“I admit that I hate them, but at the same time, I have a son to take care of,” confessed Lu Zhengmei before sipping a cup of tea to calm her rage. “While I may have my limit, I won’t kill anyone just because they hurt me. Besides, if I really wanted to kill someone, Cao Keya won’t be alone because Wang Jianlei is far worse in my opinion. He’s the one who hurt us the most! He knew how much damage his action would cause us once we realized the truth yet he did it nonetheless, and that was the reason why he still didn’t have the courage to inform me personally after everything was exposed.”
“I’m not him, after all. What’ll happen to my son if I act rashly? I’m not smart enough to kill anyone with a perfect plan and leave no evidence behind, so what’ll happen to my son if I’m caught? He has to endure hardship not just from life but from the criticisms around him as well. His father had an affair with a mistress who was murdered in the end, and the murderer turned out to be his mother. I’d be destroying my son’s future if that’s the case.”
“Wang Jianlei can ignore his son but I can’t. Perhaps you won’t understand to what extent a mother’s forbearance can go for her own child’s sake. Naturally, I won’t provide fake testimony just to frame Wang Jianlei. I hate him, but I’m not despicable,” added Lu Zhengmei.
The crowd left the house afterward. Zhang Shanfei called Yang Shaoqun and explained the situation before heading toward Yi Pin Tang to investigate and verify the evidence. Thus, Lu Zhengmei’s alibi was confirmed.
They were anxious about the lack of progression. Then, Jiang Yuecheng gave Zhang Ming a phone call.
“Shaozhan had identified all licensed psychologists in B City but there’s too many of them. We didn’t expect that there would be so many psychologists at present. Are mental illnesses really that common right now? Anyway, we’re going through their details at the moment.”
Qi Youxuan was comparing both Xiong Shishi and Cao Keya’s information to check if there was any similarity between them, other than the fact that they were both mistresses.
“Eh? Both Xiong Shishi and Cao Keya lived near each other.” Qi Youxuan was flipping through their information when he noticed the addresses. “Both of them lived in Ningxia street two, with Xiong Shishi staying at area twenty-five and Cao Keya at area twenty-six. These two areas are neighboring areas.”
“Ningxia street two is considered an old city subdivision. The housing area which Cao Keya lived in is a new commercial housing area built after the demolition of old houses, whereas the house Xiong Shishi rented is almost twenty years old. The new and old housing areas are neighbors, but there’s no high-end grocery store or mall due to the lack of purchasing power among the community. Thus, anyone who’s financially stable won’t normally buy houses in this area unless it’s for investment purposes. The house Cao Keya lived in was actually rented by Wang Jianlei. I guess the sector quality wasn’t a primary concern after all,” explained Yang Shaoqun since Qi Youxuan and his team were unfamiliar with T City’s condition.
“Both the victims lived rather closely. Is it possible that the assailant lives or works nearby too?” asked Wei Muran after turning her gaze toward Qi Youxuan.
Qi Youxuan nodded. “I’ll talk, you’ll write.”
Wei Muran rushed toward the whiteboard immediately and took a whiteboard marker pen.
Qi Youxuan, who was sitting in the swivel chair, turned toward Wei Muran with his right elbow resting on the armrest while rubbing both his right thumb and index finger together.
“The assailant is a married man in his thirties. His wife cheated on him with another man and ended up in a divorce. He’s just a general staff with a low paycheck, which is the reason why his wife betrayed him. He started a relationship with his wife a long time ago, probably since they were studying in university.”
Qi Youxuan paused momentarily before narrowing his eyes. “The assailant used to work in B City, but came here after his wife’s betrayal.”
“How do you know about this?” asked the surprised Zou Chengwei.
Qi Youxuan stared at Zou Chengwei and thought that he could really become Xing Jiadong’s best friend fairly easily.
“You’ve read the novel, right? Three murderers consulted a psychologist before committing homicides. The first two murderers were local citizens of B City without any record of long-term stay outside B City. The second murderer, Li Niancheng wasn’t exactly wealthy and his only record of leaving B City was to murder his victim in Lijiang City. Otherwise, he had been staying in B City since then. The first murderer, Dong Zhengfeng was a teacher initially with a stable financial condition. He occasionally went on vacations for three to four days but after Li Anqi’s death, he didn’t leave B City anymore. You can’t actually cure a mental disease after one or two consultations, and a regular checkup with the psychologist is actually required for improvement. I’ve concluded that the murderer once lived in B City but came to T City in the end, probably under the psychologist’s instruction.”
Qi Youxuan ignored the oh-I-see look on Zou Chengwei’s face and continued, “The murderer looks like a gentleman despite the ordinary facial features. None will actually remember him since he doesn’t appear outstanding. His home or workplace should be in one of those housing areas, or at least somewhere nearby with less than fifteen minutes walking distance.”
