The Same Fate Awaits All Sins Chapter 54

Mind Control – 10

---

"Then we'll have to ask Zheng Yandong himself about that." Gu Yanta swiftly finished his breakfast, got up, and pulled Lu Zheng along. "Let's go, interrogations are your forte."

The two of them arrived at Ren'ai Hospital. By sheer coincidence, Zheng Yandong had once been a doctor here, and now, as a criminal suspect, he had returned.

At the door of the hospital room, Ma Qin, who was on duty, was nodding off like a little chick pecking at grains. Gu Yanta walked up and patted him on the shoulder. Ma Qin jolted awake, rubbed his eyes, and said, "Boss, Consultant Lu, you're here!"

"Your breakfast." Gu Yanta handed Ma Qin his breakfast. "Go get some rest, Consultant Lu and I will take it from here."

"I'm fine!" Ma Qin mumbled through a mouthful of jianbing.

"Am I the captain, or are you? You don't even listen to me any more?" Gu Yanta feigned anger. "Hurry up, just call Yu Tiantian over!"

"Alright then..." Ma Qin reluctantly put away his half-eaten jianbing. "Just be extra careful. This Zheng Yandong..."

"I know." Gu Yanta waved his hand at Ma Qin, signalling him to hurry back. "He's no ordinary man..."

Gu Yanta and Lu Zheng pushed open the hospital room door. Zheng Yandong was half-lying on the hospital bed, his face pale. The impact from yesterday hadn't caused him any serious injuries, he had only lost consciousness for a while.

Seeing the two enter, Zheng Yandong shifted from a half-lying position to lying flat, closed his eyes, and pretended to be asleep.

"Enough, drop the act." Gu Yanta prodded him. "It's useless to pretend."

"......" Zheng Yandong remained silent.

"Zheng Yandong, do you remember me?" Lu Zheng's cool voice broke the silence.

Zheng Yandong opened his eyes and gave Lu Zheng a glance before falling into deep thought. After a while, he spoke. "You're Professor Zhang's student? Aren't you?"

Lu Zheng nodded. "Professor Zhang has told us about you. He believes you wouldn't commit a crime."

"Did he really say that?" Zheng Yandong's voice wavered slightly.

"Yes. You know better than anyone what kind of man Professor Zhang is, he wouldn't lie to the police. If you had truly committed a crime, he would never shield you in the slightest." Lu Zheng continued, "Even when we, the police, treated you as a suspect and went to him for information, he still chose to believe in you."

Zheng Yandong swallowed silently.

"He said you're an outstanding young man, just a little unlucky."

The corners of Zheng Yandong's eyes glistened with moisture, and Lu Zheng looked at him with some emotion. It turned out that Professor Zhang was, indeed, his weak spot.

"This case is of great importance. Although all the current evidence points to you, we've found many inconsistencies during our investigation... Professor Zhang also mentioned that someone has been threatening you." Lu Zheng paused when he saw Zheng Yandong's conflicted expression. "Don't worry, if you tell us the truth, we will guarantee your safety."

"But... my family..." Zheng Yandong hesitated.

"We'll immediately notify the S Province police to arrange twenty-four-hour protection for your family." Gu Yanta stated firmly. Without delay, he took out his phone and contacted the police in S Province.

After Gu Yanta finished his call, Zheng Yandong's expression finally eased a little. He sat up, licked his dry lips, and looked as though he wanted to speak but hesitated.

"Zheng Yandong, what are you still worried about?" Lu Zheng asked gently.

"Do you really believe I was threatened?" Zheng Yandong countered.

"There are many suspicious points in this case that we need you to clarify for us." Lu Zheng fixed Zheng Yandong with a determined gaze.

Zheng Yandong thought for a long moment before suddenly closing his eyes, steeling himself. "Fine! I'll talk! But not here! I'll go with you to the station!"

"Alright, let's go now! I'll get the car!" Gu Yanta turned and left the room.

City bureau.

Zheng Yandong sat in the interrogation room, under the dim yellow light, but his face appeared unnervingly calm.

"Shall we begin?" Lu Zheng politely handed Zheng Yandong a glass of water. A man like Zheng Yandong, who had worked his way up from a poor background, attached great importance to respect.

As expected, Zheng Yandong accepted the glass and took a sip, thinking to himself that Lu Zheng, being Professor Zhang's student, certainly lived up to expectations. His impression of Lu Zheng improved slightly.

Setting down the glass, Zheng Yandong took a deep breath. "This matter started three years ago..."

After Zheng Yandong finished his account, even Chen Chen, watching from the monitoring room, gasped in shock. The truth behind this astonishing case was finally beginning to surface.

As a psychologist, Zheng Yandong himself suffered from severe depression. He lived in a constant state of despair, caught between pessimism and suicidal thoughts. While ordinary patients could seek help from doctors, he, as a doctor, had no one to turn to. This made Zheng Yandong's suffering even more unbearable, leaving him teetering on the edge of despair and suicide every day.

One day three years ago, one of his patients, after receiving treatment, suggested creating a QQ chat group for doctors and patients to communicate more easily. Zheng Yandong agreed. At first, it was indeed a support group for patients, but over time, Zheng Yandong's own suicidal tendencies began to influence the still-recovering members. Gradually, the group transformed into a gathering place for suicide enthusiasts, where people constantly shared despairing thoughts and even discussed methods of taking their own lives.

