Chapter 74: Strict Defence

Translator: Azza

Editor: Conspiracing

Peng Sijue sat down as if he was deflated. The scene was so quiet that it was a bit awkward. Lin Dongxue asked, "Captain Peng, you said there are new discoveries..."

Peng Sijue threw a printed piece of paper on the table and said calmly. "The cause of death was found out. The deceased died of heart failure, and the time of death has to be pushed forward about six to twelve hours."

Lin Dongxue took a look and said, "Thank you, this discovery is very important."

Peng Sijue waved his hand and asked them to leave. The two left the department and Lin Dongxue scolded Xu Xiaodong. "Why did you mention such random nonsense to him?"

Xu Xiaodong gave an innocent look. "How would I know that Captain Peng’s reaction would be so intense... Perhaps the protagonist of this story is someone he knows?”

"Why don’t you ask him yourself?!"

Xu Xiaodong shook his head desperately. "I don't want to commit another taboo."

The task force went all out in investigating the criminal suspect Wu Hao. Three days later, Lin Qiupu brought everyone together and summarized the information on hand.

The police officers in charge of investigating the background of the Wu Brothers reported, "The parents of the Wu brothers died early. According to their relatives, the two brothers have had a mediocre relationship with each other since young. Their parents obviously prefer the clever and good second child. The older child would often be filled with envy. The two often fought over the tiniest of things. The older brother later came to work in the city while the second child was still in school. When their parents died, it was the older brother who organized the funeral. Because there wasn’t a will, he sold the house property and agreed that when it was time for his younger brother to marry someone, he would give him his portion. However, the older brother did not fulfil his promise, and the money was spent all by himself. The second child later got a girlfriend and asked his brother for money. His brother couldn’t give him any after spending it all. The two got into a fierce argument. Many relatives tried mediating for the two. Under the mediation of the relatives, the older brother agreed to his younger brother living in his house for the meantime. He mentioned that he would slowly earn money to pay for his brother’s house in the future. However, he kept postponing this, so the younger brother’s girlfriend eventually left him after constantly arguing about the matter. Due to this, the younger brother’s stomach should be full of fire."

The police officer in charge of investigating the evidence of Wu Hao and his sister-in-law, Xiuying’s affair reported, "Captain Lin, we haven't made much progress here. Pan Xiuying and 'Ximen Qing' have been real passionate with each other. How can we ask about her having a relationship with another man? But we were able to find something. When it comes to one thing, 'Ximen Qing' has a membership card at the gym Wu Hao works at. He’s left his personal information down at the gym, so the two are likely to know each other through Wu Hao."

Lin Qiupu reassured them of their lack of progress and findings. "It doesn't matter if you investigate it slowly. As long as you don’t let them know that we suspect them.”

"This we understand, so we didn’t investigate too aggressively.”

The next bunch was the team that investigated evidence to prove that Wu Hao was the killer. This group was led by Lin Dongxue. She stood up and shamefully reported, “I haven’t made any progress on my side either. I went to visit Wu Hao twice. He said that he had a meal with his brother last month. I went to the restaurant to verify this, but the staff confirmed that they really saw Wu Hao and another person who claimed to be his brother there. He also mentioned that he went to the foot bath club with Wu Dalang. I also verified with the store and they confirmed this. In addition, the deceased works via an online shop. According to the website, although his sales in the past three months were not good, he was always online. He also participated in the website promotion on the 11th of November."

Lin Qiupu growled, "What a sly guy. It seems that he’s been ready for us."

"Yes, he has deleted all the recent photos of the deceased. We can’t just rely on the people in the restaurants and health clubs alone. Their words can't prove that person who was there was the victim."

Lin Qiupu was very confident. With Peng Sijue’s identification results and Chen Shi’s reasoning backing them, his heart wasn’t filled with any doubt. He surmised, “That is definitely not the deceased. It’s an actor that Wu Hao found. We must find a way to prove that he is lying.”

Lin Dongxue bit her lip and looked hesitant.

