There is a Xingfu community in Zhifu District, Yantai City. Twenty-five years ago, the Xingfu No. 12 Village Vegetable Wholesale Market was built here. This vegetable wholesale market is the largest vegetable transfer station in Yantai City. It is bustling every day, and vendors doing business come and go. Along both sides of a main north-south road are some low shops, where the owners do small retail businesses and are all very familiar with one another.
However, two days before Qingming Festival in 2011, the neighbors next to a shop called “Jiaodong One-Yuan Store” found it very strange that the owner, the elderly woman Guo Lanqiu, had not opened for three days. According to the surrounding neighbors, Mrs. Guo Lanqiu had been in this wholesale market the longest. She had been doing business here since the market was built, and she rarely had times when she did not open for business. Even during festivals and holidays, she seldom rested.
The hardworking Mrs. Guo Lanqiu had not been open for three days, which also aroused the curiosity of the surrounding neighbors. The neighbor next door to “Jiaodong One-Yuan Store” decided to go and see what was going on.
When the neighbors opened the rolling shutter door of “Jiaodong One-Yuan Store,” the news that Mrs. Guo Lanqiu had been murdered immediately spread throughout the Xingfu community in Zhifu District. For a time, people were discussing it in great alarm, as if a pot had exploded.
Xingfu community is a community composed of 12 villages named Xingfu. The people here mainly make a living by doing small businesses. Their daily life is usually peaceful and quiet, full of happiness. But this time, the news of Mrs. Guo Lanqiu’s murder cast a shadow over the lives of the people here.
At around 11:30 a.m. on April 7, 2011, the duty police officers at Xingfu Police Station received a report that Mrs. Guo Lanqiu, the owner of “Jiaodong One-Yuan Store” in the Xingfu No. 12 Village Vegetable Wholesale Market, had been found brutally killed in her store. Four police officers from Xingfu Police Station rushed to the scene. At the same time, case-handling police officers from the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Zhifu Branch of the Yantai Public Security Bureau also rushed to the crime scene as soon as possible.
After on-site investigation, Mrs. Guo Lanqiu had been dead for several days. Her head was to the south, her feet to the north, and she was lying face down on the ground.
After preliminary examination, the forensic doctor found a very deep knife wound on the left side of the deceased’s neck, which caused arterial rupture, hemorrhagic shock, and death. Mrs. Guo Lanqiu was lying in a pool of blood, and the shelves and counter in the store had been rummaged through in disorder. Next to the deceased were two empty mineral water bottles with obvious signs of being washed with water, and the surrounding area had been cleaned very thoroughly with a mop. There were splattered bloodstains on the floor and shelves.
From the analysis of the scene, the cunning perpetrator had once faked the scene. It was highly likely that the perpetrator had splattered blood on his body. Was the perpetrator so cruel because of revenge or because of robbery and murder for money? The police began visiting and investigating around the crime scene.
The police learned from the surrounding neighbors that Mrs. Guo Lanqiu had been running this small store for nearly 10 years, going out early and returning late every day. Although the store was not big, business was quite brisk, and many people came to her store every day to choose goods. Her son and daughter-in-law, who lived in Fushan District of Yantai City, visited her once a week.
According to the surrounding neighbors, the son and daughter-in-law had a harmonious relationship with Mrs. Guo Lanqiu. To help support her son, Mrs. Guo Lanqiu was usually very frugal and very dedicated to her work.
The police found Mrs. Guo Lanqiu’s daughter-in-law. According to the daughter-in-law, because her father-in-law had passed away, her mother-in-law now ran the small store here alone. Because she was busy with work, she had not contacted her mother-in-law for the past few days.
Her mother-in-law lived very frugally. Every day, the income from the store was always kept in a brown leather bag and carried with her. But at this time, the brown leather bag had disappeared, and a mobile phone that she had bought for her mother-in-law was also missing. With this clue, the investigators had more leads.
