Free Web NovelChapter 448: Chapter 422: The Arrogant Former Younger Uncle_1
Xu Dayuan glanced at Mr. Zhao and shook his head slightly, saying:
"Mr. Bai went to Dayao City last night and just sent a message. After investigation, it was found that Zhang Wannian’s parents don’t contact him much. It’s just that their son is studying at a local school and comes back to his grandparents’ home every two weeks for the weekend break. There is a driver to pick him up and a nanny to take care of him.
His ex-wife Zhang Mei, I also asked her peers in the provincial city. She divorced Zhang Wannian at the end of 2011. According to what Zhang Mei said, they had no feelings left, each was busy with their own affairs, and they barely saw each other even once a year. The ex-wife has opened over a dozen chain restaurants in the provincial city and is very busy with her business.
When they divorced, they each kept their own property, after all, both had almost the same amount of assets, and even the ex-wife was a bit more formidable. Their daughter wanted to stay with her mother, Zhang Mei, so there wasn’t much fuss.
According to Zhang Mei, their relationship wasn’t like that of a couple but more like colleagues who fought the world together. Having children was just fulfilling a task. Both were good at managing businesses, hardly seeing each other during the year. As for whether there were any third parties, or whether Zhang Wannian had anyone else outside, Zhang Mei did not care. After all, she had others too.
We mentioned that Zhang Wannian had liver cancer and had surgery and rested in Qindao for almost a year. She looked very surprised, as if she had no idea about Zhang Wannian’s recent condition. Their son, Zhang Chunhao, Zhang Mei came to visit him once a month, always bringing something for the grandparents, who seemed to favor her a bit more than Zhang Wannian.
Regarding Zhang Wannian’s social relationships, he hardly had any friends. You wouldn’t see this man involved in any activities in Dayao City. However, he did well in the agricultural products sector. Their company mainly exported to Sapporo with very strict standards, and the orders were very stable.
The company’s management simply involved timely transfers, and as for any donations and various charitable activities, he never participated, only taking responsibility for the tuition fees of more than forty children in his home village. The payment method was quite peculiar: the students used their report cards to collect various fees for the next year, with better grades resulting in more rewards," Xu Dayuan said.
Liu Yongxin was somewhat surprised. He had seen many people in the business world, but this man was quite interesting, spending his money where he could see it’s used.
"Indeed, he’s quite dedicated. That’s really someone who wants to help the children," Liu Yongxin commented.
Xu Dayuan nodded, also feeling somewhat moved.
"Indeed, the investigation in Dayao City was very efficient. They even helped by visiting the neighbors and nearby businesses. However, before he became ill, Zhang Wannian gave the impression of being a man who, without saying much, focused solely on his business, without any bad habits or interests, and was indifferent towards his family.
But for the children in his village, he was genuinely kind. He had been rewarding them with this report card system for fifteen years, and the villagers all remembered his kindness. He only finished junior high, but after starting his business, he learned foreign languages from a tutor; his Japanese and English are both very fluent.
As for classmates and friends, Zhang Wannian had no contact at all; those who sought him out were either looking to borrow money or trying to get something off him. He didn’t visit his parents often, just arranged for their care, gave them money regularly, and went there for the holidays. That was the extent of their interaction.
In terms of company management, it has developed very stably over the years. He dealt with letters of credit and Telegraphic Transfer settlements, with no debts or loans, and his clients were quite stable, having cooperated with large companies for many years.
We’ve got his cell phone call records. Just like what that driver Wang Kaitao said, this man had very little contact with the outside world. The last call he made was to the front desk of the sanatorium, and his fixed contacts were only hotels, restaurants, doctors, and nurses.
After checking everything, Zhang Mei’s brother seems to be a bit unusual. Named Zhang Song, he’s into eating, drinking, prostitution, gambling, and drugs, truly a playboy. After the death of Zhang Mei’s parents, she cut off relations with him. In just a few years, he squandered all the family’s money and occasionally received some help from Zhang Wannian.
After they divorced, Zhang Song went to Zhang Wannian’s company to make a scene a few times. Initially, Zhang Wannian gave him something, but later, thinking it was too little, Zhang Song beat up the company’s accountant. He was pretty shameless, claiming that whether they divorced or not, as his brother-in-law, Zhang Wannian was supposed to support him for life.
At that time, the company’s representative reported the incident to the police. It seems to have happened before Zhang Wannian’s surgery. Zhang Wannian told them to handle it, and Zhang Song was detained for fifteen days and fined two thousand yuan. As for the assault on Zhang Wannian’s financial staff, Zhang Wannian compensated them.
But after this kid got out, he started causing trouble again. The management company reported him to the police twice more later on, but there was no footage caught on surveillance, just Zhang Wannian’s company’s glass and vehicles being smashed. Zhang Wannian told people not to pursue it, and the matter was dropped.
Mr. Bai wanted to find Zhang Song but couldn’t locate him despite trying. According to the neighbors, Zhang Song swore that he’d get back at Zhang Wannian, blaming him for having an affair which was why they divorced and why he wouldn’t take care of Zhang Song. However, this man hadn’t returned home since after the eleventh. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
I’ve already retrieved Zhang Song’s information and initiated a full search. Surprisingly, on December 1, 2012, we found footage of Zhang Song in the surveillance video from the restaurant opposite the sanatorium. He drove there after ten o’clock and had a quick meal.
