Free Web NovelChapter 292: Chapter 287: The Man Who Visited at Night_1
"Cut it out and bring out the safe already." frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
"Sure thing!"
Mr. Zhao carried the safe out with a smile, calling out cadences to boost his own spirit under the weight.
At such commotion, Xu Dayuan briskly entered the room. Seeing the dismantled bookcase and the safe in Mr. Zhao’s hands, Xu Dayuan’s eyes lit up—finding something meant progress.
"Found it inside the bookcase?"
"Yeah, it was embedded in the wall when the house was built. However, the safe requires both a code and a key. There are bloodstains on the handle and combination lock; we’ll only know if it’s the deceased’s after testing.
Someone with the key, who knew the code, and was aware of the whereabouts of the safe. According to what the village chief just said, the house was built in 1983, and the construction team at that time also knew about the safe’s location.
However, it seems only the family knew the key and code. Additionally, Mr. Wang’s parents appeared to have died suddenly in a car accident during the Spring Festival of 2009. I wonder if Wang Hongzhan had seen them for the last time or if they had left any instructions?"
Xu Dayuan kept nodding.
"The Wang Family doesn’t have any close relatives. I just asked around, and starting from Grandpa Wang’s generation, they only had one child per generation. When their family was persecuted, all distant relatives distanced themselves, and afterward, there wasn’t any contact. That’s also why the Wangs were so insistent on Ho Dongmei having children."
As he spoke, he turned his head and gestured for Mr. Bai to call the village chief in.
Shortly after, the village chief followed Mr. Bai into the room and halted at the doorway, hardly daring to move at the sight of the disarray on the ground.
"Chief, ask you something. You said that Mr. Wang’s parents suddenly died in a car accident during the Spring Festival of 2009. Did Wang Hongzhan see them for the last time?"
The village chief quickly nodded.
"I remember it clearly. That year, Wang Hongzhan returned the day after Little New Year’s Day and even brought specialities for a few of us who were close. My wife often lent a hand at the Wang house, so she always visited earlier every year, usually bringing milk or beer along, but it wasn’t a bribe, of course.
On the 29th of the twelfth lunar month in 2009, early in the morning, Mr. Wang’s parents went to pay respects to their ancestors. Wang Hongzhan and his wife were supposed to go with them but were stopped just outside by Sister-in-law Zhang from the eastern courtyard to talk about their grandson’s college entrance. Mr. Wang’s parents told them to stay and give some advice.
After the older couple left, they didn’t return even after an hour. Concerned, Wang Hongzhan and his wife drove out to look for them. The Wang family cemetery is close to a pond near Shanxi Village and a village road. It’s positioned on an incline, beside the mountain and water.
Upon arriving, they discovered that the older couple had been hit by a car and were too badly injured to transport by themselves. Wang Hongzhan immediately called the emergency services, but by the time they reached the hospital, they had passed away. As to whether they left any instructions, I’m not sure. The accident was shocking to us all right before New Year’s Eve, and that part of the road lacked surveillance and was a dead end, with the hit-and-run vehicle never being found."
Zhou Ning looked at Xu Dayuan—the more the scene was investigated, the more they suspected Wang Hongzhan. Xu Dayuan gestured for Mr. Bai to escort the village chief out before directly informing Zhang Chunbo of the recent findings.
Zhang Chunbo was in shock. After all, he vividly remembered the state Wang Hongzhan was in when Ho Dongmei and the child had the accident because he witnessed it himself.
"How could it be him? His own child... How could he bring himself to do it?"
Zhou Ning did not join their conversation, instead instructing Mr. Zhao to collect traces from the safe and to send all samples from the scene for rapid testing. After all, everything had to be based on evidence. The only regret was that all fingerprints found at the scene were from latex gloves.
The murderer was very cautious and calm, managing to think of all this before entering or perhaps even before the murder, seemingly having planned everything meticulously. Could a father really bring himself to harm his own son?
Thinking of this, Zhou Ning looked up at Bai Hua, who had just walked in and seemed puzzled by Zhou Ning’s gaze.
"Doctor Bai, did we take Wang Hongzhan’s blood and fingerprint samples at the time?"
"We collected his fingerprints, but no blood samples. His physical condition was really bad at the time, and since Ho Dongmei and Wang Jiahan had already done a DNA comparison, we didn’t do his. It was Zhang Da’s decision."
Zhou Ning remained silent, leaving it to Xu Dayuan to make the decisions necessary.
Xu Dayuan’s expression turned severe—well aware of Zhang Chunbo’s emotional nature.
"Issue a request for assistance. Have the police station in Shen City, where Wang Hongzhan resides, bring him in for questioning somewhere else, right here, right now. Take a blood sample for DNA testing and have them send us the results!"
Zhang Chunbo knew Xu Dayuan was in a hurry and, without wasting words, walked outside while dialing the phone.
Mr. Zhao and the team still had a series of detailed tasks to perform. Zhou Ning approached Xu Dayuan.
"Did that Dazhuang’s wife come by?"
Xu Dayuan nodded.
"She confirmed the specific date; indeed, Dazhuang left on August 17, 2011. After Ho Hongmei returned to the Wang Family with her child, their son started taking extra lessons with her, and Dazhuang frequently visited the Wangs to help repair the house and tidy up the yard, which irritated his wife, Zhu Xiaohui.
Zhu Xiaohui didn’t hide anything; she spilled everything, and due to this, they had a few arguments. However, their son indeed became more disciplined and could solve many problems on his own after studying with Ho Dongmei for a while, so Zhu Xiaohui didn’t complain any further."
The Wang Family had an incident, and they were all terrified. Zhu Xiaohui hurried Jiao Dazhuang to leave quickly, as this person seemed carefree and likely wasn’t lying."