The police began more detailed visits and investigations around the crime scene.
One group of police officers visited the shops and mobile vendors around the crime scene, another group was responsible for checking the crowded vegetable wholesale market, and the other two groups began detailed investigations of nearby hotels, restaurants, and internet cafes. The four-pronged investigation was carried out intensively. The crime scene was located in the Jiaodong Vegetable Wholesale Market of Xingfu No. 12 Village. This was a north-south road, connected to Xingfu Middle Road to the south, and located in the urban-rural fringe. Every morning before dawn, bustling vegetable vendors and buyers gathered here from all directions to trade.
In order not to miss any detail, the investigators began visiting house by house. For the investigators, this kind of screening work is a basic skill necessary for solving every case.
On the evening of the day the report was received, the police officers conducting visits and investigations in the shops obtained an important clue, and this clue excited the investigators.
According to information provided by witnesses, at that time they saw a young man in his twenties enter Mrs. Guo Lanqiu’s small store. The man wore a light-colored coat on top and dark trousers on the bottom. After analysis and judgment, the police were able to conclude that this young man should have been the last person to have contact with Mrs. Guo Lanqiu that evening, so he was a major suspect.
Why did he come to this small store? What exactly happened in the small store during that period? Who was the person in the light-colored coat? The next problem the police had to solve was to find him.
After a night of research, based on the clues provided by witnesses, the police made a young man about 1.7 meters tall and in his twenties an important target for investigation. The investigators split into three groups, centered on the crime scene, from the north-south road to Xingfu Middle Road, and from the four directions of east, west, south, and north, focusing on surrounding shops, internet cafes, small hotels, and other special-industry public places, carefully questioning any suspicious persons, and retrieving surveillance video from traffic intersections and factories, mines, enterprises, and institutions along the street.
In the surveillance footage at a traffic intersection in Kaiyuan New Village, the police found a clue. This road was the main traffic artery leading out of the Xingfu No. 12 Village Wholesale Market. The investigators quickly retrieved the surveillance footage from the night of the crime, and from the surveillance footage the police found more powerful clues.
In the surveillance footage, a young man could be seen walking while looking from side to side. He did not look like he was strolling, but more like he was looking for something. He wore dark clothes, was thin, and was walking toward the crime scene.
At around 9:30 on the night of the crime, this man appeared again under the same surveillance camera. Unlike before, this time he was carrying his outer garment in his hand and walking hurriedly, looking somewhat panicked. On a night when it was still chilly, this man’s behavior was contrary to normal and really suspicious. Because the police suspected during the on-site examination that the criminal suspect should have had a large amount of splattered blood on his body, his act of taking off his clothes increased his suspicion.
Based on the time point when the man appeared, the police analyzed that he might have come to the road from a hotel or internet cafe. Therefore, the police visited the hotels and internet cafes on both sides of the road one by one.
When the police investigated the area north of Xingfu Middle Road, they found an internet cafe. The surveillance in the internet cafe clearly showed that the man left the internet cafe at 7:30 that evening, with unknown destination. When the police checked the man’s internet usage records, they found that he had dozens of internet usage records at this internet cafe. The police showed the internet cafe’s surveillance footage to the witness, and the witness believed that the physical characteristics of the young man in the surveillance footage were highly similar to those of the suspect. The internet cafe manager also told the police that this person had recently been coming to the internet cafe day and night, but he was often short of money.
The internet cafe manager told the police that he was very impressed by this man. He was 1.7 meters tall, sallow and thin, wore a blue top, and had somewhat long hair. He basically ate very little every day and just used the internet here.
Through investigating the internet cafe surveillance, the investigators found that the man left the internet cafe at 7:30 on the night of the crime and his whereabouts were unknown. Until the early morning, he suddenly returned to the internet cafe, but had changed clothes and was carrying a large bag. The bag was bulging and seemed to contain many clothes.
