Chapter 5

Before eight o’clock the next morning, Jiang Li set off with Su Yan and Xiang Yang. Upon arriving at Da’an Village, Jiang Li didn’t head to the village committee but went straight to the Agritainment where the second victim, Ni Yue, and her boyfriend had stayed on the day of the incident.

The low-profile black SUV screeched to a halt in front of the large red signboard reading “Proud Sun Agritainment,” kicking up a cloud of dust. After the three got out and entered, they saw a modest courtyard paved with cement. The Agritainment was a two-story building with about six or seven guest rooms upstairs and downstairs. Opposite it stood a single-story structure housing the kitchen and dining area.

Blue canopy cloth hung overhead to provide shade. Along the base of the wall were several large, crude glass fish tanks containing local river delicacies from Da’an Village. Under the canopy sat a plastic-backed chair where a man in a white tank top and shorts fanned himself. Lean and slightly hunched, he appeared to be in his fifties, with a receding hairline and strands of gray mixed into his black hair.

“Boss Zhao, enjoying the shade?” Xiang Yang greeted as he entered the courtyard first. Having interacted with Zhao Yong twice during statements and surveillance checks, he was somewhat familiar with him.

Hearing this, Zhao Yong turned around, stood up, and slapped his thigh with a cattail-leaf fan to shoo away the buzzing mosquitoes. “Officer Xiang, back again?” he said.

“We just need to confirm some details about the day of the incident. Could you spare some time to cooperate?”

Boss Zhao sighed and waved his hand. “Do I look busy? Aside from my family, only flies and mosquitoes are around. After this mess, no tourists dare to stay here anymore!”

Just then, the kitchen curtain was pushed aside, and a round-faced woman in her fifties poked her head out, shouting something in the local Da’an Village dialect—likely asking who Su Yan and the others were.

Upon learning their identities, she curled her lips dismissively, muttered a few words, and retreated into the kitchen. Her grumbling was nothing more than complaints—that the death had nothing to do with them, yet the police kept coming to bring bad luck.

Boss Zhao scolded her back in the local dialect before turning to the three with an apologetic smile. “Business hasn’t been good these days, and my wife’s a bit irritable, haha… Officers, whatever you need to know, I’ll do my best to help. Please catch the killer quickly to prove my innocence—otherwise, my whole family depends on this business, and we won’t survive much longer like this!”

“Could you first take us to the room they stayed in?” Jiang Li interjected.

“Ah! Follow me.”

Su Yan and the others trailed behind him into the two-story building. Inside, the place showed its age, with worn-out furnishings. The three guest rooms on the first floor had their doors open, each appearing cramped—no more than five or six square meters—with just a bed and a cabinet. The bathrooms were shared.

Facing the door was a narrow staircase barely wide enough for one person, creaking with every step. The second floor also had four guest rooms—two as small as those downstairs, while the other two were more spacious. One contained seven or eight small beds, clearly meant for group travelers, while the other had a kang bed by the windowsill. He Ming and Ni Yue stayed in this room, which also had a private bathroom.  

“This is the one!” The owner, Zhao, pushed open the half-ajar door. “The other day, several of your colleagues came with little brushes, swabbing and taking photos nonstop. See, the black powder marks are still here—I didn’t bother cleaning them up.”  

Jiang Li stood at the doorway and glanced up at the surveillance camera in the hallway. “Owner Zhao, we’ve reviewed the security footage from your shop yesterday. According to the victim’s boyfriend, He Ming’s statement, they ate downstairs around one o’clock before returning to their room for a nap—a time we’ve confirmed via the footage. However, after 1:35 PM…” He pointed at the camera in the corner. “The footage shows Ni Yue leaving the room alone, going downstairs, and exiting through the main door. There are no cameras in your courtyard, so we can’t determine where she went afterward. Did you happen to notice her movements?”  

“1:35?” Owner Zhao frowned deeply, the specificity jogging his memory. “That would’ve been when we served fruit after lunch. I always post on my social media to let guests know what fruit we’re offering—they all have my contact.” As he spoke, he pulled out his phone and scrolled to his feed from that day, handing it to Jiang Li.  

Su Yan and Xiang Yang leaned in to look. Sure enough, there was a post—bananas and dragon fruit had been served that day.  

“Now that you mention it, I do recall something. I was in the kitchen helping my wife cut the fruit…” Owner Zhao strained to remember. “She—Ni Yue—sat by the door with a plate, ate a few bites, then told my wife she’d take some upstairs. After that, I didn’t pay attention. It was chaotic with several guests around.”  

