Mr. Qu made a flurry of movents, analyzing multiple surveillance feeds around the given location. Images flickered on the screen as blue boxes swept over each person in view.
Anyone driving a three-wheeled vehicle seed to linger a few seconds longer under scrutiny. Just over a minute into this process, Mr. Qu pointed to an intersection and said,
"The vehicle is here, traveling from east to west on Hubin Road. It has just passed a village - let see - this is Liaojia Village. It’s nearly through. Mr. Wu, you should split into two groups in your cars: one taking Hubin Road, the other Zhengyang Road. That way, you can effectively block off Yang Liang’s vehicle from the front and the back."
"Received, received, did everyone hear that? Get moving and chase!"
With that, the call ended. Huang Youdao furrowed his brows, saying nothing more. After all, Zhou Ning and the others were watching by his side. Anything said at this mont could embarrass the people of Dayao City.
Unsure of how many tis he had turned in place, Mr. Zhao and the others had all erged. Seeing their deanor, no words were necessary to tell that sothing had gone wrong here; no one dared to speak.
After a short wait, Huang Youdao’s phone rang. He answered on speakerphone without hesitation.
Before he could utter a word, Wu Chunming on the other end spoke hastily,
"Leader, I just lost my phone, wanted to tell you. We’ve intercepted Yang Liang, and he’s currently detained in the vehicle. I’ve got Mr. Su driving the three-wheeler; we’re heading to the city bureau now. Are you also on your way back to the bureau?"
Zhou Ning’s brow tensed slightly, recognizing from Mr. Zhao and the others’ state that they probably hadn’t found any useful evidence. To rush soone into a police car in such a hurry, not to ntion driving Yang Liang’s three-wheeler, it was not hard to guess the person was handcuffed and pressed down, just like a typical arrest.
He didn’t rush to respond. After all, this was Dayao City. Huang Youdao looked at Zhou Ning and his team, then said thoughtfully,
"We need to bring him back politely. We’re asking for assistance in an investigation, not making an arrest. Boy, restrain that reckless energy of yours. Don’t go around cuffing people and beating them up. You’ve received more disciplinary actions than comndations. Use your head, will you?"
Huang Youdao’s lecture was intense, and it was unclear how much Wu Chunming on the other side could take in. However, this ti there was no further chit-chat; he rely chuckled foolishly.
"I’ll apologize to Yang Liang in a bit and have a talk with him. Don’t worry, I won’t rush. I promise we’ll talk in the interview room, not the interrogation room. Is that fine now?"
Huang Youdao sighed, trying hard to suppress his anger.
"Enough talk. Just leave him alone in the interview room. Send over so tea. You don’t need to show your face; I can’t trust you with that!"
With a slap, he hung up the phone. Only then did Mr. Zhao approach, looking at both Huang Youdao and Zhou Ning. Seeing Zhou Ning nod, he hurriedly said,
"We’ve carefully examined the main house, the east and west wings, as well as the kitchen and restroom. We’ve also sprayed Luminol reagent everywhere. No other place showed reactions except for a fluorescent spot on the chopping board. But it was just a drop, less than a centiter in diater. We’ve collected a sample. Judging by its position and size, I think it might be from cooking and accidentally cutting oneself."
Huang Youdao let out a sigh, seemingly not surprised by this find.
"Alright, if nothing was found, nothing was found. Let’s hurry up and withdraw!"
Zhou Ning did not move, and neither did Liu Yongxin. Mr. Zhao and the others looked at Zhou Ning and also stopped their actions.
Zhou Ning surveyed the yard, closing his eyes slightly. The lack of clues puzzled him as well. Yet, linking together the signs left at nqiao Village bridge, where the body was dumped, the three-wheeler, the distance between this place and the cri scene, Yang Liang’s height, and the previous disputes,
All of this, if considered together, made Yang Liang a more likely suspect than Zhang Hongwei. After all, Zhang Hongwei had little to gain - at most so compensation. Even the total compensation for Yang Liang’s son wasn’t substantial.
Calculating it all, Fu Chunyu’s most valuable property right now was this house. It was highly probable that her ans of acquiring the property were illegitimate. If that was revoked, the property would most likely be awarded to Yang Liang, with the Fu Family possibly receiving so minor compensation.
Especially since the surveyors had co on October 22nd, and Yang Liang had driven them away. The cent floor had just been poured and hadn’t even dried yet, which was why Yang Liang had been so agitated. The timing was too coincidental - October 21st was when Fu Chunyu went missing in the afternoon. There could indeed be a connection they hadn’t found.
With this perspective, there might be so secret beneath the floor.
Seeing Zhou Ning silent, no one dared to urge him, and, uncharacteristically, Huang Youdao didn’t either. The policen at the entryway paced back and forth, only to be dismissed by Huang Youdao.
After watching for a good while, Zhou Ning looked towards the main gate. The village chief had been standing there recently, but now he was nowhere to be seen.
"Mr. Huang, may I ask the village chief a question?"
"Of course, there’s no problem. Liu, call the village chief over."
As soon as the words fell, a policeman brought the village chief over. Zhou Ning smiled at him, then slowly asked,
"Good day, I wanted to ask if our village has any surveillance caras. That includes caras at the village entrance and exit."
The village chief shook his head.
