Chapter 43 The Truth Hidden for Twenty Years
It is said that there is much gossip and trouble around a widow's door.
Widow Xu absolutely refused to allow any man into her yard. Unable to persuade her otherwise, Chen Zhenzhu went inside alone to talk to her.
Gu Yanzheng took the opportunity to go to Zhu Xiaoping's house, who was still alive, to learn more about the homeless man and Gao Baoting from back then.
Shen Zhenzhu and he split up to carry out their respective tasks, each leading their own group.
Tu Dali stood outside Widow Xu's room. Occasionally, passersby would glance at him, their eyes filled with undisguised mockery. Tu Dali showed his police ID, and the person hurriedly left.
Widow Xu lived alone with her son and worked as a teacher at a Hope Primary School. Her proper name was Xu Lan. She lived in poverty, had completed high school, and still had a copy of her first-year primary school Chinese textbook lying face down on her kang (heated brick bed).
She was of average build and unremarkable appearance, but she was somewhat different from the women in the village who did farm work; she had a rebellious nature.
“He raped me. When I went out to reason with him, no one believed me. They all said that I seduced him.” Xu Lan lowered her eyes and said angrily, “Later, the man surnamed Yang also wanted to take the path of a village cadre. Fearing that I would drink pesticide in front of the county government, he gave me a thousand yuan and had his mother give me the job of a primary school teacher to take over.”
Seeing that she wasn't the type to throw a tantrum, Chen Zhenzhu asked, "So how are you doing now?"
Xu Lan laughed heartily, "It's great except for the sheer pleasure. I know why you're here. Let me tell you, I couldn't have killed them. Such wicked people will face divine retribution. No matter how kind they pretend to be, if they're evil at heart, they won't get away with it!"
Shen Zhenzhu and Xu Lan were chatting inside when Gu Yanzheng arrived at Zhu Xiaoping's house, but no one was home.
"The developer boss came down and said he was hiring. Zhu Xiaoping's father was a small boss under him, so he went along to pick people out. He offered really high wages. It's a pity we don't have a good relationship with the Zhu family, otherwise we could have made a lot of money too."
Following Zhou's introduction, Zhu Xiaoping's neighbor grumbled, "Look, it's not far away, you can go and look for it."
Gu Yanzheng thanked the man, but after taking a few steps, the old man called out to him again: "Are you arresting him for gambling?"
Zhou scolded, "What nonsense are you spouting!"
The old man muttered to himself, "That must be because of drug use."
Gu Yanzheng stopped and asked, "He's a drug user?"
The old man said, "Gambling, drug addiction, dating, still not married in his thirties. His family has connections that got him and his two older sisters jobs at the power company. He's so lucky, so lucky!"
"Alright, alright, I'll contact you if anything comes up." Zhou urged the old man home and went with Gu Yanzheng to find Zhu Xiaoping. When they arrived at the recruitment site, Gu Yanzheng discovered that most of the people selected were the same group he had just met.
It seems these four families are definitely village bullies. The other villagers who weren't chosen dared not speak out against them, while those who were chosen all bowed and scraped before Old Zhu.
Zhu Xiaoping stood behind Lao Zhu, acting like a bully. He had naturally curly black hair and was as thin as a stick. He wore the power supply bureau uniform and carried a sly, 250,000 yuan bag behind his back.
"That's Zhu Xiaoping. The guy in front of his father is the biggest developer here, surnamed Shen, Mr. Shen," Zhou introduced to Gu Yanzheng, showing a hint of respect for Mr. Shen. People in this small county hadn't seen many big bosses; Mr. Shen was probably the biggest one.
They all hoped that President Shen could enable them to live a wealthy life and become millionaires as soon as possible. They all respected President Shen immensely. Even the Ma, Yang, Niu, and Zhu families acted like grandsons in front of President Shen.
Zhou called Zhu Xiaoping over for questioning. Gu Yanzheng glanced at the seat next to the car, where General Manager Shen was sitting, and then told Zhu Xiaoping to go to a less crowded area.
When Zhu Xiaoping went over to talk, his two older sisters followed him at a distance, as if afraid that the Zhu family line might be accidentally severed.
After Gu Yanzheng finished talking here, he walked to Xu Lan's door and found that Shen Zhenzhu was already waiting at the door.
Having barely eaten all day, I was starving when I got back to the farmhouse.
