Chapter 384: Investigating Du Xuemei

Translator: Azza

Editor: Conspiracing

A day later, Chen Shi yawned as he got out of the car with Lin Dongxue. Lin Dongxue said, "I can’t believe that the truth of the case was like this. How unbelievable."

"The agreement that I had with your brother is finally fulfilled. I was so exhausted yesterday."

"What agreement?"

"Come with me."

When they got to Lin Qiupu's office, Lin Qiupu handed yesterday's file to Chen Shi and said, "This is an old case from ten years ago. The chief didn't agree too much with the case review. I tried to convince him, saying that this might be related to Zhou Xiao. He’s now contacting the procuratorate. The procedures should be finalized soon unless something crops up."

Chen Shi said, "We can’t open the case yet?"

"Investigate it first. When you find the suspect, I’ll get an arrest warrant on my side."

There were two murderers in this case. He thought about how Wang Sunxu was already in custody and how Zhou Xiao was still at large. Chen Shi shook his head, "I'm afraid the suspect can’t be found. We can only find out the truth."

"It's okay just to find out the truth! Now that I have already consented, you can investigate it freely." Lin Qiupu noticed the dark eye circles on Lin Dongxue's face and looked at the dark eye circles on Chen Shi's face. He said to Lin Dongxue, "Don't stay up so late at night. "

"I didn't try to stay up late. It was just because of yesterday’s case." Lin Dongxue said.

"You two didn’t come together, right?"

"No... I don't have a car or driver’s license. So of course I came in his car.”

"Take your driver's license exam again. What kind of police officer doesn’t have a driving license?!"

"I know!" Lin Dongxue replied lazily before turning around and leaving cheerfully with Chen Shi.

"She’s so indifferent to me now!" Lin Qiupu grabbed the cushion on his seat and punched it a few times when another police officer came in. He patted the seat cushion and put on an act, saying, "Oh, I wonder why it’s so dusty... What’s the matter?"

Lin Dongxue asked Chen Shi, "How did you guess that this old case is related to Zhou Xiao?"

"If I didn’t say that, the chief wouldn’t approve the review."

"So, it’s not actually related?"

"No, I think it may be related to Wang Sunxu, so I think it may be related to Zhou Xiao. I’ll tell you the reason later!" Chen Shi said to appease her curiosity.

The two went to the Information Department and investigated the information regarding the victim, Du Xuemei. Her background showed that she was born in a family of teachers and had gone abroad to further her studies. After returning to China, she became the secretary of the Zhang Group President Zhang Bin. Zhang Bin was also her lover. The two were together for over a decade and Du Xuemei still maintained an on-and-off relationship with him even after leaving the Zhang Group.

Zhang Bin was a preposterous person. After his death, there were many exposés about his life on the Internet. He was a self-made entrepreneur who had made his fortune in the 1980s. He was still vigorous in his fifties and once kept as many as seven mistresses.

Zhang Bin's wife, surnamed Li, had three children with him. They were probably the type to have different agendas while sharing the same bed, but they never divorced. According to the unreliable online reports, Zhang Bin had once asked a Hong Kong master to read his fortune. The master said that Li would bless whoever her husband was, so Zhang Bin never agreed to her divorce requests, no matter how much time he spent outside with other women.

Chen Shi thought that the reason why they didn’t divorce could actually be because Li also had a powerful family background that was very helpful for Zhang Bin’s career. On the other hand, he was worth over 100 million yuan. If he had divorced her, half of his assets would go to her. Naturally, he wasn’t that foolish.

"The red flag at home won't fall and the colorful flags flutter outside[1]." This popular portrayal of successful men was not without basis.

Zhang Bin died of liver cancer in 2008. His will was secretly executed by a lawyer and wasn’t publicly announced. It seems that his assets still went to his wife and children. The lovers didn’t get anything.

But Chen Shi thought, if there was direct legal succession, was there still a need to secretly execute the will? Would there have been outsiders who profited from it?

2008 was also the year that Du Xuemei was burned to death in her mansion. However, her financial information didn’t show that she had anything to do with the orphanage where Wang Sunxu lived. Although she had lost favor with her lover quite a long time ago, she was still very rich. No matter how you looked at it, she wouldn’t have had a connection with Wang Sunxu.

Chen Shi groaned, "Wang Sunxu was only ten years old that year. His brother was sixteen years old and had left the orphanage to work... Dongxue, go to the law firm and check the contents of Zhang Bin's will. I’ll go to the orphanage."

"Wills? Orphanage? Does it have something to do with the case? You aren’t suspecting that there’s a dog blood storyline[2] in this, right? You think Wang Sunxu is actually Zhang Bin's illegitimate son or something?"

"How would we know if we don't investigate?" Chen Shi smiled.

Chen Shi sent Lin Dongxue to the law firm and drove directly to the orphanage where Wang Sunxu had lived. He called Sun Zhen on the way. "Help me to get all the information that you can regarding Du Xuemei."

"Who’s Du Xuemei?"

"The first person you can find online by that name. I don’t want the stuff online though. I want the stuff that was never disclosed to the public, like her chat records, emails, and bank accounts expenses."

"Fuck, someone who died ten years ago... Brother Chen, do you know how long the information on the Internet lasts for?"

"Well, do your best!"

When he arrived at the orphanage, Chen Shi found the person in charge and asked to see Wang Sunxu's file. The person in charge looked through the shelves for a long time and said, "Sorry Officer, a fire broke out in our orphanage a few years ago and all the files before 2008 were lost.”

Chen Shi was surprised. Could it be so coincidental?

After thinking about it, this coincidence was suspicious. It may be that Wang Sunxu or Zhou Xiao had burned all the files in order to conceal the incident.

"How did the fire happen?"

"The power lines were aging, so this archive room burned down. No children were injured though."

"Don’t you have any back up files?"

"Since then, we’ve made copies, but we didn’t do that for the previous files."

"Do you know about the child, Wang Sunxu? He was here from about 1997 to 2009."

The person in charge shook their head. "I’ve only been here for a few years, so I’m unfamiliar with him."

"I want to meet the other teachers."

The person in charge was in a dilemma. Chen Shi took out five hundred yuan. "Right, since I’m here, I want to donate towards your orphanage."

"Okay, I'll call the teachers over."

The teachers gathered in a room and upon hearing Chen Shi’s question, everyone tried to recall from their memories. A teacher said, "I seemed to have taught him before. I think he was a particularly antisocial child. In addition, he had an older brother who also grew up here. He went out to work when he was fifteen, and occasionally came back to see him."

"Yes, that's him... I have only one question. Has he ever been adopted?"

"Yes! But not for long." The teacher answered with certainty.

"When?"

"Sometime in the 2000’s. A beautifully-dressed woman said that she wanted to adopt him. She left a deep impression on me. The woman was in her thirties, single, had no children, and didn’t meet the conditions for adoption, but Wang Sunxu seemed to have quite taken to her. She also showed a lot of concern for him, so I agreed to let her adopt him and dealt with the formal procedures... But in less than three months, she brought Wang Sunxu back, saying that the child had psychological problems and violent tendencies. She no longer wanted him, and I felt very sad. The child had finally found a home but was thrown back. After that, he became even more antisocial."

Chen Shi showed Du Xuemei's photo which he had found on the Internet to the teacher, and asked, "Was this the lady?"

"Yes, it's her!"

1. The red flag symbolizes the wife and the colorful flags symbolize the other ladies, meaning that a man both has a wife as well as mistresses outside.

2. A ridiculous and dramatic plot behind the case.