Chapter 125: Teasing Duomen, You Aren’t Lusting After His Wife, Are You?
The two brought along several patrolmen and hurried to the crime scene. Duomen came back not only to get things, but most importantly to call for reinforcements.
When he returned, quite a few onlookers had already gathered. With just three police officers, it was obviously impossible to maintain order while steadily examining the scene.
On the way to the crime scene, Cao Weida sighed helplessly in his heart. Today, he would have to waste at least a bit of slacking points.
Originally, he didn’t want to get involved, but seeing Master Duo’s worried expression, plus his conscience really couldn’t let it go, he could only silently feel heartbroken for himself.
“Master Duo, the matter with Sang Liuji is basically over.”
Cao Weida roughly recounted the course of events. This matter did need to be kept confidential, but it wasn’t all that top secret.
As long as everyone understood tacitly without saying it out loud, a few more people knowing wouldn’t hurt.
“This won’t implicate you later, right?”
“Hey, I didn’t kill him. I just helped dispose of the corpse. How could there be any implication? Don’t worry, Master Duo.” Cao Weida waved his hand carelessly, his expression suddenly turning teasing. “Master Duo, I heard Third Sister-in-law say she introduced a woman to you, and you seem quite satisfied?”
“How about it? When do you plan to marry her?”
“Of course, if you don’t want her as a wife, as long as you like her, bringing her back as a concubine works too. As long as you’re willing, I’ll say the word to Third Sister-in-law. Her eloquence on this front is top-notch!”
The previous topic was still about Sang Liuji, and in the next second, it suddenly jumped to marrying a wife. Duomen didn’t react for a moment. When he came back to his senses, his face unusually reddened, leaving Cao Weida astonished.
“Yo, Master Duo, this is the first time I’ve seen you blush. You know, with your face red like that, how does it have such a coquettish vibe!”
Hearing this, Duomen immediately laughed and cursed: “You brat, what nonsense are you spouting? Teasing your Master Duo now? If you don’t know how to use words, don’t misuse them. Where am I coquettish? I’m a genuine Beiping rough man, aren’t I? How could I have anything to do with coquettish!”
“You should think about how to comfort Du Shiniang. Du Shiniang is the cousin of Sang Liuji’s wife. You should know that, right?”
“Now that her cousin’s husband died like this, what will her cousin and her niece do in the future~~”
Duomen shook his head and sighed: “Sang Liuji really isn’t a thing. Logically, over these years through extortion and blackmail, he did make some money, but he sent it all to the gambling house. That bastard didn’t care about his wife and child’s survival at all.”
“Now that he’s dead, he’s dead cleanly enough, but he left behind this widow and orphan. How will they live in the future?”
So that’s what Master Duo meant by implication.
Cao Weida was puzzled. “Doesn’t Sang Liuji have several courtyards? Just collecting rent would be enough for them to live well.”
“Courtyards? What courtyards? Sang Liuji lost them all.” Duomen let out a ‘hey’. “That’s why I say Sang Liuji that dog thing isn’t a thing. From what I know, if his wife Zhong Chunhong hadn’t refused to let him gamble away the last old house, Zhong Chunhong and her daughter might have ended up on the streets.”
“He’s too much of a bastard!” Cao Weida was stunned. He really hadn’t known about this before.
“So yeah, Zhong Chunhong really drew the short straw, marrying a thing like that.” Duomen shook his head with a sigh. He wasn’t that familiar with Zhong Chunhong, at most a nodding acquaintance, but his impression of her was good. She was a gentle and virtuous woman.
If she had married into an honest and dutiful family, her life now might be quite wonderful.
What a pity.
Cao Weida looked at him with a strange expression, making Duomen uncomfortable all over. “What are you looking at, you brat? What’s with that look?”
“Master Duo, you wouldn’t have taken a liking to Zhong Chunhong, would you?”
“What are you saying, you brat?” Duomen had a forehead full of black lines. “What the hell is in your head all day? Although Sang Liuji wasn’t much, he was still a colleague for many years.
He’s only just died, his bones not yet cold, and you’re saying I’m eyeing his wife? Do you think your Master Duo is that kind of person?”
“True, it’s a bit early to make a move now.” Cao Weida nodded solemnly, but then added: “At least wait past the seventh day, right?”
Duomen’s forehead sprouted several black lines. This brat really dared to say anything!
Seeing the teasing look on Cao Weida’s face, Duomen pointed at him helplessly with a wry smile.
The two arrived at the crime scene.
By now, a large crowd of onlookers had gathered around the crime scene. They stretched their necks desperately peering inside and whispering discussions from time to time.
