Mr. Zhao sighed and hurried downstairs. Zhou Ning cared so much about this garbage bag, it was obvious he thought that what the victim had eaten, or rather, the victim’s rage before death, the emotional loss of control, might be related to what Cao Shen had eaten.
Seeing Mr. Zhao go down, Kong Wanshan stopped, pushed by Fang Mu.
"Go on with what you were saying. What happened after you bought the car?"
"Lately, over the past half-month, she’s been acting up again. I don’t know what soone told her or what happened, but she asked to have dinner with her uncle’s family. In front of her uncle’s family, she called her fiancé. I made excuses about having things to do, paid the bill, and left first.
To be honest, had she not said she got into a car accident at noon, I wouldn’t have wanted to go. After all, it’s Sunday, and I planned to spend ti with my children. Over the years I’ve known her, even though she can be troubleso, she has never called my regular phone number.
After dealing with the insurance, it was already this late, so we just had a bowl of noodles together. I hadn’t seen her for half a month and didn’t want to give her the cold shoulder, so after we ate, I gave her a card with five hundred thousand in it. She said it was for replacing so equipnt in the dance school. If I wanted to harm soone, would I still give her a card?"
Fang Mu glanced at his smartphone, which displayed a ssage from Zhou Ning. He furrowed his brows slightly and asked:
"I want to know if you really didn’t co here last night?"
Kong Wanshan shook his head very assertively.
"I didn’t co over. The last ti was on August 16th because the next day was Saturday and I promised the kids to take them to see the Leshan Giant Buddha. I drove there with the kids, and my wife didn’t go with us. We had fun on the way, stopping to play in each city before moving on, and we didn’t get back from Leshan until the night of August 25th.
Having been out for a week, there was so much to do at the company that I was constantly on site, communicating issues with the supervisor and the client. She didn’t send a WeChat ssage either. You can check WeChat, as well as the surveillance.
She only called today when the accident happened, and not on a burner phone. I didn’t co here at all yesterday. Right, you can look at the surveillance at the intersection!"
So convinced in his testimony, Zhou Ning also fell silent. Could his guess be wrong? If nothing was found here, then they would have to investigate Kong Wanshan’s wife. Affairs within marriage and so extre behaviors are not unthinkable, after all, there are too many cases like this. Like that feigned-insanity murder case back in Qidong, wasn’t it also because of an affair?
Fang Mu stood with his hands on his hips, growing impatient.
"Doesn’t your wife know Li Li either?"
"Yeah, she knows her. She’s my daughter’s dance teacher, how could she not? But she doesn’t know about my relationship with Li Li, so I an, let the chips fall where they may. Just don’t involve my wife. I don’t want this to affect them. Moreover, now that Li Li is gone, I don’t want her estate, let’s just consider it compensation for her uncle’s family. Isn’t that alright?"
Zhou Ning’s brows were tightly furrowed. Kong Wanshan had thought of a lot. Even now, he was still concerned about Li Li’s property. Zhou Ning looked back at the tidy room and suddenly thought of a question.
"Do you have contact information for the housekeeper? What’s her na? Was she from a ho service company or just found at random?"
Kong Wanshan seed to be pondering and shook his head slightly after thinking it over.
"I could recognize her if I saw her, but I never saved her phone number. Can’t you retrieve Li Li’s call records? She should have contacted the housekeeper. As for whether she’s from a ho service company or working independently, I really don’t know. All I rember is that this lady kept things very clean, seems her last na is Liu."
Fang Mu took out his phone, called a police officer, and asked people to inquire with the surrounding neighbors to see if anyone had seen the housekeeper.
Just as he hung up the phone, the door to the apartnt block clanged loudly, followed by the thudding sounds of soone running. Mr. Zhao rushed up, nearly out of breath by the ti he reached the fourth floor.
Seeing what Mr. Zhao was holding in his hands, Zhou Ning’s eyes lit up.
The pink bear garbage bag, the sa as the ones used in the victim’s ho, Zhou Ning quickly motioned with his hand, and both Mr. Zhao and Fang Mu followed him back into the room. Mr. Zhao stood with his hands on his hips, gasping for breath, while Zhou Ning changed into a new pair of gloves, interlocking his fingers to squeeze out the air.
"Where did you find it?"
"Don’t even ntion it. We went downstairs and saw the sanitation workers dragging the trash bin to load it onto the truck. We quickly stopped them. A bunch of aunties ca over to ask us questions, I showed them the picture, and in less than five minutes, we found it directly. I saw there seems to be a cake box inside."
Zhou Ning hurriedly opened the bag, laying out a plastic sheet beside it, and started arranging the trash. The contents were quite diverse, with one small bag that appeared to be bathroom waste, while the rest was indeed kitchen waste. However, it wasn’t the remnants of cooking but several takeout al boxes and a cake box.
The cake box wasn’t large, with dinsions of 12 centiters in length, width, and height, with a transparent center that allowed the contents to be seen, though it was now empty. Mr. Zhao picked up the box, turned it around, but couldn’t find any brand or shop nas on it.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, I feel like this cake doesn’t seem like the kind you buy from a store. It’s like many baking enthusiasts buy a lot of this kind of packaging and prepare it to give away. My aunt bought many such packages, made egg tarts, and others to give to us. These pounds didn’t grow on for nothing."
Using tweezers, Zhou Ning picked up the box and examined it from multiple angles, noticing that around the inside of the box there seed to be a bit of cream that had been sared, almost as if it had been grazed lightly, but it had light purple and rose pink stains on it. That gave Zhou Ning a sudden thought.
