It’s a ridiculous enough story, but it happened in reality.
In the spring of 2017, I rolled around and learned bits and pieces of the case’s details. At that time, Li Xiangduo, a party to the case, was going around airing her grievances, hoping that the court would sentence her lover, Qiao Hope, to death.
On June 8 of this year, the case of intentional homicide, including Qiao’s hope, was officially opened. I met Li Xiangduo, who was wearing a white lace dress with high heels. This is the first time I saw her – this 49-year-old woman is not beautiful, but loves to dress up, with a head of yellow curly hair.
Li Xiangduo was holding thick paperwork and distributing it at the entrance of the court, in addition to which she brought a group of nearly 20 relatives to attend the trial. When the bailiff came forward to stop them, Li Xiangduo shouted, “Welcome people from all walks of life and media reporters to follow this case.”
This was also the first time I saw Joe Hope. He was handcuffed, flat-headed, slightly fat, wearing a black T-shirt, like a township cadre. In court, Qiao said he regretted hiring the murderer to kill Li Xiangduo: “I am not a qualified party member and am deeply poisoned by feudal superstitious thinking.”
As the confusing case gradually unfolded, I was convinced that the incident had indeed really happened.
It all started on Duling Street
One hot summer night after the trial, I had a meal with Li Xiangduo, her husband and son came. Li Xiangduo was dressed casually, talking while busy coaxing the child.
I sat next to her and couldn’t help but take a look at her cheeks and eyes. Previously, she was hired by her lover Joe Hope to cut her face and stabbed one eye. After cosmetic surgery, there were still a few thin scars left on her face.
Li Xiangduo’s Henan accent is heavy and fast, and there is an uncontrollable anger in her narrative: as soon as she mentions Qiao Hope, she curses “cowardly grandson”, and her best friend Chen Qiaoyun – the “witch” who helped Qiao Hope hire the murderer – is also a “cowardly grandson”.
Li Xiangduo’s marriage is not happy, some years ago, she and her husband Yang Tian has been arguing, cold war, each found a partner. When the marriage was falling apart, Li Xiangduo was attacked, and the couple made up.
Yang Tian said little, got up and poured me wine three times, coyly said: “To you.”
After following the case, one of the interviewees advised me to stay away from Li Xiangduo. She warned me in the tone of a “veteran” that Li Xiangduo was famous in Zhengzhou, “She is an old petitioner, spirited, difficult, and ready to betray you for profit. Li Xiangduo’s lawyer had also been intimidated and ridiculed after taking on the case, “Representing Li Xiangduo, aren’t you afraid she’ll sell you out?”
With caution, I began to reorganize the contradictory and fragmented testimonies, and tried to restore the complex facts behind this matter.
On June 13, the fifth day after the public hearing of the case, I followed Li Xiangduo to Duling Street, where the whole thing began.
Du Ling Street is a famous “fortune-telling street” in Zhengzhou, located on the west side of the Henan Provincial Party Committee compound in the Jinshui District of Zhengzhou, with neatly arranged carts on both sides of the street, stacked with incense for sale at varying prices.
After the reform and opening up, the “Zhengzhou Buddhist Society” was rebuilt on the original destroyed temple here, and gradually people started to set up stalls around to measure words and tell fortunes, and at its peak, there were more than a hundred of them. Later, the district government cleaned up and rectified the situation, leaving only 20 to 30.
The Buddha Hall in the residential community building (Photo by the author) The Buddha Hall in the residential community building (Photo by the author)
Today, each house has a fixed front, advertising curtain cloth laid flat on the brick wall, written “Buddha Road”, “Immortal Hall”, “Buddha Gate”, “God of Wealth Hall “. Each family can read the eight characters, as well as official luck, wealth, schooling, disease and various.
Li Xiangduo walked through the hutong and into Mrs. Qian’s Buddhist hall. Five or six square meters of room, piled with Buddha statues, statues of Goddess of Mercy, incense and paper money. Li Xiangduo wanted to ask Mrs. Qian, Qiao hope, Chen Qiaoyun can be sentenced to a few years. Old Mrs. Qian lit the incense and sat crouching in the shadows. The head of incense fell on the ashes, old Mrs. Qian smashed with an iron spoon and murmured, “Unlucky, the middle of the incense is all black.”
Old Mrs. Qian went on to say that Chen Qiaoyun’s several concubines on Du Ling Street helped her buy her way through the government, and that she could be sentenced to three years, or at most no more than five years.
“Never mind how many years you can be sentenced, the key is to compensate you how much money.” Old Mrs. Qian pointed out Li Xiangduo.
The incense is almost burned out, the old lady Qian grabbed the incense and threw it into the water basin. Li Xiangduo gave her 20 yuan.
Chen Qiaoyun is also the “witch” of Duling Street.
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. You are my god-sister.”
This is the first time the two met, Li Xiangduo politely into Chen Qiaoyun’s Buddha Hall on an incense, put down 20 yuan incense money. Later, on the first and fifteenth days of the year, when the Buddhist Society distributed free noodle buns, Li Xiangduo and Chen Qiaoyun met from time to time. Every time they met, Chen Qiaoyun would always invite Li Xiangduo to sit in her Buddha Hall and chat about random things.
According to what Chen Qiaoyun told Li Xiangduo, she was born in 1963, was from Yucheng County, was born in Zhengzhou, went to high school, was a propagandist in the cultural and industrial troupe when she was young, and also worked as a general practitioner in a hospital. Later she went to Duling Street, rented three four or five square meters of bungalows, opened this Buddhist temple, looking for a blind man to tell fortunes, the two shared the proceeds.