This person was a major suspect. The police immediately launched an external investigation of him. Through the ID registration for internet access and the floating population temporary residence information on the Zhifu Public Security police comprehensive platform, it was shown that this man was named Jin Dehui, 24 years old, from Fushan District, Yantai City, unemployed, and living with his parents in a rented place in the Xiaqujia Village area of Zhifu District.
The police immediately went to Jin Dehui’s home to arrest him, but Jin Dehui was not at home. According to his family, at around 10:30 on the night of the crime, Jin Dehui suddenly hurried home. He told his family that something had happened and that he was leaving Yantai for another place. Although his family did not know what had happened to him, they kept persuading him and asking him to turn himself in, but he refused. Jin Dehui’s next behavior was even more abnormal. He forcibly opened the drawer at home, took the only 1,500 yuan there, and then left home.
Where did Jin Dehui go? The police then did a great deal of work. Twenty-five hours after receiving the report, the police finally caught the criminal suspect Jin Dehui red-handed in an internet cafe where he was using the internet.
After interrogation, the criminal suspect Jin Dehui confessed to the entire process of robbery and murder at the “Jiaodong One-Yuan Store” in the Xingfu No. 12 Village Vegetable Wholesale Market. At 7:38 that evening, Jin Dehui, who was already hungry, came out of the internet cafe and hid a dagger he had taken from home in advance on his body, preparing to rob someone on the road. Because it was not yet too late, he had not found a suitable target. When he walked to the vegetable wholesale market, he found the victim watching the store alone and immediately had the evil intention of robbery. Afraid of alerting the surrounding neighbors, he walked around the market and waited until most people in the market had left. When he saw the victim preparing to close the store, he approached and asked whether all the goods in the store were one yuan each, falsely claiming to buy something in order to enter the store.
To stall for time, Jin Dehui chose a large pile of goods. When he felt that no one around was paying attention, he took out the knife to threaten and rob. The victim screamed for help. Jin Dehui raised the knife and stabbed fiercely. The victim fell immediately. Jin Dehui grabbed the leather bag the victim carried with her, which contained more than 1,000 yuan in cash and a mobile phone. To avoid investigation, Jin Dehui did not forget to pull down the northern rolling shutter door when leaving, faking the scene. Because his light-colored coat was stained with blood, he simply took off his top, ran out to the street, and took a taxi home.
According to the criminal suspect Jin Dehui’s confession, on the night of the crime, because his coat was splattered with blood, before going home he burned the coat and the robbed wallet outside the trash can downstairs of his home until nothing was left. A few days later, the traces of burning were still clearly visible. The criminal suspect Jin Dehui said that when he recalled the scene at that time, he still felt a chill down his back, and it was vivid before his eyes.
Jin Dehui told the police that a few years ago he came to Zhifu District with his parents. His father worked outside, while he himself idled about. Since the age of 18, he had only worked for a few months. Because he disliked work and loved ease, he could not keep several jobs. His greatest hobby was using the internet day and night. As long as he could stay in an internet cafe, it was fine even if he did not eat.
To cope with the nagging of his honest and simple parents, Jin Dehui always told them that he worked in a foreign enterprise and earned more than a thousand yuan a month.
So every day Jin Dehui left home with his parents, and then went into an internet cafe, and at night claimed that he had to work overtime and did not go home. His parents had no idea at all what he was doing. But his parents also found it strange that Jin Dehui, who had already found a job, still asked them for money from time to time as living expenses.
Jin Dehui’s father once asked him, “Since you have a job and earn your own salary, why do you still ask the family for living expenses?” He told his father that the boss was in arrears with wages.
In this way, Jin Dehui went home every ten days or half a month to ask for money. His parents did not ask in detail and gave it whenever he asked, one or two hundred yuan at a time, barely enough for Jin Dehui to spend some time in the internet cafe.
From graduating from secondary school at 18 to age 24, six years passed in vain like this.
