45: Chapter 45 This Person is Not Right 45: Chapter 45 This Person is Not Right Provincial capital.
The broad roads and the annoying noise of tires, from East Market to West Market, from South Foothills to North Source, there wasn’t a quiet place anywhere.
The blue of the sky and the white of the clouds were still acceptable, but the grey of the ground and the white of the walls always felt tainted.
The pedestrians on the street came in all shapes and colors, but apart from the beauties showing off their long, white legs, the rest of the men and women, old and young, all seemed to exude a labor-class weariness.
“If you think of anything else, just give me a call,” Wei Zhenguo closed his notebook and stood up expressionlessly.
“Got it.” The young man opposite him crossed his legs and called out, “No need to see me out.”
Wei Zhenguo chuckled, stepped out of the dim room, took a couple of deep breaths and unconsciously lit up a cigarette.
Outside, the sunshine was splendid, warm on the skin, making it hard to understand why these young people would rather lounge in a basement playing music, and particularly the unpleasant kind.
“Master, that kid was pretty arrogant,” grumbled Mu Zhiyang who was following him, looking like he couldn’t bear any slight at his young age.
Wei Zhenguo put away his notebook and let out a sigh, “He’s not the one, don’t stir up trouble.”
“I didn’t say I wanted to cause troubles,” Mu Zhiyang defended himself.
Back when he was in school, he would have confronted such students, but now that he had a uniform, he felt more constrained, “It just seems to me that this kind of person is highly likely to commit a crime.
They’re on the fringes of society, and with just a little conflict, they can easily lose control.”
Wei Zhenguo glanced at him, “Just control yourself, that’s enough.”
“At least do a background check or something, I think we could bring him in for questioning.”
Wei Zhenguo just shook his head wearily, “No need.
Taking him in means involving the local police station, don’t hassle them for nothing.”
They had been running around the city for two days and then went to the provincial capital, Changyang, to look for people, which was exhausting enough.
Mu Zhiyang pursued, “Why is it unnecessary?”
“No way, Master, you’re the one who told me not to rely on instinct, but on logic.”
Wei Zhenguo was amused, and gave his notebook a pat before continuing, “So let’s talk logic.
Logically speaking, this guy is undocumented and not very cunning.
Facing the two of us, doesn’t he seem a little too composed?”
“I think he’s clueless.”
“Those who play music without getting anywhere were called drifters in our time.
A drifter seeing a cop from their hometown would show some emotional fluctuation.
If he had committed a crime, especially a major one, his kind of person might either lose control or resist stubbornly.
He wouldn’t be able to remain as nonchalant as he was today,” Wei Zhenguo explained from experience, using it as a teaching moment for Mu Zhiyang.
Mu Zhiyang pondered the point, nodding slowly.
“Let’s move on to the next one,” Wei Zhenguo said, flicking his notebook.
Ruling people out was one of the most basic yet exhausting police tasks.
He didn’t like it when he was young, and he still didn’t like it now that he was older; it just had to be done.
Wei Zhenguo met two more people while making calls and searching for addresses; it was getting dark.
“This Ding Lan is quite the social butterfly…
that’s what you mean by a social cattle.
She knows too many people.” Mu Zhiyang couldn’t help remark, “And these are only the ones we’ve found.
If the criminal is the law-abiding kind, just committing this one case, how would we ever find them?
That’s assuming there’s a case at all.”
“There is a case,” Wei Zhenguo glanced at Mu Zhiyang, “A girl who was still working normally, dating her boyfriend, calling her parents, and then suddenly disappeared without a trace, no news for three years, cutting off contact with parents, relatives, and friends…
You say she’s a social butterfly, would a socialite do that?”
Mu Zhiyang was taken aback and slowly shook his head, “No, if she did that, she wouldn’t be a social butterfly.”
And, if a girl who never had a boyfriend was deceived emotionally by a man and suddenly chose to run away from home, it might be more credible.
Ding Lan had so many boyfriends, would she be easily deceived?” Wei Zhenguo’s tone shifted, adding, “Regardless, three years is far too long to maintain a honeymoon period.”
“So, Master, are you suspecting this is…
a murder case?” Mu Zhiyang asked in a low voice.
Wei Zhenguo sighed, “A murder…
a murder isn’t what I’m afraid of, I’m worried…”
“Worried about what?”
“What if it’s unlawful detention?” Wei Zhenguo looked at Mu Zhiyang.
Mu Zhiyang shivered as he followed Wei Zhenguo’s line of thought.
Having been a cop for a long time, even if one hasn’t personally handled certain cases, just by reading the files and knowing some public information, one can see a lot of darkness.
And many aspects of that darkness are utterly inhumane.
A beautiful girl, unlawfully detained for three years—just thinking about her fate was chilling.
In fact, Mu Zhiyang thought it doubtful that a pretty girl could endure three years of unlawful detention, and it was hard to say whether not surviving would be luckier or more tragic.
