Free Web NovelChapter 96: Chapter 96: I’ll Be There in Five Minutes_1
Ten minutes later.
Zhou Ning arrived at the third floor of the staff dormitory building. Liu Yongxin was waiting on the second floor; they hadn’t checked this floor yet. After all, Cui Guanglin was not very noticable, and they were also searching for Zhou Xiaoyu here.
Seeing Zhou Ning come up, he quickly followed upstairs. There was no one in the dormitory.
"Open the door; let’s check inside," said Zhou Ning.
The guard’s face wore an embarrassed expression as he spread his hands and said,
"It’s not that we’re unwilling to cooperate. The keys to the teachers’ dormitories are all in their personal possession. Just now, this gentleman checked, and we had to find someone to open each door for us."
Liu Yongxin nodded in agreement.
"I checked several dormitories downstairs. We need to contact the teachers to open the doors. But everyone is in the multi-function hall, so I didn’t manage to find Cui Guanglin’s dormitory."
"How many teachers stay in this room?"
Zhou Ning glanced and saw that there were two bunk beds in the dormitory. Judging by the setup, there were blankets on three of the beds, indicating, besides Cui Guanglin, two other teachers lived here.
As he was speaking, a male teacher came over holding a key and said,
"I have a key!"
Zhou Ning glanced at him; this was the teacher they had encountered in the chemistry research room earlier.
"We need to check first. If there are any dangerous items hidden, finding them would be safer for you as well," Zhou Ning explained.
The teacher chuckled. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
"I understand," he said, and with that, he opened the door. Zhou Ning and Mr. Zhao carried their inspection kits into the room, where some liquid had been spilled on the floor, bubbling around the edges. Zhou Ning kneeled down, not rushing to step over. Instead, he stopped Mr. Zhao and picked up a test strip to sample the liquid.
As soon as the test strip touched the liquid, it carbonized instantly, turning a pitch-black color. The teacher covered his mouth and let out a cry of surprise.
"Sulfuric acid, this is concentrated sulfuric acid!" he exclaimed.
Zhou Ning nodded. The chemistry teacher was certainly impressive; he could guess the substance just by looking at it.
However, the area covered by the spill wasn’t large. Zhou Ning looked towards the source and saw a brown glass bottle shattered in the corner of the room. It was clear that the sulfuric acid had spilled out when the bottle fell. The fact that such a thing could be found in a dormitory made Zhou Ning a bit apprehensive.
"Mr. Zhao, find the special evidence box and pick up the bottle fragments. Be careful not to touch the liquid, and don’t let your gloves come into contact with it either."
Mr. Zhao’s flesh twitched as he swiftly came over and packed the fragments into a glass box, cautiously putting the lid on afterward.
"Which bed and cabinet belong to Cui Guanglin?" Zhou Ning inquired.
The male teacher pointed to a bed by the window and said,
"That bed over there, the cabinet and desk by the window are his."
Zhou Ning walked over. The bed was impeccably tidy, not a hair out of place, and not even a wrinkle on the bedsheet. He lifted the mattress; nothing was hidden underneath. The cabinet was equally empty, containing only a washbasin with toothpaste, a toothbrush, and soap in it.
Zhou Ning was not convinced. A broken bottle of sulfuric acid lay near the door, apparently left in haste, and yet the place was so clean. Could someone have come and disturbed him?
No, there had to be something they were missing.
But the room was only so big, and everything was clearly visible. Zhou Ning glanced outside the window, opened it, and the north wind gushed in fast. Mr. Zhao approached from behind.
"There’s nothing here. Could he have just been hiding in here for three hours after locking up Xiaoyu? What would be the point in that?" Mr. Zhao puzzled aloud.
Zhou Ning did not reply. He stepped forward to the window’s edge and poked half of his body out. That’s when he noticed a plastic bag hanging on the edge of the decorative railing outside the window. A thought struck Zhou Ning, and he braced himself against the windowsill to climb up to the window.
Mr. Zhao dared not speak out, promptly going over to stabilize Zhou Ning. It was only the third floor, not very high, but with his whole body leaning out of the window, it was still somewhat frightening.
Zhou Ning did not grab the plastic bag directly but used a cotton swab to prod at it. The bag swung, but there was no reaction on the swab. Then, with the help of tweezers, he picked up the plastic bag and handed it straight to Mr. Zhao.
Liu Yongxin called out from behind,
"Don’t catch it with your hands; handle it gently."
Mr. Zhao shivered, quickly grabbed an oval forceps, caught the bag, and placed it on the table, then assisted Zhou Ning as he jumped down.
Zhou Ning operated two pairs of tweezers, opened up the bag, and found four brown glass bottles inside, identical to the sulfuric acid bottle from before. Mr. Zhao leaned in for a closer look and promptly took photographs.
"Good God, there are four more bottles here. Could they also contain sulfuric acid?" Mr. Zhao wondered aloud.
Before Zhou Ning could speak, Liu Yongxin leaned in and shook his head,
"Take the items back. Doctor Lu is still there; he’s the expert. Let him make the distinction," he advised.
Without any delay, Mr. Zhao quickly found a box to pack the items up. Given the likelihood that the bottles contained sulfuric acid, spilling them or breakage would be dangerous, so they needed to be handled with care.
Seeing that Zhou Ning was about to leave, the teacher pointed at the sulfuric acid spill on the floor, freewebnøvel.com
"How should we deal with this? Can we clean it up?" he inquired.
Zhou Ning nodded.
