Madness of the Heart

Mingshu thought of Ling Xuzhi almost instantly.

Why did his hands tremble when he heard Sha Chun's name?Why have you been nervously watching from the sidelines when the technical investigation retrieved the materials of the teachers and students of "Jianjia Bailu"?

"But this issue is more complicated than what we just discussed." Xiao Yuan said: "If Sha Chun committed suicide, we can narrow the scope of investigation to Qu Xing and some personnel in the training class based on the existing clues. Almost all Homicide is an expression of strong and sinful emotions. But if Sha Chun committed suicide, it is actually very contradictory."

Mingshu closed his eyes tightly, listening to Xiao Yuan's analysis, while recalling every detail of Ling Xuzhi's words and deeds.

"For ordinary people, murder is a crime, and killing pays for life. Only a small number of people have the courage to kill. No matter whether Sha Chun wants to live or not, the person who strangled her is a murderer in essence, and he must pay the price in the end. This 'helper' will face double psychological pressure—killing someone and being sentenced.” Xiao Yuan held a pen and tapped the end of the pen lightly on the notebook, “Under this double pressure, he is still willing to help Sha Chun commit suicide , It can only show that Sha Chun is very important to him, and he is willing to take risks for Sha Chun."

Mingshu raised his head, "Since Sha Chun is extremely important, how can he do it? Also, importance is mutual, especially for someone like Sha Chun who is not popular in the workplace and whose ability is not recognized. Say. Sha Chun is important to him, so he must also be important to Sha Chun. Once a person kills someone, even if he is not caught, he will live in fear and fear for the rest of his life. , but the future of this 'helper' is also ruined. Since this is a very important person to Sha Chun, Sha Chun will be so selfish?"

"This is what I said was very contradictory. It lacks a key logical fulcrum." Xiao Yuan shook his head, "This case now has two directions: suicide and homicide. Homicide seems to have a more convincing logical chain, but suicide..."

Mingshu waited for a while, "Brother, what do you want to say?"

Xiao Yu'an frowned, "If I can find a reasonable explanation for that contradiction, I'm more inclined to believe that Sha Chun planned this death by himself."

Qu Xing has two high-end residences in the city, one of which is only a 10-minute drive from Jiangnan Theater.

On the night of the incident, the monitoring of the community where the house is located showed that Qu Xing entered the community at 10:37 and did not leave since then.

But even for high-end residential buildings, the monitoring equipment is not without blind spots.If Qu Xing had known these blind spots a long time ago, and then avoided the monitoring and left after returning home, it would create the illusion that he was always at home.

Mingshu asked the technical detective to continue monitoring.

In many murder cases, although the current monitoring cannot provide key evidence, based on past monitoring, sometimes the suspect's living habits can be summarized, providing important ideas for case detection.

Monitoring is the most boring job. Everyone seems to be asleep, but in fact everyone is concentrating on watching the video played in multiples.

Suddenly, Zhou Yuan pressed the pause button heavily, and shouted: "Come and see, is this Sha Chun?"

After fine-tuning, the person on the video was confirmed to be Sha Chun.

At 5:29 p.m. on May 7, Sha Chun came to Qu Xing's residence and left two hours later.Qu Xing did not appear in the surveillance throughout the whole process, and neither received Sha Chun nor sent Sha Chun off.

It is worth mentioning that the state of Sha Chun's two appearances in the monitoring is very different. When he came, he was relatively normal and vaguely happy, but when he left, he was gloomy. There was a movement of wiping the corners of his eyes with a tissue, as if Very sad and devastated.

Both happiness and gloom must have something to do with the person she met.

In the previous inquiries, none of the members of the folk music club mentioned the relationship between Qu Xing and Sha Chun, and Qu Xing himself insisted that he was not familiar with Sha Chun.

"It seems that you and Sha Chun are not as 'unfamiliar' as you said." Mingshu turned the tablet and played the surveillance video on the night of May 5th.

Qu Xing looked at the tablet, and Mingshu stared at Qu Xing.

Unlike most members of the folk band, Qu Xing's external temperament can be seen as an "artist".He was wearing a black light suit, with three buttons of his shirt unbuttoned, and a necklace hanging below his collarbone. His hair was long for men, and he tied it in a loose bun behind his head with black hairpins.