“Why would the walking distance be less than fifteen minutes?” asked the dumbfounded Yang Shaoqun.
Qi Youxuan explained patiently, “First of all, the murderer must understand the two housing areas’ layouts in detail, and was aware of both Xiong Shishi and Cao Keya’s issues as well. Shi Chenzhong and Wang Jianlei always visited the housing areas where Xiong Shishi and Cao Keya lived, even though these men’s legal wives didn’t know about the mistresses’ existence. There was a huge difference between the men and the mistresses’ ages, so those busybodies around the area would discuss this issue at the back and could easily guess their relationships after detailed observation.”
“Gossips are spread near the source, so how can the murderer get ahold of them if he works or stays somewhere far away? Plus, the murderer often appeared around the housing areas and got along with those busybodies very well, thus knowing about the gossip in detail. I’m guessing that a lot of aunties aged forty and above should recognize the murderer, so he either lives or works in the areas or somewhere nearby, and would always stroll around in the housing areas. If he works outside the housing areas, it’s highly likely that he works as a property agent. That way, he can visit these two housing areas frequently to search for available properties or bring the customers for site viewing, and thus can get ahold of everything that happens in the areas with ease.”
“Those areas are pure residential areas without any decent company around them. There are only a few shophouses at the roadside mainly comprised of restaurants and some clothing stores. Well, a few franchised housing agencies are there, too. Moreover, there’s a children’s early learning center and a foreign language tuition center at the main entrance of Cao Keya’s housing area, and a few branches of travel agencies in Xiong Shishi’s housing area as well.” Zou Chengwei frowned and continued. “Xiong Shishi’s housing area isn’t complicated since there aren’t many companies inside it—maybe a laundry shop and so on at most. However, there are a few agency companies, Korean supermarkets, restaurants, law firms, beauty salons, and some companies even rented the houses as their offices in Cao Keya’s housing area. There are just too many of them!”
“Well, we’ve narrowed down the range. At least it’s more efficient than citywide investigation without any clue or idea. We can still finish our investigations no matter how many companies are there in the speculated range. Let’s start investigating the restaurants first since they’re usually late to get off work,” concluded Yang Shaoqun.
Qi Youxuan and his team did not intervene with T City’s police department’s investigation since they were only here to follow up on the case and were also unfamiliar with this city as well. Thus, they left the office when it was time to get off work.
“Hey, since we’ve nothing to do later, why don’t we grab dinner together? Let’s search if there’s any reputed restaurant around this area. We need to relax tonight because there’ll be a tough battle waiting for us tomorrow,” suggested Zhao Yiyang while stretching himself.
This was a perfect moment for a date even when they were in T City, so there was no way on Earth that Qi Youxuan would bring two gooseberries along on a date.
Besides, there was no need for Qi Youxuan to fetch Wei Muran back home before nine o’clock and they were not under his future father-in-law’s constant supervision. In all honesty, he came here to relieve himself instead of solving this case.
However, someone yelled before Qi Youxuan could reject the offer. “Muran!”
Qi Youxuan turned around and saw Xiao Yiqing running past him like wind and gave Wei Muran a bear hug. On the contrary, Xiang Haorui, who was following behind Xiao Yiqing, walked toward them in a slow and steady pace.
“I didn’t expect to meet you so soon! I was so happy when I received your WeChat message last night!” said the excited Xiao Yiqing with a reddened face. “By the way, where are you guys staying?”
“We’re staying in Home Inn1 because we’ll get a reimbursement of travel expenses when we’re on duty,” answered Wei Muran.
Xiao Yiqing did not belittle hotel chains since she faced many hardships when she lived in B City with Ning Wan during childhood, even though she was still young at that time without much memory of the suffering.
“Oh, don’t regard yourself as outsiders. You don’t have to stay in the hotel when you’re in T City. Come to my place instead—we’ve got lots of empty rooms and we can even talk together later!” Xiao Yiqing’s mind wandered as she was still hugging Wei Muran. “How wonderful would it be as we wear pajamas and tucked into the same bed while telling stories all night!”
Qi Youxuan disliked anyone who tried to take Wei Muran away from him no matter the gender, and had reached the end of his forbearance when the kidnap was done right in front of him.
“The hotel is good enough, and best if we don’t get special privileges since there are other colleagues as well,” rejected Qi Youxuan while dragging Jiang Yuecheng and Zhao Yiyang over. “Look, Muran’s squad leader is here too.”
Jiang Yuecheng glanced at Qi Youxuan calmly and smiled faintly. “It’s not that strict. I won’t mind if you stay at your friend’s house or the hotel as long as the case progression isn’t delayed.”
Comments