Chapter 33.1: Tire Marks
The period of leave completely overlapped with the time of the murder, and taking leave just two days after the botched disposal of the body made it hard not to suspect something.
Guo Zhitang was a major suspect.
Zeng Jun pondered for a moment before suddenly asking, “Comrade, how has Guo Xiaohui been lately?”
Technician Chu thought about it. “I don’t think we heard anything about her before, but she hasn’t come to work for several days recently. I heard she accidentally injured her foot.”
“Her foot is injured?”
Turning the words over in his mind, Zeng Jun looked up at the sky.
The sun was sinking toward the west, gradually staining half the clouds red. It wouldn’t be long before darkness completely fell.
But it wasn’t completely dark yet.
Which meant they could keep working overtime.
Oh, right. Criminal investigators didn’t have such a thing as overtime. Labor protection laws in later generations had nothing to do with them, let alone now.
Zeng Jun turned around and said directly to everyone, “How about this? It’s still early, so let’s go to Guo Xiaohui’s house together and see how she’s doing. If everything checks out, we’ll head back to the city bureau and consolidate the clues with Captain Tan.”
Chen Dong nodded. “I agree.”
None of the other criminal investigators objected.
Jiang Xia stood up and brushed the crumbs from her hands. “I have no objections either.”
She had a feeling that Announcer He’s disgust toward Zhou Jingyun, as well as the way she had tried to conceal it, was very likely related to Guo Xiaohui.
After all, there was nothing strange about disliking someone who was two-timing and then being disgusted when he found someone else. There was no need to cover it up.
Unless the person she was trying to conceal wasn’t Zhou Jingyun, but Guo Xiaohui.
It was true that people were conservative in those days, but an ordinary romantic relationship—and being dumped by the man—wasn’t something that couldn’t be mentioned. At most, it would become an embarrassing stain on someone’s past, and people might curse the man a few extra times whenever it came up.
But if someone instinctively tried to cover it up and refused to mention it at all, that was a different matter.
Then there was the fact that Guo Xiaohui had suddenly stopped coming to work. It was easy for Jiang Xia to come up with other possibilities.
After all, matters of love between men and women could very easily end in someone dying.
In every sense of the phrase.
But all of this was still just speculation. Whether things were really as they suspected would only be clear after they saw the situation with their own eyes.
＊
The area around the machinery factory was also where its employees lived.
The machinery factory did have apartment buildings, and more were still under construction. However, there were too many factory workers, and there was no fair way to distribute the apartments among them. In the end, they had come up with a system where families were ranked and then drew lots.
Guo Xiaohui’s family had drawn a spot in the third batch. Their apartment was still nothing more than empty air at this point, so for now, they were still living in the old residential area.
All the houses here were single-story buildings, and the roads were somewhat complicated. The group found a factory worker who was on his way home to lead them, and only then did they manage to locate Guo Xiaohui’s house.
The gate to the courtyard was open. Guo Zhitang was sitting in the yard, scrubbing his bicycle. The ground was wet, with quite a few chicken feathers scattered around. Meat was simmering on the stove in the kitchen, and the delicious aroma kept wafting out of the pot.
Jiang Xia glanced at the bicycle’s license plate.
The two large characters “Forever (永久)” were written right on it.
Another match!
Guo Zhitang was still wiping down the bicycle when he heard the commotion. He immediately raised his head. Seeing a sea of green uniforms at the entrance to his courtyard, he was completely bewildered.
Why were so many police officers coming to his house?
He asked, “Comrades, you—”
“Stop!”
Before he could finish, Zeng Jun, who had spotted the bicycle’s license plate, rushed forward in a single stride and snatched the wet rag from his hand.
Holding the rag, Zeng Jun regarded Guo Zhitang with an extremely hostile look.
He had already mentally classified the man as a suspect.
He hadn’t washed the bicycle earlier, nor had he waited until later. He just happened to wash it now—and it was a Forever-brand bicycle at that. If he wasn’t suspicious, then who was?
Chen Dong and Old Qin had reached the same conclusion. The two exchanged an understanding glance: one moved to block the doorway, while the other stood beside Zeng Jun. The moment Guo Zhitang made even the slightest suspicious move, he could immediately pin him to the ground.
Guo Zhitang’s wife, Cai Yulan, was busy in the kitchen. Hearing the commotion, she hurriedly poked her head out to see what was happening. The moment she saw so many police officers suddenly standing in their courtyard, she was instantly startled.
“What, what’s going on?”
“We need your cooperation with a case.”
Zeng Jun asked Guo Zhitang sternly, “Comrade, where were you four days ago, and what were you doing?”
