Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Tragic Joy (16)

Liu Qiong didn't speak, only shook her head. Her eyes peeked out from under her messy hair, avoiding Hai Shu's gaze.

The nurse hurried in upon hearing the noise. When Liu Qiong fell earlier, the IV needle had pierced her vein, leaving her hands covered in blood. The nurse bandaged her up and reminded her not to get too agitated. She also said that the room shouldn’t have too many visitors, and once the visit was over, everyone should leave.

Liu Qiong looked at her brothers with worry, as if wanting to keep them there. But Hai Shu could tell that it wasn’t a desire to keep her family close—it was because she knew that once they left the room, she would have to face the criminal police alone.

Why was she so resistant to the police? Her son had been murdered, and the police were doing everything they could to catch the killer. Didn’t she want the killer to be caught?

After the relatives were persuaded to leave, Hai Shu escorted them to the door and then called Wen Xicheng, asking him to take them to the police station for a talk. The relatives became anxious when they heard this.

Hai Shu said, "It’s not that we suspect you, but since you’re already here, why not? We're also investigating Wan Zeyu’s case, and Kongyun Town is his hometown, right? We’re not familiar with that area. Big brother, could you help us out?"

Her words didn’t carry any police authority, and everyone seemed to relax. Soon, they were taken away by Wen Xicheng.

In contrast to their reaction was Liu Qiong’s, whose tension was entirely different from her brothers'. The latter simply hadn’t dealt with the police before and viewed them as "officials," but Liu Qiong seemed like the kind of person who had secrets to hide. Secrets that could never be exposed, especially not in front of the criminal police.

Hai Shu closed the door but didn’t speak immediately. She thought about how Liu Qiong had fallen. It wasn’t normal for someone to just fall from the bed. Was Liu Qiong trying to interrupt the conversation when they were talking about the Wan family’s ancestral home, Kongyun Town?

The police had been investigating Wan Zeyu for so long, yet Kongyun Town never appeared in the clues. Was it because decades ago, the household registration system was not as strict? Did the Wan family not want people to know where they were from? So, they deliberately avoided mentioning Kongyun Town for a long time? No wonder the police hadn’t been able to trace it.

Hai Shu sat down and looked Liu Qiong in the eye, but Liu Qiong quickly turned her gaze away.

Hai Shu asked, "Did you move here from Kongyun Town?"

Liu Qiong began to tremble, shaking her head slightly.

Hai Shu pressed, "But your cousin said that’s where you’re from."

Liu Qiong finally managed to squeeze out a sentence, "They are who they are. We haven’t lived in Kongyun Town for a long time!"

Hai Shu said, "So your ancestral home is in Kongyun Town. Conveniently, I have something I’d like you to take a look at..." She opened her photo album, found a picture of the handcuffs, which was not gory, and didn’t show they were in a coffin. "I heard these handcuffs are made in Kongyun Town. Have you ever seen anything like this?"

Liu Qiong didn’t want to look, but Hai Shu held the phone in front of her. She hesitated, took a quick glance, then recoiled as if electrocuted, nearly falling out of the bed again.

Hai Shu quickly supported her shoulders. "It’s okay, calm down."

"I... I’ve never seen them... I don’t know!" Liu Qiong stammered, her eyes red but not shedding any tears. "I haven’t lived in Kongyun Town for a long time. You, you should ask someone else!"

Hai Shu had already put the phone away. She showed the handcuff photo as a tentative probe, but Liu Qiong's reaction was abnormal. What did this mean? In such a short time, Hai Shu dared not make a judgment.

"I’m the lead investigator on this case," Hai Shu took out her badge. "My colleagues have visited you several times, but you haven’t been willing to cooperate with our investigation. You’re the closest relative of Wan Zeyu, and we really hope you can help us by providing evidence to solve this case. You want justice for your son, don’t you?"

Liu Qiong’s head was bowed low, moving up and down slightly as if nodding, but Hai Shu felt it was more like begging. What was she begging for?

"To find the killer, we’ve tried many approaches, but unfortunately, they’ve all been wrong." Hai Shu said with sincerity, "A few days ago, I visited your home and found... maybe the real Wan Zeyu wasn’t quite like how he appeared to others."

Liu Qiong suddenly stopped shaking, like a statue frozen by a spell.

Hai Shu continued, "The person in front of you seems to be the real him."

"No!" Liu Qiong’s voice trembled uncontrollably. "He was the same at home as he was outside!"

"Really?" Hai Shu said, "But Wan Zeyu was known as a devoted son outside. At home, however, he placed your room next to the noisiest part of the house, no air conditioning, and the heater worked intermittently. The window faced a trash dump."

Liu Qiong stared at Hai Shu in shock and fear, as if decades of hidden mold had finally been uncovered.

"No, it’s not..." She shook her head. "I’m old and tired from climbing stairs. I can only live on the first floor."

Hai Shu replied, "But there are other rooms on the first floor more suitable for you. Your heater should have been replaced long ago."

Liu Qiong tightly gripped the blanket. "I don’t know! I don’t know what he did!"

Hai Shu looked at Liu Qiong’s arm, which was trembling in terror, the bandages soaked with blood. It wasn’t the right time to press further. Hai Shu softly comforted Liu Qiong and said as she left, "I’m a woman too. After you calm down, if you want to rely on me as a female officer, I’ll always be here."

