Liu Duan left the room and met up with the bureau chief and Xiao Li.
The three sat side by side on the steps and exchanged their interrogation results.
Xiao Li got nothing. Lin Zong had him completely handled. The bureau chief, facing Zhang Cheng, who seemed honest and sincere but was actually an old fox, also got no effective information.
The bureau chief said, “That fatty is the deepest. But he’s the least connected to Lin Zong, so it’s not easy to pick leads to interrogate them. Huang Xiuling is the one easier to crack. Did you get anything?”
Liu Duan said, “It’s true, but she won’t admit it. She evades and denies. Now there are only three channels left to deal with her. First, DNA testing of her three children. As long as we confirm she has an actual relationship with Lin Zong, we can investigate further. But she can still push it off as a private relationship. And even to test DNA, we need legal support. We have to prove they’re suspects and involved in the case first. We can’t test randomly. Second, wait for the stethoscope investigation result. As long as we prove it’s Shen Hui’s, she can’t escape. Third, I had the bureau check the Liu family incident. It records that when Huang Xiuling rushed back to split inheritance, the Liu relatives immediately reported to police, suspecting the three deaths in the Liu household were not normal. Police had a forensic autopsy. The result was indeed gas poisoning, not murder. And at the time, Huang Xiuling was in Changlin with an alibi. She couldn’t have gone back to release gas and poison her relatives…”
Gas poisoning wiping out a family was common, especially in winter. It happened often. In that era there weren’t today’s heating conditions. Every household burned gas. If people were careless, or the stove had issues, there were many similar cases, so the police back then didn’t pay much attention.
As for the deaths of Huang Xiuling’s two older sisters…
Suicide. No case filed.
Not even a record.
“But there’s one thing; their answers are consistent.”
“About the crew that renovated the courtyard walls, Lin Zong, Zhang Cheng, and Huang Xiuling all said it was too long ago and they couldn’t remember. They only felt raising the walls was safer, no other reason.”
Police instincts said this: the three were dragging things out to buy time so the police couldn’t find that worker, so they played it vague. So that worker was critical?
“Maybe it wasn’t just raising walls.”
Liu Duan was thinking. The bureau chief told the bureau to speed up the stethoscope check.
“Bring them back to the bureau as soon as possible. Keeping them in the hospital makes me uneasy. Lin Zong already mentioned he wants to be discharged and go home.”
Police couldn’t detain citizens for no reason for too long. People had the right to personal freedom.
At minimum, they had to hold Huang Xiuling.
Luckily.
Just as the three finished a bottle of water, the phone rang.
They had results.
The Huang household.
After Zhen Wuyu contacted Liu Duan and the others, he had the female officer and the neighborhood office take the three children back to the bureau. Of course, the stethoscope and the rest also had to be taken back.
Xu Zhicheng didn’t put on a scene. He was smart and knew when to choose what benefited his younger siblings.
But his compliance made the female officer and Zhen Wuyu understand even more clearly: there was someone behind Huang Xiuling’s group. Xu Zhicheng knew a little. He feared retaliation, or that his younger siblings would be taken as leverage against Huang Xiuling.
Today’s door-to-door results supported that possibility, so the three children had to be taken. Otherwise there would be endless trouble later. But if it was only neighborhood staff, Zhen Wuyu didn’t feel at ease, so he had the female officer handle it.
“So you’re going to the town alone?”
The female officer asked Zhen Wuyu. The original plan was for two officers to go together to look out for each other. After seeing the children, they were supposed to go examine the old homes of Lin Zong’s group in town. Zhen Wuyu said Chen Liao and the others were in town. They had their own tasks, but the town wasn’t big. If anything happened, they could call.
“All right. Then remember to tell Chen Liao not to go in and out alone. I feel like Baimu Town has deep roots. That crew of workers might be a trap. You’re not safe alone.”
“If you really don’t have enough hands… contact this person.”
There was too much work and manpower had been split. This was originally just a small-town bureau; there weren’t many people. They could only adapt and mobilize what they had.
