Chapter 83 - 82: Arrest! All Antecedents and Consequences

"Am I right?"

"Wang Jinyuan."

As Xu Huo’s quiet words fell, the room descended into silence.

Now, even a single breath could be heard with perfect clarity.

Wang Jinyuan?

’Isn’t this the younger brother, Wang Jinbao!?’

Stunned, Qian Hua snapped his head up, staring at the man before him.

The man didn’t speak. He just kept his head down, silent.

"Speak up."

Xu Huo uttered two words—or rather, it was a command.

"Of course, before you say anything, let me remind you: if you think a DNA report or something of that sort can save your life, you’re being far too naive."

"There are more people in this precinct who can identify you than I can count on one hand."

How could you tell the difference if identical twin brothers swapped identities?

Their parents could probably tell them apart with just a glance.

But...

What if you had to provide proof?

Especially when one was dead and the other adamantly denied it? How could you definitively identify the survivor?

It would be impossible. Appearance, blood type—all identical. And Wang Jinyuan’s and Wang Jinbao’s memories would likely be too similar to find any discrepancies.

But the problem was...

"Your ’paralyzed’ leg, the others who sold their bodies at the train station, the residents of Zhang Family Town—they can all identify you."

Xu Huo watched him, slowly listing the facts that would be fatal to his deception.

"And..."

"Zhang Cui!"

"She’ll never forget you as long as she lives."

Hearing that name, the man before them stiffened for a moment before falling completely silent.

Xu Huo wasn’t worried. He had all the time in the world for the man to break.

As for Zhang Cui...

Last night, Zhang Cui had a strange reaction in her cage. She began trembling uncontrollably, her eyes filled with intense terror.

Qian Hua and the others had assumed she’d mistaken Wang Jinbao for his older brother, Wang Jinyuan.

But looking at it now...

She hadn’t mistaken him.

It was the police who had the wrong man!

The man had been gambling. He’d bet that the police wouldn’t perform a physical exam. As long as they didn’t discover the truth about his legs, his story would hold.

However...

"Tch. I should have slaughtered that bitch."

All at once, the man they thought was Wang Jinbao froze. The terrified expression on his face and the fear in his eyes evaporated, replaced by a twisted, mocking smile.

"That bitch ruined everything. I shouldn’t have gotten sentimental and kept her around."

"Wang Jinbao... No, it’s Wang Jinyuan!!!"

Qian Hua froze, his pupils contracting in horror.

’This man... he really isn’t Wang Jinbao. He’s the killer!’

’The person we’ve been investigating, the target we’ve been chasing, has been hiding right under our noses this whole time!’

"Killing her... killing her would have been useless. The hospital’s medical report would have completely distinguished you from your brother Wang Jinbao."

Just then, Li Jianye, who had been standing by quietly, suddenly spoke up.

"There’s nothing wrong with your legs!"

"Heh, if there was something wrong with them, I wouldn’t have needed to put on an act."

Unexpectedly, a smile spread across Wang Jinyuan’s face. It grew wider and wider until his features twisted into a savage sneer.

Xu Huo paused, his sharp senses picking up on an undercurrent in the man’s words.

He narrowed his eyes, his tone laced with curiosity.

"What do you mean?"

’They don’t sound like very close brothers.’

"Heh heh, exactly what it sounds like."

As he spoke, Wang Jinyuan let out a creepy chuckle and his posture seemed to shrink, becoming more furtive. His eyes, however, were sharp as he stared at the men before him.

"If my legs were crippled, or if I was paralyzed... *that’s* when I wouldn’t have been able to impersonate him."

"His legs... aren’t paralyzed."

Qian Hua’s brow furrowed.

’Wang Jinbao is Wang Jinyuan.’

’Impersonating a paralyzed, bedridden man requires healthy legs...’

’The information today... it’s all too contradictory!’

"Officers, you asked me before where Wang Jinbao went, didn’t you?"

Suddenly, Wang Jinyuan’s tone shifted, becoming chilling.

"Right here."

He pointed to his own stomach, chuckling darkly.

"I am Wang Jinbao, and Wang Jinbao is me!"

Li Jianye was stunned.

He watched the man rub his stomach, and his own expression grew increasingly disturbed.

He turned to exchange a look with Qian Hua, and they both saw the same horror and disgust reflected in each other’s eyes.

’Does he mean...’

"You ate Wang Jinbao!?"

"Heh, he deserved it!"

A crazed look entered Wang Jinyuan’s eyes.

"Twenty-three years, a full twenty-three years!"

"I gave up going out, gave up living, I gave up everything! And it all turned out to be a joke!"

"I’m listening," Xu Huo said, looking intrigued.

A formal interrogation was clearly no longer effective on this man.

It was time to try a different approach.

"Heh heh, you all thought he was paralyzed, didn’t you?"

Wang Jinyuan was completely unhinged now, finally unleashing the secrets he had suppressed for so long.

"He wasn’t paralyzed!"

"That lunatic, he wasn’t paralyzed!"

"For twenty-three years! Twenty-three whole years! He lied to me, he lied to our mom, he lied to me my whole damn life! He lied to everyone!"

As he spoke, his face grew even more contorted with rage.

At this point, Wang Jinyuan looked like a cornered animal. He thrashed in his seat, adrenaline flooding his system. The sharp clinking of his handcuffs betrayed the violence of his struggle.

"He faked being paralyzed and lay there for a full twenty-three years!"

