Death Notice 2 Destiny

Chapter 26

"Who are you?" Du Mingqiang asked in return, emphasizing, "I understand the law, and you have an obligation to identify yourself to me first."

"Luo Fei, captain of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Public Security Bureau." Luo Fei said, pulling out his badge as he spoke. "Do you need to see it?"

Du Mingqiang was taken aback for a moment. His gaze remained fixed on Luo Fei's face, showing no interest in the document.

"Detective captain?" he asked after a moment, puzzled. "Did you arrest the wrong person?"

Luo Fei remained silent. He took out an MP3 player and pressed play. A man's voice immediately followed:

"According to your account, the killer spared the last girl because you finally cut off your own hand, you regained the courage to be human, and you took on the responsibility of being a teacher, is that right?"

This is the audio recording of Wu Yinwu's interview before his suicide, which went viral online. Because the uploader deliberately altered the audio, the sound is somewhat strange.

After hearing one sentence, Luo Fei stopped the MP3 playback and asked, "You're the one who's speaking, right?"

Although the audio had stopped, Luo Fei had already memorized the infuriating conversation that followed, and now his intense anger was radiating through his gaze.

Du Mingqiang didn't answer immediately; his bright black eyes darted slightly and quickly around in their sockets. Luo Fei immediately noticed this detail, and then added with a cold laugh, "You don't need to think too much. We're already here—you understand?"

Du Mingqiang glanced at Luo Fei, knowing that the other party had come prepared, but he was still unwilling to give up easily. So, after putting on an innocent expression, he replied, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Perhaps I should call you by your online name: Zhen Rufeng, which might help you remember a lot of things," Luo Fei said seriously. "We've already found all the accounts you've used online, the bank card number you used to receive website payments, and so on... We also retrieved a laptop from your residence; I bet it contains a lot of interesting information, right?"

As Luo Fei spoke, Du Mingqiang looked up at him, and the innocent expression on his face gradually faded as Luo Fei continued speaking. When he learned that his laptop had also fallen into the other party's hands, he knew that there was no point in denying it, so he grinned and admitted, "Okay. That person is me... I also put that audio file online."

Luo Fei replied, "Very good." He put away his MP3 player and stared intently at Du Mingqiang. The latter, however, remained indifferent until he was forced to confront Luo Fei's gaze and finally shouted, "So what if it's me? Did I break the law? What right do you have to arrest me?"

Luo Fei simply stared at the other person.

"Hehe." Du Mingqiang suddenly laughed, "Maybe I'm the one who's hindering your investigation? Respected Detective Captain? That killer named Eumenides is not easy to catch, is he? Even so, you can't vent your anger on me, can you?"

Luo Fei felt a tightness in his chest, and anger surged within him. However, he quickly realized that the other person's words were intended to provoke him, so he calmed down. He began to glare at the other person, and then slowly said, "You don't need to say such meaningless things—because we all know the truth: you drove a teacher to his death, an old man!" His voice wasn't loud, but every word was firm and resounding.

The atmosphere in the small interrogation room grew heavy, and Du Mingqiang's expression softened somewhat. After a moment of silence, he shook his head and sighed, "Wu Yinwu committed suicide... What does it have to do with me? I'm just a reporter..."

"A reporter?" Luo Fei suddenly interjected, "Do you have a press pass?"

To Luo Fei's surprise, the question seemed to have hit a nerve with Du Mingqiang. The young man's face flushed red instantly, and some emotion was brewing within him, gradually transforming from initial embarrassment into resentment. That resentment continued to accumulate, and finally, it erupted into a torrent of anger.

"I don't have a press pass, but that doesn't stop me from being an excellent journalist!" he declared emphatically. "What are credentials? They're just a fig leaf for the incompetent! I'm a genius journalist; I don't need credentials to prove myself!"

Seeing the other man's excited expression, Luo Fei was intrigued. He had always thought Du Mingqiang was just a profiteer who sold privacy, but he hadn't expected this guy to actually consider himself a journalist. And the lack of a press pass seemed to be his deep-seated grievance. Thinking back, after the Wanfeng Hotel massacre, a large number of journalists with valid credentials flocked to the hospital, wanting to interview Wu Yinwu, but none succeeded. This imposter, however, managed to fool the nurses on duty and produce that sensational online interview audio. From this perspective, he did indeed possess a talent for journalism.

Unfortunately, if a person wants to achieve something, talent can only be ranked second among the required conditions; the most important thing is character—this has always been Luo Fei's view.