The female officer was from the local bureau and had connections. She was worried something might happen to this big-shot consultant from the provincial department. Being cautious, she gave him a phone number.
Zhen Wuyu accepted the goodwill, but before leaving, he asked Xu Zhicheng:
“Your dad was from Baimu Town too, right?”
By the timeline, Xu Zhicheng was born in Baimu Town. Huang Xiuling left in 1991. Before that she was already married with a child, so her husband Xu Long was likely a local too.
Xu Zhicheng said yes.
“Then before you moved into that courtyard, you used to live outside the town?”
If they didn’t live outside the town, with the Liu family’s habit of draining daughters to feed themselves and their son, once they learned Huang Xiuling’s address they would definitely go after her. So Xu Long’s family likely lived outside town back then.
“I don’t know. I was little.” Xu Zhicheng lowered his head while straightening his little sister’s clothes. He didn’t look at Zhen Wuyu.
Zhen Wuyu didn’t press further. He got in the car and left.
After he drove out of Changlin City and onto the road to Baimu Town, with the snowfall ended, everything was silver-white. There were fewer and fewer cars. Soon Zhen Wuyu saw a fork in the road. All the cars chose the right route, and ignored the left route with a sign.
Zhen Wuyu glanced at the warning sign on the left: Snow Spirit Road, narrow road, turns, rockfall warnings, and so on…
In fact, locals all knew what truly made people fear and avoid it.
An outsider would see the rockfall warning, plus the blizzard weather and accumulated snow…
He turned the steering wheel and chose the left route too.
Not taking risks was his caution.
While stopped at a traffic light, Chen Liao called, sounding excited.
They had already found the casino and were questioning gamblers who knew Chen Qing or Qi Meijuan.
“There’s testimony proving these two knew each other. Some old gamblers have seen them talk. Also, I recorded it. Listen to this old gambler’s statement.”
Chen Liao was afraid his retelling and information extraction might miss something. For technical people like Zhen Wuyu who analyzed cases through subtle observation and thinking, details mattered.
The light changed. Zhen Wuyu played the audio.
Old gambler: “These two definitely know each other, absolutely. I swear on my future gambling luck! I’ve seen them talk…”
Chen Liao: “Was it just greeting each other and a few words, or do they really know each other?”
Old gambler: “Officer, I know what you mean. You think us gamblers latch onto anyone and say whatever?”
Chen Liao: “I want an accurate answer.”
Old gambler: “Actually, at first I also thought they’d just seen each other in the casino, familiar face. But later I lost a few rounds and had to pee, so I hurried to the back door. I happened to hear these two arguing outside the back door. Chen Qing has a bad temper, and he even shoved Qi Meijuan. His expression was vicious. First time I saw this kid have that kind of viciousness under all his cowardice. He seemed to be saying some harsh words.”
Chen Liao: “You heard it?”
Old gambler: “No. It was a bit far. Chen Qing seemed drunk. With that look, I didn’t dare go over. You know, gamblers; once emotions get heated, things go wrong easily. I just saw Qi Meijuan look unhappy. After she got up from the woodpile, she was cursing. Then Chen Qing, drunk as hell, walked past the little path in front of where I was hiding, took out his phone, and made a call. He seemed to say something.”
Chen Liao cared a lot and his voice turned serious, asking what it was. The old gambler was crafty and said he was old and couldn’t remember. Only after Chen Liao said that if the information was effective and helped the case, they could handle him leniently—
Only then did the old gambler say, “What this kid said sounded like: she saw it that day, at school, what do we do? She wants money…”
“Heh heh, back then I thought Chen Qing was cheating and Qi Meijuan caught him, and she was blackmailing him.”
That old man’s suspicion had to be wrong.
Chen Liao and Zhen Wuyu both believed that Chen Qing was talking to someone on the phone about them scouting suitable gamblers in the casino, getting close, and choosing their family members as targets. The kid was a student at the school. Were they trafficking children?
