I shared my thoughts with the group and then said, "Now we're just waiting for the test result, if everything matches," I paused, "Then our victim has to be Luo Sui."
Actually from circumstantial evidence, I was already convinced that the victim was Luo Sui, but before Chief Zhou, I didn't want to be so direct. It might be a blind hope but it was still better than nothing. After all, not everyone had the heart to face the truth.
Perhaps to help change the subject, Guan Zhenglin complained, "That will take too long. When we were at Dong Xing City, we would have the result in an hour. Now it has already been 3 days and we still haven't heard back from them yet."
That did lift Chief Zhou's mood sowhat. He stood, smiled at us and started the fire. "No matter what, life goes on. It's so cold here, you guys should have reminded to stoke the flas." Seeing this, I didn't know what to say. After such a tragedy, he still placed our comfort first. If I was him, I wouldn't be in the mood to do these things. Chief Zhou was an innately caring person. I felt sad for Luo Sui for losing such a good boyfriend.
Noting our silence, Chief Zhou continued Guan Zhenglin's conversation, "To be frank, it's because Elm Town is too small. We need to rely on the bigger city for any lab testing. The city lab doesn't serve only our jurisdiction, there is so much evidence that they need to go through before it's our turn." Guan Zhenglin shrugged, "But this speed is too slow."
Chief Zhou answered, "It can't be helped, that is our current national state. There will be people and places that take precedence. We are all governnt workers but there is still a chain of command. I don't know why you've been transferred to this place but your salary must have suffered because of it." I never cared about such things, I didn't even know how much money was in my account now. I ate at the station and rarely went shopping.
Gu Chen shook his head. "You spend how much you earn. Even though the salary at Dong Xing City was higher, the living cost there was higher as well. A small bowl of noodles costs 5 RMB here but in Dong Xing City, it would cost 20 RMB."
Chief Zhou sighed. "Gu Chen, you're still young, you don't get it. When you're at my age, you'll see that you not only have to be concerned about yourself. Why do you think so many people head towards the big cities, do you think they don't know the living costs would be higher there too?" Chief Zhou shook his head. "There are things that have price fluctuations and so things don't. For example, instant noodles, the price is standardized across the nation. So if your salary is, let's say, 1000 RMB higher than you would get in a small town, then that is a lot of additional inco already."
Chief Zhou sounded lancholic when he talked about money. "Take, for example, 500000 RMB, do you think I can earn that much from working my whole life? My monthly salary plus bonus is only 3000 RMB. I'll have to save for 14 years without eating and spending to save 500000 RMB, but what kind of living doesn't use money?" Chief Zhou said despondently, "Assu I save 1000 RMB each month, it'll take 40 years before I reach my saving goal."
There's an idiom that says, a man without money is no man at all. It was crude but true. I was suddenly reminded of Liu Yinyan. He told that ten million was only enough to purchase his bungalow's toilet.
After lighting up the coal stove, we stopped talking.
The next morning, we woke up and cleaned simply. It didn't snow yesterday night so there was no body dump. We used this opportunity to take a good sleep. Based on the weather, it looked like it would snow again today. Similar to yesterday, we ca to the village head's ho for breakfast. Along the way, we ran into Sun Kangning and his father.
"Kiddo, where are you going?" Seeing this carefree child, my mood brightened. It casted a ray of light through the haze of this case.
Sun Kangning grinned at and said, "We're going to Uncle Lee's place for chess. The bad people have stolen his eyes so I'm now his eyes."
"This Uncle Lee can play chess without his eyes, that's impressive." I smiled.
Sun Kangning nodded. "Yes, even though Uncle Lee cannot see anything, he can also see everything. At noon, he can even cook for us." Then Sun Kangning turned to ask us, "Are you going to stay here like last ti?'
"Last ti?" This was our first ti here.
Sun Kangning pointed at Chief Zhou. "Yes, this uncle used to co here often, and sotis he stays here but he has never stayed this long before."
Chief Zhou ruffled the boy's head and answered, "Yes, I'm good friends with your village head elder, as good a friend as you and Uncle Lee."
