Chapter 69

Tang Qingqing hurried to the place Qin Sa mentioned. This section of the road had already deviated from the place where Shen Hewei went fishing, and the fork in the road was quite remote.

Wang Heizi has been hanging around the commune in the past few years, walking the streets and alleys, and he knows what is going on at a glance.

"Just half an hour further down this road, there is another place where fishermen like to squat."

The river in their commune has fast currents or is turbid in many places, so there are not many places suitable for fishing.

This is the most suitable place, and many fish lovers like to come here when they are free.

Wang Heizi knew a guy who was about the same age. When the popsicles were sold in the summer, he liked to hang out there.

Most people who have the time to go fishing have some money in their pockets, so they are more willing to spend money on popsicles.

If the harvest is good that day, you can buy several.

Qin Sa, Gao Pengyue and two other police officers were also at the scene. After hearing what he said, they said:

"Shen Hewei used to go fishing here, but later he felt there were too many people, so he went to the place he often goes to now."

People who saw Zhou Xiaoling also ran over to fish.

Normally, fishermen come early, but he was late because he had an upset stomach.

However, he was riding his bicycle in a hurry at the time, so he just glanced at Zhou Xiaoling and passed by quickly without paying much attention.

It was not until the police came to investigate that he remembered that he seemed to have seen a little girl passing by here a few days ago.

Tang Qingqing asked: "Are you sure it's Zhou Xiaoling?"

"It should be her. We interviewed people along the way and found that Zhou Xiaoling was indeed walking in this direction. But for some reason, she went to this fork in the road."

"Could it be that the two of them had a different opinion?"

Qin Sa: "Shen Hewei said that he has not been here since he moved to a new place, and other people who often fish there have also confirmed this statement."

Tang Qingqing frowned, not understanding why Zhou Xiaoling had gone astray.

It’s not like Zhou Xiaoling had not been to this place with Shen Hewei before, and the road signs were very conspicuous, with the situations on both sides of the fork completely different.

When this fork in the road first diverges, it is even more remote and there are no villages nearby.

Because there was a large area that was fenced off, it was originally planned to build a factory. However, due to financial reasons of the commune, it was left idle and nothing was done.

There are villages around Shen Hewei's fishing spot, and there are farmlands along the way, so people can be seen from time to time.

"Could someone have deliberately led Zhou Xiaoling to this place to commit a crime?"

"This is very likely. If Zhou Xiaoling didn't get lost, then someone had planned this, and it was someone close to her."

Now that he has this clue, Qin Sa has to check everyone around Zhou Xiaoling one by one, including Shen Hewei.

Tang Qingqing roughly understood the situation and started rolling up her sleeves to get to work.

This route is more troublesome than the other one. There are many places suitable for action, so you have to check them slowly along the way and there is no time to be lazy.

However, compared with the previous task of surveying all the riverbanks, the workload has been reduced a lot.

Qin Sa patted her shoulder and said, "Come on, I'll go to the other side and try harder."

Tang Qingqing led Wang Heizi, Gao Pengyue and another public security officer to conduct a carpet search. As for Tao Dazhuang, he was not capable of doing so and could not be counted on.

Tao Dazhuang followed Tang Qingqing and guarded her silently.

A morning passed and nothing was achieved.

This is a common occurrence, so no one is complaining.

Everyone found a place to rest. Tang Qingqing sat on a rock and started drinking water and eating dry food.

Gao Pengyue: "This is not an easy job. You are so young, but you are so patient."

Forget Tang Qingqing. Wang Heizi looks like a person who has no patience and is very cunning.

I didn't expect that he was very reliable and serious about his work.

Wang Heizi: "This is just the beginning. We used to climb mountains with Sister Qing in the middle of winter and at night, and I never complained about the hardship."

What Wang Heizi said above was not a lie.

The following sentence is completely nonsense. Wang Heizi can do things, but he always complains.

Now that there are outsiders here, we have to control it. If they were all our own people, they would keep chattering.

Tang Qingqing moved her neck and saw someone not far away from the corner of her eye.

She turned her head and looked over there, and indeed saw three people there, pointing here and there, and talking about something.

Gao Pengyue followed her gaze and said, "Huh."

Tang Qingqing: "What's wrong?"

"The woman leading the group is Shen Hewei's sister, Shen Hexian."

Shen Hexian is five years older than Shen Hewei. He also works in the machinery factory and is the director of the second workshop.

