Chapter 29 Life or Death
"Don't forget, Song Fei's parents are wealthy, and his personal hobby is hooking up through various means."
"If the killer, Wang Chongyang, was indeed the person who passed by and saved Li Jiaxin back then, only to be wrongly imprisoned, then his act of chopping up the two bodies makes perfect sense."
"And the parents of the deceased, the counselor Liu Hongxia..."
Chen Mo closed his eyes, and with a little thought, he could piece together the general course of events from back then.
Song Fei raped Li Jiaxin and was subsequently stopped by Wang Chongyang, who happened to be passing by. However, Song Fei's parents had money and connections; they bribed Li Jiaxin to give false testimony while also buying off the counselor, Liu Hongxia.
Three years later, Wang Chongyang was released from prison and began this revenge plan!
"It fits. If that's the case, all the previous doubts are explained."
"From the perspective of Li Jiaxin's parents, their daughter is already dead. If they were to speak up about Wang Chongyang now, it would 100% constitute the crime of framing."
"By the same logic, the counselor Liu Hongxia and Song Fei's parents probably think the same way."
A look of realization dawned on Long Hao's face, and he immediately ordered Xiao Liu to arrest the three.
At the same time, he pulled up Wang Chongyang's personal information.
Wang Chongyang, age 25, a native of Wangjia Village in Muhe. He was expelled from the Muhe Institute of Technology three years ago, subsequently sentenced to three years for rape, and released in early August after serving his term.
Among the information was a recent photo of Wang Chongyang in prison.
Long Hao stared at the photo and rubbed his eyes.
This guy looks a bit familiar, as if he'd seen him somewhere before, but how could he have?
Wasn't he just released from prison last month?
"I feel like I've seen this person somewhere, but I can't recall it right now."
As he spoke, he handed the photo to Chen Mo.
The two of them had been together these past few days; perhaps Chen Mo had seen him too.
He took the photo, and the moment he saw the person in it, his brain buzzed.
It's him!?
Chen Mo's gaze was fixed on the clean-looking young man in the photo.
Wasn't this the person who had just bumped into him at school and apologized?
His expression darkened instantly.
He killed Li Jiaxin, then Song Fei—is it Liu Hongxia's turn now?
Following the sequence, that should be it; otherwise, there'd be no reason for Wang Chongyang to suddenly return to school.
"It's actually him?"
"Then his return to school this time—isn't it to kill Liu Hongxia, who also framed him back then?"
Long Hao's reaction was also quick, promptly following Chen Mo's train of thought.
He stood up from his chair, intending to lead his men to the school immediately. At this moment, every second counted; it was a race against time.
But as soon as he stood up, he was stopped by Chen Mo.
Too late!
It's too late to go now.
Several hours have passed since they returned from the school.
If she's dead, it's too late to go now; we can only bet that she's still alive.
"If she's not dead, then we need to hurry even more!"
Long Hao scratched his head vigorously.
At this point, wasting even a single second would be irresponsible toward Liu Hongxia's life.
In his eyes, this was a serious dereliction of duty, and he was incredibly anxious.
"If she's still alive, are you going to go there now and tell Wang Chongyang to stop killing? Will he listen?"
"I know you're anxious, but don't panic yet. We must stay calm right now."
— Huff, huff, huff.
Long Hao breathed heavily, forcing himself to calm down quickly.
Experience told him that listening to Chen Mo was always the right choice.
If she was dead, going now would be futile; if she wasn't, his presence might just result in more deaths. The resentment in Wang Chongyang's heart was too great; even a top hostage negotiator wouldn't be effective.
"The rescue method I'm about to propose is based on the assumption that Liu Hongxia is already under Wang Chongyang's control but hasn't been killed yet."
"Based on Wang Chongyang's life experience, he's a very resilient kid. Simply being framed and imprisoned shouldn't have made him hate the two victims to this extent; three years of reform should have been enough to wear down his hostility."
"Wangjia Village, if I remember correctly, is the poorest of the poor. It's safe to describe Wang Chongyang as a child of the mountains."
"For a university student to come out of such a village—do you understand what I mean? It could be described as bringing honor to his ancestors. As glorious as it was then, it was just as miserable when he was imprisoned for rape, especially since he was framed."
Long Hao immediately got what Chen Mo meant.
The one who tied the knot must untie it.
Since the reasons for Wang Chongyang's intense hatred were the mockery from the villagers, his parents' disappointment, and his shattered future after going to prison...
...then if those people could be brought here, it would be far more effective than just telling him not to kill.
It really pays to stay calm.
If he had just rushed over, he might have actually harmed Liu Hongxia.
"Right!"
"That makes sense." He nodded repeatedly.
"We'll split up. You go to the school, and I'll go to Wangjia Village to get the people. We'll stay in touch by phone."
After saying that, he left quickly.
...
Muhe Institute of Technology.
Students were passing by him everywhere.
What Chen Mo needed to do now was find Liu Hongxia as soon as possible. If she was dead, he'd catch the killer; if she wasn't, he'd wait for Long Hao to arrive with the people from Wangjia Village.
Just as he was about to pick up his pace, he realized he was currently at the exact spot where he had bumped into Wang Chongyang earlier.
The smell he had detected on the man's body involuntarily came back to him.
Thinking back now, that pungent sour smell didn't seem to be coming from the body itself.
It seemed more like the scent emitted by an object he was carrying.
Was the item in his backpack?
What kind of thing has a pungent sour smell?
Spoiled food?
Vinegar?
Or spoiled honey?
No, just thinking about "sour" covers too many things.
Wang Chongyang's purpose here is to kill, and a killer would never carry any of those items.
"Killing... pungent sour smell..."
"Sour smell... killing."
He kept repeating these two phrases to himself.
As he walked in front of the office building, his nose caught a faint sour scent again.
What the hell?
His gaze turned toward the flowerbed on one side of the office building.
Because he had been thinking about the sour smell, although the scent was very faint, he still managed to catch it.
Following the scent, he reached the flowerbed and brushed it aside.
Ten cylinders, each about the thickness of a ham sausage and bundled together with black tape, came into view.
On top was a matchbox-sized device, with multiple wires of different colors extending from both ends.
When he realized what this thing was, his temples throbbed.
Beads of sweat instantly broke out on his forehead.
A bomb!
In his past life, while watching anti-Japanese war dramas, he had seen this kind of crude bomb many times.
Damn it!
Is this guy planning to blow up this building?
Then his gaze shifted to the flowerbed on the other side.
No need to check; the killer had basically placed them all along the foundation of the entire building.
They might look small, but there were many of them, and they were placed right against the foundation!
If they all exploded together, the entire building would collapse in an instant.
At this point, he also realized what the sour smell he'd detected earlier was.
It must be one of the materials in the bomb.
Ammonium Nitrate!
The reason he knew about this was because in his past life, he often watched all sorts of weird commentary videos on Bilibili, which allowed him to recognize it immediately now.
He took a deep breath.
He took out his walkie-talkie and called Xiao Zhang and the others.