Chapter 65

“I noticed before that the black bag used for dumping the body is the kind used for collective meal transportation, and its size could fit in a modified food delivery vehicle. If someone wanted to transport a corpse, nothing is more inconspicuous than the identity of a deliveryman, and no one is more familiar with various types of traffic and environments than these delivery workers. If this person dumped the body by the dried riverbed… that would explain everything.”

Song Wen thought for a moment and added, “No, I’ve seen that person more than once. Before, downstairs at the Luoxin Nursing Home, the person who made eye contact with me might also be him!”

At that time, he had only glanced from a distance, and the figure of that person looked very similar to the previous deliveryman.

Lu Siyu compared the names on the photo and said, “This person should be called Wei Hong.”

With a name and an approximate age range, they could find these people from various records.

As the two were reasoning to this point, the door was pushed open, and the room was filled with another round of dust.

Lu Siyu and Song Wen were caught off guard and covered their mouths and noses, while the young police officer who opened the door also stared in surprise.

Song Wen coughed a few times and looked at the young police officer, saying, “What’s the matter? Why so urgent?”

“Captain Song, Commissioner Gu is here. The deputy captain asked you to go over.”

By this time, the sky had completely darkened, and the sun had set. Unconsciously, they had been upstairs for over half an hour.

The young police officer was still catching his breath, presumably having run through the entire building to find the two of them.

Song Wen carefully stored the photo album as evidence. The three of them walked down the dark stairs. In the yard, by the side of the ditch, Fu Linjiang and several forensic personnel were standing there, using flashlights to illuminate, looking down.

Song Wen separated from Lu Siyu and approached the group. A forensic officer briefed him, “Captain Song, we found pry marks near the ditch.”

Lu Siyu’s eyes gazed at a row of drainage channels not far away, and he crouched down to examine them carefully. Indeed, as the forensic personnel mentioned, there were some disordered footprints along the ditch. There were also pry marks on the iron frame of the ditch, likely because those people hastily retreated due to the arrival of the police.

Song Wen frowned slightly. “What might be in the sewer?” He leaned forward to take a look. It was pitch black down there, accompanied by a foul odor.

Lin Xiuran walked in from the side, adjusting his gloves; apparently, he had just arrived. “We don’t know yet. Let’s search and see if there’s anything down there.”

At night, the entire Wushan Nursing Home was illuminated as if it were daytime. Waves of people arrived successively, suddenly turning this desolate place into a bustling scene.

Tonight, half of the personnel from the Nancheng Bureau were mobilized, all coming over for overtime work.

Song Wen asked Lu Siyu to go back first, and he went to report to Commissioner Gu about the progress of the investigation. After briefing on the case, he returned to the yard. The forensic work had already been completed.

Commissioner Gu looked at the hastily bandaged wound on Song Wen’s forehead and furrowed his brows. “I’ll keep an eye on this side. You should go take care of your injury.” He could see that Song Wen was not lightly injured, and dealing with matters while covered in blood was hard to bear.

Song Wen didn’t take it seriously. “I don’t feel any pain. If we wait a bit longer, it might heal on its own.” Previously, following this case, he always felt uncertain, but now, with Lu Siyu back, they were getting closer to the truth, and Song Wen felt more at ease.

Lin Xiuran made a quick judgment on the injury with just a glance. “This wound needs stitches, and it’ll leave a scar for sure. Fortunately, it’s close to the hairline, so it won’t be too conspicuous.”

“That structure was used to place corpses in the past. We must disinfect it carefully and deal with the wound,” they were discussing when a cold voice interrupted from behind.

Song Wen turned around and saw Lu Siyu, dressed and sitting on the steps, frowning. “Didn’t I ask Zhu Xiao to send you back just now?”

Zhu Xiao whispered from the side, “He insisted on waiting for you to leave.”

Song Wen, after hearing this, looked back at Lu Siyu. Lu Siyu tilted his head, revealing a white hand that tightened the clothes around him.

Lin Xiuran said, “Captain Song is the type who remains on active duty even after being grazed by a bullet. Are you expecting him to go to the hospital without anyone escorting him?”

Commissioner Gu couldn’t stand it anymore. “Both of you injured patients, go back and rest properly! It’s as if the Nancheng Bureau has no one left, and you insist on causing trouble here!”

After Commissioner Gu vented his frustration, Song Wen turned and pulled Lu Siyu outside. Surprisingly, both of them spoke in unison.

“I’ll take you home first.”

“I’ll accompany you to the hospital.”

Song Wen glanced at Lu Siyu. The brightness in his eyes focused on Song Wen’s face. He knew that Lu Siyu thought he compromised because Song Wen got injured while saving him. Finally, Song Wen gave in. “Alright, we’ll stop by a hospital first, and then I’ll take you home.”

The two got into the car, and suddenly, Lu Siyu asked Song Wen, “What did Lin Xiuran mean by being grazed by a bullet?”

Song Wen casually said, “Listen to what he said. It was an incident last year when we were on a mission to rescue hostages. A bullet grazed past my ribs.”

Lu Siyu nodded. After a while, he asked again, “How serious was it?” He knew Song Wen too well; it wouldn’t be as relaxed as Song Wen described.

Song Wen smiled and said, “It didn’t hit any organs, healed long ago, just left a scar. After escorting the hostage, I went to the hospital with them. I never left the front lines.”

Lu Siyu nodded again. Seemingly casually, he looked out the window, but inside, it felt as if tiny needles were pricking him delicately, a bit sore.

On the fifth day of the case, a team from the Nancheng Bureau held a meeting in the conference room.

