Chapter 2

He even lectured the police in a smug tone:

“What’s the difference between living one way and another? What’s the difference between dying one way and another? If you’re going to live, you might as well make it exciting!”

Lu Tianhao thought life was too dull. He craved excitement and wanted to satisfy his twisted desires. In the end, he turned his sinful hands on his victims and sent himself plunging into the abyss.

The sixteen-year-old girl had been his first target.

On the night of April 9, 2005, Lu Tianhao was walking home from work when he passed through the mining district’s workers’ residential compound. He saw a pretty, long-haired girl step outside to empty a bucket of dirty water.

A wicked idea immediately came to him.

He secretly followed her home. When he realized she lived alone, Lu Tianhao quietly decided to strike.

He watched from the shadows, waiting until she turned off the lights. Then he waited for more than an hour, guessing she had fallen asleep, before removing a windowpane and climbing into the house.

When Lu Tianhao burst into the room, the girl woke at once. Terrified, she cried for help and fought back fiercely.

He quickly overpowered her and sexually assaulted her.

By the time it was over, she was no longer moving.

He, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief. He switched on the lights, brazenly ransacked the house, and left with all the valuables.

In the days that followed, Lu Tianhao was somewhat anxious. He stayed cautious and kept close track of the investigation.

But when the police never came looking for him, he gradually stopped worrying.

Not long after the crime, his family introduced him to a girlfriend.

Having someone by his side to relieve his frustration seemed to ease his warped thoughts.

But the woman’s family was never satisfied with him, and the couple argued often.

Around the 2008 Lunar New Year, his girlfriend suddenly disappeared without a word, vanishing from his life completely.

It infuriated him. He felt a simmering anger with nowhere to go and began drinking every day to drown his sorrow.

That brought back the depraved thoughts Lu Tianhao had suppressed for three years.

On the night of July 11, after drinking at home, he became restless and went out for a walk.

When he wandered near the hospital dormitory, he saw women’s underwear hanging outside a third-floor window. A wicked impulse seized him.

He climbed up the drainpipe and looked into several rooms, but they were all empty.

When he reached Room 312, he saw a woman asleep inside. Without hesitation, he climbed in.

Woken by the intruder, Li Fang screamed for help.

Lu Tianhao used the same method to overpower her and assault her.

As Li Fang fought back, he felt a perverse thrill.

By the time it was over, Li Fang was no longer moving.

Afraid she might still be alive, he pressed a pillow over her face for several more minutes. Then he took her belongings and climbed back down the way he had come.

After the first crime, no one suspected him for three years.

After the second, the police still hadn’t found him. Lu Tianhao grew increasingly arrogant.

Before long, he committed a third crime.

It happened on August 27.

He rode his motorcycle to visit a friend in the county. It was raining that day. He saw a woman standing anxiously by the roadside, apparently trying to find a ride somewhere.

At first, he drove past her. Then he turned around and pulled over in front of her, asking where she was going.

She said she was a teacher at the county middle school and needed to get back to campus to teach a class.

Lu Tianhao smiled and told her he was heading that way anyway and could give her a lift.

Of course, he had no intention of taking the teacher to the county.

Halfway there, he turned onto a deserted forest road.

The motorcycle was moving too fast. Though the teacher realized they were no longer heading toward the county, she didn’t dare jump off.

In the woods, Lu Tianhao assaulted her and killed her.

As she fought back, she hurt him, making him furious.

After confirming she was dead, he used her bra to hang her body from a tree.

When police later brought Lu Tianhao to the scene to reconstruct the crime, the teacher’s body was still hanging in the bushes, undiscovered and nearly desiccated.

Lu Tianhao admitted that his main motive was to satisfy his own desires.

At the same time, taking another person’s life gave him a sense of pleasure.

In the end, Lu Tianhao was sentenced to death.

As the judge read out his crimes during sentencing, he remained utterly calm, as if none of it had anything to do with him.

Some people are born without goodness in them.

Lu Tianhao was one of them.

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