Although Liu Jiale was highly suspicious, there was no direct evidence yet proving that he had killed Ye Zeming.
However, Fang Rui discovered that after June 8th, none of them had seen Ye Zeming, but several people close to him had all received phone calls from him, seemingly at random.
It appeared that the killer was trying to create the illusion that Ye Zeming was still alive through these call records.
In the conference room, Fang Rui played the phone recording again.
[Ye Zeming: Lin Lan, are you busy today?
Lin Lan: I'm watching the shop now. What do you need?
Ye Zeming: Lin Lan, I'm going to emigrate abroad in a few days. Can you come see me one last time?
Lin Lan: That's not necessary! I don't think we need a farewell given our relationship.
Ye Zeming: Didn't you leave something important at my place last time? I found it for you, come pick it up!
Lin Lan: Why don't you just mail it to me?
Ye Zeming: If you don't come, I'll throw it in the trash.
Lin Lan: I'll come right away, you...]
The call was disconnected.
Zhang said, "The tone sounds natural, Ye Zeming speaks fluently. This recording doesn't sound like it was spliced together."
Wang from the technical department said, "Audio analysis shows that Ye Zeming's voice is not synthesized or pre-recorded. It's a real human voice."
"But Ye Zeming was already dead at this time, so how could he make a phone call?"
"May I request to listen to it again?" Mu Mian asked.
Fang Rui played it once more for Mu Mian.
"At 19 seconds, I heard a car horn. At 31 seconds, I heard the voice announcement of a bus - it's the B31 bus route, and the stop is Yunzhai Station..."
Wang said, "We've already isolated the background noise, there's nothing special." He then played the isolated background sounds, which were not very clear but matched what Mu Mian had described.
Mu Mian continued her analysis: "Lin Lan said she was watching the shop. But the B31 bus route doesn't pass by her cake shop."
Zhang and the others immediately checked the map on their phones. Lin Lan's shop was in the North City District, while the B31 bus connected the East-West City District, indeed not passing by Lin Lan's cake shop.
Zhang looked at Mu Mian in surprise: "Dr. Mu, do you memorize bus routes in your spare time?"
"Is that something you need to memorize? Can't you just remember it after seeing it once?" Mu Mian had an exceptional memory since childhood, almost able to remember everything she saw.
Fang Rui asked, "You suspect Lin Lan is lying?"
"That bus announcement should have come from Ye Zeming's end. The person faking the recording was probably driving, and their route overlapped with this bus route."
Fang Rui quickly retrieved surveillance footage near the Yunzhai Station bus stop.
After careful screening, one of the cameras caught Ye Zeling's car. The footage clearly showed Ye Zeling's face as she was holding a phone, seemingly talking to someone.
The surveillance video showed it was 9:04 AM on June 12th. This was exactly the time when Ye Zeming had called Lin Lan.
Fang Rui quickly investigated further and found that Ye Zeling had been part of the anime club in university. She was skilled at voice acting and could imitate many voice actors' tones.
This almost proved that Ye Zeling was the one who faked the phone call recording.
Fang Rui called Ye Zeling back in for questioning once again.
Ye Zeling, confused, asked, "Detective Fang, have you caught the person who killed my brother?"
Fang Rui handed her a photograph. In the photo, Ye Zeling was making a phone call.
"Miss Ye, does this scene look familiar to you?"
Ye Zeling glanced at it, her expression changing slightly, but she tried to remain composed, "This photo shows me making a phone call. What's so special about that? Don't you all make phone calls?"
"Miss Ye, what were you doing at 9:04 AM on June 12th, the day of the fire?"
Ye Zeling adjusted her posture, "How could I remember that precisely? I only remember that I was driving to my brother's house around 9 AM that morning."
"Did you make a phone call on the way?"
"Yes, I did."
"But when we checked your phone records, you didn't make any calls that day. You used your brother's SIM card to call Lin Lan, didn't you?"
Ye Zeling vehemently denied it: "No, why would I call that bitch Lin Lan?"
"Miss Ye, you'd better tell the truth. We already have evidence of your crime."
"I..." Ye Zeling covered her face and began to sob uncontrollably. "It was Liu Jiale who forced me! He accidentally killed my brother, and I saw it. Then he threatened me, making me help him cover it up. He knew I was good at imitating voices, so he made me call my brother's friends and colleagues to create the illusion that my brother was still alive!"
Fang Rui exchanged a glance with Zhang. According to the surveillance video, Liu Jiale had left after Ye Zeling, so it was very likely that Liu Jiale was also involved in this case.
"Jiale said my brother was already dead, and if I didn't help him, he would go to jail. Liu Jiale was like another brother to me, I couldn't not help him! Plus, Jiale said if I went to the police, he would spread rumors to the media about my relationship with my brother, ruining both our reputations. I had no choice, I could only help him cover up the truth..."
Ye Zeling broke down crying hysterically.
Fang Rui waited for her emotions to calm a bit before asking her to recount the details of the incident.
"That day, my brother said he was sick and asked me to come see him. Shortly after I arrived, Liu Jiale also came. He and my brother were discussing something in the second-floor studio while I was washing fruit downstairs. Just as I was about to go upstairs, I heard a scream.
My brother had been pushed by Liu Jiale and hit his head on a sculpture on the table. There was blood all over his head. Then I realized my brother wasn't breathing! Liu Jiale had accidentally killed my brother. I was going to call the police, but Liu Jiale wouldn't let me.
He was very panicked at first, but then he said we should freeze my brother's body first and find a way to dispose of it later. Initially, he planned to cut the body into small pieces and hide them inside sculptures, but that was too risky. Later, he found out that my brother had bought accident insurance for the villa. So he thought of setting a fire to burn down the villa. This way, he could destroy the evidence and I could get a large insurance payout.
I don't know about the other details. He just made me imitate my brother's voice to make phone calls and act in front of the police. He didn't tell me anything else."
Fang Rui then interrogated Liu Jiale.
At first, Liu Jiale was confident, seemingly certain that the police couldn't find any evidence. But when Fang Rui told him that Ye Zeling had already confessed, his expression changed dramatically.
Liu Jiale's body tensed, but he feigned nonchalance, saying contemptuously, "I'm innocent! Do you have any evidence that I killed him? If not, even if a judge convicts me, I'll appeal to the media!"
Fang Rui showed Liu Jiale the chain of evidence regarding Ye Zeling faking Ye Zeming's voice to create call records.
Liu Jiale's eyes turned red as he shouted, "What did you do to Zeling? Why is she falsely accusing me?"
"Based on the surveillance footage and Ye Zeling's confession, we can basically convict you now. Are you sure you still want to deny it?"
Liu Jiale gritted his teeth and said, "Ye Zeming was scum who deserved to die! Even if God knew what I did, He wouldn't consider me guilty!"
Fang Rui interrupted him: "I don't know how God would judge, but why don't you tell us what happened first."
"Do you know how disgusting Ye Zeming was? He was so perverted that he raped his own sister! You think he's some kind of artist? He's just scum! None of his works were his own. At first, he relied on Lin Lan - those famous pieces were all completed by her. Later, he started stealing my work.
Six months ago, he got addicted to gambling and lost all his money.
That day I went to his house, he said he had no money to pay me back, but he offered to let me sleep with Zeling to settle the debt! I was furious, so I pushed him. He fell to the ground, hit his head on the edge of the workbench, bled a lot, and then stopped breathing."
Liu Jiale became increasingly agitated as he spoke, his saliva droplets almost spraying across the interrogation room table onto their faces.
Fang Rui asked, "You're saying you pushed the deceased once, his head hit the workbench, and then he died?"
