Free Web NovelChapter 114: Chapter 113 Pah, Crazy! [2nd Update]_1
Mr. Sun swallowed the rest of his words and darted out, followed closely by Mr. Zhao.
Zhou Ning didn’t pay attention to this, knowing that interpersonal relations were Mr. Zhao’s strong suit. Besides, many people were not optimistic about their arrival. But with the case at hand, there was no time to manage these matters.
The first round of searches by Mr. Qu didn’t yield any results. Zhou Ning knew this meant the provincial database had found no matching records. Sure enough, the search switched to another database and in less than a minute, a person’s information appeared in the filtering frame on the big screen.
Xu Dayuan had already leaned in with his arms folded, noticing that the two photos of the individual were nearly the same, except that the reconstructed image on the forehead lacked a mole.
Zhou Ning leaned over and glanced at the information.
The man was named Zhang Min’an, born on August 17, 1941, with ancestral roots in Qixia. He was from Jidong City in Ludong Province, and his information was entered by the Jidong City Tiexi Police Station.
However, there was no contact number listed, and there was only this one person under the household registration, which noted that he was a widower.
There was an emigration record from 1984 for a Zhang Guoqing, born on April 14, 1966, which indicated that after turning eighteen and either enrolling in school or joining the military, his household registration was transferred to the school and never moved back. Still, no further information was available, and though household registration systems were networked, the amount of information accessible was limited.
"Check for information on his son."
Xu Dayuan nodded and began making phone calls. It took only a few sentences to realize that he was dealing with an old acquaintance they had previously collaborated with on a case. The two men didn’t exchange much in the way of pleasantries before Xu Dayuan got straight to the point, then sent the details of his inquiry over QQ.
It wasn’t long before Xu Dayuan received several images detailing Zhang Guoqing’s personal information: his workplace was Southwest University of Political Science and Law, and his wife and daughter were both living in the Southwest region.
The Mr. Zeng that Xu Dayuan had brought with him was surprised and, blinking in confusion, said,
"This family is interesting. Just the father and son, so how come the son married and had children in the Southwest and even became a professor, while the old man was here by himself, dead for nearly a year and no one knew. Could we have made a mistake?"
This remark voiced what everyone was thinking. With such a successful son, if there was only an elderly father left, it was typical to bring the old man over, or at the very least, the old man would live close to relatives and friends back in his hometown. That was the normal situation nowadays.
Zhou Ning looked at Xu Dayuan, who didn’t rush to voice his thoughts since a ’ding’ sound had just appeared in his ear. Zhou Ning didn’t need to open the big screen to know what had just happened. They had identified the deceased.
He breathed a slight sigh of relief. Without this system, identifying the deceased would have been exceedingly difficult.
Without hesitation, Xu Dayuan dialed Zhang Guoqing’s contact number. Having reached this point, further confirmation was certainly necessary.
"I am Xu Dayuan from Qindao City Criminal Police Brigade. Are you Zhang Guoqing?"
A puzzled "hello" came from the other end of the phone.
"I’m Zhang Guoqing. What do you want from me?"
"Have you had any recent contact with your father? Here in Qindao City, we have a case where the victim may be your father, so we’re calling to confirm with you. Hello, are you listening?"
"Pssht, you’re crazy? A scammer!"
After the insult, the call was abruptly hung up. Xu Dayuan stood stunned. Mr. Zhao, who had just returned with a report and had been listening the whole time, couldn’t help but double over with laughter.
Seeing Xu Dayuan’s face darken, he quickly tried to smooth things over,
"Boss, don’t be annoyed. It’s a normal reaction. There are so many phone scams nowadays. Every semester there are anti-fraud campaigns at the schools. Everyone thinks they can’t be scammed, but a lot of the victims are well-educated people."
Mr. Zhao passed the report to Zhou Ning. Upon review, Zhou Ning noted that no blood cells were found inside the bone marrow of the bone chips, evidently affirming that the dismemberment with the saw occurred postmortem. The cause of death thus became another mystery.
Xu Dayuan felt somewhat gloomy and, after thinking for a moment, flipped through his contacts and dialed a number.
"Criminal Bro, are you busy?"
"Stop right there. I know that opening line. It smells familiar. At this hour, your call definitely isn’t for anything good. Just spit it out; I’m busy here."
Xu Dayuan laughed awkwardly, rubbing his crew cut with his hand.
"Alright, I’m not one for small talk, and I get pretty tired of it too. I’ll be straight with you. Here’s the situation... Could you help me get in touch with someone? Ideally, I’d like to meet this person. I’ve finally got a bit of a lead, and it’s pretty urgent."
