The morning sun was already quite bright on the corridor, and Li Zhong came out of the meeting room, sighed. Meetings were tiring enough, but being pressured by the leaders made it even more so!
As he expected, with the increasing attention on Meng Yue’s death, he was called to a meeting early this morning, where the leaders urged them to quickly investigate the Meng Yue case. This matter was not only being watched by the police, but also by the media and the public.
“Let’s go.”
“Look at you, why are you sighing?” Yang Xiaomin pulled him away from the meeting room. They were going to Meng Yue’s residence later.
Through social workers, they successfully found Meng Yue’s residence and learned some of her past.
Speaking of Meng Yue, her experience was quite sympathetic. Her parents died in a car accident when she was in school, and she and her younger sister had been dependent on each other ever since. It was said that the two of them stayed with their aunt for a while, and then moved to their uncle’s place, before somehow running away on their own.
Her younger sister, Meng Huan, was the same age as her, but didn’t like studying and dropped out of school early to work. It was said that most of the money for her studies came from her sister.
Li Zhong looked at the address and drove to Meng Yue’s residence. He finally found a parking space downstairs. This was an ordinary residential building, not luxurious, and the outer walls were peeling off. It seemed that there was no property management here. The whole building had only six floors, and Meng Yue was on the third floor.
They hadn’t lived here for a long time, and had only returned not long ago. The community workers weren’t very clear about their recent situation.
Li Zhong and Yang Xiaomin got out of the car together. They took out the key and opened the door.
The key was found in Meng Yue’s bag. They didn’t come to investigate immediately because the address on Meng Yue’s ID card was different from her residence. The address on her ID card was the address where they used to rent. They only got this accurate address yesterday after asking Shi Hua and the community workers. It seemed that Shi Hua and Meng Yue should have relatively close contact.
Standing at the door, Li Zhong observed it slightly. The door wasn’t new, and there wasn’t a trace of rust on the door lock.
With a “click,” he twisted open the door. A cool and quiet room greeted him. Pushing the door in, there was a shoe cabinet with two layers of women’s shoes on it. It seemed that only the sisters lived here.
The building shouldn’t be too old. Judging from the decoration style, it was quite old. The sunlight shone in through the half-drawn curtains, and the cheap ceiling reflected the only light in the living room.
“Didn’t she donate a lot of money? In theory, buying a new house would be more than enough. Why is she still living in this kind of place?”
“I don’t know, let’s take a look.”
Yang Xiaomin was right. In theory, their quality of life shouldn’t be bad. After Meng Yue graduated, she was also a teacher in a well-known high school in Jianghe City. Even if she resigned later, she shouldn’t be living in this kind of place. It was said that being a teacher in that high school even came with a house. With Meng Yue’s education, it shouldn’t be a problem, unless Meng Yue herself didn’t reach an agreement with them.
Rejecting a good house, not buying a new house, and insisting on living in this kind of place… it was a bit special.
The decoration of the living room looked simple, with ordinary sofas and wooden tables. The floor wasn’t dirty. There were still pieces of paper with award certificates stuck on the wall, some of which were torn and only had fragments left. There were many messy colored writings on the wall, which looked like children’s pranks. Li Zhong understood, because his house was like that too. When he won awards when he was a child, his parents always stuck them directly on the living room wall, so guests could always see them at first glance, which made him very embarrassed…
Li Zhong walked to the balcony. The clothes rack below was empty. He looked down and saw a few potted green plants, but most of the leaves were already withered and yellow, and the soil was cracked under the sunlight. It seemed that they weren’t far from dying.
Next to the living room was the kitchen. The kitchen was also quite tidy, with pots and bowls neatly placed. The refrigerator was empty. Didn’t she prepare ingredients? Li Zhong closed the refrigerator in confusion. Whether it was the balcony, living room, or kitchen, there was no dust accumulation. Obviously, she lived here regularly. The toilet was also quite clean.
“This seems to be her bedroom.” The empty house seemed to only hear the sound of his own footsteps. Suddenly, Yang Xiaomin’s shout came from his ear.
Li Zhong followed the sound and found Yang Xiaomin. She was standing in front of a table. The decoration of this room was much better than outside. Even the windows by the table were hung with cartoon gauze curtains, which was quite in line with a girl’s boudoir.
“This should be her desk. She has a lot of books and photos here,” Yang Xiaomin said, pointing to the wall under the table.
Many books related to biochemistry seemed to be placed on the bookshelf. They should be university textbooks. There were also two rows of novels, one row of pure literature and one row of suspense novels. Other types of books were scattered among them.
There were also a few books on the table. It seemed that her reading volume wasn’t small. “No wonder she’s a graduate student. It’s normal to have a lot of books,” Yang Xiaomin said.
“Look at this photo, they look so alike!” Yang Xiaomin said, picking up a fallen photo from the table.