"Our three villages are connected. To the north are all greenhouses; there are exits and entrances everywhere, so we don’t have surveillance in the village."
"Have you been to Yang Liang’s house before?"
"Yes, I have!"
"What was his courtyard like before?"
The village head looked puzzled but still thought about it seriously before he said,
"Technically, he is a distant uncle of ours, just within the fifth degree of kinship, so we would visit him every New Year’s, but we rarely interacted otherwise. As for the courtyard, I never paid much attention to it before, it didn’t seem to have changed much. The ground used to have so broken pieces of marble and such, cobbled together, but now it’s all been uniformly paved over."
Zhou Ning wasn’t satisfied; he felt that the village head was being perfunctory, or rather, exceedingly indifferent about things he should have been quite familiar with.
"Don’t rush, people in the village usually have dogs, I didn’t see any at their place. I suppose you have dogs at your hos, right?"
The village head slapped his thigh, blinked, and looked toward the space next to the west wing of the house, between the west wing and the toilet, and gestured.
"Now that you ntion it, it reminds . Do you see that iron tool at the corner of the wall? There used to be a dog tied there. But their dog always kept its tail between its legs, didn’t bark, nor bite; I had completely forgotten about it. However, when did their dog, along with its kennel, disappear?"
Huang Youdao looked puzzled; Zhou Ning had asked for so long but hadn’t gotten anything substantial. He subconsciously checked his watch as Mr. Zhao leaned in, seemingly understanding what Zhou Ning was getting at, and chuckled as he chid in,
"He’s a close relative of yours, and you all live in the sa village. When the old man’s son died, you couldn’t have all neglected to attend the funeral, right?"
The village head hurriedly said,
"How could we not have gone? When there’s a death in the family, not just relatives, but everyone in the village cos by, especially for an accidental death like his. I even helped organize the wake at the restaurant south of the village, got them a good discount."
Zhou Ning stared at the village head and persisted,
"When you ca here then, what did this courtyard look like? Think back now, was the dog still there? Was the dog kennel still there? Was the ground paved yet? Or, under this paved area, was it a vegetable patch or sothing else?"
The questions ca like a torrential downpour, all seemingly insignificant, but the urgency of his inquiry still made the village head pause for a mont before he moved to the wall where the iron tool was placed. The ground here wasn’t paved, and the shape of the original dog kennel was still visible.
Standing there, the village head looked out over the paved area, as if trying hard to rember, but then simply shook his head.
"Ah, most hos in our village look pretty much the sa. Everyone has a connected row of main rooms, with kitchens and storage on either side of the wings. Only those with many children build a larger extension of the wing rooms. The toilet is usually in the southeast corner.
"As for the open space in the courtyard, most people plant so vegetables or flowers. Paving is usually just in front of the house, behind it, and the path from the courtyard gate to the main and wing rooms. Hardly anyone paves their entire courtyard.
"Before Renhe Industrial Park next to our three villages was built, the land belonged to our villages, and every household grew corn and wheat. There used to be cellars in the yard for storing vegetables and such.
"Now it’s only the older folks like Mr. Yang who still rent greenhouses; the younger ones all work in the city, and there isn’t much land left around here, just over seventy acres to the east of the village, not much left once it’s divided among all the families."
Zhou Ning seized upon the key point ntioned by the village head.
"Wait, you said that basically every household used to have a cellar?"
The village head was taken aback by Zhou Ning’s sudden loud remark and jumped, but quickly nodded along.
"Yes."
"When were most of them built, and have they all been filled in? Does Yang Liang’s family have a cellar? Where would it be?"
Huang Youdao seed to understand sothing and hurried over, setting aside his hurry to leave, and looked at the village head, urging him,
"Don’t rush, think carefully. Right, during Yang’s wedding, were there photos taken, do you have any group pictures we could see?"
Before the village head could respond, Mr. Zhao raised his hand.
"I saw a few albums in the main room; just give a mont to get them."
The village head knew that if he couldn’t accurately rember today, the police wouldn’t let him off the hook. After thinking, he quickly said,
"I haven’t paid attention to whether the Yang family had a cellar. Whenever I ca here, it was mostly in winter. There were small greenhouses on the land on both the east and west sides of the courtyard, it seed like they were growing leeks since they sell well during the New Year and are easy to manage. With just a little space, the yield can be quite high.
"I really didn’t notice whether there was a cellar in the yard. When Yang Guochang got married, they laid out feast tables there, the entire courtyard was covered with red carpets, who would lift them to look underneath? Should I call a neighbor over and ask?"
While he was still speaking, Mr. Zhao had already run out with the photo albums in his arms, ca to where Zhou Ning and the others were, opened the albums, and said with a look of shock,
"Look at this one, their family photo from the wedding was taken in the courtyard, with the east wing as the backdrop. Even though there is a red carpet on the ground, this corner isn’t fully glued down. Look at the shape and size of the wooden plank, could it be a cellar door?"
Indeed, beneath the carpet in front of the dog kennel, there was a square protrusion, partly lifted to reveal the wooden material. Comparing it with the current position in the courtyard, it was right in the center of the newly paved area.
Zhou Ning looked at Huang Youdao, having found the problem. As for the decision on what to do next, it was up to Huang Youdao. Understanding the aning behind the look, Huang Youdao bit his lip and took out his phone.
"Dig it up, I’ll take responsibility for any consequences!"
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