Chen Qiaoyun will teach Li Xiangduo how to change a piece of clothing to receive a few more trips to fasting, while Li Xiangduo talks about her family’s troubles – husband and wife are not getting along, her father is in a demolition lawsuit, and several siblings are fighting over the house.
For the couple’s discord, Chen Qiaoyun advised Li Xiangduo to divorce, saying she has a wide range of relationships and can help her find a better one; as for the demolition lawsuit, she taught Li Xiangduo to go to court, and said her divorce lawsuit with her husband, because she often go to court, for more than 20 years, several judges are afraid to judge, so her husband has not been divorced.
Li Xiangduo’s father’s demolition lawsuit, in fact, Li Xiangduo and her father for one side, her brother and sister for one side, the two sides compete for 260 square meters of resettlement housing demolition compensation. Li Xiangduo said, when the old house renovation, several siblings hijacked the house, but not to raise his father. But at that time, the lawsuit has lost, the judge’s verdict are written, only dead horse as a living horse.
The first time the two went to court, Chen Qiaoyun let Li Xiangduo in the second floor pretend to jump, they are below the phone to call people to make trouble, play a double act.
The second time, according to Chen Qiaoyun’s arrangements, Li Xiangduo first bought a bottle of dichlorvos, and a beverage bottle filled with a bottle of cold white, poured some laundry detergent, and then took his father to the judge’s office, the real dichlorvos to the ground, the room is full of pesticide smell, and then let his father drink two mouthfuls of frothy cold white, everyone saw the old man spitting white foam and fell to the ground.
The court was really scared and withdrew the original verdict, Li Xiangduo father and daughter won back the 260 square meters of the house.
As a result, Li Xiangduo and Chen Qiaoyun became closer. Every time Chen Qiaoyun saw Li Xiangdu’s father, she would always respectfully call him “Godfather”. In order to thank the “god sister”, Li Xiangduo not only spent several hundred yuan in Du Ling Street to treat Chen Qiaoyun to dinner, but also bought her 500 yuan of incense, introducing relatives and friends to her incense hall.
Of course, many people say Chen Qiaoyun is not spiritual. For example, Li Xiangduo a classmate’s child in the examination, Chen Qiaoyun let people buy 100 yuan each of the leading incense, a person high leading incense with a bamboo pole propped up to burn 3, the child still failed Zhengzhou one.
After the case, people on Du Ling Street are reluctant to mention Chen Qiaoyun much. Some people simply say she is a short-haired, fat woman, others say her character is spirited, often play spirited, crying, “can curse a few streets”.
At sunset, Duling Street looked empty. The door of the “Buddhist Society” was closed, and the bare-chested trigonometrist lit a large pot of incense in the open, with black smoke rising.
The door to the room is open, it has become the temple of the god of wealth (author’s photo) The door to the room is open, it has become the temple of the god of wealth (author’s photo)
A few months ago, Li Xiangduo heard people say they saw Chen Qiaoyun again on Duling Street, “wearing a mask and riding an electric bicycle”. Li Xiangduo went to the detention center to ask, the detention center said, Chen Qiaoyun has been released on medical parole.
Li Xiangduo began to sue around, and not long after, the detention center again put Chen Qiaoyun into prison.
Today, due to demolition, Chen Qiaoyun’s Buddhist temple has long been razed to the ground. The newly constructed concrete wall is plastered with slogans from the street office to promote environmental protection. The walls are lined with golden and silver statues of Buddha and the statue of the Goddess of Mercy, probably abandoned there by the owner of the demolished hall.
From petitioner to mistress
Li Xiangduo and Chen Qiaoyun crossed paths because of an official.
The company’s first and foremost business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public.
In 2008, the garment factory was restructured and most of the workers were de-linked from the company by buying out their working years. After deducting social security, medical insurance and other expenses, there was not much “buyout money” left for those who had not worked for years like Li Xiangduo. Dozens of workers, who were in the same situation, elected Li Xiangduo and five others as their representatives to negotiate with the factory and the government.
From the enterprise all the way to the government of Guancheng District, the secretary of the district party committee arranged the then director of the district economic and trade commission Qiao hope to solve the matter.
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public.
Li Xiangduo said, Qiao hope at first attempted to confuse the workers: “He first said the enterprise autonomy, let find the secretary of the factory director to solve, government leaders do not care. Later, he told us to go to the ‘arbitration office’ to file a lawsuit.”
The workers won the labor arbitration case, but they still did not get the “buyout fee” they were supposed to pay, so they repeatedly went to the Henan Provincial Committee and even higher-level units to petition.
In order to complete the task of maintaining stability, Qiao hopes to communicate with Li Xiangduo and other rights representatives many times, invited them to dinner, and even on New Year’s Day, the unit issued benefits, are arranged to give them a copy. Li Xiangduo said, in several representatives, Qiao hope seems to be more attentive to her, sometimes with other units of the leadership dinner, will also invite her, but also sent a driver specially transport.
Once, Qiao Hope returned from Hangzhou to study, not only to Li Xiangduo brought gifts, but also drove to her home to pick her and her son Yang Zeze out together for dinner.
“It was almost dark. It was hot at that time, wearing a skirt. When we were eating, he even asked me to drink, and I said I would just drink beer.” After dinner back to the district committee’s office, Qiao hoped to lead Yang Zezhe to other rooms to play with the computer, and then had sex with Li Xiangduo in the office.