Like this young man in front of me, even if he truly has the talent to become a journalist, his sordid morals will ultimately make him a figure despised by everyone.

Anyway, now he'd finally found this guy's psychological weakness. Luo Fei pulled himself out of his thoughts and decided to provoke him further. So he looked at him with a contemptuous gaze: "I don't want to discuss these useless things with you. Since you don't have a press pass, your actions constitute unlicensed interviewing."

“Unlicensed interview, fine, fine…” Du Mingqiang muttered to himself, his emotions slowly calming down, clearly no longer provoked by Luo Fei. After a moment, he rolled his eyes at Luo Fei and asked in a strange tone, “Why is it that the criminal investigation team can only handle cases of this level now?”

“We can handle anything illegal,” Luo Fei retorted coldly. “You are not only suspected of conducting interviews without a license, but also of impersonating a police officer. Furthermore, we found records of you illegally browsing pornographic websites on your laptop… All of these actions violate the law, and the police have the right to detain you and impose administrative detention on you.”

"Administrative detention?" Du Mingqiang looked at Luo Fei, blinked, and asked, "How many days?" His expression and tone showed no panic, but rather a sense of relief.

Luo Fei understood the other man's mindset perfectly: having been apprehended by the police as if facing a formidable enemy, and being personally interrogated by the head of the criminal investigation team, this guy, though appearing tough, was undoubtedly apprehensive. But after a heated verbal exchange, realizing his punishment was merely administrative detention, he must have breathed a sigh of relief.

This is exactly the effect Luo Fei deliberately wanted to create: when a person's emotions fluctuate, their thinking ability and defensive instincts will definitely be greatly reduced.

It's time to guide the other person to experience the next peak.

“In fact, we don’t intend to detain you.” Luo Fei narrowed his eyes, making his gaze even sharper, and his gloomy tone seemed to foreshadow something terrible.

Du Mingqiang sensed the unusual atmosphere and frowned as he asked, "So... what do you want?"

Luo Fei remained silent, his face grim. After waiting a moment, Du Mingqiang finally lost his temper. He raised his voice, trying to reassure himself, "This is a society governed by law. Everything you do must be based on the law!"

Luo Fei chuckled and said, "Now you know how to talk about the law? But when you break the law, why don't you think about the consequences? Do you know that while you're driving Wu Yinwu to his death, you're also dragging yourself into a dangerous game?"

Du Mingqiang seemed not to understand Luo Fei's meaning, and he hesitated before asking, "What do you mean?"

Luo Fei opened a folder in front of him, containing the information Zeng Rihua had given him, including Du Mingqiang's identity and resume. At the very top of the folder was an envelope, which Luo Fei threw in front of Du Mingqiang: "These are the things the police found at your residence."

Du Mingqiang picked up the envelope and glanced at it, his expression growing increasingly puzzled: "This is a credit card statement from China Construction Bank. I receive letters like this every month. Is there a problem?"

"You haven't opened and read this letter?" Luo Fei asked seriously.

Du Mingqiang shook his head: "What's so interesting about these kinds of spam emails? I just need to pay off my overdraft on time every month, isn't that enough?"

"But when the police found the letter, the envelope was already open." Luo Fei frowned, seemingly thinking about something, then muttered to himself, "However, if that person opened it, it wouldn't be surprising..."

"What are you talking about?" Du Mingqiang's eyes widened, making his pupils appear even brighter.

Luo Fei gently shook his chin: "Take a look for yourself—at what's inside."

Du Mingqiang used his left hand to rub open the envelope, then reached in with two fingers of his right hand and pulled out the letter inside. His eyes immediately sharpened, because judging from the paper, the letter was clearly not a bank statement, but a thin piece of writing paper. As he further unfolded the writing paper, his expression froze, utterly shocked.

Because he saw the contents of the paper, which were written in extremely neat Song-style handwriting:

Death sentence notice

Inmate: Zhen Rufeng

Crime: Unethical interviewing that drove someone to death

Implementation Date: November

Executor: Eumenides

After a long while, Du Mingqiang finally snapped out of his shock. He shook his head in disbelief and asked, "What...what is this?"

"You don't know what this is?" Luo Fei retorted coldly. "Someone as well-informed about the internet as you, who even interviewed Wu Yinwu face-to-face, how could you not know what this is?"

"A death sentence notice? A death sentence notice for the killer Eumenides? A death sentence notice for me?" Du Mingqiang asked three times in a row, his face still filled with disbelief.

