Animal Detective

Chapter 376: Chapter 310: Equine Ascarid (Part 2)

From the sound of things, Li Xingping was still the prime suspect.

Zhu Qiuwei sat down and reported on their canvassing.

The village only had a little over a hundred people, so canvassing it wasn’t difficult.

They focused their questions on the time around 1:00 AM, but no one had seen Li Xingping.

Entertainment options were scarce in the countryside, and the population skewed elderly. Most people had a habit of sleeping and waking early. The younger residents also had farm work to do, so by 1:00 AM, nearly everyone was asleep.

Near the crime scene, a few people, like Duan Dongqiang, had heard a commotion, but none had gone outside to check.

He then brought up the surveillance footage.

All of Baijia Post had only one surveillance camera. It was at a fork in the road leading into the village, mounted on a streetlight and pointed toward the entrance.

No one entered or exited the entire night.

Zhu Qiuwei looked up at Hou Yaxin on the screen and continued, "As for motive, after canvassing the villagers, we found that many of them had complaints about Zhang Kaiyong."

"And it wasn’t just villagers with other last names. Even some of the Zhangs were unhappy with Zhang Kaiyong."

"The general consensus was that he wasn’t clean. Having been the village chief for over a decade, he’d supposedly skimmed quite a bit for himself. Of course, this is all just what the villagers are saying; no one could provide any direct evidence."

Hou Yaxin was unmoved, gesturing for him to continue.

’He didn’t care about all that. His only concern was solving the case.’

Zhu Qiuwei continued, "Based on the results of our canvassing, besides Li Xingping’s direct conflict over the unpaid medical insurance, there are several other possible motives."

"First, the selection process for designating households for poverty assistance. A few families who weren’t chosen held a major grudge against Zhang Kaiyong, believing he’d been corrupt."

"Then there’s Zhang Kaiyong’s son, Zhang Xi. He’s a bit of a troublemaker and has gotten into fights, even beating up some of the village kids before, which caused friction."

"His brother, Zhang Kaisheng, is a contractor. He’s had disputes with people over unpaid wages and poor construction quality, and Zhang Kaiyong had to step in to handle things."

"Finally, there’s one more thing. Back in ’07, when all of Baijia Post was relocated down the mountain, a lot of people grew to resent Zhang Kaiyong over issues with land distribution and homestead plots, believing he showed favoritism."

"This also involved relocation subsidies. Some people claimed Zhang Kaiyong lined his own pockets. Someone even went to the town to report him, and the town authorities came to investigate, but it ultimately fizzled out."

"Then there were road repairs, laying tap water pipes... all sorts of petty things that caused a lot of friction."

In a rural village, land is everything.

If someone’s house encroached on a bit of extra land, or if their tree blocked a path, or if road repairs weren’t to their liking, disputes would often break out.

And people held onto those grudges for a very long time.

Zhu Qiuwei said, "So, if we’re strictly talking about motive, our preliminary list includes 26 households."

Baijia Post only has 83 households in total. Twenty-six is not a small number.

Hou Yaxin nodded slightly. "So, you’re saying it’s possible a second assailant appeared at the scene and took the opportunity to get revenge."

He then asked for an update on Li Yao’s situation.

Li Xiaowen was responsible for that. He’d spoken with Li Shi after he returned to town.

Li Shi seemed very resistant to what Li Xingping had done. He didn’t want to get involved, which was why he had told Li Yao not to say anything.

He was only persuaded after it was explained to him from a different angle: the only way to avoid hefty compensation payments was to prove Li Xingping wasn’t the killer.

They were able to clarify a few details.

For instance, Li Xingping had left a little after 3:00 AM.

Li Yao secretly followed him, hiding at the corner where the path met the fork leading up the mountain.

She saw Li Xingping pick up a brick along the way and then get into a heated argument with Zhang Kaiyong. In the midst of the struggle, Li Xingping struck Zhang Kaiyong with it.

She was so scared she didn’t dare to watch. When she looked again, Zhang Kaiyong was already on the ground.

Li Xingping tossed the brick aside and fled in a panic. But then he spotted her and took her with him as he left.