Li Xiangduo said that after putting on the clothes, Joe Hope made a promise to her: “The more power I have, the better I will be to you. Since the child is my godson, I’ll worry about everything for him in the future.”
Thus, Li Xiangduo became Qiao Hope’s mistress.
Soon, through the control of Li Xiangduo and other petitioning workers’ representatives, Qiao hoped to smoothly solve the remaining problems after the restructuring of the garment factory.
Not long after, Yang Zeze formally recognized Qiao hope as “godfather”, in the dark Yang Tian also thought that the family climbed the high branch of the director. The explanation of Qiao hope to outsiders is: “all to improve party relations”.
At the end of 2012, Li Xiangduo was pregnant, and she could not confirm whose child it was at that time. Joe Hope kept giving Li Xiangduo that he wanted a daughter, and Li Xiangduo told him that the child was his.
On September 30, 2013, Li Xiangduo gave birth to a baby boy at the Henan Provincial Maternal and Child health Hospital, and Qiao hoped to give Li Xiangduo 20,000 yuan. During the month, Qiao hoped to take another 25,000 yuan. After the baby’s first month, Qiao hoped to invite Li Xiangduo’s friends to dinner next to the monthly child care center and gave her a gold lock of several thousand dollars.
However, Joe Hope still showed doubts about the child’s lineage more than once. He often argued with Li Xiangduo, saying that the child did not look like him – the child had large eyes and a wide forehead, while his eyes were small and his forehead narrow. Li Xiangduo countered that he could go for a paternity test, and if not, was willing to give him his money back.
In February 2014, Joe Hope negotiated with Li Xiangduo to pay 2,000 yuan per month in support. But a month later, Qiao Hope added that he had been tested for a pituitary tumor and was not only unable to pay support, but also had to borrow 200,000 yuan from Li Xiangduo for medical treatment. After being refused, he told Li Xiangduo that he could not have sex or drive and would not be able to see each other for months to come.
Subsequently, Qiao hoped to black out Li Xiangduo on WeChat.
Twice assaulted and smashed in Huashan
Regarding her relationship with Qiao Hope, in a later interview, Li Xiangduo changed her story: “The time in the office, it was Qiao Hope who raped me.”
And how Chen Qiaoyun and Qiao hope together, into a lover’s relationship, Li Xiangduo said, she did not notice at all.
I asked Li Xiangduo how she was attacked and killed. Li Xiangduo sighed and said that she had been deceived and hoodwinked, and was led around like a fool.
Li Xiangduo then made a statement to the Future Road Police Station at Renji Hospital stating.
“At about 19:30 on June 6, 2014, my son Yang Zeze and I returned home from outside, my son was about 3 meters away from me, and I was parking my electric car in the hole of the building. A man in full black clothes came up behind me and wrapped his left arm around my neck, I hurriedly clamped my chin around my neck, the man took a knife towards my neck, did not cut my neck, and covered his mouth with his hand and stabbed me twice in the face. After I broke free, I shouted to my son: ‘Someone stabbed Nimmy.’ The man fled, I and my family did not catch up, so I called the police, and then came to the hospital hospital.”
The police asked Li Xiangduo, there are no enemies. Li Xiangduo said that after she won a property lawsuit with her father the year before, several siblings beat her and her father in front of the court. She added that the man in black had a figure that resembled her brother’s wife’s brother.
During that time, Li Xiangduo was nervous. At night, she did not dare to go out and always felt that someone was watching her in the dark. After a few days, she and her husband Yang Tian took a bus to Shangqiu overnight to find a famous local trigonometer – when her father’s demolition case was still pending, the trigonometer had predicted that the father and daughter could win two large houses.
At 12 o’clock in the middle of the night, Li Xiangduo and her family arrived at the entrance of the diviner’s four-story villa, where dozens of people were lining up. Li Xiangduo spent 2,500 yuan to buy five numbers, to five people to test the trigrams, trying to line up who wants to kill her – Yang Tian, Qiao hope, a neighbor, a staff representative, brother’s wife and brother.
When it was Li Xiangduo’s turn to tell the fortune, it was almost dawn. Li Xiangduo kowtowed 3 heads, kneeling in front of the diviner. The diviner told Yang Tian to wait outside the house, and then told Li Xiangduo that the killer behind the scene was Qiao Hope.
The next day, Li Xiangduo went to Qiao Hope’s office to question him, and Qiao Hope laughed at her: “You believe in fortune telling?”
The case of the Director of Industry and Information Technology assaulting and killing his lover
Following the advice of the fortune teller, Li Xiangduo decided to change her house.
On June 29, 2014, Li Xiangduo went to see the new house with Chen Qiaoyun, and at about 10 p.m., Li Xiangduo drove Yang Zeze home on an electric car. In a 400-meter stretch of road near home, dark and dark, Li Xiangduo felt a little scared, called Yang Tian, told him to come downstairs to pick up.
Just then, Li Xiangduo suddenly felt a spray of mist to the face, eyes painful, pungent, she realized that something was wrong, covered her eyes with her hands, and rolled and ran. A knife-wielding man caught up with her, first to the left side of the face, and then to the forehead. Li Xiangduo panicked and used her hand to grab the knife, and her hand was cut.
Yang Zeze was terrified and desperately hit the man’s body, kicking him with his feet. The man ignored, and continued to cut Li Xiangduo. Fortunately, someone passed by and the man soon escaped.
