The group then arrived at Zhou Guo’an’s house.
Nowadays, each household has access to roads, so their car was parked directly in the yard in front of the Zhou family house.
The Zhou house is a two-story building with tiles stuck to the front, indicating that the family is relatively well-off.
An elderly man with graying hair, around sixty years old, was sitting on a chair by the front door.
When the two police cars suddenly appeared in the yard, he was surprised but saw Zhou Kaieri getting out of the car.
"Brother Guo’an, I came to see you with the police officers."
The old man was Zhou Kaieri’s grandfather, Zhou Guo’an.
Upon hearing this, he became excited, "Brother Guodong, is there a development in my grandson’s case? Has the murderer been caught?"
"Calm down, brother, let’s first hear what the police officers have to say."
Liao Xingyu also hurriedly spoke, "Uncle Zhou, I’m sorry, we still don’t have clues on the murderer yet, but we’re here this time to learn more about the situation."
Zhou Guo’an’s expression showed obvious disappointment, but he still invited everyone into the house.
To make a living, after a period of depression, Zhou Daming went back to work, so only Zhou Guo’an was at home now.
In the living room, after he poured each person a cup of water, he sat down and began to talk about the situation when the incident occurred.
"That day, I went to the town to take care of some things, so the child and his grandma were at home. Around eleven, I received a call from the child’s grandma saying the child was missing..."
"When I hurried back home, the comrades from the town police station had already arrived. We searched for two whole days but couldn’t find the child... Initially, we all thought the child was kidnapped by human traffickers and sent a message to the family-finding website."
"But on the third day, the child’s aunt discovered the child’s body in the mountain behind us... To this day, I still can’t understand who could be so cruel."
Even three years later, talking about this matter still brought tears to Zhou Guo’an’s eyes.
"Uncle Zhou, don’t be sad. We’re here this time to re-visit and find justice for your grandchild by catching the murderer."
Liao Xingyu and the others comforted him for a while until Zhou Guo’an’s emotions gradually calmed down.
Luo Fei asked, "Uncle Zhou, I want to ask if, before the incident, any significant events happened in the households of your group in the village?"
"Significant events? I don’t think so... I don’t really remember."
"Uncle Zhou, this question might relate to your grandson’s murder’s key aspect, so please try to think carefully."
Zhou Guo’an immediately took it seriously.
He thought for a moment, then asked, "Officers, what kind of events can be considered significant?"
"For instance, if something happened to someone in their family, if there were injuries, or any other incidents that would easily lead to superstitions or thoughts about feng shui."
As Zhou Guo’an furrowed his brow and thought deeply, Zhou Guodong suddenly spoke, "Brother, did you forget, during New Year that year, your neighbor’s courtyard wall suddenly collapsed?"
"Oh yes, there was such an incident... Officers, does this count?"
"Of course it counts. All similar unusual events you can tell us about."
With this beginning, Zhou Guo’an indeed recounted several things that happened in the village before Zhou Kaieri’s murder.
For instance, their neighbors, the ones whose courtyard wall fell, later had their son get into an accident at the construction site, having his leg broken by a falling steel bar.
Besides this, there was also another family’s elderly person who fell and fractured a bone, and another family whose ancestor’s grave was buried by a landslide due to heavy rain.
Luo Fei then asked about the specific locations of these three households, and afterwards, the two groups squeezed into the car and began discussing.
"I think we can start with the three families mentioned by Zhou Guo’an to see if they have any motive for the crime."
"Also, those fortune tellers mentioned by Zhou Guodong should be visited, because if the murderer really had such a need, they would surely think of finding a master to resolve it first."
"That’s right." As Luo Fei finished speaking, Liao Xingyu nodded in agreement, "So, Luo Fei, your group will visit the three families, and our group will visit the four fortune tellers."
After discussing, the two teams acted immediately.
Watching Liao Xingyu and his group leave in two cars, He Xin asked, "Team leader, which one should we visit first?"
"Let’s start with Zhou Guo’an’s neighbor’s house."
Among the three accidents, the most unfortunate was Wang Tianlai’s family, Zhou Guo’an’s neighbors.
Moreover, having consecutive accidents is certainly a big taboo for the superstitious rural people.
Especially since they live next to Zhou Guo’an, suspecting that the Zhou family’s feng shui impacted them does hold some weight.
Thus, the four of them knocked on Wang Tianlai’s family’s door immediately.
After waiting a while, someone from inside opened the door.
Behind the door was a middle-aged woman with dark skin and some gray hair at her temples, looking at them in confusion, "Who are you looking for?"
"Aunt, hello, we’re from the city police’s criminal investigation team and would like to ask you some questions."
Luo Fei said, showing his credentials.
"Oh, it’s the police, please come in, come in."
Luo Lijuan quickly moved aside to let them in.
On the couch inside sat an old man wearing a tank top, presumably Wang Tianlai.
At that moment, a war movie was playing on the TV, and the fan was blowing nearby; it seemed the two were watching TV in the living room just now.
"Don’t just sit there, quickly pour water for the four officers." Luo Lijuan instructed him, then invited the four, "Officers, please sit."
"Auntie, we’re not thirsty, so there’s no need to trouble yourselves; we’ll just ask a few questions and then leave."
"No way, you have to at least have a glass of water."
Upon entering the house, Luo Fei had already noticed there was no dark aura above the couple’s heads.
And he had also learned earlier that the Wang family’s only member, Wang Yuan, was still lying on a hospital bed when Zhou Kaieri’s incident happened, making him impossible to commit the crime.
With that, the suspicion on their family was lifted.
Despite insisting they weren’t thirsty, Wang Tianlai still poured them water, and Luo Lijuan took out a watermelon just bought from the fridge, cut it up, and forcibly handed it to the group.
The group once again felt the rural people’s warm hospitality.
"Officers, what are you here to investigate this time?"
"Auntie, we’re here to ask about the case from three years ago involving Zhou Kaieri."
"Has this case still not been solved? Oh, poor old Zhou’s little grandson, it’s really unfortunate, who would do such a thing..."
"Since the incident with the child, there hasn’t been a moment of peace in the Zhou family. In these two years, Old Zhou’s spirit has completely changed. Officers, you must put in more effort and help them find the murderer."
"Uncle, Auntie, don’t worry, we’ll certainly do our best to investigate... By the way, Uncle, were you at home when the incident happened?"
"No, at that time, our son got injured at the construction site, so we went to take care of him. When we returned, we heard that Old Zhou’s grandson encountered misfortune."
"So, that’s how it was..."
Luo Fei nodded with a thoughtful expression, subtly probing with a few questions similar to what they had asked Zhou Guo’an.
However, the answers were largely the same.
The couple stated that there was no one particularly superstitious known in the entire Baimao Village. As for incidents in families, their remarks aligned with Zhou Guo’an’s.
There was no other choice but to pin hopes on the remaining two houses.
After expressing thanks and leaving the Wang family, they immediately headed to the other two families.
However, the results were still disappointing.
Through observation, Luo Fei found no sign of murderers in these two families.
But this result isn’t conclusive, as in the family with the fractured elder, the elder’s two sons, who were working out of town, had just taken leave to return to care for the elder when the incident happened, but now they weren’t home.
So he couldn’t be certain whether the two sons committed the murder.
Subsequently, they visited several households near the Zhou family, but the outcome was not very productive.
They couldn’t obtain any useful information from these people’s mouths. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel⚑fire.net
At 3:30 in the afternoon, Liao Xingyu and the others returned.
They again sat in the car to share their discoveries with each other.