Tang Qingqing was curious: "Why is she here?"

Wang Heizi: "Don't you know? This land was previously acquired by the machinery factory. It is said that they want to expand production and build a new factory here."

Tang Qingqing had never heard of this before: "How can the efficiency of our commune's machinery factory be so good? We can even build a new factory."

Many factories are now facing a crisis, with poor performance resulting in them being unable to pay wages.

According to what Tang Qingqing learned from the book, many factories may no longer exist in the future.

I didn't expect that the machinery factory was operating so well that they would open a new factory.

"This rumor has been around for a long time, but it seems that there is internal debate and nothing has been finalized."

"They are here now to plan how to build the factory in the future."

Tang Qingqing looked at the actions of several people, as if they were outlining a blueprint for the future.

"Just go and ask and you'll know." Wang Heizi said as he was about to go over.

Tang Qingqing grabbed him and said, "We are here for other things."

"Comrade Tang Qingqing, I have to criticize you. Everyone who appears here should be questioned and investigated. Maybe there will be some clues."

Tang Qingqing thought it made sense, so she let go of his hand.

Not only did Tang Qingqing's people notice the three men, but the three men also noticed them and walked towards them.

Tang Qingqing stood up from the ground.

Shen Hexian is a woman in her early thirties. She looks very capable. Unlike the fair and gentle Shen Hewei, she looks stronger and more sturdy, has larger hands, and walks briskly.

She must have been working on the front line for a long time, which is obviously different from those women who rely on their father's connections to work in an office in a factory.

Shen Hexian greeted them cheerfully: "Hello, public security comrades. Are you here to investigate the case of Zhou Xiaoling? I am Shen Hewei's sister. Shen Hexian, thanks to your keen observation, my brother has not been wrongly accused."

She looked at Tang Qingqing with admiration and appreciation, "Is this the legendary 'female hero with divine eyes'?"

Tang Qingqing smiled and said, "Sister Shen, those are just rumors spread by others. I am not that amazing."

"Don't be modest. I'm happy to hear that a girl has such abilities. We women should let men see that women can hold up half the sky and are no worse than them."

Tang Qingqing still just smiled.

Shen Hexian asked: "How did you get here? Do you have any clues? Do you need our help?"

Tang Qingqing: "We are still investigating. Sister Shen, do you come here often?"

"No, we haven't decided yet whether to open a branch factory. I just came to check the situation today. I didn't disturb your work, did I?"

Tang Qingqing shook her head: "No."

"How is the investigation going now? Any news about the murderer?"

Before Tang Qingqing could answer, Shen Hexian said:

"The murderer has not been found yet. The Zhou family has been accusing us of using connections to get in through the back door, saying that we have everything under control. They believe that my brother is the murderer."

Shen Hexian frowned, and when he thought of the Zhou family, his expression looked very nice.

"We will catch the murderer as soon as possible, please rest assured."

"I said at the beginning that I couldn't get engaged to this family, and now I'm in trouble."

Shen Hexian waved his hands and said, "Let's not talk about this anymore. It's my family's bad luck. If my brother hadn't had a brain problem and gone crazy when he got sick, he wouldn't have been caught by others."

Wang Heizi: "Now that it has been proven that Shen Hewei was not at the scene when Zhou Xiaoling was murdered, do the Zhou family still dare to make trouble?"

"Of course they are making a fuss. Zhou Xiaoling married into our family, and now she's gone, so they came to our house to ask for her. And if my brother hadn't insisted on having Zhou Xiaoling go fishing with him, there wouldn't have been such a fuss."

Shen Hexian thought of something and said, "Why are you here? My brother stopped fishing here a long time ago and moved to another place. Didn't you know?"

Tang Qingqing: "Someone once spotted Zhou Xiaoling here."

Shen Hexian was surprised: "What is she doing here? Did she misunderstand my brother? Hey, it's normal if she misunderstood me. My brother's mind is sometimes clear and sometimes confused."

"I look normal, don't I?"

"That's because you don't understand him. I'm his biological sister, so I know what he's like."

Shen Hexian sighed deeply, "If it weren't for that accident, my brother would have been a very talented person. After graduating from university, he would definitely be able to realize our grandfather's wish and make the factory bigger and stronger. We wouldn't be discussing it every year and failing to make up our minds every year like we are doing now."

"So you think that Zhou Xiaoling's visit here might be because Shen Hewei misremembered the appointment?"