This was a framed photo, the size of a palm. Li Zhong looked over along her hand and moved closer. Only then did he realize that this was a family portrait, with two adults and two children. The adults stood behind the children. It could be seen that one of the two children was Meng Yue. The two children were about the same height. It looked like a photo from junior high school or high school. One had long hair and the other had medium-long hair. What was surprising wasn’t their young looks, but that the two looked exactly alike. Except for the different clothes and hair, their faces were completely identical.
At this time, he realized that one of them was Meng Yue’s sister, Meng Huan, who died at the beginning of this year.
“It’s like a fake. Are they twins! They are all so beautiful,” Yang Xiaomin exclaimed.
“The one with long hair should be her,” Li Zhong said, thinking of the deceased Meng Yue.
The house was a three-bedroom apartment. Li Zhong walked to a room next to it. He glanced at it. The decoration here was similar to the previous one. If that room was Meng Yue’s, then this room was her sister Meng Huan’s. The dressing table had no dust, and the mirror was clean. However, what was strange was that there were still cosmetics placed here. It seemed that even after Meng Huan’s death, Meng Yue often came to clean this place. Both rooms were very clean. Li Zhong observed it slightly. The table here seemed much simpler, because the bookshelves below were used to store sundries, and there weren’t many books. It seemed that this was indeed the room of her sister Meng Huan, who dropped out of school.
Li Zhong simply checked it and went out. He closed the door, and Yang Xiaomin patted his shoulder from behind, holding the framed photo in her hand.
“Who are you?” Just as the two were looking at each other, a middle-aged woman who looked a bit old stood at the door, looking at the two with some doubt.
“Hello, we are…” Li Zhong stepped forward and showed his credentials. Only then did the woman nod. “No wonder you’re wearing these clothes. So you’re police officers.” She hesitated, but was about to turn around and leave. Li Zhong quickly stopped her.
“Auntie, don’t go, don’t go. I want to ask you, who are you?”
Li Zhong asked about the other party’s identity. She said that she was a resident upstairs and had been here for many years. Today, she was also curious to see two strangers appear here. Since they were police officers, she was even more curious, but she was embarrassed to ask what had happened.
“What are you doing there? Did something happen to her again?” The woman stood at the door, took two steps back, and turned her head to observe.
“Something happened to her. She can’t come back. We’re here to investigate.”
“She’s dead?”
“How did you know?”
“I heard about it. Someone even came to inquire about you.” Speaking of this, she couldn’t help but sigh. She stretched out her hand, and Yang Xiaomin’s photo was taken by her. “There, that’s her home. I think the two people above are their parents.”
“It’s a pity that they left early. They died a long time ago. I remember they were still in school at the time.” The woman couldn’t help but sigh. She lived upstairs and was considered an old acquaintance with Meng Yue’s family. At that time, her own children were still at home. Now her children were working outside, and she was the only one here.
The photo was a group photo of the family. It was a pity to see it now…
“These two children are exactly the same, but one is well-behaved and the other is mischievous. I used to tease them often when they were young. They were so interesting.” The woman couldn’t help but sigh, and added, “Their parents were also very nice people, but it’s a pity…” She handed the photo to Yang Xiaomin and sighed.
“Did they often live here? Do you know if they had any contact with anyone else?” Li Zhong asked.
“Speaking of this, they rarely stayed here after their parents left.”
“Why?”
“Because the house was sold by her family’s relatives.” Speaking of this, the woman was a little indignant, and then eased up a little. “Later, the two of them also left. After all, their parents weren’t there, and they needed someone to take care of them. Until recently, they returned here again. I remember I asked them why they came back. The younger one said that she had graduated and was now back to work, so she came back.”
“I was actually very happy to see them come back. I’m old and my body isn’t very good. After they came back, they often invited me upstairs to eat. These two children aren’t easy.” The woman said with emotion.
“Then, besides them, have you seen anyone else come here?”
The woman pondered for a while and shook her head, saying, “I didn’t see many. I remember there was a woman, but I don’t know her name. She was a young person.”
Hearing this, Li Zhong took out a photo, “This one?” The woman shook her head, and Li Zhong changed another one, “This one?” The woman squinted her eyes and said in an uncertain tone, “It seems so.” The second photo was of Shi Hua.
“Then do you know this one? Her name is Li Shuxuan.”
“I don’t know, I haven’t heard of her.”
The two said goodbye to her. Yang Xiaomin looked at the photo in her hand and felt quite sympathetic. Her parents died early, and her sister also passed away from illness at the beginning of this year. Now she also…
“Let’s go.”
Back at the police station, they saw many reporters at the door. “Hello, hello, Criminal Investigation Unit leader, can you tell us how the case is progressing?” A reporter ran in front of Li Zhong with a camera.
“Does the information left by the deceased refer to someone?”
“I heard that you have arrested a suspect. Is that true?”
As soon as they saw Li Zhong coming from outside, a group of people rushed over immediately, all asking about the case. It was clearly a very simple case, why was there still no news today? Facing the questioning, Li Zhong frowned, threw down a sentence of “still investigating” and strode away. In the crowd, he saw Shi Hua. The two looked at each other and remained silent.
