Free Web NovelChapter 150: Chapter 149 A figure_1
"Who?"
"Sun Manqing. Zhang Guanglei ate with Sun Manqing. It seemed like a chance encounter; Sun Manqing was seated first, followed by Zhang Guanglei. Both were somewhat surprised, but they chatted for a while, hurriedly finished eating, and then left one after another.
However, from the angle of another surveillance camera, it seemed like a man was following Zhang Guanglei all the time, but the man was wearing a hat, so his face couldn’t be seen clearly. I’ve sent the surveillance footage to your email."
Zhou Ning heard a ding from his phone and quickly checked it, receiving two videos that were clearly edited excerpts.
When Sun Manqing and Zhang Guanglei met, it wasn’t tense at all. Sun Manqing paid the bill, and Zhang Guanglei didn’t resist accepting it. Sure enough, as the two got up to leave, a man in the corner quickly followed them.
The surveillance timestamp read 7:30, which matched the time for breakfast in Zhou Ning’s autopsy analysis—nothing unexpected there.
Yet Zhang Guanglei having breakfast with Sun Manqing seemed incredible. Zhou Ning’s gaze was drawn to the man in the corner of the video.
Mr. Zhao quickly opened another segment of the surveillance video. This angle was slightly better. The man in the corner followed Zhang Guanglei towards the roadside, and as he turned his head toward the camera, he reached up to adjust his hat.
Zhou Ning raised his hand, signaling Mr. Zhao to pause the video. That oversized thumb knuckle allowed Zhou Ning to recognize the man instantly, but a glance at the hair near his ears made Zhou Ning frown slightly.
"Wearing a wig, huh? The features of this finger are consistent with Chen Chunxi. It seems I overlooked some details when I searched his car this morning."
Mr. Zhao gave a sidelong glance.
"What else do you want to do? You think you’re a fortune teller, with one spin of the compass you know who the killer is? Don’t get too ahead of yourself here. Are we supposed to live with you solving cases like this? As for the hair, it doesn’t look fake to me. Probably cut it yesterday to change his appearance and avoid drawing attention."
Zhou Ning tended to agree with this analysis, but following this line of thought, the idea that Chen Chunxi wanted to kill Zhang Guanglei didn’t seem to make sense, especially since Wang Mengmeng was clearly helping Chen Chunxi, and they had entirely set up Sun Yannian as the scapegoat.
The recent dialogues and various records, each one was meticulously planned, a feat not easily accomplished. It also gave the detective squad quite the runaround.
So why could Chen Chunxi cooperate with Wang Mengmeng?
Wang Wenjing, in order to prove she wasn’t at the crime scene, even went as far as to injure herself with a fracture. What was all this for?
Zhou Ning paused as "Diphacinone" came into his mind, and he stood up abruptly.
Zhang Guanglei was introverted, not good at expressing himself, and even unsociable, disliking social interactions. His relationship with Yu Meili was mainly a mismatch, which led him to be with Wang Wenjing afterward.
Wang Wenjing’s mother opposed the relationship. As for Wang Mengmeng’s attitude, it was even more telling. Still, they persisted for over two years. Zhang Guanglei had been poisoned for over a year as well—could it be that Zhang Guanglei kept pestering Wang Wenjing?
Perhaps, to get rid of him, Wang Wenjing resorted to poisoning him, realizing that poison ’couldn’t kill’ him and would only worsen his health. So she simply arranged this ’car accident.’ free𝑤ebnovel.com
If it were established as an accident, there would be a full compensation from insurance. If not regarded as an accident, at least Sun Yannian would be taking the blame.
However, an unexpected element was introduced: Zhou Ning came along to help out.
At that moment, Zhou Ning’s cellphone rang. He answered right away.
"This is Zhou Ning!"
"Hmm, this is the lab. The toxicology test you requested—I’ve done six extractions. In the dead skin under Wang Wenjing’s fingernails, I found Diphacinone, which matches completely in composition and properties with the toxins and impurities extracted from the deceased’s blood.
Additionally, we were fortunate on the metal hammer; on the fibers extracted from it, we found a male DNA. After comparison, it matches with the ones previously submitted for Chen Chunxi. So, can our lab close now?"
Zhou Ning was quite embarrassed. Although Cui Lili’s attitude was still cold, she was the one getting the work done. She wasn’t there to please anyone—having to work overtime was more than enough to keep her temper.
"Thank you, Mrs. Cui. You all head off work now. I won’t be sending anymore tests today!"
Mr. Zhao took a sharp breath, not knowing quite how to contain his excitement.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, we don’t have the report in hand. Shall I go fetch it?"
