Chapter 29: The Case of the Venomous Snake Murder (8) The Origin of the Venomous Snake...
After interrogating all the suspects, Sang Luo took Xie Ling'er out to investigate. They first went to the hospital, checked Fu Ainong's medical records from last year, and found Fu Ainong's attending physician at the time. They confirmed Fu Ainong's condition to him in person. The doctor confirmed that Fu Ainong could no longer do climbing movements after the fall, and he did not lie about this.
Afterwards, Sang Luo and his friend came to Baiyun County No. 1 High School, which is the best high school in the county. Sang Luo went straight to the school leader. When he heard that the two were there to investigate a case, the school leader hurriedly stood up to accompany them. He also stopped all the classes in the third year of high school and asked all the teachers and students to wait and cooperate with the police investigation.
Sang Luo visited several classes and confirmed Zheng Wutong's whereabouts on the 31st. He indeed taught several classes for a whole day, with only a ten-minute break between classes. He did not even have time to go to the toilet, let alone return home to commit the crime during this time.
Several teachers who worked in the same office as Li Xiujuan also testified for her that except for teaching, she stayed in the office all day and did not leave the school.
Sang Luo wrote down these details in his notebook, and then said to the school leader, "In addition, I also need to confirm Zheng Longmen's alibi. Which class is he in?"
The school leader was stunned, and seemed a little surprised. There was some commotion in the crowd. Sang Luo glanced around and noticed that several teachers were laughing and covering their mouths, looking like they were gloating. After a few seconds, the school leader said:
"Police comrade, you must be mistaken. Zheng Longmen is not a student of our school. He graduated last year."
Sang Luo frowned: "He graduated. Did he graduate from high school? Then he should be in college now!"
The school leader hesitated: "Alas, this matter is always someone else's family affair. Teacher Zheng and Teacher Li are both teachers we respect very much. Police comrade, if you want to investigate the matter in the school, I promise to cooperate with you, but this is someone else's privacy, I can't say too much..."
Sang Luo could understand it. After all, these two people were special teachers in the school, and the school leaders didn't want to hurt their reputation in public. She nodded, thanked the school leaders, and walked directly towards the few people who were laughing in the corner.
These people are also teachers, and seem to be about the same age as Zheng Wutong. From their reactions just now, it can be seen that they do not get along well with Zheng Wutong and his wife. Sang Luo chose them as targets. They can say what the school leaders are not convenient to say.
Sang Luo walked directly to the leader, a woman wearing a flowered shirt. The woman was probably in her forties and was wearing a pair of shiny leather shoes. From her position, it could be seen that she had a high status among the group. Sang Luo asked, "Excuse me, what's your name?"
"Gu Yixiang, I teach geography." The woman smiled politely, not understanding Sang Luo's purpose.
"I see you have a good temperament, and many students greeted you just now," Sang Luo started chatting, "You must be very popular in the eyes of students."
Gu Yixiang covered her mouth and laughed: "Hey, what's the big deal? I teach a lot of students, so naturally a lot of people know me. To be honest, I have been teaching here for 30 years, and there are often graduates who come back to see me!"
Sang Luo pretended to be casual and asked, "Wow, you have been teaching for such a long time, so are you a special-grade teacher?"
Upon hearing this, Gu Yixiang's face instantly fell. She said unhappily, "No, I didn't make the grade. Special-grade teachers need to be selected. You can't be selected just because you teach well. There are only a few spots, and they were all taken by shameless people!"
"Shameless people... are you referring to Zheng Wutong and Li Xiujuan?" Sang Luo said, "I've heard Zheng Wutong mention it several times. Both of them are top-grade teachers."
This obviously hit Gu Yixiang's sore spot. She rolled her eyes and said, "Everyone knows who I'm talking about. Who knows how they got the position? Who knows if they gave gifts to the principal? Forget it. I don't want to say too much in front of the students. Anyway, everyone has a scale in their hearts. Who is a truly good teacher? Everyone can see it!"
It seems that the two had a conflict over the selection of special-grade teachers. Sang Luo remembered it silently and echoed her, saying, "Yes, sometimes the workplace is like this. Strong work ability does not necessarily mean honors. I think Zheng Wutong is really lucky. He is obviously not as capable as you at work, but he can still obtain the special-grade qualification, get a high salary, live in harmony with his wife, and have a promising child. He really has everything."
Gu Yixiang's eyes widened. "Him? Harmonious marriage? Hahaha, you don't know, they fight every day! Especially in the past year, either Zheng Wutong or his wife, one of them always has a bruise on his face. When they come to class to give lectures, the students below are all laughing secretly!"
"Besides, his child has a promising future? Police comrade, you are not kidding me, are you? That child of his is a well-known joke!"
Sang Luo immediately asked: "What do you mean?"
Gu Yixiang opened up: "Hey, if you ask the people here, everyone knows it! Zheng Longmen is not in the third year of high school, but in the sixth year!"
