Perfect Murder: 7 True Major Crime Stories from a Veteran Detective

I sat in front of Li Xiao, carefully examining him up close for the first time. What a delicate and handsome man, I thought to myself.

He appeared very calm, looking at me expressionlessly. I told him bluntly that his DNA was found on Yang Fang’s microphone.

‘Yes, I wore that microphone.’ Unexpectedly, he admitted it right away: ‘One day I went to her studio, saw that streaming setup looked pretty fun, so I put it on to try it out.’

Li Xiao acted as if it were no big deal, but this excuse was highly insufficient. I almost laughed out loud. Looking straight into his eyes, I told him that for a man familiar with live streaming, he should be more than familiar with the function of that microphone. In my view, if this happened to another man, it might barely make sense, but for Li Xiao, that microphone was far from just a simple toy.

This back-and-forth conversation might have originally lasted a long time, but an unintentional remark of mine opened a breach in this interrogation.

‘Your wife’s performance during her live streams was quite good. I chatted with her fans, and they said they really loved watching her streams. If you ask me, in this industry, although her fan count wasn’t huge, they were all hardcore fans.’ I said probing: ‘This is also very rare.’

I originally said this to remind Li Xiao that he already had a very deep understanding of Yang Fang’s streaming situation. I didn’t expect that as soon as my voice faded, I saw an highly unusual look in his eyes.

This look was like a dagger thrown at me, instantly piercing my nerves. I suddenly felt this sensation was very familiar, as if I had seen this exact expression in the eyes of many women involved in cases.

Jealousy and resentment. Yes, I silently repeated this word in my mind. This fleeting glint in Li Xiao’s eyes instantly put me on alert. Because we were so close, I even saw the twitching of his facial muscles and his desperately controlled masseter muscles.

Of course I had seen this expression before, but this is exactly what surprised me. Usually, this expression—mixed with envy and jealousy—only appears on women’s faces. Jealousy is almost an innate physiological attribute of women. Many people might not believe it, but a massive number of homicides originate from a woman’s frantic jealousy. Even some deeply calculated vendettas ultimately trace back to seemingly ridiculous origins—perhaps a gifted necklace, or even a seemingly insignificant compliment from someone else. But in many murder cases involving women, this can be the fuse that detonates the criminal act.

But this time, this expression appeared on a man’s face, which truly startled me. On second thought, I actually felt relieved, because it added a perfect footnote to unraveling another mystery.

The collapse of his defense started with a question about breakfast. I asked for details about breakfast and asked Li Xiao to explain why his wife never ate with him. Li Xiao acted very impatient, repeatedly emphasizing that this was just a family habit, and that Yang Fang’s job dictated that she was constantly caught in a paradoxical state of desperately eating and desperately trying to lose weight. So, although she didn’t mind cooking, she was highly secretive about eating. After all, she already ate enough in front of the camera.

No. I wagged my finger and cut Li Xiao off. From visiting Yang Fang’s fans to discussing the industry characteristics of the mukbang profession, and finally returning to the woman’s behavioral habits regarding eating—as an excellent criminal investigator, I am very confident in my investigative abilities.

‘Do you know why I said your wife is very dedicated to her work? Because she was always eating during her live streams, truly eating,’ I said.

Li Xiao’s eyes dimmed, as if I had seen through some divine secret.

In the mukbang industry, many people fake eat. But this makes it hard to guarantee the broadcast effect because the audience isn’t stupid. If one merely puts on an act of eating, not only does it fail to arouse the audience’s appetite, but it also ruins the professional ethics of the trade, dooming them to fail in this market.

Therefore, many mukbang streamers eat for real, but they spit it out immediately after eating.

This is, of course, very painful, so mukbang itself is a self-destructive form of live streaming. However, Yang Fang was different.

