Chapter 20: Holy Monk, Come On, Come Play with Me

In his past life, Lu Zhongxin had indeed fallen on this case.

The situation at the time was exactly the same as now: the task force unanimously regarded the missing Kong Lingjie as a major suspect.

Just a few days later, Kong Lingjie was caught at a nearby hotel.

It went even more smoothly than expected. During interrogation, the suspect confessed without reservation, admitting that he had been moved to lust upon seeing the victim's beauty.

On Zhang Yan's way home from school, he abducted her to a rented room and intended to assault her.

The result was that Zhang Yan fought desperately and refused to submit, and Kong Lingjie, enraged at the rejection, strangled her to death.

The task force believed the facts of the case were already clear and the evidence was established and sufficient.

It could be determined that the suspect had indeed committed the crime and criminal responsibility needed to be pursued.

Next, the case would be transferred for review and prosecution.

In the past life, this case had gone this smoothly.

The only thing that made the task force feel suspicious was the trial stage.

The defendant, that is Kong Lingjie, had actually hired a very famous lawyer.

On the grounds of his good attitude in confessing and actively cooperating with the investigation, the lawyer pleaded for a lighter sentence.

And the result was that he really did get sentenced to a death sentence with a two-year reprieve.

Are you thinking the matter ends here?

Everyone who knew about this case at the time thought so.

No one expected that the truly miraculous part had only just begun.

Because Kong Lingjie committed no intentional crime during the reprieve period and performed well, two years later his sentence was reduced to life imprisonment.

Another year passed, that was the third year of Kong Lingjie's Sentence period… he had his conviction overturned.

Can a conviction be overturned while serving a sentence?

Of course it can. Not only can it be overturned during the sentence period, even after the sentence is fully served it can still be overturned.

The famous lawyer who had helped Kong Lingjie escape the death penalty three years earlier reappeared.

This time he produced new evidence: Kong Lingjie's alibi.

According to the forensic autopsy report, the time of death of the deceased Zhang Yan was between 14:00 and 17:00 on the afternoon of June 5, 2014.

Because the body was discovered four days later, the time of death could only be narrowed down to within three hours.

What the lawyer provided was audio-visual evidence, namely a surveillance recording from inside a shopping mall.

The surveillance began at 15:20 on the afternoon of June 5, 2014.

In the surveillance video, Kong Lingjie wandered around the fourth floor of the shopping mall for at least ten minutes.

Finally, he lingered in a men's clothing store for twelve minutes and purchased a men's jacket.

And this shopping mall… was not in Songhai!

The distance between the two places was 240 kilometers.

What does this distance indicate?

As an analogy, at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour, the one-way 240 kilometers would take 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Moreover, this speed could only be achieved on a highway.

In actual calculation, this time would need to be increased by at least another 20 minutes, because getting on and off the highway also takes a certain amount of time.

In other words, within Zhang Yan's time of death, Kong Lingjie absolutely could not have appeared in Songhai!

That wasn't all. The lawyer also produced the merchant's receipt and paper invoice left when Kong Lingjie purchased the jacket in the shopping mall.

Afterwards, he also provided the in-store surveillance video from the merchant.

This was sufficient to prove that Kong Lingjie's alibi was genuine and valid.

Then the question arose: since you were not at the scene at the time, why did you confess without reservation during the interrogation?

The explanation Kong Lingjie gave was: coerced confession through torture.

And he pointed the spearhead directly at Lu Zhongxin, insisting outright that it was this Officer Lu who had coerced him through torture, and he even specified the exact methods used.

Down to every single sentence Lu Zhongxin had said.

Among them was: "Tell me, why did you kill Zhang Yan?"

This sentence was a typical leading prompt.

It directly gave the answer: you are the murderer of Zhang Yan. It didn't need you to admit it, just state the reason for the killing.

Of course it wasn't just this one sentence, there was also…

"The homeowner has already identified you. Whether you confess or not, your guilt can be established. If your attitude is bad, the sentence might even be heavier."

This was deceiving the suspect into confessing.