Shen Zhenzhu still had some doubts, so after dinner, she met with Gu Yanzheng in the room during a break.
The two whispered to each other for a long time, mostly Gu Yanzheng listening to Shen Zhenzhu analyze the case.
When Zhou arrived, he was carrying fresh cherries picked from the greenhouse. They were the first batch of early spring cherries that would soon be on the market, and they were sweet and sour.
When he saw Shen Zhenzhu standing at the door of Gu Yanzheng's room, giving him a sinister smile, his heart skipped a beat.
Once inside the room, before even exchanging pleasantries after putting down the cherries, Chen Zhenzhu cut to the chase: "Is the homeless man really dead?"
Zhou silently lit a cigarette and said in a low voice, "I know you'll ask sooner or later, but I'm telling you, I'm dead."
Chen Zhenzhu asked, half-believing, half-doubting, "Really dead?"
Zhou said, "There aren't many rape cases in our county. In the past twenty years, the only rapist arrested was that homeless man."
After biting her lower lip and thinking for a long time, Chen Zhenzhu asked, "Are you sure the homeless man is dead?"
Zhou said decisively, "I'm sure. Not only did I go there, but retired Zhao Youchao was also there. He's dead. You know, back then, rapists who were caught basically didn't survive. They were tied to trees and beaten to death with sticks."
Speaking of the tragic situation back then, Zhou shook his head: "Fortunately, it's all in the past. At that time, the Ma, Yang, Niu, and Zhu families each received work points and five eggs for catching the rapist. That was a huge reward back then."
“So…” Shen Zhenzhu looked at Gu Yanzheng: “Is it possible that the homeless man helped Gao Baoting but was framed instead? So now that something has happened, their first reaction is that Gao Baoting is seeking revenge? Otherwise, it really doesn’t make sense.”
Gu Yanzheng said, "We can summon Niu Jun and Zhu Xiaoping and pry them open."
Shen Zhenzhu then asked Zhou Suo, "Can we still contact Comrade Zhao Youchao?"
Zhou nodded and said, "I can get in touch with her. She's at her daughter's house in the county town, visiting her granddaughter."
***
Shen Zhenzhu interrogated Niu Jun with Tu Dali in the interrogation room, while Gu Yanzheng led a group to interrogate Zhu Xiaoping.
When facing Shen Zhenzhu, Niu Jun initially acted nonchalantly, even making boastful remarks: "Hey, you're from the city, what do you think of me? Apart from being a bit older, I'm definitely a reliable date."
Shen Zhenzhu's face was stern, and unlike her sweet and beautiful appearance, her words carried a fierce tone: "Are you sure you want to talk to the police like this? Disrespecting law enforcement officers, do you know how many days you'll be detained?"
Seeing that she was uncompromising, and knowing that Shen Zhenzhu was no ordinary country bumpkin, he put away his playful demeanor, leaned back in his seat, and said, "Can you guarantee I won't be killed if I tell you?"
Shen Zhenzhu said with a serious smile, "Everything I do here is to solve the murder case and find the killer, unless you don't cooperate."
Niu Jun suddenly asked, "Is it possible that after a certain period of time, even if you kill someone, nothing will happen?"
Tu Dali stopped writing and looked at Shen Zhenzhu in surprise. Shen Zhenzhu gestured for him to continue writing and said to Niu Jun, "Under normal circumstances, after the twenty-year statute of limitations has expired, no further action will be taken."
The second half of the sentence was swallowed down like a pearl; under special circumstances, there is no time limit.
Can I have a cigarette?
Tu Dali went out to ask a colleague for a cigarette and handed it to Niu Jun.
Niu Jun inhaled deeply into his cigarette, exhaled sharply, leaned back in his chair, and said with a fearful expression and a low voice, "We made a mistake a few years ago."
Niu Jun's confession made Tu Dali want to get up and beat him up several times.
Just as Shen Zhenzhu guessed, the reason why Niu Jun and Zhu Xiaoping were afraid of retaliation from Gao Baoting's family was not because Gao Baoting's family repaid kindness with enmity, but because the ones who wanted to bully Gao Baoting on the mountain back then were none other than them!
The four of them were around ten years old, a time when they had a vague longing for sex. When they saw the beautiful Gao Baoting, they followed her by the sound of her singing.