“That’s right,” Luo Fei replied affirmatively. Then he said solemnly, “Now you understand, right? This is the real reason we brought you to the criminal investigation team!”

"I understand, I understand!" Du Mingqiang said repeatedly. "This, this is really... I don't know how to describe it, it's so exciting!"

"What?" Luo Fei could hardly believe his ears: someone actually said the word "excited" when faced with Eumenides' death sentence notice. Was that guy incoherent?

Du Mingqiang saw through Luo Fei's thoughts, and he smiled, revealing a set of clean, even teeth. Then he looked at Luo Fei.

"You must be wondering why I'm excited. You think I should be scared—" He clenched his fists as he spoke, his body trembling slightly with excitement. "Yes, I am scared, but that fear pales in comparison to another emotion. To others, this death sentence might just be a threat of death. But to me, it holds a far more important meaning!"

"What does this mean?" Now it was Luo Fei's turn to be confused. The other party's behavior at this moment was really beyond his expectations and he couldn't understand it at all.

"This is news, sensational news!" Du Mingqiang leaned forward excitedly—if the interrogation chair hadn't restricted his movements, he probably would have jumped up by now. "And I, a genius reporter, am now the protagonist of this news! What an exciting thing! I will write a great report, an exclusive!"

Luo Fei watched the other man's performance with a cold eye, a feeling of both amusement and exasperation welling up inside him. He finally understood that for this young man, nothing seemed more important than his dream of becoming a journalist. For a sensational report, he could disregard not only other people's feelings but even his own life!

Perhaps… he didn't actually know how terrifying that assassin was. Thinking of this, Luo Fei couldn't help but ask, "Do you know how many people Eumenides has killed?"

"The female BMW driver, the restaurant owner who was blown up, and those two students who insulted their teacher a couple of days ago... that's all I know—but there must be other cases, right?" Du Mingqiang looked at Luo Fei with expectant eyes, seemingly completely misunderstanding the other's meaning and taking a warning as an opportunity to probe for secrets about the case.

Luo Fei shook his head helplessly. The atmosphere of the conversation had soured after he presented Eumenides' death sentence notice, and now he had to steer the situation back on track. After a moment's thought, he replied, "Yes, there are many cases that haven't been disclosed to the public, including Deng Hua's death."

Du Mingqiang's pupils dilated again with excitement: "Deng Hua? He was also killed by Eumenides? The official news says he died of a sudden heart attack at the airport..."

Luo Fei chuckled and asked, "Do you believe official news?"

“Of course I don’t believe it,” Du Mingqiang laughed. “Official news never tells people the truth, so society needs people like me.”

The other man's smug demeanor disgusted Luo Fei. Thinking about his actions, how could he have the nerve to call himself someone "needed by society"? Luo Fei stared at the other man's face—his handsome features and smile should have been pleasing to the eye, but at this moment he only felt nauseous.

Perhaps Eumenides should really be allowed to carry out his mission. Luo Fei thought to himself, a thought that clearly contradicted his identity, so he quickly shook his head, as if denying his own position. Then he said to Du Mingqiang, "There's another situation, perhaps you should focus on that more."

"What?" Du Mingqiang asked with great interest, the interrogation seeming to him like a splendid press conference.

Luo Fei said solemnly, "Eumenides' death sentence notices have never failed to come to pass so far."

"Oh? A death sentence notice that never fails to come... This will be a highlight in the reports." Du Mingqiang rolled his eyes and muttered to himself. Then, as if he had thought of something else, he paused for a moment and asked Luo Fei, "If this continues, then I'll soon be a dead man too?"

Luo Fei nodded, secretly relieved: This guy finally has some sense and understands the crux of the problem.

Even ants struggle to survive; who in this world could completely disregard their own life? Let alone someone like Du Mingqiang, who is essentially a very selfish person. The only difference is that he has an almost fanatical pursuit of a certain thing, a fanaticism that can temporarily impair his normal thinking abilities.

But faced with the terrible truth, he should have finally come to his senses.

While pondering this, Luo Fei observed Du Mingqiang coldly, using the other party's behavior to confirm his analysis.

Indeed, the excited expression he had shown earlier was now frozen on Du Mingqiang's face. His brows furrowed slightly, and then he unfolded the paper again and held it up to his eyes.

"What's the date... November?" he suddenly asked Luo Fei, looking up. Because the place on the death sentence notice indicating the exact date was stained, the number was now illegible.

Luo Fei countered, "How did you get these stains?"

