Chapter 345 Crematorium

One of the people chatting immediately agreed: "Coming, coming, I'll go right away."

After reuniting with Xia Yu, Xia Yu handed over the mobile phone, "Officer Zhou, Feng Qiang's family has been contacted and left your number. They will go to Feng Qiang's house now to check on him."

Zhou Yi nodded, but his mind was still thinking about what he had just heard.

Burned?

He seemed to have thought of something vaguely.

Then he followed the sound and found an office where a woman was working on documents.

The eldest sister looked up at the two people at the door and asked, "What are you doing?"

Zhou Yi showed his ID and said, "Officer, what did you just say about the dead chicken being burned?"

The eldest sister was startled and nodded nervously.

"Tell me what the specific situation is."

"There was a chicken farm and some chickens got fowl plague and died...died, and then the chef took them away to be burned." The elder sister stammered.

"Where did you burn it?"

"Fire...crematorium..."

Zhou Yi was stunned: "They're burning dead chickens in the crematorium?"

My eldest sister said, "The old crematorium in the west of the city... they don't burn people anymore... they just burn dead chickens."

Xia Yu said, "Officer Zhou, the crematorium in the west of the city is old. Ten years ago, a new funeral home with cremation facilities was built in the east of the city, so the old one in the west of the city was abandoned. But this is the first time I've heard of burning dead chickens."

The eldest sister quickly said, "It's a city regulation. Before, dead chickens were just thrown around, and the city said it was polluting the environment, so later they were all taken to the old crematorium to be burned."

Zhou Yi's expression changed, and he hurriedly asked, "Are there any procedures for taking the dead chickens to the crematorium for incineration?"

"Yes, but you need to get a receipt. The crematorium can only start burning the incense after they receive the receipt."

"Find some information for me right away." Zhou Yi said.

According to Zhou Yi's request, the elder sister quickly found the relevant registration information.

The chicken farm where Yang Jian works is the No. 5 Chicken Farm under Zheng Guangming's company. Before the New Year, on January 29th, the No. 5 Chicken Farm burned a batch of dead chickens.

In the 1990s, large-scale breeding was limited by various reasons such as technology, and the loss rate was still quite high. In order to prevent sick and dead chickens from entering the market and destroying the industrial ecology, the city had very strict requirements for the handling of dead chickens.

Zhou Yi remembered that Ms. Huang, who worked at the same chicken farm as Yang Jian, told him that Yang Jian had not come to work since January 29th before the New Year.

The timing just matches.

Zhou Yi asked his elder sister who took the dead chicken to the crematorium that day?

The eldest sister said it was Master Li, who was now going to the No. 3 chicken farm to pick up dead chickens.

Zhou Yi asked Xia Yu to follow him immediately to the crematorium in the west of the city.

When Zhou Yi told Xia Yu about his guess on the way, he was shocked.

He knew that Zhou Yi was looking for the missing Yang Jian. Zhou Yi had mentioned it to them last time, but he didn't expect Zhou Yi to have such an association.

"You mean, this Yang Jian was probably thrown into the crematorium's incinerator and burned with the dead chickens?"

"Well, this possibility cannot be ruled out. Burning it to ashes is the best way to deal with the corpse." Zhou Yi said with a serious expression.

"Then who killed him?"

"If he was really burned, then he must have been someone from Zheng Guangming's company. There's no way an outsider could dispose of the body this way."

Xia Yu couldn't help but sigh: "Oh my god, there is not a single good person in Zheng Guangming's family."

"Let's check first."

Zhou Yi is not sure now, because it has been three months. If it was really burned to ashes in the incinerator, there would be no trace of it. Even using DNA technology, it would be impossible.

Arriving at the crematorium, I discovered it was indeed quite old, with a desolate and eerie feel. If you didn't know it was a place dedicated to handling dead chickens, it would have looked like an abandoned crematorium to an outsider.

There was only an old man guarding inside. Upon asking, I found out that he was a former employee of the crematorium who was re-employed after retirement.

Since the old man couldn't speak Mandarin, Xia Yu had to ask.

After the communication, the old man said that the actual amount of dead chickens handled was not very large, not every day. At least it was once or twice a month, and at most it was five or six times a month.

Moreover, only large chicken farms would send the chickens here for burning, because large chicken farms have paid the money according to the city’s requirements, and small ones have to deal with it themselves.

Because the quantity is not large and he is the only one there, only one stove is still usable.

Generally, the chicken farm will call in advance to notify you when there is a need, and then arrange a time for delivery.

As for the ashes left over from the burning, someone will take them away for centralized disposal.

This means that it is impossible to detect human ashes through ash testing.

Then Zhou Yi asked Xia Yu to ask the old man whether Guangming Chicken Farm had sent dead chickens to be burned on January 29th, and whether he still remembered what happened at that time.

The old man said that it had been too long and he couldn't remember clearly, then he looked through the records and confirmed that a batch had been delivered.

Zhou Yi hurriedly asked when it was.

