NOS Chapter 81

Chapter 81: Rhododendron Peak (2)

Guan Yao remembered that Li Ying had a daughter.

This daughter was born with a defect, like her mother, a congenital cleft lip, even making it difficult for her to speak.

Because she couldn’t make a sound even at the age of five, Li Ying’s daughter couldn’t go to school. At that time, well-meaning people in the factory suggested pooling money to let Li Ying take her child to a large hospital in Songlan for a repair surgery.

Guan Yao wasn’t sure if the surgery was done. He only knew that on the day of the 9.24 fire, Li Ying’s daughter ran to the factory with a box of dumplings to deliver food to her father, who was on the night shift, and ended up perishing in the fire along with him.

What was Li Ying’s daughter’s name? What did she look like? How old was she when she died?

Thirty-three years had passed, and it seemed that no one remembered anymore.

“Seems like her name was Shengnan?” Standing in the snowy ground in front of the Forest Ranger Station’s small house, Li Xiaotian smoked and pondered, “A colleague of my wife’s elder aunt once participated in the literary troupe’s auditions with Li Ying’s youngest daughter. Li Ying’s daughter was selected, and my wife’s elder aunt’s colleague was not. I heard the two old women chatting about it once during the New Year.”

“Literary troupe auditions?” Guan Yao was a little surprised. “Wasn’t Li Ying’s daughter… disabled?”

“Yes,” Li Xiaotian replied, “The literary troupe was looking for a special type of young actor at the time. The play they were rehearsing at the time was called… what was it called…”

Guan Yao suddenly remembered: “《My Hometown Jin A Lin》? The female lead Li Hongge in this play was a mute when she was a child.”

“That’s right, that’s right, 《My Hometown Jin A Lin》!” Li Xiaotian slapped his thigh and said, “My wife’s elder aunt wasn’t selected because she talked too much.”

Guan Yao was at a loss for a moment.

“What’s wrong? Why are you asking about this?” Li Xiaotian asked strangely.

Guan Yao pondered for a moment and replied, “I saw something in Li Ying’s house just now.”

“What did you see?” Seeing that Guan Yao’s face was not right, Li Xiaotian leaned closer and asked, “Did you see his daughter?”

“I’m not sure if it was his daughter,” Guan Yao thought for a while. “The girl in the photo looked about ten years old. There was no disability on her face, and she looked very pretty. The main thing is that this photo was pressed under a stack of newspapers full of gibberish.”

“Gibberish?” Li Xiaotian shuddered. He looked around and said, “Old Guan, don’t scare me in broad daylight.”

Guan Yao pinched his brow, waved his hand, and said, “Let’s not talk about these things. Go take a look around Li Ying’s house now. No need to knock, no need to say anything, just see if the cover of his cellar is closed.”

“Whether the cover of the cellar is closed?” Li Xiaotian was very puzzled. “What’s the point of looking at that?”

“Just go if I tell you to. Don’t talk nonsense. Come back quickly after you’ve seen it.” Guan Yao said, feeling agitated.

Li Xiaotian acted on orders. Fifteen minutes later, this person walked back with his arms folded and his neck shrunk. He shook his head at Guan Yao: “It’s not closed. There are two stray dogs squatting next to it. I don’t know what they’re doing.”

“There’s a problem.” Guan Yao said immediately.

“What’s the problem?” Li Xiaotian was still confused.

On the other side, Guan Yao had already dialed the phone to the Task Force office of the Municipal Branch Bureau. He opened his mouth and said, “Tell Deputy Head Han to bring people to Qianjinping as soon as possible, preferably with guns.”

The word “guns” shocked Li Xiaotian. He shouted, “Old Guan, what’s going on?”

Guan Yao put away his phone, his face grim: “I suspect Changqing is in Li Ying’s cellar.”

Seven days ago, when the search and rescue team was patrolling the mountain, they found important markers left by Meng Changqing in the mountains. Subsequently, Na Fei and Han Chen found a footprint outside the Qianjinping mountain pass, with wheat bran on it that was likely from Li Ying’s house.