Chen Liao: “You’re sure you heard that? It’s been so long, you…”
After so many years, his vivid description might be thrown out by prosecutors because of his age and the time gap.
Old gambler: “I’m telling you, my memory is great. Don’t look at my age. I remember cards. And how is it ‘so long’? It was three months ago.”
What?
Chen Liao must have been shocked.
Zhen Wuyu, listening to the recording, was also stunned.
Three months ago?
It looked like they had found the reason Qi Meijuan was killed.
Qi Meijuan went to school to pick up her son and ran into Chen Qing?
But why would Chen Qing go back to the school?
“He has a child, Qi Meijuan also has a child. Could it be Chen Qing’s child also studies in Baimu Town?”
Chen Liao: “Yes. The youngest son was in primary school outside, but his grades were bad. In middle school he transferred back to Baimu Town. The paperwork was done by his wife. Chen Qing owes too much money and is basically blacklisted, but it’s not strange for him to go to school and look at his son.”
Zhen Wuyu: “Qi Meijuan likely saw Chen Qing at school interacting with someone about something. Since she had some recognition of Chen Qing from the casino, she connected it to some cases, and used it to threaten him.”
If that was the case, Chen Qing’s group couldn’t possibly let Qi Meijuan go.
Did Chen Qing’s group kill her?
But then it contradicted their earlier analysis of the killer in the 315 case: an impulsive attack, poor living conditions, familiarity with Qi Meijuan’s habits, and… imitation.
Chen Qing had been hiding outside for a long time. He couldn’t know Qi Meijuan that well, much less Lin Zong and the others.
Zhen Wuyu stayed quiet for a moment. Then he seized a key point and told Chen Liao to ask the old gambler:
“Chen Qing has been hiding outside. If he came back to Baimu Town, would nobody know? Nobody mentioned it? Is that casino’s location very remote?”
Now, the analysis could be summarized like this: three months ago, Chen Qing returned to some casino in Baimu Town. An old gambler peeped and saw him clash with Qi Meijuan. Qi Meijuan used a secret she had seen earlier at Baimu Town middle school to blackmail Chen Qing. Three months later, Qi Meijuan died horribly. Recently, Chen Qing, Zhang Cheng, and Lin Zong came back to Changlin Station, got into Huang Xiuling’s car, and headed to Baimu Town.
But there was still that bug.
After a while, Chen Liao sent the old gambler’s answer.
“It’s in the suburbs, of course it’s remote. You think our venues are just those in town? Those are too easy to find. Otherwise you wouldn’t have caught us today. The biggest one is outside in the suburbs. People from several towns come… it’s in a village. The moment you police go over, someone keeps watch. Everyone runs. Anyway, don’t let anyone know I said this. I’ll get beaten to death.”
“Not mentioning those outside black casinos is our rule. Whoever breaks the rule gets their hand chopped off.”
Chen Liao: “Which village?”
Old gambler: “What village could it be? Xu Family Village. People there are fierce. Poor and fierce. Give them money and they’ll even dare stop police from entering.”
Suburbs of Baimu Town, Xu Family Village?
Zhen Wuyu suddenly understood.
Huang Xiuling, Xu Long, suburbs, illegal casino, Qi Meijuan, Chen Qing…
It connected here too.
Did Qi Meijuan get killed by these people?
She was killed in the wild. Xu Family Village’s location seemed to be on the main road between Changlin and Baimu Town. It also lined up with that river used to move the body.
For gamblers, the casino location had to be hidden first, and convenient for escape second. With a road nearby and mountains behind, you could drive off or flee into the hills.
Xu Family Village really was an ideal spot.
So Qi Meijuan was harmed on the road.
And if Chen Qing’s group had met in Xu Family Village in the past without entering the town, then that time at Changlin Station might not have been their first meeting.
They had full opportunity and motive to kill Qi Meijuan.
But it was still only a guess. Zhen Wuyu also recalled their earliest profile of the 315 killer: impulsive, hatred, venting, low economic conditions, and… copycat behavior.
