Zhang Huafeng shook his head and sighed, saying, "We haven't figured it out yet! There's no surveillance in the countryside, so we haven't found the person involved yet. But they said they'll continue the investigation and told me to contact them as soon as I remember anything."
Guan Feng looked at Huang Lili and instructed, "Call the town's police station and ask them to send someone in charge of the case to come and question us."
Huang Lili immediately agreed.
She got the police station's phone number from the bureau, then dialed the number, introduced herself, and was surprised to hear that the case was being handled by the Major Crimes Unit, and that Guan Feng, the deputy captain of the Major Crimes Unit, had personally invited her.
Liang Xiaotian, who was in charge of the case investigation, did not dare to delay and immediately said that he would come over right away.
Guan Feng then looked at Zhang Huafeng and asked, "Logically speaking, a cow is worth at least 20,000 to 30,000 yuan now. Poisoning three cows would be worth close to 100,000 yuan. No ordinary grudge would lead to such a thing. Do you have any suspects?"
Zhang Huafeng hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said, "It's hard to say."
Guan Feng pressed, "Is it that it's difficult to say or that you can't say?"
Zhang Huafeng explained, "I had people I suspected before, but after reporting them to the police, they investigated and said they were not suspects because the timeline didn't match. I can't just slander people, so you'll have to investigate."
Guan Feng nodded and said, "In that case, let's wait for the people from town to arrive before we talk about it."
Zhang Huafeng nodded.
A moment later.
A police car sped by.
Two police officers from the town's police station, who were in charge of the case, jogged all the way to Zhang Huafeng's house.
The two went straight to Zhang Huafeng's house as soon as they got out of the car.
Upon seeing Guan Feng standing in the middle of the crowd, the two immediately greeted him warmly, saying, "Hello, Captain Guan!"
Guan Feng looked at the two men, nodded, and asked, "I called you here mainly to inquire about the investigation into the case of Zhang Huafeng's cattle poisoning."
The two investigators also guessed that it was about this matter. The older officer, Officer Liang, said, "After receiving your call, we guessed that it might be about this matter, so we brought the relevant files over for you to review."
Guan Feng took the file and examined it carefully.
He saw the cause and effect of the case. Starting a week ago, the Zhangzhuang Town Police Station received a report from a person named Zhang Huafeng, who claimed that his cattle had been poisoned and that three of his cattle showed signs of poisoning to varying degrees.
When the police officers from the local police station arrived at the scene, they found that, as Zhang Huafeng had said, the three cows showed obvious signs of poisoning.
After confirming that it was a poisoning case, they immediately launched an investigation at the scene. However, the rural area was sparsely populated and lacked surveillance, so they found no clues. They then started from the source and investigated the sale of the poison, but found nothing unusual.
The case has to be put on hold for now.
Guan Feng asked, "Zhang Huafeng, I saw in this case file that you think Zhang Changhe might be a suspect?"
Zhang Huafeng nodded and said, "Yes."
Guan Feng said, "Then tell me the situation. Why do you think they are not suspects?"
Zhang Huafeng first explained: "Zhang Changhe was originally the in-laws of my youngest son's children. My youngest son is 26 years old this year, and his daughter is 24 years old this year. The two families got engaged three months ago."
Guan Feng asked, "Since you're in-laws, how did things come to this? You're enemies."
Zhang Huafeng said, "It's a long story. When we got engaged, the two families agreed on a dowry of 188,000 yuan, which we gave. But later, when his son got married, the dowry was a little short, so he wanted to ask his daughter for more."
“Last month they sent someone to tell me that the bride price would be raised to 288,000 yuan, but I didn’t agree! How can they raise the price like that?”
"To be honest, it's not that I can't afford the money, it's that I can't bear the shame! The price went from 188,000 to 288,000. Is this selling my daughter? Just because the dowry for my son isn't enough? I didn't agree! And as a result, they won't agree to the marriage!"
"According to the agreement, we should have gotten married this month. When I saw this situation, I discussed it with my son and said that if we didn't want to get married, we could just return the bride price."
"But they were very slow to return the bride price. At first, they said their daughter's reputation was damaged and refused to return it. Later, they found someone to judge the matter and only returned half of it. Then, the matter escalated and the villagers all came out to mediate, and only then was the remaining money completely returned."
"Although the money was returned, and the two families had a very ugly falling out, this incident has ultimately created enmity between them."
Guan Feng nodded and said, "I think I understand the story. Is there anything else? You suspect them, it can't be just about this, right?"
Zhang Huafeng said, "Captain Guan, you see things clearly. I didn't expect our two families to become such enemies. At most, we would never see each other again. But the day after the engagement was called off, my dog Heizi was poisoned to death. Heizi was a wolfhound we raised, who usually guarded the cowshed."
Guan Feng asked, "When did this happen?"
Zhang Huafeng said, "About two weeks ago."
Guan Feng asked, "Did you suspect that the other party did it at the time?"
Zhang Huafeng nodded and said, "The dowry was just returned here, and the dogs were all poisoned. How could I not be suspicious? By the way, when it was returned, his family threatened me to keep an eye on their cows."
Guan Feng said, "From this perspective, there is a motive and the behavior is reasonable. Your guess is not without merit."
He looked at the two police officers at the police station and asked, "Did you investigate? I saw in the case file that the investigation yielded no results?"
The older officer, Liang, said, "After receiving Zhang Huafeng's report, we took it very seriously. After learning about the details, we also believed that Zhang Changhe and his family were highly suspicious, so we immediately went to their home to find out what was going on."
"Zhang Changhe has a son and a daughter. After a detailed investigation, it was found that none of the four family members had the opportunity to commit the crime."
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