Chapter 226

Chapter 226 - 226 219 Wen Yuans biological daughter (second update)

Chapter 226: 219: Wen Yuan’s biological daughter (second update) Chapter 226: 219: Wen Yuan’s biological daughter (second update) An hour ago, Shen Ru suddenly remembered something. On the evening of the 20th, she had helped “Qin Ke” deal with two blood-stained garments.

The police found those two garments in the potted plants of the Qin Family’s greenhouse.

Then, Liu Wenhua actively changed her testimony.

“Qin Qi told me not to drink the medicine that had been prepared ahead of time.”

Liu Wenhua also said, “I didn’t know it was poisoned and didn’t dare to ask. I did whatever Qin Qi told me to do because,” she admitted voluntarily, “he is the biological father of my daughter.”

The chain of evidence was finally complete, with testimony and physical evidence, solid as a rock, securing a conviction for Qin Qi seemed all but certain.

Lin Yaoping had been sleeping in his office for a week. The case was coming to an end, yet he was still reviewing the documents.

“Isn’t everything already crystal clear? Are there any doubts left?”

Lin Yaoping couldn’t quite articulate it, “Don’t you think it’s all gone too smoothly?”

“Has it?”

“I have no doubts that Qin Qi is the murderer, but all the evidence and witnesses have come to us voluntarily; that’s very peculiar.”

Zhang Qian thought carefully and it seemed true.

The turn in this case hinged on Shen Ru. The initial evidence suggested that Shen Ru desired to be legitimate, so she poisoned Liu Wenhua’s medicine, which was accidentally drunk by Qin Ke. It was thought to be manslaughter, but during her confession, Shen Ru unintentionally provided a crucial clue.

The night Shen Ru turned herself in—

“After realizing the similarities between the two medicines, I was overcome by a crazy idea and secretly swapped the Honeysuckle in the medicine with Hooked Cymbidium Flower, thinking that Mrs. Qin’s health was poor and that if something went wrong, as long as Mr. Er didn’t report it, the issue could be concealed. But I never expected... I never expected by some cruel twist of fate, Mr. Er would drink it.”

She cried as if she had lost her husband: “Officer Lin, could you let me see Mr. Er one last time? It’s all my fault, I beg you to let me see him.”

Lin Yaoping found it strange but couldn’t put his finger on why. His intuition told him that Shen Ru was key, so he made an exception and agreed to her request, taking her to see Qin Ke’s body.

Upon seeing the body, Shen Ru’s first words were, “I remember he had a wound on his left abdomen, why can’t I see the wound?”

Due to Shen Ru’s words, the direction of the case became clear: it was not manslaughter, but murder.

If Qin Ke’s body had no wounds, then the man who was involved with Shen Ru that night and who enticed her to commit murder wasn’t Qin Ke, but Qin Qi. Qin Qi had wounds, which also solved the doubts concerning the Junlin Equestrian Club case.

The more Lin Yaoping thought about it, the more complex Shen Ru seemed: “Check Shen Ru’s identity.”

*****

A crescent moon hung solitary in the desolate night sky, stark against the absence of stars.

No, tonight the stars were visible.

Extinguishing the lighter, Wen Changling looked up to see Xingxing approaching her, “Why are you here?”

Xie Shang said, “Just passing by.”

It was Qian Zhouzhou who had sent him a message. He had a hunch that tonight he needed to be by Miss Wen’s side.

He picked up the cat and set it between him and Wen Changling, and they sat together on the old bamboo bed, their shadows partially overlapping.

“What are you burning?”

A pile of paper on the ground hadn’t finished burning yet.

Wen Changling was overwhelmed by a strong, irresistible urge to confess tonight. Her eyes, fixed on the flames, shone brightly, “Burn Qin Qi’s background investigation files.”

Xie Shang had seen her burn things more than once. Each time she completed an act of vengeance, she would burn the documents and photos next to the Uncaria vine.”

“This Uncaria vine was transplanted from my mother’s grave.”

Wen Changling felt that it thrived so well, growing wildly in unsuitable conditions, possibly because its roots were entwined with vengeful spirits.

For the first time, Wen Changling shared Wen Yuan’s story with someone else, “You’ve seen her picture, haven’t you? She was beautiful, and kind. Ah Na and I weren’t her biological children. We were abandoned infants she had adopted. When I was young, I heard her say that the year she turned nineteen was her most unfortunate year. I didn’t understand then, but later, when something happened to Ah Na, she took her own life with Hooked Cymbidium, and in the moments before her death, she called out a name. She called out Qin Qi.”

On the brink of death, one only calls out the name of someone they either love dearly or hate with a passion.

Wen Yuan’s true love was Xie Qingze, but Wen Yuan never accepted him. After each rejection, she would hide away and cry, saying she didn’t deserve him.

Wen Yuan was a weak woman, but it was she, this feeble woman, who withstood all the slanders and raised two children with no blood relation to her.

“I told you before, I once stayed at a relative’s house for a while. I stayed with my relatives to investigate who Qin Qi was.”

Xie Shang remembered.

Wen Changling had mentioned that Zeng Zhili was her relative’s adopted son, and she had stayed at her relative’s house.

“Qin Qi was the reason Wen Yuan committed suicide.”

Wen Changling could now talk about these things without crying, her eyes were dry.

“Xingxing, do you know what happened to the woman who was drugged and bullied by Tong, Zheng, Zhou, and Pang back in Wind Town?” It’s almost laughable, “She took the money and emigrated abroad. No matter how much Yueyue begged, she refused to come forward, refused to testify for Ming Ao. It was because of her that Ming Ao was killed, and she actually chose money over justice. In that moment, the law and morality lost to power and wealth.”

Wen Changling felt that Ming Ao’s fate was so unjust, having overestimated human nature.

“The reporter who initially agreed to expose those four men took someone else’s money and backed out at the last minute. Wu Yuan must have felt so desperate, unable to find anyone to seek justice. So, when she learned that it was Qin Qi who bribed the reporter, she chose to end her own life, as a form of atonement. She blamed herself in her dying moments, saying she was responsible for Ah Na’s demise, yet she had done nothing wrong. The villagers called her promiscuous, accused her of mysteriously getting pregnant with some bastard child. If someone as kind as Wen Yuan abandoned her own child, there’s only one explanation.”

It wasn’t her choice.

No wonder she said that without the strength to protect oneself, beauty could become a sin.

Qin Qi thought Ah Na was his child and, fearing a big scandal and that the media might uncover his past misdeeds through investigation, he stopped the exposure by the reporters, severing Wen Yuan’s final lifeline.

Looking at Xie Shang with tears not in her eyes, but with a slight redness, Wen Changling said, “Xingxing, I hope he dies.”

“Okay, I’ll help you,”

She shook her head again, muttering, “He can’t die.”

Wen Yuan took an abortifacient, yet the child still survived.

She gave the child a name. She hated Qin Qi so much that she abandoned the child, but her heart softened again. However, by the time she looked back, it was already too late to find the child. That’s why she adopted two more children.

“Do you know why I am called Changling?”

“She hoped you would live a long and prosperous life.”

Tears finally shone in Wen Changling’s eyes, “This name, it’s the one Wen Yuan gave to her daughter.”

Wen Yuan said, “Changling, don’t blame your mother.”

She said that Changling must feel pitiful too because her mother had recklessly taken medicine that left scars on her little face.