Chapter 8
Seeing that Yu Lei had no further questions, Ding Xinqiao approached Tang Ruxin, holding the mouse and leaning over to operate the computer. Tang Ruxin quickly pulled her hand away as his hand came down. After a few clicks and keystrokes, Ding Xinqiao pulled up the historical trend of one of the detectors and adjusted the displayed time to one year.
The pollution level exceeded the standard as many as seventeen times this year, with the highest concentration reaching 100 ppm, but it is still far from the lethal dose.
Tang Ruxin couldn't stop him and could only watch quietly. At this moment, she noticed a piece of data and unconsciously moved closer to the screen.
--wrong.
Data from this detector showed that the highest concentration of hydrogen sulfide in the past year was only 100 ppm. While this level, dangerous enough to require immediate evacuation, was not fatal and would not even cause immediate unconsciousness. Furthermore, 100 ppm of hydrogen sulfide can severely irritate the respiratory tract and eyes. Liu Dong would have immediately felt unwell. So why didn't he leave?
Did he die from inhaling a lethal concentration of hydrogen sulfide in a short period of time, or did he die from being exposed to a low concentration of hydrogen sulfide environment for a long time?
Tang Ruxin was about to ask Yu Lei when she was interrupted by Ding Xinqiao, who asked in a low voice.
“Do you do regular spot thickness measurements?”
Why is this guy still fussing about corrosion? Even if a hydrogen sulfide leak at this concentration is caused by corrosion, it won't kill anyone. Tang Ruxin was a little annoyed, but she didn't show it on her face, and her words remained gentle.
"You'd have to ask the Mechanical Equipment Department. I'm not sure." Tang Ruxin thought for a moment and said, "But for fixed-point thickness measurement, the point wouldn't be set on the valve body, right?"
“It can be calculated based on the pipeline corrosion rate, as long as the data on the valve body material is complete.”
So she still had to find him the corrosion rate of this pipeline and the material data for the valve body. Tang Ruxin cursed inwardly for the second time. Only then did she realize that Tang Jiulin's arrangement was the right one. She really should have made arrangements first, even if there wasn't an opportunity, she should have created one.
Ding Xinqiao was an expert. If he dug this deep, even if Liu Dong's case became a criminal offense, he would also thoroughly investigate Donghe Refining's other management issues. If this became a matter for provincial and municipal oversight, it would be very difficult to resolve.
"These materials require cooperation from other departments. It's getting late now, why don't we go have lunch first and continue in the afternoon?" Tang Ruxin said.
Ding Xinqiao glanced at his watch and saw that it was indeed past lunchtime. He invited the others to go eat together, but Yu Lei declined, saying they could just bring him a meal.
Seeing that his captain was so dedicated, Chen Jingzhou naturally had no reason to go to eat alone, so he also asked to help get the food.
The final result, naturally, was that the two "Xin" characters went to the cafeteria to get everyone's food. Tang Ruxin gave Yu Lei a gloomy look and called Song Mu to ask him to retrieve the data Ding Xinqiao requested.
Chen Jingzhou and the stoic Lin Shuangjiang went to the factory cafeteria to get their food. The short journey of just over ten minutes almost helped Chen Jingzhou recover from his psychological trauma.
This Miss Lin not only doesn't like to laugh or talk, she also doesn't like to look people in the eye.
Chen Jingzhou was a chatterbox, but that didn't mean he could hold a monologue for more than ten minutes. On the way back from getting his food, Chen Jingzhou was completely speechless. This girl was acting like she was being interrogated, answering whatever was asked and remaining silent without a single question. There was no interaction at all.
When he returned to the conference room, Chen Jingzhou felt as if he had been pardoned. He put down his food and started howling.
"The food is here! Captain Yu's spicy eggplant rice, Engineer Ding's fried rice, and Mr. Tang's..."
"Do you need to repeat it?" Yu Lei was annoyed. He had been annoyed by Chen Jingzhou's talkativeness for a long time. If he hadn't been so tactful, he would have kicked him out to guard the gate at the police station.
Chen Jingzhou, a discerning man, didn't expect his boss to pay any attention to him. Tang Ruxin and he weren't on the same page, so there was no way they could talk. So he went to have dinner with Ding Xinqiao, the only person who seemed easy to talk to.
"Brother, this is the soda water you asked for." Chen Jingzhou held the lunch box in one hand and two bottles of drinks in the other. When he gave them to Ding Xinqiao, he did not forget to unscrew the bottles for him.