As they were speaking, someone stretched out their head to look in through the main gate. Xu Dayuan glanced over and quickly went outside; Zhou Ning followed. A chubby woman with a yellow headscarf stood in front of the door, stopped by Mr. Zeng.
Xu Dayuan waved his hand, signaling Mr. Zeng to let her come over.
"Zhu Xiaohui, what brings you here?"
So this was Zhu Xiaohui. Zhou Ning couldn’t help but size her up, remembering the information they looked up earlier; Zhu Xiaohui was 34 years old, but she seemed slightly older than her actual age.
Zhu Xiaohui pursed her lips, hesitant, with something on her mind. Xu Dayuan waved his hand.
"Come, Zhu Xiaohui, let’s talk in the yard. Don’t worry, whatever thoughts you have or anything you remember, you can share with me."
Zhu Xiaohui nodded and followed Xu Dayuan into the yard, glancing at Zhou Ning. She bit her lip as if she had made up her mind and said,
"They say death is significant, and I shouldn’t gossip, but I still wanted to share something with you, the police. In early August, on a day I can’t exactly recall, my partner came home quite late, around eight o’clock.
I was scolding him from behind for a while, and he didn’t retort, which was completely unlike him. I got closer and saw that my partner seemed distracted. I slapped him in my agitation, and that’s when he came to his senses and asked what I was doing. I asked him what had happened to him – if he’d left his soul at the seductress’s place.
My partner cursed at me, saying he was helping the Wang Family tidy up their courtyard. After flipping the tiles, the courtyard was very dirty with broken tiles everywhere. The children have classes there, and when they come out to play, it’s easy for them to get hurt.
I said since he went anyway, I had nothing more to say, but why did he come back with such a long face? He replied it was nothing, it wasn’t related to me. It was just that while he was working at the Wang Family’s place and almost done, he heard Mr. Wang’s Daughter-in-law on the phone with someone, telling them not to come over now, and that someone was fixing things at home, and to come after nine o’clock instead."
"Mr. Wang’s Daughter-in-law, you mean Ho Dongmei?"
Zhu Xiaohui nodded, looking a bit embarrassed.
"It’s how we refer to people in the village – we call them someone’s daughter-in-law, as we can’t always remember their full names. I haven’t finished yet. When my partner heard someone was coming over to their house, he quickly gathered the trash, told Mr. Wang’s Daughter-in-law he had to come back with a cart tomorrow because it was too late, and then he left.
He hadn’t walked far when he saw car headlights coming from the east. My partner quickly stepped aside to clear the path, but that car didn’t pass by. Instead, it turned into the alley next to the east wall of the Wang Family’s courtyard. He heard the sound of a car door closing and then saw a man with two bags of stuff walking straight into the Wang Family’s yard.
My partner said the man wasn’t particularly tall, chubby and looked quite stout. He had a very different build from Wang Hongzhan’s skinny frame. After that, the Wang Family’s main gate closed, and he went straight home. He asked me if he should mention this to Wang Hongzhan.
I told him it’s better to mind our own business. Wang Hongzhan and Ho Dongmei are educated people who return to the village to give extra lessons. Their character isn’t a problem, so we shouldn’t make assumptions based on rumors. Maybe it was just a friend or relative dropping things off, and it would be awkward to bring it up.
Little did we know, not long after, the Wang Family had their incident. We were so shocked by the event that we forgot about it. If you hadn’t asked if there was anything else we wanted to bring up, I wouldn’t have thought to mention it.
After all, since Mr. Wang’s Daughter-in-law has passed away and the dead deserve respect, don’t think I’m gossiping and trying to smear the deceased’s name. If I did that, I wouldn’t be able to face anyone in this village again."
"Your partner didn’t recognize that person?"
Zhu Xiaohui shook her head.
"He looked closely but didn’t recognize him. He’s sure the person isn’t from Jiaotuan Village. He just said the man was not very tall, chubby, and looked about thirty years old."
"Give me Jiao Dazhuang’s phone number. I’ll contact him later. It’s commendable that you took the initiative to come to us with this information, and you’re very conscientious. If you think of anything else later, you can tell me – this is my mobile number."
As he spoke, Xu Dayuan wrote down a phone number, tore it off, and handed it to Zhu Xiaohui. She also left Jiao Dazhuang’s number and then quickly departed, understandably not wanting to get entangled with the investigation.
By this time, Zhang Chunbo had returned.
"The request for cooperation has been issued, and our colleagues from Shen City have already set out to find Wang Hongzhan. They will contact me as soon as they find him."
Xu Dayuan nodded.
"I remember at the case briefing meeting, you mentioned that the surveillance cameras around Jiaotuan Village were copied for a month. Send those to Mr. Zeng, and we’ll head back."
Zhang Chunbo hastily said,
"What about the children who participated in the tutoring? Especially Wang Guangliang, Jiao Tinglong, and Li Zhenxue – won’t you go to their homes to ask around?"
Xu Dayuan pondered for a moment. There weren’t many traces left at the scene now, and all the blood fingerprints had prints from latex gloves. Such thoughtfulness was hard for youngsters to exhibit, especially in dealing with safes and password locks. Even if they had broken in, it would be incredibly difficult for them to handle them, unless they were like Mr. Zhao, who managed to dismantle the safe.
"Let’s head back first. We’ll find someone to open the safe, and everything awaits the inspection of the safe. Besides, today is Friday, and these teenagers are still in school. If we need to meet them, we can make another trip tomorrow or the day after. Let’s go!"
Just then, Mr. Zhao’s shout came through.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, hurry up and look what I found!"