Li Xiangduo lost consciousness and woke up in a hospital bed at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University. Her injuries were severe, with multiple cuts to her face and blindness in her right eye. When she reported the case to the police, she claimed that the two attackers were not the same person.
But the police investigated for many days and were unable to pinpoint the killer.
At the end of August, after Li Xiangduo’s injuries had improved, she went to Chen Qiaoyun’s Buddhist temple to burn incense. Chen Qiaoyun said that the feng shui of Shaanxi Huashan is good, there is aura, many people with eye disease go to worship. If Li Xiangduo wants to go, the Buddha Hall recently less business, she can accompany Li Xiangduo to go, by the way also take a break, the cost she to pay.
Li Xiangduo took Yang Zeze, and Chen Qiaoyun bought a high-speed train ticket departing at 7 p.m., and arrived in Xi’an 2 hours later. Li Xiangduo said her eyes were not good and she would take the ropeway up the mountain tomorrow morning. But Chen Qiaoyun objected, saying that the night climbing heart sincere aura. So, 3 people took a taxi to the scenic spot overnight.
At this time is the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, a lot of people, but also a little rain. 3 people along the climbing road up, around 2:00 am, Chen Qiaoyun said heart pain, asked to go down the mountain. The “back to the heart of the stone”, Chen Qiaoyun and said he wanted to burn incense in the vicinity. Li Xiangduo was puzzled, the road is next to the handrail, beyond the handrail is the cliff, incense can be inserted into where? Chen Qiaoyun then used toilet paper to light the incense, said you can insert in the handrail chain.
Chen Qiaoyun let Li Xiangduo walk to the handrail to insert, Li Xiangduo refused.
When it came time to go down the mountain, Li Xiangduo suddenly felt a heavy blow to the back of the head – a large stone hit her, the head of blood soon flowed down. According to Chen Qiaoyun, a rock fell on the mountain, hitting not only Li Xiangduo, but also the arm of a traveler. When she saw it, Li Xiangduo was already squatting on the ground, screaming in pain.
After calling 110 and 120, the two went to the nearby military hospital to hang up the emergency room, took a brain CT, bandaged the wound.
The next morning, Chen Qiaoyun said that something happened at home, returned to Zhengzhou alone. In the morning, Li Xiangduo went to negotiate with the scenic area personnel compensation matters, the scenic management committee compensated 5,000 yuan, but also half-jokingly asked her: “Your god sister how to leave you and the child to go, you are deliberately to bang porcelain?”
“This incident made me suspicious of Chen Qiaoyun.” Li Xiangduo said to me. She felt that even a stranger should not have left her behind in the situation.
A deluded husband and paternity test
The relationship between Li Xiangduo and Chen Qiaoyun, the “god-sisters,” really broke down because of a paternity test.
After returning from Huashan, Chen Qiaoyun told Li Xiangduo that Yang Tian and Qiao Hope had taken a paternity test on her young son behind her back.
Seeing Li Xiangduo will be skeptical, Chen Qiaoyun said that there are acquaintances in the hospital, can transfer the identification report. She took Li Xiangduo to the Chinese hospital, in the name of inviting acquaintances to dinner, asked for 1100 yuan. After Li Xiangduo read the appraisal, Chen Qiaoyun asked for the appraisal report back.
Li Xiangduo went home to confront Yang Tian, and the couple finally crossed their hearts.
Yang Tian said that after Li Xiangduo was attacked for the second time, Chen Qiaoyun had also accompanied together to the hospital. Chen Qiaoyun had asked Yang Tian to send her to the hospital downstairs, suddenly said to him: “Your wife is having an affair, do you know?” And then asked, “Do you have no feeling at all?”
After that, Chen Qiaoyun also prompted Yang Tian that Li Xiangduo was having an affair with the leader of the Bureau of Industry and Information. Yang Tian asked if it was his son’s godfather Qiao hope, Chen Qiaoyun denied: “It’s the second-in-command Yue secretary.”
In July 2014, after Li Xiangduo returned to Zhengzhou from treatment in Beijing, Chen Qiaoyun intermittently kept in touch with Yang Tian, constantly giving Yang Tian that Li Xiangduo had cuckolded him: “Women like this, what else do you want to do?”
Chen Qiaoyun accused Yang Tian, “is too honest, is a strict wife”, also called Yang Tian to the Buddha Hall to offer incense, said, the Buddha said, Li Xiangduo is planning to harm his family, only she Chen Qiaoyun have a way to crack.
A month later, Chen Qiaoyun again called Yang Tian together to the Bureau of Industry and Information to Yue Secretary to pick out. Seeing Yang Tian very hesitant, Chen Qiaoyun encouraged him: “I know the original reason for this matter.”
When he arrived at the Bureau of Industry and Information, Chen Qiaoyun said, first go to Secretary Qiao’s office and ask where Secretary Yue is. Yang Tian found Qiao hope to show his intention, Qiao hope to let him turn on the phone recording, video function, and then pointed out the location of Secretary Yue’s office.
Yang Tian questioned Secretary Yue, who was shocked and denied it, swearing that if he and Li Xiangduo had an improper relationship, he would be run over by a car. Yang Tian then said, “Assuming you two really have, this is the end of the day,” after which he went downstairs and left, handing the video to Chen Qiaoyun.
