Chapter 78 Chapter 78 Arrival The husband has his own reasons, the wife has her own reasons...
Thousands of miles of ice and snow.
Although it did not snow today along the coast of Anxi Development Zone, the sea surface near the shore was pale, with a solid ice barrier that stretched as far as the eye could see. It made people feel that the sea and the sky were one color, which was spectacular.
Qiu Jiang doesn't come to the development zone very often. In the past two months, including this time, it's only three times. But all three times, he came for a murder case. It's really an indescribable feeling.
Because of the unique frozen sea landscape, even though it is the Chinese New Year, you can still occasionally see cars with out-of-town license plates and people shivering in the cold wind taking photos at the beach.
Although the weather was cold, everyone was dressed very fashionably. Even though it was obvious that they were very cold when taking pictures, everyone was still willing to endure it in order to take a beautiful photo.
Of course, after taking the photo, it immediately returned to its original form.
Everyone was jumping around like little chickens, and then they went to see if the photos they took looked good.
When you see something nice, you will naturally be happy and feel that a worry has been put to rest. However, when you see something not nice, you will inevitably feel frustrated. But the frustration will not last more than three or five seconds, and you will grit your teeth and take the next set of photos that make you satisfied.
Each of them is so vivid that one can't help but smile. However, when one thinks about what they are going to do, it becomes difficult to smile.
The Municipal Bureau is located in the city center, while the seaside development zone is more than 30 kilometers away from the city. Basically, they did not stop all the way, but it took them more than half an hour to reach the location they mentioned.
It’s not because they knew the place the reporter mentioned, but because the place was too iconic.
"Captain Ji, look, there's a cruise ship over there. This should be it."
Ji Mingcheng glanced over and slowed down the accelerator.
At this time, Jia Wang in the car behind them had confirmed her guess through the walkie-talkie.
"Team Season, this is it."
Ji Mingcheng glanced around and said to the back, "There's a dirt road leading down here. Follow me."
"yes."
The dirt road on the left was not regular and had a large curvature. Fortunately, he was driving a large jeep, so the bumps were not obvious. However, the amplitude still made people sway back and forth. Qiu Jiang grabbed the handle on the right side of his head tightly and used both hands to exert force, for fear that he would be thrown out.
After driving for about three to five minutes, they finally arrived at a flat gravel road, which was very close to the small cruise ship, only about thirty to fifty meters away.
After parking the car, Qiu Jiang got out first and was frozen to death as soon as she got out.
As expected, it’s even colder at the beach at this time.
The cotton clothes that barely made it in the city felt like nothing here, and I was freezing to death.
Her body was shaking uncontrollably, much like an epileptic patient.
It seemed like their team leader Ji was wearing even thinner clothes than her. "Team leader Ji, how about I go first..."
Before Qiu Jiang could finish her words, she saw Team Ji, who was wearing a white sweatshirt, taking out a long black down jacket from the trunk.
She was stuck in her tracks when she saw him getting dressed. But when she saw him getting dressed, Qiu Jiang suddenly remembered something and started laughing so hard she couldn't stop. "I thought... I thought Captain Ji... you weren't afraid of the cold, right? You were wearing a jacket when you arrested someone last time."
She was so cold that her voice was hoarse, but she still had the mind to tease him.
Ji Mingcheng put one hand in his pocket and threw a black shadow at her with the other hand.
Qiu Jiang reached out to take it, and saw that it was a down jacket exactly the same as the one worn by their team member Ji.
"It's a spare one. I haven't worn it yet. Put it on first."
Under the absolute low temperature attack, all pretense was worthless. Qiu Jiang thanked him readily, "Thank you, Captain Ji."
She went back into the car, changed into the down jacket he gave her, and got out.
Only then did she realize that although it was the same style, this one was probably one size smaller than the one he was wearing. It was just the right size for her, but their teammate Ji was obviously more than a head taller than her, and it didn't look like he could fit into this dress. Qiu Jiang was a little suspicious that he might have bought the wrong size and was too lazy to return it, so he just put it in the trunk.
Whatever the reason, she got off lucky today.
Seeing their team running fast in front, she hurried to catch up.
They were still on the dirt road, but the small cruise ship was parked on the ice, twenty meters away from them.
At this moment, there was a deafening sound.
“chua——”
“pia——”
After two consecutive noises, Jia Wang and Chang Xuemin were seen lying on the ice with their heads tilted back, motionless. Qiu Jiang was startled and asked hurriedly, "Brother Jia, Brother Chang, are you okay?"
"hiss--"
"pain--"
The two of them rubbed their buttocks and bared their teeth. Ji Mingcheng said to them directly, "Don't get up blindly yet. Wait for me to come over and pull you up."
