Chapter 52 You Did It on Purpose

The transcripts of Zhang Yan’s parents were indeed recorded personally by Yu Dazhang.

According to their accounts, Zhou Zizhe’s family only became wealthy later on.

Zhou Hongfu started out as a carpenter. Through a stroke of good fortune, he later became a construction contractor, commonly known as a foreman.

When Zhou Zizhe was first brought into the Zhou household, they were still just an ordinary family.

In the memory of Zhang Yan’s parents, that boy was taciturn and never greeted anyone he met.

However, their own daughter always liked to invite him to play.

The fact that Zhou Zizhe was not Zhou Hongfu’s biological child was no secret among the neighbors.

After all, when a family suddenly acquires a boy out of nowhere, it is bound to attract the attention of those around them.

Especially since the Zhou family already had a daughter.

That girl had even told Zhou Zizhe repeatedly in public, "This is my home, not yours."

Living as neighbors for a long time, anyone with eyes could see what was going on; they simply chose not to talk about it.

Later, when the Zhou family grew rich, they moved to a new residential complex across the street, and naturally, the two children had fewer opportunities to meet.

Yet Zhou Zizhe would still find various excuses every few days to come see Zhang Yan, occasionally bringing small gifts.

In the eyes of Zhang Yan’s parents, they simply had the relationship of siblings who had grown up together.

Even upon learning the news of Zhang Yan’s murder, they never suspected Zhou Zizhe—not even for a second.

Would Yu Dazhang show such a transcript to Zhou Zizhe?

Certainly not.

He would never allow Zhou Zizhe to find any logical connections within this transcript.

This was a man adept at utilizing everything he could, and acting with extreme ruthlessness.

Single-handedly, he had dragged both his biological father and his adoptive father into the mire, turning them into accomplices in this murder case.

Yu Dazhang would never give such a person the slightest chance to make a comeback.

"Don't even think about the transcript," Yu Dazhang said flatly, refusing before offering a hint:

"You can make your deductions based on the story I told you earlier."

Pausing for a moment, he continued:

"Oh, right, you must have already deduced it. You wanted to see the transcript just to verify whether your deduction was correct."

"Too bad, you are destined never to see this transcript."

It wasn't that he wanted to deliberately toy with Zhou Zizhe.

Rather, he was using this method to send a message: those little schemes of yours won't get you anywhere with me.

Yu Dazhang knew very well that it was impossible to make someone like this confess voluntarily.

Only by shattering every illusion in his heart and crushing the last shred of hope within him would he cooperate with the interrogation and confess to his crimes.

Zhou Zizhe did not show anger; he maintained his calm demeanor, clearly having anticipated that Yu Dazhang might refuse.

"If I can't see it, then I won't. Can I ask a question, then?"

"Go ahead," Yu Dazhang answered decisively, though his expression remained frighteningly gloomy.

"Where did I slip up?" This question amounted to Zhou Zizhe's indirect confession.

Yu Dazhang caught the implication. Once he answered this question, Zhou Zizhe would proceed to confess to all his crimes.

Therefore, he had to answer.

And he had to give him a convincing answer.

"Before I answer this, let me make a guess."

With that, Yu Dazhang gave Qian Cheng a look.

Qian Cheng instantly understood and began rummaging through the case files.

"You must have never set foot in Kong Lingjie's home—that is to say, the forged crime scene."

As soon as these words fell, Qian Cheng walked up to Zhou Zizhe holding a report, presenting it to him with both hands.

"This is the crime scene investigation report of Kong Lingjie's rented apartment. There are only his footprints inside."

After Zhou Zizhe finished reading it, Yu Dazhang continued:

"This was your biggest loophole."

"Had you gone along with Kong Lingjie to transport the body to the apartment, given your professional knowledge and perfectionist personality, you would have been fully capable of fabricating a flawless, indistinguishable crime scene."

"Yet you didn't, because you look down on your biological father. In your heart, he is not worthy of being your father."

"So you preferred to take the risk rather than go to his place."

"And Kong Lingjie merely placed the body—which you had already thoroughly cleaned—onto the bed."

"Do I still need to spell out the rest?"

Silence filled the room. Zhou Zizhe frowned, seemingly deep in thought.

After a long while, he spoke:

"There were no signs of a fierce struggle at the scene, and the footprints were wrong."

"Even so, the fact that you noticed these details proves you are no ordinary criminal investigator."

"Investigating crime scenes is the job of the forensics department, and forensics merely collects existing traces."

"Nowadays, criminal investigators handling cases just look at the completed investigation reports; very few make independent deductions."

"You essentially did the work of two departments all by yourself."

"Looking at it this way, losing to you is no disgrace."

Hearing this final sentence, Yu Dazhang knew the case was securely in hand.

In other words, Zhou Zizhe had started confessing.

Seeing him slip back into contemplation, Yu Dazhang did not disturb him, choosing instead to watch quietly.

As long as you confess, I'm willing to cooperate with you, I'll cooperate with you completely... Even if Zhou Zizhe asked for a cigarette right now, Yu Dazhang would grant it.

Confessing is mentally exhausting, after all.

About a minute later, Zhou Zizhe suddenly furrowed his brows:

"Given your ability, once the forensics department finished investigating the scene at Zhang Yan's house, you would have found me immediately."

"No, even earlier!"

"The moment you checked the surveillance footage of Zhang Yan returning home, you had already figured out that the person talking to her was me."

"That being the case, you could have pulled the call logs using her phone number and found me."

"Yet you let both opportunities pass and instead chose to wait for me to walk right into your trap."

"Why?"

"Why would you do that?!"

As the saying goes, he hated criminals with brains... Yu Dazhang knew Zhou Zizhe would figure it out eventually, but he hadn't expected it to happen so soon.

The case was about to be closed; why couldn't he just quietly confess instead of digging so deep to understand every little thing?

So much tenacity—how annoying!

"I was negligent," Yu Dazhang brazenly played dumb.

Nobody is perfect; forgetting something once or twice wasn't a major flaw, right?

Who doesn't make minor mistakes?

"Impossible!" Zhou Zizhe retorted loudly:

"Without meticulous thinking, you couldn't have investigated this case to this extent."

"You couldn't possibly have missed such a crucial link. You must have had a purpose."

Yu Dazhang did not answer. He simply watched him quietly, a faint, ambiguous smile hanging on his lips.

A sudden illusion washed over Zhou Zizhe—he felt like a mouse being played with by a cat.

No, this was no illusion.

"I get it!" Zhou Zizhe's eyes suddenly widened:

"You did it on purpose. You wanted to drag it out and make me suffer in agonizing terror."

"In your view, I was bound to walk into your net, which is why you dared to do this."

"Why do that?"

"We clearly had no intersection, no grudges, and no enmity. I can't figure out why you would use such a method to torture me."

"Those two days, I wanted to end it all several times, but I couldn't reconcile myself to dying without seeing the scene for myself."

"It was agonizing..."

"You must have done it on purpose. You even calculated down to this."

"Do you really have to go this far just to solve a case? Isn't finding the killer enough?"

"What on earth is the reason?!?"

By the end, Zhou Zizhe was practically roaring, revealing the absolute collapse and despair within his heart.

"You're overthinking it," Yu Dazhang wore an innocent expression, even spreading his hands:

"I really just messed up."