Liu Yufei paused, tapped her head, and said:
"I forgot, that An Jianhua who ca to find his grandmother to tell us about the ethnic history, his family is one of the Eight Great Families of the Yugu People, the Luo Family, and only the chieftain’s family can have the surna An. Does that an all the locals with the surna An are related to the Yugu ethnicity?"
Mr. Zhao took out his police device, which was issued to him upon his arrival here, and searched for An Liwei. The information that ca up was limited, and this fact about the ethnicity Han made Mr. Zhao pause.
"Eh? He’s not a Yugu person?"
Liu Yufei and Zhou Ning both leaned in to take a look. The two of them did not seem too surprised.
"What does that an? Why aren’t either of you surprised?"
Liu Yufei flipped through the device and tossed it away, saying:
"His birth date is shown to be March 17, 1973, and there’s no record of household registration migration. The registration was uniformly done in 1951. His forr na is Peng An, and there’s no fingerprint or other information on here, probably because he was presud dead in 2000 and therefore wasn’t reported.
However, the parents’ column is empty. The note says he was an orphan. I rember that in 1951 Longyou Province completed the eradication of bandits. I’ve co across this question before, I just don’t rember which month. In 1951, he was already working at the Public Security Bureau, definitely one of Longyou’s old police guards.
As for the surna An, I don’t think other places have this custom, but looking at the photo, although the clothing and dressing are no different from ours, I think there’s a difference in the cheekbones and the eyebrows."
Zhou Ning glanced at the photo and imdiately laughed, because it was evident at first glance how similar the person resembled An Jianhua with the thin lips, long eyes, dense eyebrows, high cheekbones, high brow ridges, but not outstanding in height.
"What about Mr. Fang? Have him contact An Jianhua. This person looks too much like him. Oh right, I rember in the files there was a scene commander nad An Lishuai. That na has two characters similar to An Liwei. Mr. Zhao, search for that."
Liu Yufei sent a ssage to contact Fang Dongsheng. They were all following Fang Mu, interrogating Sun Pengfei. Soone had to take on the exhaustion from the first part of the interrogation. They were the most suitable.
After a mont, Liu Yufei received a reply.
"He says he will contact him right away. An Jianhua was seconded here and should be working overti today."
At this ti, Mr. Zhao lifted the search results to show the two of them.
"Well, this An Lishuai, the scene commander, must be An Liwei’s brother. They look like they ca from the sa mold, just appears a bit younger, born in 1948. Just like An Liwei, his household registration has no ntion of parents or siblings, also an orphan.
He retired in 2008 and disappeared without a trace. There’s a note here that his fingerprints were taken in 2007 during the city-wide switch to the second-generation IDs. Until his retirent, his highest position was as the chief of the pickpocketing squad. Could a pickpocket beco a scene commander?"
At this ti, the door opened with a push, and of course, as it opened, two extra knocks followed, as if the person rembered to knock only after opening the door.
Fang Dongsheng’s head appeared through the door, waved his hand, and looked around the room.
"May I co in?"
Mr. Zhao quickly waved his hand with enthusiasm.
"What are you waiting for? Co on in."
It was actually An Jianhua he brought in. Arriving abruptly made An Jianhua seem sowhat nervous. Mr. Zhao quickly asked:
"Nervous about what? I’ve got sothing to ask you. We found two people in photos who look a lot like you, but they are much older. One was born in 1937 and the other in 1948. We just want to ask your family if anyone has ever gone missing."
An Jianhua thought hard.
"My grandmother once ntioned that I had a great-uncle who got separated from the family when he was four or five years old. At the ti, we thought he’d been eaten by wolves, as back then we were always hiding here and there. The elder brother of my second great-uncle ran away when he was about eleven or twelve right after the country was founded, supposedly wanting to join the army or sothing. After that, we lost all contact with him. The family eventually struck their nas from our records."
Zhou Ning and Liu Yufei exchanged glances. Clearly, these two could very well be An Liwei and An Lishuai based on the age and timing, but the specifics could no longer be verified.
After An Jianhua left, Fang Dongsheng looked at everyone and Mr. Zhao closed the door and pulled Fang Dongsheng aside, saying:
"Good timing. I wanted to ask you about these two people. One is called An Liwei, who must have been one of your City Bureau directors, but he’s deceased.
As for the other, nad An Lishuai, the information I can find shows this person retired in 2008, but now he’s untraceable. Mrs. Fei and Director Zhou asked for you because they want to speed up the investigation. Are you familiar with these two n?"
Fang Dongsheng thought for a mont, sank into contemplation, then eventually nodded and said:
"I know about An Liwei, his term was incredibly long, almost ten years, and afterward, he was transferred to the provincial departnt, which was basically a stand-by position. His spouse seed to have been persecuted in the past and was in bad health, passing away not many years later. Consequently, he had no children, making him a respectable elder leader.
However, he died very early, just a short while after retiring. The funeral arrangents were made by the Ganzhou City Bureau, since he had no descendants to handle it. It was managed by the retirent office, and we all attended the funeral."
