Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Deadly Joy (12)

Sui Xing said, "Placing Wan Ze Yu and Yuan Zhong's bodies together in such a ritualistic way, any criminal investigator who sees this will instinctively think the killer is the same person. I can understand this misdirection, but there's still one thing?"

Hai Shu pinned the crime scene photos on the whiteboard. "I can't say for sure yet, but extending from the first point, the one who killed Yuan Zhong was Wan Ze Yu. They must have worked together before, and now, due to some dispute or disagreement, Wan Ze Yu wanted to silence him. This obviously wasn’t a crime of passion committed on the spur of the moment. Both of them had prepared for this. After Wan Ze Yu killed Yuan Zhong, another force wants to kill Wan Ze Yu. There are two possibilities: First, it's revenge for Yuan Zhong; second, Wan Ze Yu’s death is unrelated to Yuan Zhong, and Yuan Zhong isn't involved with this hidden killer, but Wan Ze Yu had a reason to die at their hands."

As Hai Shu paused, Sui Xing quickly responded, "No, the first possibility doesn’t make sense!"

"That's right!" Hai Shu tapped on the photo, "It’s not just Wan Ze Yu's body that was dismembered, Yuan Zhong’s limbs were also hung up on the smoking rack! The person who did all of this had no feelings or respect for Yuan Zhong. They were just using the body in front of them."

Sui Xing whispered, "So it's the second scenario. These are two cases that are both related to Wan Ze Yu but are actually unrelated to each other. Our original judgment of revenge is..."

Hai Shu nodded, "This is the second misdirection I was talking about. The way the bodies were displayed would lead the police into thinking ‘the killer is avenging both victims’. The killer is hiding the true motive."

Yet, now, even the elite of the Criminal Investigation Unit couldn’t provide a definitive answer about the motive.

Before the meeting ended, Hai Shu said seriously, "Everyone, thank you for your hard work these days. But we must continue and sometimes go back to square one."

Wen Xu smiled, "No problem, Captain Hai. It's not just your old department in Bin Cong City that can work tirelessly. Our brothers and sisters in Hui Yong can do the same."

Hai Shu gave a grateful expression and then added, "Next, I want to focus on the two victims and Guang Jun’s youth. We've looked into this before, but not deeply enough. Guang Jun's reaction, though it suggests he's not involved in this case, also hints at a problem between him and Wan Ze Yu. Is the killer of Wan Ze Yu also related to him?"

Hai Shu paused, "Also, Guang Jun’s wife, Yin Canxi, and I are relatively familiar. I’ll go see her to gather more details about Guang Jun."

Upon hearing Yin Canxi's name, Sui Xing raised an eyebrow, and after the meeting, came to Hai Shu’s side. "In a big city like Bin Cong, with a police officer like you as an informant, why did she end up marrying in Zhou Ping Town? Guang Jun has some money, but other than that, what is he really good at? He can't even compare to a rich young man from Bin Cong, right? And Yin Canxi is so beautiful—couldn't she find someone rich in Bin Cong?"

Hai Shu instinctively thought of defending Yin Canxi, but Sui Xing's words were exactly her doubts, and she also brought up something Hai Shu had overlooked: with Yin Canxi’s looks and makeup skills, she could definitely find a man from a good family in Bin Cong.

"She said Zhou Ping Town is her hometown, and there are some practical issues," Hai Shu gave a vague answer.

Sui Xing raised her head, eyeing Hai Shu suspiciously.

Hai Shu: "Hm?"

Sui Xing smiled, a little coldly, "Captain Hai, you still haven’t truly treated us like your own people."

"Why do you say that?"

"You’re suspicious of your informant, but you brush me off with 'practical issues.' You don’t want me to delve deeper."

Just as Hai Shu was about to explain, Sui Xing waved her hand. "Forget it, we’re not that close anyway."

The meeting room was left with only Hai Shu. She sat still for a moment, then remembered Sui Xing’s slightly petulant behavior. She smiled and shook her head, calming herself, and opened her notebook.

Before the Wan Ze Yu case, Zhou Ping Town seemed peaceful and harmonious, but it had long been shrouded in the shadow of crime.

Hai Shu was jotting down a large number of clues that may or may not be related to the case itself, but before the case was fully clear, any one of these threads could serve as the fuse for this case.

Hai Shu held the notebook in one hand and a pen in the other. The words reflected in her eyes, and in her mind, they materialized into scenes.

After Guang Jun actively exposed his mother’s lie about the 80,000 yuan, Guang Yong Guo seemed to make no move. Perhaps he supported Guang Jun, or even Guang Jun’s actions might have been at his suggestion.

What was he hiding?

Back when the old workshop discovered the bones of four people, Guang Yong Guo suppressed the matter and pushed the blame onto the now-deceased former factory director, Li Yun. To cover this up from the police, there was a crucial point: those four people might have been loners, with no one caring whether they were dead or not.

But why were all four people like this? It was too much of a coincidence.

Regarding the relocation of the factory, Guang Yong Guo claimed it was after hearing the superstitious rumor about the vengeful ghost of Cai Mei that the old factory director, Li Yun, was scared and decided to stop the old workshop and move to the east.

Cai Mei...