Chen Liao said, “So did we find the 315 killer? Can we fully connect that case to those four bastards, combine investigations, and get evidence to arrest and interrogate them?”
He still didn’t know about the stethoscope.
“Maybe. We have a path now…”
“Ask him again. Did Qi Meijuan often drive to the casino? Was she alone? Did she often go pick up her son? In the last few months, was she short on money, gambling and owing debts?”
After that—
Zhen Wuyu told him to prepare the old gambler’s recorded statements properly and bring the man back to the station. As for himself, he changed plans and stepped on the gas into Baimu Town.
But his destination wasn’t Lin Zong’s group’s old homes in Baimu Town.
It was… the school.
It was bad timing. It was exactly when school let out.
Zhen Wuyu parked at the school gate, looked at the dense residential buildings and alleys around the school, and walked into the school.
“Qi Xuan? Him? He was in class just now. That kid’s grades are very good. Recently something happened at home, and he’s been getting quieter and quieter. But we teachers have taken turns talking to him, and his grades haven’t really dropped… He might have gone to his homeroom teacher to get some papers. After he gets them, he’ll probably leave.”
Zhen Wuyu: “Do you have his phone number?”
“No. Our school doesn’t allow phones. If a parent comes to pick someone up, they call the school reception. We pass the message to the student, and the student waits at the gate… Our school isn’t one of those trash vocational schools. We’re strict.”
Zhen Wuyu’s gaze landed on the classroom honor board, on student competition results and sports meet photos.
He noticed something.
Qi Xuan usually dressed very tightly and didn’t show skin.
“He doesn’t like sports?”
“Not much. But he does have sports he’s good at. I heard students say his physique is actually very good. I think in fifth grade he competed and won a championship. After that he stopped liking it. In middle school and high school he focused on studying. After all, students still need good grades.”
Zhen Wuyu narrowed his eyes, looked at the homeroom office the teacher pointed to, asked a few more questions, and walked over. He happened to see a tall, thin teenage boy with his back turned, talking to the homeroom teacher, seemingly about competitions.
Knock knock knock, Zhen Wuyu knocked.
Inside the office, the boy turned around and saw Zhen Wuyu.
Zhen Wuyu frowned.
This person wasn’t Qi Xuan.
Zhen Wuyu rushed into the hallway and looked down. He saw students from different corridors moving downstairs, all backs; he couldn’t tell which one was Qi Xuan.
“Hey, hey? Officer Zhen?”
The subject teacher only saw this police officer who didn’t look like a police officer sprint downstairs…
He even took the stairs in a jumping, hurdle-like way, landing at the first floor in a flash.
At the school’s side gate, along the alley between the residential buildings, Qi Xuan gripped his backpack strap and walked into the dim passage. With the sunset behind him, it was like he was walking into darkness formed by crowded old houses. His sneakers stepped on bluestone slabs smeared with stinking moss, following the many foul ditches, steadily… getting farther from the school.
His pace grew faster and faster.
Behind him came Zhen Wuyu’s urgent footsteps.
“Qi Xuan, stop!”
Whoosh.
Qi Xuan turned, slipped into a corner, and vanished!
Damn it!
Zhen Wuyu charged over; then suddenly—
Qi Xuan, who had vanished, backed out instead, step by step, retreating into the alley until he reached Zhen Wuyu.
The reason he retreated was because someone was forcing him back.
Zhen Wuyu hooked his hand on the gun at his waist. In his other hand he held his phone, ready to call for backup at any time.
Then—
From the shadow at the corner came two black-clad bodyguards. And then… small leather shoes, a brown leather jacket, a plain silk long dress, long legs in high heels. A rich, noble, captivating young miss stepped onto the stone slabs and appeared in front of them.
She walked from darkness into the sunset, like the sun falling into the mortal world.
Beautiful and dazzling, but not warm.
“Ah, Classmate Zhen.”
“What a coincidence. We meet again.”