Chapter 171 Another good son
"...Don't say anymore." Yu Wanqing hadn't recovered from the shock. She looked at Chen Zhenzhu with sad eyes and said, "Ah? He...he said he would take care of me. How could he say such a thing? He's my own son."
Shen Zhenzhu said, "You killed nine elderly people. Did their children act unfilial to outsiders? After they died, weren't they grateful to you? I think your son is greedy for money. He might not hire someone to kill you. Maybe he'll do what Qiao Kaiyue did and kill you himself."
"No! My son is not like Qiao Kaiyue, he would never smother me—" Yu Wanqing suddenly stopped talking, glaring at Chen Zhenzhu who was breathing rapidly: "You, you tricked me?! You used my son to provoke me, deliberately trying to trick me into telling me something!"
"It really was Qiao Kaiyue who smothered Qiao Jinqiu to death." Chen Zhenzhu sat back down opposite her and said calmly, "It's not me who's provoking you, it's your son. You've always thought your son loves you. If he really loved you, would he let you go out to serve others at your age while he stays at home eating, drinking, and having fun? He would have gotten up and gone out to work long ago. If you don't believe the facts, do you want me to play the recording for you again?"
Yu Wanqing was furious, keeping her mouth tightly shut, afraid of saying anything more.
Shen Zhenzhu played the recording again. She would show no mercy to the suspect who had murdered several elderly people.
'I know nothing. Her execution is her business; you can't touch the house.'
'My boyfriend found out about her affair with an old man. She's always cleaning up after people, reeks of urine and feces, and wears a mink coat...'
As Yu Wanqing listened, tears streamed down her face. She covered her face with her hands and sobbed, "No... please don't let it go anymore, please, please don't let it go anymore."
Chen Zhenzhu pressed the pause button, put the recorder aside, and said softly, "Because it was Qiao Kaiyue who killed Qiao Jinqiu, Qiao Jinqiu gave up struggling, am I right? Are you lying when you say you didn't hear anything? Where were you at the time?"
Tears streamed down Yu Wanqing's face as she drifted into a daze. She slowly raised her head and said in a hoarse voice, "I went out in the middle of the night to find Guo Zhi and ask him why he was ignoring me. I waited until morning but he didn't show up. When I got back to my place, I bumped into Qiao Kaiyue coming out of his room. He...he threatened me that if I told anyone about him, he would expose my son."
Did you witness him kill Qiao Jinqiu with your own eyes?
Yu Wanqing shook her head: "No, but when I went into the room later, Qiao Jinqiu was already dead."
Chen Zhenzhu sighed regretfully and pressed, "Is your son your accomplice?"
Yu Wanqing said, "He knew what I was doing and asked me about it, but he didn't do it with me."
Sensing that Yu Wanqing was still hiding something, Chen Zhenzhu asked, "Why are you afraid that Yu Qiang will be implicated by Qiao Kaiyue? What did he do?"
Yu Wanqing looked up at the ceiling, lost in thought.
Chen Zhenzhu leaned back in her chair, giving her time.
Footsteps echoed down the corridor. Zhao Qiqi opened the door, and outside, agents escorted Yu Qiang past.
Yu Qiang was still shouting, "I won't see her! She's a death row inmate who only knows how to drag me down. Let me go, and I'll tell you everything I know! My girlfriend is waiting for me to give her the betrothal gifts!"
Zhao Qiqi roared, "What do you mean by a bride price? Don't you know where your money comes from? What girl would want to marry you! Stop talking nonsense and cooperate with our work."
"Why isn't any girl marrying me? I'm only dating one now. It's all because I'm from a single-parent family, otherwise I would have gotten married long ago. Now that Yu Wanqing is a convict, I have to be even more attentive to her. Hurry up and let me out, before this matter is settled, I'll send her the betrothal gifts!"
......
Yu Wanqing's tears flowed silently. She opened her mouth as if to call out to Yu Qiang, but ultimately remained silent.