Xiao Wang and Xiao Pan were trying hard to maintain order at the scene, but with little effect.
Seeing such chaotic order, Cao Weida couldn’t help but frown.
These onlookers were basically there for the spectacle. It wasn’t that they had bad intentions, but they didn’t know their actions might destroy the crime scene, even key evidence, adding difficulty to solving the case.
Fortunately, in these times, although everyone’s curiosity was strong, most were obedient civilians who listened.
But some troublemakers weren’t so easy to deal with.
Huh?
Wait, wasn’t it supposed to be just Xiao Wang and Xiao Pan? Why three people?
Looking closely, yo, it’s actually Zong Xiangfang!
“Little Ear, hurry and help maintain order. Set up the warning line and make these people who love drama step back!”
Little Ear immediately took people to help. Cao Weida walked to Zong Xiangfang’s side and asked curiously: “Xiangfang, why are you here?”
He knew Zong Xiangfang’s identity—a Military Statistics Bureau special agent!
Now suddenly appearing at the crime scene, he couldn’t help but wonder if this was related to the Military Statistics Bureau.
If it really was, that would be tricky.
“Cao Ye, you’re here too.” Seeing it was Cao Weida, Zong Xiangfang quickly gave a smiling response and explained: “I was patrolling the streets and saw it was chaos here. Since they’re colleagues, I couldn’t just stand by, so I came to help.”
“I see, that’s really hard work.” Cao Weida didn’t disbelieve, but didn’t fully believe either.
At the scene now, the corpse of a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old boy was naked, the blood already dark brown, clearly dead for some time.
The corpse was in a double-knee kneeling position, head buried between the shoulders, forehead and hands supporting the ground, in a prostration pose.
There was a blunt force wound on the back of the deceased’s head. Preliminary appraisal showed this was the fatal wound.
“Sigh, another one dead. I heard this is already the second similar case.”
“No, let me tell you, this is actually the fifth.”
“Ah? Really? Tell me more?”
“Let me tell you, my second uncle’s daughter married into Jinyu Hutong. A few days ago when I visited, I heard three people were killed there.”
“Oh my, the killer is on a crime spree!”
“Exactly, these patrolmen”
Hearing the surrounding crowd’s discussions, the patrolmen’s faces grew uglier one by one. This was openly poking at their backbone, and they naturally felt upset.
But they didn’t know how to retort, because it was true. In these times, unless it involved anti-Japanese elements, it wasn’t a big deal.
The police station was nominally in Chinese hands, but actually controlled by the little devils. Would the little devils care about a few Chinese people dead?
While surveying the crime scene, Cao Weida’s ears twitched, keenly catching a key piece of information from the crowd’s discussion.
He stepped to a female onlooker in her thirties, dressed in clothes full of patches, messy hair, hands with calluses from housework.
“Excuse me, ma’am.”
Suddenly seeing a patrolman approach her, the woman shrank back, fear flickering in her eyes. “B-Boss, what is it?”
Gossiping behind backs was one thing, but she didn’t dare challenge a patrolman’s face to face. She was just an honest common person.
“Don’t be nervous, ma’am. Just a question.” Cao Weida showed the kindest smile possible. Although he, as patrol captain, was included in the crowd’s criticisms, he didn’t think they were wrong.
As patrolmen, if they couldn’t even handle cases, wasn’t being called out justified?
If you’re not up to par, don’t blame others for looking down on you.
“Ma’am, you just said a relative of yours in Jinyu Hutong had three similar cases, right?”
“Yes, exactly,” Hearing it wasn’t about their gossiping, and seeing Cao Weida’s mild attitude, the woman’s courage grew a bit.
Plus, like many women, she had a habit of chattering. Without needing Cao Weida to ask more details, she started talking nonstop:
“Boss, let me tell you, my cousin said those three died miserably, just like this corpse—killed the same way, clothes stripped off. Dying like that is such a disgrace.”
Cao Weida didn’t show any impatience with her chattering, but listened patiently, always keeping a warm smile, occasionally asking a question or two.
From this information, Cao Weida learned the three murdered victims had received the same treatment as this corpse, with different ages, genders, and occupations.
Also, the times of death had no pattern, very much like random killing.
If it was truly random killing, it would be the hardest kind of murder case to solve.
After all, in the Republic of China era without cameras, finding a serial random killer in Beiping City of over a million people was like finding a needle in a haystack.
However, Cao Weida knew this killer absolutely wasn’t randomly killing, but targeting specific victims.
Cao Weida believed not only he saw it, but Master Duo definitely had too.
But even seeing it, screening out the killer would still be extremely difficult.
This was the difference between a case-solving novice and someone with superb case-solving ability.