"Hmm?" Sang Luo was confused for a moment, thinking that he had heard it wrong. Gu Yixiang confirmed:
"Yes, it's senior year! Other children only repeat a grade for one or two years at most, but their child has repeated a grade for three years. This is already the third time he has repeated a grade!"
"He said his child always ranks first in the grade. Is that false?" Sang Luo guessed, "Is their child actually very bad at studying?"
Gu Yixiang rolled her eyes and said, "Well, if you say it's bad, it's not that bad. When Zheng Longmen was in his third year of high school, he ranked first in the grade several times. I'm not lying, but that's all in the past."
Sang Luo asked: "Since you can get first place in the grade, you should be able to get into university. Why did you repeat so many times?"
Gu Yixiang laughed again: "It's not that Zheng Longmen can't get into college. He took the college entrance examination three times and was admitted to a good university. He was admitted to Nanzhou University in the city on the first try, but his parents didn't let him go and forced him to take the exam again next year."
"This..." Sang Luo was very surprised, "Why is this?"
Gu Yixiang pointed at herself and said, "Because his parents insist on comparing themselves with me! Why do they have to compare their children with mine? My Xing'er is famous for being smart, how good is their Zheng Longmen? My child was admitted to Beijing University, which is the best school in the country. Their family with the surname Zheng has pink eye disease. They insist on comparing themselves with our family and make sure that their Zheng Longmen is also admitted to Beijing University!"
Sang Luo was shocked. She remembered what Zheng Wutong said during the interrogation, "He will definitely be admitted to Capital University." She suddenly felt a chill on her back. It turned out that the real meaning of this sentence was that if Zheng Longmen failed to be admitted to Capital University, he would have no chance of graduating from high school.
He will keep repeating...
Seeing the expression on Sang Luo's face, Gu Yixiang smiled even more happily: "What, you also think their family is sick, right? It's obvious that their children are not as good as others, just admit it, why do you have to torture the children? Humph, now think about it, it's really funny, he has been competing with me all his life, relying on his good alcohol tolerance and being able to block the principal's drinking, so he has a good relationship with the principal, always trying to get ahead of me in everything, and even snatched away all the special teachers that belong to me, but so what? In the end, his children are still not as good as my children!"
Sang Luo was still confused: "So what is Zheng Longmen's current status? Since he is still repeating the year, why did the school leaders say he had graduated when I asked them just now?"
Gu Yixiang laughed so hard that she doubled over. "Hey, this is even funnier now. Zheng Longmen repeated his first two years at No. 1 Middle School. He was too embarrassed to come back in his third year. Everyone looked at him strangely. His parents were also embarrassed, so they held a graduation ceremony and let the child go home to study. Anyway, he had almost learned all the courses in the third year of high school. Just think about it, after listening to the same lessons over and over again three times, even a pig should have learned them!"
It turns out that Zheng Longmen has been studying at home, so he has plenty of time to commit crimes! Sang Luo's heart tightened, and she immediately remembered that when she went to No. 10 to knock on the door for the first time, his door was locked from the outside with a big padlock, and when she went to visit for the second time, Zheng Longmen came back from school with his parents. What was going on?
Sang Luo asked his doubts, and Gu Yixiang laughed disdainfully, "His parents are thick-skinned. They relied on the fact that they are both special-grade teachers and applied to the school for a small utility room to use as the child's study room. The door is usually locked and he is the only one who has the key. Although the child does not need to attend classes, sometimes he does his own papers and still asks other teachers for help when he encounters questions he does not understand. This study room is for him to ask teachers."
Sang Luo nodded. She finally understood Zheng Longmen's situation. "Zheng Longmen can choose to study at home or go to the school study room every day. So where did he go on the 31st? Are there any witnesses?"
Gu Yixiang waved her hand: "How is that possible? Police comrade, you will know if you go and take a look. That utility room is at the edge of the school. It is used by cleaners to store their tools. No one would pass by there. Who knows if he went there that day!"
In other words, Zheng Longmen had no alibi on the day of the crime.
Sang Luo specially circled Zheng Longmen's name and prepared to go back for a second interrogation. She said goodbye to Gu Yixiang and found another senior high school teacher to ask about the relationship between Gu Yixiang and Zheng Wutong. This teacher was also quite gossipy and told everything he knew:
"These two people are simply natural enemies! They are the same age and entered the school in the same year. They have been competing with each other since they entered the school. They both work very hard. They have always been competing for awards, honors, and professional titles. Especially since Zheng Wutong took away the last special teacher position in the school that year, the two of them have become enemies. They don't even say hello when they meet!"
"It just so happens that they both had their children in the same year, and their children are the same age. They have been competing with each other in academic performance since they were young. When it comes to the college entrance examination, which is a fate-determining moment, the two families are even more crazy about it. Gu Yixiang's daughter Qin Xing was admitted to Beijing University, and Zheng Longmen was slightly worse and was admitted to Nanzhou University. So, the old Zheng family was furious and refused to let him go. They insisted on repeating the year before him! Let me tell you, when will this person stop competing?"