"Twenty-three years! I took care of him from the time I was fourteen until I was thirty-seven! He tricked me for twenty-three whole years!"

Wang Jinyuan’s eyes were completely bloodshot.

"He lied to me my whole life!!!"

’So... Wang Jinbao’s paralysis was an act!?’

’He pretended to be paralyzed for twenty-three years, just lying in bed for twenty-three years!’

’Twenty-three years! How many of those does a person get in a lifetime? Three? Maybe four?’

’He’d spent nearly a quarter of his life just lying there. If you count his infancy, he’d basically been on his back his whole life...’

Li Jianye and Qian Hua exchanged a glance, each seeing the profound shock in the other’s eyes.

"And the reason?" Xu Huo asked, his expression impassive as he tapped the table.

"Reason? Does being lazy count?"

Wang Jinyuan snorted coldly.

"He didn’t want to work in the fields, so he pretended to be paralyzed."

’Lying down for twenty-three years just because he didn’t want to work...’

’Shocking, isn’t it?’

’Utterly moronic?’

’He spent the prime of his life, his entire youth, lying in a bed. All because he was lazy and didn’t want to do manual labor. He just threw away his dignity, his conscience...’

Are there really people like that in this world?

There are.

Xu Huo didn’t doubt it for a second. He simply nodded, his expression calm.

In his past life, he knew of a woman.

How outrageous was she?

Just because she was lazy, she stayed in bed for decades. She let others wait on her hand and foot for decades!

Of course, "waited on" was a generous term.

Like a truly paralyzed person, someone had to deal with her shit and piss. You’d have no dignity, like a corpse, letting someone else clean you.

It’s disgusting. A normal person couldn’t bear that kind of humiliation.

But she endured it, spending every single day just lying there.

And you have to remember, this was in an era with no internet. No phones, no computers, just a television...

In the end, she was only found out because she got too hungry and went to the kitchen for food, only for her family to come home and catch her. That’s when the lie was exposed.

Of course, this came at a price.

Besides her own wasted youth, the true price was paid by her sister.

For decades, her sister believed the lie. She carried out the bedpans, fed her every meal, and kept her in her own home, spending her own money, energy, and spirit.

In other words, this kind of person is extremely selfish.

Obviously, Wang Jinbao was this kind of person.

And Wang Jinyuan... he was the one who paid the price.

"How did you find out?"

Xu Huo took out a notebook and pen, looking up at the man.

"Hah. I went out to get some dog meat once. The farm was closed, so I came home early. I saw him ’playing’ with that bitch."

Wang Jinyuan sneered.

He couldn’t care less whether Zhang Cui was dead or alive. His tone made it clear he saw her not as a person, but as a toy.

Then again, he treated her worse than any toy.

Xu Huo said nothing, simply jotting everything down in his notebook. Then, he raised an eyebrow and looked at the man again.

"What about the bodies in the cellar?"

’The bodies?’

Wang Jinyuan froze for a second, then a bright smile spread across his face again. He looked at the officers and said, enunciating every word:

"Isn’t... it obvious?"

"Heh heh..."

"Shut your mouth!"

Li Jianye couldn’t take it anymore. "Shut your mouth!" he snapped, his face dark.

"How many people did you kill in total?"

Xu Huo asked, his tone perfectly even.

"Who knows."

Wang Jinyuan shrugged, completely indifferent to the crimes he had committed.

He pretended to think for a moment, then said with a sly grin:

"Thirty?"

"Forty?"

"I’ve lost count. All I know is I sold a few dozen leather belts."

Dozens of leather belts... In this day and age, most people used a strip of cloth or a rope to hold up their pants, not actual leather belts.

’For him to have collected dozens of them...’

Qian Hua suddenly felt dizzy.

’This case...’

’It can’t be made public!’

’At least, not for the next ten years.’

Of course, as for the repercussions for Linlan City...

Li Jianye guessed it wouldn’t be quite that severe. Most likely, they’d go after the public security officers who were in charge back then.

Only then would it be Zhang Jian and Wang Hu’s turn.

And since these were cold cases... if they were lucky, they might just get away with it.

"Take him away."

Xu Huo looked at Wang Jinyuan, shook his head, and gave a slight wave of his hand. The two officers behind him immediately rose to their feet.

They moved to lift him, but this time, Wang Jinyuan stood up on his own.

It was a stark contrast to his previous paralyzed act.

It was just as Xu Huo had said.

He was born to be an actor.

Of course, if it hadn’t been for Zhang Cui, it was very likely no one would have ever caught him.

However, that would have required the police to believe the incredible story of Wang Jinbao faking paralysis for twenty-three years. Otherwise, once the hospital’s medical report came out, the police would have almost certainly realized the healthy man they had was Wang Jinyuan.

But now, none of that mattered. Wang Jinbao was long dead, murdered by his own brother and ultimately consumed by him.

It was just that the people affected by this case were not limited to the dead.

There were also...

Those customers of the dog meat restaurant.

The food they ate... was it really dog meat, or some other kind of meat...

That was hard to say.

As for the biggest victim in this case, aside from the dead...

After organizing his notes, Xu Huo walked out of the interrogation room.

He glanced at Wang Jinyuan being led away, then looked in the direction of the crazed Zhang Cui.

After a long moment, Xu Huo finally looked up at the sky, at the bright sunshine.

"Tch."

"What a goddamn world."