After all, Guo Zhitang was a workshop director. Seeing the police arrive with such a serious show of force, he realized that something must have happened.
“I went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some things, but unfortunately, I stood in line for ages and still didn’t manage to get what I needed. So I went to the black market beside the railway station instead.”
Although he had no idea what this was about, Guo Zhitang didn’t dare conceal anything. He cooperatively recounted his entire itinerary that day before adding, “Comrades, I only bought some brown sugar and dried dates at the black market. That doesn’t exactly count as profiteering, does it? Was there really any need to bring so many police officers to my house?”
Unfortunately, saying that only made him look even more suspicious.
Zhou Jingyun had happened to be taking a train home from the railway station that day. Their routes completely overlapped!
Jiang Xia, standing nearby, pursed her lips slightly.
Brown sugar and dried dates?
Both were commonly regarded as foods for replenishing the blood and qi, especially for women who had just given birth.
She’d only injured her foot. Did she really need to replenish her blood and qi—and even have a whole chicken specially stewed to help her recover?
Zeng Jun continued to press him. “You went to the black market in the afternoon?”
Guo Zhitang didn’t quite understand what he was getting at, but he still answered, “Wasn’t I unable to buy anything after standing in line all morning? So I had no choice but to go in the afternoon.”
“What time exactly did you make the purchase? Does anyone have a way to corroborate your whereabouts? And when did you come back?”
“How am I supposed to know that?”
Guo Zhitang looked rather helpless. “I had to wait a long time in the afternoon before I finally found someone selling the stuff. By the time I got home, it was already six or seven. As for someone to vouch for me… There were people coming and going all over the black market. Nobody knows anybody there. There’s no way I could find someone to prove it.”
Well, now they even had the time of the crime.
Zhou Jingyun had left for the railway station that afternoon. Judging by the time he arrived there, Guo Zhitang had been right in the vicinity at the time.
Jiang Xia pondered for a moment, her gaze settling once again on the bicycle, which had been polished until it gleamed. “Comrade, what made you decide to wash your bicycle today?”
Guo Zhitang answered quite naturally, “Oh, this? I went to the countryside yesterday and bought two chickens. They got mud all over the bicycle, so I figured I’d give it a good cleaning today.”
He had gone out yesterday too?
Zeng Jun immediately seized on the key point and continued questioning him. “When did you leave?”
“Just as dawn was breaking.”
Guo Zhitang didn’t seem to realize the significance of his answer. He replied frankly, “The earlier I went, the earlier I could come back.”
Zeng Jun’s suspicions reached their peak. “So aside from your family, nobody actually saw what time you left, right?”
“Of course not,” Guo Zhitang said. “Nobody else would even have been up at that hour.”
“Good.”
Zeng Jun nodded, then exchanged a glance with Chen Dong, who was blocking the doorway, and Old Qin, who was standing nearby keeping an eye on Guo Zhitang.
He then asked, “Comrade, which room is your daughter Guo Xiaohui in? We still have a few things to ask her about.”
Why did they want to see her daughter?
At this, Cai Yulan suddenly had a bad feeling. She instinctively stepped forward to block their way. “Comrades, my daughter injured her foot. She’s resting right now…”
“It’s fine. We have a female officer.”
Zeng Jun’s expression darkened. He stepped forward, the imposing presence of a veteran detective bearing down on her.
“Comrade, don’t interfere with the police investigation.”
Cai Yulan was extremely reluctant, but she had no choice but to lead them inside.
Jiang Xia and Zeng Jun followed her in.
Guo Xiaohui shared the master bedroom with her parents.
Housing was tight. Their son, daughter-in-law, and grandson could only squeeze into a single room, so there was naturally no way to spare another proper room for Guo Xiaohui. Mr. and Mrs. Guo had no choice but to make another sacrifice themselves. They had built a half-height partition wall across roughly three-fifths of their bedroom, carving out a tiny private space for their daughter.
The space was cramped. There was only enough room for a bed, which had to be pushed against three walls, while the wardrobe could only be placed opposite it.
The moment the three of them entered, they immediately felt as though there was barely enough room to turn around.
Guo Xiaohui was currently resting on the bed.
She was covered with a quilt, with both her hands and feet hidden underneath it, making it impossible to tell whether she had actually sprained anything. But the exposed skin of her face was deathly pale, and there wasn’t a trace of color in her lips.
Even so, the young woman was still quite pretty. She simply looked extremely haggard, as though she had suffered from a serious illness.
Jiang Xia immediately understood.
