Chapter 40
Kept man

Liu Feng scolded, “Look again carefully!”

The vendor was unhappy and mumbled, “How else should I look? You buy, I sell. Who cares what they look like? How am I supposed to recognize them? You all buy things, go ask the clerks at the mall if they recognize you.”

He had a point.

But Li Ke and Li Ji were disheartened. If they couldn’t help with Hou Zi’an’s case, their night of staking out would be in vain.

They exchanged glances and looked at Liu Feng.

Liu Feng was also helpless. He gathered his things and was about to stand up when someone knocked on the door. Seeing it was Xie Qing, he signaled to Li Ke.

Li Ke quickly came out, full of hope, “Qing Qing, do you have an idea?”

Xie Qing said, “He definitely doesn’t want to admit that the rat poison he sold killed someone. So, even if he recognizes someone, he won’t admit it.”

“Exactly, I think so too,” Li Ke grabbed Xie Qing’s arm, “What should we do?”

Xie Qing patted her, “Scare him a bit more. We’ve already identified a suspect. If it’s confirmed that the suspect bought the tetramine from him, he’ll be considered an accomplice, and he’ll be in big trouble.”

Li Ke asked, “What if he still doesn’t recognize anyone?”

Xie Qing said, “If the killer planned the murder, they wouldn’t buy the poison openly. They might wear a hat or cover their face. Try covering parts of the photos and see if he recognizes them.”

“Great idea!” Li Ke perked up, straightened her back, and walked back in. She whispered something to Liu Feng.

Liu Feng hesitated but eventually agreed.

Li Ke walked up to the vendor, “My colleague just told me we’ve identified a suspect. If it’s confirmed that they bought the poison from you…”

The vendor shouted, “So what if they bought it from me? I didn’t force them to buy it, and I didn’t tell them to kill anyone. You can’t scare me.”

“Bang!” Li Ji slammed the table, “Speak properly!”

The vendor was startled and shrank back, “Alright, alright, no need to shout.”

Li Ke said, “I’m warning you, if you don’t cooperate and the killer implicates you to reduce their sentence, you’ll be considered an accomplice. You won’t be able to clear your name.”

The vendor was frightened, blinking rapidly, “I’ll look again. Young lady, it’s not that I don’t want to recognize them. I just have a bad memory…”

Li Ke laid out the photos and used an A4 paper to cover the top half. The vendor still didn’t recognize anyone. So, she covered the bottom half of the photos.

“Ah!” The vendor slapped his thigh, “Covering the face jogged my memory. It looks like him.”

He pulled out Pi Yan’s photo.

Li Ke said, “Don’t say ‘looks like.’ Is it him or not?”

The vendor covered Pi Yan’s face below the nose, “I think it’s him. It was at the Stone Town market. The wind and dust were strong in the afternoon, and he had his collar up, covering half his face. I remember he wore a stylish dark blue jacket, better than what most people at the market wore, like a city person. I looked at him a few more times.”

Li Ke was satisfied and took the statement from Li Ji, having the vendor sign it.

The vendor was taken away.

Liu Feng praised, “Those were good questions. You had the right tone and approach. Well done!”

Li Ke beamed, “Thank you, Mentor. I’ll keep working hard.”

Liu Feng left the room and nodded at Xie Qing, “Smart thinking.”

Xie Qing said, “Brother Liu, you’re too kind. I’m a forensic doctor, used to wearing masks.”

Liu Feng laughed, “The young lady is humble. I’ll be off. We’ve been busy for days, time to wrap this up.”

…

Tan Yi received the news and immediately requested to make an arrest.

The police cars sped to the premium cigarette and alcohol shop, meeting up with the team Fu Da had arranged.

Du Zhun and others were in charge of surveillance.

Tan Yi got out of the car and glanced into the shop, “Where is he?”

Du Zhun said, “He was just inside, probably went to the bathroom.”

Without a word, Tan Yi sprinted into the shop, followed by Fu Da, Du Zhun, Liu Feng, and Wang Zheng.

No one was at the front counter, so Tan Yi went to the back. The bathroom door was open, and the window was also open. The person had clearly escaped.

