Binjiang Police Affairs

From appearances, he was refined and scholarly, a fragile bookworm through and through.

Based on his performance at work over the years, he was warm to others, hardworking and responsible, well-liked with an impeccable reputation...

Who could imagine such a person could be a murderer, and more so, a murderer who played with killing?

Listening intently, Han Yu was secretly alarmed, his whole being in a daze, feeling that everything was so unreal.

In Captain Wei's opinion, there must be a motive for murder. He closely pressed Lu Binxiang, "Murder is not like slaughtering chickens; besides, even if marital troubles make you anxious, there are many ways to relieve stress, such as talking to friends or having a drink. Why would you think of murder?"

Lu Binxiang said indifferently, "Actually, I've wanted to kill people for a long time."

"How long is a long time?"

"When I was a child attending elementary school in the rural areas of Baoshan, there was a slaughterhouse near the school. Once, while playing around, I saw female butchers electrocute pigs and then stab them in the neck with a long, sharp knife. The blood spurted out, and the white flesh of the pigs trembled. The impression was too deep, it lingered and I couldn't shake it off. I was very curious about how killing a person differed from slaughtering a pig."

"In elementary school, I had a Chinese language teacher. I didn't exactly hate her, but she always seemed to like twisting students' ears, and her voice sounded very odd. Looking at her pale neck, even then I had a strange thought about wanting to stab it with a knife."

Lu Binxiang paused for a moment before continuing, "You just mentioned reaching out to friends for drinks to relieve anxiety. Essentially, in this world, I don't have any friends I can confide in, including my spouse."

Han Yu couldn't help saying, "Lu Binxiang, we've known each other for so many years. To my knowledge, your family is very happy, and it seems like your wife was your first love. She's so beautiful and cultured."

"Her overall qualities are indeed good, and she loves me very much, but she doesn't understand me. That's the biggest mistake in our marriage."

"... "

He's a madman!

Encountering such an ungrateful madman who doesn't know how blessed he is, Han Yu had nothing more to ask.

This is a homicide case, and the details, especially the motive, must be made clear.

Captain Wei continued the questioning, and Lu Binxiang answered every question.

Having listened from a corner for nearly an hour, Han Yu finally understood that his family was not as harmonious as he had previously thought.

Although he was not married into a matriarchal family, his hometown was in East Sea, and his wife's family in Binjiang was quite distinguished, so her personality was as domineering as his school seniors'.

In other words, he had little status at home.

Han Yu felt that as long as there was love, a family didn't need status. However, Lu Binxiang didn't think so, and his personality wasn't as broad-minded as he appeared to be. He was actually petty, laughing things off on the surface, but in reality, he kept everything in his heart.

Due to his work, he often dealt with shipowners.

When a shipowner invited him out for a meal or to a beauty salon for a hair wash, Lu Binxiang, who couldn't control himself, just went along and even had a brief extramarital affair with a very "feminine" married woman, leading to talks of divorce with his spouse.

His spouse disagreed, and he didn't want to make a big fuss, so he took a leave of absence from work and went to Jiangcheng to do business for a year.

That was a significant turning point in his life.

Feeling utterly despondent, he met a hostess in Jiangcheng and spent five hundred yuan to spend a night with her. After being intimate multiple times, the hostess grew fond of him, later not even wanting his money. When he was about to leave Jiangcheng, the hostess wanted to live with him long-term, but he firmly rejected her.

He felt that his relationship with the hostess was purely physical, and through his interactions with her, he claimed to have gained a deep understanding of that group of people, which he looked down upon and despised...

And thus developed a habit of going out to kill hostesses to vent his frustration whenever he felt oppressed at home.

After making his motive for murder clear, Captain Wei seized the opportunity to ask about the events of last month.

Lu Binxiang admitted to everything he was asked, confirming that the hostess near the long-distance bus station beauty salon was also killed by him, and he detailed how the murder was committed.

