Half an hour later, the group arrived at Liu Xiangrui’s outdoor sports equipnt company.
What surprised Liu Yufei was that there was no spacious factory here, but a small courtyard with just a three-story building. After negotiating with the security guard, they drove straight in.
A female staff mber ca to et them, and upon seeing the group, she greeted them with a smile.
"Welco, are you Mr. Fang from Chuanyu Province who ca to talk about joining the franchise?"
Fang Mu promptly showed his work ID, with no particular expression on his face, startling the staffer, who beca panicked and reached for her phone.
Seeing Fang Mu’s gesture, Liu Yufei’s usually expressionless face showed a smile, as if seeing another version of herself. She now understood why Director Xu said her stern appearance was intimidating; indeed, there was a familiar air about it.
"Where is your vice president, Sun Nan? Take to him!"
The staffer didn’t dare utter any nonsense, simply gesturing towards the stairs and then running up to the third or fourth step to lead the way to Fang Mu.
Arriving on the third floor, she pointed to the office at the farthest east side, stuttering as she said,
"It’s... it’s... the one at the far east, 301."
Seeing the person about to leave, Liu Yufei grabbed her arm and pointed towards a sowhat noisy room on the west side, asking,
"What’s going on over there?"
Startled by the question, the staffer let out a sigh of relief.
"They’re taking photos over there. The design drafts for the spring collection’s additional lines have just co out. These are for the lower-end market, prepared for the franchises."
Liu Yufei let go of her hand, gestured behind her, and the staff mber was taken to the back, but not allowed to leave—in case she went to send a warning.
Fang Mu and Liu Yufei approached room 301 together, and knocked on the door. A male voice ca from inside.
"Co in."
Fang Mu pushed open the door and walked in with Liu Yufei, surprising the man within who was taken aback by the sudden influx of so many people, but quickly stood up with a welcoming smile.
"Welco, please have a seat. Are you here to inspect our company for a potential franchise, or are you looking for ?"
Liu Yufei had already taken a good look around. The office wasn’t particularly luxurious, but it was the best among the rooms they had passed. A large photo hung on the wall, featuring officials shaking hands with Sun Nan, clearly local governnt figures.
Logically speaking, as the CEO, Liu Xiangrui should have reserved an office for himself. Could it be that he left all company affairs, not just the clubs, in the hands of this vice president?
"Stop guessing, are you Sun Nan?"
Sun Nan nodded.
"Yes, I’m Sun Nan."
Fang Mu introduced,
"I’m from the criminal police, and this is a leader from the Qindao City Criminal Police Brigade. We would like to ask you about a few things and hope you can cooperate with the investigation."
Sun Nan imdiately nodded, sitting upright from the couch.
"Sure, no problem. I will tell you everything I know."
Liu Yufei glared at the photo once more. Sun Nan was good-looking with a tall, handso appearance. Thinking of the inspection report Zhou Ning had ntioned, which found male DNA in the rectum, she seed to suddenly understand a few things.
"What’s your relationship with Liu Xiangrui?"
Sun Nan was taken aback, and after a mont’s response, seeing Liu Yufei’s inquisitive and scrutinizing gaze, he laughed at himself.
"At work, he is my boss. He gave 20% of the company shares, so I manage the company diligently. Whether it’s our self-operated stores or franchises, business is booming and the turnover is doubling every year.
As for our private relationship... I assu since you police are asking like this, you must be aware of so facts, and I have nothing to hide. We are in a romantic relationship, and I’m his first boyfriend."
"His first boyfriend, aning Liu Xiangrui has had many boyfriends after you?"
Sun Nan nodded.
"Liu Xiangrui hasn’t co back much in the past year, to be precise, he’s been running around the country for these two years. Aside from our direct stores, we have also established clubs in every city. Initially, I managed all the clubs.
Later, he used my account to take over a few clubs, and engaged in ambiguous relationships with several people. After all, he likes to play, and I always wanted to expand the company. So, he simply allocated part of his shares to , letting manage the business for him while he went off to have fun."
"When was your last contact with Liu Xiangrui, whether by phone or in person?"
Sun Nan thought for a mont, stood up to get a tablet and a phone from his desk, and ca back to sit on the couch, sliding both items towards Liu Yufei.
"The last ti we t in person, I rember, was in early August. He was heading to Qindao; an old store there was being refurbished for a grand reopening, essentially a flagship store, but in reality, he just wanted to have fun.
After that, we mostly kept in touch by phone, though we communicated on QQ the most. But when it ca to company operations, he wouldn’t make decisions even when I asked him to. As for the last ti we made contact, I think it was the day before yesterday, January 5th."
The final statent caught Liu Yufei off guard.
She leaned forward and snatched Sun Nan’s phone off the table, carefully scrolling through the QQ chat history.
The conversation was sparse, just a few lines every other day, discussing so matter and then finishing, either transferring money or ordering plane tickets and luxury goods to be sent to a certain address, with the recipient being Zhang Wannian from Sea Therapy No.3 Villa.
