"After Su Hui died ten years ago," Xu Wenchao thought for a moment and sighed heavily. "Su Xiaolan was always eager to see her die when Su Hui was alive; but now that she's gone, Su Xiaolan feels isolated. Her mother's former gambling parlor is also being demolished. Su Xiaolan said she couldn’t trust anyone else, so she sought my help. What could I do? I had no boundaries."
"At the time, the apartment in the Sunlit Community was being sold overseas, and my income was good. My family gave me some money too, so I bought it for them," Xu Wenchao lowered his head. "I let her use that place."
Luo Wenzhou “Oh”ed softly: "So, Su Xiaolan started as a girl, then became pregnant, and eventually a mother. She used the identity of someone needing to give way on public transportation to lower victims' guard, lure children, and kidnap them for abuse before killing them. You provided the venue, handling the disposal of bodies. How did you do it? Did you cut up the bodies and throw them away somewhere else as I suspect?"
Xu Wenchao took a deep breath and covered his face without refuting.
"She’s dead now, but the nightmare continues. I found that little Luozan... is just like her—she doesn’t meet adoption criteria. For the past two months, I've been trying to think of ways to handle it. But not watching me closely, she contacted those people secretly—the shock I felt when hearing about the missing girl on the radio and then being interrogated about that case twenty years ago, what was that like for you?" Xu Wenchao's eyes red with emotion stared at Luo Wenzhou. "You caught me; it’s a relief to be free from all this."
Luo Wenzhou's phone vibrated lightly as Lang Qiao sent a message: "Chief, we've got the bastard! He still denies knowing, but he saw the photos too. Keep waiting for me to dig up information on the others!"
"Wait," Luo Wenzhou ignored his emotional confession. He put away his phone and changed his tone drastically. "You say you couldn't control Su Luozan and knew nothing? But that girl says otherwise—she said you worked well together, dressing as an old blind man to stalk Zhang Yuchen, scaring her child when they were alone, then letting Su Luozan take advantage of the trust. Is that true?"
The criminal group's operation always centered around the Sus’ family members, who merely enjoyed and paid for it without taking risks. So, the victims should be selected by the Sus’, with a complete process from initial selection to tracking and kidnapping—this fit their modus operandi.
That meant their previous idea of a "criminal gang" model where several suspects chose their targets and used Su Luozan as bait was impossible.
Xu Wenchao was too smart. He could analyze the evidence found by the police immediately after his shock, cleverly avoiding responsibility—just a helper disposing bodies out of emotional cover-up.
But inadvertently, he confessed to the core criminal model revealed in Su Xiaolan’s diary.
That meant the person who tracked Chen Chen must be Xu Wenchao; he was not passively covering up but actively involved!
Why did the case of Qu Tong suddenly complicate things?
Why did Xu Wenchao get interrogated about Qu Tong, revealing how shocked Su Luozan had been when imitating a case from twenty years ago?
Because Su Luozan acted on her own and was "out of control," trying to break free from the "cleaner" she didn't like—taking up one client's private job!
"Xu Wenchao, you found out about the relationship between Wu Guangchuan and Su Xiaolan and felt disgusted, suspecting Wu Guangchuan of rape. But you didn’t tell anyone; instead, you started secretly spying on them," Luo Wenzhou stared at him intently, not giving him a chance to respond. "Did it look good? Did it satisfy your curiosity for years?"
Xu Wenchao's face turned pale as he tightly clenched his lips, and his pupils dilated slightly. His throat moved involuntarily, and fine sweat trickled down from his nose.
"You say you saw Su Xiaolan with a stranger but didn't greet her; why? Can’t you greet classmates if others are around?" Luo Wenzhou stood up suddenly, grabbing Xu Wenchao's collar. "When I saw Su Xiaolan burning floral dresses at home and caught you, how did that happen? Did she hide something before opening the door? Because you barged in while Su Hui was out—while entering a girl’s room alone... What were you doing, Xu Wenchao?"
“I didn’t…”
"You never touched those girls," Luo Wenzhou lowered his voice to whisper in his ear. "Because you couldn't get hard; you placed her 13-year-old photo before Su Xiaolan's ashes and stuck a picture from twenty years ago on the window, because your infatuation was with that cold-blooded, twisted girl who mercilessly harmed others—instead of the Su Xiaolan terrified by Wu Guangchuan’s death, controlled by her sick mother and you."
"Do you only get excited when you see her commit crimes like she did back then, handling bodies?"
Xu Wenchao could barely stand upright as he weakly gripped Luo Wenzhou's hand. “I…”
"Why suddenly want to marry Su Xiaolan? Because you saw twenty years later, Su Luozan perfectly resembled what she was like before—do you want to be Wu Guangchuan?"