NOS Chapter 93

Chapter 93: The Boundary Marker (Part 1)

The iron gate clanged, and the suspect Yu Zeng was escorted into the interrogation room. He hunched his shoulders and shrank his body, being pushed into the interrogation chair by the police officer.

Guan Yao was sitting opposite him, reviewing the previous interrogation record. He glanced at the timid Yu Zeng and asked, “Have you ever heard of the name Chen Yupei?”

Yu Zeng was taken aback, “Chen Yupei?”

“The ‘Yu’ of jade, the ‘Pei’ of cultivation,” Yu Chunming added.

Yu Zeng shook his head blankly, “Never heard of him.”

Guan Yao put down the interrogation record and looked up, asking, “Then how much do you know about your accomplice, Chen Yujie?”

“Know… I don’t know much,” Yu Zeng stammered.

“Not much, but enough to commit murder together?” Guan Yao retorted.

Yu Zeng pursed his lips and remained silent.

“Alright, it’s come to this, what’s the point of still being evasive?” Guan Yao said, “Before I came, I inquired with the old employees of your Tianyun Metallurgical Factory. Before Chen Yujie died, you two were so close you could share a pair of pants. So now, just say what you know, don’t play dumb with me.”

Hearing this, Yu Zeng swallowed his saliva. He cautiously looked at Guan Yao, then at the unfamiliar Yu Chunming, and then asked in a low voice, “Comrade Police, if I tell you, will it count as meritorious service? Will I not be sentenced to death then?”

It turned out that after entering the detention center, the outlaw first understood the consequences of manufacturing and selling drugs. After a careful calculation, he suddenly realized that the drugs he had handled and the suspected involvement in murder were enough to get him executed ten times over.

Anyone facing death would try to bargain, and Yu Zeng was no exception.

He clasped his hands together and pleaded bitterly, “Comrade Police, I’ll tell you everything I know. Can you please plead with the judge for me?”

Yu Chunming lifted his eyelids and sized up the withered-faced man opposite him. He casually replied, “Sure, you talk first. After you’re done, we’ll judge whether you meet the criteria for a reduced sentence.”

“Really?” Yu Zeng seemed to have grabbed a lifeline.

Yu Chunming smiled sincerely, “Really, don’t worry.”

Hearing this, the drug dealer, who had never been interrogated by Officer Yu, truly felt relieved. He sighed and said, “You weren’t wrong just now. Chen Yujie and I had a pretty good relationship. We graduated from the same technical school back then.”

“Which technical school?” Guan Yao asked.

“Hua Cheng Higher Electric Welding Technician School,” Yu Zeng replied, “We were classmates and lived in the same dormitory. Our relationship was always pretty good.”

“Do you know where Chen Yujie was from?” Guan Yao asked again.

Yu Zeng replied, “Songlan Lan County, it should be Gao Ta Village, Wenhe Town, Lan County. I’ve been there, it’s a godforsaken place.”

“Besides his parents, did Chen Yujie have any other relatives at home?” Yu Chunming interjected.

“Relatives…” Yu Zeng thought for a moment, “He seemed to have an older brother, but I didn’t see him when I went to his house. I only saw his old mother. The old lady had been paralyzed for a long time and couldn’t move. I guess she’s already passed away now. When Old Chen died, it was his aunt who went to the factory to collect his things.”

“An older brother?” Guan Yao caught the key point, “Do you know his older brother’s name?”

“Don’t know,” Yu Zeng answered very readily, “Old Chen never said. I just knew he had such a person in his family, but I don’t know the specifics. Old Chen said that his brother, it seemed, was sent to his aunt’s house to be her son when he was very young because his mother was pregnant with him again and they couldn’t afford to raise him.”

“Where does Chen Yujie’s aunt live?” Guan Yao asked.

“Don’t know,” Yu Zeng shook his head.

