The Murderer

All the police officers stationed at The Church surrounded Li Wei.

They had heard the commotion while patrolling at night, and the deputy police chief assigned here by Tian Yuan soon arrived with his men.

Li Wei had no intention of resisting, nor did he feel he needed to.

This trick of shifting the blame was merely a way for the killer to buy enough time to escape; in reality, there was no way to frame him for this.

Besides, even if he were truly framed, it wouldn't matter; Feng Zi was still outside. Although that cripple usually kept a low profile, she was absolutely reliable.

Facing a dozen guns pointed at him, he raised his hands without changing his expression, signaling that he posed no threat.

The first officer to step into the dilapidated shed discovered the corpse of Wang Xiaole lying on the ground.

Upon seeing the empty eye sockets where the eyes had been missing from the corpse's face, the officer was filled with horror. He instinctively stepped back two paces, his finger resting on the trigger of his pistol as he nervously aimed at Li Wei.

The other officers, including the deputy police chief, subsequently saw the corpse lying on the ground.

"Don't move!"

"Get on the ground! Hands on your head!"

Soon, an officer shouted. Li Wei had no intention of resisting, and he did not appear nervous. He simply followed their instructions, knelt on the ground, and allowed them to snap handcuffs onto his wrists.

The deputy police chief, who had once investigated a murder case at the Coal Mine Field, first glanced at Wang Xiaole's corpse, then cast a sidelong glance at Li Wei.

For someone who had already read the case files on the Yuguang torture-murder cases, such a scene was all too familiar.

The boy lying on the ground was clearly another victim.

But at this moment, the deputy police chief did not immediately look for clues to determine whether Li Wei was the killer; instead, a thought had already risen in his mind.

Yuguang was currently entangled in a lot of messy business; the torture-murders and corpse thefts had left the laborers here in a state of constant panic.

Should he take this opportunity to pin this case down once and for all?

Regardless of whether it was done by this choir boy in front of him, why not force a confession and pin the crime on him to close the case? It would provide the laborers of Yuguang with some psychological comfort while also helping him gain some merit.

The deputy police chief stared at Li Wei without making a decision immediately. He first ordered a subordinate to go to the cathedral and bring over the nanny in charge of the choir.

Then, he began to interrogate Li Wei at the scene.

"Did you kill him?"

"His Great-Aunt killed him." Li Wei appeared very calm—calm enough to exceed the deputy police chief's expectations.

He looked as if he were completely unaffected by the bloody scene, able to accept questioning quite naturally.

This made the deputy police chief grow vigilant. He felt he didn't even need to frame him; the person in front of him was very likely the real killer.

Otherwise, there was no way to explain how an underage child could possess such psychological fortitude.

"Great-Aunt?"

"Nanny Cheng from The Church."

"How do you know?"

"He told me himself before he died."

"Did anyone else hear it?"

"Only me."

"Then why are you here?"

"Nanny Cheng brought the five of us to the Prayer Hall on the back hill, saying we were to participate in a church activity tonight, but she locked us inside. I heard some strange noises and found my way here."

The deputy police chief stopped questioning him there. He shook his head, his mind already 80 percent certain that Li Wei was the true culprit.

He didn't even have the intention to call over the other children who had been brought to the Prayer Hall to verify Li Wei's story.

Soon, the officer who had gone to the cathedral to fetch people returned to the shed, wearing a raincoat and accompanied by several nannies and priests.

Even though they had prepared themselves before coming, they still couldn't help but be horrified when they truly saw the corpse of Wang Xiaole on the ground.

At the same time, they saw Li Wei standing to the side, and these church staff all frowned.

"Which one of you is Nanny Cheng?"

The deputy police chief scanned the arriving church staff and asked.

A priest, who held the highest rank in The Church besides The Bishop, spoke up in reply.

"Nanny Cheng is not at the cathedral right now, so we came instead."

The deputy police chief pointed at Li Wei.

"He says the murderer is that Nanny Cheng."

Upon hearing this, the church staff couldn't help but look at each other in dismay.

They seemed unable to believe such a thing and shook their heads one after another.

The deputy police chief extinguished the cigarette he had lit only a short while ago; his mind was now completely made up.

"Take him away. Let's go. The night is long; we can ask whatever questions we have slowly."

However, before the surrounding officers could grab Li Wei's arms to escort him out of the wooden shed...

In the pouring rain, a petite figure struggled, dragging a corpse as she approached.

The effects of the medicine had worn off, and a sense of weakness from deep within her body continuously assaulted Feng Zi's senses. Cold rain lashed against her pale face as she breathed heavily, coming to a halt in front of the shed.

The police officers, priests, and nannies inside the shed all stared with wide eyes at her, and at the corpse she was dragging—caked in mud, yet with a face still clearly recognizable!

Li Wei also looked into Feng Zi's eyes, which were adorned with black contact lenses. That pair of eyes blinked at him, as if seeking praise, or perhaps showing off.

It made the corners of Li Wei's mouth curl upward involuntarily.

"What is going on! What is the meaning of this!"

The church staff became flustered. They rushed into the curtain of rain, attempting to lift Nanny Cheng—whose body had already turned completely cold—from beside Feng Zi, only to discover that she no longer possessed any signs of life.

"She ran after killing someone. I chased her to a derelict house by the underground river; there is plenty of evidence inside."

Seeing so many gazes focused on her, Feng Zi instinctively pursed her lips, yet she understood that this was not the time to be timid. She stated the sequence of events concisely.

This caused the scene to erupt into complete chaos. The church staff all wore expressions of disbelief, and even the Deputy Police Chief, who had been prepared to close the case, furrowed his brows deeply.

The words Li Wei had spoken lacked much evidence and were merely his own side of the story, but what Feng Zi said was different. There were locations and physical evidence, and coupled with the testimonies of the three children waiting in the Prayer Hall, one only needed to send someone to investigate to determine the truth.

However, the Deputy Police Chief did not care about that; as long as a culprit could be produced in the end, it did not matter who it was.

Soon, Feng Zi was detained just like Li Wei. A team of officers followed the address she provided to find the small shack by the underground river, where they discovered a room full of severed limbs!

Through various comparisons, the matter became clear: the culprit behind the serial killings was the church nun, Nanny Cheng!

But following this, a critical problem also emerged.

That was the pair of eyes gouged out from Wang Xiaole; they were not found in that dilapidated wooden shack.

Such a vital piece of evidence had vanished into thin air, as if it had evaporated from the world!