“I must have gotten it dirty myself,” Du Mingqiang shrugged. “I never read these kinds of letters, so of course I don’t take any precautions. Last night I was filling my pen with ink and casually picked up this letter to put underneath. So a few drops of ink spilled out and landed right on this number.”

Indeed, the stain was caused by the dark blue ink. Because the paper was quite thin, the ink completely soaked through it, obscuring the numbers indicating the specific execution date.

“When we found this letter, the writing had been damaged. So if you don’t know the date, the only person who can give you the answer is Eumenides,” Luo Fei said with a hint of helplessness.

Du Mingqiang pressed his eyes close to the paper, trying to make out the smudged number. However, his efforts were in vain, because Eumenides' death sentence notice was also written with a dark blue-black fountain pen, so the original handwriting was completely obscured by the same ink. He could only shake his head in resignation.

But then Luo Fei asked, "When you used this letter to pad the ink bottle yesterday, had the envelope already been opened?"

Du Mingqiang frowned and thought for a moment, then shook his head again: "I don't remember. Who would pay attention to such a trivial matter?"

For ordinary people, such details are indeed insignificant. Therefore, Luo Fei's hopes of finding clues from the letter itself seemed destined to fail. However, he wasn't discouraged. He knew that even if Du Mingqiang could provide some information, that information might not be valuable. Eumenides was an absolute master in this regard; if even the process of delivering a death sentence notice could be detected by the person involved, then he wouldn't deserve to be a deadly killer who gave the police a headache.

Du Mingqiang repacked the letter and tossed it back to Luo Fei, saying in a self-deprecating tone, "It seems my situation is worse than those previous prisoners, isn't it? At least they knew the exact date of the assassin's operation, while I can't even make that most basic preparation."

“That’s how it is.” Luo Fei glanced at Du Mingqiang indifferently. “But compared to the lost date, you should think more about why your name is on the list of prisoners.”

Faced with Luo Fei's blunt accusations, Du Mingqiang merely grinned dismissively: "I know how you see me... You pride yourself on being a morally upright person and despise what I've done. In your eyes, I even deserve the death penalty. However, that's not the key issue. The key issue is: why am I sitting here now? The reason is simple: the law won't punish me accordingly, and the law doesn't allow a killer to trample on other people's lives. And you serve the law, so you have to protect me, no matter how much you hate me, this is the task you must complete now—am I right?"

"Yes," Luo Fei could only nod in agreement, "Your assessment of the situation is quite accurate."

“I’ve said it before, I’m a genius. Whether it’s uncovering secrets or analyzing people’s psychology, these are my specialties.” Du Mingqiang raised his eyebrows, becoming more and more smug as he spoke. He even compared himself to Luo Fei, “If I had the same opportunity as you, maybe I could have become a criminal investigation captain. Hey, it’s just a pity that I have a different life path, destined to become an outstanding reporter. You don’t understand me, and I don’t care at all—geniuses are never understood.”

After several rounds of exchanges, Luo Fei seemed to have grown accustomed to this guy's narcissistic style. And the guy's narcissism wasn't without merit; in fact, the interview where he drove Wu Yinwu to the brink of collapse was a classic example of psychological attack. But so what if he's a genius? Wasn't Deng Hua a genius? Even with his abilities and influence, he couldn't escape Eumenides' death sentence notice, so what could Du Mingqiang do?

Even the most remarkable person is just a corpse after death; at that point, he is no different from anyone else.

In the previous case, when Deng Hua, under heavy guard, climbed into the Bentley and headed towards the airport, Luo Fei had felt a similar sentiment. Now, looking at the smug young man before him, a complex mix of emotions welled up on his face. In his eyes, the other man was practically a dead man.

Du Mingqiang sensed Luo Fei's change, a change that made him regain his composure and confront the dangerous situation he found himself in. He smiled apologetically at Luo Fei, then took the initiative to say, "Alright, let's not talk about these useless things. Now, can you tell me what the police's plans are regarding Eumenides's death sentence announcement?"

Luo Fei replied solemnly, "We will protect you."

“Protect me—that’s a given. What I’m concerned about is: how to protect me?” Du Mingqiang pressed on.

“We will assign a dedicated police force to follow you around the clock.”

Du Mingqiang nodded, but he seemed to have some other concerns: "You won't restrict my freedom of movement, will you?"

“No, it won’t,” Luo Fei replied. “As long as you stay within the police’s sight, you are completely free to arrange your own activities.”