Sun Rumin and a colleague from the Criminal Investigation Bureau, Xiao Guo, went to Ning Yaohong’s hometown and found her elderly parents. When the two old people learned of the tragic deaths of their daughter and grandson, they were heartbroken. It turned out that Li Yuehua had not yet told his in-laws about the misfortune of his wife and son. As for the reason, Sun Rumin and Xiao Guo could roughly guess.
Speaking of Li Yuehua, Ning Yaohong’s father cursed him, accusing him of all sorts of bad things he had done to Ning Yaohong, and also said that he must have killed his own daughter and grandson.
Ning Yaohong’s mother also blamed her son-in-law Li Yuehua a lot. She also believed that if Li Yuehua had not abandoned his wife and children and been so cold and ruthless to Ning Yaohong, Ning Yaohong would not have suffered from mental illness, let alone the tragedy of her being mysteriously murdered with her son in Jincheng.
Li Yuehua was an orphan since he was a child, and he married into the Ning family in order to covet the Ning family’s wealth; the huge sum of money in Ning Yaohong’s bank card was transferred by Li Yuehua to speculate in stocks; Li Yuehua unilaterally filed a lawsuit for divorce with Ning Yaohong, but the divorce request was rejected by the court; Ning Yaohong suspected that Li Yuehua had other women outside; after Li Yuehua abandoned Ning Yaohong and his son and went to other places, he rarely went back to visit them: Sun Rumin almost confirmed these situations reported by Gou Zhenghui from Ning Yaohong’s parents.
In addition, Sun Rumin also learned from Father Ning that Li Yuehua had hit him, because Li Yuehua took more than 300,000 yuan from Ning Yaohong to speculate in stocks and lost money. Father Ning scolded him a few words out of disappointment, and he became violent against Father Ning, and Father Ning’s hand was fractured and sent to the hospital.
Mother Ning confirmed that what her husband said was true.
Sun Rumin thought to himself that, according to the information reflected by Father Ning, Mother Ning, and Gou Zhenghui, Li Yuehua was a selfish and irresponsible man.
Sun Rumin asked Father Ning if Li Yuehua knew that she was going to Jincheng to find him before Ning Yaohong went to Jincheng. Father Ning wiped away his old tears and said that his daughter’s trip to Jincheng was confidential. Her daughter also told them not to reveal the news to Li Yuehua. She was worried that Li Yuehua would find various excuses to prevaricate her if he knew she was going to find him and would not let her go.
However, Father Ning added that it was hard to say whether Li Yuehua would get the news from others, because her daughter had told several relatives and friends that she was going to find Li Yuehua, and some of these relatives and friends were very familiar with Li Yuehua.
Sun Rumin asked Father Ning to take him and his colleagues to find those relatives and friends of his family.
After Sun Rumin and his colleagues inquired about the seven or eight relatives and friends of the Ning family, they did not bring them much gain. They only learned from a middle-aged man named Jin Zhonglin that on the evening of the 12th of this month, the man seemed to have said to Li Yuehua on the phone that Ning Yaohong was going to Jincheng to find him.
The reason why Jin Zhonglin said “seemed” was because he said he was drunk at the time and couldn’t remember clearly.
While Sun Rumin and Xiao Guo were conducting intensive and orderly investigations in Ning Yaohong’s hometown, Wu Shuqi and Wu Zhi were also rigorously interrogating the suspect Li Yuehua in an orderly manner. They exhausted all kinds of techniques, but Li Yuehua just flatly denied that he had committed the “7.18” poisoning case.
Li Yuehua admitted that Jin Zhonglin had called him, claiming that the man surnamed Jin wanted to borrow money from him, but he firmly denied that the man surnamed Jin had said that Ning Yaohong was going to Jincheng to find him. He believed that the man surnamed Jin had not borrowed money from him, so he was talking nonsense in an attempt to frame him.
Wu Shuqi felt that the task force had really encountered a problem this time. How could they find the ideas and methods to solve the problem?
The task force’s thinking on the case returned to the time period when the Prosperity Garden district experienced a power outage on the morning of July 15, and pointed the suspicion at people who had no feud with Li Yuehua.
Could it be that the murderer used technical unlocking? However, the key to Li Yuehua’s house was a double-sided, double-row pin tumbler lock, and the door lock was a complex B-level lock. Moreover, Li Yuehua would lock the door every time he went out, so it was impossible to open it without leaving traces.
In the interrogation room, Wu Shuqi asked Li Yuehua to think carefully about who else besides Gou Zhenghui had access to his house key.
“I really can’t remember.” Li Yuehua said listlessly.
“Did Lü Yuchan have access to it?” Wu Shuqi reminded.
“I’ve told you several times, I don’t remember if she had access to my house key. I think even if she did, she certainly wouldn’t let Xiong Zhiyang know, let alone give the key to Xiong Zhiyang.”
After a while, Li Yuehua suddenly remembered something, and his tired body suddenly shook, and he said, “I remembered something, I don’t know if it will help us solve the case. Two months later, once Lü Yuchan planned to come to my house to get her earrings. She forgot to take them after taking them off and putting them on the sink when she washed her hair. She called me when she returned home and asked me to bring her earrings back. I wasn’t home at the time, but I wasn’t too far from her house. Because I had nothing to do and planned to come to Wutong City, I sent the key to the Loris Beauty Salon in her district and gave it to a beautician named Chen Qian. I asked Lü Yuchan to come and get the key herself. As a result, she didn’t come to get the key, because I turned back halfway to Wutong City. Before I went back, I took the key from Chen Qian.”
