Chapter 185 Pretending to Be Blind

Chapter 185: Playing Blind

Under the village chief’s stunned stare, the two officers cuffed Lao Litou on the spot and hauled him into the car. Shen Qingye also took his cane along with them.

Before leaving, Shen Qingye instructed the village chief not to approach the area and called Captain Xu, requesting the Trace Examination Unit to come collect evidence.

During the ride, Lao Litou tried to explain himself, but Yue Lingchuan, sitting in the back seat with him, remained cold. "Save it for the station."

While driving, Shen Qingye took advantage of a red light to pick up the blind man's cane from the passenger seat, scrutinizing it carefully.

Yue Lingchuan clearly noticed Lao Litou’s subtle change in expression when he saw Shen Qingye’s actions.

The two exchanged a knowing glance through the rearview mirror.

Bingo.

·

By the time they returned to the station, it was nearly 8 p.m. Team Two were still wrapping up another case and hadn’t clocked out yet. Seeing them bring someone in, they burst into chatter:

"No way—Xiao Shen nailed him?"

"This is the suspect in Ding Dayong’s case? Him?"

"Hold up—this guy’s supposed to be blind! How’d he kill anyone?"

"Seriously? He’s been scamming us?"

The hallway erupted in whispers as Team Two, momentarily setting aside their own case, crowded around the interrogation room to catch the action.

On the way back, Shen Qingye had already discovered faint marks on the cane. Upon returning, she immediately asked Captain Qin and the others to help extract DNA from it. While waiting for the results, they began the interrogation.

The interrogation proceeded smoothly.

Lao Litou’s full name was Li Youliang, a 63-year-old lifelong resident of Shanghe Village.

He had just claimed to be completely blind, yet moments later, he instinctively jerked back from the flashlight beam—a dead giveaway he was faking. Combined with the bloodstains on the cane, he must’ve known the forensics would nail him. So, under questioning from Shen Qingye and Captain Ma, he folded fast.

He admitted to killing Ding Dayong.

That night, he had been dozing off when he heard someone sneaking around his house, muttering about a "damn old man" hiding things well. Li Youliang immediately woke up, felt around for his cane by the bed, and pretended to keep sleeping.

Just then, Ding Dayong entered the room, rummaging for valuables. When Ding approached the bed, Li Youliang suddenly lashed out with the cane.

According to him, the room was too dark to see clearly, and he didn’t know where he struck. He just kept hitting, intending only to defend himself. But after a while, when Ding made no sound, he realized something was wrong. Feeling for a pulse, he found Ding was already dead.

Freaking out and scared of getting caught, he hastily dragged the body out and buried it in a shallow grave.

This account seemed plausible at first, but when Shen Qingye pressed him on why he had pretended to be blind, he hesitated, claiming it was just a habit and not meant to deceive. Seeing through his evasion, Shen Qingye banged the table and pressed him hard. Under further pressure, he finally confessed.

He had indeed been blind since childhood—that much was true. His family couldn’t afford treatment, also true. But over a decade ago, for reasons unknown, his vision gradually improved from total darkness to faint light—and eventually, full sight.

At first, he considered telling someone, but his parents were dead, and he had no close relatives. Moreover...

Back when he was blind, villagers never hid their activities from him. There was a small, clear river in the village where people often bathed in summer.

Men didn’t care, but women usually gathered friends to take turns bathing while others kept watch.

During those times, men were always kept far from the river.

But Li Youliang was different.

He was blind.

This made for the perfect excuse.

Because he was blind, even if he wandered into the area, even if he "accidentally" bumped into some young women or married women bathing, no one could really say anything.

After all, he couldn’t see, and they wouldn’t suffer any real loss. Kicking up a fuss would just seem petty.

So when Li Youliang’s vision first started coming back, he realized this advantage.

"I’m an old man with no wife... I doubt anyone would want me anyway, so I just thought... to look, to get an eyeful..."

"At first, I wasn’t trying to hide it, but then... it just sort of happened. I admit it was wrong, but I only looked—I didn’t do anything else. Officer, this... this isn’t that bad, right?"

"I thought... the hooliganism law got scrapped years ago, right? My actions shouldn’t be serious, right..."

Shen Qingye’s brow furrowed at first, then studied the man before her. He looked guilty, seemingly ashamed of his behavior.

She steadied herself, drumming her fingers lightly on the table as she thought.

Put that way, it almost made sense.

He’d faked blindness for years just to leer at those women.

As for Ding Dayong’s case, it was purely self-defense—a spur-of-the-moment accident.

On paper, the story checked out.

But something didn’t add up.

If these two incidents really went down exactly like he said... then in the judicial trial, he might not face severe consequences.

Shen Qingye studied Li Youliang, uneasy—his story felt too neat, too rushed.

·

They wrapped up the questioning for now, but Shen Qingye felt the matter was far from over.

Yue Lingchuan wasn’t convinced either. So at first light, they headed back to Shanghe Village.

This time, they asked whether anyone in the village had died under mysterious circumstances or gone missing in recent years.

At first, the villagers all shook their heads, insisting there were none. Our village? Nobody’s gone missing lately... Just as Shen Qingye began to doubt if she was overthinking things, an elderly woman suddenly spoke up:

"If we’re talking about our village... no one’s gone missing lately. But a while back, I remember Dahua’s older sister came back to visit and stayed for a while. She had her granddaughter with her, and then one day—poof—the girl was gone."