As she was leaving, she glanced back and saw Zhang Kaiyong starting to get up. It was just a glimpse; she didn’t see clearly what happened after that.

The reason Liu Shasha hadn’t seen her was that she was terrified and had already run home ahead of them.

After they got home, Li Xingping was in a panic. He warned her not to say anything and told her to go to sleep.

Then, in the middle of the night, Li Xingping packed his own things, preparing to leave.

Shen Xin had been present that afternoon, so he was already familiar with the details Li Xiaowen was reporting.

These details answered a few questions, but they still couldn’t prove that Li Xingping hadn’t killed Zhang Kaiyong, nor that a second assailant had appeared at the scene.

After listening, Zhao Helin said, "So, that means Li Xingping is still the prime suspect. Xiaowen, do you think it’s possible the little girl is lying?"

Even if Li Yao was telling the truth, it didn’t prove a second assailant was at the scene.

’He could have struggled for a moment and then died anyway.’

And the fact that Li Xingping had attacked Zhang Kaiyong with a brick now seemed clear enough.

Li Xiaowen shook his head, saying he couldn’t be sure.

Nearby, Shen Xin put down his pen, pondering the same question.

’He had a nagging feeling that they were overlooking something, a gap in the logic, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it at that moment.’

Just as he was racking his brain, Luo Xiaolong burst through a door on the video feed.

"I’ve got something."

Luo Xiaolong looked energized. Holding a USB drive, he plugged it into the computer used for the projector, then said to everyone, "During the autopsy, we focused on cleaning and collecting samples from the wound on Zhang Kaiyong’s head."

"We found traces of cement, dirt, and red brick fragments. The red brick recovered from the scene matches these findings."

"However, we also found something else in the wound. I wasn’t sure what it was at first. I thought it might be moss or some other plant residue. A brick picked up from the side of a road might have that sort of thing on it."

"It was mostly just some plant matter."

He displayed several microscopic images for them to see.

Then he said, "But then I found something inside it."

He put up another image, showing a roughly circular object.

Luo Xiaolong said, "I had to do some research to confirm what this thing was. It’s the egg of a horse roundworm, *Parascaris equorum*. It’s nearly spherical with an uneven surface. The characteristics match."

"That’s when I realized what we were looking at: feces."

He glanced around at the others and said, "Specifically, the feces of a herbivore. And not from a cow or sheep—this type is unique to equines."

At this, Li Xiaowen’s heart skipped a beat, and he blurted out, "A donkey!"

Ma Chang Town might mean ’Horse Ranch Town,’ but no one had raised horses there for ages. There were only donkeys.

Luo Xiaolong nodded. "Exactly. A donkey. I’ve extracted DNA from it, but I’ll need more time to confirm it’s donkey DNA."

"Furthermore, the brick recovered from the scene had no donkey feces on it. That leaves only one possibility: there was another weapon, one contaminated with donkey feces, that was used to strike the victim."

He knew Li Xiaowen was looking for physical evidence to prove whether Li Yao’s story was true and whether a second assailant had been at the scene.

The donkey feces found in the wound was the best proof possible.

Shen Xin’s heart suddenly leaped. A name flashed into his mind: ’Duan Dongqiang!’

’His family raised donkeys.’

’Just moments ago, Shen Xin had felt he was overlooking a logical problem. Now, it all clicked into place.’

’If there was a second assailant at the scene, there were only two possibilities.’

’One: the person knew in advance that Li Xingping was going to make a move and deliberately followed him.’

’Two: the person only appeared after Li Xingping had left.’

’Within that second possibility, there were two more sub-possibilities. One: the person was just wandering around in the middle of the night, happened to find the not-yet-dead Zhang Kaiyong, and, since they already had a grudge against him, decided to kick a man while he was down and finish him off.’

’The other was that this person was already at the scene when Li Xingping injured Zhang Kaiyong.’

’In that case, this person must have been near the crime scene and able to hear the commotion.’

’That narrowed down the options considerably.’

’And Duan Dongqiang fit the bill perfectly.’