Shen Zhenzhu watched her quietly, not letting anyone disturb her.
Half an hour later, Yu Wanqing suddenly loosened her clenched fist, looked at the recording pen, and laughed: "Haha...hehe, Yu Qiang, even if he changed his surname to mine, he's still a heartless bastard like his father. His father got hit by a car and died while dating a woman, but he's so happy that I'm dead, and he even thinks I'm dirty. If I didn't have to clean up after other people, would I have been able to raise him all these years?"
Yu Wanqing wiped away her tears, her eyes filled with hatred: "Yu Qiang got Liu Qiang and Fang Chenggong's contact information from Sister Hong and blackmailed them. Liu Qiang couldn't bear the harassment and ran away to the south. Fang Chenggong really had no money left to give him, so he divorced his wife and tried to hang himself but was saved."
"So the money hidden under the bed, besides your 'kickbacks,' also included money he extorted?"
“Yes, I only earned less than 100,000 yuan. The rest, including the change, was brought home by him. I don’t know where he learned his extortion tricks. Liu Qiang sold his house and knelt down to beg him, but he still asked Liu Qiang for money. I advised him to have some sense of morality, but he wouldn’t listen. He’s only focused on getting married. Now I know that he not only wants to get married, but he also wants to kill me.”
Shen Zhenzhu said, "Did you only find out about Qiao Jinqiu's death when you went to his room?"
Yu Wanqing said, "Yes."
Chen Zhenzhu asked, "Did you move the bedding?"
Yu Wanqing said, "I didn't touch anything, but Qiao Kaiyue came in from outside and picked up the kitchen knife that Qiao Jinqiu had thrown on the ground. Qiao Jinqiu probably thought I was going to kill him, so he pulled out the kitchen knife to fight. But when he saw that it was his precious son, he didn't need the kitchen knife anymore. Sigh... I've raised a bunch of beasts."
Shen Zhenzhu turned to Xiaobai and asked, "Didn't the people who went to investigate see the kitchen knife?"
Xiao Bai hurriedly flipped through the documents and said, "There's no kitchen knife. Someone definitely took it."
Yu Wanqing said listlessly, "The kitchen knife was custom-made by Aunt Wang for Qiao Jinqiu. The character 'Qiao' was engraved on the handle. He often said, 'As long as the knife is there, I am there; if the knife dies, I die.'"
Xiao Bai pulled out a piece of white paper and handed it to Yu Wanqing: "Draw a rough shape."
Yu Wanqing's hands trembled uncontrollably. She closed her eyes for a few seconds to calm herself, wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, and lowered her head to draw the shape of a kitchen knife with slight trembling.
"The handle is wider than a regular kitchen knife, and it's engraved with the character 'Qiao.' The blade is made of fine iron and is quite thick." Chen Zhenzhu went out to make a phone call to arrange for people to find the kitchen knife.
Turning around, Shen Zhenzhu saw Zhao Qiqi pointing to the next-door rest room. She nodded and returned to the interrogation room to ask Yu Wanqing, "Do you want to see Yu Qiang?"
Yu Wanqing wore a sorrowful expression that was neither a cry nor a smile. She regretted impulsively revealing Yu Qiang's affair. But what's done is done. Clutching her chest, she said, "We'll see each other again...we'll meet again sometime. I'm...too heartbroken right now."
"Arrange for someone to guard it; I need to go to the workers' school." Shen Zhenzhu planned to go there herself to find the kitchen knife.
Xiao Bai finished tidying up the interrogation materials, had someone take Yu Wanqing away, and poured a glass of water for Chen Zhenzhu to drink: "Brother Ye just called and said he's arresting the family members of the elderly people who were murdered in the nursing home. Liu Cheng went to Jiang City and needs cooperation from the police in other places, so you need to send a letter over."
"I'll write now." Shen Zhenzhu walked down the corridor. She heard that Qiao Kaiyue had been arrested, and the relatives and friends who came to visit him were still making a ruckus outside.