"well."
Qiu Jiang hurriedly said, "I'll go too."
However, even though she was extremely careful, she still slipped when she stepped on the ice and was suddenly rushed forward. The friction on the ice was too weak, making her lightness skills useless.
Just as she was about to make close contact with the ice, her waist was suddenly supported by a broad hand. However, due to the sudden inertia, the person behind her was unable to stand for a moment. His knees suddenly bent, and he supported himself on the ice with his other hand, half-kneeling beside her.
"Captain Ji, are you okay?" Qiu Jiang turned around and asked quickly.
Ji Mingcheng's expression twisted, and he uttered a weak "It's okay" through his teeth.
This made Qiu Jiang even more annoyed, and she quickly struggled to help him up.
The two men supported each other to stand up, slowly moved towards the other two people, and pulled them up together.
Before they even reached the scene of the crime, the four of them fell one after another, which gave people a deep understanding of how slippery the ice was.
"Maybe it's because it hasn't snowed recently, so it's all ice and there's no way to increase friction, so it's so slippery," Qiu Jiang explained.
"So what are you doing here in such a slippery place?"
Jia Wang was very resentful.
Qiu Jiang didn't understand this either, so she kept quiet.
"It's useless to say this. It's better to leave quickly." Chang Xuemin told them.
"So how do we get there?" she asked, raising her hand.
Unexpectedly, Chang Xuemin actually had a solution. "Come with me, maybe my method can help you get through."
After saying that, he opened his hands slightly on both sides of his body, keeping the shape of a bird spreading its wings, and spread his feet to the same width as his shoulders. Even the shape of his feet was tilted outward, forming an outward-facing "eight". Then he leaned forward slightly, bent his knees a little, and moved forward step by step.
This posture wasn't particularly attractive, but the key was that it seemed more stable than before. At least Chang Xuemin's feet finally stopped slipping. He moved forward five or six meters in an instant.
"It really works. If you have this method, why did you fall down like me just now?" Jia Wang shouted at him, covering his butt.
"Oh, who knew it was so slippery."
Well, knowing this earlier is priceless, so just do it.
So he also imitated Chang Xuemin's penguin steps and walked away. Qiu Jiang was quite interested. He compared their postures and moved himself a little. Even though he was a little slippery in the first few steps, he learned it in a short while and followed them to that side.
Seeing that she had walked a long way and Captain Ji had not caught up with her, she felt a little worried. She turned around to look at him and saw that he was looking sideways into the distance, and his position had not changed at all.
Qiu Jiang thought, "Captain Ji won't think this is too ugly and refuse to do it, right?"
Just as he was thinking this, he saw Ji Mingcheng suddenly speed up, bend his knees and run forward for several steps, then he slid across the ice and quickly surpassed the three of them.
It's so cool and awesome, very stylish.
Why doesn't she learn this?
Her eyes immediately lit up, and she also made a dashing move, accelerating in three steps. She also managed to slip away and soon surpassed Jia Wang and the other two.
They both straightened up immediately and stared at them in amazement.
"What should we do? It's so boring to look at us like this."
"No big deal. Do you want to fall again? Or can you skate now?"
Uh...yeah.
They both covered their bruised buttocks and obediently imitated penguins.
The consequence was that when they got close to the cruise ship, Team Ji and Jiang Jiang had already boarded the cruise ship.
Just as they were about to go up, they caught a glimpse of a pool of blood-red not far in front of the cruise ship. Although it had solidified into purple-red ice, how could anything be red on a white surface of ice?
Both of them felt a little weak on their feet and didn't dare to look over there anymore, but just chased after them.
Compared with the biting cold outside, the cruise ship was as warm as spring. It was warm everywhere. There were also several middle-aged men standing there, dressed in thick clothes and wearing non-slip rain boots. They seemed to be here to work and were angrily pushing a man in a suit.
"My brother died just like that, what else do you want? Are you going to force our whole family to death?"
"I'm telling you, Erwazi fell to his death while working for you. You must give us an explanation."
"Why don't you let us go? His poor mother is still waiting for him in the village. You are committing a sin, a sin—"
…
There was a chaotic roar of cursing at the scene.
The man they were scolding was sweating profusely and kept apologizing, "It's not that we don't let you go, it's that you can't leave now."
"Why can't I leave? I'm telling you, I'm going to go back and bring his mother here. When she sees her son off for the last time, I'll also let her see your faces. None of you will be able to escape compensation."
"We will definitely pay the compensation, but we have to investigate this matter thoroughly, otherwise how can we explain this matter in the future?"
