Free Web NovelChapter 507: Chapter 478 Shadow_1
Zhou Ning let out a sigh of relief—having someone willing to speak out was the best evidence.
Upon entering the room, Zhou Ning and Fang Mu sat on chairs, the woman and the teenager sat opposite them. The woman sighed and it took her a long while to say:
"It’s not that we refuse to talk; we were warned that if we spoke out of turn, we would bear the consequences. This is our only child; it’s not that we’re unwilling to cooperate, but we truly are afraid."
Fang Mu nodded.
"We understand."
Zhou Ning thought for a moment, then sent a message to Zhou Xiaoyu asking, essentially, since there was a witness being threatened and unable to attend school locally in Xinghua City, could they arrange for the child to attend high school under the name of the Public Security Bureau?
Zhou Xiaoyu replied almost instantly, saying she happened to be in the principal’s office. She showed the message to the principal, who said that there was no problem; the student could directly transfer their registration—they would be accepted unconditionally and accommodations would be provided.
This result pleased Zhou Ning greatly. He expressed his thanks and handed his phone to the woman for her to see.
"I just got in touch with Qindao No. 2 Middle School; that’s our joint construction unit. The principal has stated that your son can transfer there. I think this way, you won’t have any further concerns, right?"
The woman was stunned, finding it hard to believe at first. She wiped her hands before taking the phone to read carefully. No need for anyone to explain what kind of place the Second Middle School was; people would crack their heads just for a chance to be picked. And here were the special task force officers arranging it all with a single text message. Evidently, these people really were extraordinary.
The woman clenched her teeth and stood up to bow deeply to Zhou Ning.
"Thank you so much, officer. It’s not that we didn’t want to talk; we truly were afraid. That morning when the incident occurred, when the police from 110 came over, the officers went to inspect the scene across the way. I told the police that I’d seen someone go upstairs that night.
But the officer just glanced at me, didn’t even open his notebook, then gestured towards someone behind him, and a man in plain clothes came in, grabbed my hand, and twisted it behind my back. I felt like my arm was about to break. He asked me to think carefully about what I saw.
With such intimidation, how could I dare say anything? I immediately said I saw nothing, that the child had come home and gone straight to sleep, slept very soundly, even taken sleeping pills. Only then did that person let go of my arm, and after lingering in my apartment for a bit, he came out of my son’s room with a paper in his hand.
He tore off the part that had the class and name written on it, tucked it into his pocket, then smiled at me—a truly chilling smile. He said he knew my son’s class and name now and that if I said one word too much, I would be responsible for the consequences, and that I should prepare myself for the same outcome as Jiahong across the door."
Mr. Zhao’s eyes blazed with anger as he pulled out his phone, scrolling through to find a photo, which he then handed to the woman.
"Big sister, see if the policeman who was at the scene is this guy?"
The woman took one look and nodded immediately.
"It’s him. I heard people calling him Chief Zheng from the window. I don’t know which police station he’s from."
Mr. Zhao quickly found a group photo from Zhuquan Police Station, which Mr. Qu had retrieved the day before. He continued to show the phone to the woman, smiling slightly to ease her tension.
"Don’t be nervous, big sister. Take a good look at this group photo. Is the man who threatened you, the one who twisted your arm, in here?"
Mr. Zhao zoomed in the picture and moved it around until, upon spotting someone in the back row, the woman shuddered and then pointed shakily at the photo:
"Him, it’s him, he’s the one who threatened me. He’s also the one who tore up my son’s paper. I even kept the rest of that test paper; give me a moment to remember where I put it?"
With that, she almost sprang up from the chair and rushed into the bedroom. Soon she returned with a document bag, which she handed to Zhou Ning—trust in him had been secured by his recent actions.
Zhou Ning put on gloves, untied the string on the document bag, and pulled out the test paper. Indeed, a quarter of it was missing, with crease marks along the edge. He carefully put the test paper away and passed it to Mr. Zhao, who quickly labeled the bag.
Only then did Fang Mu continue with his questions:
"Big sister, please tell us in detail what exactly did you see that night?"
The woman’s gaze grew firmer as she thought for a moment, then spoke hastily:
"I remember clearly, it was March 28. My husband left early in the morning to drive the big truck to Luo River. My son finishes school at 9:50 PM. He arrived home exceptionally late that night, saying the teacher had held them late and discussed the test papers, so many students kept asking questions. By the time he got home, it was already 10:30 PM.
They say teenage boys can eat you out of house and home, and sure enough, as soon as he arrived, he started complaining of hunger. I made him kutza soup and boiled some prawns and fried some eggs, and he devoured all of it in one go. After all that fuss, it was quite late, and I didn’t want to let him go straight to bed, so we both sat down in the living room to relax.
But to save electricity, only the bathroom light was on, all others having been turned off earlier. At that moment, footsteps came from the staircase, as though several people were passing by. I thought someone from upstairs was returning home—odd, even later than my son.