Back in the duty room, Shen Zhenzhu first wrote out the cooperation application letter, signed her name, and handed it to Xiaobai: "We need to get the team to stamp it."
Xiao Bai said, "Okay, Brother Ye also found out about Fang Chenggong. They said his mental state was poor and he was sent to a mental hospital for treatment. It's likely he felt guilty and couldn't handle the pressure, leading to a mental breakdown."
"It's no use letting him stay there. We'll conduct a forensic psychiatric evaluation later to see if he really has a mental problem or if he's just pretending. We'll know immediately with one test."
"Oh, if only I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have done it in the first place."
Baolu Workers' School.
This week, various gossip and rumors have been circulating about Qiao Jinqiu's death.
The arrival of spring has fueled the growth of leaves, but it has also fueled the spread of rumors.
Before Chen Zhenzhu even reached the red brick building after getting off the bus, she could hear Aunt Wang talking excitedly.
The sunset painted Chen Zhenzhu and her group with a golden glow. As they walked over from afar, Aunt Wang laughed and said, "It looks like heavenly soldiers and generals have descended. Even heavenly soldiers and generals can't stay up this late."
Shen Zhenzhu nodded to her.
Zhao Qiqi followed Shen Zhenzhu and whispered, "Why be polite to someone who gossips everywhere like this?"
As Chen Zhenzhu approached the apartment building, she said in a low voice, "There's always some information about influential figures in a small circle that others don't know. It's always good to be polite."
"That's true. She also helped with Guo Zhi's matter." Zhao Qiqi turned around, grinning at Aunt Wang with her big teeth showing.
Xiao Bai laughed from behind and said, "I'll introduce you to someone, I'm not afraid."
Zhao Qiqi quickly quickened her pace and took a few more steps.
They entered Qiao Jinqiu's house and searched the area, but found no kitchen knife. Other agents also searched the workers' school grounds, looking for hiding places like trash cans, electrical boxes, and drains, but still couldn't find it.
Most of the visitors had left the two-bedroom apartment. Only Qiao Dongliang sat pitifully at the dining table, doing his homework with four other students.
Workbooks, textbooks, pencil cases, test papers, and school bags were piled together. Chen Zhenzhu glanced at them, picked up her mobile phone, and called the agent in charge of searching Qiao Kaiyue's house.
"Sister Pearl, we didn't find anything. We've checked inside and out, and searched the entire neighborhood." The officer on the other end said, "Garbage trucks collect the garbage here every day, and we've already sent people to the garbage station."
"Thank you for your hard work. Let me know if you have any leads." Chen Zhenzhu hung up the phone, walked down the stairs, and said to Xiaobai, "The cleaver has the character 'Qiao' engraved on it, so it shouldn't be lost nearby. Their family is so famous, if it's lost nearby, there's a chance someone they know might find it."
Aunt Wang tossed the peanuts in the winnowing basket, then put them down at her feet and continued peeling them, eating as she went, asking, "I heard you arrested Yu Wanqing?"
Chen Zhenzhu smiled but didn't answer. She squatted down next to her and said, "Auntie, do you remember the kitchen knife you made for the Qiao family before?"
Aunt Wang said proudly, "That's a really good kitchen knife, it's especially sharp for chopping meat and ribs. It was made by my relative, I don't usually make such a thing for just anyone."
Chen Zhenzhu asked, "How big and heavy is that kitchen knife?"
"Oh dear, I have no idea how much it weighs, we've never weighed it." Aunt Wang tossed the peanut aside and gestured, saying, "Look, it's this big, just a little smaller than a cleaver."
She lowered her voice so the elderly men and women picking vegetables with her across the table wouldn't hear, and whispered in Chen Zhenzhu's ear, "It's for keeping out concubines."
Shen Zhenzhu nodded.
The old man across from her flicked the water off the bok choy and said dismissively, "Your information is outdated. I heard Qiao Qiao was arrested. She might have killed her father. After all, her father was extremely biased, and in a fit of anger, she smothered him to death."