Life was hard back then, and every family's children had to go up the mountain to dig for wild vegetables to fill their stomachs. The silly girl didn't know how hard life was, and her singing voice was melodious and beautiful, like a happy oriole.
The four of them scared her friends away, then surrounded her from both sides and finally cornered her halfway up the mountain.
"He suddenly jumped down from the tree and beat us up, ruining our fun. Otherwise, we wouldn't have wanted to retaliate!"
Niu Jun's hand holding the cigarette trembled: "She's just mentally challenged, and a woman at that. In other villages, whoever wants to play with her gets to play with her. In the end, she'll be picked up by an old bachelor, have children, and have food and drink. That's not bad."
His wide, receding hairline made him look older than his peers, and a disgusting smile curled at the corners of his lips, as if he were comforted by his own words.
Shen Zhenzhu closed her eyes and said, "So you didn't bully them?"
"It didn't work out! If it weren't for him, it would have been a long time ago!" Niu Jun finished his last puff of cigarette and flicked the butt onto the ground. "I was young back then, only fifteen or sixteen. I didn't know anything about that. It was Ma Sheng who insisted on trying, and Yang Yishu agreed, so we cornered her on the mountain. You know, her parents and older brother kept a close eye on her. It took them a lot of effort to get her, but unfortunately, the duck that was almost in our grasp just flew away. I guess Gao Baoting's family thinks we really slept with her, and they've held a grudge all these years."
What happened next was simple: the four fools were so scared by the homeless man with the wooden stick that they ran away in terror, and they no longer thought about taking Gao Baoting down the mountain.
Coming down from the mountain, they met relatives who were walking home after finishing their farm work. Under questioning from the relatives, who were also thinking of getting revenge on the homeless man, they unanimously said, without prior communication, that they had witnessed the homeless man raping Gao Baoting, and that they wanted to save her, but unfortunately, they were no match for the homeless man.
Seeing the growing number of villagers, the relatives went up the mountain to find the homeless man. There, they found Gao Baoting in his arms, disheveled. Without the boys needing to incite them, they beat her to death in public. To avoid being recognized as a homeless man and causing trouble, they also smashed his face.
Many people witnessed their actions at the scene, including Gao Baoting.
This is why, when someone died, both Niu Jun and Zhu Xiaoping felt that it would be Gao Baoting's family who would take revenge. They must have figured out the truth over the years. It wasn't that the homeless man wanted to take off her clothes, but that he wanted to help Gao Baoting put her clothes back on. They thought that everyone had forgotten about this incident over the years, and now they finally wanted to avenge the homeless man and Gao Baoting.
"Luckily, they didn't gang rape you. You bunch of beasts." Tu Dali came out of the interrogation room and cursed fiercely, "It's better if you're dead!"
After interrogating Niu Jun, Shen Zhenzhu waited a while before meeting Gu Yanzheng. The two sides checked their testimonies, and the contents of their statements were basically consistent.
Zhou did not participate in this interrogation; he remained silent.
This happened shortly after he became a police officer, and he never expected to handle a wrongful case. The homeless man, branded as a rapist for twenty years in the case file, turned out to be a selfless hero who saved others.
The hero was executed on the spot, but the four men, Ma, Yang, Niu, and Zhu, who should have been punished by law, continued to wreak havoc on the village.
Zhou had contacted Zhao Youchao, who had worked on the case with him years ago, and told Shen Zhenzhu, "Old Zhao can't come today. His granddaughter has pneumonia and needs to go to the city's children's hospital to get an appointment with a specialist. He might come back tomorrow or the day after."
“Brother Zheng, I want to go see the graves of the homeless.” Shen Zhenzhu said, standing at the entrance of the police station, “I want to dig up the graves.”
Zhou, standing at the door, dropped the cigarette that was dangling from his mouth: "Digging... digging up a grave?! I've already said he's dead, what's the point of digging him up? It's been twenty years!"
Chen Zhenzhu paced back and forth, pondering the direction of the entire case, and said to herself, "I still want to see his grave."
Seeing her serious expression, Gu Yanzheng nodded and said, "I agree."
Tu Dali also said, "If we're talking about murder, he's the one who should be the one to come back as a vengeful ghost and kill them!" After saying that, he belatedly realized, "No wonder Ma Sheng's family set up a ritual for him and wouldn't let anyone else watch. Yang Yishu was the same; they just sealed the coffin, and no one could say anything. They must think the homeless man has come back as a vengeful ghost to seek revenge. They all know the homeless man was wronged!"