Connecting the two clues, Li Ying might be the most likely suspect.

Although there was no conclusive evidence, Guan Yao made a bold assumption and carefully verified it. He closed the cellar cover that was not closed before leaving and turned around and ordered Li Xiaotian to check it again.

You know, in the Northeast, in winter, the cellar cover must be closed tightly. This is not only to keep warm and moisturize, so that vegetables and grains are not frozen, but also to prevent rats and dust, and to prevent snow and sand from falling into the cellar when it snows heavily.

Most families even install locks on the cover and press it with heavy objects to keep it warm. Moreover, in Za Mu Er, an extremely cold region, people also cover their cellars with straw curtains and cotton quilts in the deep winter. At least, Guan Yao turned around in the village just now, and almost all the villagers did this.

So why would Li Ying let his cellar be wide open?

Why were the two stray dogs squatting outside barking non-stop?

Two hours later, Han Chen arrived with people.

He was shivering from the cold and asked Guan Yao as soon as he saw him, “Are you sure there’s a problem with Li Ying? We checked everything before, but we didn’t find anything.”

“I’m sure.” Guan Yao said, and then added, “Even if there’s no problem, we can’t let go of any suspicious clues.”

Han Chen sighed and raised his hand to order the police officers to go to Li Ying’s house to search immediately.

“If you don’t find anyone and scare the murderer again, your apprentice will really be in grave danger,” Han Chen said.

Guan Yao stood silently, his eyes following the police officers heading towards Qianjinping.

Twenty minutes later, Li Ying, who was sitting in the main room eating pickled cabbage and tofu, was dragged out of his house. He shouted in a panic, attracting several villagers who came out to watch.

Before this person was stuffed into the police car, he first saw Guan Yao and shouted, “Police Officer Guan, Police Officer Guan! What’s going on? Why did you bring so many people to arrest me?”

Guan Yao didn’t answer. He quickly stepped forward and lifted the cellar cover. He tested the oxygen concentration inside with a lighter “confiscated” from Yu Chunming and then said, “Send two people down to take a look.”

Soon, two small police officers under Han Chen went down the ladder to this cellar, which was about 20 square meters. In less than a minute, one of them shouted upward, “There’s nothing underneath!”

“Nothing?” Han Chen frowned.

Guan Yao didn’t say anything. He pulled up the two people and was about to go down again himself.

“The cellar is so big, and everyone has eyes. If they didn’t find it, do you think you can find it?” Han Chen said coolly.

Guan Yao ignored him, pushed away the people blocking his way, and jumped down without even holding the ladder. He took out his phone, turned on the flashlight, and carefully shone it around.

Li Ying’s cellar was no different from others, it was the same as usual, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, with a slightly damp floor.

But Li Ying’s cellar was also very different because this place, which should have stored vegetables and grains, had nothing in it except a pile of dry grass.

“Do you see the problem?” Han Chen shouted from above.

Li Xiaotian also jumped down. He patted the dirt on his body and looked up and replied, “The problem is big. You’ll understand if you come down and take a look yourself.”

Guan Yao squatted down and Dialed the dry grass in the corner: “Have you ever seen such an empty cellar?”

Li Xiaotian sighed: “I’ve seen it. My uncle died in the house one winter and no one found out. His cellar was empty.”

Guan Yao snorted softly: “Li Ying is a living person. Doesn’t he have to get through the winter?”

Yes, didn’t Li Ying, a living person, have to get through the winter? Why would such a big cellar only have some dry grass in it? Moreover, if there was only dry grass inside, why were the two stray dogs barking so wildly before?

“There’s blood.” Guan Yao suddenly said.

“Where’s the blood?” Li Xiaotian quickly asked.

“There’s blood on the ventilation window and under the pile of dry grass,” Guan Yao replied. “One looks relatively fresh, and one… has been dry for a long time. I’m not sure if it’s human blood, but it’s definitely blood.”

