Chapter 104: Absurd

After racking his brains, Zhou Peng finally offered a clue that left everyone stunned. It turned out the money he used to gamble in the second basement level of the Letaotao Foot Massage Parlor was borrowed. The collateral? His old house in the alley.

Since it was a loan, he naturally had to provide copies of his ID and other personal information. Zhou Peng suspected that this was when his identity information was leaked.

He spoke with such certainty that Song Changfeng didn’t doubt him much. In fact, what Zhou Peng said reminded him of Huang Tianbo, the manager of the junkyard, who had also borrowed money after losing in gambling.

“Who loaned you the money? What’s his name?” Song Changfeng asked.

Zhou Peng replied, “I don’t know his real name. Everyone just calls him De Ge¹. He’s got plenty of cash and usually hangs out at the foot massage parlor. If someone’s short on money, they go to him. For small amounts, he gives it on the spot. For larger sums, he asks for collateral. When you repay him, you just return the principal plus some interest, and he gives your stuff back exactly as it was.”

As Zhou Peng spoke, his expression was full of admiration, and his tone practically reverent. He clearly held this De Ge in high esteem.

“What counts as a small amount? And what’s considered large?”

“Anything under ten thousand is small. Anything over that needs collateral.”

“How much did you borrow from him?”

“Hundred thousand. Not much. And he gave it to me right away, no handling fees like other places,” Zhou Peng said.

Song Changfeng frowned. “Did it ever occur to you that if you lost that money, how were you going to pay it back? Were you just going to give up the house?”

Zhou Peng didn’t seem concerned. “No way. I’ve got great luck. There’s no way I’d lose that badly. Honestly, if you cops hadn’t shown up when you did, I’d have already won it all back…”

His voice trailed off, because both Song Changfeng and the officer beside him were glaring at him. He was already in the police station, and he was still dreaming about gambling.

“Everyone says nine out of ten gamblers lose. Even if you win for a while, you’ll lose it all eventually. I heard your wife had a huge fight with you over gambling, took the kid, and went back to her parents’ place. You’ve been locked up here for two days, and she hasn’t come to see you once. If you keep being this stubborn, you’re going to end up losing your family too,” Song Changfeng said. He had learned this from the neighbors earlier. At the time, he only knew about the argument between Zhou Peng and his wife, but now, putting the pieces together, it was obvious that gambling was the root of it all.

Zhou Peng’s indifferent look faded, replaced by a hint of regret. When the officer led him away, even his steps had slowed.

Song Changfeng let out a sigh. Hopefully, he’d turn over a new leaf and kick his gambling habit.

Leaving the interrogation room, Song Changfeng returned to the office to report in. The three teams assigned yesterday had completed their task of visiting key individuals related to the rabies vaccine. The only lead they uncovered was that De Ge, or someone in his circle who lent money to Zhou Peng, might have stolen Zhou Peng’s identity to get vaccinated. Judging by how sneaky they had been, it was highly likely that whoever stole the identity was also the killer in this case.

After he finished his report, Teams Two and Three began theirs. Team Two had been reviewing surveillance footage to identify everyone who had contact with the victim and question them. After days of watching footage around the clock, they finally noticed something the moment Zhong Xiaoxuan stepped out of the Letaotao Foot Massage Parlor.

She had just signed the contract and was walking out the front door when her gaze suddenly locked onto something in the distance. She pursed her lips, made an impatient face, and even rolled her eyes. Although the expression lasted only a second, the ever-vigilant surveillance camera caught it. This reaction drew everyone’s attention. What had she seen that made her show such clear disdain?

Combined with the note Zhong Xiaoxuan had left in her room—”He came looking for me again. Tomorrow I have to make things clear”—it wasn’t hard to guess that the person she saw was the “he” mentioned in the note. Previously, based on what they’d learned from Chen Ru, they assumed “he” referred to Zhong Xiaoxuan’s ex-boyfriend, Wang Hao. But Wang Hao had already been ruled out as a suspect, which made the identity of the person she saw even more suspicious. They were now canvassing nearby shops and collecting outdoor surveillance footage, hoping to quickly identify the person who triggered Zhong Xiaoxuan’s reaction.

Team Three was tasked with investigating everyone who had spoken with Zhong Xiaoxuan. During their investigation, they found two suspicious phone numbers. Both had made several calls to her the day before she was killed. Some of the calls were answered but lasted less than twenty seconds before being hung up. Others weren’t picked up at all. Because the timing of the calls was so concentrated, they had good reason to believe the two numbers likely belonged to the same person.

But the truth left them sighing. The identity information registered under the two phone numbers was completely different, but they did share one thing in common: both numbers belonged to elderly people in remote regions. Based on the information they found, it was likely that both numbers had been stolen.

When all the information was compiled and reviewed, everyone couldn’t help feeling a little deflated. Every time, it seemed like they were getting closer to the truth, but the results always ended up missing the mark.

