Chapter 25
"Compound lithium-based grease, commonly used to lubricate the bearings of heating furnace fans." Ding Xinqiao looked at the circled words on Yu Lei's phone screen and said, "What is this report?"
"What is a heating furnace fan?" Yu Lei sent the on-site investigation report of Chen Junan's fall and the trace inspection report of the pen found in Liu Dong's death case to the investigation team's group.
"Oh..." Ding Xinqiao frowned as he flipped through two electronic reports and said absentmindedly, "One, the rotating equipment."
—Isn't that nonsense? If it has bearings, how can it not be a rotating device? Yu Lei straightened up speechlessly and simply leaned back at the conference room table to wait for him to finish. Engineer Ding was clearly not someone who could do two things at once.
At this moment, a message suddenly popped up in the investigation team group, sent by Tang Ruxin.
"Atmospheric and vacuum treatment, catalytic cracking, delayed coking, hydrotreating, reforming...what are those?" Chen Jingzhou read on his mobile phone, his eyes full of question marks.
"Device name." Lin Shuangjiang also looked at his phone. "All of them have heating furnace fans."
"Tsk tsk, Director Tang's reading speed and information processing ability are almost catching up with AI. How many documents must he read every day to practice this..." Chen Jingzhou sighed, then looked up and asked Xiang Yulei, "Which device is Chen Junan from?"
"Clay refining," Ding Xinqiao replied. He had already read both reports. "That's strange. Why would there be grease, used only by the heating furnace's fan, on the vertical ladder of the clay refining device, which doesn't have a heating furnace?"
"And that pen also has this type of grease on it. In other words," Chen Jingzhou said with astonishment, his face full of surprise, "the murderer in the Liu Dong case fabricated the Chen Junan fall?"
"So the murderer is in the devices listed by Director Tang, because people in other devices cannot access this type of grease." Lin Shuangjiang said with his arms folded across his chest and squinting his eyes.
Ding Xinqiao put his index finger to his lips, thought for a moment and said, "Not necessarily."
Hearing this, Yu Lei, who had been silent all this time, raised his head and looked at him, asking, "Who else?"
"As far as I know, the lubricating grease for all rotating equipment at Donghe Refining and Chemical is only distributed to each unit on demand after passing chemical analysis by the Refining and Chemical Research Institute."
Yu Lei winked at Chen Jingzhou.
"Yes." Chen Jingzhou immediately stood up, grabbed his notebook and pen and walked towards the door of the conference room.
"You come with us, so that no one can fool him." Ding Xinqiao turned to look at Lin Shuangjiang, and expressed his distrust of Chen Jingzhou's brain in a very subtle way.
Lin Shuangjiang responded and quickly followed Chen Jingzhou. They had to go to the Refining and Chemical Research Institute.
"So many devices require this type of grease, and the usage amounts are different. They should not be produced from the same batch. If the batch can be confirmed, the range of target devices can be further narrowed down. Can the specific production batch be tested?" Yu Lei asked.
"Well..." Ding Xinqiao frowned and pondered for a moment before speaking. "It's quite difficult. The ratio of the basic ingredients of this grease is strictly controlled during production. Unless it comes from different manufacturers, it's possible to detect slight differences. If it's produced by the same manufacturer, it's unlikely to distinguish the production batches."
It is unlikely that the same company would use different manufacturers as suppliers. Yu Lei nodded and continued to read the report, even though he had already read it several times.
"Why do we need to apply grease on the ladder? The ladder will be very slippery after it is frozen." Ding Xinqiao didn't understand. What's more, the grease was frozen in the ice and could not come into contact with the people climbing the ladder, so it could not serve as a lubricant.
"Two possibilities. The murderer had no idea that the ladder would freeze in winter, or he wanted to raise the melting point of the ice," Yu Lei replied.
Ding Xinqiao nodded in understanding. Water condensing into ice on grease would indeed be more difficult to melt. After a moment, he frowned again and said doubtfully:
"But this would easily reveal the killer's identity. We would know which devices he came from. It's already below freezing, and the ice won't melt, so doing this would be more harm than good."
"So I'm more inclined to the former. The murderer either didn't know that this grease is only used for the heating furnace fan, or didn't know that the clay refining device has no heating furnace and that the ladder will freeze. Either way, it points in the same direction—"
Yu Lei turned off the electronic report on his mobile phone and looked at Ding Xinqiao with a determined look in his eyes.
"This person is not familiar with Donghe Refining's equipment."
Ding Xinqiao showed a look of sudden enlightenment, "Then we..."