Sang Luo wrote all this down in her notebook. She went around to the south side of the school and took a look at Zheng Longmen's small study room. It was very dirty and messy, with only a simple set of tables and chairs. The floor was littered with books and test papers. They all looked like college entrance examination review materials. There was nothing worth investigating. However, since she was already there, Sang Luo asked the school leaders to open the door and let her go in to search the room.
After leaving school, Xie Ling'er felt very strange: "There is something wrong with Zheng Wutong and his wife. Zheng Longmen is clearly in the sixth grade, but they insisted that he is in the third grade. He is obviously not in school anymore, but they still said that their child is the top student in the grade. Such a simple lie was found out by the police when they went to the school to investigate. Don't they have brains?"
"There are two possibilities," Sang Luo flipped open his notebook, "First, they are trying to save face by deceiving themselves and others and making their son's situation sound better; second, they are protecting their son."
"However, this lie is really too clumsy and will be exposed at the first poke." Sang Luo was also a little skeptical. "Zheng Wutong and his wife are smart people. Can't they find a reliable alibi for their son?"
"Do you think the murderer is Zheng Longmen?" Xie Ling'er recalled Zheng Longmen's nerdy appearance in the interrogation room and could not connect him with the murderer.
"I can only say that he is a strong suspect," Sang Luo said cautiously, "His alibi is false. No one knows what he was doing that day. If he was reviewing at home that day, he would have had plenty of time to commit the crime."
"What's the motive?" Xie Ling'er asked, "He and He Taohua didn't know each other, why did he want to kill her?"
"Then I'm afraid I'll have to ask him in person!" Sang Luo put away her notebook. She planned to go back to the bureau to start a second interrogation and let Zheng Wutong's family explain what the lies they told were all about.
On the other side, Yuan Xiaohu got into the police car with his master after lunch in the afternoon. On the way, he asked his master where they were going, and his master asked him to guess.
"Hmm..." Yuan Xiaohu thought for a moment, "Since we are going to investigate the source of the poisonous snakes, then we should go to the train station, right? These snakes come from the south. The murderer may have caught the snakes in the south and brought them back by train. Let's go to the train station and ask if there are any suspicious people. Maybe we can get something."
"Silly boy," Ma Shi Tu laughed, "I've heard that this kind of snake is afraid of cold. It's also very cold on the train in this weather. If we really caught one from the south, it would have been frozen to death after the long and bumpy ride!"
"Oh, that's right," Yuan Xiaohu nodded belatedly, "Then Master, where are you taking me?"
Ma Shi Tu said nothing, but drove silently. When the car arrived at a residential building, Ma Shi Tu slammed on the brakes, opened the door and got out: "This is it, get off!"
Yuan Xiaohu followed Ma Shi Tu upstairs. Ma Shi Tu pointed to a door on the fourth floor. Yuan Xiaohu took out the tools he carried with him and pried open the lock. The master and apprentice broke into the room.
After entering, Yuan Xiaohu was stunned. This was clearly a residential building, but there were several tables and chairs, just like a restaurant. There were two tables of guests drinking soup inside. When they saw Yuan Xiaohu come in, the guests drinking soup ran away. The chef and the boss in the kitchen squatted on the ground skillfully.
The two men entered the bedroom again and found that the room that was supposed to be the bedroom was actually filled with large and small wire cages. A foul smell hit them in the face. Yuan Xiaohu took a closer look and found that the cages were filled with poisonous snakes, pheasants and other wild animals that were prohibited from being sold. He shuddered and immediately handcuffed the restaurant owner.
After locking the man in the car, Yuan Xiaohu was very surprised. This place looked ordinary on the surface, but it turned out to be a game restaurant. He asked curiously: "Master, how did you know this place?"
Ma Shi Tu smiled and said, "Silly boy, I have worked as a criminal policeman for so many years and it's not for nothing. I naturally have my own information channels."
Ma Shi Tu took him to several other places. That afternoon, they destroyed four illegal wildlife sales dens and brought the owners back to the police station. Ma Shi Tu said with certainty: "All the owners who dare to sell poisonous snakes in Baiyun County are here."
"Did the murderer buy the poisonous snake?" Yuan Xiaohu asked.
Ma Shi Tu was so angry that he laughed: "Think about it, who would buy a poisonous snake with real name before killing someone? It's definitely not bought! But——"
He changed the subject and said, "I'm sure the murderer's poisonous snake must have come from here. It's impossible for them to be caught in the south, so someone must be raising them locally. Raising those things requires professional equipment for heating and humidification, which most people are reluctant to buy. The only ones willing to spend money to buy professional equipment are the owners of these game stores. After all, it's profitable."
"So," Ma Shi Tu picked up the teacup, "Next, we just need to interrogate these bosses carefully, and we will definitely be able to get some useful clues."
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