Today, Lu Siyu finally returned to the team. As usual, he was tasked with recording the meeting. He first attached a photo of Zhang Peicai’s murder to the whiteboard, then wrote down the known information, the time of death, and the possible suspects in the case. He meticulously recorded the details one by one. As their knowledge of the case grew, the whiteboard was filled with information. The case was now essentially narrowed down to the murderer.

After finishing with the whiteboard, Lu Siyu sat back in his seat and sneaked a glance at Song Wen.

Last night, Song Wen went to the emergency room to have the wound on his head stitched with five needles. He returned home after past 1 a.m. Lu Siyu admired and envied his recovery ability. In just a few hours, he was spirited again. Except for a white bandage on his head and two bruises on his shoulder and arm, he almost looked like a regular person. The white bandage on his head even gave him a unique charm, resembling a headband.

After deducing the possible suspects, they searched for the identity and information of each person, compiling the data. The logic of the deduction was clear, but they still lacked favorable evidence to arrest the suspects.

Song Wen glanced at the materials in front of him. They had identified each of the children from back then, with five of them currently residing in Nancheng. Out of the three with motives and at the crime scene, there were Du Ruoxin, Bai Luorui, and Wei Hong.

Du Ruoxin, eighteen years ago, was ten years old. Her parents were busy with their business, so she lived with her grandmother at the nursing home. At that time, Du Ruoxin had artistic talent, often performing for the elderly. Growing up, she studied arts at a media school and eventually met Zhang Peicai, whom she later married.

Bai Luorui, twelve years old eighteen years ago, lived in the nursing home because of her parents’ divorce. During summer vacation, she was placed there. Her grandparents lived in the nursing home, and her grandmother passed away during that time. After the incident at the nursing home, she went to live with her mother, who remarried. Later on, her stepfather’s business flourished, and Bai Luorui, being intelligent and performing well in her studies, eventually married a wealthy man after her husband’s death, inheriting a substantial fortune.

Wei Hong, unlike the other two, did not gradually rise in social status after leaving the nursing home. Instead, he struggled at the bottom of society. He used to be the grandson of an old caregiver at the Wushan Nursing Home, growing up in impoverished conditions. After reaching high school, he dropped out without taking the college entrance exam. Subsequently, he worked as a taxi driver, took various odd jobs, and three years ago, when the food delivery business took off, he joined the South Prosperity Delivery Company. Now, he has been in this industry for three years, overseeing a quarter of South Prosperity’s delivery business. The delivery area he manages includes the city bureau.

These individuals, due to Zhang Peicai’s death, were once again linked.

Zhang Peicai may have held something that frightened them, forcing them to take risks and resort to severe methods of interrogation. It was precisely these actions that led to Zhang Peicai’s death, becoming a set of bones in the outskirts of Nancheng.

They believed they had always operated in the shadows seamlessly, and on the surface, Zhang Peicai’s death seemed unrelated to each of them. However, Xia Weizhi, eighteen years ago, had connected them together.

Similar murder patterns, identical knotting techniques, and the associated nursing home…

This relationship was a continuation and evolution.

Wu Qing was right; eighteen years ago, Xia Weizhi’s case was not the end of everything but rather the beginning.

Eighteen years, one cycle. As one devil departed, another group of devils was born. Though in different ways, they were still devils in human form.

“Any progress in other investigations?” Song Wen asked.

“The hotel side finally managed to retrieve the previous video footage,” Lao Jia said as he opened his laptop. “I’ve been watching it for a full two days, sorting out Zhang Peicai’s various movements. Then I discovered that shortly before he went missing, someone met with him.”

As he spoke, he opened a segment of the hotel’s surveillance video.

Everyone raised their heads to watch the surveillance footage, showing a woman appearing, pressing the doorbell of Zhang Peicai’s room. After a few seconds, Zhang Peicai opened the door for her. The woman seemed afraid of being seen, glancing around. It was this action that allowed the camera to capture three-quarters of her face.

“Du Ruoxin!” Song Wen pointed at the woman in the footage and called out her name. Although the video was blurry and unclear, the hairstyle, figure, and walking posture all confirmed that this woman was indeed Du Ruoxin.

What I haven’t seen Zhang Peicai for a long time, the wife of the deceased, has been lying from the beginning!

Fu Linjiang crossed his arms and suggested, “I think we should meet Du Ruoxin again.”

Song Wen nodded in agreement. Du Ruoxin was crucial to this case. She not only witnessed the events of that year but was also Zhang Peicai’s wife. Her appearance in this footage was not coincidental. To uncover the truth of the past, they couldn’t bypass this woman. She was the bait to lure the snake out of its hole.

As they discussed this, Cheng Xiaobing suddenly ran over, holding something excitedly as she reached Song Wen. “Captain Song, today I was checking the items you brought in earlier for storage. Then I made a significant discovery!”

“This bag…” Song Wen followed her gesture, looking at the bag he had brought back a few days ago with Fu Linjiang from Bai Luorui’s place. He remembered the shopkeeper saying that it wasn’t the bag Bai Luorui picked, but Zhang Peicai insisted on buying it for her. Bai Luorui wasn’t particularly fond of the bag, and after Zhang Peicai brought it back, she just left it on the shelf in her office. Song Wen, at that time, became a bit suspicious and decided to bring the bag back.

Cheng Xiaobing pointed to it, saying, “I found a button camera on the bag. There’s a memory card inside. When you plug it into a device, you can see what it recorded…”

The button camera was extremely small and blended in with the original buttons on the bag. Without careful inspection, it would be impossible to notice.

As a seasoned investigative journalist, Zhang Peicai wouldn’t hesitate to use any means.

Song Wen had a premonition that what was inside could be definitive evidence of Bai Luorui’s crimes.

TN:

“The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words which are clear; the great truth has great silence.”