Lei Liming offered a few words of encouragement, then started assigning tasks again. No matter what difficulties they faced or how much time it took, they were determined to uncover the truth and bring justice to the victims.

…

Song Changfeng found Huang Tianbo to ask about the loan. The person Huang Tianbo described was exactly the same as the one Zhou Peng had mentioned. Since the suspect’s identity had been preliminarily confirmed, the next step was to bring this De Ge in for questioning.

Huang Tianbo and Zhou Peng identified De Ge through surveillance footage from the Letaotao Foot Massage Parlor. With his appearance now known, Song Changfeng had the Technical Department run a facial recognition search through the database. A few minutes later, the screen froze on a match. The database produced a portrait of a man named Chen Youde, who looked almost identical to the De Ge in the footage. The accompanying information showed that he had been arrested twice before, both times for extortion and unlawful detention.

He was a loan shark, and when people couldn’t repay him, he’d send others to rough them up. The most recent arrest was three years ago. That time, the unlawful detention resulted in serious injury, so he was sentenced to two and a half years. In other words, he had only been released six months ago, and now he was already involved in another criminal case.

Having uncovered a key lead, everyone was excited and sprang into action.

By chance, Chen Youde hadn’t been at the Letaotao Foot Massage Parlor during the big sweep that day, so he wasn’t caught. Once he got wind of the news, he immediately drove to a small town nearly a hundred kilometers from Anyang. The police contacted the local station to coordinate the arrest, and soon they caught Chen Youde in a shady little motel with no business license or registration².

When Chen Youde sat in the interrogation room, he was completely relaxed. After all, this wasn’t his first time. The initial questioning went smoothly. He answered everything the police asked without holding anything back. In his experience, it was better to confess early than to be caught lying later. Better to be honest from the start than have the evidence expose him.

However, when the police brought up the murder at the landfill, Chen Youde immediately cried innocence. He admitted to being a loan shark and even using drugs, but he firmly denied ever killing anyone. He remembered Zhou Peng and Huang Tianbo, but only in the context of lending them money.

The case hit another dead end. But it wasn’t because Chen Youde refused to confess. The DNA taken from him didn’t match the sample found on the torn piece of cloth at the scene. And he had no signs of being bitten by a dog.

Still, there was a glimmer of hope. While examining Chen Youde for any marks, he looked confused and asked what they were looking for. One officer casually replied, “Checking if you’ve been bitten by a dog.”

Upon hearing that, Chen Youde muttered, “Who the hell’s as unlucky as that kid?”

He didn’t say it loudly, but Song Changfeng, who had been watching him closely, caught it right away and immediately asked, “What did you mean by that?”

Chen Youde blinked. “Huh? I didn’t say anything.”

“You said, ‘Who would be as unlucky as that kid.’ What did you mean by that? Did someone get bitten by a dog?”

Suddenly realizing, Chen Youde said, “Oh, right. One of my boys called me a couple days ago. Said he got bitten by a dog and needed a few days off.”

“When exactly did he call you?”

Chen Youde thought for a moment. “The day before yesterday, I think. Don’t remember the exact time. It’s in my call log, you can check.”

Song Changfeng took his phone, entered the password as instructed, opened the call history, and found a call from 3:30 p.m. the day before yesterday. The contact name was saved as “A Hui³.”

“This A Hui, he’s the guy you mentioned? Did he tell you how he got bitten?”

Chen Youde shrugged. “Didn’t say. Probably just messed with the wrong dog.”

Song Changfeng fell silent for a moment, then pressed the call button on Chen Youde’s phone.

“We’re sorry, the number you dialed is currently powered off. Please try again later…”

“Tell me everything you know about A Hui,” Song Changfeng said as he hung up.

Chen Youde didn’t understand why the police were so interested in A Hui just because he got bitten by a dog, but he still told Song Changfeng everything he knew.

“Ma Hui…” Song Changfeng murmured the name to himself as he pulled out the list of everyone who had received the rabies vaccine and began checking it one by one. But there was no sign of anyone named Ma Hui. The conclusion was obvious: either Ma Hui had been bitten by a dog and never got vaccinated, or he had used someone else’s identity to get the shot.

Next, he logged into the national household registration system⁴ and searched using the name and ID number provided by Chen Youde. But the system returned no results.

Chen Youde looked stunned. “That can’t be right, officer. You saw the ID on my phone just now. That was Ma Hui, plain as day!”

Song Changfeng glanced at the ID photo on the phone, staring at the headshot. He thought to himself, Looks like there’s something seriously off about this Ma Hui. Chances are, the only real thing on that ID is the photo. The name, ID number, and registered address are probably all fake.

Realization dawned on Chen Youde, and his face twisted with anger at being duped. “That bastard! I knew it! Anyone who works that hard and asks for less pay has to be hiding something! I even put him in charge of loan disbursements. He’s still holding onto two hundred thousand of my money! Officer, I want to file a report. This is fraud! You have to catch him for me!”

Uh… Song Changfeng nodded awkwardly. This was getting ridiculous.

Translator’s Notes