"Maybe. Who knows? Otherwise, why would Zhou Xiaoling come here? There is nothing along the way. It's very deserted. It's dangerous for a girl to walk here."

Tang Qingqing paused and asked, "Sister Shen, when was the last time you saw Zhou Xiaoling?"

"The night before she was killed, I went back to my parents' home for dinner and she was there too."

Speaking of Zhou Xiaoling, Shen Hexian couldn't help but sigh.

"Zhou Xiaoling is a miserable person. She is so young, but she has encountered such a thing. She is very well-behaved and obedient, and she is especially good at making my parents happy. She is more considerate than me, their daughter. Before, my parents joked that if the young couple didn't like her, they could adopt her as their goddaughter. I didn't expect... Oh——"

Shen Hexian didn't stay long and left, taking the two people for a stroll nearby so as not to interfere with each other's work.

Wang Heizi came up to Tang Qingqing and said, "What a coincidence that we met today. From what I heard, I thought you were going to build a branch factory, but it turns out you haven't decided yet."

Tang Qingqing looked at Shen Hexian and his group and pursed her lips.

"Heizi, go ask around and see if they've been around a lot lately. Also, go to the machinery factory and ask if the branch factory is reliable."

Wang Heizi raised his eyebrows: "From what you said, are you suspicious?"

Tang Qingqing shook her head: "I can't really tell, let's check it out anyway."

There are indeed many coincidences in the world, but many coincidences are also man-made.

Tang Qingqing had felt something was wrong before, but she only realized it after talking with Shen Hexian just now.

Shen Hewei had never had an attack outside, but he had a brain disease, and when he went mad, the terrible news spread everywhere.

Logically, even if Shen Hewei's father was not the leader of the machinery factory, ordinary people would be more respectful and would try their best not to let these negative news spread.

No one wants their child to be branded as having a mental problem. When Shen Hewei fell ill, they could suppress the news.

They lived in the cadres' building, which was some distance away from where ordinary workers lived.

Of course, this is not absolute. If Shen Hewei was often ill, it would be impossible to hide it.

But as Shen Hewei's sister, she hardly spoke to Tang Qingqing. She seemed to be sick in both her brains. I don't know why, but it always made people feel uncomfortable.

Coupled with all the coincidences, Tang Qingqing inexplicably wanted to know more information.

Tang Qingqing would definitely feel embarrassed to trouble others to investigate this loose guess, so she could only verify it in private when she had time.

But when facing Wang Heizi, Tang Qingqing was not polite at all.

She knew that even if her efforts were in vain, Wang Heizi would not complain, so she would not feel too much psychological pressure.

"But that's not right. Wasn't Zhou Xiaoling raped and murdered? Shen Hexian is a woman."

"I can't tell you, I just want to check it out."

"Okay, I also want to know what the machinery factory is like."

Wang Heizi slipped away, and Tang Qingqing continued to search for clues along this road.

There was no news from Tang Qingqing yet, but Wang Heizi had already found out about the machinery factory opening a branch.

"We haven't even started yet. Director Shen feels that the current situation is not good. The machinery factory is struggling and has already shown a downward trend. If we open another branch factory, the pressure will be very great. If things go wrong, everything will be over."

Wang Heizi was extremely disappointed, as he thought there would be some big movement in the commune.

If a machinery factory builds a branch, it will definitely require a lot of manpower and material resources, so there will be room for operation.

As a result, nothing.

Although there was a group of radical people making a lot of noise, Director Shen was the mainstay. If he didn't give in, it would be useless even if the leaders above came down to talk to him.

"By the way, Shen Hexian has been here a lot lately, and every time she brings two or three people around to wander around this area, imagining a better future. A while ago, because of Shen Hewei's incident, Director Shen had no time to care about things here. Now that Shen Hewei has been released, Shen Hexian was reprimanded this time, saying that she was trying to shake the morale of the troops."

Tang Qingqing frowned, "Can you find out where Shen Hexian went during this period of time?"

"Are you still worried about me doing the job?"

Wang Heizi took out a map and said, "Here, it's all marked on it. Shen Hexian has no purpose and is wandering around everywhere, but there are always some people who are smart enough to tell which area she cares about the most."

That’s not all, Wang Heizi also brought a clue to Tang Qingqing.

"The night before Zhou Xiaoling was murdered, someone saw Zhou Xiaoling and Shen Hexian following each other out of Shen's house and talking outside the house."