Li Xiaotian swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and he asked tremblingly: “Is it Xiao Meng’s?”

“We’ll have to test it to be sure.” Guan Yao took a breath. “Go up and call the criminal technicians to come down to collect evidence.”

Five hours later, it was dark, and the group of people who had collected the evidence escorted Li Ying back to the Za Mu Er City Branch Bureau.

Guan Yao, holding the box of old newspapers found in his house, walked into the interrogation room: “Tell me, what are these things?”

Li Ying was pale, shivering all over, and he muttered, “I don’t know, I don’t know anything.”

“You don’t know?” Li Xiaotian threw the stack of newspapers in front of him. “Where is our police officer Meng Changqing?”

Li Ying suddenly burst into tears, shouting hoarsely: “I don’t know, I really don’t know, don’t ask me, please don’t come and ask me!”

Li Xiaotian slammed the table: “If the blood stains found in your cellar are ultimately tested to prove that they belong to our police officer, Li Ying, do you know what crime you have committed?”

Li Ying shuddered, staring blankly and said nothing.

“Okay, stop talking nonsense with him,” Guan Yao pulled out a chair and sat down, “Let’s talk after the test results come out.”

Li Xiaotian picked up the newspaper that fell on the ground and spat hard, he cursed: “A thousand cuts to this old thing, why didn’t the 9.24 fire burn you to death!”

Guan Yao waved his hand, signaling Li Xiaotian not to block him. He held up the photo and asked, “Who is the person on this?”

The photo was in black and white, with a girl standing in it. This girl had beautiful eyes and a sweet smile. Even if she was wearing the most old-fashioned clothes, she couldn’t hide her innocence and youth.

When Li Ying saw this photo, his expression froze instantly, and then, a hoh-hoh sound began to come from his throat, which made Guan Yao and Li Xiaotian’s scalps tingle.

“Shengnan, this is my youngest daughter Shengnan.” After a long time, Li Ying replied.

Guan Yao took a deep breath and put the photo face down on the table.

“Your daughter Li Shengnan… I remember she had a cleft lip?” Li Xiaotian asked from the side.

“Yes, she had a cleft lip,” Li Ying buried his face in his palms, “When she was five years old, the factory paid for her to go to the Second Hospital of Songlan Medical University for a repair surgery, but, but the surgery only repaired her face, it didn’t cure the inside.”

“What do you mean it didn’t cure the inside?” Li Xiaotian didn’t understand.

“I don’t know either,” Li Ying sobbed, “To save money, and because it was difficult to buy tickets, the leader of the factory’s employee hospital took Shengnan to the provincial capital for surgery. He came back and said that Shengnan not only had a problem with her mouth, but also had problems with her throat and other things. They all said it couldn’t be cured…”

So, Li Shengnan was a mute until she died. She could only make Baaaaa sounds and couldn’t say a complete sentence.

Looking at Li Ying’s tears, Guan Yao felt a burst of sadness.

He took the newspaper and placed it next to Li Ying’s hand: “What does this gibberish mean?”

Li Ying himself seemed a little afraid of the patterns written in blood stains. He shrank his head, avoided Guan Yao’s gaze, and then whispered, “Earlier, my neighbor lived next door to a Out of the game disciple who had a shrine. I Sneak saw her draw symbols when she was helping people with things, so I wanted to learn, learn to find my daughter, to see if she was doing well down there. The blood is chicken blood, and I thought it would be hard to find yellow paper, so I used newspapers instead…”

The newspaper was painted with spiral patterns and chain patterns, with Li Shengnan’s birth date written in the middle. This afternoon, Guan Yao carefully looked at the newspaper again after he got it back and realized that when Guan Na died, Guan Yao’s grandmother also asked someone to do such a thing.

“Then did you find your daughter?” Li Xiaotian asked.

Li Ying lowered his head, and two tears fell.