Zeng Jun had worked as a criminal investigator for so many years that the moment he saw the scene, he had already figured out most of what had happened.
He sighed inwardly and stepped back, letting Jiang Xia stand in front of him.
For something like this, it was better to let a female officer do the questioning.
Cai Yulan stepped forward and gently shook her daughter’s shoulder. “Xiaohui, Xiaohui, wake up. The police are here to see you.”
“Mom?”
Guo Xiaohui slowly opened her eyes. She looked at her mother in front of her and the two police officers behind her, then asked somewhat blankly, “Why are they here to see me?”
Jiang Xia took a step forward. “Comrade Guo, we need to ask you some questions about a case. Please don’t conceal anything. After all, some things can be confirmed with a medical examination at the hospital.”
Guo Xiaohui struggled to sit up. She immediately understood the implication in Jiang Xia’s words. Her already pale face became even more bloodless, but she forced herself to put on a tough front and demanded, “What exactly do you mean by that?”
“Zhou Jingyun is dead.”
Jiang Xia dropped the news and watched her expression closely before immediately asking, “When you were secretly dating him, did the two of you ever cross the line?”
“What? He’s dead?!”
Guo Xiaohui froze, her eyes filled with disbelief, but the next moment, that disbelief turned into the exhilaration of finally seeing a great enemy get his due.
“Good! Good riddance! A scumbag like him didn’t deserve to be alive!”
Her reaction had already explained everything.
Watching her expression, Jiang Xia was certain that Guo Xiaohui had known nothing about Zhou Jingyun’s death, and there was no sign that she suspected anyone close to her of having done it.
But they were all family. If her father or brothers had wanted to kill someone, could their direct victim really have failed to notice?
Something seemed off.
Although Jiang Xia was making her own guesses, her expression remained unchanged as she continued, “Comrade Guo, you still haven’t answered my question.”
“Comrade, why do you keep asking about that?”
Cai Yulan sat beside her daughter, stretching out an arm and shielding her protectively like a mother hen, retorting, “My daughter broke things off with him a long time ago. She has nothing to do with him!”
“Mom, you don’t need to say anything. The police have already come all the way to our house. What could they possibly not know?”
Guo Xiaohui stubbornly pushed her mother’s arm away and stared at the police officer in front of her.
“What kind of damn college student was he? Zhou Jingyun was a scumbag, a liar! Eight months ago, he secretly pursued me. He said he hadn’t been officially hired yet, and that to maintain a good image, he didn’t want our relationship made public for the time being. I was foolish enough to agree to him, and later we even… even…”
Guo Xiaohui still couldn’t bring herself to say what had happened. She paused, and when she saw that the people in front of her understood what she meant, she continued, “Then, as soon as the factory director’s daughter joined the publicity department, he started asking to break up. I refused, so he called me a slut, said that any man could sleep with me… and he even threatened to tell everyone about it!”
As she spoke, Guo Xiaohui’s voice gradually became hoarse, eventually breaking into sobs. “I had no choice but to agree to the breakup. I figured I would just have to swallow the humiliation and let it pass. But then I realized my period was already two months late, and it still hadn’t come…”
The more Jiang Xia listened, the more deeply she frowned.
It was exactly as she had suspected.
In a situation like this, the only thing they could be thankful for was that Guo Xiaohui’s family was relatively decent. She had been brave enough to tell her parents, and they had been able to think of a way to deal with it instead of letting things spiral into something worse.
Er… maybe not necessarily.
After a moment of silence, Jiang Xia asked again, “When did you tell your parents about this? And how did your father and brothers react?”
“I told them as soon as we broke up. My dad said we couldn’t just let it go, so he secretly told He Xinghua about what had happened. Later, he found out… found out that I was pregnant, and he was absolutely furious…”
As she spoke, Guo Xiaohui froze, finally realizing what was wrong. “You suspect someone in my family killed him?”
“Impossible! Murder means paying with your life! My brother has a wife and children, and my father has an entire family to support. They would never kill someone!”
That was hard to say.
After all, at first they hadn’t known about the fact that Zhou Jingyun had crossed the line. Being dumped was still something they could accept, and there wasn’t anything particularly shameful about telling others about it.
But pregnancy was a different matter. They were all men—who couldn’t tell what Zhou Jingyun had really been after back then? It would be a miracle if her father hadn’t wanted to chop him into pieces!
“We have our own conclusions about the matter.”
Zeng Jun spoke in a low voice. “Comrade Guo, you should get some rest for now. We’ll talk to your father about the rest.”
That didn’t sound like they were merely going to talk. They were clearly planning to take him away!
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