After the crime, he tried to cleverly disguise the scene, but the disguise was not convincing enough.

Except for the victim's pager, nothing valuable in the room was stolen.

The Special Task Force, comparing the patterns of the crime and the victim's profession, found the case to be extremely similar to an unresolved case from the previous year. They meticulously examined both crime scenes and indeed, fingerprints collected at both scenes matched—belonging to the same person!

The victim's pager was not found, but someone knew the pager number.

The City Bureau Criminal Investigation Team and the Port District Bureau traced dozens of phone numbers that had paged the victim by retrieving the call records from the paging station.

Many people used the public phone, a daunting amount of work to investigate.

After more than a month of investigation, Lu Binxiang came into the Special Task Force's sights.

He had paged the victim twice using a public phone near the Port Supervision Bureau. The boss lady at the phone booth remembered him well because he was an official from the Port Supervision Bureau. He had phones in his office and even the reception room, so why wouldn't he use them instead of running outside?

Considering that he was a government official, Captain Wei was initially just suspicious that he was seeking hostesses, not thinking he could be a murderer. But to be absolutely certain, an investigator disguised as a shipowner went to the ship inspection department to handle official business and covertly collected Lu Binxiang's fingerprints.

This evening, the fingerprint comparison came through.

If Lu Binxiang's fingerprints being at the scene of the murder a month ago could still be a coincidence, how could his fingerprints appearing at the scene of a murder from a year ago be explained?

There can't be that many coincidences; it must be him!

So, forces were organized to find the Wushan Hotel, and he was apprehended from his celebratory dinner.

It's worth mentioning that Captain Wei hadn't revealed how they traced him, but he had guessed it himself, even ruefully stating that he hesitated when making his move, knowing he had called that hostess twice and could easily be tracked down by the police. But he just couldn't help himself...

Couldn't help himself!

Just listening to it was terrifying.

If Captain Wei hadn't caught him, who knows how many unfortunate women might have been murdered by him, and even his spouse could have been a potential victim.

Han Yu shivered, thinking that scum like him, with the heart of a beast in human form, deserved to die, deserved to be shot, when Captain Wei cleared his throat and asked coldly, "Just two murders? Lu Binxiang, we've come this far in the conversation, there's no need to tell only half the story."

"I only killed two, but if I had the chance, I think I would kill again."

"Don't you remember what you did on the night of December 26th, 1990?"

He had explained clearly about the incident six years ago, hadn't he? He began killing people six years ago...

Han Yu was stunned for a moment, then suddenly remembered the 12.26 case that Director Jiang had always been brooding over, and subconsciously looked towards Lu Binxiang.

"December 1990... In December 1990, I went to Hanwu for training."

"You really went to Hanwu for training, and you remember the events of December six years ago so clearly?"

"I really did attend the training in Hanwu. I remember it well. My son's birthday was during those days, and my spouse kept calling to ask when I would be back. I told her I couldn't return. She said others could take leave, so why couldn't I? She even got angry with me."

At this point, Lu Binxiang also realized what Captain Wei was really asking and became anxious. He struggled to stand up and roared, "You're trying to ask if I killed Secretary Li's spouse, right? If I did it, I'll admit it, but don't try to pin it on me if I didn't!"

Captain Wei stared at him and asked, "You know Secretary Li?"

"Li Haiqiang, the secretary at the City Committee Office. His family went through such a big incident, who in the Port Authority and our Port Supervision Bureau wouldn't know!"

"What happened to his family?"

"His partner was murdered, killed on the way back from drinking at the Sailor Club. I know him and have met his spouse. His partner was a good woman, not a prostitute. How could I ever kill her? I know you have a job to solve the case, but you can't wrong me!"

"How did you come to know Secretary Li, and how did you come to know his partner?"

"Every year before Spring Festival, the city leaders would visit my father-in-law to pay their respects. Once, Secretary Li accompanied them, and my spouse and I happened to be at my father-in-law's house. That's how I got to know him. As for Secretary Li's partner, Xun Li, it was by chance during shopping at a mall. Our two families stood and talked for a bit."

