Gene Fusion System: Crime Hunter

They spent plenty of money, but the child's illness showed no improvement.

The family was worried sick, yet never considered that their thinking might be the problem. Instead, they were just getting more obsessed with finding odd remedies for the child.

One time, when the child's grandmother went to the market, she encountered a medicine seller who claimed to be a miracle doctor and professed that his medicine could cure all ailments.

Moreover, the person demonstrated his medical skills on-site, healing several patients directly in front of the crowd.

Although Luo Fei and the others immediately realized this was a scam, and those supposedly healed patients were merely stooges.

But Zhou Dahua's mother was utterly convinced and quickly told the person about Zhou Yucheng's condition.

The person might have been afraid of selling medicine to a child who could randomly ingest it and cause problems, so he refused to sell her the medicine but instead sold her a remedy after collecting two thousand yuan.

The remedy was that eating a human heart could cure heart disease, and the person's explanation sounded entirely plausible—eat what you need to replenish what you lack, so the person clearly needs to eat a human heart to heal the heart.

Such absurd talk was deeply convincing to Zhou Guohua's family.

Nevertheless, a human heart is not like animals, which one can simply buy with extra money.

Furthermore, the swindler specifically mentioned that the heart of a healthy child worked best.

So this matter was temporarily abandoned until May 17th, three years ago, when Zhou Yucheng fell ill again.

This time, the child's condition was extremely dangerous, and the hospital even issued a critical condition notice.

This left Zhou Guohua and others unable to sit still. The family deliberated and decided to spare no cost and immediately find a child's heart for Zhou Yucheng's treatment.

They naturally focused their attention on Zhou Guo'an's little grandson, Zhou Kaieri.

The reason was simply that they were relatively familiar with the situation at Zhou Kaieri's house, making it easier to take the child away.

Plus, Zhou Kaieri had been chubby, smart, and lively since birth, ensuring a good quality heart.

Having formed an idea, the father-son pair quickly devised a plan.

They eventually decided that Zhou Guohua would discreetly return to the village on the morning of the 18th to find an opportunity to take Zhou Kaieri away.

Once he succeeded, Zhou Dahua would return home to take the child's heart.

This way, if the crime was discovered, only Zhou Guohua would face jail time, leaving Zhou Dahua unaffected.

Afterward, he successfully took Zhou Kaieri away without being noticed.

After bringing the child back to his home, Zhou Guohua immediately called Zhou Dahua as planned, notifying him to return.

Unexpectedly, midway, Zhou Kaieri started crying.

Fearing it might attract neighbors' attention, he hurriedly covered the child's mouth, but to his surprise, it still alerted the neighbors, who knocked on the door.

Silent, Zhou Guohua waited until the neighbor left, only to find the child had been suffocated to death under his hands.

Staring at the child's corpse, he lost himself momentarily before beginning to remove the child's heart.

When Zhou Dahua returned home, he followed the remedy's instructions and boiled the child's heart into soup.

However, because police were everywhere looking for the child, father and son feared venturing out during the day and had to wait until dark to leave with the heart.

They didn't expect to run into Li Dayong.

Luckily, it was a false alarm; he arrived at the hospital smoothly, feeding Zhou Yucheng the cooked heart.

Zhou Guohua stayed home, discreetly handling Zhou Kaieri's corpse overnight.

Initially, he planned to simply ditch the child on the mountain's backside, but after seeing the child lying naked on the ground, his conscience awoke. He retrieved a blanket from home, wiped the blood from the child, and dressed him properly.

But in his rush, he neglected the child's jacket, a fact he only realized after returning from disposing of the corpse.

However, he didn't intend to make another trip, thus simply bundled the child's toys, jacket, blanket, along with the two knives used to butcher the body, and buried them in his yard.

Then, before dawn, he set off to the city, where he coordinated their testimonies with Zhou Dahua and others.

Should the police inquire, they would know how to respond in court, including what to say upon exposure.

By then, Zhou Guohua had decided to shoulder all responsibilities.

But luck was likely on their side, as the police focused on those holding grudges with the Zhou family, subsequently overlooking them, allowing their family to avoid disaster.

Returning to the village, Zhou Guohua felt guilty and avoided his brother's family, sending his son to visit the Zhou family while he and his wife used Zhou Yucheng's health as an excuse to evade contact with Zhou Guo'an.

Notably, after Zhou Yucheng's death, the entire family immediately relocated.

Not entirely out of guilt, but mainly out of fear.

Initially, they assumed that with such immense sacrifice, Zhou Yucheng's illness would surely heal.

Unexpectedly, within three months, Zhou Yucheng died after a flare-up and couldn't be saved at the hospital, coincidentally dying on the same day as Zhou Guo'an's wife.

The guilty family believed that Zhou Guo'an's wife's ghost haunted them, seizing Zhou Yucheng's life for revenge.

Thus, after hurriedly completing Zhou Yucheng's funeral, the family fled Baimao Village, only returning for ancestral rites at New Year before quickly leaving.

Luo Fei was right; every year Zhou Guohua did hold a private memorial for Zhou Kaieri in his yard out of remorse.

Last June, Zhou Dahua's wife successfully had twins through IVF.

Yet, the specter of Zhou Guo'an's wife continued to linger over the family's heads.

Coincidentally, the twins caught a cold at the beginning of the year, falling ill.

But the family believed it was the lingering resentment of Zhou Guo'an's wife bearing down on the twins.

To appease her and shield the children, Zhou Dahua forced twenty thousand yuan onto Zhou Guo'an.

Luo Fei and Zhao Donglai were speechless at this explanation.

"This family truly defies common sense, daring to kill, cook, and eat, disregarding the law and lacking fear, yet terrified of a vengeful spirit. How can such ignorant people exist?"

After emerging, Zhao Donglai couldn't help but furiously complain before checking on Liao Xingyu and the others' progress.

However, following Zhou Dahua's confession, Zhou Guohua also admitted simultaneously.

What the father and son confessed largely coincided.

Interrogation seemed to complete the case's picture.

Nonetheless, upon cross-referencing their statements, some issues emerged.

"Zhou Dahua said that when he returned home, the child was already choked to death by Zhou Guohua; Zhou Guohua also admitted to suffocating the child, yet the autopsy shows clear strangulation."

"Regarding this aspect, the father-son pair surely lied; Zhou DaTiger is undeniably involved in the child's death!"

"Also, according to Zhou Guohua's neighbors, they heard a child's cries from the Zhou home after lunch, went to knock, and considering their statements, the child died between twelve and one."

"Yet, forensic examination results indicate the child died between eight and nine that evening. I suspect they had long colluded on their testimonies to let Zhou Dahua escape legal punishment."

"Indeed, your analysis holds water."

"Therefore, let's promptly re-interrogate the father-son pair to clarify the principal and subordinate responsibilities."

At Zhao Donglai's command, people proceeded to conduct a second interrogation of Zhou Dahua and his father.

"Zhou Dahua, you said when you returned, your father had already strangled Zhou Kai to death?"

"Yes."

"Meaning you didn't witness your father acting against the child?"

"Yes."

"Then how can you be sure your father strangled Zhou Kaieri instead of another method?"

"...I-I heard my father say so."

"He told you he strangled the victim? Yet why did he claim to us that he suffocated the child?"

"This... this..."

"Zhou Dahua, are you still refusing to give an honest account?"

Zhao Donglai slammed his fist on the table, causing the nervously plotting Zhou Dahua to tremble and momentarily lose focus.