“Should we investigate the pregnant woman’s identity?” I asked Xiaotao.

Bingxin and Dali were puzzled. They hadn’t heard of the information that Lao Yao had found, so I explained it to them briefly.

“I don’t think it’s necessary at this point,” said Xiaotao. “It doesn’t matter who got pregnant. What matters is who killed those women! The suspect will arrive soon. Let’s go wait for him in the interrogation room.”

Xiaotao and I went into the interrogation room while Bingxin and Dali watched from the one-way mirror outside. It didn’t take long until we heard a loud noise approaching us. It was Cheng Yahui’s voice coming from the hallway.

“You are infringing upon my rights!” he was yelling. “I want my lawyer!”

He was in handcuffs and his hair was disheveled when the police dragged him into the interrogation room. He was shoved onto a chair across the desk. Xiaotao shined the light at his face and said, “I told you we’d meet again.”

Cheng Yahui was blinded by the light, so he covered his eyes with a hand.

“I refuse to answer any of your questions!” he insisted. “I want my lawyer!”

“You’ll get your lawyer,” Xiaotao responded. “But according to Article 96 of the Criminal Procedure Law, a criminal suspect has the right to ask for a lawyer after the first interrogation. You have the right to speak to your lawyer, but only after you’ve answered our questions.”

“But I’m not a criminal suspect!” Cheng Yahui shouted. “Stop fooling around, Officer! You have no proof that I did anything wrong!”

“Where were you from 9pm to 11pm last night?” Xiaotao asked.

“At home!”

“Are you sure?” asked Xiaotao. “But the bartender at the bar called Mars gave a statement saying that you were with a woman who was once your patient at the bar last night.”

Cheng Yahui nodded, then finally calmed down. “Yes, I did meet with her. But we were only discussing her health issues. What’s wrong with that?”

“Well, Dr. Cheng,” said Xiaotao. “She’s dead!”

“What?” cried Cheng Yahui, his jaw dropped. “Impossible! She was fine last night!”

I checked his expressions and found that his reactions were genuine. This was very strange indeed. Was he not the murderer after all?

I pretended to jot down some notes, but in fact, I was writing the words, “He’s not lying.” I showed it to Xiaotao, and she was shocked.

Xiaotao then asked him about the email. Cheng Yahui froze for a moment and replied, “I have no idea who sent that email!”

“How many women did you have an intimate relationship with in the last three months?” Xiaotao continued asking.

He was dead silent. He insisted that he’d never been involved with his patients before. Xiaotao slammed the table and shouted, “Stop lying, Cheng Yahui! You do know that it’s illegal to lie during interrogation, don’t you?”

Cheng Yahui gritted his teeth. His shoulders slacked and his expressions were downcast.

“I slept with five patients…” he finally admitted.

We weren’t surprised by this answer at all. He went on to say that being a gynecologist made it easier to inquire about the private lives of his patients. Once they began to divulge private details, his patients would warm up to him quicker, making them easy targets for his seduction.

Even after being forced to resign from his last position in a top hospital, Cheng Yahui’s old habits didn’t change. He was never out of women to sleep with, and when he got bored of them, he just moved on to new targets. He never considered settling down and marrying anyone, because what was the point of tying himself to one woman?

Cheng Yahui’s face beamed with conceited pride as he spoke, but Xiaotao was gnashing her teeth, barely able to contain her disgust. I was genuinely worried that she might pick up the lamp and hurl it at Cheng Yahui.

“Stop changing the subject!” Xiaotao slammed the table angrily. “Who are the five women that you slept with?”

Cheng Yahui listed the five women’s names. In addition to the four victims, there was another woman named Amy who was a florist.

“Did you never wear protection when you had sex with these women?” I asked.

Cheng Yahui shrugged and answered, “Why would I do a boring thing like that? It's like wearing socks when you’re trying to wash your feet—pointless!”

“But what if someone gets pregnant?” I argued. “Won’t your life be ruined?”

“I’ll just take them to an abortion clinic then!” laughed Cheng Yahui. “I’m a doctor myself, so I know exactly where to take them. That medical student went through two abortions, and she’s still head over heels in love with me! Why would I worry about such a trivial matter? These women are just playthings to me, so why would I concern myself over them?”

“You’re in need of a serious beating, Cheng Yahui,” Xiaotao uttered grimly.