Chen Qiaoyun told Yang Tian to “talk to Director Qiao” again. When he entered the director’s office, Qiao hoped that just after Yang Tian left, he called Secretary Yue to his office and asked him “why Li Xiangduo’s lover was looking for you”. Secretary Yue scolded, “where you can not be a director, but must be here?”
Qiao hope, Chen Qiaoyun also together to Yang Tian said that Secretary Yue has long been fond of the position of director, so he and Li Xiangduo adultery, want to join forces to squeeze out Qiao hope.
“I have called the disciplinary committee and reported the matter.” Qiao hoped to “comfort” Yang Tian, and also let Yang Tian go to Secretary Yue’s wife – but then Secretary Yue’s wife told Yang Tian that her husband was very upright and could not have done this.
After that, Chen Qiaoyun told Yang Tian that “your little son looks nothing like you” and suggested that Yang Tian do a paternity test and warned him that he must not let Li Xiangduo find out.
On August 14, 2014, Yang Tian took advantage of Li Xiangduo’s absence, accompanied by Chen Qiaoyun, to carry his young son to the Provincial People’s Hospital. The paternity test cost 3,000 yuan, and a week later, the identification showed that it was Yang Tian’s son.
Yang Tian worried about the report at home, Li Xiangduo will find, Chen Qiaoyun then took the identification report.
During this period, Qiao Hope and Yang Tian met several times, and their relationship became closer and closer. Qiao hopes to give Yang Tian that Li Xiangduo is alive and many people are not at peace. He proposed to create a car accident to kill Li Xiangduo, and said that the head of the accident section of the traffic detachment was his friend and could cover up the truth of the death.
Yang Tian said, “Even if we divorce, we can’t let our wives die.”
Qiao hoped then said he was just too soft-hearted.
In September Chen Qiaoyun told Li Xiangduo about the paternity test, which was intended to divorce Li Xiangduo and Yang Tian’s relationship as husband and wife. So that day, after the couple had a heart-to-heart, in front of Li Xiangduo, Yang Tian called to question Chen Qiaoyun: how did Li Xiangduo know about the paternity test?
Chen Qiaoyun stammered on the other end of the phone, saying that Qiao hoped to reveal it to Li Xiangduo. Then she added that Li Xiangduo not only had an affair with Secretary Yue, but also with Qiao Hope: “Qiao Hope instructed you to go to Secretary Yue in order to get rid of his political enemies.”
Li Xiangduo, who was on the sidelines, finally couldn’t hold back: “Yang Tian, don’t be obsessed anymore, Chen Qiaoyun is playing you like a monkey!”
The black spell her lover and best friend burned for her
Li Xiangduo and Yang Tian decided to ask Chen Qiaoyun for the paternity test report. But Chen Qiaoyun not only did not give the report, blackmail Li Xiangduo 1100 yuan also refused to return. She said that the first two times did not kill Li Xiangduo, count Li Xiangduo life, their own Zhengzhou locals, “relatives throughout the public prosecutor”, “black and white have friends”, “you two outsiders can do what “?
Li Xiangduo finally understood that Chen Qiaoyun is the person behind the two attacks on their own, Huashan in danger, but also Chen Qiaoyun poisoned. She scolded Chen Qiaoyun is “cowardly grandson”, before a set of people, after a set of people: “I just walked away from her Buddha Hall, she was laughing behind her back, muttering, ‘pheasant’ away.”
Until December 17, 2014, Yang Tian again called Chen Qiaoyun, asking to get back the paternity report. Chen Qiaoyun still refused, and the two argued over the phone. On that day, Li Xiangduo and Yang Tian came to Chen Qiaoyun’s Buddhist temple, along with the old Yang family, who had previously been in conflict with Chen Qiaoyun, many people came out to watch the hustle and bustle on Du Ling Street.
According to Chen Qiaoyun’s later description.
“Yang Tian, Yang’s daughter, Yang’s two sons entered the house, Yang’s daughter slapped me in the face a few times, Li Xiangdu scolded at the door, Yang Tian made me kneel on the ground and forced me to take out the paternity test. I pulled out my bag and showed him that there was no testimony. Yang Tian took out his penis and peed on me and on the bodhisattva. The bodhisattva enshrined in the Buddhist temple was also smashed. A group of them surrounded me and beat me, and I took out my cell phone to call the police. The phone was snatched away.”
Li Xiangduo said that when the police arrived that day, she was standing at the entrance of the street with her back to the Buddha Hall, talking to the police, when Chen Qiaoyun suddenly rushed out with a kitchen knife and slashed at the back of her head and shoulders.
Chen Qiaoyun was controlled by the police on the spot and was placed in public security detention – afterwards Chen Qiaoyun argued that he was “mentally ill” and did not remember what he had done, nor did he remember cutting people with a knife.
On January 28, 2015, on suspicion of intentional injury, Chen Qiaoyun was placed in criminal detention by the Jinshui Road Branch of the Zhengzhou Public Security Bureau. But because “does not meet the conditions of detention”, the next day was released on bail.
Li Xiangduo is very angry, think Chen Qiaoyun paid off the relevant units. She said she went to the detention center and found out that Chen Qiaoyun said she had mental illness and tuberculosis, so she could be released on bail.
“I went to the CDC for another 10 days to sue.” Li Xiangduo said it was not until her case was taken seriously by the leadership of the Henan Provincial Public Security Bureau, which set up a serious case team and gave it a protection order, that Chen Qiaoyun was taken into custody again and detained off-site at the Luyi County Detention Center.
