He Hongjian was startled.
Zhou Ning’s consecutive questions seed a bit too many, but looking at Zhou Ning’s expression, still so indifferent, and his pace of speech not fast, He Hongjian didn’t react too much and pondered before speaking:
"As far as I know, each of these girls from Da Man’er’s family has at least two children. Anyway, they are all the youngest in their families, Da Man’er ntioned it."
Zhang Qiuju on the side suddenly had a spark of realization and stretched out a finger, saying,
"Right, Da Man’er ntioned that she was envious of them, that their older brothers always stood up for them, and they wouldn’t get bullied. If she’d had brothers when she was young, maybe those brats in the village wouldn’t have followed her calling her ’little idiot’ or ’ntal case’, and nobody would have dared to throw trash at our house."
As she spoke, Zhang Qiuju seed to be reminded of her own daughter and suddenly beca overwheld with sorrow, tears streaming down her face. Fang Mu, sowhat at a loss, glanced at Zhou Ning and hurriedly comforted her,
"Auntie, don’t be sad. We’re talking like this to ensure your child didn’t die in vain. The more detailed your recollection, the more it helps us with the investigation. So this isn’t the ti to be sad. If Da Man’er knew she was causing you such grief, she’d feel very guilty!"
The title was a bit mixed up, but no one minded.
Mr. Zhao looked at Fang Mu with so surprise. He didn’t know much about Fang Mu, only occasional interactions during cases, conversing no more than ten sentences. Moreover, due to his relationship with Doctor Chen, he seed to have an inherent hostility towards him.
Yet now, with just a few words, Fang Mu had demonstrated his impressive skills, not verbose, but clear in his ssage, able to guide the victim’s family to actively cooperate. Indeed, he was quite professional.
Zhang Qiuju’s crying stopped abruptly, and she nodded vigorously at Fang Mu.
"You’re right, I didn’t go to school and have this illness, I’ve embarrassed my child. Please, ask whatever you want, I’ll try my best to cooperate."
Fang Mu looked towards Zhou Ning, the aning clear, hoping Zhou Ning would continue, since Zhou Ning’s tone and pace were gentle, making others less resistant.
"Whose family owns an auto repair factory?"
It was then He Hongjian rembered that Zhou Ning had already asked this once before, and he hadn’t finished speaking due to being interrupted. He pondered for a mont, as if rembering sothing important, and hurriedly said,
"It’s Zhu Xiaoxia’s family that owns the auto repair factory. Zhu Xiaoxia’s dad has so connections. His son didn’t do well in his studies and didn’t even finish high school, but their family business is doing exceptionally well. In the village, his younger brother has a repair shop for agricultural machinery and vehicles, and they also sell electric bikes.
In the town, they opened a big auto repair factory, the kind that repairs luxury cars. I’m not sure if they have ties with insurance companies or the traffic police, but the cars repaired there are all designated locations that are reimbursable, that’s the general idea. I don’t understand it too well."
Mr. Zhao beca excited, leaning in to ask He Hongjian,
"Do you know the na of the auto repair factory?"
He Hongjian thought carefully and then shook his head with an embarrassed expression.
"I really don’t know, but the auto repair factory is over by Jinping Avenue Auto City, I think it’s called Jinrui Auto Repair Factory."
Mr. Zhao had already opened his phone to search. He couldn’t find Jinrui Auto Repair Factory, but he found a Jinrui Auto Repair Company nearby the Auto City. He checked the legal representative and the na listed was Zhu Pingyong. Then he looked for Zhu Pingyong and found three people with the sa na in Xinghua City.
Choosing the one registered in Jinping Town, fifty-seven years old, with three sons and one daughter, the youngest daughter nad Zhu Xiaoxia. The three sons were Zhu Xiaojun, Zhu Xiaoguang, Zhu Xiaoming respectively. The oldest son was married, but their household registration hadn’t split off, and together with the son’s wife and two grandchildren, this family had quite a few mbers.
Still, this situation was quite normal in rural areas, as after all, the old hos anticipated demolition soday. Even if living in the city, they wouldn’t want their household registration moved, as it also involved land allocation issues.
Regarding the four children, Zhu Xiaojun was already in his early thirties, and Zhu Xiaoguang and Zhu Xiaoming were both twenty-two, two years older than Zhu Xiaoxia, and with the sa birthdate; apparently, they were twins. Zhu Xiaoxia was listed as a student with her workplace being the local number 5 high school.
Mr. Zhao showed the information to Zhou Ning and then found Zhu Xiaoxia’s ID photo, passing his phone to He Hongjian,
"Take a look, is this Zhu Xiaoxia?"
He Hongjian and Zhang Qiuju both leaned in to look at the photo. It was Zhang Qiuju who spoke first,
"That’s her, but she looks thinner in this picture. The girl has gained a lot of weight since last sumr. Rumor has it that she got into a car accident during the sumr break and gained weight due to steroid treatnts. My daughter Da Man’er has been comforting her and even running with her, but it hasn’t helped her lose any weight."
Zhou Ning cast a aningful glance at Fang Mu, who stood up to take the phone from Mr. Zhao. He had understood the aning and quickly walked out to make a call. Zhou Ning turned to Zhang Qiuju with a smile,
"She moved to the Salt Company Community, and you’ve been taking care of He Jiahong, haven’t you? What does she like to eat, and what ti does she usually get back from school? Does she often go out to eat with friends or classmates? I see she uses a phone; the teachers aren’t too strict about it, are they?"