A person who doesn’t even eat seasoning with instant noodles, would they eat a cake with cream that’s so high in fat and sugar?
Who sent this?
"Have Mr. Qu check the surveillance footage starting from last night to see who entered this unit carrying a box like this or carrying sothing that could completely fit a cake of this size, including all sorts of bags and boxes, and then we’ll compare each person."
Mr. Zhao’s smile vanished as he looked at the small box with gleaming eyes.
"What you an is, there’s sothing wrong with this cake, or rather, the poison was placed inside it. So the person who delivered the cake must know Li Li pretty well, knowing that she wouldn’t dare to eat too much at night, striving to maintain her figure, and if she were to indulge, it would be at breakfast. I think we should locate the nanny first."
Fang Mu pulled out his phone, but before he could dial, the police officer he’d just tasked with gathering information called back. Fang Mu waved his hand and quickly answered on speakerphone.
"How did it go?"
"Got it clear. The nanny’s surna is Liu, nad Liu Zhen, 48 years old, registered with the Aixin Ho Service Company at the south gate of the community. Since Li Li moved here and finished decorating, Liu Zhen has always been the one cleaning here. She lives not far from here. We went to the ho service company and got her phone number. Mr. Dui, should you make contact?"
"Send the number."
The call ended, and Fang Mu received a number. He quickly dialed it. The person on the other end seed a bit surprised but stated they were right next door in building number one and would co right over. Hearing this, Fang Mu let out a sigh of relief.
"I had people take Kong Wanshan to the car; we can’t let him et with the nanny. As for Kong Wanshan’s wife, I think she’s a strong suspect. Although the surveillance didn’t spot her and there are no other leads, she has a motive."
Zhou Ning said nothing, his gaze fixed on the cake’s box, while Mr. Zhao nodded incessantly.
"Mr. Dui can take care of that. First, I’ll have soone send this box for inspection. We should get the comparison results quickly. If the poison really was administered through the cake, then finding the person who delivered the cake should suffice."
Fang Mu nodded, and Mr. Zhao went downstairs with the evidence. Kong Wanshan was escorted away from the doorstep while Zhou Ning folded his arms, listening to Fang Mu’s WeChat voice conversation with Liu Yufei.
"Liu Da, we’ve found the victim’s trash bag containing a cake box. We’ve already sent soone for inspection, uncertain whether or not the poisoning happened through this route. However, there’s no other apparent route for poisoning in the victim’s house. Additionally, I’ve contacted the victim’s nanny and will interrogate her shortly. I want to inquire, did Kong Wanshan’s wife go to pick up the children? Although Kong Wanshan claid his wife didn’t know about his relationship with Li Li, I think won are quite sensitive to such things. Sotis, not speaking doesn’t an not knowing. There’s also the matter of the two children and the sizable property — she would try every ans to protect her family."
Liu Yufei: "Class ends in five minutes. I’ve contacted Kong Wanshan’s daughter’s teacher, and we’ll keep his wife behind to take the child ho together, then go to the station for questioning. Afterwards, we’ll regroup back at the station. If the tests co back clean, then this will be considered an accidental incident."
Fang Mu responded with an acknowledge and glanced at Zhou Ning beside him, tapping Zhou’s arm.
"Director Zhou, do you think that when n beco wealthy, they start thinking about having affairs? We’ve dealt with nurous cases, and these people with financial resources... their personal lives tend to be a ss, either utterly perverse or ssing around indiscriminately."
Zhou Ning gave him a glance and outright laughed.
"It’s a matter of filling a psychological void. So may feel that due to their conditions, they lacked better mating options in their early years. Once they have a financial foundation, their mating options improve, and they feel superior to others. By the way, I heard from Mr. Zhao that a young woman from the Civil Affairs Bureau confessed to you. Why didn’t you take an interest?"
Fang Mu was startled and quickly waved his hand.
"I’m not looking to date soone from the sa field. We’re both so busy. I often spend many days away from ho—I wouldn’t want to cause harm. Being alone is also quite alright. Now that my parents have co to live with , only they can put up with . I know my limitations."
After speaking, he seed to realize that his words might be inappropriate and quickly patted Zhou Ning.
"I didn’t an anything about you, though. You and Mr. Xia are different. You’re both technically skilled and economically capable. As for , relying on my salary to switch to a bigger house isn’t realistic. Besides, I’m busy all the ti and have no opportunity to find soone."
Zhou Ning shook his head with a smile. He used to think the sa way, but he couldn’t resist Xia Momo’s persistence, combined with Mr. Xia’s soul-searching questions, and so their relationship developed.
At the end of the day, it’s all about finding the right person. Once you et soone who really catches your eye, wants and all kinds of difficulties don’t matter anymore. Fang Mu is the sa; advice is useless—it has to co down to his own choice.
"Later, I’ll ntion it to Mr. He. He brought up last ti that their leadership was asking if a mingling event for eligible singles could be organized. There are many won at their unit, while ours is filled with n. It would be a way to balance things internally."
Fang Mu smiled. At that mont soone knocked on the door. He promptly opened it to find Mr. Zhao standing outside with a middle-aged woman. Mr. Zhao was mouthing the word ’nanny’ at the rear. Fang Mu nodded subtly, saw the middle-aged woman appeared nervous, and quickly stepped aside from the door.
"Co in and talk. Are you Li Li’s nanny, Liu Zhen?"
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