However, on December 5th, the pattern didn’t change, two lines of idle chat, inquiring about the company, then promptly asking Sun Nan to make him so money, claiming it was for a donation to a scholarship fund. On December 12th and 21st, he asked for money under different pretexts as well, all three transactions totaling over 1.7 million. This QQ account indeed sent a couple of ssages on January 2nd.
Seeing all this, Liu Yufei seed to understand sothing and glanced at Sun Nan.
"The account the transfers were made from was Liu Xiangrui’s, right? Were these amounts within the range of his usual expenditures?"
Sun Nan gave an awkward smile that seed tinged with a hint of bitterness.
"The account was Liu Xiangrui’s. He did tend to spend a lot towards the end of the year. Of course, he was the boss; he could spend however he wanted, and I had no right to stop him, right?"
Liu Yufei nodded and typed a ssage, sending it to Fang Mu. After taking a glance at it, Fang Mu imdiately went out to make a call.
"One last question, from November 25th to today, have you left Hesheng City, or have you been to Qindao during this period?"
Sun Nan shook his head.
"The end of the year is our busiest ti. You probably saw it when you ca in, we’ve been preparing our spring line. We’ve just switched our outsourcing factory to a local one, so if I’m not at the company, I’m at the factory. Running back and forth, I’m already busy to death. Officer, I’d like to know, has sothing happened to Liu Xiangrui?"
Liu Yufei was not surprised by Sun Nan’s murder, yet could feel Sun Nan’s affection for Liu Xiangrui.
Perhaps not approved by the world, and Liu Xiangrui might have just been playing with him, but Sun Nan took it seriously and truly invested his emotions. Otherwise, with his capabilities, running a company on his own was not out of reach, even emptying Liu Xiangrui’s company and making it his own.
"Yes, Liu Xiangrui is dead, and I can’t disclose the specific details to you. However, you need to co with us to the Criminal Police Brigade. We need to collect your fingerprints and blood samples for investigation so we can solve this case as soon as possible."
Sun Nan gripped the armrest of the sofa, his knuckles turning white as he hung his head, remaining silent for a long while.
Liu Yufei did not rush him, waiting for a mont until Sun Nan looked up again with red-rimd eyes, though he struggled to control his emotions.
"Alright, I’ll go with you. Can I make a phone call to give so instructions?"
Liu Yufei nodded, and Sun Nan made a call, summoning soone. He explained work matters succinctly and logically, rattling off the instructions one by one before going to put on his coat.
At that mont, Fang Mu walked in, speaking to Liu Yufei in a hushed voice:
"Liu Xiangrui’s account has been checked. The 1.7 million transferred in December, along with the initial 2.2 million, was split on December 22nd into dozens of transactions to different recipients. However, all six payees are from Qindao. Liu Da, take a look at these nas and see if any are familiar."
Liu Yufei glanced at the list, seeing n and won of varying ages, from forty to over seventy, with identification numbers all from Qindao, none of whom were previously investigated.
"Let’s go, we’ll start with collecting samples from Sun Nan. I’ll contact our leadership."
Half an hour later.
Sun Nan was taken upstairs for sampling, and considering the shouting, it seed Zhang Song might be upstairs too, probably growing impatient.
After dialing Xu Dayuan’s number, Liu Yufei shared the findings.
"...Leader, that’s the situation. I suspect the murderer used Liu Xiangrui’s QQ to contact Sun Nan, repeatedly asking for transfers. But what confuses now is these six payees who have a wide age range and no commonality. I’m not sure of the direction right now and need your help in verifying them."
"Don’t be confused. Zhang Song brought soone back for questioning. When Sun Nan’s DNA results co out, if all is clear, just release him. Of course, test him for HPV."
Upon hearing this, Liu Yufei quickly asked:
"Leader, have you found sothing?"
Xu Dayuan sighed heavily with an air of gloom and regret.
"Don’t even ntion it. We wanted to bring Wang Kaitao in for a blood sample and fingerprinting, but this man has disappeared, and we can’t reach any of his patients either. Once you have the DNA results, let know imdiately."
Hearing this, Liu Yufei narrowed her eyes.
"Leader, don’t hang up yet. Can you check the nas of Wang Kaitao’s patients and their families for ? I’ll send you the list of transfer recipients imdiately. Is it possible that Wang Kaitao used their bank information to transfer the funds? He had contacted Sun Nan on the fifth; I think he wanted to make another score. But then we found the body and quickly initiated the investigation, scaring him, so after being questioned, he fled. I think it might be worth checking immigration and travel records."
"Clever girl, assigning tasks quite smoothly, aren’t you? Alright, I’ll check right away. Let know the mont you get the DNA results."
After hanging up, Xu Dayuan let out a sigh of relief. Actually, no progress on Liu Yufei’s end ant progress for the case overall. His phone lit up, showing a picture of a bank transfer record from Liu Xiangrui’s account to six different cards.
Xu Dayuan quickly handed his phone to Mr. Qu and patted him on the shoulder.
"You’d better compare; see if these six individuals are linked to Wang Kaitao’s patients."
Mr. Qu started searching promptly, and soon enough, he had results to show.
"Director Xu, co look, I’ve found sothing."
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