However, after going upstairs, these people seemed to stop in the hallway. I quickly motioned for my son to shut the bathroom door. I stood in front of the wooden door, looking through the peephole. Only the light on the first floor was on in the hallway, so I could only see a few shadows hiding on the second floor.
I was terrified at the time. My son came over, and I covered his mouth. Right then, I heard footsteps in the stairwell again, but this time they were brisk. A figure flashed by—probably Jiahong coming back. She seemed to be wringing out her clothes as she went upstairs, with the sound of water dripping."
When we got to their door, I was about to go inside when those shadowy figures darted out. I was frightened and wanted to cry out to stop them, but looking at my son, I held back. One of the men said, "Drop the keys and come play with us, or we’ll go in and kill your mother!"
Jiahong didn’t resist or say a word. Instead, she just let out a clatter as she dropped the keys between the two doors and was dragged upstairs by one of the shadows. The man was more than a head taller than Jiahong, and their footsteps faded into the distance. At that moment, I was petrified.
My son said, "Let’s call the police." I hesitated, because there was no noise from upstairs, no sound of doors opening or closing. I didn’t know if those people had gone to the rooftop or into someone else’s apartment. How could I call the police? What would I tell them when they arrived?
I know my child meant well, but society doesn’t work on goodwill alone. I’ve seen too much of this, especially here in Xinghua..."
The woman didn’t continue, already beginning to cry. The teenager supported her arm, and Zhou Ning knew she was full of regret. If only she had called the police then, Jiahong might have been saved, but even that was just a possibility.
Fang Mu was very composed as he continued to question the woman:
"So after that, you didn’t hear any other noises and just went to rest?"
The woman nodded.
"Actually, not long after, I thought I saw some kind of shadow flicker past the window to the south. I didn’t pay much attention, thinking it was a crow or something. Since everything was quiet, and my child needed to go to school, I urged him to sleep. I listened for a while and thought I heard the sound of a door closing. After all, no matter how careful you are with these old-fashioned security doors, they still make a lot of noise.
Then there really was no more noise, so I went to rest. I thought I heard someone going up and down the stairs in the middle of the night, but it wasn’t clear. Around five in the morning, I heard someone scream from the north side. I immediately sensed something was wrong and rushed to the window, only to see the doorman and a few elderly people who were out for morning exercises gathering below. Then someone called the police, saying a girl had jumped from a building."
Zhou Ning glanced at his notebook, which was filled with various data from the autopsy report. Jiahong stood at 168 centimeters tall. For the man to be more than a head taller, he must be over 188 centimeters.
But according to the household registration information, neither of the Zhu Family’s sons were that tall. So, the person who coerced Jiahong wasn’t one of these two?
For a moment, Zhou Ning was confused, but Fang Mu was truly insightful, having already grasped the crux of the matter.
"Big sister, you said you heard that man speak. If you heard their voices again, could you recognize them?"
The woman shook her head.
"I was too scared at the time to pay attention. I just remember his voice was very gruff, but I don’t remember anything else."
The teenager chimed in:
"I heard it too, and I can recognize it."
The woman instinctively reached out to pull the teenager back but extended her hand awkwardly towards Fang Mu and Zhou Ning with a look of worry. Everyone understood the gesture, so Fang Mu quickly reassured them.
"Don’t worry, we’re not asking you to identify the killer directly. If we find the suspects, we will record their voices for you to recognize."
The woman breathed a sigh of relief, but the teenager stood up, as if he had thought of something, and said excitedly:
"I remember in crime shows, if someone touches something, they can leave DNA, right? Can you do that too?"
The woman pulled her son’s hand, trying to stop his wild talk.
"Don’t talk nonsense, child. The officers have other things to do." freewebnovel.cσ๓
The teenager pulled his hand away from his mother and opened the wooden door, pointing at the security door across the way:
"When my mom was covering my mouth, I sneaked a peek out through the peephole. The tall guy pulling my schoolmate banged his head on the security door across from us, right at the top there."
Mr. Zhao quickly went out to follow up, finding the spot indicated by the teenager and starting to take samples. Zhou Ning and Fang Mu stood up, the woman still obviously hesitant, which was understandable, given the previous threat. The promise from Zhou Ning didn’t seem as reliable as keeping silent.
However, this identification was already a significant lead, almost matching Zhou Ning’s previous deductions.
By now, Mr. Zhao had finished collecting samples, and Fang Mu gestured to the sister that they were about to leave. Zhou Ning was the last to walk out, with the woman’s contact details and various information about the teenager written in his notebook.
"I’ll call you later to arrange the transfer to another school. Also, I have a question, not as a police officer. He Hongjian came to see you after the incident, didn’t he?"
The woman nodded.
"I didn’t say anything, really. I was too scared to. After all, I had already been threatened by the police. If the police themselves say this, what can I do? There’s a saying, ’even a mighty dragon can’t crush a local snake.’"
