Murder in a locked room bed and breakfast (13)

Since it was too late at this time and it was already past dusk, Zhao Leiting suggested going to the supermarket where Sun Yuanyuan worked to ask her tomorrow.

The next morning, the two went to a private supermarket called Jiaxing Supermarket. When they entered, they found Sun Yuanyuan busy at a cash register.

After explaining the reason to the supermarket owner, I waited in a lounge of the supermarket for a few minutes. Then, Sun Yuanyuan pushed the door and came in. She must have adjusted her mood in advance. Her face was relatively calm, but there was still a little caution and timidity in her eyes. She seemed not to want to deal with the police. The last time she was detained in the police station was probably not something she wanted to recall.

Meng Siqi also felt a little guilty about Sun Yuanyuan, but what Feng Shaomin said to her made her feel that all of this was part of the necessary process of criminal investigation. For the sake of justice and the truth, sometimes things might not be perfect.

She smiled and said, "Sun Yuanyuan, please take a seat."

Sun Yuanyuan sat opposite the two of them. Meng Siqi had already opened her notebook, but she didn't want today's conversation to be as boring as in the interrogation room.

She deliberately made her tone very relaxed: "Is the work here hard?"

"It's okay." She raised her eyelids and seemed to glance at her.

"Actually, I came here today just to ask for your help."

"Help?" Sun Yuanyuan looked at her with a slightly surprised tone.

"Yes, we are worried that it will affect your work. We have already told your boss that it will only take half an hour at most."

"It's okay." Sun Yuanyuan smiled for the first time.

She had dimples. In Meng Siqi's eyes, her face was full of sorrow, misfortune and grief. This time, Meng Siqi saw her with a little more sunshine. In fact, she was only 24 years old. Eight years ago, when she worked in the textile factory, she was barely 16. During that time, she may have valued friendship more than anything else. Long Shanwen may have been the most important person to her.

"Last time you said that Long Shanwen had relationships with certain leaders. Can you recall who she was close to at the time? Did she have any romantic experiences?"

Sun Yuanyuan's relaxed brows became more serious. She seemed unwilling to recall the past. However, she bit her lip and said slowly, "Sister Shanwen is very beautiful. Many leaders like her, but they just want to have dinner and drinks with her."

"Wait a minute, you said Long Shanwen went to drink with the leader?" Meng Siqi was very surprised to get such information.

"Yes, at that time, when the factory leaders had dinner, they would usually invite a few pretty girls, and Sister Shanwen was the one they invited the most."

"Is she going?"

"No," Sun Yuanyuan shook her head, "Sister Shanwen doesn't like to do this kind of thing."

"So she refused from the beginning to the end and didn't go?"

"Not really." Sun Yuanyuan raised her eyes, revealing a hint of regret, "Sometimes we just can't help ourselves."

Meng Siqi sighed in her heart. In that era when everyone was pursuing a stable job, Long Shanwen, who had no special skills, might have always hoped to make a living in the textile factory. However, because she was beautiful, she became a special existence in some drinking occasions. She couldn't refuse everyone because she needed the nourishment of life provided by these people.

She must have been very conflicted at that time, because beauty was innate, but how to survive was not something she could choose.

Meng Siqi calmed down and said, "So do you know which leader she is closest to? In other words, which people she can't refuse."

Sun Yuanyuan lowered her eyes and did not respond. Her eyes seemed to be avoiding something. She blinked frequently and her lips moved slightly.

She hesitated to speak, which must be because she knew something but was concerned about something else.

Meng Siqi had to remind her, "Sun Yuanyuan, Long Shanwen died tragically. As her best friend, don't you want to know the truth? Do you want her to die with regrets?"

At that moment, she found that Sun Yuanyuan's eyes were fixed, and the black part seemed to be staring at something empty in front of her. Her heart must have been in turmoil.

She suddenly raised her head and said, "It's Gui Xiangyang."

"Return to the sun?"

"Yes, Gui Xiangyang is the son of Director Gui and the director of the factory office. He is very young and a playboy. He controls the fate of the factory employees. Sister Shanwen has to listen to him. She has had dinner with Gui Xiangyang several times."

It turns out that all this is still related to Gui Xiangyang. Meng Siqi's heart is gradually sinking. Now all the clues seem to point to him.

She sorted out her thoughts and asked, "Sun Yuanyuan, how much do you know about them?"

"That's all you know. This is not a glorious thing. Sister Shanwen never told me. Besides, Gui Xiangyang is not someone you want to mess with. He has people on his side, and relatives who are leaders in the police station. I hope you don't tell anyone that I said this."

Meng Siqi was stunned, and when he looked at Zhao Leiting, his expression seemed to freeze.

"Don't worry, this incident will only be kept in my record book, and please believe that the police are just and will definitely protect the interests of the people."

Sun Yuanyuan nodded silently.

Meng Siqi felt that she could not ask any more questions about this matter, so she asked another question she had prepared long ago: "Sun Yuanyuan, the textile factory went bankrupt at that time. Did you go to the factory to cause trouble because you were owed wages?"