He added, “There was only Chen Qian in the beauty salon when I put the key there, and there was only Chen Qian in the beauty salon when I took the key away. Could it be…?”
“How long was the interval between when you put the key there and when you took it away?”
“I didn’t calculate the time, but I think it wasn’t less than fifty minutes.”
“Did anyone in that beauty salon have a conflict with you?”
“No, all the people working there are women, but Chen Qian’s boyfriend, Cao Huailiang, doesn’t like me.” Li Yuehua continued, “Actually, it’s not right to say boyfriend, because Chen Qian has never admitted that he is her boyfriend. His love for her is just wishful thinking.”
“Why doesn’t he like you?”
“I invited Chen Qian to dinner. He thought that my relationship with Chen Qian was unusual, so he was jealous. Once he stopped me halfway, took out a knife, and warned me not to get too close to his girlfriend, otherwise he would be rude to me. Actually, Chen Qian and I are just ordinary friends. He’s just suspicious and narrow-minded.”
“Does Cao Huailiang know my home address?”
“He may know, because once Lü Yuchan took Chen Qian to my house. Chen Qian left after sitting for a few minutes. She said that Cao Huailiang was looking for her downstairs.”
“What is the name of that beauty salon?”
“Loris.”
Half an hour later, a police car stopped on the roadside covered with trees diagonally opposite the Loris Beauty Salon. Wu Shuqi and Wu Zhi got out of the car, then crossed the road and walked into the beauty salon.
The three young beauticians showed surprise on their faces when they saw the police in uniform.
“We’re here to investigate a case. You don’t have to be nervous.” Wu Shuqi’s eyes scanned the faces of the three beauticians back and forth. “Who is Chen Qian?”
“Our manager didn’t come to work today.”
“Why didn’t she go to work?”
“I don’t know.” A girl who looked only about twenty years old named Cheng Ling said, “I called her several times this morning, but she didn’t answer. I don’t know what’s going on.”
Wu Shuqi said, “I’ll call her now.”
Cheng Ling took out her mobile phone and dialed the number, but no one answered for a long time. Then she called again, but no one answered.
Wu Shuqi immediately said, “Does anyone of you know where she lives? If you do, please take us to find her.”
Cheng Ling took two steps forward and said, “I know. I’ll take you there now.”
Fifteen minutes later, Wu Zhi drove the police car into a residential area, and then the three got out of the car.
This community is full of red brick stairwells, which are relatively old and should have been built and put into use for no less than twenty years. Under the leadership of Cheng Ling, Wu Shuqi and Wu Zhi came to the door of room 402.
“Chen Qian lives here.” Cheng Ling stepped aside.
Wu Zhi knocked on the door, but no one responded for a long time.
Wu Shuqi asked Cheng Ling for Chen Qian’s mobile phone number and dialed it. No one answered for a long time. She suddenly vaguely heard the mobile phone ringing. She quickly put her ear close to the door panel and determined that the mobile phone ringing was coming from inside the room. She hung up and dialed again. The mobile phone ringing sounded again, but still no one answered. Combined with Cheng Ling’s statement that she had called Chen Qian in the afternoon, Wu Shuqi suspected that something might have happened to Chen Qian.
“Is this house rented by Chen Qian?” Wu Shuqi asked Cheng Ling.
“Yes.”
“Does anyone live with her?”
“She lives alone.”
“Do you know where the landlord lives?”
Cheng Ling shook her head and said she didn’t know.
Wu Shuqi said to Wu Zhi, “We have to find the landlord as soon as possible and ask him to come and open the door to see what’s going on inside!”
Wu Zhi responded and then went to knock on the door of room 401.
After a long time, the door opened, and a woman with gray hair appeared in front of Wu Zhi. Wu Zhi politely greeted the old woman. He was worried that the old woman would be wary, so he took out his police ID and showed it to the old woman and asked, “Do you know the contact information of the landlord of room 402?”
The old woman leaned back and tilted her ears and asked, “What did you say?”
Wu Zhi thought to himself that the old lady’s hearing was not very good, so he raised his voice and repeated what he had just said.
This time the old lady heard clearly. She said, “I don’t have his contact information. Let me ask his son. His son runs a small store in the community.”
“What is the name of the small store?”
“What did you say the small store is?”
“What is the name of the small store?” Wu Zhi had to raise his voice.
“I don’t remember. The landlord’s son is called Feng Suhui. Let me ask at the cake shop in the community. The cake shop owner is his relative.”
“Thank you.”
Wu Zhi, Wu Shuqi, and Cheng Ling came to the community. Wu Shuqi quickly found out the name and specific location of Feng Suhui’s store, and then the three quickly came to the store.
After Feng Suhui heard the police explain their intentions, she said that she had the spare key to the room here and that she would take them to open the door now.
After arriving at the door, Wu Shuqi put on rubber gloves, took the key from Feng Suhui, opened the lock, and pushed open the door to look inside. In an instant, what caught her eye was the tragic scene of a young man wearing a beige knitted shirt lying on his back in a pool of blood in the living room.