She suffered beatings and violations three times a day. After each beating and violation, Li Fuming would apologize and profess his love for her and his own lack of security.
In this cycle of abuse followed by affection, Zhang Lihua's feelings for Li Fuming slowly warped. She felt she still loved him, but this love was now mixed with intense fear and dependence.
She dared not oppose any decision Li Fuming made. To meet his expectations and ensure he continued to "love her," she threw tantrums and made a scene at her parents' home, extorting 100,000 yuan from them. The two then opened a printing factory.
Having found something more interesting to occupy himself, Li Fuming stopped abusing Zhang Lihua and focused on the business. He was somewhat capable and good at seizing opportunities. After running the small factory for five years, they moved to the Wuxin Industrial Park.
After making money and buying a villa, the filthy desires in Li Fuming's heart resurfaced. He began to "train" Zhang Lihua with renewed vigor, also placing the blame on her for not having had a child all these years.
Under his conditioning, Zhang Lihua seemingly forgot that the reason they had no children was because she took contraceptive pills every time. Under Li Fuming's psychological manipulation, she became convinced that not being able to bear a child must be her fault.
Having successfully brainwashed Zhang Lihua, Li Fuming then extended his claws. After much calculation and planning, he drugged a young woman in a blind spot of the Wuxin Industrial Park's surveillance cameras. He then carried her, avoiding numerous cameras, and placed her in the cargo bed of his pickup truck.
His pickup truck bed was always used for hauling goods. Fabric, which they transported, is sensitive to sun and rain, so it was enclosed. He bound the woman's hands, feet, and mouth, sealing the space around her with fabric so she couldn't make much movement or noise.
As a factory owner in the Wuxin Industrial Park, Li Fuming's vehicle entered and exited the area normally every day. Combined with the fact that the kidnapping location was carefully chosen and far from his printing factory, he was never suspected.
Seeing her man dote on another woman, Zhang Lihua felt intense jealousy and was on the verge of rebelling. So, Li Fuming fabricated a lie full of holes, suggesting they "compare" to see whose problem it was that they couldn't have children.
After years of daily brainwashing, Zhang Lihua could no longer bear Li Fuming's distrust. She felt deeply wronged and thus nodded in agreement to his proposal.
So they began kidnapping men. Men were much harder to abduct than women. They used methods like asking for directions at intersections without surveillance or in blind spots to kidnap thin, single young men.
They kidnapped four men in total. Liu Zhong was the third. After Liu Zhong died, they kidnapped a college student.
Among these victims, apart from Liu Zhong who died resisting, all others, regardless of gender, suffered violations by Li Fuming. He gradually developed a preference for encounters with men.
But the men's resistance also irritated him. So he gave Zhang Lihua an order: to harshly discipline those men. Her reward for completing this task would be spending the night with him.
Since having so many young people at home, Li Fuming had not focused his attention on Zhang Lihua.
Although Zhang Lihua also fancied the young men and was willing to give them some superficial attention, Li Fuming's position in her heart was different. Hearing his offer, Zhang Lihua was tempted.
And now, after being arrested, Zhang Lihua felt emboldened and fearless. She believed everything she did was under duress, including helping Li Fuming commit murder, so she was innocent.
Lin Xi, hiding invisibly in the interrogation room, heard all this and truly didn't know where to begin her rant. It really was true that if you live long enough, you'll see everything.
The group chat also erupted in complaints. By now Liu Zhong had already found a place to settle. He watched the video Lin Xi had uploaded to the group, looked at Zhang Lihua's face, and felt a dull ache in his head. He couldn't help but reach up and rub it.
[Dragon Proud Sky's rival Liu Zhong: I knew these two were perverted, but I didn't realize they were this sick.]
Liu Zhong felt his previous death had been pathetic, but he was satisfied that these two beastly spouses had been caught. He believed modern law wouldn't let these two psychopaths roam free.
People in the group, one after another, felt that he had suffered terribly and began to comfort him. Liu Zhong appreciated their concern. Truthfully, Liu Zhong wasn't very attached to the modern world.
His parents divorced and remarried others. He grew up with his grandparents, but they passed away before he even finished high school. His stepmother and stepfather didn't want him around as an eyesore, and his biological parents, constrained by their current spouses' attitudes, agreed to provide him with a monthly living allowance until he graduated from university.
They kept their promise fairly well; throughout his university years, the allowance never missed a payment. But anything more than that was too much to ask for. Even during the New Year holidays, he spent them alone.
After being killed, he transmigrated into the world of a Long Aotian-type protagonist, losing the memories from right before his death. He usually read the chats in the group and knew that Lin Xi could help them visit their families, but he never took any action.
