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The second person to discover the body was Qi Guofa, a gatekeeper at the Wudu State-owned Steel Plant. On the morning of the second day of the Lunar New Year, he was inspecting the plant as usual when he discovered that the chain lock on the main gate had been cut.
"I can't even have a peaceful New Year." He muttered.
Similar incidents had occurred numerous times. After the factory closed two years ago, many people had set their sights on collective assets. He had apprehended thieves who tried to break into machinery and sell the steel, driven out homeless people who had wrapped themselves in blankets and hid under machine tools for the winter, and even rescued a woman who had attempted suicide by hanging.
The woman, probably in her thirties, was found hanging from a steel frame in the factory area by Lao Qi, her face bruised and her legs kicking wildly. After being rescued, she did not thank Lao Qi.
"Master, please be kind and don't worry about whether I live or die." Her pupils were empty. "Just let me hang myself, and let's do whatever we have to do."
Lao Qi understood her plan. She wanted to die in the factory so that her family could get some compensation. The problem was that it would be a waste of her life because the factory had no money left to pay.
He helped the woman to the security room, brewed a pot of hot tea, poured out a cup of hot but tasteless tea, and persuaded her kindly, "Look at it lightly, there is nothing you can't overcome."
"There's no food at home, and the kids are crying out of hunger..."
"The difficulties are only temporary. The factory director said that once the company's situation improves, we will return to work immediately."
The woman shook her head and said no more. Before leaving, she looked at Lao Qi's back and spat on the ground, "You leaders can't understand."
Lao Qi was stunned, unable to take another step. He had never thought that he would be called a "leader" one day.
Since joining the workforce in the 1960s, Lao Qi has been a welder. Due to his outstanding work ethic, he has received numerous honorary certificates and even participated in provincial meetings as a worker representative.
In the 1980s, he calculated that retirement was still seven years away. As long as a company employee of his rank worked diligently and honestly, he could expect to receive an annual pension of 30,000 yuan upon retirement, ensuring he would have no problems with his retirement. But within just a few years, the steel mill's performance would collapse like a domino, and it could no longer support its workforce. First, they implemented "optimization," then advocated "reducing staff and increasing efficiency," and then "rotational waiting." Finally, in 1997, they had to make major layoffs. Overnight, he lost his iron rice bowl and was forced to resign.
After decades of continuous refinement, his welding skills proved useless outside the factory. He was forced to change his ways and look for new ways to make a living, selling clothes, used books, and everything in between, but none of them made any money; instead, he lost money.
His wife, who had already given up her state-owned enterprise job, became a confinement nanny, earning 1,600 yuan a month. Since she was responsible for most of the household expenses, she felt free to criticize Lao Qi, saying, "Are you still a man? You're just a mouth to feed!"
He was speechless.
Fortunately, the factory director was an old classmate of his. Seeing his predicament, he pulled him back to the factory to work as a security guard. There were many production equipment sealed in the factory, and they still needed to be guarded.
"We need to take good care of it and resume production!" Within a year of the factory director's bold words, he and the secretary were laid off. Leaders who once patiently persuaded others to accept their fate now had to do their own ideological work.
Lao Qi wasn't sure if he was lucky. Although his salary was meager, he was the only one who managed to keep his job at the factory. Compared to the unemployed outside, his monthly salary of less than 500 yuan wasn't enough to cover his living expenses, but it was still a solid income. Therefore, he diligently fulfilled his promise to the factory director: to take good care of the factory.
He pushed open the factory gate and saw a trail of footprints in the mud heading straight for the factory building. There were no returning footprints; the person who had picked the lock was still inside. Lao Qi licked his chapped lips and gripped the handle of the high-intensity flashlight tucked into his belt. It was the only self-defense device he had.
The footprints passed right by the factory door, apparently not going inside. But Lao Qi, uneasy, unlocked the door with his key and checked. The thick, suffocating smell of dust filled the air. The floor lay thickly covered in dust, devoid of any trace of footprints. In just two years, the heavy machine tools had turned a reddish-brown, stained with rust. The entire workshop resembled the untouched surface of Mars. He recalled the bustling production scene of yesteryear and sighed deeply.
He locked the door and continued to follow the footprints. After taking a few steps, his heart suddenly shook, and the footprints stopped in front of a deserted well.