"What happened afterward?"

"After that, I had no further contact, and then later on, I heard about the incident in his family."

Thinking about the dinner conversation earlier where the Changhang Bureau and the Water Police Station chiefs mentioned cracking the case, Lu Binxiang became even more uneasy and urgently said, "Salted Fish, for all the years we've known each other, you have to help me clear this up."

Han Yu asked expressionlessly, "Clear up what?"

Lu Binxiang struggled and said, "Clear up whether I had the time to kill Xun Li. It's not hard to check, a lot of people attended the training that year. Just ask the people who were there with me, and they'll know where I was!"

Before Han Yu could say anything, Captain Wei stood up and said, "Don't worry, we will check. If you didn't do it, we won't wrongly accuse you."

"I didn't do it!"

"Okay, put this aside for now. Old Liu, take him to the crime scene to see if we can find that pager before dawn."

"Yes!"

"Salted Fish, come out for a second."

"Alright."

...

Han Yu stepped out of the interrogation room and followed Captain Wei into an office.

An undercover Criminal Police officer brought over a thick stack of case files at Captain Wei's direction. The files contained crime scene investigation records, autopsy reports, fingerprint identification reports, crime scene photos...

According to the crime scene investigation records and autopsy reports of the two homicides, everything Lu Binxiang had just confessed matched perfectly, including the several dozen characteristics of the fingerprints.

The crime scene photos were too gruesome to bear.

That bastard Lu Binxiang not only cut open the victims' bellies, but when he left the scene, he even stabbed a pair of scissors into the victims' private parts.

"Captain Wei, I... I don't know what to say."

"As long as we know we've not wronged him, that's enough."

Han Yu could certainly discern the implication in Captain Wei's words and asked gravely, "Can we tell Director Tang about these details?"

After weighing the situation, Captain Wei nodded slightly, "You can, but since the case is under investigation, only tell Director Tang and Director Zhu, and please ask them to keep it confidential."

"Yes."

"Let's go, I'll drop you off at the Port Supervision Bureau entrance."

"No need to trouble yourself, Uncle Wei, it's not far, I can walk over."

"Director Tang and Director Zhu must be waiting for news; don't keep the leaders waiting. Besides, I'm not going out of my way, just on my way home, and it's about time I got a good night's rest after this past month."

They were both working on cases, but he was handling a homicide!

Homicides have severe implications. As long as the case remains unsolved and the murderer at large, the Port District will be unsettled.

Moreover, the superiors are likely to demand a resolution within a set period, and one can imagine how hard this past month has been for the elder in front of them.

With these thoughts, Han Yu set down the files and sighed, "Captain Wei, compared to you, I feel like I'm not doing real police work."

Captain Wei patted his arm, leading him out while laughing, "That's an exaggeration. It's just a different division of labor. Water security is very important, and you're doing a great job. Moreover, the path you're on is different from mine and Old Jiang's. Follow your mentor's advice, work hard, and you're sure to have a brighter future than me."

"I haven't thought about any career prospects, but I will work hard. After all, besides piloting and repairing boats and water firefighting, I don't know much else."

"That's called having a specialized skill."

"When it comes to expertise, Lu Binxiang really comes from a professional background; he's an expert in ships. It's hard to believe that such a well-known persona could have a double life as a psychopathic killer. I don't even know how I'm going to broach the subject with Director Tang and Sister Zhu later."

Captain Wei opened the car door, sighed softly, and said, "It is indeed awkward for Director Tang and Sister Zhu when things like this happen."

Han Yu said solemnly, "Awkward is an understatement. One bad apple spoils the bunch. Having a murderer like this is like the East Sea Shipping Bureau and Marine Police Bureau collapsing back then. No matter how many achievements are made, the superiors will think there's an internal management issue with the Port Supervision Bureau, and it will take three to five years to recover."