(3) Release from Prison

The Zhang Yingming case quickly had new developments.

Fingerprints of Fang Qinghua were found on the gold necklace and by the window of the small house. Zhang Yingming had indeed been to the village where Fang Qinghua lived while trying to avoid capture. He was injured at the time because the police had forced him into the mountains, and after hiding there for more than ten days, he could no longer hold on and had to come down.

Fang Qinghua’s fellow villagers had seen Zhang Yingming. Tao Jiang sent over a color photo of Zhang Yingming, and after identification, it was confirmed that he was indeed the one who had killed Song Yuanyuan.

Liang Sao also mentioned that two days before the incident, Fang Qinghua had been emotionally agitated, but no one knew why.

Why Fang Qinghua had been in hiding for more than ten years, and why she suddenly took action, was probably something no one knew.

After the case was concluded, Shen Wanwan received three more envelopes, which she considered her hard-earned reward for turning into a cat, spider, and mouse.

Becoming a cat wasn’t so bad, at least she didn’t have to worry about her life being in danger. But when she became a spider and a mouse, she was truly on edge the whole night.

For the next month or so, Xuzhou remained unusually calm, with no new murder cases occurring.

Shen Wanwan didn’t have to work overtime, so she set up the noodle stall and helped Lin Yuying sell noodles every night.

With a three-wheeled cart, a noodle board, boxes for condiments, and a pot with gas, the small stall was set up. Two bamboo poles were fixed onto the cart to hang lights, and the stall was ready to go.

Shen Wanwan also taught Lin Yuying how to make the “Mountain City Noodles.” There were no Mountain City Noodles in Xuzhou, so Lin Yuying was the first to sell them.

The bright red noodle soup looked appetizing, and Lin Yuying’s business was surprisingly good. Now she could sell over a hundred bowls of noodles a day, and even Shen Heping had to come help after work.

A regular bowl of noodles sold for one and a half yuan, and a bowl with meat was three yuan. The gas tank was cheaply obtained through a friend of Shen Heping, and they used good-quality flour, which was a bit more expensive. The profit margin was about 60%. Even if they only sold the cheapest noodles, they could still earn ninety yuan a day.

Lin Yuying and her husband never imagined that they could make so much money. Shen Heping worked hard for a whole month to earn that much.

Shen Wanwan planned to rent a shop once they had a steady stream of customers. The couple was reluctant to spend money, so she would cover part of the cost as an investment—it was better than relying on a fixed salary.

Lin Yuying sold noodles until eight o’clock every night. It wasn’t that she wasn’t trying hard enough, it was just that the entire Xuzhou City didn’t have the hustle and bustle of competition. By eight o’clock, the streets were already empty.

Lin Yuying carried the remaining noodles while Shen Heping rode the three-wheeled cart, and Shen Wanwan pushed from behind.

In the alley, a few people were still awake due to the heat, sitting in the dark and chatting. When they saw the Shen family returning, they couldn’t help but talk a little more. “Yuying has set up the stall again, she must be making quite a bit today, right?”

“We don’t talk about money,” Lin Yuying replied, “It’s not much, just enough to make ends meet.”

Everyone believed this because the Shen family had always been nothing remarkable. After all these years, only Shen Wanwan had been impressive—she had even made it to the newspaper.

When they got home, Shen Zhuo, who had just finished a math test, arrogantly walked up to Shen Wanwan and slapped a piece of paper in front of her.

Shen Wanwan glanced at it—it was his score from the last exam.

He had done quite well, improving by over twenty places. Now he was in the middle of the class, no longer at the bottom.

Although being in the middle wasn’t considered great, it was an achievement Shen Zhuo had worked hard for.

Shen Wanwan’s response was indifferent. “When I was your age, I was always in the top three in my grade.”

Shen Wanwan had good grades herself, and the original owner of the body had also done well academically. Shen Zhuo’s score just didn’t impress her.

Just as Shen Zhuo was about to show off, he stubbornly held back.

In a fit of frustration, Shen Zhuo grabbed his report card back. “Next time, I’ll be number one in the grade!”

Shen Wanwan asked, “Are you sure?”

Shen Zhuo: “…”

It seemed he wasn’t very sure.

He had heard that the top student in the grade was a genius.

With his head hanging low, Shen Zhuo trudged toward his room.

He actually wanted to talk to Shen Wanwan more, especially after witnessing her fight. His big sister had almost become his idol.

But Shen Wanwan clearly didn’t want to pay him any attention.

Shen Zhuo had been holding a grudge in his heart, wanting to prove himself and get Shen Wanwan to look at him differently.

But he had never really paid attention to Shen Wanwan before and hadn’t realized she was so much more outstanding than he was.

At least in terms of academics, she was a hundred times better than him.

Shen Zhuo was greatly discouraged.

Just as he was about to slouch back to his room, Shen Wanwan called out to him, “From now on, write down the questions you don’t understand and come to me every two days.”

Worried that he might have too many questions he didn’t understand and she wouldn’t have enough time to tutor him, she added, “I’ll deduct the tutoring fee from your pocket money, so you’d better think about the problems before coming to me.”

Shen Zhuo immediately perked up.

He didn’t even care about the so-called tutoring fee. He just wanted his sister to pay attention to him and care for him like she used to!

“This is what you said, no backing out,” Shen Zhuo held out his pinky finger toward Shen Wanwan. “Pinky swear!”

Shen Wanwan did the same.

Shen Zhuo happily returned to his room, and what was even more surprising was that Lin Yuying and her husband didn’t make a fuss about the tutoring fee.

