Upon hearing this sentence, Lin Dongxue couldn't close her mouth in shock. She turned her eyes from Chen Shi to Liu Qin. He cried while covering his face, and his voice became sharper and smaller. It was clearly the voice of a girl.

Lin Dongxue suddenly thought of all kinds of details. Liu Qin had said, "I have a boyfriend" twice and had said that he and Ah Zhen were like "girlfriends". Then there was that thing with the razor mentioned by Chen Shi. Could it be that Chen Shi had already known at the time?

What kind of acumen was this? Lin Dongxue had once thought that having been around Chen Shi for so long meant that she had already gotten a lot better than in the past. She only knew now how far she was from Chen Shi’s level.

Liu Qin cried for a long time. Chen Shi walked over and handed her a tissue. She took it and wiped her eyes. "How did you find out?"

"I checked the razor that you had left in my house. It hadn’t been used at all. But it had been deliberately moistened with water. Of course, it didn’t rule out that your hormone levels could be low, so I took a look at the surveillance footage and observed that it was a girl using the toilet. I’m really sorry. I noticed that the number of times you went to do a number two was quite high. You also went to urinate a few times. However, if one looked closely, you were just facing the surveillance camera with your back and pretending to urinate.”

Liu Qin's voice had completely changed from a low male voice to a female voice. She said, "I grew up in a sexist family. My oldest uncle’s wife had given birth a son, my third uncle’s wife had given birth to a son, and my fourth uncle’s wife had given birth to one as well. But my family? After my mother gave birth to my elder sister, she gave birth to me. My father nearly threw me into the cattle pen and buried me. My life was spared because of my mother’s pleading. My father felt that my existence made him lose face. When the relatives came to inquire, they lied about my mother having given birth to a son, and I was raised as a boy since I was a child. My parents told me not to spill the beans in front of anyone, otherwise I would be beaten to death!

"From elementary to high school, I’d been living with mocking laughter from the others. There was rumors among my classmates that Liu Qin was transgender, that Liu Qin never goes to the toilet, and that Liu Qin is missing a penis. I wanted to play with the girls in the class, but I could only continue to act as the sex that my family had assigned to me. The boys didn’t like me and the girls didn’t like me either. I didn’t have a single friend! I developed depression, and the thought of dying was impossible to get rid of in my mind until I met Ah Zhen at university. I told her my secret. We were both people who had to wear masks in front of others, so we became very close friends. She saved me!”

Chen Shi said, "Actually, I went to Ah Zhen's house again. I read all the chat records between the two of you. You always comforted her, encouraged her, and enlightened her. The way you talk to her was very gentle. You both liked Liu Yong and Li Qingzhao's poetry quotes.[1]"

Liu Qin nodded and tears fell onto the back of her hand. Her shoulders shook uncontrollably.

Looking at her crying so sadly, Lin Dongxue was also a little touched. She suddenly thought that when Ah Zhen died, Liu Qin had said to look at more bold and heroic quotes. Perhaps the message hadn’t been sent by her?

Lin Dongxue went over and patted Liu Qin's shoulder, "Don't cry, little sister!"

Liu Qin suddenly cried even more fiercely, because in her entire life of gender inversion, no one had ever called her little sister. She still remembered that when she first got her period, her father had to go somewhere far away to buy sanitary pads[2] and told her, "Let people discover that you’re a woman and I’ll kill you!"

"Only the two of us could understand each other in this world. I am the other half of her soul. She died just like that. She died worthlessly. Someone had to pay for her death!" Liu Qin lifted a tearful face. Her eyes became firm. "The first sacrifice was Ah Qiang, the second was Sun Jun, and the third is me! I don't regret anything that I did. The people who bullied her had to die!"

Chen Shi knew that he was despicable and had used a secret to pry open another secret. However, finding out the truth was his heaven-bound duty and it was his job to bloodily uncover the innermost hearts of others. He had no other choice.

"You didn't send that message, right?"

Liu Qin nodded. "At the time, Ah Qiang's mobile phone was out of power. He had borrowed mine to play with. I didn't know that he had said that to Ah Zhen. How could he not tell that Ah Zhen was asking for help? Of course he could tell. But he was an indifferent, selfish person who never looked back. He cut off Ah Zhen’s last hope! I thank the policeman that night. If he hadn’t detained me, I would have killed Ah Qiang on the way back. Do you know what I’d have done? I would have driven as fast as I could and killed myself with him by ramming the car so hard that our bodies were unrecognizable. Even then his debts couldn’t be paid off!"

"Actually, your murder plan afterwards was still quite clever. It even deceived me. I was the first to exclude you from being a suspect."

"Thank you for the compliment!" Liu Qin sneered. "You are indeed too smart. Therefore, yesterday when I heard that your crime solving rate was so high, I got a bit scared. I originally followed you guys to keep tabs on the progress of the investigation. All the way until we went for dinner, I thought that you didn't doubt me at all. It seems that I was wrong! That day, I had contacted Sun Jun with my mobile phone and convinced him to kill Ah Qiang, but Sun Jun was so greedy that he asked me to promise him a big reward after killing him. I agreed. On the 25th, I brought money with me and went to look for him. Sun Jun was happily counting the banknotes. I was a little hesitant as I stood behind him. Should he be damned? He did spread rumors about Ah Zhen back then causing her a great deal of pain. However, that matter had happened so long ago. But I had to kill Sun Jun. He’d confess in front of the police within ten seconds. In order to prevent the police from finding me, I had to kill him to tie up loose ends! It’s actually quite laughable. I, who had originally planned to sacrifice myself for Ah Zhen, actually planned how to evade responsibility for murder. Maybe this is the mentality of a murderer. If I had a one in ten thousand chance to escape the punishment, I’d give it a try even if it was risky! After killing him, I originally thought that I’d go to Ah Zhen's house and delete the chat history between the two of us to prevent you from seeing them. I remembered Ah Zhen had a key in the circuit breaker box, but when I got there, I found that the key was missing. I was thinking that since I was already there, I’d connect to the WIFI at the door and log in to her QQ to modify her signature."

Chen Shi asked, "I still have a question. As a novice, how were you able to plan such a sophisticated crime? You almost even lowered my crime-solving rate."

"Because I’ve thought about this kind of thing countless times. Ah Zhen was a fragile and kind girl. This world was always bullying her. I wanted to protect her forever." Liu Qin raised her face and smiled. "I did it. I avenged her. Now she can rest in peace. I love her. Not that with that kind of erotic love, but I love her, because misery loves company. We were both marginalized people in this world.”

"Actually, I admire you a lot. To have been able to give everything for the person that you loved. Since you’ve chosen this, don’t regret it.”

"Officer Chen! I know that you’re a good person. You knew that I was the criminal but still invited me to have a meal and talked so much to me. In fact, I’m quite fortunate that I’m a girl. I heard that men’s prisons are a mess. The women’s prison would be much better!”

Chen Shi gently patted her shoulder. "Anyway, good luck!"

Liu Qin was taken away by the police and Chen Shi found that Lin Dongxue was still in the interrogation room. She sprawled onto the table and wept. The sounds of her crying made Chen Shi feel even more melancholy…

1. Song dynasty poets.

2. Unsure why this was the case if Liu Qin had an older sister… Since she’d have periods too.