Ding Xinqiao smiled and thanked him, without commenting on his familiar address, and turned the topic back to the victim.
"What kind of person is Liu Dong?"
Chen Jingzhou, chewing on his chopsticks, leaned over to his trouser pocket, pulled out a palm-sized notebook, and flipped through it. "I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't just given it a thorough once-over, but I've actually written down over ten or twenty pages in the past two days." "Comrade Liu Dong has a lot to do," Chen Jingzhou said, picking out the key points.
Liu Dong had always been a lowly maintenance worker, not a bright but diligent and conscientious worker. After nearly a decade at Donghe Refining and Chemical, he finally had his first promotion opportunity six months ago. He competed with a younger colleague for the position of team leader of the maintenance and repair team. Liu Dong, who had initially been selected for the position, was deposed by an anonymous letter accusing him of having affairs with a woman and undermining unity.
After that, he and the colleague who became his boss became sworn enemies. However, other colleagues were not sure whether the letter of complaint was sent by the other colleague.
Given that Liu Dong's personality had become significantly more extreme after this incident, the police still investigated the colleague who had successfully risen to the top. They concluded that everything was normal. The complaint wasn't submitted by this person, but rather by someone else who had always disliked Liu Dong. The complaint was also fabricated, with no substantiated evidence, and the person had already resigned after the incident.
Liu Dong was originally a serious and suspicious person. From then on, he thought everyone was laughing at him and he began to have negative speculations about anyone's unintentional words.
"Persecution complex?" Ding Xinqiao asked.
"Almost, but he doesn't pick fights." Chen Jingzhou stuffed food into his mouth and continued while chewing, "Liu Dong is a man of action. He flipped the table and smashed things without making a sound."
Ding Xinqiao frowned, "I'm afraid this will make a lot of enemies."
Chen Jingzhou shook his chopsticks, "Indeed, in just six months, he had his bonuses docked countless times for fighting. He was even punished, and the punishment lasted until his death. I have over ten pages of records of everyone he had conflicts with. Tsk."
"Is this why you think Liu Dong's death might be a criminal case?" Ding Xinqiao asked curiously.
Hearing this, Chen Jingzhou subconsciously looked towards his leader. Sure enough, Yu Lei, who was eating by the window with his lunch box in hand, glanced up at him.
"Hey, reasonable suspicion!" Chen Jingzhou immediately laughed. "This is how our police handle cases: reasonable suspicion, bold speculation, and careful verification."
Ding Xinqiao understood the hidden meaning, smiled and stopped asking.
"Are you familiar with that person?" Yu Lei raised his chin towards the door of the conference room and asked Ding Xinqiao.
Tang Ruxin was making a phone call outside the door.
Ding Xinqiao shook his head. "Strictly speaking, this is the first time I've met her. She might have taken my class before, but I don't remember."
"How do you feel?" Yu Lei asked casually while eating.
Ding Xinqiao didn't understand what he was asking and looked confused.
"Director Tang, what kind of person do you think she is?"
"A beauty!" Chen Jingzhou answered quickly. It was finally time for his favorite gossip, and his eyes suddenly lit up. "She's the perfect example of a lady from a noble family. She's elegant, speaks softly, and has a sweet and gentle smile. Oh, I wish I could have a wife like her in the future."
Yu Lei looked at him with a hint of pity in his eyes. After hesitating for a moment, he looked at Ding Xinqiao.
"You think so too?"
"He must have some skills to be able to sit in this position." Ding Xinqiao sighed. A single expression could make a professional accident investigator swallow his words. How could he be such a simple person?
A woman who is good-looking, aware of her good looks, and willing to exploit them, will inevitably have a lot of initiative when working among men. He didn't know the extent of Tang Ruxin's sacrifices to achieve her goals, but at least for now, she was definitely not the type to be unyielding.
"He's not a good person." Lin Shuangjiang suddenly spoke, scaring the three men.
They had almost forgotten her existence, and the sound was like a ghost. She was sitting in a corner not far away, staring straight at the three of them.
Yu Lei became interested. He walked over to Lin Shuangjiang with his lunch box and said with a smile, "Tell me about it."
Lin Shuangjiang thought for a moment and said coldly, "She didn't ask about Liu Dong's condition. She doesn't care about human life. She has no guilt for her mistakes at work. She only thinks about how to shirk responsibility and how to keep her position."