If one were to judge whether the two were related based solely on the similarity of Chen Yujie and Chen Yupei’s names, it would be absolutely imprudent. However, Yu Zeng had already said that Chen Yujie did indeed have an older brother, and the time this brother left was indeed consistent with the time Chen Yupei moved from Lan County to Za Mu Er with the agricultural reclamation corps.

Then, is Chen Yupei really Chen Yujie’s older brother?

Yu Chunming changed his approach and asked, “Describe in detail how you colluded with Chen Yujie to murder Li Qie.”

Yu Zeng’s mouth twitched, and then he smiled ingratiatingly, “Comrade Police, I only knew about this matter, I didn’t do anything. Old Chen did it. I was responsible for keeping watch.”

“Then tell us specifically about your process of keeping watch,” Yu Chunming followed his words, “It’s best to start from when Wang XinSheng approached Chen Yujie to assign the task.”

Yu Zeng’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he recalled for a moment, “I don’t quite remember when Factory Director Wang approached Old Chen. I vaguely remember that it was just after the start of winter, this… one night after work, Old Chen asked me to drink. I wasn’t an employee of the metallurgical factory at that time and was usually quite idle. Old Chen came to my house and told me about this. He said… ‘Xiao Yu, I’ve found you a job that can earn you some small money, but everything is difficult at the beginning, you have to help me with something first.’ That’s how he told me.”

“And what did you answer?” Yu Chunming asked.

“Well, I didn’t know what to do at that time, so I agreed,” Yu Zeng replied, “I agreed in one breath. I said, ‘No problem, Old Chen, whatever you want me to do, I’ll go through fire and water.’ Then the next day, he took me to their factory.”

“What place in the factory?” Guan Yao continued to ask.

“Just the electrolytic aluminum factory area,” Yu Zeng said, “Old Chen is a welder, and the work he usually does is repairing equipment, so he has this… the key to the warehouse. That night, he went to the warehouse first, and then took me to the factory area.”

“What did you do after going to the factory area?”

“Just kept watch,” Yu Zeng smiled ingratiatingly, “I was standing in the aisle above the smelting furnace. He told me to watch the doorway below to see if anyone came in. I stood there honestly. At that time, I thought Old Chen was planning to steal something and sell it, so I didn’t take it to heart. Who knew that when I turned around again, oh my goodness, I saw a tall, thin man walking in from the aisle over there. Then, before long, he actually got into a scuffle with Old Chen. I rushed over to pull the two apart, but Old Chen kicked the man into the furnace.”

“Is that so?” Guan Yao looked at him coolly, “According to you, you didn’t know beforehand that Chen Yujie was going to kill Li Qie?”

“Didn’t know,” Yu Zeng immediately shook his head.

Yu Chunming took the interrogation record and smiled at him, “Then why did you say during the last interrogation that before murdering Li Qie, you and Chen Yujie had discussed that Li Qie was both stupid and wooden, and also a loner? You and Chen Yujie agreed to Wang XinSheng’s request in order to eat well and live well in the metallurgical factory?”

“This…” Yu Zeng’s face changed.

Guan Yao slammed the table, “Don’t lie to me!”

The most important thing in interrogating suspects is to find logical loopholes in their words, find inconsistencies between what they have said, and then strike accurately.

Although Yu Zeng was shrewd, a bad memory is better than good ink, how could he completely repeat what he said last time in order to shirk responsibility?

But the interrogation record would not lie, it was something that had been signed.

“You still want a reduced sentence? I’m telling you, if you keep playing tricks on me, don’t even think about a reduced sentence. You’ll at least get the death penalty immediately!” Guan Yao said coldly, “Besides promising to get into the factory and make money, what else did Wang XinSheng promise you when you and Chen Yujie killed Li Qie? Did you do anything that night? Tell me the truth!”

“The truth, the truth…” Yu Zeng said Tormented, “Comrade Police, I’m telling the truth, it’s just that maybe it’s been a long time, my… my memory is not good.”