Sun Kangning said with childlike innocence, "So are you grandpa village head's eyes as well?"
After saying goodbye to Sun Kangning, we arrived at the village head's ho. At the dining table, I asked, "Sir, how did you beco good friends with Chief Zhou when you're at least several decades older than him? Before we first arrived here, he already told us about you."
The village head took a sip of his porridge and looked at Chief Zhou. "It actually has to do with this village's unique situation. Normally, people will not co here but ever since Chief Zhou ca to visit us for the first ti, he often ca back to visit us. Chief Zhou is a good man, he knew most of the villagers have physical problems so he often ca with his unit to help out."
Chief Zhou shrugged. "Elm Town is a very safe town, we haven't had a murder in decades already. As the leader of the serious cri unit, I am quite free so I co here to help as much as I can." Seeing the smile on Chief Zhou's face, we smiled as well. However I did notice sothing strange. Chief Zhou ca here to help out often, but the villagers didn't seem to be that close to him. Technically speaking, they shouldn't be so icy towards soone who aided them often.
The day passed by in peace. Mary sent so ssages around late afternoon and I read through them one by one. Mary told that through the investigation of Luo Sui's phone number, she found out that Luo Sui's last phone call was made at 12 noon 4 days ago. This was probably the last person who saw Luo Sui and thus most likely her murderer.
But when Mary went to trace the origin of this number, she realized it was from a burner phone. If this was an innocent eting, the person wouldn't have covered up their tracks so well. They probably had sinister intentions to et up with Luo Sui.
That was the end of the first ssage.
The second ssage was about Mary's adventure this morning to the pedicurist's shop. Tony told Mary that Luo Sui walked to his shop. When she left, she didn't call for a taxi either, she said the dummy would co fetch her. However, who was this dummy, what kind of vehicle he drove, Tony didn't pay particular attention.
Mary pulled the cara of the nearby traffic lights and noticed Luo Sui was not seen after she entered a small alley. The cara didn't pick up the vehicle that fetched Luo Sui either. Looks like the culprit knew about the traffic cam's blind spot. Based on Mary's prediction, it would take 1 to 2 hours to travel from the pedicurist's shop to First Drain Village. So this dummy had to be the last person to see Luo Sui alive and thus our biggest suspect.
But I had not seen a single vehicle at First Drain Village, the only one was the truck Er Xiao used to stock up on his inventory. But would Luo Sui date Er Xiao? Furthermore, the killer knew to park at a location where there was no cara, this proved that the killer was good at anti-surveillance and knew Elm Town very well. The killer wouldn't have predicted that Luo Sui would go for a pedicure but they knew where the closest parking, which was shielded from the traffic cams, would be.
A hypothesis was forming in my head and the developnt of the case was aligning with it. I returned the phone back to my pocket and then turned to Chief Zhou, "Chief Zhou, I an no offense but I have a question to ask you."
Chief Zhou nodded. "Go ahead, anything to help the case."
I asked, "When Luo Sui was in a relationship with you, was she greedy for money?"
"Greedy for money?" Chief Zhou frowned, "I don't think so, or else she wouldn't be with . I've told you before, I have to mail money ho to my family every month and I don't have much left for myself. I don't think she agreed to be my girlfriend for my money."
I frowned. Luo Sui wasn't particularly pretty so why would soone give her 500000 RMB? Was he really a dummy?
Gu Chen looked outside and said, "Wu ng, it's ti for our plan. The snow is quite thick today, I believe the killer might make their move tonight."
I looked out at the sky and agreed with Gu Chen's assessnt.
"Co on." We stood up and then filed out from the room. Guan Zhenglin shouted from behind, "Wait, you're leaving behind all alone? Bring with you!"
I walked back to argue with her, "You won't be of any use there. You better just stay at ho." By then Gu Chen and Chief Zhou had left the yard.
I whispered to Guan Zhenglin, "Actually, I have a mission for you, follow the directions on my phone. If there's no accident, we'll capture the killer soon." Guan Zhenglin took my phone with confusion. She had questions but I already raced out the door.
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