This time was no different. After chatting in the group for a while, Liu Zhong (Nemesis of Long Aotian) logged off. He had nothing now. To establish himself and survive in this ancient era, he needed to keep busy, at the very least to secure some livelihood so he wouldn't starve.
Lin Xi didn't join the group's discussion. Meanwhile, the interrogation in the interrogation room continued.
Zhang Lihua, for reasons unknown, was being utterly forthcoming with the police, holding nothing back. She was now confessing to the people they had killed over the years.
Besides Liu Zhong, a man, there were also two female victims. One of them had died just two days prior. For certain reasons, they had chosen to take the body out and bury it last night. The screams Sister He heard were the dying girl's last struggles of resistance.
Those occasional late-night outings were also part of Li Fuming's schemes. The deceased were buried in the backyard of their old family home.
The police went to excavate. Seizing the moment when the police left the station, Lin Xi also went out.
In another interrogation room, Li Fuming confessed to his crimes without denial. He didn't refute the facts about imprisoning Zhang Lihua either. When asked about his motive by the police, he gave just two words: for the thrill.
Regarding why he imprisoned Zhang Lihua, Li Fuming said, "To control her. Because she graduated from university, entered society, and started meeting decent people. She began to waver. How could she waver? I hadn't gotten what I wanted from her yet."
"What did you want from her?" the police asked.
Leaning back in the confession chair, Li Fuming tilted his head and smiled, "Exactly what you see now. I observed for so long, and only she was foolish enough for me to manipulate. If you had taken a bit longer to find me, I could have even made Zhang Lihua commit suicide."
The coldness in Li Fuming's eyes and the cruelty at the corner of his mouth sent chills down one's spine. He had never intended for Zhang Lihua to live.
He had made enough money. Li Fuming had originally planned to pull off this thrilling last scheme and then go abroad. He had already completed the procedures for going abroad, just waiting for the chance these past few days to have Zhang Lihua kill those people, then find an opportunity to kill her. That way, he could leave without a single worry.
After all these years, he was truly tired of Zhang Lihua. She was living proof of his crimes. Li Fuming believed that to live well abroad, Zhang Lihua had to be discarded. Only the dead keep secrets, so Zhang Lihua could not live.
"What excuse did you use to persuade Zhang Lihua to help you with the abductions?"
Li Fuming laughed, pulling at the wounds on his face, which hurt terribly, but he paid it no mind. "She wanted to have a child with me. I used that excuse, plus some reverse psychology. But, do relay a message to her: I got checked when I was twenty. My sperm has no motility, congenital."
Li Fuming knew how desperately Zhang Lihua wanted a child. Hearing this would devastate her. Just thinking about it made Li Fuming immensely pleased. After chuckling a couple of times, he asked, "How did you find me?"
Li Fuming was extremely curious now. How exactly had he slipped up? He had planned this abduction scheme for many years and was confident the police wouldn't trace it back to him anytime soon. The routes he took after the abductions were impossible for normal people to track. The people he abducted were also random, with no similarities whatsoever between them. For the police to connect it to him would normally take at least a year or two.
So how had he been exposed so early? Li Fuming was utterly perplexed.
But his confusion was destined to go unresolved by the police.
They themselves were baffled. Li Fuming had surveillance cameras installed in his living room and at his front door. The footage showed that besides the couple themselves, no one else had entered their home.
So where did that video evidence for the report come from? The technical department was still working overtime on it.
But they were destined to find no leads whatsoever.
Meanwhile, Lin Xi had already left the public security bureau and was heading to the previous airport. She didn't return to her apartment in the Wuxin Industrial Park, only sending a message to the landlady.
Knowing Lin Xi had been visiting relatives lately, the landlady didn't say much. In places like Wuxin Industrial Park, the migrant worker population was highly transient. She had seen plenty of people like Lin Xi who came and went. She merely stated the rent wouldn't be refunded and left it at that.
Lin Xi then boarded a flight back.
The moment the plane landed, she received a message from the group chat system.
[System Message: After calculation, group member Earth Girl Lin Xi has assisted over 20 transmigrators, with a satisfaction rate of 100% from those assisted. Earth Girl Lin Xi meets the requirements for Group Administrator. Effective today, group member Earth Girl Lin Xi is promoted to Group Administrator of this chat. A yellow moderator tag will appear before her personal nickname.]
[Details regarding Administrator duties and rewards have been sent to your personal backend. Please remember to check and adhere to the Administrator code and mission. This group chat will not be upgraded at this time. Please be advised.]
[System Message: Welcome [Crematorium] Wen Mingyue to the group chat.]
[System Message: Welcome Apocalypse Zombie World Gong Ying to the group chat.]