The old woman next to the old man spoke loudly, determined to drown out his voice, "That's complete hearsay! Her father was already dead when she came back. The news I heard is that Qiao Kaiyue killed her father! Qiao Kaiyue has been arrested and is about to be executed!"
Aunt Wang quickly made a "shh" gesture and whispered, "Dongliang is still upstairs. It's not good for the child to hear. The child is pitiful. His mother asked me to take him home for dinner tonight. I was even thinking of frying some peanuts for him."
Shen Zhenzhu squatted down beside them and listened for a while, but didn't get much useful information. She stood up, saw Xiaobai checking nearby, and shook her head, indicating that she probably hadn't found anything.
Shen Zhenzhu crossed her arms in front of her chest, mentally tracing the route Qiao Kaiyue would take to kill his father. She wandered silently along the path, then turned and bumped into Qiao Dongliang.
Qiao Dongliang covered his nose, which had been bumped, and blood trickled from between his fingers. Shen Zhenzhu took out a tissue and stuffed it into his nose, asking, "Aunt Wang said you were going to her house for dinner tonight, why are you in such a hurry?"
The students chattered away, talking about things like going to the woods, catching tadpoles by the lake, and keeping Qiao Dongliang company while he relaxed...
Shen Zhenzhu glanced at the sky; it was already dark. No matter what her parents thought, she didn't want her child running around.
Just as she was about to lead Qiao Dongliang to Aunt Wang, Qiao Dongliang suddenly shook off her hand, tightly clutching his schoolbag and standing frozen in place.
"What's in your bag?" Chen Zhenzhu reached out to take it.
"I can't give it to you!" Qiao Dongliang grabbed his schoolbag and ran away.
Seeing this, Zhao Qiqi took off chasing after them. Amidst the punches and kicks of a group of elementary school students, she grabbed Qiao Dongliang with her left hand and handed his schoolbag to Chen Zhenzhu with her right.
"Stop hitting me! Ouch, who bit me!"
Shen Zhenzhu glanced at them, her face stern, and said, "If you hit me again, I'll go find your homeroom teacher, right now."
"Wow, how can you be such a sore loser? You're such a grown-up, and you still want to tell the teacher."
"I'm leaving, I'm leaving too, I'm going home for dinner."
"See you tomorrow, everyone, don't be upset!"
The elementary school students were most afraid of going to their homeroom teacher. When they realized that Chen Zhenzhu was not someone to be trifled with, they all ran away in a flash.
Chen Zhenzhu weighed Qiao Dongliang's schoolbag in her hand and asked him, "Why are you carrying this schoolbag instead of leaving it at home? What's inside?"
Qiao Dongliang struggled to snatch the schoolbag from Zhao Qiqi.
Chen Zhenzhu unzipped her pants, glanced down, and smiled smugly: "Another one who's a pain in the ass."
Xiao Bai leaned over and took a look. The huge cleaver, with the character "Qiao" engraved on the wooden handle, nodded in agreement: "I'll go get the evidence bag."
Upon discovering that the police had found the kitchen knife, Qiao Dongliang burst into a devastating wail, his nose bleeding uncontrollably, which smeared onto Zhao Qiqi's chest.
Zhao Qiqi pulled him aside: "Don't cry, tell your brother what happened."
"You're all bad guys, I'll beat you to death! I'll beat you to death!" Qiao Dongliang was very uncooperative and struggled to say, "Wait until my dad comes back and deals with you."
Aunt Wang jogged over, and Chen Zhenzhu showed her the kitchen knife: "Is this the kitchen knife you helped make?"
Aunt Wang said repeatedly, "Yes, yes, this is the one. There are several rings of tree patterns on the handle."
She brought over the evidence bag, took out a kitchen knife, smelled it, and looked at it: "There's a perfume scent, and look, there's some blood here. It should be blood from Qiao Jinqiu's mouth that got on her hand, and when she picked up the kitchen knife, it left a fingerprint on it. The fingerprint is complete. Take it back for identification immediately."