At this time, Guan Yao opened his mouth: “How exactly did your daughter die?”

“Burned to death in the fire.” Jiang Min smoked and smiled lightly, “People who couldn’t be found back then were all said to have been burned to death in the fire.”

Yu Chunming and Shu Wen exchanged glances.

What they had just asked was whether Jiang Min knew how Qian Guowei died. Jiang Min looked calm, without a trace of concealment. She answered generously: “Besides being burned to death in the fire, how else could he have died?”

“Since you said that Qian Guowei was burned to death in the fire, then in the years after his death, have any strange people… contacted you?” Shu Wen asked euphemistically.

Jiang Min snorted and smiled: “You suspect that this beast is still alive?”

Shu Wen was a little tongue-tied and didn’t know how to answer.

But Yu Chunming said bluntly: “Yes, we now have two cases that are closely related to Qian Guowei himself, and there is concrete evidence to prove that Qian Guowei did not die in that fire at all. Besides him, Xu Wen and Ai Hua didn’t die either. I asked you to recognize the photos before, and the people in the photos are them.”

This caused Jiang Min’s expression to stiffen, and the hand holding the cigarette stopped at her mouth.

“Do you know why these three people took advantage of the fire to leave Za Mu Er?” Yu Chunming asked.

Shu Wen’s face changed slightly, wanting to signal him to be careful.

But Yu Chunming didn’t care at all. He continued, “Do you know what these three people are afraid of?”

Jiang Min did not answer.

Yu Chunming relentlessly pursued: “After they left, did you receive any compensation?”

As soon as these words came out, Shu Wen gasped. She was afraid that Jiang Min, this mentally unstable woman, would become ill because of this, but Jiang Min was surprisingly calm. She put out her cigarette and then lit a new one.

“You always carry a pepper spray in your bag. The man named Tao said that there are also two fruit knives and a screwdriver. Do you always go out so fully armed?” Yu Chunming asked softly.

Time has passed for a long time, and Jiang Min is no longer young, but she is still a beautiful woman.

She likes to go to Za Mu Er’s only beauty salon to get eyelash extensions and manicures, likes to put thick foundation on her face to cover up wrinkles and freckles, likes to collect all kinds of lipsticks, and likes to spray orange-flavored perfume.

After Wu Laosan’s death, she would take medicine on time, clean up the house, and spread her hand-crocheted lace on the table, tea cabinet, refrigerator, and even on her small speaker.

At the same time, she would put pepper spray, fruit knives, and a heavy screwdriver in it in an orderly manner every time she went out. She had used these “weapons” to drive away a pervert on the bus for a high school girl, and had scared away drunkards when walking at night.

Jiang Min sings on the balcony every morning and evening. Sometimes the singing is good, sometimes it is bad, but so what?

This is her current life, which has become calm and flowing, although some of the details still allow people to glimpse the past.

“So, please give us a chance, a chance to bring them to justice, okay?” Yu Chunming spoke to Jiang Min so peacefully for the first time.

But Jiang Min suddenly smiled. She looked at the man sitting across from her, whose childhood face was now difficult to recognize, and asked mockingly, “You know everything?”

Jiang Min said “you” instead of “you all”.

Yu Chunming’s left hand on his knee suddenly shrank.

“Sorry, we also discovered it during the investigation.” Shu Wen did not understand Jiang Min’s hidden meaning. She said softly, “If it wasn’t a last resort, we wouldn’t have come to ask you on purpose. After all, no one wants to recall that kind of thing.”

“Recall?” Jiang Min slowly exhaled a puff of smoke. “Even if I don’t recall it, things will always be there, and no one can drive them away. That’s right, Qian Guowei and Xu Wen and Ai Hua raped me, in the birch forest behind the No. 2 Factory warehouse on the night before the 9.24 fire.”

[The author has something to say]

Please refer to Chapters 47 and 48 for the previous plot of this chapter.

I’ll stop for a few more days, I’m out this week, and I can’t update…

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