When Hai Shu returned to the police station, Wen Xicheng had already started a tea party with Liu Qiong’s relatives—right in the temporary office of the criminal investigation team. The tea was kindly provided by the police station, and the most nostalgic item on the table was a large, old-fashioned round tray, filled with sunflower seeds, peanuts, and candy.

They all gathered around the table, casually chatting and snacking like it was New Year’s in a rural home.

Hai Shu: "…"

This was a situation she hadn't anticipated.

At this moment, Cheng Wei hurried in carrying a bag of glutinous rice twists. Hai Shu stopped him at the door and pointed inside, "Looks like it's pretty lively in there."

Cheng Wei: "Team Leader Hai, wasn’t it you who asked for a tea party?"

Hai Shu chuckled, "I had Wen Xicheng bring people in first to chat."

She’d figured it out. Wen Xicheng was quite the social butterfly, better at chatting than she was. Holding a tea party wasn’t a bad idea—it created a relaxed atmosphere, and they were likely to get more clues from casual conversation than in the interrogation room.

But how did he even buy hot glutinous rice twists?

Cheng Wei explained, "It’s almost the New Year. There are plenty of carts outside selling candy and peanuts. When Wen Xicheng came back, he bought that big flower plate from a street vendor, then had me go buy sunflower seeds."

Hai Shu asked, "What about the glutinous rice twists?"

Cheng Wei: "Huh?"

Hai Shu laughed, "You must have wanted to eat them yourself, huh?"

Cheng Wei sheepishly grinned, "Ah, you caught me."

The conversation inside was lively, so Hai Shu didn’t want to interrupt. Instead, she stood outside in the hallway, listening. Wen Xicheng was indeed very good at guiding conversations, and he didn’t have the typical police officer demeanor. Soon, everyone began to treat him as one of their own, and they talked a lot about the Wan family’s past.

Kongyun Town was a small place. Nowadays, it was developing in the hardware industry under the influence of the city’s economic zone. People’s lives were improving. But twenty or thirty years ago, Kongyun Town was a poor village. The surrounding villages had better terrain, and young people could leave to work and send money home. But Kongyun Town was surrounded by mountains, with only one very bad dirt road, making it hard to leave.

Because of the poverty, some families, with too many children, had to send them away, but the other families didn’t have enough food either. Many children died from cold or hunger, or disappeared without a trace.

The Liu family and the Wan family lived very close to each other, and their children grew up together. Initially, the Wan family was the poorest in Kongyun Town, but with so many children, all of whom were hardworking, they managed to get by. During those years when the county started building roads in Kongyun Town, a lot of workers came from outside, and all the Wan family’s sons went to help. After the road was finished, they immediately left to work, and the Wan family’s life began to improve.

Liu Qiong and Wan Zeyu, the eldest son of the Wan family, became close. Both families thought the marriage was a good match. At that time, with the government’s policy support, the chain manufacturing industry in Kongyun Town had started to get sales channels. The Liu family was involved in this business, and the Wan family worked in transportation.

But Zhang Gang and the others still didn’t know why, one year, the Wan family insisted on leaving Kongyun Town. Liu Qiong, of course, followed her husband, and after a big argument with her family, she cut ties with them.

For many years after, they never returned to Kongyun Town. It wasn’t until the elders passed away that Liu Qiong came back for the funeral. It was as if she had been scattered like spilled water, and her traces quickly disappeared from Kongyun Town.

The year of the Wan brothers' car accident, Liu Qiong’s relatives first came to Zhou Ping Town. In their minds, Wan Zeyu was a very "unruly" child, with a frightening gaze, not treating them like family.

Afterward, contact between the two families almost stopped. Liu Qiong seemed to really dislike these poor relatives.

Wen Xicheng joked, "So, do you still remember them?"

Zhang Gang, with his honest expression, replied, "Well, blood ties are there, aren’t they? And no matter how Wan Zeyu turned out, back when Sister Qiong and Wan Dage were in the hometown, they were really kind to us, to the people in the village. Whenever there was something we needed, Wan Dage would help without hesitation!"

As the tea party was winding down, Wen Xicheng asked a seemingly out-of-place question, "Is there a woman named Cai Mei in your town?"

Everyone exchanged glances and said they didn’t know.

After everyone left, the meeting room was a mess, with sunflower seed shells and peanut skins scattered everywhere. Hai Shu and Wen Xicheng cleaned up together.

"In Liu Qiong’s relatives’ minds, Wan Zeyu and Liu Qiong were very warm-hearted people back then. So they probably wouldn’t be the kind of people who, after leaving their hometown, looked down on their poor relatives," Wen Xicheng straightened up, leaning on the broom. "What could have happened that made them cut ties with their hometown?"

Hai Shu said, "There’s also a reason for leaving. Zhang Gang couldn’t explain it, and Liu Qiong didn’t want to talk about it. Maybe something happened back then."

"The body of Cai Mei and her husband’s entire family disappeared, and the handcuffs found in Luo family’s coffin came from Kongyun Town." Wen Xicheng frowned, unusually troubled. "I thought Cai Mei might be connected to Kongyun Town, but judging from their reaction, they seem to have no memory of her at all."

Now that the investigation was progressing, the police seemed to be getting closer to the truth, but the white fog in front of them couldn’t be torn apart, which was making everyone anxious.

Meanwhile, in Gray Surge City, Sui Xing was now involved in the Xu Qiao missing person case. After some investigation, she had managed to contact Xu Qiao’s former roommates.