"Sha Chun once visited your house and stayed there for two hours." Ming Shu asked, "What are you doing for these two hours?"

Qu Xing smiled after watching the video, "We, of course, communicate art."

"What kind of art to communicate? How to communicate?" Ming Shu was not affected by Qu Xing's attitude, "Since you have reached the point of exchanging art at home, it is impossible for you to be unfamiliar with Sha Chun, at least I have not seen other colleagues come to you home to find you."

Qu Xing was still smiling, with his hands folded under his chin, "I found something."

Mingshu said: "You say."

"Sha Chun is dead, so no matter what I say now, you can't verify its authenticity, right?" Qu Xing frowned, "You can only choose to believe me or not. And now you You have already regarded me as a suspect, so you will definitely not believe what I say."

Fang Yuanhang warned sharply, "Correct your attitude!"

"Attitude? Hahaha!" Qu Xing looked at Fang Yuanhang with disdain in his eyes, "An ordinary person like you is worthy of my attitude?"

Mingshu said: "I do regard you as a suspect, but you and I have unequal information. I'm not sure if you killed Sha Chun, but you must know it. You are better than me on whether you killed Sha Chun. You have more right to speak, your words are more reliable than my guess. Moreover, you are not the only suspect. Why do you think that I will not believe you?"

When Mingshu said these words, Fang Yuanhang secretly exclaimed in his heart, and Qu Xing was also stunned for a moment, the arrogant disdain on his face slightly subsided.

"I don't think I know much from you, only—why did Sha Chun go to your house? What do you think of her." Mingshu said, "Look, this is an inquiry room, not an interrogation room. I I didn't take you to the interrogation room because I wanted to hear your explanation again before making a judgment."

Qu Xing looked at Mingshu suspiciously, probably feeling that this policeman was different from what he had imagined.

Mingshu didn't urge him, until he finally changed his sitting position, put his hands on the table, and said, "Have you figured it out?"

"I asked Sha Chun to come to my house." Qu Xing said: "She plays too badly. The so-called 'hard work' is actually all futile. I can't stand it anymore."

Mingshu asked: "Are you going to guide her?"

"You mere mortals like to use 'hard work' to flaunt yourself. If you have no talent, and you haven't worked hard in the right direction, isn't that a waste of effort?" Qu Xing sneered, "Sha Chun is this kind of person. I just wanted to guide you on a whim that day. She's so happy when you call her, she's a fool."

"Are you just on a whim?"

"Believe it or not."

Mingshu said: "Okay, I believe it for now. How did you communicate that day?"

"Tsk, it has strengthened my mind - Sha Chun is such a waste." Qu Xing scratched his hair a little irritably, "I shouldn't be instructing her."

"You reprimanded her?"

"Reprimand? No, I just told her kindly that she doesn't need to make any more meaningless efforts."

Mingshu asked: "After that, do you still meet?"

Qu Xing shook his head, "She doesn't have the face to talk to me anymore."

Ming Shu asked again: "After Saturday's performance, you didn't ask Sha Chun to communicate again?"

"Why should I still ask her out?" Qu Xing frowned suddenly after finishing speaking, "Do you think I tricked Sha Chun into performing arts group in the name of communication, and then killed him?"

Mingshu didn't answer, but stared closely at Qu Xing's eyes.

For a moment, Qu Xing sneered, "Didn't you say that you don't want to know much from me? But you have too many questions. If you suspect that I killed Sha Chun, then you should investigate. If you can prove it was me, then Just sentence me, if you can't prove... Well, then it can only show that you are too stupid, as stupid as Sha Chun."

"This man's attitude is too arrogant!" Coming out of the inquiry room, Fang Yuanhang said: "Is he relying on us not being able to find any evidence? When I saw him, I thought of Hou Cheng. The evidence of Hou Cheng's crimes was also taken away." Did we find it?"

Yi Fei watched the entire interrogation process on the surveillance camera, "I now feel that Qu Xing's suspicion is even greater. He is such an arrogant person, and he can do things that normal people think are unbelievable."