Yang Fang was always eating for real, meaning the food she ate was not spat out. I am very sure of this, and at the same time, I explicitly pointed out that just relying on those delicacies eaten in front of the camera was enough to make this woman gain weight at a visibly rapid pace. Yet, the Yang Fang I spied on was very slender. Not only me, but almost everyone who watched this woman from behind the reflective glass claimed she had a great figure, tall and slim. Even the fans in the broadcast room said they envied this woman’s physical trait of eating without gaining weight.

This was strange.

The same woman cannot suddenly be fat and then slim. When I raised this question, I deliberately stressed the word ‘same’. Sure enough, a trace of panic flashed across Li Xiao’s eyes, but he returned to normal in the blink of an eye. He smiled unnaturally: ‘Human visual observation is not accurate. You probably felt my wife was slim because of the distance. Actually, as her husband, I must say, she indeed got a lot fatter.’

No, you can’t fool me. I am very clear that the woman I saw by the window, while having a good figure, had absolutely nothing to do with being plump.

Now was the critical point of the man’s psychological breakdown. I pondered for a moment and coldly told him that while I was interrogating him, my colleagues were rushing to his residence to conduct a new round of searches.

‘Do whatever you want, you’ve already searched it many times anyway,’ Li Xiao said.

Of course, there was a reason he didn’t care at all; after all, that place had been inspected multiple times. In my view, even if there was anything incriminating, it must have already been cleaned up spotlessly.

‘This time is different from before.’ I deliberately emphasized my tone: ‘My colleagues aren’t going after Yang Fang’s belongings. The purpose this time is to collect the tableware in the room…’ I paused and said: ‘To be exact, to collect fingerprints.’

Li Xiao’s pupils contracted sharply; this physiological reaction could not be concealed. When I heard his voice start to tremble, I knew my conjecture had been confirmed.

Actually, Yang Fang never cooked. That slender woman cooking that morning was you, wasn’t it?

When this sentence was thrown out, it hit Li Xiao’s nerves like a blockbuster bomb. He let out a strange cry, his fingers digging deeply into his hair. I didn’t hesitate and asked, ‘Tell me, where is your wife?’

He fell silent. The panic and terror from just now seemed to have been swallowed by a different kind of emotion, vanishing without a trace.

‘I don’t know.’ Li Xiao said. He coldly told me that he indeed put on the woman’s nightgown every day and carefully cooked in the kitchen. To create the illusion for others that Yang Fang was at home, he even intentionally opened the curtains, letting more people witness that mesmerizing, graceful figure.

Even knowing the truth, I was still very surprised. No matter what, it was hard to connect the woman in the morning from my mind with the delicate-looking man in front of me. However, judging from his figure, it wasn’t strenuous for this man to disguise himself as a slim woman. He was tall, thin, delicate, with a handsome stature and straight legs; standing there, he indeed possessed a womanly elegance. I tried to picture him wearing a woman’s nightgown and found it wasn’t incongruous at all.

The traces my colleagues extracted from the kitchen in Li Xiao’s home proved my deduction was completely correct. On the knife handle and other utensils, there were only Li Xiao’s fingerprints; there was no trace of a second person using them. This also confirmed the results of my previous investigation: none of the food Yang Fang ate in front of the camera was cooked by her own hands, but came from that restaurant where she disappeared.

That restaurant. In a flash of lightning, I felt awakened, recalling that equally graceful figure in the restaurant, and that Yang Fang who vanished silently.

No, that wasn’t Yang Fang.

‘The one at the restaurant at that time was actually you, wasn’t it?’ My eyes flashed with excitement: ‘What exactly were you trying to do, disguising yourself as your own wife and going to that restaurant?’

Li Xiao laughed out loud, then fell into silence again. Aside from a contorted, sinister grin, he gave me no further chance to verify my conjectures. It seemed that after the confession just now, he had actually relaxed a lot. Tapping the table, he provocatively told me that he indeed disguised himself and went to that restaurant. With his outfits and skills in playing a woman, this was not a problem at all.