"Once the matter is explained clearly, it counts as turning yourself in. We'll then explain to the court that your attitude was good, and let the court sentence you to a reprieve."

This was luring the suspect into confessing.

All of the above fall within the scope of illegal interrogation. And Lu Zhongxin had used almost all of them.

Are you very curious? These are very common in TV dramas.

That's exactly how the police interrogate criminals on TV.

What does this indicate?

The screenwriters don't understand the law.

Besides, no one expects to see a real interrogation process in TV dramas; most people just watch for the plot.

You can even watch anti-Japanese war dramas with great relish, let alone cop-and-robber films.

Three years later, Kong Lingjie was actually able to accurately repeat what Lu Zhongxin had said at the time, almost word for word.

When the court retried the case, it also pulled up the interrogation recording from that time, and it was exactly the same as what Kong Lingjie had said.

Do you think that's all there is to be afraid of?

Not yet — the truly terrifying part is still to come.

He also pointed out that Lu Zhongxin had used severe torture to coerce a confession from him.

Please... go ahead and... bookmark... 6... 9... book........!

But the court found no violent behavior of any kind by Lu Zhongxin in the interrogation video.

Kong Lingjie, on the other hand, spelled out the specific method.

During the interrogation, he said he was hungry, and Lu Zhongxin made him a bucket of instant noodles.

While eating, he noticed the broth was unusually salty — extra salt must have been added.

The water given to him afterward had also been salted, so the more he drank, the thirstier he got.

And he smelled a heavy sesame-oil odor in his meals, which left him with diarrhea every day — even after eating, he still felt starving.

As time wore on, he couldn't hold out any longer, and confessed to everything, even things he hadn't done.

This is the "traceless" nature of coerced interrogation.

It's a two-way street: if you leave no trace, he leaves no trace either. Three years have already passed, and even if Lu Zhongxin had a mouth, he couldn't explain himself clearly.

Simply denying it isn't enough — you have to produce evidence.

The other side was playing a reverse game.

By that time, Lu Zhongxin had long since been promoted to captain of the criminal-investigation unit; in the end, his rise really did owe itself to the successful closure of this case.

But when the backlash came, this by-the-book old criminal investigator couldn't bear up under it.

He might not have cared about his life, but he certainly cared about his reputation.

When a great pot fell from the sky and smeared him with stains, Lu Zhongxin chose to use his life to wash the injustice from himself.

He killed himself.

Before his death, he returned all his police equipment — including his firearm — to the unit, and even folded his uniform neatly and laid it on the bed in the dormitory.

Then, wearing the casual clothes he usually wore, he leapt off the bridge.

Because of this, Yu Dazhang spent over a month in a daze in his previous life.

Later, after going over it again, he reached the following conclusions.

When Lu Zhongxin first took on this case, he was at the crucial moment of his career's upward climb.

So at the time, this case was extremely tempting for him.

That eagerness for quick success also led Lu Zhongxin to use unconventional interrogation methods during the questioning.

It's just like a fox spirit tempting Elder Tang: "Holy monk, come on, come play with me."

Once Elder Tang took the bait, the other side showed its true face: "No way — Holy monk, please behave yourself."

You think Elder Tang could swallow that insult~

Still, Yu Dazhang could be certain that his master would never stoop to a low-down trick like "adding salt to instant noodles."

Lu Zhongxin might make verbal mistakes, but he would never make a principled one.

At the same time, he firmly believed his master would never do anything that crossed the bottom line.

If Lu Zhongxin were really that kind of person, in his previous life he wouldn't have resolutely chosen to take his own life.

Therefore, Kong Lingjie must have been lying.

To trap Lu Zhongxin and achieve his own exoneration, he spent a full three years setting the snare.

Because in his previous life he wasn't a member of the task force, Yu Dazhang could only make these inferences.

This life is different — not only does he know how things unfold later, he's also joined the task force.

Since his master still chose to take on this case, then let him go mad alongside him this once.

"Master…" Yu Dazhang stood in the hallway, muttering to himself:

"In this life, I'll do my best to keep you from becoming Elder Tang."

(End of chapter)