"If Qu Xing is not the murderer, he can explain it seriously, instead of holding the attitude of breaking the jar like he is now. This will not do him any good." If you can prove it is me, then sentence me to punishment. If you can't prove it, then It means you are too stupid', such words have basically labeled him a murderer." Mingshu changed the subject, "But you also said that such an arrogant person like him can do things that normal people think are unbelievable .”

Yi Fei frowned, "Is he playing tricks on us?"

"This possibility cannot be ruled out." Mingshu asked Fang Yuanhang for a bottle of iced honey tea, and drank most of it in one go. "This kind of person is very troublesome. You can't use any conventional thinking to analyze him. Maybe the starting point of all his actions It was all 'on the spur of the moment' and 'fun'. In May, Sha Chun was asked to go to his house on a whim, and now we know that we regard him as a key suspect, so he dragged us to play, it is hard to say that it is not another whim of his."

Fang Yuanhang disagreed, "But he is indeed suspected."

"Yes, he is suspected, we have to spend time on him." Ming Shu paused for a while, "The investigation on Qu Xing cannot be relaxed, if he is not the murderer..."

Yi Fei smiled wryly, "Then consider it a waste of our efforts."

While investigating Qu Xing, the serious crime team is also investigating "Jianjia Bailu".Mingshu pays special attention to Ling Xuzhi, and part of the monitoring screen overturns Shi Hanshan's statement that "Ling Xuzhi and Sha Chun have no intersection".

Calligraphy teaching and traditional Chinese painting teaching are carried out in the living room, and only the teaching of musical instruments has a separate classroom.Sha Chun must pass through the living room when entering and leaving. As long as Sha Chun appears, Ling Xuzhi will stop and follow Sha Chun.

Because of the different class schedules, Ling Xuzhi can only meet Shachun on Tuesday or Saturday.Surveillance and calligraphy students confirmed that Ling Xuzhi had spoken to Sha Chun on his own initiative.

Ling Xuzhi was studying at the Dongye Academy of Fine Arts, and his payment records showed that in May this year, he purchased tickets for nine folk music performances by the Performing Arts Group in a row.

"For these nine performances, at the price you choose, the ticket price for each show is more than 660 yuan, and the nine shows are close to 7000 yuan. For you, a student, this is not a small amount of expenses, right?" Mingshu said: "Ling Xuzhi, you are not going to listen to music, but to see Sha Chun."

"You're talking nonsense!" Ling Xu's jaw and neck were almost stiff, and his facial muscles were trembling like spasms. Just after he was brought to the inquiry room, there were obvious traces of sweat in his armpits and chest.

He is not tall, and he wears a poor-quality shirt that is easy to sweat. His skin is fair, and his whole person looks cramped from appearance to temperament.

Qu Xing was sitting in this position before.Compared with Qu Xing, Ling Xuzhi was too nervous, every tiny movement seemed to tell the police - I am the murderer, I regret it, I am very scared!

"Your family is not rich, and you apply for bursaries every year. Before you came to work in 'Jianjia Bailu', you had been working part-time in a similar training institution. Your classmates and teachers said that you are very frugal. This can be seen from the way you dress. I can tell." Ming Shu put his hands together, leaned forward, and looked at Ling Xuzhi with a sense of oppression, "The only time you splurged was when you spent 7000 yuan to watch nine almost identical folk music performances. Lost the money you saved hard by working part-time."

Ling Xuzhi's pupils constricted and he began to tremble.

"Before that, you didn't have much interest in folk music. When you first came to work at 'Jianjia Bailu' in March, Shi Hanshan got some tickets for folk music performances and gave them to you part-time teachers as benefits. After you get them What did you do?" Ming Shu seemed to ask.

Ling Xuzhi couldn't look at Mingshu, and looked away, his lips twitched.

"You sold it." Mingshu said, "How do you explain that just over a month later, you paid for it and watched nine folk music performances?"

After a moment of silence, Mingshu said: "Because in April, Sha Chun came to 'Jianjia Bailu'. You admire her and want to see her on stage. After watching one, you are even more fascinated by her. Out of control."

"No, no!" Ling Xuzhi shook his head frantically, "It's not what you think!"