As they were talking, Zhou Ning’s phone beeped a few more times, and he received the lab report by email. Mr. Zhao ran off with a smile, knowing where to get it printed without needing instructions.
Zhou Ning patted his chest and pressed the call button.
"Xu Da, could you come out for a moment? We’ve got feedback from all the investigations, and we guessed right!"
Zhou Ning’s ’guessed right’ made Xu Dayuan unconsciously raise an eyebrow and stand up, handing Chen Chunxi a tissue.
"Try to control your emotions for now, we’ll continue in a bit," he said.
Having said that, Xu Dayuan quickly left the room, followed by the clerk. The large interrogation room was then left with only Chen Chunxi and Wang Mengmeng. Wang Mengmeng still had her head down, but her hand was already reaching out to Chen Chunxi, pulling a tissue from in front of him.
At the same time, their gazes exchanged a communication; Chen Chunxi pursed his lips, the comforting look from earlier gone from his face, replaced by a hint of warning in his eyes. Wang Mengmeng hurriedly covered her face with the tissue.
This series of subtle movements, if not looked at closely, would’ve gone completely unnoticed. But Mr. Zhao didn’t blink, observing the whole scene.
"Chen Chunxi is warning Wang Mengmeng, he seems very dissatisfied with her performance. Did you see that? Did you see that? I think they must have rehearsed earlier, or perhaps they analyzed the possible situations. It’s just that things have gone beyond their expectations now."
Xu Dayuan glanced at the one-way mirror, a bit annoyed by Mr. Zhao’s bluster.
"We’re not blind; we saw it. Zhou Xiaozhou, tell us what you found," he said.
Zhou Ning hurriedly shared the details of two phone calls and the test results, prompting a look of surprise on Xu Dayuan’s face.
"Zhang Guanglei and Sun Manqing had breakfast together by chance—quite the coincidence. But finding Chen Chunxi’s DNA on the murder weapon, that’s solid evidence. It seems he had been tailing Zhang Guanglei, only how did he catch up to him?"
Zhou Ning and Mr. Zhao both shook their heads and then Zhou Ning looked toward Chen Chunxi inside the interrogation room.
"For this, perhaps we should ask Chen Chunxi."
Xu Dayuan flipped through his phone, locating the photos Mr. Zeng had previously sent, and looked through them again.
"Yesterday, Mr. Zeng pulled their call records. At 7:44, Sun Manqing received a call from Yu Meili. This matches Sun Manqing’s actions in the video. He left a bit after Zhang Guanglei. I think he must have seen the person following Zhang Guanglei and wanted to catch up to see what was happening."
Zhou Ning nodded, recalling from the video how Sun Manqing looked in Zhang Guanglei’s direction after seeing him leave, then got delayed by a phone call for two minutes before he walked toward the side of the road, eventually going out of the surveillance area.
"The traces of Diphacinone found under Wang Wenjing’s fingernails can be evidence of her poisoning Zhang Guanglei, but I still want to check out Zhang Guanglei’s home. If she’s been poisoning him for such a long time, Wang Wenjing must have been very secretive. If we find this, I think they won’t have anything left to hide."
Xu Dayuan looked at his watch, noting that it was now 18:49, then nodded, placing a hand on Zhou Ning’s shoulder.
"I won’t waste time on pleasantries. I’ll start interrogating Chen Chunxi right away. Call me if there’s news on your side."
Mr. Zhao also stood up and came over.
"I’ll come with you. We have too few forensic technicians; they’re barely enough."
Zhou Ning shook his head; indeed, they were short-staffed, but they lacked people who were actually willing to work. He had met enough forensic technicians in the city bureau’s technical department—old, middle-aged, and young—but not many of them were truly committed to working on cases, especially since criminal cases were already a weak area for the city bureau. Anything slightly challenging, and they would think about consulting experts from the province.
"Let’s go then," he concluded.
Having said this, Zhou Ning dragged Mr. Zhao out. Mr. Zeng, appearing from nowhere, hurried over upon seeing them.
"Xu Da asked me to go with you to Zhang Guanglei’s home. Are we going now?"
Zhou Ning nodded, and without further ado, they quickly got into the car and drove to Zhang Guanglei’s home.
The police on duty at the door let them in. The room was filled with a musty smell, indicating that the deceased was not very tidy. They turned on the light and saw that the cleanest part of the room was probably the kitchen, suggesting Zhang Guanglei rarely cooked.
Because the kitchen’s trash can was filled with takeout containers, the cupboards were bare, and the white rags were as stiff as dried fish.
Mr. Zhao hurried over, glanced at Zhou Ning, and then put on gloves, just like Zhou Ning.
"Where should we start?"
