In the interrogation room, Kong Wende sat in the interrogation chair and hung his head. Lin Qiupu sat down with another old police officer and minute-taker. He cleared his throat and began to ask questions. “Name...”

In front of the security camera on the other side of the interrogation room’s one-way mirror, almost all the members of the task force gathered here. They were very concerned about the truth of the case. Of course, Chen Shi was also present.

After explaining the basic information, Lin Qiupu continued his line of interrogation. “Kong Wende, I don't think I have to explain why you’re sitting in this chair. Explain what you’ve done!”

Kong Wende looked up, “If I confess, will there be leniency?”

“It depends on your cooperative attitude!” Lin Qiupu countered. The other people present knew that Kong Wende had at least three lives on his hands and that the death penalty could not be avoided.

After a moment of silence, Kong Wende confessed. “I did not expect that things would become like this. This started from my misappropriation of company funds. I found a loophole in the insurance company and used it to constantly misappropriate funds. Small amounts soon began getting larger and larger. By March of this year, I had already moved close to 400,000 yuan in company funds. I originally planned to save the money to buy a house within the school zone. I didn’t expect the old man to be sick starting at the end of last year with stomach cancer. I had almost spent all of the money on a few surgeries. I hate the insurance company. When I invested in insurance, they made it sound so good, but when it came time for a claim, they kept arguing about it so that they wouldn’t have to pay up. By the time they paid, it was only enough to pay for the bed he stayed at. If they had just paid in the beginning, things wouldn’t have gone south like this!”

Lin Qiupu interrupted him. “I wanted you to explain the crime, don't give me your reasons. Talk about yourself!”

Kong Wende asked for a cigarette and took a puff before continuing. “The old man's illness had been dragged on until March of this year, and then he died. I never imagined that at this moment in time, the company supervisor found out my misappropriation of funds. They threatened to take me to court so that I would will the funds I took. I was so anxious that I couldn’t help but borrow from loan sharks! I originally thought about selling the house, but I have a bottom line in my heart. I must not sacrifice my family’s happiness.”

When he heard this sentence, Lin Qiupu slightly revealed a ridiculing smile. The man who claimed that he would never sacrifice the happiness of his family actually went and killed his own family.

“Loan sharks really shouldn’t be messed with. Interest piled on interest. Even though I used up all my credit card funds, I couldn’t even pay back just the interest. The guys would come to my house and company every two days, forcing me into a corner. I was really out of options. Around May of this year, a little event happened: my twin brother and I met. At first, I didn't know that I had this brother. He was working in a restaurant. When we saw each other, we were both dumbfounded. We could have been cut from the same mold! I called my family and that’s when I found out I had a twin brother. When I was young, my family was too poor and they had abandoned him. I had dinner with him several times. He saw my suit and thought that I was wealthy. In the midst of talking, he implied that he wanted me to help him out. I could only smile bitterly in my heart. He envied me, but I envied him more. He just needed to feed one mouth. He was free, unlike me. I was almost at a dead end!”

“Because of the money owed, my wife and I had a big fight for five days, plus the loan sharks kept coming for their debt. Additionally, I was unable to reach my quota at work. All these kinds of pressures drove me crazy, and I hated everything around me. I thought about dying and leaving my insurance pay-outs to my family. However, when I thought about the insurance company and how they might try to deny claims as much as possible, as well as how my wife kept saying that I was useless, I thought ‘Why should I die? It’s these people who should die!’”

Having said that, the light in his eyes instantly turned from a calm and gentle middle-aged man to a violent criminal.

“Last Friday, I took the money I borrowed through pleading from various places and went to the loan sharks. I was prepared to return at least a part of it, but I was then told that my debt was now 800,000 yuan, double the amount borrowed. Big Tiger and I argued about this. I told him that he was being unreasonable, but the stinking gang member just kept insulting and humiliating me. He even mocked me, saying that if I couldn’t pay my debt off, I should just sell my organs, my wife, my son. Blood rushed to my head from anger, and I grabbed something from the table and just smashed it onto his head. After I had calmed down, it was only then that I realized that he had stopped breathing!”