“Just tell us directly what Wang XinSheng promised, don’t tell me anything else,” Yu Chunming interrupted.

Yu Zeng’s shoulders slumped, and he said dejectedly, “Factory Director Wang said that this Li Qie looks unremarkable, but he actually has a lot of valuable things on him. He said that if we succeed, we’ll split Li Qie’s money in half.”

Hearing this, Guan Yao and Yu Chunming looked at each other.

Li Qie was Li Ying’s son. When he died, Li Ying had only been out of prison for less than a year. When the two left Za Mu Er, they were both in a poor and Falling state. What money could they have on them?

Wang XinSheng said this, I’m afraid what he wanted was not the money on Li Qie, but something on Li Qie.

Guan Yao leaned back, knowing full well, “Did you and Chen Yujie find any valuable items on Li Qie?”

“No,” Yu Zeng answered with a Have a bitter face, “That Wang guy is a liar. Besides a hundred and fifty yuan in his wallet, Li Qie had nothing on him.”

“Nothing?” Yu Chunming didn’t believe it.

“Really, nothing,” Yu Zeng sighed, “Comrade Police, I won’t hide it from you anymore. After Chen Yujie and I killed Li Qie, we ran to his dormitory and push lightly, but we didn’t see anything valuable.”

“What did Wang XinSheng say?” Guan Yao asked.

“Factory Director Wang was disappointed…” Yu Zeng said, suddenly A flash of inspiration, and he immediately sat up straight and said, “Oh right, Comrade Police, I remembered, this Li Qie really has a thing that looks very valuable in his hand. At first, Chen Yujie and I thought it was a treasure, so we quickly hid it ourselves. But later, we took it out and asked someone to Identify, and found that it was not a treasure at all, just an ordinary handicraft.”

“Handicraft?” Yu Chunming raised an eyebrow, “What kind of handicraft?”

“Plum blossom, a plum blossom that looks like it’s made of jade,” Yu Zeng replied.

As soon as these words came out, Yu Chunming instantly understood.

The “plum blossom made of jade” that Yu Zeng described was actually a commemorative trophy made of glass.

That was a gift given by the Songlan Local Culture and Sports Bureau after the Linchang Art Troupe performed at the Songlan Grand Theater. All the main performers had one. Jiang Min also had one, but hers was shattered by Qin Tian, that mindless goods, when Yu Chunming was a child.

Guan Yao immediately thought of the one he saw on Duan Mei’s bedside, and he asked Yu Chunming in a low voice, “Is it the one we saw before…”

“Yes,” Yu Chunming nodded, “That’s the one. The one in Li Qie’s hand should be Li ShengNan’s.”

Guan Yao Rehran, and he slammed the table again and asked, “Where did you two throw this thing later?”

“Nowhere!” Yu Zeng shouted, “Old Chen kept it himself! He said that although that thing is not valuable, it looks pretty. As for who got their hands on this thing after Old Chen died, I don’t know.”

“Didn’t you let Wang XinSheng see that plum blossom Carving?” Yu Chunming asked.

“No,” Yu Zeng replied, “At first, we thought it was a treasure, valuable, so we hid it ourselves. Factory Director Wang didn’t know.”

“He didn’t know…” Guan Yao Hidden felt that there was still more to it, and he continued to ask, “After you two killed someone, did Wang XinSheng say anything special?”

“Special words…” Yu Zeng thought for a long time, and”hiss” a sound, “He asked us if Li Qie was carrying any important letters on him.”

Hearing this, Yu Chunming’s eyes narrowed, “Important letters? How did he say it specifically?”

“Specific?” Yu Zeng wry smile, “I can’t describe how he said it specifically. It seems that Factory Director Wang felt that Li Qie had his handle, this handle was a letter. He hired us to kill someone, and he wasn’t at ease. He wanted to find this handle.”