Zhou Suo helplessly reminded him, "Be mindful of your position. These are things we shouldn't be saying. The village is already buzzing with rumors. If this continues, demons and monsters will start to rise up."
Chen Zhenzhu asked Zhou Suo, "Do you have photos of homeless people? Or even photos of corpses?"
Zhou said, "Where would such a thing be found? Cameras were rare back then, let alone taking pictures of crime scenes. I don't even remember it myself."
Gu Yanzheng glanced at the time and asked Zhou, "Is the cemetery far?"
Zhou said, "It's on the hill behind Fujia Village. If you want to go, I'll take you there."
Shen Zhenzhu said, "Go, go now."
Shen Zhenzhu then asked Gu Yanzheng, "In this situation, is it possible to collect the homeless person's fingerprints from the coffin?"
Gu Yanzheng knew she was concerned about the fingerprint that had been found but couldn't be matched, and assumed that she had dug up the grave for the identity of that fingerprint. He nodded and said, "If the body was touched when it was placed there, maybe it can be identified. I'll help you find it."
"Okay." Shen Zhenzhu was relieved.
Sitting in the Cherokee, Shen Zhenzhu couldn't help but think that it was fortunate that Captain Gu had come with her, otherwise she and Lu Ye would have been exhausted from running around all day without a car.
If given the chance, I will get my driver's license; Chen Zhenzhu has set lofty goals for myself.
The homeless man had no name; his grave was on a mound beside Black Mountain. Overgrown with grass and birdsong, it was difficult to find. Finally, Zhou called over the coffin seller to help him recall the grave.
“This should be the place.” The coffin shop owner was short and stout with a flat head and strong hands. He stomped his feet around in the waist-high grass and pointed to the slightly raised mound.
Zhou looked around at the surroundings. There was a stream flowing behind him, birds chirping, and a birch tree. "It should be right. Let's dig."
At a command, Tu Dali spat into his palm and began digging. When he got tired, Gu Yanzheng and Zhou Suo took turns digging.
The coffin shop owner stood at a distance, watching and muttering something to himself.
Shen Zhenzhu then retrieved an entrenching tool from behind the Cherokee and joined the grave-digging team.
“Old Zhao paid for the burial. We couldn’t just leave the body lying by the roadside. Old Zhao is a kind-hearted man, so he spent five yuan to buy a coffin. The villagers wouldn’t let him bury it in the cemetery, so we just found a random barren hill to bury it there, so it wouldn’t be thrown out and eaten by wild dogs,” Zhou said as he dug.
Shen Zhenzhu knew that there had been disasters in the 1960s, and that it was a time when people ate tree bark and grass roots. The following years were also difficult because too many people died of hunger.
"We've got it." Zhou threw the shovel aside, tapped the soil with his hand, and waved to the coffin shop owner, saying, "Come help me pry it open."
The coffin shop owner came over, kowtowed three times to the coffin, got up, grabbed a shovel, and forcefully pried it into the gap of the coffin. Without saying a word, he stomped on it hard, and with a loud bang, the damp and rotten coffin lid opened.
Shen Zhenzhu jumped into the pit, covered her mouth and nose with a handkerchief and looked over. There was a male skeleton broken at the waist, but no other broken wounds indicating that he had been beaten.
What's going on?
Gu Yanzheng prepared to look for fingerprints, took out a glove and handed it to her, asking, "Do you need me to remove the bone?"
He knew that Shen Zhenzhu was developing her own crime-solving habits and tried not to interfere. Occasionally, he felt that her ideas were whimsical, but he tried his best to cooperate. Because he knew that a naturally gifted detective like Shen Zhenzhu was rare, and she had her own unique intuition for solving cases.
And he was right. The moment Shen Zhenzhu saw the remains, she knew they were not the body of a homeless man!
Because of the passage of time, the recollections from the remains were faint and indistinct, but even so, she could still see that the remains looked exactly like Ma Shengjia's father and uncle before they died!
These are members of the Ma family, not homeless people!
A thought popped into her mind: since the person lying here wasn't a homeless person, could it be that the homeless person, as she suspected, wasn't actually dead?
Finding key information to solve the case made this trip worthwhile.
Gu Yanzheng observed Shen Zhenzhu's expression and knew that she must have gained something.