Du Zhun stomped his foot in frustration, “Damn, I was careful enough. How did he notice?”

Fu Da said, “Captain Tan, contact the traffic police for a blockade.”

Tan Yi said, “I’ll contact the traffic police. You distribute the team. Three people to Second Middle School, three to Sunshine Primary School.”

Fu Da hesitated, “Would he go to a school?”

Tan Yi said, “He’s on the run and won’t come back. I think he’ll take the risk.”

“Got it, on it.” Fu Da took the first team and left.

Tan Yi climbed onto the toilet and crawled out the window.

Wang Zheng and the second team followed.

Once on the ground, Tan Yi headed to Pi Yan’s house, calling the traffic police on the way.

No one was home at the Pi residence, but they found the dark blue jacket the vendor mentioned. The house was tidy, with clothes and belongings in place, indicating no plans for a long trip.

Leaving Pi Yan’s house, Tan Yi instructed Wang Zheng to set up surveillance at the long-distance bus station and train station.

About forty minutes later, Tan Yi received a call from Fu Da—they had caught Pi Yan outside Sunshine Primary School.

Tan Yi gathered everyone involved in Hou Zi’an’s case, gave each a mask, and had the vendor identify them.

The vendor accurately identified Pi Yan.

In the interrogation room.

Tan Yi personally questioned Pi Yan.

“Do you know why you’re here?”

“No.”

“Then why did you run?”

“I didn’t run. I just had something to do and went to the school to find my son. Officer Tan, what law did I break?”

Pi Yan appeared calm.

Tan Yi said, “You put tetramine in Hou Zi’an’s water cup, didn’t you?”

Pi Yan smiled slightly, “We don’t have rats at home. I never buy that stuff. Besides, I have no grievances with Hou. Why would I kill him?”

Tan Yi picked up a cigarette from the table and lit it slowly, “Pi Yan, you’d better not have any illusions. We wouldn’t make such a big fuss for no reason. I’m giving you a chance to confess. If you cooperate, we’ll be lenient. If you insist on being lucky, I won’t be polite.”

Pi Yan panicked, his body twitching involuntarily. He glanced at the police behind him and had to turn back.

Tan Yi said, “Do you know why we had you stand with those people earlier?”

Pi Yan’s face stiffened, and he didn’t answer.

Tan Yi continued, “Because someone saw you and recognized you.”

Sweat appeared on Pi Yan’s face.

Tan Yi stared at him, took a slow drag on his cigarette, and exhaled…

The swirling white smoke added a mysterious sense of certainty.

Tan Yi said, “You must have thought it through before killing Hou Zi’an. According to our laws, if you confess and show remorse, we’ll plead for leniency with the judge. If you insist on being lucky, I won’t be kind.”

He lifted a piece of clothing from the floor, “See this? It’s the jacket you wore when you bought tetramine in Stone Town…”

“Stop, I’ll talk!” Pi Yan wiped his sweat, “I killed Hou Zi’an… He deserved it!”

In 1980, Pi Yan and his newlywed wife came to the city for work. Through a fellow villager, they joined Hou Zi’an’s construction team. One worked as a laborer learning masonry, and the other helped in the kitchen, cooking for the construction workers.

Xing Xiaolian, at twenty-one, was a beautiful woman who attracted many unwanted stares at the construction site. Hou Zi’an was the worst among them, not only making suggestive comments but also occasionally touching her.

Xing Xiaolian couldn’t bear it and would cry to Pi Yan in the shed.

Pi Yan knew this couldn’t be tolerated, but his mother was ill, and the family owed a large debt. If he couldn’t earn money, the family would collapse. Moreover, his master treated him well, and he wanted to learn a skill before leaving. So, he advised Xing Xiaolian to endure it and be careful, hoping to finish the project and never work at Hou Zi’an’s site again.

Unexpectedly, trouble came within a few days.

Seeing that Xing Xiaolian did not leave, Hou Zian suspected that she was trying to play hard to get, so he took the opportunity of distributing wages to the cafeteria staff to rape her. After it was done, he gave Xing Xiaolian five hundred yuan and a three or four gram gold ring.