Jiang Li nodded, asking no further questions. Instead, he circled the room before heading downstairs, standing in the courtyard and squinting at the layout of the small compound. “The kitchen door seems to face the main entrance of this agritainment…”  

Xiang Yang followed the owner into the kitchen to confirm with his wife whether Ni Yue had come down for fruit, leaving Su Yan alone with Jiang Li in the courtyard. She moved closer to where he stood.  

Indeed, stepping out from the kitchen provided a clear view of the street beyond the main gate.  

“Team Leader Jiang,” Su Yan raised an eyebrow, “are you suspecting that Ni Yue might have been drawn out by something—or someone—on the street, leading her to leave the agritainment on her own?”

“There has to be a reason she left. She’s an adult, and with so many people around at this Agritainment, the possibility of her being forcibly abducted is almost zero,” Jiang Li said as he strode toward the main gate, with Su Yan following closely behind.

Jiang Li stopped beside his car and looked around, his peripheral vision catching the intern standing slightly behind him. She seemed different from the interns he’d encountered before—not the type to chatter endlessly or ask questions that could be answered with minimal thought. Instead, she spent most of her time quietly observing and learning.

“Team Leader Jiang!” Xiang Yang ran out from the courtyard, slightly out of breath. “I just confirmed with the landlady. On the day of the incident, Ni Yue did go to the kitchen to fetch fruit, just as Boss Zhao said. She was wearing a light blue dress at the time, which matches the surveillance footage. This means the clothes found on the body might not have belonged to Ni Yue!”

By the same logic, they had reason to suspect that the clothes found on the first victim, Zhong Yu, weren’t hers either. As for why, that would require further investigation.

“By the way, what are you two standing here looking at?” Xiang Yang asked curiously.

Su Yan repeated Jiang Li’s earlier words, then paused before adding, “Unfortunately, this street only has surveillance cameras at fixed intersections. If Ni Yue disappeared between two cameras, Brother Cai probably won’t find anything useful.” All three of them knew the likelihood of this was high, given the evidence suggested the killer was very familiar with Da’an Village and would surely have noticed the cameras.

“Let’s check across the street first,” Jiang Li mused, pointing to the supermarket opposite the Jiao Yang Agritainment. A black surveillance camera hung beneath its light blue sign.

The three crossed over, but the camera only covered the area directly in front of the supermarket. Questioning the owner revealed he had no recollection of Ni Yue.

With the investigation at a standstill unless Cai Chengji uncovered something, Jiang Li decided to conduct a thorough search of the businesses and residences around the Agritainment. Without further leads, they had to start with the basics.

They first visited a river delicacies restaurant and another Agritainment, but found nothing useful. Moving east, they came to a modest single-story home with a small vegetable garden, neat and unassuming.

“Anyone home?” Xiang Yang called out from outside the gate.

Within seconds, someone pushed aside the screen door curtain and stepped out. To their surprise, it was Pei An, the village committee secretary. Recognizing them, Pei An hurried forward and opened the wrought-iron gate. “Ah, Officers, please come in! Here to investigate again? You’re really going above and beyond for our Da’an Village—we’re so grateful for your hard work!”

“Actually, we’re here to confirm some details again. I wonder if it’s convenient for you…” Xiang Yang said.

“Convenient! Of course!” Pei An ushered the group inside, leading them into the house before enthusiastically pulling out some plastic stools for them to sit on. “Ask away! I’ll tell you everything I know, everything!”

“Dad… who’s here?”

At that moment, a young woman emerged from the room on the left. Su Yan’s lips twitched slightly when he saw her—wasn’t this Pei An’s daughter, the same girl who had been loitering outside the village committee office yesterday?

Pei Shasha clearly hadn’t expected the police to visit. Her expression flickered briefly before she quickly composed herself, obediently greeting the three officers as her father had instructed. After that, she stood quietly near Pei An, head slightly bowed, saying nothing.

From the moment the girl appeared, Su Yan had been observing her intermittently. Though she appeared calm on the surface, her right hand kept tugging rhythmically at her clothes, and she occasionally bit her lower lip or glanced toward the door.

Su Yan narrowed her eyes slightly. Seizing a pause in Jiang Li’s conversation with Pei An, she excused herself to use the restroom and stepped outside.

The family’s outhouse was located near the vegetable garden, not far from the large iron gate—a small partitioned space. Su Yan endured the unpleasant odor as she stood inside. Sure enough, within seconds, Pei Shasha also came out. First, she peered over the one-meter brick wall separating their property from the neighbor to the east, then hurried toward the iron gate as if intending to leave.

Creak…

As the gate screeched open, before Pei Shasha could even sigh in relief, she heard someone say cheerfully behind her: “Miss Pei, going somewhere?”

Her entire body stiffened. Turning, she saw the female officer who had excused herself to use the restroom now standing with arms crossed in front of the outhouse, smiling at her.