This showed some clues about the case. It can be seen that it seems that Qian Guowei was not the only one who had hatred with Li Ying and others. Xu Wen and Ai Hua might also have a share.

Otherwise, why would Xu Wen, who had been “Wang XinSheng” for more than ten years, go to great lengths to hire a murderer?

“What do you think the letter that Xu Wen was looking for was?” After the interrogation was over, Guan Yao asked in a low voice as he walked on the way out of the detention center.

“Suicide note,” Yu Chunming replied without hesitation, “They are looking for Li ShengNan’s suicide note.”

Guan Yao nodded and Singing silently.

Yu Chunming said, “Seventeen years ago, Qian Guowei once ordered Lin ZhiMin to pretend to be him and ask your Aunt Jiang for a suicide note. Your Aunt Jiang feigned ignorance and claimed that she didn’t know anything about the suicide note. Do you think Qian Guowei would give up looking for the suicide note? He will definitely find another way to find the suicide note.”

“That’s right,” Guan Yao responded.

Yu Chunming continued, “It’s just that we can’t figure out now whether this Li Qie knew that the factory director was Xu Wen before going to work at the metallurgical factory. If he knew, what was he approaching Xu Wen for?”

Guan Yao’s eyebrows moved slightly, and he suddenly realized something. He said, “Yu Zeng just claimed that after Chen Yujie died, his aunt went to the factory to collect Chen Yujie’s Absolute. If Chen Yujie really kept that plum blossom sculpture all the time, and he is really Chen Yupei’s brother, Chunming, who do you think this thing is in the hands of now?”

Yu Zeng said that Chen Yujie did have an older brother. Due to family planning and economic problems, this older brother was sent to his aunt’s house to live when he was in his early teens. If Chen Yupei is really Chen Yujie’s older brother, could this plum blossom Carving be in Chen Yupei’s hands now?

Fortunately, Chen Yupei’s son Chen Cheng is still around, he may know something.

“Come in,” when he arrived at Chen Yupei’s home in the suburbs of Za Mu Er, Chen Cheng opened the door and welcomed Guan Yao and Yu Chunming in. “The hospital just called and said that my old man is out of danger, but… because drugs have damaged his brain, it may be difficult for him to take care of himself in the future.”

Guan Yao touched his nose and followed behind Chen Cheng, walking into this low red brick building.

“You just asked about my Auntie,” Chen Cheng replied after standing in the room, “In my impression, my grandma only had a brother. I haven’t heard that she has any sisters, but my dad said my grandma has one, over in Lan County, she died a long time ago.”

Yu Chunming raised an eyebrow, “Lan County? Have you been back to Lan County?”

“No,” Chen Cheng waved his hand, “I don’t know anything about my old man’s relatives.”

After saying that, he led the two into Chen Yupei’s bedroom: “Didn’t you want to look through his personal belongings? My dad’s things are usually stored in that cabinet next to his kang. Things that are not valuable are put in the back warehouse. You can push lightly here for a while, I’ll go to the back warehouse and move out those boxes and cabinets. Here are the keys, two in total.”

“Thanks,” Guan Yao said.

Chen Yupei’s home was clean and tidy, with few dirty Miscellaneous, but after Yu Chunming looked around, he didn’t find anything related to Chen Yujie.

“These keys are useless,” Guan Yao, who was there Drum the cabinet, said, “Both locks are broken. They open as soon as you pull them.”

“Broken?” Yu Chunming was surprised, “How are they broken?”

Guan Yao put the keys aside and Pull it the lock buckle: “It looks like they were forcibly pried open by someone. Look, the lock cylinder is rotten.”

Yu Chunming also leaned forward: “It’s true, when did it break?”

“Wait,” Guan Yao suddenly had a Concentrate the mind expression, he slowly took out a photo from the drawer, and said somewhat incredulously, “Chunming, this is you…”

This was his ID photo in a navy blue police uniform.