Mingshu asked back: "What am I thinking?"

Ling Xuzhi's eyes were red, and the tendons on his neck seemed to be protruding.

Ming Shu asked: "You have seen Sha Chun's performances nine times, does Sha Chun know?"

Ling Xuzhi shook his head first, then quickly nodded in panic.

"No, Sha Chun doesn't know." Mingshu said, "Sha Chun doesn't know that someone is willing to watch nine performances for her, nor that you admire her. What you do is always where she doesn't notice Watching her silently, admiring her. Let me guess why."

"Stop talking!" Ling Xuzhi shouted suddenly, "You don't understand at all!"

Mingshu nodded, "I don't understand, what do you say?"

Ling Xuzhi remained silent again.

"You have low self-esteem. You feel that you are not qualified to pursue Sha Chun because you were born in poverty. You feel that once you confess, Sha Chun will definitely reject you." Ming Shu said: "Every time you meet in 'Jianjia Bailu', you will try to talk to Sha Chun, But these words are greetings at the colleague level.”

Ling Xuzhi's hands were clenched under the table, and the sweat stains on the poor-quality shirt became thicker.

"The more you long for Shachun, the more you think that you are not worthy of Shachun. She is a dazzling goddess on the stage, has a decent and stable job, and has her own house, while you are just a poor student who needs to apply for a bursary." Mingshu spoke faster and his eyes became sharper, "Suddenly you understand, with the gap between you, you can't have Shachun! But you can't accept that Shachun is owned by others, you thought of a way - use Death will completely take Sha Chun as his own!"

"No!" Ling Xuzhi yelled, "It wasn't me! I didn't kill Sha Chun! You framed good people!"

Mingshu slides his finger on the tablet, every screen is full of Shachun.

The field office found a box under the bed in Ling Xuzhi's dormitory, which contained printed photos. The protagonists were all Sha Chun. Chun followed closely on the way to and from work.

In addition, there are many sketches of Sha Chun in Ling Xuzhi's studio.

Ling Xuzhi has excellent professional grades. He is good at writing and drawing. The "Sha Chun" he wrote seems to have life, like a flower growing vigorously under the spring breeze.

"You can refute me." Mingshu spread his hands, "Explain again, why were you so nervous when I first mentioned Sha Chun in 'Jianjia Bailu'?"

"I just stalked her!" Ling Xuzhi tremblingly said, "The worst thing I've ever done is stalking! I never harassed her, never let her know that I like her, how could I hurt her?"

Mingshu shook his head, "There is no necessary connection between the two."

After a while, Mingshu asked, "Where are you on Saturday night?"

"I'm learning……"

"You are not in 'Jianjia Bailu', nor in the Academy of Fine Arts." Mingshu interrupted, "I have already verified this, so don't bother to lie."

Ling Xuzhi swallowed the word "school" that he hadn't said yet, and said after a long time: "I'm near the Jiangnan Theater."

"I know that the folk orchestra has performances, but they don't sell tickets. I want to see Sha Chun." Ling Xuzhi said hesitantly, "but from the time the folk orchestra arrived to when it left, I didn't see Sha Chun."

"And then?" Mingshu asked.

"I'm in a bad mood and haven't gone back to school for the time being."

"You always have somewhere to go."

"I took a casual walk for a while..."

Mingshu frowned, "You haven't explained why you were nervous when I mentioned Sha Chun."

"I thought Sha Chun knew that I was following her, so I called the police and asked you to investigate!" Ling Xuzhi's red eyes suddenly shed tears, "My queen, I only found out later that Sha Chun was killed!"

After saying this, Ling Xuzhi covered his face tightly and wept loudly in the inquiry room.

At the same time, Xiao Yu'an got a message on the intranet that in June this year, police from the Hulin Police Station in Dongcheng District went to "Jianjia Bailu" to investigate a case of disappearance.

The man in the case is Wu Zhen, 40 years old, who studied at "Jianjia Bailu" from April to May, and left because he was dissatisfied with the course.

The police didn't seem to think that "Jianjia Bailu" had anything to do with Wu Zhen's disappearance, and the investigation was just a matter of routine.

The disappearance case has not been solved so far.