Sun Yuanyuan seemed to be reminiscing. She wrinkled her thin eyebrows, raised her eyes and said, "The wages are definitely in arrears, but the factory can't afford it, and there is nothing we can do."

"Can you tell me about the wage dispute?"

Sun Yuanyuan didn't seem to want to recall the past, her eyes became dull, but she didn't refuse directly, she just made a summary in a slow voice: "Anyway, there are a group of people going to the factory every day to make trouble, and Sister Shanwen and I didn't go."

"How long has it been going on?"

"A few months, a few months, I can't remember, but it was quite a long time."

"What happened next? Did the factory come up with a solution?"

Sun Yuanyuan shook her head and said, "No."

"So you guys are not making trouble anymore?"

"No, we heard some news that someone ran away with the money and took away the wages that were supposed to be paid to everyone in the factory."

"..." Meng Siqi was suddenly stunned. This seemed to be a clue she had never heard before.

Meng Siqi immediately asked: "Slow down, can you tell me who ran away with the money?"

Sun Yuanyuan shook her head again. "I don't know. The factory was too chaotic at the time. I just heard about it. Later, no one went to the factory to make trouble, and I would not go there to make trouble. I had no money, so I had to find a job."

"Okay, do you remember who caused trouble in the factory?"

“Yes.” Sun Yuanyuan said, “Sister Shuying and Sister Guifeng took good care of me. They would talk to me about my salary when they saw me. They also told me when someone ran away with the money.”

"Please write down their names." Meng Siqi quickly tore off a piece of paper and placed the paper and pen in front of Sun Yuanyuan.

She wrote two names on a piece of paper and said, "We haven't had any contact since we left the factory. You can look for them."

"Okay, Sun Yuanyuan, thank you very much for today." Meng Siqi stood up with a smile, "I'm sorry for delaying your work."

"It's ok, can I go now?"

"Of course."

After Sun Yuanyuan left the lounge, Meng Siqi immediately smiled and said to Zhao Leiting: "Zhao Leiting, these two people depend on you. I want to know their information in one day. Can you do it?"

"What do you mean by being able to do it? You still don't believe me."

"Thank you. I'll treat you to a delicious meal at noon today."

Zhao Lei Ting chuckled: "Let's go, I'm a little hungry now."

In less than a day, Zhao Leiting found the information of the two people. Li Guifeng passed away two years ago, but Lin Shuying is still alive and her home address has also been found.

The two drove there hurriedly. Lin Shuying's home was not in the city, but in a county town closer to the urban area of ​​Jinyang City. As soon as they arrived at Lin Shuying's home, they saw a woman in her fifties drying fermented bean curd in the yard. There were baskets of fermented bean curd, which were square and tightly packed together. Fine white hairs had already grown on the fermented bean curd.

The fragrant and smelly smell of fermented bean curd also spread in the air. Meng Siqi quite liked eating fermented bean curd, but Zhao Leiting covered his nose.

"Hello, are you Ms. Lin Shuying? We are police officers from the Municipal Public Security Bureau and would like to talk to you about something." Meng Siqi smiled and took the initiative to ask.

Zhao Leiting was worried that the other party would not believe him, so he took out his police officer ID and showed it to Lin Shuying.

Lin Shuying was wearing coarse clothes, and her hair was slightly gray. Her expression was frozen, and her wrinkles became more obvious. She seemed to be surprised that the police came to her house. "What do you want from me?"

Zhao Leiting said, "Auntie, we want to know about the Dandelion Textile Factory."

Lin Shuying's frown deepened, and her face turned gloomy. "I don't know."

Before he finished speaking, he walked towards the door, holding a basket of fermented bean curd.

"You had worked in the textile factory for six or seven years at that time. You were a veteran employee of the textile factory. How could you not know..." Zhao Lei Ting followed her steps, closely following her, wishing he could hold her back.

Lin Shuying walked very quickly, and Zhao Leiting followed her all the way to the door. "You must know what happened that year. Please cooperate with us, the police..."

"I don't know anything!" Lin Shuying closed one door and then the other, but the door on that side was blocked by Zhao Leiting. Lin Shuying seemed angry, "Comrade!"

Zhao Leiting had no choice but to slowly let go of the door. The door creaked and was about to close when it was suddenly stopped by a clear female voice, "Long Shanwen is dead!"

The crack in the door left only half of Lin Shuying's face exposed, and her face turned pale instantly.

Meng Siqi continued: "Sun Yuanyuan is the biggest suspect. Don't you want to know what happened? The truth of that year..."

"Come in." Lin Shuying opened half of the door and turned to go into the house.

Zhao Lei Ting turned around and gave her a thumbs up.

The two of them followed into the house. The room was very dark, with light coming in from the door and a small window. According to Meng Siqi's common sense, in a mud house with this structure, even if the incandescent light was turned on during the day, the room would still be dim.