They had been unable to manage their son, but now that he was willing to listen to Wanwan, they certainly couldn’t interfere.

If Shen Zhuo could really focus on studying and get into college, not to mention the tutoring fee, they would be happy to give all their savings to Shen Wanwan.

—

When there were no murder cases, Shen Wanwan’s work was much lighter.

She could wake up early to exercise and then go to a breakfast stall to eat. With the hard-earned money from turning into animals, she no longer had to worry about money. After breakfast, she would head to the team, and the timing was just right.

Shen Wanwan was willing to give her all to solve cases, but she also enjoyed life, and most of the people in the team were the same.

But Tao Jiang was completely different from them. Even without a murder case, he would still throw himself into work, as if in his world, only work existed.

By the time Shen Wanwan arrived, Tao Jiang was usually already in work mode.

Today, Shen Wanwan woke up late and didn’t have time for breakfast, so she bought some soup dumplings.

The morning sunlight just happened to fall on Shen Wanwan’s desk, so she pulled out a chair to sit in the sun, leisurely munching on the dumplings.

Cui Luo, who had been busy arguing with some talkative relatives about the topic of “whether women must marry and have children,” hadn’t slept well and yawned repeatedly, stealing one of Shen Wanwan’s dumplings. “So good, so delicious. Where did you buy these? I’ll go get some too. Oh, by the way, why isn’t Captain Tao here?”

Tao Jiang had his own office, which was inside the large office.

From the window, you could see the full view of Tao Jiang’s office, and he usually didn’t draw the curtains.

Today, the office was eerily quiet, and Tao Jiang wasn’t there.

Shen Wanwan was puzzled.

Tao Jiang, a workaholic, was he sick today?

The whole morning passed, and Tao Jiang still didn’t show up.

Everyone else continued with their tasks, and nothing was delayed.

It wasn’t until 1:30 in the afternoon, after the lunch break had passed, that the criminal investigation captain entered.

The person Shen Wanwan interacted with the most was Tao Jiang, as he was the captain, while the division leader was Tao Jiang’s superior, whom Shen Wanwan wasn’t very familiar with.

The division leader’s expression was serious. “You all know about last month’s incident. One of your young comrades caught a big fish, and it has dragged a lot of people into this.”

He was referring to Shen Wanwan’s capture of He Qing.

Shen Wanwan had a vague feeling that the division leader’s words were related to Tao Jiang.

“The investigations have been intensified recently. Tao Jiang has been reported, and now he is suspended for an investigation.”

As soon as the words were out, the office erupted in chaos.

Cui Luo was furious. “Are you kidding me? Captain Tao has practically treated this team like his own family, and someone reported him?!”

“Who did it? Someone inside? Or one of the criminals Tao Jiang had previously caught?”

“It must be false.”

The division leader motioned for everyone to be quiet. “Someone has reported Tao Jiang for using torture to coerce confessions and for allegedly colluding with criminals. A report about it was published in the newspaper, and it caused quite a stir. The bureau is taking this very seriously, and it must be cleared up before he can be reinstated. While Tao Jiang is absent, Zhu Jianhua will temporarily take over as team captain.”

Zhu Jianhua’s expression was cold.

Cui Luo whispered, “This is bad. Old Zhu has always disliked Captain Tao. Is he going to take advantage of this situation to go after him? Sigh, these two are clearly fine people, why can’t they just get along?”

Zhu Jianhua coldly responded, “I’m old, my eyes aren’t great, so find someone else.”

“Stop talking nonsense,” the division leader glared at Zhu Jianhua. “Do what I tell you to do, or I’ll beat you up after work.”

Zhu Jianhua sulked and muttered under his breath.

The division leader still needed to save face, and besides, he really couldn’t beat him.

After throwing this remark, the division leader left. Zhu Jianhua stretched and sighed, “Fortunately, there’s no case right now. Alright, let’s get back to work, and if there’s nothing, don’t bother me.”

Cui Luo couldn’t stand it. “Old Zhu, usually, whatever happens between you and Captain Tao is fine, but now that something’s happened to Captain Tao, we can’t just ignore it.”

Xiang Dong said, “Isn’t someone already investigating? If Captain Tao really did torture someone for a confession, we can’t do anything about it. And wasn’t he also reported for colluding with criminals?”

Zhu Jianhua glanced at Xiang Dong and snorted.

Cui Luo, who usually had a good temper, was really upset by Xiang Dong’s words today. “What do you mean by that? The investigation results aren’t out yet, and you’ve already decided Captain Tao’s guilt? Xiang Dong, Captain Tao has been nothing but polite to you, and now you’re kicking him while he’s down?”

“It’s not like that…” Xiang Dong said awkwardly. “What I meant was, well, someone is already investigating.”

Cui Luo got even more frustrated.

It was a shame that Captain Tao had even tried to teach Xiang Dong what trust meant, but he didn’t take any of it to heart.

Shen Wanwan was afraid they might actually start arguing, so she tried to mediate. “Didn’t the division leader mention a report earlier? Let’s first look at the report and then investigate who made the accusation against Captain Tao.”

The report had been published yesterday. Shen Wanwan didn’t usually read the newspaper, so she hadn’t paid attention to it.

The entire article was aimed directly at the criminal investigation team. Although it didn’t name names, anyone working within the city bureau knew that the person being referenced was Tao Jiang.

Cui Luo was even more furious after reading it. “It’s just a bunch of exaggerated nonsense, saying obvious things without any evidence. What’s up with this reporter? How dare they publish this in the newspaper?!”