Though Zhou Ning asked several questions in one breath, his pace was slow and his tone friendly. Zhang Qiuju showed no sign of annoyance or distress, but smiled as she responded,
"Da Man’er likes to eat at, probably because her trainings are exhausting, plus her high school workload is also heavy. At noon and in the evening, I always stew at for her to eat. She usually gets ho around ten o’clock after evening self-study and often eats supper, dumplings, wontons, noodles, whatever we have at ho.
She usually returns ho promptly, except on her days off, when she might go out to have als or play with her classmates for a day or two. But she always tells not to wait up for her co dinnerti.
As for her phone, her dad reported it to the school, allowing her to have her phone for easy contact with him. I can’t use that thing; I don’t go out during the day, except early in the morning when it’s barely light to buy so groceries and necessities, since I have this illness, and I can’t sha my child."
"So I don’t know anyone in the community; it seems like all the residents above and below are there to accompany their school-aged children. But I don’t know who they are. On the day of the incident, at dinner ti, Da Man’er ran back and told to take my dicine and go to bed early because she was going to a celebration feast. She said a lot and seed very happy when she left. I don’t believe she could have killed herself. I just don’t believe it."
By the end, Zhang Qiuju was crying again, though not as hysterically as before, simply wiping away her tears.
The more Zhou Ning engaged with Doctor Shi, the more he focused on issues of psychology. From Zhang Qiuju’s initial breakdown to now just shedding tears, repeated sharing of her emotions seed to be a way to release her sadness.
Zhou Ning took a deep breath and stood up abruptly.
"Our visit today is also to take a look at He Jiahong’s room. To overturn the suicide conclusion, one thod is through autopsy and scene investigation, but as you know, those have been severely compromised. We hope to understand her social relationships and start an investigation among the people she knew, to see her diaries, or contact lists, hoping to find so clues."
He Hongjian stood up with Zhang Qiuju, nodding continuously.
"Understood, you can search as you please. Jiahong’s room is in the east wing. I’ll take my wife to sit in the yard for a while. It seems Jiahong had a diary, but I don’t know where it is. Zhu Xiaoxia and others ca over to play at my house before, and the kids were fighting over wanting to read it, chattering away."
By the end, He Hongjian was sowhat choked up as he supported Zhang Qiuju, trying to hide his sorrow. They went to sit under the cherry tree in the yard, while Mr. Zhao had already gone out to call Mr. Yang and the others in.
Without any nonsense, the group directly entered the east wing, an en suite room. It might be a modest rural house, and the family wasn’t wealthy, but with only one child, they naturally afforded her the best they could.
To the south, there was a space resembling a study with an aged writing desk and a circle of solid wood chairs with thickly padded seats. They were piled with a lot of dolls. To the north, a curtain separated the space, behind which was a bed and two wardrobes, along with two old camphor wood trunks.
Pulling back the curtain, one could see a collection of male celebrity posters under the north window—a true touch of a young girl’s heart.
Mr. Zhao leaned towards Zhou Ning and asked in a low voice:
"You’re not just looking for a contact list and diary by letting us investigate the scene, are you?"
Zhou Ning nodded his head.
"He Jiahong’s hyn was torn long ago. She was an 18-year-old girl by her nominal age, with excellent academic and sports achievents. Although it’s possible that the tear was caused by sports, it doesn’t match her condition; there are many old scars from tears around it.
Moreover, she was liked by teachers and classmates at school. One can say a better future awaited her. We’ve been here for two days and have never heard from anyone that He Jiahong had a boyfriend. So, how did those old tears occur?"
Mr. Zhao narrowed his eyes as if he understood sothing but was still puzzled.
"So are you suggesting she might have an unspeakable boyfriend?"
Zhou Ning shook a finger side to side.
"Not necessarily a boyfriend. Let’s just say a man she had relations with, and rather frequently and violently at that."
This statent caught Mr. Zhao and Fang Mu off guard; they had not expected Zhou Ning to reach such a conclusion.
Zhou Ning turned to Fang Mu and added another comnt.
"Did you tell Liu Da about the auto repair company?"
Fang Mu nodded.
"Liu Da asked Mr. Qu to check out the information on the sons first. Then he went to find Zhu Xiaoxia to see if he could get so useful information."
No one spoke further; everyone quickly got to work, understanding that to prove anything, one needs to find remaining evidence, since old hos are less likely to have been touched by those who may wish to hide traces.
The search wasn’t quick; after more than half an hour passed, Yang Xuetong let out an exclamation. Mr. Zhao and the others rushed over, knowing Mr. Yang to be a very composed person and that his exclamation ant a discovery had been made.
They all crowded around as Mr. Yang pulled out a locked notebook from underneath the mattress. The notebook looked quite new and was carefully preserved in a plastic bag.
Mr. Zhao stepped forward, sprinkled so carbon powder for fingerprint collection, and quickly made a comparison, then nodded at the others.
"All the fingerprints are He Jiahong’s; there’s no second person’s."
Yang Xuetong looked at Fang Mu.
"Mr. Dui, how should we handle this? We haven’t seen a key. Should we break it open by force?"
Fang Mu wasted no words, simply gesturing with his hand.
"Break it open; there’s no need to hesitate."
With a clamp from Yang Xuetong’s pliers, the lock snapped off. As the notebook opened, several torn-up photos fell out. As they looked at the photos scattered on the floor, with their glaring images, everyone, including Zhou Ning, was stunned.
User Comments
0 comments from readers