I was deeply convinced of this. I had seen this man’s performance on camera. As long as the body shape was similar, he could perfectly play a woman without anyone noticing. This was his talent, even though it had now become his sin.

Li Xiao was very smug. He was still immersed in his disguise skills, which were almost like face-changing magic. ‘Fine, I’ll tell you. It was indeed me who dressed up as her and entered the restaurant. But, do you know how I got out?’ After speaking, he let out a rampant laugh again.

Looking at Li Xiao’s smug expression, I took a sharp breath of cold air. Because I suddenly realized that even if I thought the investigation work was almost perfect, I might have still missed a crucial link. A tiny oversight causing the subsequent case to hit a deadlock—such situations are not uncommon in many years of handling cases.

But where exactly was the loophole this time?

I once again thought of Old Zhou’s exquisite restaurant. Such a large restaurant, yet the surveillance facilities were so rudimentary, which was very puzzling. After comparing the people entering and exiting one by one from the video, I still couldn’t find a trace of ‘Yang Fang’. According to the video, everyone who entered the restaurant left one after another; only the ‘Yang Fang’ who walked in never reappeared.

Li Xiao’s smile revealed a kind of confidence and smugness. He even reminded me to pay attention to the restaurant’s busboy. At first, I scoffed at this. For a detective with rich investigative experience, every living thing in the restaurant was within my line of suspicion; it was impossible to ignore the restaurant staff. Indeed, from the manager to the chef to the waiters serving food, I had arranged personnel to screen them from the video. Unsurprisingly, it yielded nothing.

But Li Xiao’s eerie smile gave me an ominous premonition. After all, this tedious and boring work couldn’t be done by me alone. Especially for the restaurant staff part, I assigned it to a young police officer in the squad. Judging from his report, no anomalies were found. I knew this officer very well; he handled things very seriously and carefully, so there shouldn’t have been any negligence in his work.

But when it comes to things based on experience, it’s hard to say.

My heart skipped a beat. After turning and walking out of the interrogation room, I immediately found that young police officer and asked him to detail the situation on the surveillance at the time, especially the state of every restaurant worker entering and exiting.

Looking surprised, he told me that he indeed hadn’t let a single restaurant staff member slip by. The traces of every person entering and exiting were compared. They all did indeed leave one after another before midnight that night. Fortunately, there weren’t many people, so the comparison didn’t take long. Saying this, he pulled a notebook from his desk drawer and handed it to me; it contained his records when comparing the videos.

I flipped through it carefully. I have to say, this young man indeed did a very meticulous job. Not only did he mark the appearance, name, and entry/exit time of each person, but he even briefly recorded what they were doing at the time.

A word in the notes pierced my eyes like a needle. I stayed silent for a moment, pointing to a page with ‘Kitchen waste’ written on it, and asked: ‘What does this mean?’

‘Oh, this refers to two large round barrels in the surveillance at the time.’ The young officer sniffled and said dismissively: ‘I asked the restaurant manager what these were at the time, and he said it was the daily kitchen waste from the back kitchen, pushed out by someone specifically to dump it. This stuff has to be dumped in designated areas, otherwise the health department will issue a fine. I went to the site to check it out back then and found nothing suspicious.’

Of course the site wasn’t suspicious, because the barrels were the real point of suspicion. I smiled bitterly, and my mind instantly lit up.

This was the loophole. The young man still lacked experience; he only looked at the people in the surveillance but ignored those two massive barrels. I understood! Li Xiao must have hidden in one of those two large barrels, leaving the restaurant without anyone knowing. This was how he vanished from the surveillance.

The question was, why did he disguise himself and go to that restaurant?

Li Xiao refused to answer this question and resumed his silence.

This time it was my turn to sneer. I knocked on the table and said: ‘Do you think my purpose in interrogating you is to get the truth? You’re wrong. With what we know now, even if you say nothing, it’s enough to send you to court for intentional homicide.’