At the end of last year, Zheng Yandong met someone, one of his patients, named Li Qing. Li Qing was forty-four years old, with a wife and a pair of fourteen-year-old twin sons. He had been working in Yuchuan for over a decade and, in recent years, had made a living running a small convenience store. Though his life was not wealthy, it was at least stable. But fate was unpredictable, and disaster struck Li Qing one after another.

First, his wife passed away in a car accident, and less than six months later, his twin sons were diagnosed with uraemia. If they did not receive kidney transplants, they would die. No matching donor could be found, and even if there was one, the cost was far beyond what Li Qing could afford. To keep his sons alive through dialysis, Li Qing sold everything he owned. When he was desperate and suffering from depression himself, he sought treatment with Zheng Yandong. It was then that a fellow patient invited him to join the online group chat.

When Li Qing discovered that the group was full of suicide enthusiasts, he was utterly shocked. To him and his sons, life was something incredibly precious. Watching his two children in the hospital depending on dialysis every day, unable to go to school or live a normal life, Li Qing's heart felt like it was being torn apart. He loathed the suicide enthusiasts in the group, and he despised Zheng Yandong even more, a doctor who promoted such negative emotions.

By sheer coincidence, Li Qing obtained the medical records of one of the group members. Excited, he took them to consult his son's attending physician. When he learned that this stranger's kidney was a perfect match for his eldest son, a sinister idea took root in his mind.

But he couldn't kill anyone, he had to stay alive to save his son. He figured that since the people in the suicide group wanted to die anyway, he might as well trick one of them into donating their kidney for his son first and then committing suicide. If the person died by their own hand, no one would suspect foul play. It was the best possible outcome.

Li Qing approached Zheng Yandong. Despite his depression and suicidal thoughts, Zheng Yandong had never found the courage to act on them. There was a reason for that, he couldn't bear to leave his elderly father behind. His father had worked tirelessly to raise the three brothers, only for the first and second brothers to get involved in drug trafficking behind their father's back. In the end, both were caught and punished by the law... Zheng Yandong couldn't bear to let his father endure the loss of another son, so he fought against his depression. At the end of last year, Zheng Yandong brought his father to live with him and take care of him. Li Qing secretly investigated this and, one day, while Zheng Yandong's father was out for a walk, he kidnapped the elderly man. Using him as leverage, he forced Zheng Yandong to psychologically manipulate the patient into suicide.

Zheng Yandong refused Li Qing outright and threatened to call the police. But when Li Qing cut off one of his father's fingers right in front of him, he finally gave in. He had no choice but to agree to Li Qing's request.

Zheng Yandong began his guided treatment for the first victim. Initially, as a form of psychological suggestion, he gave the man a book. The inscription on the title page was written by Li Qing. Though Li Qing was not highly educated, he had beautiful penmanship, and their plan slowly started to be implemented.

Under the guise of treatment, Li Qing lured the victim in and forced Zheng Yandong to perform the kidney extraction surgery. After a period of recovery, the victim was released back home. Because he picked a victim who had deep conflicts with his family, his disappearance for a few days did not cause much alarm.

Following this, Li Qing instructed Zheng Yandong to send the final psychological trigger to the victim, as they had previously planned. As Li Qing wished, upon receiving the message, the victim took his own life. Though the family found it suspicious, there was no evidence of foul play, after all, it was clearly a suicide. And so, the matter was left unresolved.

"Did the hospital treating Li Qing's son never question the source of the kidney?" Lu Zheng asked. "That's impossible!"

"I tampered with the records..." Zheng Yandong sweat like a pig. "You may have heard from Professor Zhang that I'm skilled with computers... I altered the organ transplant database at Ren'ai Hospital... making the donor traceable, fully legal."

"If everything was so airtight, then why did you run away and go into hiding?" Lu Zheng frowned.

"I couldn't keep enabling his crimes!" The veins on Zheng Yandong's forehead bulged as he growled, "After Li Qing succeeded once, of course, there would be a second time. He saw that his elder son, who had received the transplant, was recovering well, while his younger son, still without a donor, was deteriorating rapidly. His son's doctor had even issued a final ultimatum: if they couldn't find a kidney by June, he would die."

"By that time, I had already sent my father back to our hometown in S Province," Zheng Yandong continued. "I refused to be manipulated by him again! To ensure he couldn't find me, I resigned from my job, lied about moving to Canada, and even altered my immigration records. That way, even if the police reopened the previous victim's case, they wouldn't be able to pin anything on me."

"If it weren't for my father... I would have really gone... That way, Li Qing would never have been able to drag me into this again!" Zheng Yandong gritted his teeth. "It's all because of that bastard Li Qing! After he kidnapped my father, the trauma left him in a terrible mental state, I couldn't just leave him alone in the country..."

"I really don't know what happened afterwards!" Zheng Yandong shouted. "I've been in my hometown the whole time! I never logged into the QQ group again! I really don't know what Li Qing did afterwards!"

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: February 7, 2025 by Angel

Edited: February 25, 2025 by Angel