Xiao Bai carefully collected the evidence and said happily, "Now Qiao Kaiyue can't escape."
After Xiaobai left, Chen Zhenzhu walked to Qiao Dongliang's side. Seeing that he had calmed down a bit, she asked gently, "Who gave you the kitchen knife?"
Qiao Dongliang shouted, "It's none of your business who gave it to me. Give me back the knife. If my dad finds out you took it, he definitely won't let me off the hook."
He didn't want to reveal his father's identity, but he still revealed it verbally.
Shen Zhenzhu asked him, "What are you going to do with the kitchen knife? It's already dark, it's not safe outside."
Qiao Dongliang looked closely at Shen Zhenzhu and saw that she was not wearing a police uniform and was struggling to escape from Zhao Qiqi's grasp.
"Brother Qi, leave him to me." Shen Zhenzhu took Qiao Dongliang's hand, straightened his collar, and let Zhao Qiqi leave.
Zhao Qiqi stood not far away, staring at Qiao Dongliang. Qiao Dongliang was so scared that he hid behind Shen Zhenzhu and mumbled, "Sister, can you take me to find Dad? I'm scared."
Shen Zhenzhu said, "I can take you to him; we can go together by car."
Seeing that Shen Zhenzhu was easy to talk to, Qiao Dongliang put the matter of Shen Zhenzhu grabbing him out of his mind and pointed to the stall at the entrance of the workers' school, saying, "Buy me a grilled sausage."
Shen Zhenzhu led him to the door, bought him a grilled sausage at the increasingly crowded night market stalls, and stood by the roadside waiting for him to finish eating.
Zhao Qiqi drove up in a police car, and Shen Zhenzhu opened the car door and said, "Get in the car after you finish eating, I'll take you to find your father."
Qiao Dongliang was afraid of Zhao Qiqi, so he hesitated before getting into the car and sat next to Chen Zhenzhu in the back seat.
Shen Zhenzhu asked him, "Can you tell me where you're going with the kitchen knife?"
Qiao Dongliang was too young to understand what was happening. He ate the grilled sausage and kept smacking his lips.
Shen Zhenzhu wiped his mouth, and he felt even more that Shen Zhenzhu was a good older sister. He told her, "The other day, when I was on my school trip, my dad made me take a kitchen knife and throw it into the reservoir in the west suburbs park. I was so busy playing that I forgot about it. I'm too scared to tell my dad when I get back..."
"Why did you suddenly decide to sneak away with a kitchen knife today?"
“I’m afraid you’ll find the kitchen knife and tell my dad, and he’ll beat me. He told me it’s a kind of magic: if you tie a powerful kitchen knife to a stone and throw it into the reservoir, I’ll pass my math exam.”
"Then why didn't your dad go by himself?"
"My dad is busy with my grandpa's affairs, how could he have time to go?" Qiao Dongliang said. "The teacher originally didn't want me to go on the spring outing, but my dad called the teacher and told me to go to relax, so I was able to go."
"Does anyone else know anything about the kitchen knife?"
Qiao Dongliang said, "Nobody knows. My dad doesn't let me tell anyone... Today I saw a lot of people looking for kitchen knives. I'm afraid my dad will beat me if he finds out, so I want to throw them away quickly."
......
Back at the funeral home, Shen Zhenzhu estimated that the case consolidation had been resolved by the end of the day.
Upon arriving at the interrogation room, they saw Zhou Shengnan leading people to pack their things.
In the corridor, Captain Qiu handed over his work to Lu Ye, whose face was as black as if he had been smeared with soot.
Upon seeing Shen Zhenzhu return, Lu Ye winked at Qiu Dui from behind. Shen Zhenzhu smiled and greeted Qiu Dui, "Where are you going so late at night?"
Lu Ye closed his eyes, deliberately bringing up the very thing he didn't want to talk about.