‘Impossible.’ Li Xiao roared: ‘You guys…’

‘We don’t have evidence to convict, is that it?’ I looked at the man opposite me, who instantly fell silent. My cold voice seemed soaked in ice water: ‘Besides the traces on your kitchen utensils, police technicians also found a large amount of blood on the kitchen floor and in the bathroom, which tested positive for human blood.’ I knocked on the table again: ‘The police didn’t just go to your kitchen to extract fingerprints. In fact, there is a lot more we can do.’

‘You severely misunderstand the development of modern forensic technology.’ My voice sounded again: ‘Human blood is easy to wipe away, but hard to remove. Just because the naked eye can’t see the blood residue doesn’t mean instruments and chemical reagents can’t detect it. With today’s scientific methods, let alone detecting wiped bloodstains, even conducting DNA tests on blood residue is not a problem! You thought others couldn’t find your traces; that only exposes your ignorance!’

‘Of course, we identified the bloodstains and compared them with the DNA sample on the microphone. Guess whose blood it is?’ I suddenly looked at the man and asked.

Li Xiao’s eyes widened. A few seconds later, he lowered his head dejectedly. When I continued to ask about Yang Fang’s whereabouts, he regained a bit of his spirit.

‘With such advanced technology, you guys still don’t know Yang Fang’s whereabouts?’ Li Xiao’s voice carried a hollow confidence: ‘Then on what grounds are you accusing me of murder?’

‘On the grounds of your compound’s sewer.’ I stared into Li Xiao’s eyes and said word by word: ‘Did you think the police didn’t know where Yang Fang is? When I say the word ‘sewer’, it means your resistance has lost its meaning. Want to know why I’m still wasting time on you? I can tell you, I just want to satisfy my own curiosity, to know what exactly your motive was to throw her into the filthy sewer!’

This was the first time I mentioned the human tissue in the sewer, and it was the most fatal blow to this stubborn man in front of me.

Li Xiao let out a long sigh, his voice floating out thinly like a ghost.

‘Fine, it seems you know everything. I didn’t expect that you would even know she was in the sewer.’ Li Xiao finally spoke.

‘That’s right, I did kill her. As for the reason… because she was too vain,’ he said.

‘This has to do with live streaming, right?’ I asked calmly.

‘Right. I was the one who led her into live streaming. Usually, she was a lazy woman who only knew how to eat. Later, when I made some money streaming, she just focused on buying designer clothes and bags. When the money was almost spent, she would come to me asking for more. Slowly, I got tired of this life. Since we built our home on live streaming, I figured I might as well teach her the ropes, let her do streams to earn some money, which is better than idling at home.

I didn’t expect she would do mukbangs. This woman, even when choosing a job, she picked one related to eating; truly lazy and gluttonous. But I gradually found she seemed highly interested in streaming. She often stayed in that small room for an entire night. A few times I even thought she was streaming something illegal—you know, my wife has a great face and figure, and I worried she would go astray—but I did some surprise checks a few times, and she was always seriously eating, so I felt relieved.

Although she didn’t have many fans, her enthusiasm was high. However, because she was used to being lazy at home, she didn’t know how to cook any meals. She used to order takeout every day at home, and doing this job made it even more so. Before every stream, she would order takeout from the same restaurant to be delivered to the home or studio. Slowly, her streaming fan count went up, and she made some pocket change. Surprisingly, she didn’t always ask me for money anymore, only reaching out every once in a while.

But at the same time, my streaming results were getting worse and worse. This world is advancing at a breakneck speed every day, especially the streaming industry. Newcomers are constantly emerging, and as long as it’s not illegal, they dare to stream whatever catches the eye. I was just doing imitation shows. At first, I chased fashion hotspots and trendy people; whatever was popular, I imitated. I won some fans and indeed lived comfortably for a long time. But slowly, I ran into trouble because of this. Imitating others carries intellectual property risks, and now the state is managing this area more strictly and formally. Moreover, no matter what you imitate, it’s a formula. Slowly, the fans got bored. Once the novelty is lost, the rate of losing followers is faster than an ebbing tide, and soon my income plummeted.