Lin Qiupu wrapped up after summarizing the findings. "From the current clues, Wu Hao and Pan Xiuying almost certainly imprisoned and killed the victim. The deceased’s death was forcibly delayed for three months. They prepared for three months. It is certainly not easy to find a breakthrough. But don't be discouraged! I believe they will definitely have missed something and show their true colors! Okay, let’s finish up for today and continue tomorrow."

After the meeting, Lin Dongxue walked straight out of the bureau and Xu Xiaodong chased after her. "Hey, Dongxue, where are you going?"

"I suddenly remembered that the trade-workers said that they found feces under the floorboards. That should be able to prove that it was the victim’s as well determine his physical condition at the time. It is also a type of evidence!"

"You are being too reckless! With no search warrants, how can you enter other people's homes?"

Lin Dongxue stopped in her tracks. Although she knew who the murderer was, she was unable to obtain the evidence to prosecute the criminal. She felt anxious and impatient. "What if the workers threw it out with the garbage?"

"It’s been a few days. The garbage must have been transported away already."

"In the community, it is generally not allowed to throw out construction waste. They will be transferred to other places..." Lin Dongxue looked at her watch. "It is five o'clock now. We should be able to catch the workers before they get off work. Let’s go, let’s go!”

"Okay let’s go. I will drive you."

The two people went to the community with enthusiasm. The construction workers that Wu Hao hired had already left work. Lin Dongxue asked the neighbors to find out where the garbage from the construction of the household was thrown.

The neighbors recalled, "I saw that they had two pickups that transported them away."

"Then do you know where their company is located?"

"It’s only a small construction team. If there is any company, it should have small advertisements posted on the wall. You can call them to ask one by one."

They thanked the neighbors, and Lin Dongxue called the numbers that were posted on the wall and finally found the construction team. They informed her that they were eating at a restaurant not far from the community. The two rushed over and explained the situation. The foreman responded, “The scraps that we knocked down were sold to another construction team. They took it to fill the roads and bought it at a price of fifty cents per catty. I will take you over and go look for it later."

"Even the scraps from three days ago?"

"It’s there."

Another worker interjected, "Boss, have you forgotten? Didn’t Boss Wu ask us to give him all the building materials and pay us two hundred yuan?"

"Yes, yes." The foreman became apologetic. "Sorry, the building materials were all purchased."

Lin Dongxue widened her eyes in shock, and Xu Xiaodong exclaimed, "He actually made that move? It’s indicating that Chen Shi's reasoning is correct, and that Wu Hao has a ghost in his heart!"[1]

"What use is there? We have no evidence..." Lin Dongxue looked at the construction waste on the side of the pickup, as if she was looking at a big cake.

"You wouldn’t be thinking..."

"Using a dead horse to heal instead of a living one[2]. Find out if there are any clues in the garbage today."

Lin Dongxue immediately took out three hundred yuan and bought the scrap. The workers were willing to help her to send it to the bureau. Lin Dongxue especially cautioned them to not speak of this incident elsewhere, especially not to Wu Hao.

The workers accepted in unison. "We will definitely cooperate... If the boss is caught, will we still get paid?"

"If the arrested doesn’t pay you, then the police will. Don’t worry.”

Xu Xiaodong inserted a sentence, "If you leak this and he runs off, then you all really won’t get paid.”

"We will definitely not talk about it! Definitely not"

The workers poured the pile of scraps into the parking lot behind the city bureau. It released a cloud of dust and caused many colleagues upstairs to look down at the scene. The criminal police always brought in weird things that they had long grown accustomed to. However, they couldn’t stand the dust this time. Everyone closed their windows.

Xu Xiaodong had goosebumps. "Are you going to bring the scraps over the mountain?”[3]

"I want to sleep well tonight. Can you help me call a few people of the forensic squad over?"

"I can't go! I don’t want to."

1. Guilty conscience, but usually just used to indicate that someone truly is guilty of something.

2. Bluffing with something similar.

3. There’s a story about people who needed to cross over a mountain, but because they couldn’t hike over it, they decided to transport the mountain over to a new area bit by bit instead. It means tirelessly doing a time-consuming and inefficient task.