"I asked a few of Zhou Guohua’s neighbors, and the elderly couple from one household said that on May 18th, the day Zhou Kaieri disappeared, they heard the sound of a child crying coming from Zhou Guohua’s house at noon."
"They initially thought it was Zhou Guohua’s little grandson who had returned from the hospital and planned to ask how the child was. However, after knocking on the door for a long ti without anyone responding, and then not hearing the child’s crying again, they thought they might have misheard and didn’t take it seriously."
"That crying might have been Zhou Kaieri’s! Team Leader Liao, have you confird this with the other neighbors?"
Liao Xingyu shook his head, "I’ve already asked, but the others said they didn’t notice anything."
Everyone felt a bit disappointed upon hearing this.
Zhou Fan encouraged, "Don’t be too discouraged, everyone. At least this proves that our efforts today were not in vain. Soone was indeed inside Zhou Guohua’s house that day."
"According to their neighbors, Zhou Yucheng had a sudden illness on the 24th, and the family rushed him to the city that night. So, Zhou Guohua should have returned to the village before 11 a.m. to commit the cri."
"But today, the people in their village all said they hadn’t seen this father and son return. This indicates they consciously avoided the villagers, but with the heavy foot traffic in town, it’s possible they might still run into a few acquaintances."
"In that case... I suggest we intensify our efforts in visiting the town tomorrow. Maybe we’ll discover sothing."
"At this point, that’s all we can do."
"Alright then, let’s get to bed early and take action first thing tomorrow morning!"
One night passed.
Everyone was up by a little past six in the morning. After breakfast, they started their visits in the town as discussed the previous night.
The town is different from a big city because it’s mostly the sa faces coming and going every day, so over ti, they beco familiar. This is probably a characteristic of rural small towns.
Thus, it’s relatively easy for them to identify people; as long as they show the photos, the town’s shopkeepers can generally recognize the father and son.
However, when asked if they had seen the father and son on May 18th, three years ago, everyone just shook their heads.
"Officer, we can’t rember such old events."
"Sorry, I don’t rember. With so many people coming and going here daily, and it’s from three years ago."
"..."
After asking several stores, they received the sa answers.
Once outside, Lin Jie couldn’t help saying, "Team Leader, I feel like this thod isn’t reliable at all."
"If it were one or two months ago, maybe people might rember so things, but who can rember things from four years ago?"
"We all know what you’re saying, but the key issue now is there’s no evidence, so we can only try our luck."
As they talked, they walked into a tire patching and repair shop.
After identifying themselves to the boss playing with a phone on a tricycle, Luo Fei quickly took out the photos of Zhou Dahua and his son.
"Boss, take a look. Do you recognize these two people?"
"Isn’t that Zhou Dahua? We were classmates in middle school, of course, I know him."
"Officer, what are you looking for him for? Has he done sothing wrong?"
"Don’t worry about that; we just want to ask if you saw him in town in mid-May three years ago."
"Three years ago..." The boss hesitated.
Just when Luo Fei and Zhang Wei thought this trip would also end without success, the boss suddenly asked, "Wasn’t that when his child was hospitalized and needed surgery?"
This... could it be sothing significant?!
Luo Fei was instantly elated, "Yes, that’s exactly when it was. Do you rember it?"
"I rember, I rember. That day was May 18th, and it was my father-in-law’s birthday. So that afternoon, I closed up shop at four o’clock and took my wife and kids to my father-in-law’s house for dinner."
"My father-in-law lives in the neighboring village, and people from Baimao Village have to pass by their village to get to town. That night, everyone was there, and I had a few more drinks with my brother-in-law. When I ca back, it was probably ten or eleven o’clock."
"When driving past the Datianba area, suddenly a person ran onto the small road beside . If I hadn’t braked quickly, I would have almost hit them..."
"So you were driving drunk?" Luo Fei suddenly remarked.
The boss, who had been talkative, suddenly fell silent, appearing regretful.
Cursing himself for being unable to control his mouth, he wondered how he could have let that slip.
"Act-actually, I didn’t drink much, just a few cups... Officer, you wouldn’t also handle traffic police duties, right?"
"Relax, that’s not within our jurisdiction. But for your family’s health, you really shouldn’t do that in the future. If sothing happens, it’s too late for regrets, even if nothing happens. If caught, it could affect your child’s prospects for governnt jobs."
"Understood, understood, it was just that one ti. I haven’t drunk and driven since then, I swear!"
Luo Fei gave a couple of reminders, not caring whether he was telling the truth or not.
"Go on, after leaving your father-in-law’s house, when did you run into Zhou Dahua in town?"
"Because the person I almost hit was Zhou Dahua!"
What a coincidence?
Luo Fei and Zhang Wei exchanged a glance, imnsely excited.
"Boss, can you tell us in detail about the situation back then?"
"I was startled when I almost hit a person, sobering up imdiately. Then I wanted to get out of the car and reason with them, only to find it was that fellow Zhou Dahua."
"I was quite baffled at the ti and asked him why he didn’t take the proper road and chose a small path. If I hadn’t reacted quickly, his life would have been forfeited."
"He said it was because his child was sick and needed surgery but was missing so docunts. He had co back to get the docunts and decided to take a shortcut on the small path, but I always felt he wasn’t telling the truth."
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