Hou Zian told Xing Xiaolian, “If you behave, you’ll have plenty of these things in the future. If you call the police, I’ll say you seduced me. It was mutual consent. Worst case, we go in for a few years, but your reputation will be ruined, and you and your husband won’t be able to hold your heads up. You decide.”

In this day and age, being raped is an unspeakable matter. Even if Hou Zian goes in, Xing Xiaolian’s life won’t be easy. She wasn’t a stubborn woman; knowing the bitterness behind it, she gritted her teeth, took the money, and went home as if nothing had happened.

Hou Zian tasted the sweetness and even gave so much money. One time of pleasure definitely couldn’t satisfy him, so he often took advantage of the times when Xing Xiaolian brought him food to coerce her into having relations. The construction site wasn’t large, and it didn’t take long for Pi Yan to hear about the incident. He and Xing Xiaolian had their only fight since getting married.

Xing Xiaolian blamed him and his mother; otherwise, she wouldn’t have gone to work on the construction site, and such a thing wouldn’t have happened.

This is a fact. Pi Yan couldn’t refute it.

Moreover, Pi Yan and Xing Xiaolian were middle school classmates and had a deep relationship. Despite Pi Yan’s poor family conditions, Xing Xiaolian didn’t mind and married him wholeheartedly. Additionally, if they divorced, it would be even harder for Pi Yan to find someone else in the future. Considering all these factors, Pi Yan reluctantly swallowed his pride. He personally went to Hou Zi’an, threatened him for a large sum of money, and left Hou Zi’an’s construction site. With this money, the Pi family quickly paid off their debts, and their life became more comfortable.

“Going from frugality to extravagance is easy; going from extravagance to frugality is hard.”

Xing Xiaolian, having tasted the benefits, didn’t want to work hard anymore and soon got involved with Hou Zi’an again.

Pi Yan knew about this, but Xing Xiaolian had plenty of money, and whether it happened once or many times, it was still the same betrayal. He chose to turn a blind eye and endure it. As a result, Xing Xiaolian’s first child wasn’t Pi Yan’s—Pi Yan couldn’t get over this and never touched Xing Xiaolian.

After giving birth, Xing Xiaolian wasn’t as attractive as before. Hou Zi’an lost interest and quickly found a new mistress, giving Xing Xiaolian 50,000 yuan to end their relationship—he didn’t believe the child was his and gave the money to avoid entanglement and prevent Xing Xiaolian from causing trouble at his home.

At that time, having 10,000 yuan was already a lot, and 50,000 yuan was a huge sum. Pi Yan was very uncomfortable with the child but couldn’t refuse the wealth. He convinced himself to treat it as a second marriage with Xing Xiaolian, burying all his grievances and bitterness, and agreed with Xing Xiaolian to move on and live a good life together.

The couple bought a single-story house—telling their family it was rented—and settled down in the city.

Xing Xiaolian stayed home to take care of the child while Pi Yan continued working at various construction sites. Two years later, they had a younger son. The couple lived in relative harmony for seven or eight years—Pi Yan had a good temper, and Xing Xiaolian appreciated his tolerance and care.

In 1991, when Pi Yan broke his leg at a construction site, he suddenly realized that he was getting older and not suited for heavy labor anymore. He needed to find a way to buy a storefront and live comfortably. But what connections did they have? So Xing Xiaolian turned to Hou Zi’an again.

Hou Zi’an helped Xing Xiaolian buy a storefront opposite Sunshine Community for 80,000 yuan, advised her to sell cigarettes and alcohol, and smoothed out the key connections.

Pi Yan didn’t have 80,000 yuan, so they scraped together money and sold their single-story house to pay the full amount. However, Justice Street wasn’t a bustling area, and the premium cigarette and alcohol shop barely made enough to get by. But this storefront drained all the couple’s savings.

Reality taught Pi Yan a lesson, and he felt cheated. Discussing this with a neighbor, the neighbor told him the real insider price was 70,000 yuan, and he had overpaid.

