Chapter 131: Payment Records

When Wan Xiaogang was brought in, his eyes were swollen from crying and his face looked worn and haggard. He was confused at first, but then a spark of excitement lit up in him. His previously gloomy mood lifted, and he wondered if the police had found some new lead and wanted to inform the family.

But instead of updating him on the case, they asked him a strange question.

“Mr. Wan, how much do you know about Ms. Liu’s friend, Zhao Guilan?”

Wan Xiaogang was taken aback. He looked up at the officer across from him. It was the same one who had discovered his wife’s body with a police dog that day. Wan Xiaogang had a good impression of him. If it hadn’t been for him and that dog, who knew how long his wife would’ve remained alone in that haystack? After all, it was summer now, the grass was lush, and the villagers who raised cattle didn’t even need to use haystacks.

“Zhao Guilan? She and my wife got along pretty well. They were both married into this area from the same hometown. I don’t know much about her, but I’m quite familiar with her husband,” Wan Xiaogang said. As a grown man, he didn’t feel comfortable mingling with the women all the time. Whenever Zhao Guilan and the others came to visit Liu Cuiping, he would step out. Either he’d go tend the fields or find a shady spot to chat with the other men.

“Did she and Ms. Liu have a good relationship? Did you ever hear them argue or anything like that?” Song Changfeng continued.

“Not before. Lately I’ve been out driving most of the time, so I’m not too clear on what’s been going on at home. But every time my wife called me, she was laughing. I don’t think anything happened,” Wan Xiaogang said, his face darkening. Ever since the incident, he’d been thinking every day that if only he had been home during that time, maybe none of this would’ve happened.

“Officer Song, you keep asking about Zhao Guilan. Does that mean she had something to do with what happened to my wife?”

Faced with Wan Xiaogang’s suspicion, Song Changfeng neither confirmed nor denied it. He simply said, “Until the truth is clear, we have to rule out every possibility. Please think carefully. Did your wife ever mention Zhao Guilan to you? Anything at all, no matter how small.”

Although Song Changfeng hadn’t said it outright, Wan Xiaogang instinctively felt that something was off about Zhao Guilan. Otherwise, why would the police only ask about her and no one else? He lowered his head, furrowed his brow, and began to think. After a while, something finally came to mind.

“Officer Song, I just remembered something, though it wasn’t my wife who told me. It was Zhao Guilan’s husband,” Wan Xiaogang said. “A few months ago, her husband came back from somewhere, drunk and looking really upset. I asked him what was wrong, and at first he didn’t say. But when I asked again, he finally told me something had happened with his in-laws. His wife had secretly given fifty thousand yuan from their savings to her family without even discussing it with him.”

“I told him, ‘They’re family. It’s normal to help out when something happens. She probably didn’t have time to talk to you about it first. I’m sure she didn’t mean to hide it.’ But he just gave a bitter smile and said that if it had been something ordinary, he wouldn’t have been so angry. The problem was, gambling is a bottomless pit. No matter how much money you throw in, it’s never enough. How long are they supposed to keep helping? I wanted to ask more, but someone called him away, and he left.”

From that account, Song Changfeng picked up on two key details: one, Zhao Guilan had secretly given fifty thousand yuan to her family; and two, someone in her family was involved in high-stakes gambling and owed a large sum of money.

Wan Xiaogang’s information was significant. It indirectly supported Song’s suspicions. So he asked, “Mr. Wan, do you happen to know the password to Ms. Liu’s wallet? We’d like to check her recent financial transactions.”

Wan Xiaogang wasn’t sure why the topic had suddenly shifted, but he cooperated and took the phone. “Yes, I know it. My wife and I used the same password for everything. Whenever she needed to transfer money to me, she did it herself.” As he spoke, he entered the password as instructed, but the screen showed an error. That surprised him.

“Officer Song, hold on. I might’ve typed it wrong. Let me try again.” But the second attempt failed too.