Yu Lei looked at Lin Shuangjiang with some surprise, then looked at Ding Xinqiao again, and saw a hint of helplessness in the other's eyes.
"Are these your feelings? What's the basis for them?" Yu Lei asked.
"Her words and actions are the basis for this." Lin Shuangjiang's face was filled with dismay, and his tone became increasingly cold. "You men just fall for this kind of tricks. You are all bad people."
After saying that, Lin Shuangjiang threw the unfinished lunch box into the trash can and sat in the corner of the meeting room to look at his phone.
The men who were considered "not good guys" looked at each other, not understanding how they were hit by this volley of bullets, and they couldn't even find a way to refute.
"Captain Yu, do you think there's something wrong with President Tang?" Chen Jingzhou also threw the lunch box into the trash can, stood next to Yu Lei, and leaned on the windowsill.
Yu Lei shoveled a few mouthfuls of rice into his mouth and puffed out his cheeks, gesturing, "A few grown men, always talking about girls behind their backs, how rude."
After saying that, he put away his lunch box, picked up the trash bag from the trash can and walked out, leaving the two "impolite" men speechless behind him - it was clearly he who asked first.
Tang Ruxin was on the phone for over ten minutes, and she was getting further and further away. She had originally been standing at the door to the conference room, but now she was standing next to the trash can in the stairwell.
Yu Lei swore on Chen Jingzhou's life that he hadn't been eavesdropping on purpose. After all, if you want to throw away the trash, you have to wait until the person next to the trash can leaves, right?
"Yes, but not in the name of compensation. The total amount can be matched, but the name must be changed. Go find Yu Zhe and ask him to come up with a plan for installment payment."
"Just go if I ask you to. Yu Zhe will agree. Yes, let her repeat what she said this time. From now on, no matter how many times they ask questions, the information they give us must be synchronized. Let her record it. Also, you go to Sun Chengze for public relations, and I'll figure out the rest."
After hanging up the phone, Tang Ruxin breathed a sigh of relief and stood there for a long time before coming out of the stairwell. She then saw Yu Lei leaning against the stairwell door, looking at his phone, with a bag of trash in his other hand.
"Mr. Tang is very busy." Yu Lei smiled, walked past her sideways into the stairwell, and threw the garbage bag full of lunch boxes and drink bottles into the half-person-high trash can with a clang.
Tang Ruxin calculated the approximate meal time, and adding the time she had been in a daze just now, she had a rough idea in her mind.
"The workload is quite heavy." She smiled and put the phone back in her pocket.
"It's not easy, taking on safety responsibilities in a company of this size." Yu Lei walked on the window side, slowly matching her pace.
"These days, it's not easy for anyone."
"Yes, especially the families of the deceased."
Hearing this, the smile on Tang Ruxin's lips faded a little, her heart was filled with helplessness, and she even wanted to sigh.
"God really favors you. How could he give you such a body and such a brain?" Tang Ruxin said sadly, with envy, jealousy and hatred revealed on her face without any concealment, and she almost bit the handkerchief.
Yu Lei was stunned for a moment, then realized that he had been given two compliments, and they were given so sincerely that even this cautious criminal investigation policeman couldn't help but smile - who doesn't like to be praised for being handsome and smart, especially by a beautiful woman?
He turned his head to look out the window and slapped himself twice in his heart - Lin Shuangjiang was right, people like them who were not good people would really fall for this trick.
"As a company, investigating the deceased's personal circumstances is within your authority, as compensation is involved. But isn't it a bit too targeted to ask the deceased's family to share all the information they gave to the police?"
Tang Ruxin stopped, looked at him for a moment, and said, "It's not compensation, it's consolation money. Before the work injury is confirmed, the company's payment is definitely not compensation."
"OK, condolence money." Yu Lei changed his words.
"Is it not legally allowed to ask the deceased's family to give the police the same information as that given to the company?" Tang Ruxin asked with her head tilted. The confusion on her face made her look particularly innocent, like a naive student asking a question to her teacher.
Yu Lei thought about it, but couldn't tell whether she was pretending to be stupid on purpose.
"If it is confirmed to be a homicide, it will not be allowed."
Tang Ruxin stepped forward, looked up at him, and asked word by word, "So, is this a murder case?"
Seeing Tang Ruxin staring at him intently from such a close distance, Yu Lei inexplicably wanted to take a step back. As soon as the thought came to his mind, he immediately restrained himself.
Tang Ruxin smiled and turned away without waiting for his answer.
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