Yu Lei smiled and continued, "Then the scope of our investigation has been greatly narrowed. Let's go and talk to Tang Ruxin. The rest of the work depends on her."
"Director Tang is still sick. We shouldn't trouble the patient, right?" Ding Xinqiao looked hesitant.
"Who cares!"
It wasn't until he finished talking with Tang Ruxin that Ding Xinqiao realized the wit of Yu Lei's "Who cares?" Indeed, there was no need to worry, because the one doing the hard work wasn't Tang Ruxin, but Song Mu.
Tang Ruxin only made a few phone calls and confirmed the cooperation of relevant departments, and Donghe Refining's most powerful "horse" immediately took action.
However, in just one day, Song Mu screened out all the employees who met the two criteria of "unfamiliar with the Donghe refining unit" and "affiliated with a unit with a heating furnace blower."
While it's easy to screen out employees who are not familiar with the company's equipment, Tang Ruxin has established specific screening criteria: employees who joined the company within the past three years, those who don't have intermediate skill levels, and those who haven't received their full bonus coefficient. Anyone who meets any of these three criteria is likely unfamiliar with the company's other equipment.
There weren’t many people, only thirty-three.
"So soon?"
Even Tang Ruxin was surprised at Song Mu's work efficiency. Her eyes moved back and forth between the personnel information and Song Mu several times, a little bit unbelievable.
Song Mu behaved himself this time and didn't dare to mess around with sending emails on a scheduled basis.
"The Human Resources Department did a similar survey last year. They compiled information on all the underachieving frontline employees in the company and planned to open a new batch this year. I only did a device screening, which was not a big deal."
Hearing this, Tang Ruxin nodded and said, "Thank you for your hard work."
After synchronizing this information to the five-member small group of the investigation team, Tang Ruxin put down her phone. There was still a retention needle embedded in the back of her hand.
The single-bed room was spacious, but that was normally the case. With three more people in the room, even the largest room seemed smaller. Tang Ruxin asked Song Mu to open the window, as she felt the air was getting worse with so many people around. However, just as Song Mu opened the window, Yu Lei, who was sitting in the chair by the window, reached out and closed it.
Yu Lei didn't look up, still looking at the personnel information on his phone. He looked as innocent as if the arm had suddenly gained its own consciousness, and its movements had nothing to do with him.
Tang Ruxin looked at him with a wooden face, then turned and rolled her eyes elegantly at the wall.
Ding Xinqiao saw this scene, and a look of surprise appeared on his face. He slowly glanced back and forth between Yu Lei and Tang Ruxin, feeling that the relationship between the two seemed a little different. But he couldn't put his finger on what exactly was different.
So he looked at Song Mu. Song Mu stood aside, his eyes fixed on his nose, his nose focused on his mind, as if he was about to attain enlightenment. With no one to explain his doubts, Ding Xinqiao could only continue to look down at the employee information.
After a moment, he said, "Huh?" and said, "There are two names that I seem to have seen on another list."
"What list?" Tang Ruxin asked.
"That's the list of names with the pronunciation of 'dong'. Dong Wenjie on the 17th row, Wu Xingdong on the 24th row." Ding Xinqiao said while swiping the screen of his mobile phone.
Hearing this, Tang Ruxin's eyes suddenly lit up, "Can we further narrow the scope of the investigation?"
Song Mu also turned his head excitedly. Is this crappy job finally going to be over?
Everyone's eyes fell on Yu Lei, as if waiting for his order, but he remained silent. It was as if something had completely absorbed his attention, not even changing the posture of looking down at his phone.
Silence suddenly spread, and the other three looked at each other, wondering why Yu Lei had been silent for so long.
After a long while, Yu Lei spoke.
"I asked Chen Jingzhou to check the list with Liu Dong's wife. She wasn't sure if it was pronounced that way, she just said it was close." Having said that, Yu Lei raised his head and looked at Tang Ruxin.
The expression on his face changed from the usual nonchalant look to a serious and unfamiliar one. Tang Ruxin couldn't help but slow down her breathing, as if she was afraid of disturbing something.
"Is it possible," Yu Lei continued, "that the pronunciation is 'tong'?"
Tang Ruxin's breathing stopped for a few seconds.
Two cell phones buzzed at the same time, and Tang Ruxin and Ding Xinqiao lowered their heads to look at the phone screens at the same time.
Yu Lei posted a screenshot in the group. The picture was taken from the list of employees who were not familiar with Donghe Refining, and there were three big words on it.
——Tong Jiayu.
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