The parents’ ignorant behavior became disguised spoilings of their son, and the games of quick revenge in the online world also made Jin Dehui, in a life of skipped meals and hunger, develop the idea of robbery at knifepoint.
Jin Dehui said that on the day of the crime, on the one hand, the money in his pocket was about to run out, and on the other hand, he was very irritable that day. After coming out of the internet cafe, when he passed Mrs. Guo Lanqiu’s store, he suddenly wondered why other people were so rich while he had no money. Coupled with his inability to find a job for a long time, he became even more restless.
Jin Dehui told the police that he both loved and hated the internet. When he first came into contact with the internet, he was like a normal person and was not so addicted. The problem was that he kept hitting walls in job hunting. After resigning from his first job, he looked for work everywhere but never found anything satisfactory. After that, he became discouraged and began to doubt whether the skills he had learned before were valuable. Later, he used online games to keep himself from thinking about these things.
In this way, Jin Dehui drifted in internet cafes for six years. In his own words, there were too many troubles in real life that made him irritable. However, even if he did not eat or drink, the one or two hundred yuan he asked from his parents each month could hardly support his expenses in the internet cafe.
On the night of the crime, Jin Dehui spent all his money in the internet cafe and was forced to go offline, so he decided to carry out robbery to obtain money.
After killing Mrs. Guo Lanqiu, Jin Dehui took 1,500 yuan when he left home. His original plan was to leave Yantai, hide in another city, and start a so-called new life. But when he left home and had money in his hands again, he could not help but walk into an internet cafe again, and stayed there for three days.
What did Jin Dehui do in the internet cafe? According to the surveillance footage retrieved by the police afterward, during these three days, apart from sitting in front of the computer using the internet and playing games, Jin Dehui went again and again to the internet cafe counter to buy snacks and drinks. He never left the internet cafe during the three days. At that moment, however, his identity was that of a fugitive murder suspect. Had he forgotten all this?
Jin Dehui said that if he did not go to an internet cafe one day, he would feel uncomfortable and feel as if something was missing in life. Going to an internet cafe to use the internet and play games had become an indispensable part of his life.
In the past two or three years, Jin Dehui had basically gone to the internet cafe every day, just like going to work. At 8:00 in the morning he went to the internet cafe “for work,” and at around 6 in the evening he got off work and went home. Sometimes when he was especially into it, he might stay a little later at night. He lied to his parents that he was working overtime at the unit, but in fact he was spending time in the internet cafe, wandering in online games.
Later, Jin Dehui told the police that the internet had almost become his whole life. As long as he could use the internet, he could eat only one meal a day or not eat at all. As long as he could use the internet and play games, he could go several days and nights without sleeping. Even when the investigators entered the internet cafe, stood behind him, and compared him, he did not notice at all.
Now detained in the detention center, Jin Dehui is unwilling to recall the scene at the time of the crime. Even now he cannot believe that he could have committed such a crime, and he also has a new understanding of the internet.
Jin Dehui told the police that long-term internet cafe gaming is addictive and impossible to stop. If one suddenly has no money to support this consumption, it is very likely that ideas of theft and robbery will arise. Therefore, he wants to tell young people that online games should be enjoyed in moderation, and they should be able to control themselves and not become overly addicted.
After Jin Dehui’s case was solved, the police said in an interview with the media that in many of the cases they had handled, some young people, including minors, had been addicted to online games for many years. Like Jin Dehui, the violent stimulation of the online world had become an indispensable part of their lives. The troubles of reality were washed away by the noise of the internet, and only in the online world could they find themselves.
The investigators also learned that in order to work in the city, Jin Dehui’s parents sold their house in their hometown and had been renting in Zhifu District. They placed their hopes on their son. The family had originally planned to work hard and earn money so that they could buy a house of their own when their son got married. When they learned that their son had a job, they were happy for him. In order not to let their son suffer, they often gave him living expenses. For Jin Dehui’s parents, their son became their only hope, and now their hope has ultimately been shattered.