“We don’t need to collect fingerprints anymore,” Shen Zhenzhu told Gu Yanzheng.
“I think so too.” Gu Yanzheng walked around the coffin, his brows furrowed, as if he had also discovered something.
The remains were reburied in the same coffin, and the two men remained silent, leaving Zhou and the coffin shop owner looking at each other in bewilderment.
"What are your thoughts now?" Gu Yanzheng sat back in the driver's seat, dampened a towel, and handed it to Chen Zhenzhu. Her hands were covered in mud from digging the grave.
“This is not a simple matter.” Chen Zhenzhu took it and roughly rubbed it on her face and wiped her hands. When she looked up, the tip of her nose was red from being rubbed.
Gu Yanzheng naturally took the towel, rinsed it briefly with water, wrung it out, and then wiped himself dry.
On the surface, Zhou forbade Tu Dali from saying anything superstitious. After digging up the coffin, he followed the coffin shop owner to light incense for the coffin.
Shen Zhenzhu said in a low voice, "I want to go to Gao Baoting's house to see her. She was almost hurt back then. Even though she has intellectual disabilities, I want to contact her and see if she remembers what the homeless man looked like."
Gu Yanzheng was quick-witted; in an instant, he asked, "You don't think the remains belong to a homeless man?"
Shen Zhenzhu said, "Homeless people suffer from long-term malnutrition, which can lead to decreased bone density and osteoporosis. In addition, because they often sleep on hard surfaces, they are at risk of spinal deformities and may also develop rickets due to a lack of essential vitamins. Here, I only saw horizontal fracture marks on the skeleton, nothing else. It should be people from relatively well-off families who did not lack food and drink even during years of disaster."
Gu Yanzheng said, "Good, continue."
Shen Zhenzhu added, "I saw a critical injury on the back of his head. It didn't look like he was beaten to death with sticks. It seemed more like an accidental death."
"Hmm." Gu Yanzheng said appreciatively, "I can trust you to handle some cases from now on."
"Can I refuse?" Shen Zhenzhu looked at him, as if she could see a cunning boss who would slack off in the future.
Gu Yanzheng pretended to think for a few seconds and then said, "No."
How infuriating!
Zhou Suo had no idea what Shen Zhenzhu was thinking. He was smoking with the coffin shop owner when he finished his cigarette and sighed, "This case is too difficult to solve. Unless a god descends to earth, how exactly does Section Chief Shen plan to solve it? I have no clue at all."
Tu Dali glanced at Shen Zhenzhu and couldn't help but worry about Section Chief Shen: "It's another dead end. How come there's not a single clue? Is this really going to become a cold case?"
He didn't understand either. They clearly said they wanted to examine fingerprints, so why did they go through all the trouble of digging up the coffin, take a few glances, and then leave it at that?
Zhou stubbed out his cigarette with his foot on the sole of his shoe, checked it carefully to make sure it was out, and then tossed it aside: "You should worry about yourself first."
As they were talking, Chen Zhenzhu walked over and asked politely, "Director Zhou, before and after the homeless man's death, were there any other unnatural deaths registered in Fujia Village?"
Zhou thought for a moment and said, "I really don't remember. A lot of people died in the village back then, mostly from starvation and disease. Almost no one died a natural death. What do you mean by 'abnormal'?"
Shen Zhenzhu explained, "Besides those who starved to death or died of disease, there were also those who died from broken backs or other reasons, such as fractured lumbar vertebrae."
Reminded by Shen Zhenzhu, the coffin shop owner suddenly recalled a tragic incident: "Yes! I remember a man who tried to steal grain from the village grain and oil shop. He climbed onto the shop's tractor and threw the grain down, but the tractor braked suddenly, and he fell from those high sacks—"
The coffin shop owner gestured and said, "He fell straight backward, his head was smashed on the spot, his waist was broken in two, and he was lying on the ground so that four or five people couldn't lift him up. His brains were all over the ground. I will never forget it."
Shen Zhenzhu and Gu Yanzheng exchanged a knowing glance. She continued to ask the boss, "Then do you remember who died?"
The coffin shop owner thought for a moment, then looked at Zhou Shuo and asked, "Hey, is he Ma Sheng's fourth uncle?"