After staying for twenty minutes, he left quickly. At that time, Zhang Song was wearing a black suit and a baseball cap. It was only when a waiter lifted the door curtain and accidentally knocked off his cap that his face was captured on camera. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have noticed this video. I’ve already issued a request for assistance in finding him, but there’s no information on him staying at any hotels."
With this introduction, Zhang Wannian can be described as quite a perfect person, without any enmity. So why was he killed?
Could it really be the somewhat juvenile former brother-in-law, Zhang Song?
Some not-so-deep grudges, neighbor’s testimonies, the anger of being detained, and the behavior of appearing near the sea cure at a special time are indeed somewhat suspicious.
Of course, some suspects are beyond reason and could kill or injure someone over a single sentence, as long as it doesn’t align with their own psychological expectations, it becomes an excuse for vengeance, especially this one who has been away from home for several days without any hotel check-in information, is indeed suspicious.
Xu Dayuan showed Zhou Ning a photo, not of an ID card, but of an administrative detention, with Zhang Song’s sullen face, a height of 179 displayed above, a face full of fleshy folds, a not small build, not old in age, but with eye bags that seemed bigger than the eyes themselves.
Just by looking at his face, Zhang Song does not seem like a good sort, and now that he’s untraceable, the suspicion has increased a lot; even playboys must have some sort of income, and with his parents no longer around, it seems he had always relied on his sister and brother-in-law. Now that his sister is no longer looking after him and the relation with his brother-in-law has ceased, it wouldn’t be unlikely for him to become desperate.
He flipped a page and continued:
"Let’s talk about Liu Xiangrui now. The company he set up was purely a personal hobby. He studied tourism and opened his first travel equipment store shortly after graduating. After making his fortune, he started a company.
The outdoor equipment he sold, apart from some common brands, mainly included items produced by his company’s commissioned factories. They have their own design team and with their own direct stores and online shops, their sales profits are quite substantial.
His phone call records have also been checked, with a bit more inside. The last call was made on November 24, 2012, at 7:40 am, when he called the company finance to request a transfer of 100,000 to his personal account. As for other contacts, they were all from various departments of the company.
Liu Xiangrui’s parents have died, and many distant relatives are abroad, all in business, with almost no contact. The very similar point to Zhang Wanian is that he is also not a person with many enemies, nor does he have any debts for goods.
As for the trekking club, it’s managed by one of their company’s deputy general managers, a person named Sun Nan, and I was about to send someone to meet with this person. Qindao Area has sent over some screenshots, all from various trekking QQ groups and WeChat groups that he manages.
Every month, they organize activities in different places, and each province and city has their own branch club. As for the Qindao Area, there’s a group, and Liu Xiangrui is also in this group. Of course, nobody uses their real names in the group, and the names are all bizarre and varied.
Every month they organize various activities including mountain hiking, scuba diving, skydiving, and cycling. The group is not small, gathering people from all walks of life. I’d like to have Mr. Qu sift through these people to see if there’s any number registered with Zhang Wannian’s phone number?"
While saying this, Xu Dayuan tore a piece of paper from his notebook and asked Liu Yufei to pass it to Mr. Qu. On it were two mobile phone numbers and an ID number.
Mr. Qu glanced at it and began tapping away quickly. Zhou Ning set down the report in her hands; there’s not much that can be done now, everything has to wait for the test results before making any judgments.
Thinking about it, she then said to Xu Dayuan,
"So, it seems that both Liu Xiangrui and Zhang Wannian disappeared in the last few days of November 2012, but no one thinks there’s anything wrong with their disappearance, or it could be understood as, such disappearances for them could be frequent occurrences?"
Liu Yufei nodded her head.
"I think so too. Besides, their simultaneous disappearances might be related to activities organized by the club. However, we haven’t been able to contact this Sun Nan, who’s supposedly busy filming a promotional film, recommending the company’s new products for spring.
Zhang Wannian and Liu Xiangrui, these two don’t seem to have any connection. From their phone records, there are no calls to each other, and people from the outdoor equipment company have also screenshot the contact group chats from the club, but they’re not WeChat friends and haven’t spoken, so how did they contact each other?"
Everyone fell silent, this was the puzzle that had always perplexed them; two seemingly unrelated individuals, now it seems they might have crossed paths through the trekking club, but how did they get in touch with each other?
Leaning forward with her elbow resting on her knee, Liu Yufei spoke up,
"I checked the registration information at the sea cure, and there’s no record of Liu Xiangrui having stayed there. The property search also revealed that Liu Xiangrui hasn’t purchased any property in Qindao."
At this moment, Mr. Zhao came over, looked at the photos on the table, and picked up one of the pictures of Zhang Wannian’s room to examine it.
"To my knowledge, the sea cure is comprised of individual small villas, and Zhang Wannian probably stayed in a suite. These are all built along the coastline according to the terrain, scattered and orderly, with rich vegetation, and surveillance can’t capture details closely. If a car were to enter with one or two extra people, I suppose the front desk here wouldn’t pay much attention, would they?"