Hai Shu immediately flipped through her notes. Cai Mei’s identity was entirely a mystery—there was no household registration, and now the old people only remembered she came back with the head of the Luo family, Luo Dafu. Her death was simply described as: drowning.

The so-called vengeful ghost period saw the deaths of four people from the Luo family, one from the Li family next door, and two from the Xu family. The number of people who died in the Luo family matched the number of bodies found in the furnace.

When these two lines connected, Hai Shu got goosebumps on her arm.

But after thinking for a moment, the timeline didn’t match.

The factory’s relocation to Zhou Ping Town was a year after the Luo family was exterminated, and at that time, the police had already discovered the victims’ bodies.

Hai Shu tapped her pen on the page, her thoughts returning to the four people in the furnace.

The four were people whose lives were never cared about. Although there were many temporary workers in the old workshop, temporary workers still had colleagues and relatives. Statistically, it would be very hard to find four such people.

But of course, no one cares about the lives or deaths of those who have already died!

Could it be that someone stole their bodies a year after they died and threw them into the furnace?

Cai Mei’s body was also stolen back then!

Hai Shu rushed out of the meeting room and found Director Zhao of the police station. The unsolved family massacre case always left Director Zhao feeling dissatisfied. He looked pained as he recounted the situation from back then.

Because the case had never been solved, the victims' bodies were temporarily stored in the funeral home. However, the families of the three victims would sit in front of the police station every day, wanting to bury their loved ones. Especially Mrs. Luo, who had lost all her family members; she had fainted and cried several times.

The police had checked everything they could, but they couldn’t find more clues on the bodies. In the end, they had to return the bodies to the families, allowing them to bury them in the ground.

Hai Shu asked where they were buried, and Director Zhao said, "On the collective burial mountain to the north."

Hai Shu wanted to go to the burial mountain to verify her deductions immediately, but if it were the old her, she would have already done so.

At this moment, the night was thick, and she sat in the driver’s seat but did not start the car.

She had not yet obtained permission to dig up graves, and the family massacre case, the bones found in the furnace, and the current case were not clearly connected.

After a moment, she got out of the car, rubbed her sore eyes, and reminded herself of the focus of her investigation the next day.

Wen Xu was smoking on the balcony of the guesthouse. He saw Hai Shu rush into the car and then get out shortly after. Leaning on the railing, he muttered to himself, "Going out to investigate something?"

The next day, the investigation continued.

Zhou Ping Town had a primary school and a junior high school, but no high school, though there was a technical school. Most people, after finishing junior high, didn’t go to high school in the county or city. Instead, they went to the technical school for two years before going to work in the factories.

The retired teachers still remembered Wan Ze Yu and Guang Jun. Both of them were the most famous students in their respective classes. Wan Ze Yu was infamous for being a troublemaker. His father, who ran a transport business, didn’t care about him, and his mother couldn’t control him. Guang Jun, on the other hand, never broke the rules, but he had a prestigious father, and some children secretly called him "Young Master." He had already learned how to flatter others at a young age.

As for Yuan Zhong, the teachers remembered him because of his gloomy personality and how he didn’t fit in. Additionally, his life was so miserable. All the teachers said they couldn’t remember Yuan Zhong ever talking to Wan Ze Yu or Guang Jun.

"Wan Ze Yu was my student. Guang Jun was in the year above. They probably weren't friends at the time. Every time I caught Wan Ze Yu, he wasn’t with Guang Jun." The class teacher from Wan Ze Yu's junior high school recalled, "Guang Jun was much more well-behaved than Wan Ze Yu. Their relationship only grew closer after graduation."

This was inconsistent with previous investigations. The Guang family had said they watched Wan Ze Yu grow up, and Guang Jun had claimed that he and Wan Ze Yu were childhood friends. Young people also said Guang Jun and Wan Ze Yu had been good friends during their school years.

Only Wan Ze Yu’s teacher said that at least during junior high, Wan Ze Yu and Guang Jun rarely hung out together.

Whose memory was faulty? Who was intentionally distorting the facts?

The class teacher was sharp-minded and didn’t seem to have any memory loss. She even took out her teaching notes from back then, which recorded every time Wan Ze Yu had fought or bullied other students, along with the reprimands she had given him.

Hai Shu studied the notes carefully and suddenly noticed a familiar name: Xu Qiao.

It was an ordinary name, and many people were named Xu Qiao. But Hai Shu found it familiar because someone had mentioned it to her.

Who was it again?

The teacher’s record wasn’t very detailed. It only stated that on September 12th of a certain year, Wan Ze Yu and Xu Qiao had fought at the back gate of the school.

Other records were about Wan Ze Yu bullying others, but this was the only instance where he fought with someone, and the opponent was a female student!

Hai Shu quickly pointed to the record and asked, "Teacher Zhang, do you remember this incident?"

The class teacher put on her reading glasses, but after seeing the name Xu Qiao, she froze, then took off her glasses and pressed her wrinkled hand against her eyes.

"Hai Shu?" the teacher sighed and shook her head. "I never taught this girl, but all the teachers in the school knew she was of good character. It's such a pity..."

Hai Shu realized something. "She... something happened to her?"

"After she graduated from our school, she went to the county town for high school, then even got into college, right here in Hui Yong City. We all thought she would have a bright future, but who would have known... she mysteriously committed suicide."