To make matters worse, that woman’s stream also tanked. The reason is simple: she loved eating too much. Mukbang is a profession, not just simply eating. But she treated it as an enjoyment, an enjoyment where she could both eat and make money. This was a huge mistake. Fans don’t just watch people eat; many come for the streamer’s face. Simply put, good-looking streamers are popular when they eat; less attractive streamers have to rely on other skills to attract attention.

She quickly and visibly became obese. Once a person gets fat, they give off a greasy feeling, and the stream’s appeal drops immediately.’ The man finished in one breath, panting heavily like a dying fish.

‘Wait,’ I interrupted him: ‘Why wasn’t it that obvious on camera?’

‘You underestimate the photo-editing capabilities of smartphone beauty filters.’ Li Xiao smiled bitterly: ‘This was her last straw, but it didn’t help either.’

He swallowed and continued: ‘Like I just said, this world is very cruel, especially the streaming industry which relies on traffic to survive. Once you lose your audience, you lose your market, and more directly, you lose money. She usually didn’t like exercising. Once she got fat, she would start panting after just a few steps. Lacking the immense willpower to lose weight, things got even more out of hand.

So, arguments became inevitable. I was anxious every day about stream topics and performance techniques, watching my bank balance visibly drop, while my body actually got thinner. Yang Fang saw this and got even more jealous. Moreover, seeing that I couldn’t make money, Yang Fang found every way to criticize me. Actually, she was the one who lacked enterprise the most. Aside from being serious for a while in the beginning, she later became self-destructive. The two of us fought many times over the increasingly tight income at home. The words this detestable woman said were extremely nasty, full of vicious humiliation and attacks against me. I never thought those normally sexy lips could speak such cold-blooded words. Gradually, the verbal fights escalated into physical fights. We often came to blows, even beating each other until our heads bled. I detested this woman to the extreme. A month ago, I accidentally pushed her onto a hard object in the corner of the kitchen wall, and her neck snapped on the spot.’

‘You probably won’t believe it’—Li Xiao actually smiled—’I didn’t feel much panic at the time; instead, I felt the joy of relief. Looking at the blood all over the floor and a greasy, obese body, at that moment, my heart felt like it had been emptied out, completely numb.’

‘And then?’ Seeing Li Xiao pause, I pressed on. I knew in my heart that what happened next was the most chilling part.

Sure enough, Li Xiao’s eyes began to stiffen. A few seconds later, he said coldly: ‘After that, I spent two nights and finally flushed her down the sewer through the toilet.’

‘What about the bones?’ I asked.

‘Hard to flush. I smashed them, brought them to that restaurant, and threw them into another brine bucket.’ A contemptuous smile appeared on Li Xiao’s lips: ‘Didn’t expect it, huh? In the end, you could say she returned to her favorite place.’

I shook my head and then asked: ‘Why did you go to her streaming room?’

‘That’s hard to say.’ Li Xiao’s eyes were hollow as he said: ‘At the time, driven by some strange impulse, as if guided by someone, I ran to her streaming room and put on a show. It felt like the moment I put on the microphone, she came back. Of course, I didn’t dare speak when streaming, but I was indeed talking to myself in front of the computer at the time.’

‘After turning on the camera, no one realized I was an imposter either. After all, I was too familiar with her expressions and postures on normal days, plus I was wearing an eye mask. Imitating others, even imitating a woman, I am a professional; no one could tell I wasn’t her.’ Li Xiao’s tone actually carried a hint of pride: ‘I even felt like I had become her, as if she was speaking through my throat.’

I felt a chill down my spine, shrugged, and continued asking: ‘Is this the reason you played her?’