The factory had dug the well ten years earlier to pump water to the rooftops to cool the workers. Old Qi had even helped wield the shovel back then. He cautiously leaned over to take a look. The wellhead was pitch black.
He suddenly remembered the flashlight, and hurriedly turned on the battery switch and poked it into the well mouth to look around. The dark muddy water at the bottom had not yet frozen. On the surface of the water were colorful plastic boxes and a ball of black algae-like silk thread - no, it was a woman's long hair, floating on the water.
Old Qi collapsed to the ground, his limbs limp. He thought, "I can only call the police." After such a major security lapse, he couldn't escape the fate of being laid off.
Incredibly, he felt no panic at all, no sympathy for the drowning woman, and even a vague sense of envy.
"I finally did it for you." He took out half a pack of cigarettes that he had saved before the New Year from his pocket.
The cigarettes were nearing their expiration date, costing 20 cents a pack and somewhat moldy. He lit them for a long time, then, seeing a spark, took a quick puff and finally smoked.
The sky was gloomy, and it looked like it was going to rain again. He shifted his hips, slumped against the wellhead, and exhaled gray smoke. The smoke escaped from his mouth, but the source was deep within his body. His chest felt like a bag, long since burned to the point of being hollow.
Upon arrival, the police confirmed the body was indeed in the well. They then called the fire department. Firefighters set up their equipment, tied a rope around their waists, and lowered the body into the well to retrieve it. They then used a pump to drain the water from the bottom of the well and conducted a thorough search.
The deceased was a middle-aged woman wearing unlined clothing inappropriate for the season. She was otherwise unidentified. The body is estimated to be around 43 years old. Judging by her muscular appearance and other features, she did not appear to have engaged in manual labor or similar occupations.
There was congestion in the brain, and the cause of death was suspected to be a violent impact in the solar plexus area, most likely from hitting the stone wall while falling into the well. There was no water in the stomach. This made the police nervous. Human life is far more fragile than it appears. Even from head trauma, instantaneous death is extremely rare. The water at the bottom of the well was deep enough to cover the deceased's head, and his last breaths would have likely caused him to inhale a large amount of well water into his stomach.
If the stomach is clean, the first intuitive explanation is that the deceased died somewhere else and was thrown into the well after death.
But subsequent discoveries revealed another possibility. Since the water at the bottom of the well had been drained, no new water had flowed out, suggesting the source had been blocked long ago. The accumulation of water at the bottom of the well was likely caused by the heavy rain that began at 3:00 a.m. on the 2nd, after no rain had fallen for two weeks. This means that there was likely no water at the bottom of the well when the deceased fell.
The rain also made the ground at the scene extremely muddy. Because Qi Guofa, the body's discoverer, didn't immediately call the police but instead informed factory management, the footprints at the crime scene had been completely destroyed by the original factory management and off-duty employees who had rushed to watch the scene.
According to Qi Guofa's testimony, he patrolled the factory every morning and evening at 6:00 a.m. to check conditions, so the murder must have occurred between the night of New Year's Day and the morning of the following day. The autopsy results also supported his account: the pupils were no longer visible, and rigor mortis had slowed, placing the estimated time of death between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. on New Year's Day.
After some discussion, the police leaned toward suicide. Security guards had discovered the body just the night before, revealing obvious clues like a broken door lock and single-track footprints in the mud. A murder and body disposal would have been imprudent. Their top priority was investigating the group of laid-off workers at the steel mill. This wasn't their first case. Last month, a textile mill in the city was laying off workers, and an employee, dissatisfied with the layoffs, threatened to commit suicide by poisoning himself.
Only Xu Wenjing, a newly recruited female officer from the Criminal Investigation Team, expressed a different view. She had a nagging feeling that the deceased's appearance and physique didn't resemble those of a local factory worker. However, Captain Qin, who was presiding over the meeting, rebuked her for this and warned her to respect objective evidence and not rely solely on intuition.
The initial investigation was difficult. Laid-off workers from state-owned enterprises were a sensitive yet united group, easily provoked. The police had no choice but to investigate each individual individually based on a list provided by the former factory secretary. But everyone was confident the case would be solved. Based on past experience, the deceased's family would report the missing person within a week.
But no such person ever showed up. The investigation lasted nearly a month, and it was discovered that no one at the factory knew the deceased.