With a forced smile, Qiu said, "Captain Chen really knows how to undermine things. Getting the provincial leaders to notify us of the merged cases—is he deliberately trying to pressure our Baolu City Bureau leaders?"
Shen Zhenzhu feigned surprise and looked at Lu Ye behind Captain Qiu: "Why are the cases combined? With which case?"
Lu Ye's lips twitched as he said, "In my case, an elderly person died under abnormal circumstances. The investigation led us to the nursing home, and from there we found Yu Wanqing."
Shen Zhenzhu spread her hands, speaking in a soft, shameless tone: "Captain Qiu, the development of the case is not something I can control. It just came to our Liancheng Nursing Home, what are we going to do?"
Zhou Shengnan came out and tried to smooth things over, saying, "We've seen how good you are now, and we definitely won't lose next time."
Shen Zhenzhu had a strange fondness for female police officers of this era. She took the initiative to shake hands with Zhou Shengnan and said warmly, "Thank you for your cooperation this time, Bao Lü. If we need to cooperate again next time, Liancheng will definitely do our best. You are welcome to visit Liancheng. Come and visit me when you come."
Zhou Shengnan was taken aback by his overly familiar manner. She clenched her fist, shook it, and nodded demurely: "Okay."
Following instructions from his superiors, Qiu and his team could not linger any longer and quickly left the funeral home.
Director Wang from the funeral home came over with a smile and greeted Shen Zhenzhu, saying, "Captain Shen, would you like to take a look at the body?"
Chen Zhenzhu said with a straight face, "I'm going even if you don't tell me."
Director Wang walked forward with a forced smile and said, "Shall I take you there?"
Shen Zhenzhu glanced at him and said, "No need to be polite, I know where it is."
Director Wang stood awkwardly to one side, watching the officers coming and going in and out of the corridor.
“The family members we arrested have been sent back to the station for detention. They’re difficult to interrogate because there’s too little evidence. There are still three families we haven’t found. I’ve arranged for people to continue searching. Are you going back tonight or tomorrow?” Lu Ye wasn’t wearing his police uniform jacket; there were several scratches under his rolled-up sleeves.
"Go back tomorrow and wait for the test results." Chen Zhenzhu glanced at the scratches on his forearm, then looked at them and asked, "How did you get that? Was it disinfected?"
Lu Ye quickly withdrew his arm and said dismissively, "A family member of a foreman at a construction site gathered more than ten migrant workers to obstruct law enforcement. I don't know who took the opportunity to scratch him. But it's okay, it's already been cleaned up."
"Have those people who instigated the disturbance been dealt with?"
"Seven days of detention." Lu Ye said with a hearty laugh, "And there was also a steel tooth that almost bit Uncle Wu. Luckily, Uncle Wu dodged it, otherwise he would have had to get a tetanus shot. You would never guess how loud that tooth made a sound. If it had bitten him, a chunk of flesh would have been torn off."
"It's alright, I'll have Sixth Sister give you some tonic later."
“Hey, it’s settled then.” Lu Ye said, “I need to hurry back and interrogate them. Having Sister Hong’s ledgers alone isn’t enough. This is a big case. The provincial department is putting a lot of pressure on us. Sister Pearl, you’ll have to put in a lot of effort.”
"Okay. Go ahead, I'll let you know as soon as I have any evidence." Shen Zhenzhu watched Lu Ye leave in a flurry.
Two operators approached from the corridor, both seemingly looking for Chen Zhenzhu.
"Sister Pearl, the child has finished eating. I took him to Liu Yuji's place."
"good."
The officer guarding Yu Wanqing approached Shen Zhenzhu and said, "Yu Wanqing is crying and begging to see Yu Qiang. She probably regrets what she said and thinks the recording is fake. Should we let her see him?"
"Yes, I'll arrange it immediately."
-----------------------
Author's Note: Pearl: Yes, immediately, no one can escape.
***
See you tomorrow, there are 100 red envelopes! [Let me see]
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