Lin Shuying made tea for the two of them. After finishing everything, she sat across from them at an eight-person table and asked, "How did Long Shanwen die?"

"You must be familiar with her," Meng Siqi said, "She must have been a little girl in the textile factory back then."

"Yes. I remember her. She was a pretty girl. How did she die? Why was she related to Sun Yuanyuan?"

Meng Siqi answered truthfully: "Long Shanwen and Sun Yuanyuan stayed in the same hotel. The next morning, Sun Yuanyuan found that Long Shanwen had been stabbed to death with a fruit knife, so she is more likely to be the suspect. Are you more familiar with Sun Yuanyuan?"

"I know Yuanyuan's parents. I was the one who brought her in when she entered the factory. She was under 15 years old when she entered the factory, so I lied about her age."

Meng Siqi continued to ask: "How much do you know about the situation in the factory back then? What about Long Shanwen?"

"I'm not sure about that." Lin Shuying shook her head, and this shaking of her head made Meng Siqi see her embarrassment.

"Because it involves a murder case, please tell us no matter what." Meng Siqi encouraged her.

Lin Shuying sighed, with a look of injustice in her eyes: "The factory went bankrupt because these leaders abused their power and spent their days in debauchery. They are nothing."

"Can you tell me more about that?"

"What else can I say? They knew the factory was not doing well, so they took the pretty girls out to drink with them, saying it was to save the factory. We don't want to talk about this because we are also factory workers, and no one wants to expose their own scars."

Meng Siqi finally understood. It turned out that when talking about the factory's past, everyone was vague and seemed unwilling to mention it. Perhaps that past was really too unbearable to bear.

Zhao Leiting seemed to not be able to bear hearing this, and his hands on the table slowly clenched into fists.

Meng Siqi asked: "What else do you know about this matter?"

“That’s all I know.”

Meng Siqi felt that Lin Shuying might not have lied. She was just a textile worker and might not have the right to know the truer or more terrifying truth of that year.

She asked, "The factory closed down, and I heard that you were arguing about wages. Why did you stop arguing?"

Lin Shuying was silent for a while, her eyes were hazy, as if her memories had already penetrated back to eight years ago, that was a sad, painful and shameful past.

The factory leaders lacked technical skills and sales were hindered, but they kept finding ways to save the factory. They sent pretty girls out to serve drinks and attract investment, and did some shameful things.

In order to have a stable job and some benefits, most girls accepted the arrangement of fate, while most factory workers acted as spectators for the sake of their own jobs and future.

Many years later, they believed the rumors and regarded these beautiful girls who had "saved" the factory as vixens who were trying to undermine the factory leaders.

However, the factory eventually went bankrupt. They discovered they had been cheated and surrounded the factory again to demand their dignity and wages back.

However, the factory was already an empty shell at that time, and there might have been a sum of "money" that everyone heard from somewhere, but it was all ruined by a "lie" that the person had run away with the money.

When Meng Siqi was trying to profile the story of that era, Lin Shuying spoke up: "His name was Kong Qushan. He was a model worker and an outstanding activist in the factory at that time. He led us to argue about wages. There was a message from the factory that there was money from selling equipment that could be used to compensate us, but one morning, we heard that Kong Qushan had run away with the money."

So this is the story. Meng Siqi couldn't help asking, "Do you believe he ran away with the money?" Kong Qushan is a model worker and an activist. She didn't believe that such a person could have such awareness.

"Of course we didn't believe it, but the factory showed us the list signed by Kong Qushan. His signature and fingerprints couldn't be fake."

"What if someone forged your signature and fingerprints for money and murder?" Meng Siqi was a person who always had doubts, so she asked the question almost without thinking.

"Yes, I suspected it, too," Lin Shuying looked up at her, a fierce light in her eyes, "Someone called the police at the time, but the police investigated. I remember that there were many police dogs searching the factory and the surrounding area, but they found nothing. At that time, there were a lot of rumors, and many people said that Kong Qushan fled to Hong Kong with hundreds of thousands of dollars. Since they couldn't find him, the police could only list him as missing, and we could only believe that Kong Qushan really escaped."

Meng Siqi nodded silently. The story of the Dandelion Textile Factory seemed to complete a context. What is the truth behind all this? Perhaps some people think that these truths are no longer important. Eight years are enough to drown everything.

But those who had experienced this, or their descendants, used a strange method to call on people's memories by killing Long Shanwen, a factory manager who was once quite famous in the textile factory.

The murderer used special symbols to direct the police's attention to this complex and sad time.

"Sister Shuying, do you know that Kong Qushan has descendants? Where is his home?"

Lin Shuying seemed to understand what Meng Siqi meant. She hesitated for a moment before saying, "There was also a ten-year-old son. But after the factory closed down, no one knew where the mother and son went."

When Meng Siqi left, Lin Shuying gave her a bottle of fermented bean curd. She liked fermented bean curd very much, so she accepted it calmly.

After getting in the car, she said, "Zhao Leiting, it looks like the suspect who murdered Long Shanwen has been found."