“Let’s walk faster, another interview and then we can rest,” Wei Zhenguo glanced at the street sign, taking the lead.
Mu Zhiyang hurriedly followed, saying as they walked, “The provincial city has its own troubles.
It’s so big that the time it takes to find one person here is enough for us to find three back in Ningtai.”
“To even find someone in the provincial city is good, some people even go out of town,” Wei Zhenguo replied.
“What about those out of town?
Do we go on a business trip to find them?” Mu Zhiyang asked.
“If push comes to shove, we’ll start with a phone call,” Wei Zhenguo said.
“Captain Huang couldn’t possibly approve more funds, right?” Mu Zhiyang was aware that his master’s trip this time had already been specially authorized.
Wei Zhenguo took a couple of breaths and chuckled before saying to Mu Zhiyang, “Kid, this is what you have to learn.
The more impossible it seems, the closer we are to the truth.”
Wei Zhenguo nodded and said, “Just blow your own trumpet when talking to the leaders, and you can ask for more funds, got it?”
Mu Zhiyang initially thought he should write down his master’s words, but now he wasn’t sure if he should.
The two knocked on the door of Room 4 on the 12th floor.
The man who answered was the interviewee for this visit, Tan Yong, a divorced man in his thirties, sturdy and with rough skin, an average Joe.
“We are from the Ningtai County Bureau.
We have a few questions to ask you…” Mu Zhiyang introduced themselves, following the procedure, and asked, “May we come in to talk?”
“Sure,” Tan Yong replied briskly, letting them inside.
Mu Zhiyang, seeing that the man showed no signs of resistance, felt somewhat disappointed inside.
After a few more questions, and learning that Tan Yong’s Luqiao Group Engineering Company had once sent him to the factory where Ding Lan worked, he could have come into contact with her bicycle.
This made him relax even more.
All the people they had interviewed had fingerprints on Ding Lan’s bicycle, and those who had no work or life intersection with her—a stranger—were more likely to raise the alarm.
Looking back at his master Wei Zhenguo, Mu Zhiyang saw he had no questions to ask, so he proceeded with the routine questions.
Once they had covered everything necessary and left contact information, the two bid farewell and left.
Tan Yong politely saw them to the door.
We can go back and rest,” Mu Zhiyang pressed for the first floor, watching the elevator doors close, feeling the lazy fatigue of being on a business trip.
“There’s something off about this man,” Wei Zhenguo said, watching the elevator numbers counting down, his muscles tensing up gradually.
Mu Zhiyang turned to Wei Zhenguo in surprise, and responded almost instinctively, “But this person is a state enterprise employee, with no criminal record…”
Wei Zhenguo slowly shook his head.
“Then what’s off about him?”
“He’s different from the others.”
Mu Zhiyang knew Wei Zhenguo meant the others they had interviewed and tried to recall, saying, “Others in the state enterprises too…
The others are mostly younger, and although Tan Yong is over 30, he’s not the oldest one we’ve interviewed…”
“It’s not that kind of different,” Wei Zhenguo shook his head again.
“This Tan Yong…” Wei Zhenguo frowned deeply, repeating, “This Tan Yong…
is uglier than all the others.”
“Think about it carefully.
All the people we’ve seen today, including those from yesterday and the day before, they all have decent looks.
As long as they’re male, they all look better than you,” Wei Zhenguo said while texting and quickening his speech, “But this Tan Yong, he’s uglier than you.”
Mu Zhiyang was slightly amused but dared not laugh, and reluctantly said, “Being ugly doesn’t mean he’s a bad guy.”
“Being ugly, there’s no reason for him to have touched Ding Lan’s bicycle,” Wei Zhenguo texted, speaking and thinking all the while, “Now, looking back, those who have touched Ding Lan’s bicycle and left fingerprints mainly fall into three categories: her office colleagues, four in total, whom we haven’t seen this time; her female friends, a very few; and the third category, whom we previously thought could be ex-boyfriends or men she met on social apps.
But as the trip goes on, I’ve noticed these men all have one thing in common—they’re relatively good-looking.
Except for Tan Yong.”
Falling into step with Wei Zhenguo’s line of thought, Mu Zhiyang began to grow tense too: “That’s true, you’re right.
Is Ding Lan someone who’s into looks, someone whose standard for men is their appearance?”
“What her standards are for finding men, we can confirm later with her colleagues and friends.
But the men who’ve touched her bicycle, they all look better than you…
except for Tan Yong!”
“You don’t have to stress that…” Mu Zhiyang grimaced with a wry smile, then hesitated before saying, “But Tan Yong had been to Ding Lan’s workplace on a project.
It’s possible he came into contact with her bicycle unintentionally…”
“Yeah, you make sense.
We can’t alert the suspect…
We need to find evidence first,” Wei Zhenguo said, with a gleam in his eye.