When Xing Xiaolian heard this, she was anxious and went to confront Hou Zi’an, but she was no longer young and beautiful. Not only did she get nothing, but Hou Zi’an also mocked her.

Hou Zi’an told her he didn’t lack sons and had already been kind enough to her. If she wasn’t afraid of losing face, she could make a scene and see who couldn’t continue living.

Xing Xiaolian returned defeated.

Pi Yan knew the stakes and swallowed his anger again.

Four more years passed, and as Sunshine Community grew, business slowly picked up. Just when Pi Yan thought life was getting a bit better, he encountered Hou Zi’an again.

From then on, every time Hou Zi’an came to Sunshine Community, he would buy cigarettes from Pi Yan. Each time, he would mention how beautiful Xing Xiaolian was when she was young, greet Pi Yan’s eldest son, and subtly mock him, asking if he enjoyed living off his wife.

Pi Yan said, “No matter how much I enjoy it, I can’t stand him constantly taunting me. Even a clay figurine has some temper. I wanted to kill him.”

He said this calmly, with the kind of peace that comes from a dead heart as if he were talking about someone else.

“Coincidentally, relatives from my hometown were hospitalized, so I delivered food to them and took the opportunity to follow him a few times, figuring out his ward number and escape route.”

“But just knowing the ward number wasn’t enough. I had to consider how to kill him. I had seen people who accidentally ingested rat poison, so I decided on that method from the start, but timing was tricky.”

“I figured out his sleep schedule when he came to my shop to show off. The old man even bragged to me about his good kidneys and how he never lost his vigor, saying he slept from eight or nine at night, woke up once in the middle of the night, and then slept until dawn.”

“Once I had the timing down, I prepared by buying the poison in Stone Town. The next night, after delivering food, I didn’t leave the hospital. I moved from one bathroom to another until around midnight. When the people in the water room left, I sneaked upstairs. I waited in the bathroom until Hou Zi’an went to his ward and then poisoned him.”

“I was scared, and my hands were shaking. Using tissue paper to cover my hands, I struggled to open the cup lid, twisting it several times. I was slow in adding the poison. Just as I finished, I heard footsteps in the corridor. I had no choice but to hide in the second bed. I was terrified, barely breathing. Luckily, he didn’t find me, or he wouldn’t have died.”

“However, his death was quite frightening. I was so scared that I dropped the tissue paper I had in my pocket. When I was about to jump out of the first-floor bathroom window, I checked my belongings and realized the tissue paper was missing. Afraid you would find fingerprints on it, I had no choice but to go back and retrieve it.”

The back door of the inpatient department was busy during the day but deserted after midnight. The door was locked, and emergency access was only from the front. Familiar with the layout, Pi Yan quickly returned to his shop.

Xing Xiaolian was unaware of the murder; she only knew that Pi Yan was temporarily covering for a fellow villager to take care of a patient.

Pi Yan sent her out of the city because he feared she would be questioned and her affair with Hou Zi’an would be exposed.

…

Outside the interrogation room, Lu Qiyuan and Huang Zhenyi listened to the interrogation.

Lu Qiyuan said, “As expected, he lives up to his reputation.”

Huang Zhenyi nodded, “He handled it well. Just a bit more, and Pi Yan’s psychological defense would have been breached. Steady and experienced, truly impressive.”

Lu Qiyuan smiled, “We thought three days was too short, but they solved it in a day and a half.”

Huang Zhenyi was startled, “Captain, solving cases involves some luck. We shouldn’t over-promote this, or it could backfire.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not that senile yet,” Lu Qiyuan joked, stepping out. “Let’s go inform Director Yan and get the evening news reporters for some appropriate publicity.”

…

At 3 PM the next day, the city bureau’s news about solving the hospital poisoning case was published in the evening news.

Tan Yi, Xie Qing, and Li Ke were subtly mentioned in the article.

Since the reporter was a woman, she emphasized the hard work of the female police officers and forensic doctors in the case.

Li Ke was thrilled and immediately called her family to share the good news.

Xie Qing also received congratulatory calls from her father and brother.

Xie Xun asked her to come home when she had time, while Xie Chen said he wanted to take her out for a meal to celebrate.