"You should’ve just said so in the first place. You’re calling at just the right moment; I’m right in front of Southwest University of Political Science and Law. Wait for my news."
It wasn’t long before Xu Dayuan’s phone rang. The call was quickly answered, and the ’Criminal Bro’ on the other end didn’t bother with pleasantries.
"I have to say, they really did take you for a scammer. I had to explain myself for quite a while after showing up at their door. But this Professor Zhang Guoqing... he’s a bit special. He hardly knows anything about his dad. Even when I asked for a photo of his father, he didn’t have one.
He said his father was an English teacher and went back to live in his old family home in Ludong Province. Ten years ago, he sold the two properties in Jidong, but too early — they weren’t worth much then."
I asked him since the house was sold, where was the money from the sale? He said a portion went to support his house purchase in the southwest, and his father took the rest back to Ludong, but he didn’t know exactly where, just that it was in a county-level city around Qindao.
As for keeping in touch, for ten years, they’d only call during the holidays. After all, he was busy, having just been promoted to full professor. Work always came first, and his child was preparing for the college entrance exams, so he couldn’t afford to make any missteps.
I asked him if he had his father’s contact information. He gave me a mobile number, which I’ve already texted to you, but he also mentioned that his father often changes his numbers, so he wasn’t sure if this one would go through. Do you see if there’s anything else you need to ask?"
Zhou Ning frowned more and more as he listened.
This revealed a few pieces of information. First, the person had almost no connection with his father, especially after the money from the two houses was taken; they hadn’t been in contact for years.
Second, there must have been a rift between him and his father. As for his father, he didn’t seem to want to turn to his son either, only calling during the holidays, and it seemed it was his father who made the calls.
Xu Dayuan offered his thanks.
"Thank you, Detective Brother. If we need anything more later on, I’ll trouble you again."
After hanging up the phone and seeing the mobile number sent by the detective, Xu Dayuan was about to call it directly, but Zhou Ning stopped his action.
"Get a woman to make the call. Your accent is too heavy."
With one sentence, Xu Dayuan was at a loss for words, pointing to himself and saying:
"I have a second-level certificate in Mandarin; how could I have an accent?"
Laughter echoed softly throughout the office. Xu Dayuan had always been confident that he spoke standard Mandarin, but that was just Qindao standard.
Xia Momo approached Zhou Ning. Since she was the only woman in the office, she naturally couldn’t shy away at this time. From Zhou Ning’s words, she could already sense that this call had to be made gently, because you never knew who would be on the other end.
"Let me do it, what do we need to ask? From the perspective of a household registration officer?"
Zhou Ning nodded, and Xia Momo’s voice was indeed gentle enough.
"Just say it’s for the population census and ask for the address."
Without any more words, Xia Momo dialed the number. It rang seven or eight times before the voice of an elderly woman answered. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
"Hello?"
"Hello, Auntie, I am a household registration officer from Xinghua City Public Security Bureau. We are conducting a population census survey and need to know about your family situation. This number is registered under Zhang Min’an, right? Who is he to you?"
"Zhang Min’an is my husband, he’s gone out and didn’t take his mobile phone."
"Is it just the two of you at home, Auntie? What’s your name?"
"That’s right, just us two. My name is Luo Suqin, ’Su’ as in simple and ’Qin’ as in Qindao."
The old lady’s voice wasn’t loud, and her accent wasn’t the local dialect of Qindao; she spoke very standard Mandarin and was very cautious in her speech. Xia Momo asked with a smile.
"Auntie, can you find your and your husband’s ID cards? I need to verify your husband’s identity information. Is his ID number 23032119410817****?"
A scramble of noise came through the handset; the elderly lady seemed to open a drawer.
"Mhm, that’s the correct number."
"We neglected our duties earlier and missed registering you and Uncle, so Auntie, could you tell me your ID number? I’ll re-enter it here."
"Okay, young lady, write this down, my ID number is 23032119421116****."
"Alright, Auntie, could you also tell me your address? We might send a police officer for a home visit, or there may be a phone follow-up. I would appreciate it if you could give us good feedback to support our work."
The old lady laughed, losing her previous caution.
"Alright, write this down, I live at 422 Daliu Village, Longshan Sub-district, Xinghua City, diagonally across from Longshan Central Kindergarten."
After hanging up the phone, Xu Dayuan had already pulled up Baidu Maps and searched for the location, waving his hand at everyone. Doctor Lu raised his hand to stop him.
"Look at the time; it’s rush hour now. It’ll take at least two hours to get to Xinghua City. What are you going to check in the middle of the night?"