As soon as he mentioned it, Zhou Suo remembered: "Yes, that's him. He was always stealing food and drinks and harassing women. The village couldn't do anything about him. After he died, he was given a grand funeral and a very solemn funeral. Later, he was buried in the Ma family ancestral cemetery."
Shen Zhenzhu said, "Perhaps because I have done too many bad things, I will not be able to enter the ancestral grave."
Zhou figured it out: "You mean, the one lying here—"
Shen Zhenzhu nodded: "He's not a homeless person. If I'm not mistaken, he's Uncle Ma Shengsi."
Zhou felt a chill run down his spine. He borrowed Gu Yanzheng's mobile phone and went to the side, then dialed his former colleague Zhao Youchao: "Old Zhao..."
Chen Zhenzhu and the others waited by the car for a while. Zhou returned the cell phone and said wearily, "It was all his doing. Zhao Youchao will come over tonight to tell you!"
The matter was of great importance, and Zhou dared not conceal it. After telling Shen Zhenzhu, he remained silent in the car the entire way.
The villagers' unauthorized executions happened right under his nose.
The act of switching the bodies happened right under his nose.
Zhou was furious and stared out the car window, grinding his teeth.
***
Upon arriving at the police station, Tu Dali accompanied Shen Zhenzhu and Gu Yanzheng to Gao Baoting's house, while Chief Zhou locked himself in his office, smoking in silence.
Gao Baoting was originally recuperating with her parents in Fujia Village. After the accident, her brother and sister-in-law took them to live with them in the dormitory of Hongyang Feed Factory in the county town.
The gatekeeper saw the car from the city, and since Tu Dali had come here twice with Director Zhou, he let them in directly.
Today is Sunday, so the feed mill is closed. You can see chickens and ducks being raised in many yards in the dormitory area.
The weather was cool, and the smell wasn't strong. The residents were warm and friendly, their faces beaming with smiles, a stark contrast to Fujia Village.
Gu Yanzheng stopped the car in front of Building 5 and got out.
"They're on the second floor, they're mostly home." Tu Dali stood downstairs and called out in a strong voice, "Brother Gao—Sister-in-law Gao—"
Shen Zhenzhu looked up with her chin raised. Gu Yanzheng stood next to her and could clearly see the fine downy hairs on her earlobes in the sunlight.
A few seconds later, he turned his gaze upstairs.
"Who is it?" The kitchen window was pushed open, and Gao Baoting's sister-in-law stuck her head out to look down. When she saw Tu Dali, she called out enthusiastically, "Come on up, everyone's home. Have you eaten yet?"
Tu Dali called out, "Not hungry yet? Coming!" Then he said to Chen Zhenzhu, "This way."
He entered the building first, and before he even went upstairs, Shen Zhenzhu heard melodious singing coming from inside.
Tu Dali said unsurprised, "It was Gao Baoting who sang it. How was it? She's no different from the singers on TV, right? If it weren't for that, she could have been a star on the Spring Festival Gala."
Shen Zhenzhu immediately felt that Gao Baoting did not seem to have an intellectual disability, but rather that she was an autistic patient with singing talent.
She remembered that in her past life, there was an autistic child named "Zhouzhou" who not only understood music but could also conduct a symphony orchestra.
Perhaps the two are the same kind of people, shining in their own world.
Gao Baoting's brother and sister-in-law's family was relatively well-off; both were working parents with no children and no one had been laid off. Her parents, brother, and sister-in-law treated her like a little princess. Wearing a summer pale yellow dress with a floral cotton vest, she smiled at Chen Zhenzhu in the living room: "Auntie, hello, thank you for visiting my home."
Shen Zhenzhu knew that Gao Baoting must have requested such an incongruous outfit.
Gao Baoting's older brother was short, stout, and honest. He bent down to put socks on her so she wouldn't wear her leather shoes barefoot. While he was busy, he pointed to the sofa and said, "Don't mind her. Even though she's 32, she's like a four or five-year-old. Please sit wherever you like. Mom, we have a guest!"
Thirty-two years old.
When Shen Zhenzhu saw that Gao Baoting was being taken care of, she realized that she looked to be only twenty-four or twenty-five years old. Then she remembered that Gao Baoting was only about twelve years old that year.
Shen Zhenzhu secretly ground her teeth.
The original one-bedroom apartment was divided into two smaller bedrooms by the family of five. The sister-in-law and eldest brother slept in the bedroom, while Gao Baoting and her parents slept on a specially made folding sofa in the living room, which could be folded up during the day to avoid hindering their movement.