It was newcomer Xu Wenjing, who was in charge of the item search, that broke the impasse. After draining the well, they unearthed a wealth of debris trapped in the mud. This included screws, screwdrivers, broken glass, cans, bottles, sanitary napkins, videotapes, and more—over a hundred items. It was more like garbage than miscellaneous items. But videotapes weren't the kind of junk you'd just casually discard. Careful inspection revealed sixteen tapes, all with paper labels, though damaged by the water. After careful repairs and overall comparison, Xu Wenjing discovered that the labels were uniformly labeled "Red Sail Video Rental." There was no video store by that name in Wudu City. After expanding her search, she finally found a store by that name in Chengguan City, a neighboring province. She eagerly called her colleagues there to inquire and learned that Xu Lan, the owner of "Red Sail Video Rental," had disappeared a month earlier and that her husband, Li Xueqiang, had reported the matter to the police, right around New Year's Day.
What happened next became a matter of course. The next day, Li Xueqiang took a long-distance bus to Wudu. Captain Qin led a team to accompany him to the hospital to identify the body, and Xu Wenjing was responsible for coordination.
After the body was pulled from the freezer, Li Xueqiang stood two meters away, a defiant expression on his face, his mouth emitting a harsh, low whine. Xu Wenjing was so nervous that she almost held her breath, watching him intently.
"Is it your lover?" Captain Qin asked.
Li Xueqiang didn't answer, his face tense, as if he were desperately trying to endure something. A few seconds later, his inner emotions erupted, and he rushed to the freezer, bent down and knelt beside the body, holding her hand tightly. A woman's name surged from his throat, accompanied by a low sob.
Since Li Xueqiang was emotionally unstable, Captain Qin accompanied him in the hospital lobby to help him calm down. The task of handling the body handover naturally fell to Xu Wenjing.
When she returned to the hall, she found that only Captain Qin was waiting on the bench.
"Where are the people?"
"He said he wanted to smoke, but the nurse kicked him out." He pointed outside and saw through the glass door that Li Xueqiang was sitting on the steps in the distance, puffing out cigarette rings.
"He still feels like smoking. I always feel like his tears are fake." She covered her mouth with her hand and whispered.
"Don't make hasty judgments. Did you confirm the time of disappearance over the phone before?"
"It's confirmed." Xu Wenjing regained her serious expression. "It was on New Year's Eve. The music store closed earlier than usual that day. She was already pulling down the shutters around 5:00. The owner of the stationery store across the street asked her if she had anything to do, and she said they had to close the store to take inventory."
"No one saw her again after that?"
"Well, no one was there. Because it was New Year's Day, the owner of the barbecue restaurant that was open the latest closed up shop before 10 o'clock and went home. But when he left, he saw the shutter of the music store was closed, and Xu Lan's bicycle was still parked at the door, so she should still be in the store at that time."
"Oh," Captain Qin frowned, as if he was trying to reconstruct the course of events in his mind, "When did her family call the police?"
"The next afternoon."
"So late?" His brows furrowed even deeper.
Xu Wenjing understood his concern. If a woman disappeared in the middle of the night, her family wouldn't sleep peacefully until the next day before looking for her.
"That night, Li Xueqiang played mahjong at a friend's house all night and didn't return home until early the next morning. There were only two children at home. Although they were anxious, they didn't know what to do. They told Li Xueqiang that his mother hadn't returned home all night. He went to the music store to look for her and called all his friends and family. Only then did he realize that his wife was missing."
"She has two children?"
"A man and a woman."
"How old?"
"The older girl is in high school, and the younger one is in kindergarten."
"Has this kind of sudden disappearance happened before?"
"I don't think so. He said Xu Lan's hometown is in the countryside and she doesn't have many friends in the city. Usually, apart from taking care of the video store business, she stays at home to take care of the children. She rarely even goes back to her hometown."
"Did Xu Lan show any unusual emotions in the period before she disappeared?"
"No. I'm just a little worried about my youngest son's schooling. Everything else is normal." Xu Wenjing paused. "It's really strange, isn't it?"
If there hadn't been a major incident, it would be hard to believe that a mother would suddenly abandon her two underage children and run away from home without a word.
Captain Qin nodded emphatically, stood up, grabbed his coat and put it on. "Take him back and make a formal statement. I have a feeling this case is quite complicated."
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