"The samples have already been taken, there’s no need to preserve the scene anymore. Please clean it up, I think you’re more professional at that."
The person heaved a sigh of relief and quickly splashed water into the room. Since it wasn’t a lot, the small amount could be diluted and cleaned up without harming anyone.
...
Half an hour later.
Criminal Police Division.
Zhou Ning hopped out of the car with some items, Mr. Zhao was carrying a box, and Liu Yongxin followed, the three of them swiftly headed to Doctor Lu’s office. The items that needed to be sent for testing had already been dispatched on the way, except for four brown bottles left in this bag.
"Doctor Lu, could you please help me take a look at this? These bottles were found outside the suspect’s dorm window. He smashed a sulfuric acid bottle in his room, and a little bit spilled on the floor. I’m not sure what the substance in these is."
Doctor Lu came over happily, quickly had someone take the bottles, and thoughtfully instructed:
"Don’t damage the outer bag, Zhou Xiaozhou still needs to lift fingerprints from it. It’s evidence for them too. Oh, and extract from the outside of the bottles first, you can pass me the powder and brush for that, we can handle it here."
Zhou Ning, of course, had no objections and left the necessary tools behind. He felt a bit guilty that he, along with Mr. Zhao and Liu Yongxin, had been occupied until now without having eaten. They had all worked hard, so he hurriedly left the materials.
"Then we’ll leave it to you, Doctor Lu, we’re going to grab something to eat."
"Go ahead, Xu Da had someone send you lunchboxes. It’s been quite a day, so eat quickly."
Liu Yongxin waved his hand.
"You go and eat in peace. I’m going to follow them to the city bureau. The volume for testing this time is large and the variety of tests is very complex. With Mr. Liu in charge, I am worried there might be oversights."
Zhou Ning felt concerned, and, of course, rather apologetic.
"Master, let’s eat first before we go."
Liu Yongxin gave him a look.
"Stop the chatter. Are you listening to me or am I listening to you?"
Saying so, Liu Yongxin left. Zhou Ning knew his master was concerned about him, the case was indeed too complex for Mr. Liu to explain alone without making mistakes. With the master’s help, the testing would naturally go faster.
Thinking of this, he immediately pulled Zhao Xinli out of Doctor Lu’s office. Mr. Zhao looked bewildered as he scrutinized Zhou Ning, as if gauging his condition.
"I’m saying, why aren’t you anxious at all? Cui Guanglin is being interrogated right now, plus Xiaoyu is still in the hospital. What’s the rush to eat?"
Zhou Ning shook his head.
"Cui Guanglin isn’t going anywhere fast; he won’t confess in a short time. We also need to wait for the lab results. Only if those match can we discuss the next steps. As for Xiaoyu, with He Shancun there, it’s actually more important that we eat well to have the energy to do more work."
Mr. Zhao sighed, and while Zhou Ning put it that way, Mr. Zhao knew very well that Zhou Ning was truly anxious, the kind of anxiousness where one feels helpless. The more composed he appeared now, the worse he felt inside.
"Well, I’ll listen to you, let’s eat first!"
Both men washed up and swiftly took care of their meal, guzzling down a large cup of water. Only then did Zhou Ning finally dial He Shancun’s mobile phone, and as soon as it rang, the other party picked up.
"I was wondering, how you could stay so calm and not care about your sister’s condition?"
"I left it to you, didn’t I? I’m not worried."
He Shancun laughed; he was very satisfied with Zhou Ning’s answer.
"Xiaoyu’s condition is good; the wound on her head isn’t deep. She got six stitches, and we didn’t shave too much hair to avoid affecting her appearance. I’ve ordered a variety of blood tests, and so far, we haven’t found any problems.
"The nurses also examined her thoroughly, and not even a needle mark was found. However, if she was knocked out with an anesthetic, it won’t show up in the blood, especially since it was about five or six hours ago."
Zhou Ning knew that the hospital’s testing capabilities were limited; they could only wait for the results from the testing center now.
"I understand; as long as Xiaoyu is okay, that’s all that matters. Also, did the nurse you arranged for examine Zhou Xiaoyu thoroughly?"
"Ah, what’s the matter? You want me to check on her myself?"
"Cut it out. What I mean is, didn’t you find a female doctor to examine her? I’m worried about scars on her body, or... Let’s put it this way, in this case so far, several of the deceased were found to be HPV positive, and one was HIV positive. I can’t determine if those were their own viruses or related to the culprit."
He Shancun was taken aback his expression turning serious.
"I got it, I’ll get a surface examination and the relevant testing done right away. Why didn’t you mention this to me sooner? Did you collect the blood sample from her lousy boyfriend? Was there any screening for viruses?"
"His sample was sent over at noon. It just came to me to get Xiaoyu checked too, just to be sure. Alright, I’m hanging up now."
After he hung up, He Shancun gritted his teeth, feeling a bit like he had been poorly accompanied.
He glanced at the intern next to him, who was so scared they shrank back, wishing they could bury their face in the monitor.
He Shancun dialed another number, and as soon as it connected, the person on the line didn’t have a good attitude.
"Every time I get a call from Mr. He, my calves cramp up. What is it this time?"
"Heh heh, personal favor, personal favor. A friend’s sister was brought in unconscious to the ER, and we are not sure if she has been assaulted. After all, the suspect’s been caught, and he’s got all sorts of diseases, HIV, HPV... I’d rather you take a look, okay?"
"Give me five minutes, I’ll be there!"