Shen Zhenzhu sat on the sofa, and Gao Baoting skipped over to her side, took Shen Zhenzhu's hand and said, "Auntie, you smell so good, did you put on face cream? I have face cream too, but it doesn't smell as good as yours."
She speaks fluently, but her thinking is limited to that of a four or five-year-old child, which makes Shen Zhenzhu feel that she is different from Zhouzhou.
Chen Zhenzhu smiled sweetly and said, "I heard you sing well, so I wanted to come and enjoy it."
Gao Baoting was overjoyed by the praise, cupping her face in her hands and saying, "Everyone says I'm like a golden oriole!"
When Shen Zhenzhu arrived, she found that Gao Baoting's parents and brother and sister-in-law were taking good care of her. She was clean, well-dressed, and confident in her every move; she was a little girl immersed in happiness. Occasionally, when she smiled, there were fine lines at the corners of her eyes, but these imperfections did not detract from her overall elegance and loveliness.
Thinking of what Gao Baoting had almost gone through, Shen Zhenzhu couldn't help but feel lucky for her, yet also angry at the homeless man's plight.
"We later learned that he was wrongfully killed. He saved Tingting... Although Tingting was immature, she never lied. When she got home, she said that those four bastards had taken off her clothes and wanted to play games with her. It was her uncle who chased them away and helped her put her clothes back on."
Gao Baoting was coaxed by her sister-in-law to go to the bedroom to apply nail polish. Her mother and father came out and, accompanied by her eldest brother, chatted with Shen Zhenzhu about what happened back then.
Gao Baoting's father was the first principal of Hope Primary School, and Ma, Yang, Niu, and Zhu were his students.
He was still furious, unable to imagine what his whole family would be like if his precious twelve-year-old daughter had encountered such a thing!
Perhaps they will all end up in prison for seeking revenge, or perhaps they will leave for distant lands to protect Gao Baoting, who has been shamelessly harmed, and spend their lives hiding their sins and shame.
“Back then, my benefactor was down on his luck. He was dressed in rags, with a dirty face and beard. Basically, no one knew what he looked like.” Gao Baoting’s mother, who was a teacher at the same school, said after thinking for a while, “But I can’t forget that he had broken eyebrows.”
Shen Zhenzhu wrote down the "broken eyebrow" feature in her notebook, signaling them to continue.
Gao Baoting's father sighed and said, "After the incident, I knew Tingting was being targeted by them, and I tried my best to get her older brother out of the village and away from those people... I knew they would cause a big disaster sooner or later, but I didn't know who would retaliate and kill them. They actually said we were the ones who harmed people. If it were really us, we would have done it twenty years ago... sigh!"
Chen Zhenzhu asked them, "Do you know why the homeless man helped Tingting?"
Gao Baoting's eldest brother said regretfully, "I don't know, but our whole family is very grateful to him and feels very sorry for him."
At that time, his family was caught up in the mafia of the Ma, Yang, Niu, and Zhu families. Under the witness of the brigade leaders and county public security officers, they had to be grateful for their "kindness" to the point of tears. Afterwards, when they realized what had happened, it was too late.
“A few days ago, after Ma Sheng died, Yang Yishu rushed to my rural home and questioned my parents about whether we did it. He said he would kill our whole family if we didn’t tell the truth. Fortunately, Secretary Zhang was willing to help us and let my parents and Tingting live here.”
Gao Baoting's older brother lowered his voice, glanced into the bedroom to make sure Gao Baoting couldn't hear him, and continued, "That day he went back, drank, and bullied people. In the end, he died on the stone bridge in the middle of the night. We all think it was God who had eyes."
Unlike Gu Yanzheng, Tu Dali couldn't remain silent and observe Shen Zhenzhu's questions. He couldn't help but interject, "Are you sure Xu Lan didn't do it voluntarily?"
Gao Baoting's older brother said, "My wife has a good relationship with Xu Lan and knows that she is not a promiscuous woman. Moreover, after Xu Lan's husband died, someone introduced her to a new husband, but she preferred to raise her child alone rather than remarry, which shows that she had a deep affection for her husband."
......