“I was terrified. Was my life ruined just like this? I sat there for a long time, and suddenly I thought of a plan. A perfect plan for the golden cricket to get rid of his skin[1]. Since I had already been forced into a dead end, it is better to take a gamble! So I cleaned up the scene, left in a hurry, and went to the pharmacy to buy some sleeping pills. When I got home, I pretended nothing had happened. My mind was fighting itself. Do I really need to kill my whole family? No, I have to do this. My whole family knows that we’re twins, I must kill them all so as to tie up the loose ends. I had to finish what I started since I’m a man. If I don't do it, the police would come to me, I would have to go to jail. Anyway, I didn’t want to live like this anymore. God gave me this chance to re-do my life again, why don’t I grab it?”

After he finished saying this, Kong Wende revealed a psychotic, morbid smile, he seems to have forgotten his current situation, as if reminiscent of the night of planning all this.

“On Sunday, I contacted my twin brother and asked him to come to the house to meet his sister-in-law. I found him that evening and had dinner with him. I brought him to a club to find a lady for himself. I took this opportunity and went home quickly. My wife made a pot of white fungus lotus seeds sweet stew, so I put the prepared sleeping pills powder into the food and then left. Around 11 o'clock in the evening, I came back with my twin brother. I paid special attention to not let the surveillance camera catch my face. After entering the house, the family really had fallen asleep. Even the TV was still on I let my twin brother drink the white fungus lotus seeds soup and went into the bathroom. I went to take a leak. Originally, I had hidden a hammer in the bathroom, but I found out that my wife had put it away. This bitch who could never succeed but is more than capable of ruining something!“[2]

“My twin brother knocked on the door outside and informed me that he also wanted to go to the toilet. I thought about it. I had no way out. I took the lid of the ceramic toilet water-tank and asked him, ‘Can you turn off my kitchen light?’ When he turned around, I smashed his head. The lid of the tank shattered on impact and he died. It seemed that my hand was also cut in the process, but I was so filled with adrenaline that I didn't notice it.”

“The next step was to kill my old mother-in-law. I honestly didn’t feel much when I killed her. When she died, she screamed once and scared me. My wife was alarmed by this and ran out. I started sweating and began slamming her head against the door. After she fell down, I stabbed her. After I felt that she had definitely died, I left the bedroom.”

Kong Wende swallowed his saliva and continued. “My son also woke up due to the noise. I opened the bedroom door and saw him shrinking into the bed. His eyes were staring at me. I was a little sad in my heart. How could I do this to my own flesh and blood? I stood there for a long time, and finally I couldn’t do it, so I quickly packed up and left. If I could get over my heart ruthlessly, you wouldn’t have been able to catch me. However, I am just an ordinary person, I can’t do anything that is so ruthless. It’s true that if you want to succeed, you need to have a heart of steel!”

After saying this, Kong Wende buried his head and rubbed his face. Lin Qiupu and the group of policemen outside were listening. This person was completely twisted. Lin Qiupu said, “You are wrong, your son did not reveal any clues. You sit here now because your crimes were full of flaws. There is no perfect crime in the world. If you don’t want people to find out, it’s impossible unless you don’t do it in the first place!”

There was nothing left to say, and the interrogation was over. After witnessing the fall of an ordinary person, the police officers had a lot of sympathetic feelings.

Lin Dongxue mused, “The tiger doesn’t even eat their young[3]. Although this guy is distorted inside, there is still a trace of humanity after all.”

Chen Shi shook his head. “You are wrong. The child is a continuation of his own life. Loving his son is essentially loving himself. This is another form of selfishness. In his consciousness, killing was the only solution because his character is indifferent and selfish to begin with. There are many people like this in the world, but they are not forced into a dead end like Kong Wende.”

1. An expression used to describe finding a scapegoat and get rid of responsibility without detection. Shedding their skin to live a new life.

2. An expression used to describe people who aren’t good at anything. Bringing more harm than good, even when they try.

3. When she says it this time, she’s saying that Kong Wende can’t even be compared to an animal, as even a tiger isn’t so cruel as to eat their own young.