‘No.’ Li Xiao denied it: ‘I disguised myself as her because I was afraid someone would eventually discover she was missing. I had to create an illusion of her disappearance; at least in terms of time, I could misalign her disappearance. To tell you the truth, it was the performance in the broadcast room that reminded me, making me realize I could create an alibi for myself by mimicking her presence.’

I fell silent for a while and said: ‘I’ve handled many cases and seen many brutal killers, but ones as meticulous and cold-headed as you are truly rare.’

Li Xiao smiled bitterly and didn’t speak.

‘Don’t you feel guilty?’ I asked: ‘Just killing your wife who you lived with day and night like that.’

‘No, I actually envied her. Why did I have to work myself to death to make money, while she, just because she was a woman, could recklessly and lavishly spend my hard-earned money. Facts proved she was nothing but a lazy parasite who only knew how to eat, she knew nothing! Except wasting my wealth!’ Li Xiao began to scream hysterically, his eyes red, saliva flying.

‘Not right.’ I shook my head and said: ‘Maybe she was lazy once, but from her notes, I think she intended to do this job seriously. I’ve never seen a gluttonous, lazy woman who could keep notes so neatly. It’s just that later you lost patience and destroyed her only confidence and motivation to do something with her heart. Perhaps, her desperate eating was just a means of escape, only you didn’t know.’

Li Xiao was stunned. After a long while, he asked tremblingly: ‘What notes?’

I sighed and waved my hand.

‘I’m just speculating too. Now, no one can ever know the truth of the matter. But I think, in the final analysis, you cared too much about yourself. Your pitifully little attention to her was actually the reason that pushed both you and your lover into the abyss.

Your home is very clean, your clothes are neat, your makeup exquisite, but it lacks the traces of habitation. Of course, you intentionally disposed of Yang Fang’s things, but even so, your spacious house lacks a warm aura. There are neatly angular furniture and ornaments everywhere, but rarely any trace that a woman once lived here. This shows that the interaction between you two was full of alienation and apathy. Others might not see this, but you yourself should be very clear about it.

The first time I inspected your house, I felt strange that there wasn’t a single photo of you two or a couple’s ornament in the room. This is very abnormal for a married couple your age.

You said you taught Yang Fang to stream, which gave her a certain income. But in my eyes, she chose to use eating to escape from something; streaming was just a cover-up for this. That’s why, even though she started taking streaming seriously, she still found it hard to persevere. But obviously, your wife intended to repair this relationship; even she herself thought this was an opportunity to change herself, which is exactly why she persisted diligently for a period of time.

You said she knew nothing. But what I saw in the studio that day was clearly a neat and organized woman. If she was as lazy as you said, isn’t all this very abnormal? Unless something triggered her.

Or, you are lying to me.’

Hearing this, Li Xiao slowly shook his head and said firmly: ‘I didn’t lie to you. She did change a lot for a while, but later she intensified her slide into the abyss of collapse. I never knew why, until today when I heard your deduction.’

His voice suddenly trembled: ‘Perhaps, the reason I inexplicably sat in her studio chair that day was because she couldn’t bear to leave me?’

A wave of sorrow welled up in my heart. I shook my head and said: ‘Now, no one can tell you the truth anymore.’

Li Xiao’s eyes dimmed. After a long time, he smiled bitterly: ‘Let it be. But I truly admire you for actually being able to figure out there was a problem in the sewer.’

‘Dog noses are very sensitive, especially Labrador Retrievers.’ My answer seemed a bit off-topic. Seeing Li Xiao looking at me in bewilderment, I smiled and explained: ‘They are very sensitive to the smell of blood. They will definitely have a intense reaction when they smell it, especially dogs that have been kept as pets for a long time will become panic-stricken. Having lived with humans for a long time, they become manic when they encounter the smell of blood, alerting their owners to be careful.’

After speaking, I took one last look at Li Xiao, turned around, and walked out of the room. Li Xiao jerked his head up, only to hear a faint sentence blocked out by the heavy iron door:

‘Sometimes, humans are worse than animals.’