The old man squinted at the registration form and said, "Two fifty in the afternoon, the person who signed is Li Tiewang."

As he was talking, a small truck drove into the crematorium. The old man looked up at the license plate, pointed, and said, "That's Lao Li."

As soon as Li Tiewang got off the car, he saw two young men walking towards him. He felt strange and wondered when young people came to the crematorium?

Zhou Yi and Xia Yu directly revealed their identities and asked him if he was the one who delivered the dead chicken on January 29th.

Although Li Tiewang was confused, he nodded and answered yes.

"Are you here alone?" Zhou Yi asked.

"Yes, I'm alone. I don't specialize in this. I work in the freight department, hauling goods."

"But I think you are the one who burns all the dead chickens in your company?" Zhou Yi looked at the other person, because this person was the most suspicious person at the moment.

"But they all refused to do it, thinking it would be unlucky, and also complaining about the low pay." Li Tiewang smiled naively, "I have three kids to take care of at home, so I'll do it even if the pay is low."

Judging from his demeanor and the deep wrinkles at the corners of his eyes when he smiled, he didn't seem to be lying.

Zhou Yi asked again: "What happened that day? Tell us in detail."

"They said there was a batch of dead chickens to be disposed of at Yard No. 5, so I went to pick them up with the order from the company, and then I burned them as soon as I got them."

"Are these chickens also dead from illness?"

Li Tiewang shook his head. "No, it seems they died from drugs. Chickens that die from drugs are different from chickens that die from illness. Chickens that die from illness are limp, while chickens that die from drugs are hard."

"He died of drugs... Did someone drug him? Did you call the police?"

"Then I don't know. I'm just responsible for transporting the goods."

"After we bring it here, who will be responsible for burning it? You or me?"

"Uncle Yang just lights the stove. We do all the cooking ourselves. That's why they don't like to do it. It's very tiring work."

"Burning it yourself? Will the old man be watching?"

Li Tiewang laughed and said, "What's so interesting about that? I'm just roasting dead chickens, not people. I'll just throw them in one by one and that's it. When they're done, just say hello to Uncle Yang."

Zhou Yi's heart skipped a beat. The other party made this joke very calmly. If he really did it, and dared to joke like this, then his psychological quality would be too good.

Zhou Yi told Xia Yu to ask the old man to verify whether this was true.

Xia Yu immediately ran to the duty room nearby to inquire, and after asking, he ran back and said, "The uncle confirmed it. He said that when he was rehired, he agreed that he would only be responsible for lighting the stove and would not be responsible for other work. And he certainly would not be watching while the stove was burning."

Zhou Yi nodded. The conditions and environment for dealing with the corpses were already in place. The only problem now was the people.

It seems that Li Tiewang needs to be brought back for trial. Although he doesn't look like the culprit, he is the only one who currently has the conditions to commit the crime.

"Master Li, please think about it again. Did anything special happen when you pulled the dead chickens from the chicken farm that day?" Zhou Yi asked again. If there were still no valuable clues, then they would have to take the person back first.

Li Tiewang frowned and thought again and again.

“Nothing…”

He was about to shake his head when the old man from the duty room ran over with two pieces of paper in his hand.

The old man said a few words in dialect and then handed over the paper.

Xia Yu took it and looked at it, his eyes showing some surprise. Then he handed the paper over and said, "The old man said he just checked the previous bills and found two identical bills on January 29th."

"What?" Zhou Yi was startled and took the list to take a look.

Sure enough, the two invoices were exactly the same. Both were headed by Anyuan Guangming Trading Co., Ltd., and the content was about the incineration of sick chickens. The date of signature was January 29th, and the seal was also the company seal of Guangming Trading.

Why are there two identical lists?

"Li Tiewang, you came here twice that day?" Zhou Yi turned his head and asked sternly, his eyebrows raised.

Li Tiewang was shocked. "No... no, I've never carried it twice in one day."

"Then how do you explain this?" Zhou Yi shook two identical lists in front of him.

Li Tiewang stared with wide eyes and looked carefully again and again, and they were indeed two identical lists.

He shouted anxiously, "I really don't know. Maybe they opened it too much?"

Although he didn't know what exactly happened, it was definitely not a good thing. The boss's family affairs had caused a lot of uproar today.

"Uncle Yang, you have to testify for me. I only came here once that day."

The old man scratched his head and said something that almost made Li Tiewang anxious to death. He said: "It happened so long ago, I can't remember it clearly."

Zhou Yi also said: "Uncle, you have to think about it carefully. If you can't remember, you have to go back to the Public Security Bureau with us."

This time it was the old man's turn to be frightened, and he quickly said that he would think about it again.

Li Tiewang was visibly nervous and it didn't seem like he was pretending at all.

Zhou Yi looked at the two lists carefully again and suddenly discovered that the handwriting in the items column on the lists was exactly the same.

However, there are slight differences in the Arabic numerals in the date column between the two lists.

The old man suddenly shouted something.

Zhou Yi looked at Xia Yu, and Xia Yu said, "Master, I remember what happened."