"What do you mean by explaining clearly? What are you explaining clearly? People died working for you. So many of us saw it. How could it be false?"
Ji Zhengzhi was almost worn out by his words with them, but he had no choice but to say, "The police will be here soon. You can leave after they finish their inspection."
"What? Police?"
The villagers of Dashi Village were stunned, then burst into a sneer. "We haven't called the police yet, but you did. Okay, we want to see if the police can tamper with the facts."
They were also furious.
"I'm here." Ji Mingcheng suddenly spoke, breaking the noise, and everyone turned their eyes to her.
At this time, Qiu Jiang walked to the front desk of the cruise ship, staring at the black shadow not far in front of her without blinking. She saw him dancing with his hands and feet, and soon he squatted down and wiped back and forth at the front desk with a rag.
Even if no one was with him, he could still do it with great fun and enthusiasm. Qiu Jiang couldn't help but smile knowingly. But just when he was wiping to the front, he slipped and fell down. Qiu Jiang reached out but couldn't catch him, so she could only hold on to the railing and look at the ice below.
The place where the black shadow fell gradually overlapped with the pool of red and purple ice chips below.
Qiu Jiang's outstretched hand froze in mid-air.
Why? Why did this image appear?
If it was really as she saw just now, then he must have died accidentally, but she had clearly tested it before, and if it was an accidental death, she would not be able to see the black shadow.
This time, her preconceived notions were completely overturned, leaving her brows furrowed, and no one came to help her clear up her confusion.
At this moment, Jia Wang's puzzled voice sounded behind her, "Where are the people? Where are the people from the police station?"
Chang Xuemin said, "Do you remember their number? I'll give them a call."
Jia Wang still had some impression of it. He recalled it several times and pieced together the number. When he called it, the police station there was also confused.
"The police station said they were here a long time ago."
"Huh? Where is it? Have you seen Jiang Jiang?"
Qiu Jiang also shook his head, "No."
It was strange that the two people who were supposed to be here had disappeared when they were already here.
"Okay, call me if you have any news." Chang Xuemin hung up the phone and walked away quickly to whisper the news in Ji Mingcheng's ear.
Ji Mingcheng's brows suddenly became wrinkled, "Okay, I understand."
After saying this, he called out Qiu Jiang.
"Here I come."
Qiu Jiang knew what he wanted her to do without asking, and she took out a notebook to write it down.
"I'm from the city's criminal police team. Who can tell me the situation?"
Even though they were arguing fiercely just now, that was only with people they were familiar with or who had no power. But if they were talking to officials, they would instantly become speechless. They looked around at the people on their side and found that no one took the initiative to speak.
Ji Zhengzhi seized the opportunity and came over. "Hello, Chief. I just called the police. The thing is, this cruise ship has been docked here, but someone happened to rent it for a party. They paid a lot of money, and the only requirement was that it be cleaned up, so I hired someone to clean it up."
"We started cleaning up yesterday, and it's almost finished the next day. Who knew such an accident would happen? The man fell and died this morning. But the railing is very high, and it's impossible for him to just slip and fall to his death. So I suspect someone pushed him down on purpose to blackmail me."
Compared with his timidity just now, Ji Zhengzhi was very outspoken this time and directly stated his guess.
However, after he said this, those angry people became even more furious.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"You mean we did it? Bullshit—"
"Fuck, if you dare to stand up, I promise I won't beat you to death."
Seeing that he had provoked public outrage, Ji Zhengzhi immediately hid behind Ji Mingcheng, stiffening his neck and saying, "If this was really an accident, I will pay the compensation, but you can't blackmail me. Who can bear the cost of asking for 800,000 yuan?"
God knows how much he earned from chartering the cruise this time, but it was only tens of thousands of dollars. As a result, they asked for such a huge amount of money. He is a businessman, how could he do such a loss-making thing?
Besides, there were doubts in the first place.
If it can be proven that they were the ones who did it, then he won't have to endure their blackmail. No matter how you look at it, it would be more cost-effective to call the police.
Ji Zhengzhi didn't think he had done anything wrong, but the situation was pressing and they were outnumbered. Only the police could protect him, so he dared to speak out his thoughts.
"Bullshit! If I dare to do something so wicked, may the heavens send down thunder and strike me to death."
"I swear, and why would we do such a thing? Erwazi has been playing with us since they were little. You dare to say such nonsense just to avoid paying the money? You are so shameless."
"You piece of shit, I'm going to kick you to death—"
Ji Zhengzhi's words deeply stimulated them, and they all rushed over to catch him and beat him up.
"Hey, what are you doing? How dare you hit someone in front of us?——"
"Stop it! If you don't stop, I'll have to take you to the police station."
