Chapter 480: Chapter 284: The Source of Inner Demons

In the conference room, Ye Dan walked in slowly. Seeing her elderly parents, tears instantly welled up, and she choked out, “Dad, Mom.”

“Dandan, Dandan, my good daughter, you’ve lost weight.”

The three of them embraced each other, wailing loudly. Seeing Ye Dan like this, Li Xiang knew that this case was almost solved.

As expected, under her parents’ comfort, Ye Dan gradually let down her guard.

A parent’s embrace is always the warmest harbor.

“Dandan, acknowledge your mistakes and turn back; you can’t make another mistake. Whatever happens, you must cooperate with the police investigation. Mom and Dad will wait for you to come out.”

Ye Dan nodded while wiping her tears, choking back sobs.

Seeing this situation, Li Xiang seized the opportunity and asked, “Where is Li Xiaofang now?”

“Dead, buried in the back mountain of my hometown.”

“I need you to take us to identify the site.”

Ye Dan nodded.

With Ye Dan as a breakthrough point, Li Xiang immediately led a team to depart, buying handy shovels and heading straight to Ye Dan’s hometown.

“On that mountain peak.”

Under Ye Dan’s guidance, the vehicles gradually drove deeper into the woods, and the road became increasingly difficult to navigate.

Two hours later, they finally arrived at the location designated by Ye Dan.

“Right here.”

Everyone got out of the car, taking shovels and other tools from the vehicle.

After stepping out of the car, Li Xiang looked around at the desolate area; a perfect place to kill and dispose of a body.

After killing a person and burying them here, who could find this place without Ye Dan’s lead?

“Start digging!”

Physical labor like digging didn’t require Li Xiang to do it himself; there were plenty of others for that job.

In the area indicated by Ye Dan, they dug about one and a half meters deep until someone exclaimed, “Found it.”

Li Xiaofang’s body was unearthed.

At this point, Li Xiaofang’s body was already decomposed, but due to the weather conditions, the rate of decomposition wasn’t fast.

“Careful, let me handle this, follow my instructions.” Song Yingwen, the forensic expert in the team, immediately took charge of the on-site excavation.

This job required precision, as it involved later forensic autopsy work.

Another two hours later, they finally unearthed Li Xiaofang’s body.

“Shen Youlin’s body is under that tree.”

Indeed, Shen Youlin and Li Xiaofang were buried not far apart, about thirty meters away.

Without stopping, the group also unearthed Shen Youlin’s skeletal remains.

After three years, Shen Youlin’s remains had turned to skeleton.

The bodies were placed in two body bags and taken back for further autopsy to be led by Song Yingwen.

Although Li Xiang was at Grandmaster Level in forensic medicine, he still allowed others to gain experience at this time.

After the bodies were excavated, the site was combed through again to ensure nothing was missed before returning to the detention center.

With the bodies and Ye Dan’s confession, the case made a significant breakthrough.

The existing evidence was enough to convict Ma Chengjun.

However, to handle the case flawlessly, Li Xiang still needed to follow procedures to obtain Ma Chengjun’s confession evidence as much as possible.

The remaining task was to gradually wear him down.

Upon returning to the detention center, Ye Dan was again placed in the interrogation room.

Li Xiang and Lan Huina sat opposite her.

“Ye Dan, I’m glad you made the right choice. We have some more questions we need to verify with you.”

“How did you meet Ma Chengjun?”

“We met through a friend’s introduction. At that time, he had just broken up with Li Xiaofang.”

“What happened with Shen Youlin’s case at the time?”

With Li Xiang’s questioning, Ye Dan began to reminisce. Once someone opens up, they’ll generally answer whatever you ask.

“In the beginning, he claimed to be a big boss, spending money lavishly. But as time went on, I realized he wasn’t a big boss at all. He wasn’t seen working; a boss not working seemed normal, so I didn’t think much of it. As long as he had money, it was fine. I stayed with him for less than a year before he ran out of money and started borrowing from me, saying his company faced some difficulties. At first, I lent him some money, but his reasons became more frequent, so I became suspicious. When he couldn’t get money from me, he suddenly said he wanted to repay me and asked me to go with him to get it.”

“What happened afterward?”

“Afterwards…” As if recalling something terrifying, Ye Dan’s body began to tremble uncontrollably.

Lan Huina noticed something was wrong and quickly stepped forward to comfort her, “Don’t be afraid, you’re safe now, we’ll protect you. Just tell us what happened boldly.”

Under Lan Huina’s comfort, Ye Dan gradually calmed down.

“I didn’t expect that his so-called means of getting money was actually kidnapping – no, this wasn’t kidnapping. He never intended to let people go. He killed that person right in front of me, using cruel methods. He tortured him until he couldn’t bear it anymore and gave up his bank card password. I was so terrified; having witnessed the murder, I was sure he wouldn’t spare me.”

“He didn’t kill me. He loved me. He didn’t kill me. He really got the money and repaid me. He gave me the bank card and told me to go to Lantian to withdraw the money nearby.”

The crux for Ye Dan lay here. Under intense pressure of death, to prevent her spirit from collapsing, she chose to try to rationalize and “normalize” these pressures on a cognitive level, using the reason that he still loved her to justify Ma Chengjun’s murder.

His motive for murder was to repay her money.

This is truly frightening.

As Ye Dan slowly confessed, the truth about the case finally emerged. However, there was one thing Li Xiang still didn’t quite understand.

“So, what about Li Xiaofang? After three years, why did you focus on Li Xiaofang again? Did she participate in your murder plot back then?”

“No, Ma Chengjun knew Li Xiaofang was a mistress kept by a wealthy person. Think about it, she came from an ordinary family and had just graduated, interning as a nurse at a hospital. How could she afford to buy a car and a house? Ma Chengjun met Li Xiaofang during his mother’s hospitalization. He initially thought she was a rich lady, but after spending time with her, he grew suspicious when he learned about her background and found out she was backed by a rich boss.”

“Actually, at that time, Li Xiaofang was already breaking up with Ma Chengjun. After all, he was always idle and kept asking her for money. To end the relationship smoothly, he asked her for a breakup fee of 300,000 and then started dating me.”

“As for why we refocused on Li Xiaofang, it was because he ran out of money again.”

As the timeline gradually became clear and all the clues matched up, it proved that Ye Dan wasn’t lying.

“Okay, thank you for your cooperation. We will report your case and efforts to make amends to the prosecutor’s office truthfully and help you apply for credit for your actions. When you get out, live anew and be filial to your parents.”

“Yes, I understand. Thank you all.”

Leaving from Ye Dan, Li Xiang immediately headed to Ma Chengjun’s interrogation room.

By this time, Ma Chengjun had already become dispirited and fallen asleep, even snoring in his sleep.

“How long has he rested today?”

“Three times, each for two hours, ensuring he rests for eight hours a day without violating regulations. As for the sleeping conditions, we’re sorry, but our own sleeping conditions aren’t that good either.”

After inquiring about Ma Chengjun’s rest conditions, Li Xiang went over, knocked on the table, and woke him up.

“Stop sleeping. We’ve found the bodies of Li Xiaofang and Shen Youlin. Aren’t you prepared to say something?”

As expected, hearing that Li Xiang had found the bodies of Li Xiaofang and Shen Youlin, Ma Chengjun immediately woke up, “Found them? Impossible!”

But then he realized, “That bitch Ye Dan ratted me out. If I had known, I would’ve killed her first!”

Fierce light gleamed in Ma Chengjun’s eyes; his worst fear had come true after all.

Ye Dan hadn’t withstood the interrogation and voluntarily confessed.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep