CS: K9 GF | Chapter 3 – The Devil Beneath a "Fairy-Tale" Romance

After handcuffing the bearded man, Zhang Haiyang first went to inspect the body in the bathroom.

While searching the apartment afterward, he and Luo Fei found a marriage certificate inside a cabinet beside the TV stand.

The man in the photograph was the bearded suspect—only without the beard. The woman was the same woman whose body lay in the bathtub.

The man's name was Gu Youguo, forty-two years old, a resident of Songchang River Village in Ningjiang County.

The woman was Du Jiao, forty years old, also from Songchang River Village.

According to the information on the marriage certificate, they had been married for twenty years.

Zhang Haiyang immediately called the police station.

"Chief Zhang is already on his way with the others. We'll wait here until they arrive."

As he spoke, he pulled over a chair and sat across from Gu Youguo.

Meanwhile, Luo Fei took the opportunity to head toward the balcony.

Earlier, he had noticed that the balcony door had remained tightly shut. Yet when he was in Zhang Lan's apartment next door, he had clearly smelled the foul odor drifting from this direction.

He suspected there was more to discover.

As soon as he opened the balcony door, a stench even stronger than the one in the bathroom assaulted his senses.

Instinctively, he covered his nose and mouth.

The smell was coming from a large flower bed built into the balcony.

The planter was roughly two meters long and one meter wide, filled with flourishing gardenias. Their beautiful white blossoms were in full bloom.

Under normal circumstances, it would have been a pleasant sight.

But Luo Fei had a sinking feeling.

If his instincts were correct, there was probably another corpse buried beneath those flowers.

His gaze fell upon a small gardening shovel resting nearby.

Picking it up, he carefully scraped away the top layer of soil.

Before long, something emerged.

A face.

Rotten beyond recognition.

Maggots crawled across decomposing flesh, creating a horrifying and grotesque sight.

Even though Luo Fei had mentally prepared himself, he still recoiled in shock.

The corpse's facial features had long since decayed beyond identification, but judging by the short hair, it appeared to belong to a man.

"Master, come take a look!"

Luo Fei called out toward the living room.

"There's another body over here."

Zhang Haiyang hurried over.

After examining the remains, he frowned thoughtfully.

"A male victim and a female victim…"

He paused.

"Looks like there's more to this story than we thought."

Then he turned to Luo Fei.

"Don't touch anything. Leave the body where it is. We'll wait for the Criminal Investigation Division to handle it."

Luo Fei nodded.

He knew that homicide cases were far beyond the jurisdiction of a local police station. Cases like this would be transferred to the Criminal Investigation Unit.

The two men returned to the living room.

Zhang Haiyang sat down across from Gu Youguo once more and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

"Want one?"

He held out a cigarette.

Gu Youguo didn't answer verbally.

He simply nodded.

Zhang Haiyang lit the cigarette for him.

Gu Youguo took a deep drag before slowly exhaling.

A cloud of white smoke drifted across his face.

Only after he had finished a few puffs did Zhang Haiyang finally speak.

"Tell us what happened."

For a moment, Gu Youguo remained silent.

He took another long drag, exhaled, and then began speaking in a low, weary voice.

"You saw the marriage certificate."

"That's right. The woman in the bathroom was my wife."

"We were childhood sweethearts."

"We grew up together, attended school together, fell in love together, graduated from vocational school together, and were assigned jobs in Ningjiang County."

"I taught at a junior middle school. She taught at Songxi Middle School."

"We loved each other."

"Deeply."

"When we reached the right age, getting married felt like the most natural thing in the world."

A bitter laugh escaped him.

"Sounds like something out of a fairy tale, doesn't it?"

He laughed again.

Then tears began rolling down his face.

"That's exactly what it was."

"A real-life fairy tale."

"Countless people envied our love story."

His voice trembled.

"I thought our love would remain as beautiful and pure as it was in those fairy tales."

"We never had children, but that never affected our relationship."

"I never once doubted our marriage."

"Never."

He lowered his head.

"Until this Spring Festival."

"One of my colleagues told me he'd seen Du Jiao watching a movie with another man at the Songxin Town Cinema."

"When I first heard it, I didn't care."

"I trusted her."

"I trusted our love."

"I thought my colleague must have mistaken someone else for her."

"So I ignored it."

"But over the next few months, things started to feel wrong."

"She spent less and less time with me."

"She stayed late at school more often, claiming she had papers to grade."

"And a woman who rarely wore makeup suddenly began paying attention to her appearance."

He gave a hollow smile.

"Even then, I still trusted her."

"I refused to think badly of her."

"But on the tenth of last month…"

His voice grew hoarse.

"I came home after school and went into my study to prepare teaching materials."

"I smoke occasionally while working."

"That day was no different."

"I finished a cigarette and reached for the ashtray."

"Then I noticed something."

"There was a cigarette butt from Zhonghua cigarettes inside."

"I smoke, but I've never smoked Zhonghua."

"And no one except me ever entered that room."

He closed his eyes.

"At that moment, my colleague's words came flooding back."

"So did every change I'd noticed in her."

"I was terrified."

"I loved my wife."

"I was afraid of losing her."

"Afraid of losing my family."

"I didn't want to believe it."

"But deep down, I already knew."

"She was seeing another man."

"The pain…"

His voice cracked.

"It hurt so much."

"I couldn't accept that she had betrayed me."

"That she had betrayed everything we had."

After a long silence, he continued.

"That afternoon, I called her and told her I was going on a business trip to Linzhou and wouldn't be home for a couple of days."

"Then I checked into a hotel."

"I didn't leave."

"I sat there all day."

"Waiting."

"At eleven o'clock that night, I finally went home."

"On the way back, I kept asking myself what I would do if it were true."

"What could I do?"

"But the moment I quietly opened the front door…"

"…and saw a pair of black men's shoes at the entrance…"

"…and heard those disgusting sounds coming from the bedroom…"

"I knew there was no turning back."

His eyes became vacant.

"I went into the kitchen."

"I picked up a cleaver."

"When I opened the bedroom door…"

"The man was on top of her."

"At that moment, my mind went blank."

"I wasn't thinking."

"I only had one thought."

"Kill them."

"Kill them both."

He stared at the floor.

"I don't remember exactly how I did it."

"I only remember swinging the knife over and over again."

"When I finally came to my senses…"

"They were already dead."

"My hands."

"My face."

"They were covered in blood."

A faint smile appeared on his lips.

A smile devoid of warmth.

"I don't know how to describe what I felt."

"I wasn't afraid."

"I didn't regret it."

"I felt nothing."

"Just numb."

"I knew I would eventually be caught."

"And honestly…"

"I didn't want to run."

"The person I loved most had betrayed me."

"My heart died that night."

"Living didn't seem to have much meaning anymore."

He took a final breath before continuing.

"At first, I wasn't going to do anything with the bodies."

"But I didn't know when the police might show up."

"And leaving them in the bedroom…"

"It was unbearable."

"Especially him."

"I still had to sleep in that apartment."

"So I dug up the gardenias on the balcony and buried the man underneath."

"As for Du Jiao…"

"I threw her into the bathtub."

When he finished speaking, Gu Youguo leaned back against the sofa.

The cigarette between his fingers had burned down to the filter.

Neither Luo Fei nor Zhang Haiyang spoke.

Neither knew what to say.

The living room fell into silence.

A heavy, uncomfortable silence.

Then—

"Woo—Woo—Woo—"

The wail of approaching police sirens echoed outside.

The spell was broken.

The silence shattered.

And reality finally caught up with the tragedy.