“I warn you,” he quickly retorted. “It is against the law to force a confession by torture.”

“You misunderstood me,” Xiaotao argued. “I’m not going to beat you to force a confession. You just piss me off, that’s all.”

“Perhaps we started off on the wrong foot, Officer,” he snorted. “I believe that if we’d met under normal circumstances, you would have found me very charming indeed.”

Xiaotao shot up to her feet so violently that her chair fell to the side. Cheng Yahui cowered in fear and shouted, “What are you doing to me?”

“Calm down!” I reminded Xiaotao. “The police can’t just hit a civilian!”

“He’s right!” echoed Cheng Yahui.

“But I’m not a police officer,” I interjected. “Let me beat him for you instead.”

Xiaotao handed me a truncheon and ordered, “Smash this bitch’s knuckles and make sure he learns his lessons!”

Before I did anything, Cheng Yahui squealed like a pig. I raised the truncheon and yelled, “Did you ever consider that the victims had family who love them when you murdered them?”

“I never killed anyone!” he cried. “I’ve never even killed a fly!”

“You’re lying!” I shouted in anger. “Your semen was found on the model’s body!”

“That’s impossible!” he argued. “I asked her to come over for a threesome and she got angry at me. I didn’t touch her at all yesterday!”

“Threesome?” I asked. “With who?”

“Amy!”

It turned out that Cheng Yahui had been in a hotel room with the florist yesterday morning. The model was waiting for him to come over to another hotel room, but when Cheng Yahui shamelessly asked her to join him and Amy for a threesome, she refused and called her rich boyfriend instead.

In that case, Cheng Yahui had the perfect alibi. He could not have been the murderer.

I sat back in my chair and asked, “So why did you lie and say that Qu Tingting could prove that you were in the hospital that morning?”

“Because I couldn’t admit to something like that to the police! And besides, Nurse Qu would say anything I want her to!”

“Is Qu Tingting one of your lovers too?” asked Xiaotao.

“Are you insulting me?” he laughed. “Why would I even go near that woman? It’s not like I have any trouble finding a hot girl to sleep with!”

I heard a commotion outside. Someone was banging on the door.

“Don’t stop me!” shouted Dali. “I’m going in there to teach this son of a bitch a lesson!”

Judging from what I’d seen and heard, Cheng Yahui was indeed not the murderer. I thought we were at an impasse at this point. I exchanged a look with Xiaotao and she told Cheng Yahui, “Okay, you can go now.”

Cheng Yahui leaned back in his seat and snickered, “What do you think I am, your servant? You think you can drag me here whenever you like and tell me to leave just like that? I’m going to sue you, and I’m going to ask for compensation from the police for wasting my time and causing me trauma!”

“Oh, shut the fuck up and get lost!” snapped Xiaotao.

“Is that the attitude of a police officer? I’ll definitely report this! Who’s your superior officer?”

“Didn’t I just say that I’m not a police officer?”

Cheng Yahui looked me up and down and asked, “Then who the hell are you?”

“Just a student,” I answered.

Cheng Yahui burst out laughing and sneered, “Ah, so you’re just an intern!”

“I also happen to know a few gangster friends who can rough you up if I tell them to,” I told him.

Cheng Yahui’s expression changed drastically. He stood up and said, “Get these handcuffs off me and I’ll leave!”

When Cheng Yahui walked out of the interrogation room, the group of people who were outside glared at him. He saw Bingxin in the group of people and had the audacity to ask her, “Oh, you’re here too? Why don’t we have lunch together later?”

Bingxin slapped him.

“I’ll sue all of you!” he yelled while nursing his cheek.

Bingxin checked the palm of her hand and pretended to be surprised and exclaimed, “Wow! What a big mosquito! It didn’t bite you, did it?”

Dali looked at her hand and echoed, “Whoa! It’s a giant mosquito!”

The crowd went along with their act. Cheng Yahui was at a loss and didn’t know how to respond, so he just stomped away. When he was gone, Bingxin laughed heartily and cried, “Serves him right!”

To our surprise, trouble occurred immediately after Cheng Yahui was gone. A police officer ran over in panic and reported, “The doctor who was just here fainted downstairs!”

All eyes turned to Bingxin. Her jaw dropped and she exclaimed, “Was my slap that powerful?”

“This could be bad for us!” yelled Xiaotao. “Let’s go see him now!”