After a day and night of police interrogation, Chen Qiaoyun finally admitted that she was the mastermind of the repeated attacks on Li Xiangduo. She also confessed that everything was under the direction of Qiao Hope.
Although she was suspicious and aware, Li Xiangduo was surprised and angry when she found out – she still clearly remembers the first time she took Qiao Qiaoyun to see Chen Qiaoyun, not expecting her god-sister and lover to join forces to poison herself in the end.
It was 2012, and Li Xiangduo and Qiao Hope were still very close. Li Xiangduo went to Tuotuo Mountain to worship the Bodhisattva and returned to Zhengzhou, Qiao Hope drove to the airport to pick up the plane. Li Xiangduo happened to receive a call from Chen Qiaoyun inviting her to the Buddha Hall, so the two went directly from the airport to Duoling Street. That day, Qiao hoped to shell out 500 yuan to buy three large incense, Li Xiangduo also felt very dignified.
In Chen Qiaoyun’s confession, he said, “Qiao hope later approached me alone, saying that he wanted to divorce his wife and also wanted to get rid of Li Xiangduo, that I was of good character, and that he wanted to marry me.”
During that time, Qiao Hope often went to Chen Qiaoyun’s Buddhist temple and invited her to visit her ancestral grave in her hometown, making a generous offer. One night, Qiao hope once again came to Chen Qiaoyun’s Buddha Hall, took out 200 yuan, reported his and Li Xiangduo’s birth date and eight characters, asked Chen Qiaoyun, two people have no girl in their lives.
In his confession, Qiao Hope said that Li Xiangduo had offered to give him a daughter, and he declined at that time. After Li Xiangduo got pregnant and gave birth to a boy, he first wanted to save the child’s umbilical cord blood, and asked Qiao Hope to buy a house. He took the money several times, and Li Xiangduo was still insatiable.
According to Chen Qiaoyun, Qiao hoped to come to her Buddhist temple frequently, complaining that Li Xiangduo “forced him to live”, “to the point of emotion, he hated clenched his fist, gnashing his teeth”.
In Qiao’s statement, Li Xiangduo kept calling and intercepting him at the office, and he was forced to move out of the office. He was forced to move out of his office. Li Shandor also went to harass his wife. What made Qiao hope even more furious was that Li Xiangduo also burned paper figures at home, cursing him and his family and destroying the graves of the Qiao family’s ancestral graves.
Qiao hopes to get Chen Qiaoyun to dissolve his relationship with Li Xiangduo. So Chen Qiaoyun proposed an ancestral method of burning paper people: cut black paper into paper people, write Li Xiangduo’s name, draw the clothes Li Xiangduo wears, and “burn them for seventy-seven to forty-nine days in a row, in addition to nine large incense sticks every day”, and Li Xiangduo will have an accident – a car accident or sickness.
After the first day of burning, Chen Qiaoyun said, burning “black spell” easy to attract evil, need to have sexual relations to ward off evil. At 11 p.m., she and Qiao hope to find a secluded place at the bottom of the viaduct and have sex in the car. Later, the two sometimes go to Li Xiangduo’s home near the burning “black spell”, and then go to a room “to ward off evil” – Qiao hope to pay Chen Qiaoyun 120,000 yuan.
Chen Qiaoyun believes that Qiao hopes has fallen in love with her – Qiao hopes repeatedly said that his wife is not filial to the elderly, quality is not high, one day to “stomp” her, while Chen Qiaoyun good character, to marry her. Chen Qiaoyun wanted Qiao to help his nephew Chen Luyang find a job, and Qiao really hoped to arrange for Chen Luyang to drive for the boss of a guarantee company.
Forty-nine days later, Li Xiangduo did not have an accident, and Qiao hopes that Chen Qiaoyun’s “witchcraft” has become suspicious.
Chen Qiaoyun again proposed to burn the full 100 days, Qiao hope refused.
The murder behind the two attacks
The “black spell” was not effective, according to Qiao hope’s confession, Chen Qiaoyun took the initiative to drive over Li Xiangduo to death.
Then, Chen Qiaoyun came up with the idea of hiring a murderer. She first asked Qiao hope for a deposit of 10,000 yuan to buy an old car, and then asked for 40,000 yuan to buy a car. After a while, Chen Qiaoyun said that the person she was looking for had no job and needed food and drink, so Qiao hoped to send another 30,000 yuan.
Qiao hopes that he later felt that Chen Qiaoyun’s words are not reliable, so he gave up the idea of “murder for hire”; but Chen Qiaoyun said that from the beginning to the end is Qiao hopes to deliberately lead her to find someone to attack Li Xiangduo.
She found her nephew Chen Lu Yang said, “there is a mistress has offended Mr. Qiao, Mr. Qiao wants to find someone to drive the mistress”, can take a large sum of money.
“The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. The first time I heard the aunt’s words, Chen Lu Yang immediately called Liu Xinzheng – Liu Xinzheng is Chen Lu Yang’s iron buddy for more than ten years, unemployed, dropped out of elementary school, was sentenced to one year in prison for theft by the Zhongyuan District Court, held in Zhengzhou City, the second detention center.
Chen Lu Yang brought Liu Xin Zheng to his aunt’s Buddhist temple, Chen Qiaoyun said, to create into a traffic accident, hit and kill people, “the minimum hit disabled”, after the matter is completed, can get 800,000 yuan.
Liu Xinzheng said he did not have a driver’s license, so he gave up.