"What's the point of your clamor? I'm telling you, as long as you didn't do it, we here will definitely not let anyone wrongly accuse you. But the truth still needs to be investigated thoroughly. Only after the investigation is clear can you leave. Be honest, and we promise not to take sides."
Jia Wang and Chang Xuemin stood in front of their team leader and shouted loudly. After a stalemate for a while, they calmed down the villagers who were about to explode with anger. In order to prevent them from making trouble again, the two of them stood between them.
In this case, only Ji Mingcheng and Qiu Jiang will be responsible for searching for evidence.
Because someone was killed, no one dared to come up on this deck since the incident just now. In order to prevent the evidence from being destroyed, Ji Zhengzhi also did not allow them to come over. Therefore, the traces on the deck have always remained in their original appearance.
The two walked to the edge of the deck and looked down. The distance from this place to the ice surface was not very high, only about three or four meters. However, because the place where the fall occurred was a hard ice surface, the impact on the body was very great, causing the deceased to bleed extensively. Then, because of the cold weather, the blood had long since turned into purple-red ice chips.
Looking down from above, the shape of the bloodstains matched the splash trajectory of falling from a high place, there was no problem at all.
There were obvious brown-red marks next to them, left by slipping footsteps. Ji Mingcheng squatted down to take a closer look and said to her, "This is a paint commonly used on ships. It can cover rust, dirt, and oil stains on the deck. It also makes the deck look more beautiful when it is wet. I think it was obtained for coating the deck."
Qiu Jiang hadn't been on a boat much, so she didn't know this. After hearing this, she asked, "So when they paint, they just splatter it and call it a day? That wouldn't look pretty, would it?"
"Who says it isn't?"
Ji Mingcheng stood up and looked at the edge of the right deck, which was covered with this kind of paint. It was obvious that the paint was splashed on rather than painted.
So whether this is done intentionally to make people slip and fall, or for some other reason, is not yet known.
also……
They both pointed at the iron bars on the railing.
Seeing that he had also noticed it, Qiu Jiang immediately said, "Captain Ji, what the cruise ship owner said just now is right. The railing is so high, so even if the deceased slipped, he would have hit the railing directly instead of falling off the cruise ship. So I thought that the iron bars might be loose. When I took a look just now, I found that there was something wrong with these iron bars. Look..."
She took out a pair of gloves and put them on, then walked over and pushed the seemingly stable iron rod with her gloved hand.
As a result, she just pushed hard, and the iron rod moved back several centimeters, revealing a hole that was large enough for a cat to pass through.
She followed the directions one by one and found that all four railings had the same problem.
That is, the groove under the iron rod has rusted and is broken. Although it does not look broken, if you push it casually like she did, the safety hazard will be exposed.
Ji Mingcheng glanced at her in admiration, "Sharp."
Qiu Jiang blinked, "Team Ji also noticed it, and Team Ji is very perceptive."
Ji Mingcheng raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything about her compliment. Instead, when she stood up, he asked, "What's your opinion? Do you think it was an accident or murder?"
murder.
Qiu Jiang said firmly in her heart.
In fact, based on the existing evidence, it is impossible to make such a definition. However, the strange thing is that she has a plug-in. Since the black shadow has never made a mistake before, she is willing to trust her own judgment this time.
Since she could see the dark shadow and the process of death, she believed that the deceased was murdered.
However, the most important thing now is not her certainty, but to find evidence. After all, she did not see anyone other than the deceased in the shadows, so she did not have any information about the murderer.
This is the most difficult part.
Seeing that she lowered her head and didn't speak, Ji Mingcheng didn't find it difficult to answer this question that even he couldn't be sure of for her, but turned around and went back.
"Leave."
Qiu Jiang suddenly looked up at him, "Huh? Where are you going?"
"Look at the body."
Damn, I actually forgot about this.
She slapped her forehead hard and immediately ran after him.
Of course, before going down, I didn't forget to ask them what was going on with the paint.
As soon as she asked, the workers immediately looked a little uneasy, but the older ones looked very confident.
"Painting, how can we paint if we don't pour it out?"
Qiu Jiang was completely annoyed. "Isn't the normal way to paint a paintbrush to dip it into the bucket?"
The person who was speaking just now suddenly became silent, and Ji Zhengzhi also felt strange.
"Yeah, why did you just pour paint on the ground? Who works like that? And you say it wasn't intentional murder?"
"Get lost, what do you mean by murder? Why are the words coming out of your mouth so disgusting? Is this how we work?"
"If it's not murder, why do you feel guilty?"
"Your mother's guilty conscience—"
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