Zhou Ning stared intently into Fang Dongsheng’s eyes. The words seed quite sincere, and Zhou Ning could sense that Fang Dongsheng wasn’t lying. Although Ganzhou was corrupted through and through, and this person had directly altered the files, what was the purpose of doing so?
This was what Zhou Ning kept thinking about, why do it?
A police chief who had served nearly ten years, worldly and sophisticated -- though it might not sound like a complint, sotis this was a necessary elent for survival, especially in such a place.
Bai Qishan at the ti was not yet in charge of the Longyou region. He had always taken the political path, possessing an admirable public identity and mingling with upper-level personnel, making it easier to draw attention and, of course, easier to be caught.
As for that hyena, he benefited from a promotion due to his father’s death. Despite Bai Qishan’s disdain and defamation, he was ultimately the beneficiary, and from Bai Qishan’s words, one could sense that this ’hyena’ was very low-key, like a venomous snake lurking in the shadows, always ready to bite.
Returning to the point, if Zhou Ning’s father had a National Security Departnt identity and his superior had been turned, when reporting the situation, his father might have discovered a problem with his superior, perhaps reporting it was too late, or perhaps his identity was questioned.
What could he do?
As previously analyzed, the best thod was to hide the secrets discovered in the cave and kill everyone in Sapporo and Minjin who knew about the situation. It’s safest not to expose anything, just to get rid of all possibilities.
If one analyzed it from this perspective, the command to murder Zhou Ning’s parents at the ti must have been to silence them. Everyone was to be silenced, and if Zhou Ning’s father’s superior had issues, then he would have been the one most eager to silence everyone.
Yet Zhou Ning didn’t die but rely lost his mory. Wang Guanli and his two companions hadn’t examined the scene carefully back then, withdrawing quickly because they heard police sirens.
They had to leave, and when Zhou Ning’s father entered the room, he ntioned he had contacted the team, but it seed he said he had contacted Mr. Peng.
Zhou Ning narrowed his eyes. Mr. Peng?
It seed there wasn’t anyone with the surna Peng in the Ganzhou City Bureau. Who was this Mr. Peng?
Zhou Ning glanced at Mr. Zhao’s smartphone, suddenly rembering that when they had searched for An Liwei before, there was a forr na written as Peng An. Could it be that the Mr. Peng Zhou Ning’s father ntioned was him?
Just as Liu Yufei was about to continue questioning Fang Dongsheng, Zhou Ning stopped her and walked directly up to Fang Dongsheng, using his height advantage to look down slightly into Fang Dongsheng’s eyes.
"We’ve just discovered that Mr. An, this An Liwei, has no registered parents and is noted as an orphan. However, he has a forr na, Peng An. Have you heard about this? It was during his tenure that you transferred here, so you should know sothing about it, right?"
Fang Dongsheng nodded.
"I’ve heard people say that back then, banditry was rampant in Longyou, actually backed by Minjin. Although An Liwei was young at the ti, he had followed the troops and gained experience. He participated in several campaigns against bandits and was called Peng An at that ti.
I heard that he was taken in by an uncle surnad Peng when he was young, and since he was always on the move, he knew only his surna was An, so he decided to call himself Peng An. When the Ganzhou Public Security Bureau was first established, he was assigned to work here. To avoid being recognized, he later changed his na to An Liwei.
At that ti, many said he was related to the Yugu People, as the heads of the Eight Great Families all have the surna An. But Mr. An denied it, saying he rembered his parents who lived near Ganzhou but spoke Mandarin.
As for An Lishuai, when I first arrived, I thought he was An Liwei’s blood brother because they looked similar, and their nas differed only by one character. But when I was curious, the old-tirs at the bureau quickly dispelled the rumors. It seems An Lishuai himself once joked about it, and Mr. An scolded him for it."
Mr. Zhao leaned in, finding what Fang Dongsheng said to be very interesting.
"I get it now. Mr. An originally called himself Peng An, a na he chose by himself. After the establishnt of the Ganzhou City Public Security Bureau, he was appointed to work here. To avoid backlash from bandits, his leaders helped him change his na to An Liwei. And this An Lishuai, who ca later, always wanted to have a connection with Mr. An. Interesting!
From this angle, Mr. An appears to be a very upright and honest person. Whether or not he is related to the Yugu People, he has denied it. An Lishuai, perhaps, arrived with different intentions, but why did he disappear without a trace after retiring?"
Fang Dongsheng shook his head.
"To be honest, I don’t know much about him, as he worked in the anti-pickpocketing squad. Anyone of age should at least get an idle position, but he was in anti-pickpocketing until retirent.
After retirent, the departnt distributes items of comfort to the retired staff every year. I found out when people from the retirent office ntioned it during a al that they haven’t been able to contact An Lishuai since his retirent. The items for him from the retirent office are already expired.
As for his son, there has been no contact either. His house hasn’t been sold, and for many years there were no water, electricity, or gas bills, which indicates that no one lived or rented it out. I found it strange then and rembered it."
Liu Yufei also sensed sothing was amiss. Surely an entire family couldn’t just disappear, could they?
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