Later, Qiao hopes to discuss with Chen Qiaoyun, want to disfigure Li Xiangduo. Chen Qiaoyun said that during this period, Qiao hope also bought two unnamed cell phone cards and two old-fashioned cell phones respectively for the two people, saying that they are leading cadres and their phones are easy to be monitored – but in Qiao hope’s confession, these were bought by Chen Qiaoyun on his own initiative.
Qiao hope that he repeatedly cautioned Chen Qiaoyun to pay attention to proportion, but Chen Qiaoyun conveyed to Chen Lu Yang’s statement is: “can not get old light, either take a knife to cut the face disfigured, or take a steel pipe to knock the legs off.”
After deliberating, the aunt and nephew drove to “identify people”. In Zhongzhou Avenue and near the goods station street, Chen Qiaoyun identified the location of the home of Li Xiangduo, and then the two came to the store opened by Li Xiangduo. Chen Lu Yang saw from a distance a yellow-haired, medium-fat round-faced middle-aged woman, Chen Qiaoyun said, that is the target.
A few days later, Chen Lu Yang took Liu Xin Zheng to “identify”. After the complete confirmation, Liu Xinzheng will squat in front of Li Xiangduo’s store every day, observing her routine.
After receiving Chen Qiaoyun’s “hands-on” instructions, Liu Xinzheng went to the Commodity City and spent 5 yuan to buy a folding single-edged fruit knife, and 10 yuan to buy a black long-brimmed hat, and then went to the drugstore and spent 1 yuan to buy a disposable medical mask.
On June 6, 2014, Liu Xinzheng waited in front of Li Xiangduo’s store until 8:00 p.m. When he saw Li Xiangduo leaving work, he rode his electric car behind him. Seeing that she was heading home, Liu Xinzheng overtook her and hid in advance at the entrance of the building. After hearing the sound of the electric car locking up, and through the window again to confirm that it is Li Xiangduo, Liu Xinzheng rushed out, with his left hand backward stuck Li Xiangduo’s neck, the right hand took a knife to her face. Li Xiangduo shouted “Murder, murder!” Liu Xinzheng was nervous and fled on his electric bike.
After the incident, Qiao hoped to take 100,000 yuan to Chen Qiaoyun, Chen Qiaoyun gave his nephew 50,000 yuan, Liu Xinzheng share of 20,000.
Ten days later, Li Xiangduo was discharged from the hospital and called Qiao hope, wanting him to ask an acquaintance to identify the injuries more serious, Qiao hope hung up the phone.
At that time Chen Qiaoyun was with Qiao hope, said: “suffered once, still not change, not in the cut her again.” — in Chen Qiaoyun’s confession, it was Qiao hope initiative, “cut not hard enough, cut again, must be poked blind in one eye.”
This time, Chen Luyang spent 120 yuan to buy mace spray online and gave it to Liu Xinzheng to let him “cut again”. Liu Xinzheng asked how much money he would give this time. Chen Luyang replied, less than last time, the last time the money gave too much.
On June 29, Chen Qiaoyun called Li Xiangduo to see the house together. The two of them were taken to an old family home, and when Li Xiangduo did not like it, Chen Qiaoyun lied about her sister having a house in the western suburbs. The company’s main goal is to provide a solution to the problem. The first thing you need to do is to get a good idea of where you are.
On the other hand, Liu Xinzheng in the railway station wholesale market, spent 50 yuan to buy a 10 cm jump knife, and 40 yuan to buy a coffee-colored wig. More than 6:00 that night, Chen Lu Yang called Liu Xin Zheng, took him to the opposite side of KFC, pointing inside, saying that his aunt Chen Qiaoyun had asked Li Xiangduo out, but also made a point of explaining that do not call him after it is done.
Liu Xinzheng waited for more than two hours, like last time, trailing Li Xiangduo home. This time he waited in the darkness of the neighborhood, first sprayed mace spray on Li Xiangduo, then pressed her abdomen with his legs, pressed his head with his left hand, held a jumping knife in his right hand and stabbed 6 or 7 times towards the right eye area, as Li Xiangduo used his hand to cover it, only two stabs were stuck in the eye. Li Xiangduo desperately resist, screaming, Liu Xinzheng crime and is in a hurry to escape, the wig and jumping knife thrown into the river.
Qiao hope said that Chen Qiaoyun hired murderers after cutting Li Xiangduo, called him, said Li was pulled away by ambulance, full of blood. The next night, Qiao hoped to find Chen Qiaoyun at the Buddha Hall. Chen Qiaoyun explained that after she led Li Xiangduo to see the house, the two of them were in the dinner gap, and Li Xiangduo took out the materials to sue Qiao hoped and asked her to help revise them. Chen Qiaoyun saw the urgency of the situation, so she immediately called the hit man.
Some time later, Chen Qiaoyun found Qiao Hope again, saying that Li Xiangduo was blind in one eye, and the hitter asked for 100,000. Chen Qiaoyun gave her nephew 38,000 and Liu Xinzheng was paid 19,000.
A public official who believes in feudal superstition
Nearly a year after Chen Qiaoyun was taken into custody, Qiao Hope, Chen Lu Yang, and Liu Xin Zheng were criminally detained on October 17, 2015 and November 3, 2015, respectively, on suspicion of intentional injury, and later arrested by the Jinshui District Prosecutor’s Office on November 23, 2015.
