Chapter 178: Witness

Translator: Azza

Editor: Conspiracing

Old Lady Liu said in distress, “I didn't lie to anyone. I lost my money. I couldn't go home so I had to ask others... Haii, my old face has all been lost this morning.”

Lin Dongxue and the police received Chen Shi's information and hurried over. Chen Shi said to the owner, “We’ll deal with this matter. Please do your own thing.”

With the arrival of the police, Old lady Liu seemed panicked. This expression didn’t escape the eyes of Chen Shi. Old Lady Liu said, “Thank you, Master. We’re leaving now.”

“Where can you go? Didn't you say you lost your money? You can find the police if you have any difficulties!” Chen Shi smiled.

Old Lady Liu glanced at the police uniforms and looked at her grandson clutching her clothes behind her. She couldn't help but tremble and wave her hand desperately. “No difficulties, no difficulties. My family will come pick me up after a while. It’ll be alright.”

Chen Shi stopped her. “Actually, we have a case on hand. I hope you can cooperate with the investigation.”

“Case? I don't know anything about a case!” She took her grandson and tried to leave.

Lin Dongxue came over and said, “Old lady, it’s just cooperating with the investigation. We’re not here to arrest you.”

Seeing there was nowhere to run, Old Lady Liu had a bit of anxiety. She knew that Chen Shi was a kind driver and asked curiously, “Master, did you not drive a taxi yesterday? How did you become a policeman today?”

Chen Shi smiled. “Actually, I’m a friend of the police. Are you thirsty?”

They took the old lady and the child to the guardhouse at the station, poured her a cup of hot water, and looked at the appearance of Old Lady Liu. She seemed to be a lot older than yesterday. Chen Shi asked, “Did you eat?”

“I’ve eaten.”

“How did it come to this? Didn’t you come to find relatives?”

“Haii!” Old Lady Liu sighed telling them what had happened yesterday. Her grandson broke an antique at Wang Xifeng's house. The other party was so annoyed that they pointed at her nose and scolded them. Due to the urgent situation at the time, Old Lady Liu threw away all the change she had as compensation.

Fortunately, she also had an emergency hundred yuan bill hidden on her body. After going to the store to change it to smaller bills, there were only around fifty yuan left by the time she went to the guest house. Considering that she still had to take a car home, she couldn't live in the guest house. The two walked around the street and finally found an ATM to spend the night.

The night was very uncomfortable. She was in pain with old bones and very dizzy because she had not eaten or drank water in the morning. Her heart couldn’t stand it on the way to the station, so she weakly succumbed to her hunger and had some food. As such, she didn’t have enough money to buy a ticket to go home. She was missing about a dozen yuan, so she could only try and ask for some change from the people around.

After telling her story, Old Lady Liu who was full of grievances, wiped the tears welling up in her eyes. Dog Egg next to her also had tears swirling around his eyes. Chen Shi noticed that there was a dark red mark on the cuff of Dog Egg’s cotton jacket. If he remembered correctly, this child’s clothes were still brand new yesterday.

Lin Dongxue said, “It must be the clerk at the store who played a trick on you. Did he count the money in front of you?”

Old Lady Liu said, “Yes, I bought a bottle of Coca-Cola. He said that he didn't have 50 yuan, so he asked if he could give me nine 10-yuan bills. He counted nine of them in front of me.”

“It's a kind of deceit. Just like a trick, you can fold the money in half and make it seem like there’s two bills when there’s only one. You wouldn’t know if you were missing any!”

Old Lady Liu suddenly understood. “This... These people's hearts are too awful!”

Chen Shi asked, “You stayed at the ATM last night? You didn’t go anywhere?”

“No! No!” Old Lady Liu desperately denied.

After looking at Dog Egg’s expression, Chen Shi already understood everything. He deliberately looked at his watch and said to the police, “Thank you guys today. It's almost noon. I'll buy some lunch for everyone... Old lady, you have a bite too!”

“Thank you, Master. If I hadn't met you, I really don't know...” Old Lady Liu’s eyes pricked and she looked down for a handkerchief. Dog Egg wiped her tears away thoughtfully.

“You're welcome. It's just like lifting a hand for me.”

Chen Shi motioned for Lin Dongxue to leave and said, “The child has not spoken the entire time and his expression is very strange. He should have witnessed something. Old lady Liu thought the child murdered someone, so she denied going to the community last night. Don't look at her as a dishonest person because this is due to her affection and attachment to her family. Coupled with the fact that she doesn’t know anything about the law and does not know that children do not have to go to jail for murder, she won’t say anything!”

“What then?”

“It depends on the skill of the interrogator. This time, we can't say anything more about the facts of the case. We have to let the old lady know clearly that Dog Egg is not the murderer and we will not arrest him. We just want to hear his testimony. Do you agree?”

“Why do I need to agree?”

Chen Shi smiled. “You’re the only real criminal police here. Of course, you have to agree.”

“Agree, agree!” Lin Dongxue also laughed. “Detective Chen's actions are definitely not wrong!”

Chen Shi went to the McDonald's at the station and bought a McDonald's spicy chicken leg set and a children's set. Then, he bought a big bag of fast food lunch boxes and mineral water. He returned to the car and gave the McDonald's chicken leg set to Tao Yueyue. Tao Yueyue saw the children's set and asked, “Who’s that for?”

“A kid... By the way, Yueyue, I want to ask you something.”

“Is it related to solving the case?”

“Yes, it matters a lot. I will let an old lady and a child live in our house. Do you mind?”

“I will pretend not to mind!”

“Really sensible!” Chen Shi patted her head. “The child may have witnessed a murder scene and might be under a lot of mental stress. He might be reluctant to explain the situation to us. I need you to approach him and ask for the truth.”

Tao Yueyue raised her eyebrows. “If we can get the truth from him, they’ll leave?”

“Yes.”

“I'll give it a try. You adults are taking advantage of a child’s mentality.”

“When this is all over, I’ll take you to the French restaurant we ate at last time.”

Tao Yueyue pursed her lips and pouted. “Really stingy! The old grandfather gave you a card last time so you don't have to spend money anyway!”

Back at the police station, Chen Shi distributed the food. Dog Egg was eating a children’s set for the first time in his life and was particularly happy, but he still remained silent. Old Lady Liu said numerous “thank yous” over and over again. After eating, she said, “Master, thank you so much. If it's okay, we must hurry home.”

Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue exchanged glances. Lin Dongxue said, “It's like this, ma'am. A murder case happened in the Red House Community you visited yesterday and we are investigating that at the moment.”

Old Lady Liu spilled a little water and she said in a panic, “Does it have anything to do with us?”

Chen Shi said, “The deceased is Wang Xifeng and her roommate Qiuping.”

“What!?”

Chen Shi noticed Old Lady Liu glance at Dog Egg unconsciously again.

Old Lady Liu asked, “Who killed her? I feel sorry for my younger sister. She doesn’t have anyone to succeed her family line.”

Lin Dongxue replied, “According to the evidence left at the scene, the murderer should be an adult male. We have just opened the case and are still investigating. Monitoring records show that you and your grandson visited the neighborhood around 11:00 last night. We think your grandson is a very important witness. We need his testimony to catch the killer and allow your niece to rest in peace.”