Chapter 25: The Na City Case (Eighteen)

"Why did Jia Wenming go to such great lengths to dig the potato cellar so deep?" Li Rui tapped his fingertips on the table, his gaze locked onto the woman's beautiful pupils like a searchlight.

The overhead light in the interrogation room cast a cold glare off the metal table, plating his silhouette in a sharp silver edge.

Yu Meili swallowed hard, her nails digging deep into her palms. She understood this was an olive branch extended by the interrogator and seized the opportunity immediately. "Because he intended to keep doing it forever. He wasn't going to stop after killing one or two people; he saw it as a way to make money, a practice he meant to continue indefinitely."

Li Rui’s fountain pen hovered over his notebook for a moment, a black ink blot bleeding into the paper.

Although Yu Meili did not admit to her own involvement in the killings, he did not press the issue further. Instead, he abruptly shifted the topic. "Liu Meixin—you must know her, right?"

His tone was as casual as idle chatter, yet it sent a chill down Yu Meili’s spine.

"Let's talk about her," Li Rui continued. "She has confessed to some things, but we aren't sure if she’s holding anything back. If you tell us everything you know about her, it will count as a meritorious service."

Hearing the words "meritorious service" was like grasping at a lifeline. A sudden flare of light ignited in her eyes, and she began to speak rapidly, as if chasing something. "I know! I know everything!"

"Good. Take your time, and be detailed."

"Liu Meixin was one of the very few survivors in Jia Wenming’s clutches. Now that both she and Jia are in your hands, even though she faces a death sentence for her own crimes, she shouldn't regret dragging Jia Wenming down with her!"

"Oh? It seems you know her quite well."

"I wouldn't say that. We’re just two miserable souls," Yu Meili replied blandly. "Liu Meixin was the twenty-first woman Jia Wenming lured back. She had run away from home after a conflict with her family. Being a stranger in a strange land with nowhere to go, she met Jia Wenming on the street. He was very handsome and knew how to charm women. He tricked her by claiming he was a railway worker who could take her home to stay in his mother’s room. Under his flowery lies, she went home with him. To her horror, once inside, his true colors emerged, and he violated her."

"Were you there at the time?" Lei Chen asked.

Yu Meili hesitated, then replied, "I was... I was there! But I had no choice. When Jia Wenming did those things, he didn't allow me to watch. I wanted to help her, but I couldn't."

"Alright, continue."

"After he was done, before Liu Meixin could even put her clothes back on, Jia Wenming choked her until she lost consciousness. But what Jia Wenming didn't expect was that she still had a breath left in her; she crawled out from the pile of corpses and managed to survive."

"Describe the process in detail," Lei Chen commanded.

"The first thing she said when she saw Jia Wenming again was, 'I will keep your secret.' He still wanted to kill her, thinking only the dead could keep secrets. But what she said next made him hesitate. She promised that if he let her live, she wouldn't tell anyone about his murders, and her family wouldn't report her missing since she had left on her own."

"So Jia Wenming agreed?"

"He saw that she was beautiful and from