Wan Xiaogang’s face darkened. He had just confidently claimed to know the password, only to be proven wrong immediately. They had always used the same one. When had his wife changed it? And what had she changed it to?

Noticing the issue, Song Changfeng offered a suggestion. “Mr. Wan, think carefully. Try passwords made up of numbers Ms. Liu commonly used. Go through them one by one. You might figure it out.”

With a grim expression, Wan Xiaogang tried every combination he could think of. Finally, when he entered his own birthday, the phone unlocked. That brought him a strange sense of comfort. But the next moment, he remembered that the wife he had spent most of his life with was gone. His eyes shimmered with the threat of tears once again.

Song Changfeng handed over a tissue, then opened Liu Cuiping’s phone bill and began examining it. In this era of rapid information development, cash transactions had become increasingly rare. Liu Cuiping was no exception. Her bill included everything from household appliances to chopped scallions and garlic, all paid through WeChat. The bill was extensive, but Song Changfeng patiently flipped through it page by page, not missing a single detail.

After going through two to three months’ worth, the fourth month’s bill caught his attention. That month, Liu Cuiping had spent over sixty thousand yuan. Aside from a little over two thousand for living expenses, the rest were all large payments. There were transactions of six thousand, eight thousand, and the largest one was twelve thousand. All of these were paid via QR code to a recipient named Xiaoping Car Repair.

Song Changfeng immediately pulled up these payments and found that they were all made within a three-day span: April 5th, 6th, and 7th.

“Mr. Wan, please try to recall carefully. Do you remember these large payments? Did Ms. Liu discuss them with you beforehand?”

Wan Xiaogang stared at the payment records, his expression darkening once again. Liu Cuiping had never mentioned these sixty thousand yuan in expenses to him. All their money was managed by her. Every time he earned money from driving, he would transfer it to her so she could save it once it reached a certain amount. Over the years, their savings had steadily grown. He had always trusted Liu Cuiping’s ability to manage their finances and had never thought to check her accounts.

But now, these payment records felt like slaps across his face. Who exactly had his wife given all that money to?

Song Changfeng was wondering the same thing. At first, he thought Liu Cuiping had deleted her chat history with Zhao Guilan to hide something, most likely borrowing money and not wanting anyone to find out. But now, these unexplained expenses pointed to a completely unfamiliar person, which made things more complicated. It seemed they not only needed to recover the deleted chat history between Liu Cuiping and Zhao Guilan, but also had to track down this merchant named Xiaoping Car Repair.

Still, for some reason, Song Changfeng felt that Zhao Guilan must be connected to this somehow.

Now that he had learned everything he needed, Song Changfeng asked Director Zhang to borrow a car to take Wan Xiaogang home. Director Zhang said, “I’ll have the driver take him. You should take a break.”

Song Changfeng shook his head. “Actually, besides dropping him off, I want to go back to the village and investigate a bit more.”

Director Zhang looked puzzled. “Was their statement not detailed enough?”

“No, it’s not that. There’s just one question that’s been bothering me, and I want to get to the bottom of it.”

“What question?”

“The one about the Wildman eating people. Don’t you think it’s strange? A rumor from over twenty years ago suddenly resurfaces and spreads like wildfire. At that time, Liu Cuiping hadn’t even been confirmed dead. I suspect someone deliberately stirred public opinion, using the pressure of rumors to turn this into a cold case.”

“We’ve actually considered that too,” Director Zhang said. “But after asking around, we found out the story came from an old man in the village. He casually said, ‘Maybe she was taken by a Wildman.’ Then the villagers picked it up and started repeating it, and eventually it spread beyond the village.”

“Is that so? But did that old man really say it offhand? If no one was guiding the narrative, why would he suddenly say something like that?” Song Changfeng muttered to himself. He had made up his mind to visit the village again.

Director Zhang couldn’t stop him, so he handed over the car keys and asked, “Do you want someone to go with you?”

Song Changfeng smiled. “No need. Having Aofeng with me is enough.”