On June 30, 2016, the Jinshui District Procuratorate reported the case to the Zhengzhou City Procuratorate for review and prosecution because the defendant was likely to be sentenced to more than life imprisonment. In the indictment, Zhengzhou City Procuratorate that “the defendants Qiao hope, Chen Qiaoyun, Chen Luyang, Liu Xinzheng illegal deprivation of life, their behavior has violated the provisions of Article 232 of the Criminal Law, the facts of the crime are clear, the evidence is sufficient, all should be held criminally responsible for the crime of intentional homicide. The four people did not succeed for reasons other than their will, the crime was attempted.”
The indictment used the words “mistress Li Xiangduo”, which Li Xiangduo considered to be insulting in nature. The Zhengzhou Procuratorate later issued a correction to read “the victim Li Xiangduo.
The case has been delayed for nearly two more years since then.
On June 8, 2018, at 9:30 a.m., the case of intentional homicide of Qiao Hope and others was heard in open court at the Zhengzhou Intermediate People’s Court.
In the Criminal Incidental Civil Complaint, Li Xiangduo demanded that the defendants Qiao Hope, Chen Qiaoyun, Chen Luyang and Liu Xinzheng be held criminally responsible for the crime of intentional homicide in accordance with the law and be punished severely; and that the defendants be ordered to jointly and severally compensate the plaintiff for disability compensation, medical expenses, lost wages, nursing expenses, hospital meal allowance, nutritional expenses, transportation expenses, appraisal fees, and mental damage for a total of 3 million yuan.
Qiao hope, in addition to the first cut Li Xiangduo is his authorization, the rest is Chen Qiaoyun did, before telling him that if not pay, the fighters will come to him. The company has never had the idea of intentional homicide, “drive over Li Xiangduo” is also the dinner table angry words, but “willing to compensate Li Xiangduo within a reasonable range of losses.
The company is also willing to compensate for the loss of Li Xiangdu within a reasonable range. In the murder-for-hire incident, he only participated in conveying the intentional harm of “teaching Li Xiangduo a lesson”. Chen Lu Yang also said that although he had no property, he was willing to compensate Li Xiang Du for her losses.
Liu Xinzheng argued that he was not guilty. He said he only wanted to cheat money, and that he was not the one who hurt Li Xiangduo. He did not commit the crime and was not liable for compensation.
Chen Qiaoyun did not appear in court because she was “diagnosed with an unwell health condition”.
The trial lasted for more than three hours, and in addition to cross-examining the existing evidence, Chen Qiaoyun’s defense attorney submitted a new piece of evidence, a diagnosis certificate from 1996, confirming Chen Qiaoyun’s mental illness. In addition, the psychiatric evaluation also showed that Chen Qiaoyun “has limited criminal responsibility”.
Li Xiangduo also submitted a revalidation opinion, and the judicial appraisal issued by Beijing showed that the multiple injuries suffered by Li Xiangduo resulted in visual impairment of both eyes, which constituted a fifth-degree disability; the drooping of the upper face of the right eye constituted a tenth-degree disability; and the facial scars constituted a tenth-degree disability.
The court’s debate focused on whether the conviction in the case was for attempted intentional homicide or intentional injury; whether the latter facts of the crime were authorized by Joe Hope and constituted a co-defendant with the other defendants; and whether Liu Xinzheng had killed anyone.
The public prosecutor believes that the evidence in the case is indeed sufficient, several defendants’ guilty confessions are clear and stable, Liu Xinzheng does not have retracted confessions, confessions and other people’s can corroborate each other. The punishment should be heavy, fast and severe.
In his final statement, Qiao Hope said.
“I, as a party member, a public official, not only believe in feudal superstition, but also lax to myself, corrupt style. Lost a party member, a person’s most basic moral standards, and the party’s requirements are out of step. I am sorry to the organization, sorry to my family, sorry to my colleagues. Over the past few years, too many things have happened to me that should not have happened. If I hadn’t crossed the thunderbolt, I wouldn’t have had the bad consequences later. If you do not believe in superstition, there will be no consequences. It’s too late to regret, and the only way out is to clean up your act again.”
The court will deliver its verdict at a later date.
Postscript
Before leaving Zhengzhou, Li Xiangduo wanted to invite me to dinner.
At the intersection of Du Ling Street, there is a Yang Ji noodle shop, back then, in order to thank Chen Qiaoyun for helping her father’s case, Li Xiangduo invited Chen Qiaoyun to dinner here, “spent several hundred dollars. When passing by the Yangji Noodle House, Li Xiangduo brought up that meal again, looking both sad and resentful.
Li Xiangduo told me that, in fact, Chen Qiaoyun is an extremely smart person, “very good at reading people’s minds and seeing opportunities. Chen Qiaoyun did not attend the court hearing. The court informed Li Xiangduo that in view of Chen Qiaoyun’s physical condition, the trial was tentatively scheduled to be held in closed session in the detention center. Li Xiangduo and her lawyer could go in, but no one else could.
Li Xiangduo objected, insisting that Chen Qiaoyun’s illness was feigned. She told me that she would keep suing until the case had a satisfactory outcome for her.
After leaving Zhengzhou, Li Xiangduo’s harsh tone and stiff face still came to my mind from time to time, and I wondered what the result would be to Li Xiangduo’s “ultimate satisfaction.
She may have wanted to ruin Qiao’s life and Chen Qiaoyun’s, but first, her life was ruined.
(All names in this article are real, except for Li Xiangduo’s husband and son, who are pseudonyms)
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