“That Shi Hua, it’s all his fault. If he hadn’t been stirring up trouble, things wouldn’t have become like this,” Yang Xiaomin said angrily as soon as they returned.
Li Zhong sat down. Yang Xiaomin was right. If Shi Hua hadn’t published the news, the impact of the matter wouldn’t have been so great. Now, even if they wanted to suppress it, they couldn’t. Otherwise, the leaders wouldn’t have called them to a meeting early in the morning.
Traffic was a good thing, but now that this wave of traffic was pressing on them, they also felt heavy, constantly urging them to solve the case quickly.
Back at the police station, another investigation team also returned. They went to ask Meng Yue’s former colleagues, that is, the colleagues Meng Yue had when she was a teacher, and got the following testimony:
“Meng Yue was a very nice person. She always spoke softly and was very kind to people.”
“She was always very hardworking and prepared lessons very carefully. She was good at work, but… she didn’t talk much in life.”
“Although we were in the same office, she rarely took the initiative to talk to us. She rarely took things we brought to her, and she never went to our gatherings after work. At first, we thought she didn’t like to socialize, but then we found out that she just didn’t like socializing.”
“She said that she didn’t drink coffee or alcohol. We basically had no other communication besides work.”
Speaking of why Meng Yue resigned, most people didn’t know. Only three people who usually communicated with her a little recalled it.
“Actually, she was fine when she first came, but soon I felt that she wasn’t suitable for this job. I don’t know how to say it, but she seemed very careful at work, and she also felt like she had some problems in handling interpersonal relationships. I think she resigned because of the pressure.”
“She got sick once after she resigned. I came to see her specially. Later, I asked the doctor and found out that she seemed to have suffered from depression.”
“Anyway, I heard them say that Meng Yue’s mental state wasn’t very good.”
…
Li Zhong fell into thought as he looked at the conversation. Meng Yue actually had this kind of medical history. If it was depression, it was reasonable for her to have less interpersonal communication, but it was also unlikely that there were only three people. It seemed that he still needed to investigate at the hospital.
Li Zhong put down the information in his hand and thought of the information Shi Hua had left him yesterday.
“We’ll go find Li Shuxuan this afternoon. I want to see what Shi Hua is doing.” Since it was Shi Hua’s intelligence, he couldn’t have given such a person’s name for no reason. As Chen Xuelin’s wife, she might really know something about the case.
This case itself was a bit strange. The clues on the living were basically concentrated on two people, one was Shi Hua and the other was Mo Wenli. Whether it was from social relationships or contacts, besides these two, it seemed that no one else could be found on Meng Yue.
“Xiaomin, have someone check her information at the hospital later.”
“Okay.”
Outside the police station, the reporters who had been turned away didn’t get any news.
“Let’s go, let’s go. Maybe the case is more complicated, and the police don’t have a clue for the time being. Didn’t that person just say that they are investigating? Don’t rush.” Shi Hua put away the equipment, said casually, and prepared to leave.
“Are you Shi, the reporter from Jiangcheng Daily? You once interviewed the deceased. I saw that there are several articles about her in your report. What is your relationship? Do you know her?”
Shi Hua was stunned. This group of people didn’t inquire about the case, but instead became curious about his relationship with Meng Yue, which made him feel a little speechless. “Yes, she is my old classmate.”
“Then do you know who the information she left before her death is talking about? If you are old classmates, do you know something?” Someone immediately rushed to him and asked curiously, and other reporters also walked to Shi Hua.
“Didn’t she write it clearly? Chen Xuelin.” Shi Hua suddenly had an idea.
“Reporter Shi, don’t tease us. According to our investigation, Chen Xuelin, the one related to Meng Yue, died a long time ago,” someone jumped out to explain.
Shi Hua didn’t admit it, but just smiled and said, “He’s dead? So what? Can’t dead people kill people?”
Hearing this, everyone laughed, “We are all serious reporters. We don’t write unfounded things. That person has been buried in the ground, and now it’s estimated that only bones are left. Don’t tease us, brother,” one of them said.
“If you don’t believe it, then forget it. Meng Yue wrote the words herself. I can’t say that the blood words weren’t written by her, right? Anyway, I don’t know. If you want to get some information, you can tell us about some of her previous things. Is there anything you want to hear?” Shi Hua said quietly.
Hearing that there was gossip, some people immediately became interested.
Shi Hua found a shady spot outside and began to talk about Meng Yue’s affairs, from gossip to family. Some reporters left, and some who were curious sat down and waited for him to speak.
Shi Hua told the truth, but he only picked the good things to say, occasionally adding some of his own material, so wouldn’t Meng Yue’s image be even greater? Finally, after speaking, he added, “Don’t write nonsense, and don’t guess randomly, otherwise the lawyer’s letter will be sent to you, don’t come to me.”
After dealing with these people, Shi Hua stood up, his mouth was dry. Reporters were just cattle and horses, rushing to where there was news. He was also free to rush to the next place.
He opened his phone, and the picture on the screen was of a smiling girl.
“I hope I didn’t go the wrong way this time,” he muttered to himself as he looked at the time.