As Chen Zhenzhu left Gao Baoting's house, Gao Baoting was still standing on the balcony waving to her: "Auntie, come over and play sometime~ I'll sing you the Soviet song 'The Bird of Happiness'~"
Standing next to the Cherokee, Chen Zhenzhu waved to her, saying, "Come again if you have the chance. Take good care of yourself!"
Gu Yanzheng knew the way, so Tu Dali sat in the back, allowing the two leaders to discuss the case in front.
Shen Zhenzhu remained silent for a long time until she saw the fake police station building, at which point she muttered, "They're all scoundrels."
After Tu Dali got out of the car, Gu Yanzheng called out to Chen Zhenzhu and magically pulled a fruit hard candy from his pocket: "Want some orange flavor?"
Chen Zhenzhu was heartbroken by the case, but her eyes lit up and she grabbed it, saying, "Where did this come from?"
Gu Yanzheng smiled and said, "When Gao Baoting came downstairs, she stopped me and said that Auntie was a little unhappy and asked me to give you a little gift, hoping that eating the fruit candy would sweeten Auntie's heart."
Shen Zhenzhu's eyes instantly reddened. She peeled the candy, and the orange flavor in her mouth dispelled the gloom. She sniffed and said, "She is truly an angel."
Gu Yanzheng nodded in agreement: "Perhaps the murderer thought the same thing."
Shen Zhenzhu exchanged a glance with him, realizing that they shared a common suspect.
"Old Zhao is waiting inside. Shall we eat and chat?" Director Zhou's face was ashen, clearly indicating that he had already spoken with Zhao Youchao.
Shen Zhenzhu shook her head and said, "Let's talk first and then eat. There aren't many questions to ask."
There are actually only two.
Zhao Youchao was wearing his old police uniform from before his retirement. The epaulettes on his shoulders had been removed when he retired, and the faded uniform looked like something a migrant worker would wear on him.
He smoked one cigarette after another in the room. Chen Zhenzhu opened the door and stood there for a while before entering the office.
"Hello, Comrade Zhao." Shen Zhenzhu extended her hand to shake hands with Zhao Youchao and said, "I suppose Director Zhou has already given the introduction, shall we get straight to the point?"
Zhao Youchao had heard that Section Chief Shen was young, but he hadn't expected her to be so young and capable. After standing up slightly and shaking her hand, he anxiously rubbed his knees and muttered to himself, "I really didn't expect him to be able to kill someone."
Gu Yanzheng leaned against the door, able to survey the entire office. He heard Chen Zhenzhu ask directly, "Is he still alive?"
Gu Yanzheng raised an eyebrow slightly; this statement was essentially a statement of fact.
Zhao Youchao, who is almost seventy years old, said with great restraint, "I had no choice that year. I was going to collect the body and bury it, but he woke up on the way and begged me not to kill him. I was really scared to death."
He dared not offend the Ma, Yang, Niu, and Zhu families, yet he still needed a body to bury. Left with no other choice, he dug up Ma Sheng's fourth uncle's grave, swapped the body out in the middle of the night, and secretly replaced the body under Zhou Suo's nose for twenty years.
Uncle Ma Sheng was given a grand funeral back then, but who would have thought that he would eventually be buried in a mass grave and become a skeleton, unknown to anyone?
Where did he go?
“I don’t know. Over the years, I’ve often wondered whether he was alive or dead. He was so badly injured that I always thought he wouldn’t survive.”
Shen Zhenzhu asked, "Do you remember what he looked like?"
Having seen the scene through the Heavenly Eye and with the help of Gao Baoting's family, Shen Zhenzhu already had a certain understanding of it. In order to successfully elicit the appearance of the homeless man, she asked, "Could you cooperate in making a portrait profile?"
The homeless man had been hit in the face, which proves that the centipede scar was left at that time.
We should take this opportunity to naturally reveal the killer's physical characteristics, making it easier to apprehend him.
“I can give it a try,” Zhao Youchao said. “He had a large wound on his face at the time, which I found terrifying, so I applied some medicine to it.”
Just when Shen Zhenzhu thought everything was going well, Zhou rushed in and said, "Something bad has happened! Niu Jun had his leg broken by a falling rock an hour ago. His family thinks it was the Gao family who did it, and they've gathered the construction site people with their tools to go to the feed mill dormitory to find Gao Baoting!"
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Author's Note: Zhuzhu: First major case, daring to venture into the village of villains [sunglasses]
*
See you tomorrow, there's a red envelope coming up!
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