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墨書 Inktalez
I stepped outside and saw a young police officer standing there. I asked, "Where is Chen Bo?"
"Chen Bo is still investigating," the officer replied, leading us to the back of the house. When we arrived at the rear, we found Chen Bo squatting down, seemingly focused on something. From a distance, I observed two tire tracks beside him.
I called out, "What are you looking at, Chen Bo?"
Chen Bo responded, "You asked me to find this possibly hidden car. I haven't found the car, but I did discover traces of vehicles that have passed through here. It has been raining heavily for a long time recently, and this is an open area of yellow earth. From the traces I've found, it appears that three vehicles have driven through here."
I nodded and looked around the open space from afar. Overall, it resembled lines drawn on a blank sheet of paper. Fortunately, the patterns of the tires and the distances between the two wheels were different enough to identify what types of vehicles had been present.
However, I wasn't very knowledgeable about this. I turned to Chen Bo and asked, "From my observations of Zhang Zijun and the quality of his furniture, he should be able to afford a car worth between thirty to fifty thousand. Now that you've identified three sets of tire tracks, are you sure there aren't more?"
Chen Bo nodded and said, "While you were inside investigating Zhang Zijun's place, I was here with others looking into the vehicle issue. After our comparisons, we confirmed that there are only three sets of tire tracks. This location is relatively remote; there are quite a few houses around here, and sometimes cars coming down from the main road might stop here."
I examined the tracks and said, "So these three vehicles must have stopped here during the rain and left while it was still raining. We don't know if any other vehicles have parked here for an extended period, but it's normal for residents to leave their cars here for long periods."
"Finding out what these three vehicles are will likely require a thorough investigation," I stated.
At that moment, Gu Chen shook his head and said, "There's no need for that much trouble. Based on the tread patterns on the tires, it's clear that these three vehicles are not in the same class. One is obviously a lower-end model—likely a common van—while the other two are worth around one hundred thousand each; they should be regular sedans."
"The murderer captured two people," I noted. "The murderer took Hu Ningning and Li Jun together using a van as part of a common strategy. We should check to see if this van belongs to Zhang Zijun; I feel that Zhang Zijun is quite suspicious."
Gu Chen looked at me and asked, "Why do you think Zhang Zijun is problematic? The murderer should be acting alone, and if he was home alone at that time, then where is Hu Ningning right now?"
I replied, "That's why I suggested monitoring him twenty-four hours a day. If that's the case, we can track Hu Ningning's whereabouts through Zhang Zijun's actions. It's crucial that you carry this out discreetly; if Zhang Zijun realizes we are watching him, he might sacrifice Hu Ningning rather than return to where she is being held captive. In that scenario, Hu Ningning could potentially die of thirst."
Everyone nodded and thought for a moment. I spoke again, "How about this: you send a few people to keep an eye on the area nearby. Make sure not to be noticed. We'll come back to switch shifts in the evening."
I turned to Chen Boda. "When it comes to tracking, Gu Chen is the expert in this area, and for eavesdropping, Mary is the specialist. Now, let's investigate Zhang Zuocheng and her mother."
"Is there still manpower at the town police station?" I asked. "Check on that van that left from here."
Chen Bo frowned and replied slowly, "I'm afraid we might be short on personnel. We still have a team investigating the Fishhook case, and they've been at it for quite some time now. We're almost done checking all the Gold Shops. We've compared a lot of information because I suspect the murderer didn't buy that many Fishhooks all at once."
As a veteran officer with twenty years of experience, Chen Bo's observational skills were still sharp. It was evident that the murderer had high counter-surveillance skills, so when purchasing Fishhooks, it was likely that they went to various Gold Shops around town and bought them in batches.
"This workload is too much; it requires constant checking and comparison to know for sure. This lead might not be very useful, but since we've come this far, we might as well finish it," I said to Chen Boda. "Earlier, when we were investigating, you only looked into Zhang Zijun's information. Do you know what his wife's name is?"
Chen Bo nodded and said, "At that time, I only focused on the man and didn't specifically investigate his child or wife. However, his son is named Zhang Zuocheng, and his wife's name is Hao Jiamin."
"Let's first look into Hao Jiamin's information. We haven't figured out why they divorced," I suggested. "There are two possibilities: one is that their relationship broke down, which would make divorce a normal outcome. The other possibility is that their feelings didn't actually break down; if that's the case, then their divorce might have other reasons."
"Let's investigate," I said. "But let's eat first."
While we were having our meal, School Leader's call came in. I answered, "What's up? Did you find something?"
School Leader said, "You asked me to look into Zhang Zuocheng's situation, so I went back to check his records. This child was indeed our classmate in first grade, but when he was supposed to move up to second grade, his parents suddenly came to handle the transfer process. After that, we never saw him again."
As I pushed my food around on my plate, I asked, "Did his parents not bring Zhang Zuocheng to handle the withdrawal procedures?"
The School Leader spoke, "That's right. At that time, the child was not present, and we followed the procedures accordingly. However, while handling this process, I encountered a problem. I carefully investigated the child's records, but I found that I could not determine where the child transferred to."
"You don't know where the child transferred to?" I asked. "Isn't that something you can find out according to the procedure?"
The School Leader continued, "This can be known when checking the records because we now categorize schools by region. If you go to study in another place, it essentially falls under the concept of a borrowed student, and we should have a receipt for that. However, I couldn't find out where this child ultimately went, and that is..."
I furrowed my brow and slowly said, "So you're saying this child hasn't been attending school?"
"Yes," the School Leader replied. "In other words, after transferring from here, this child has not attended any school."
"Good, this clue is very helpful," I said with a frown.
After leaving Taishan Academy, Zhang Zuocheng had not gone to school at all. For a child of school age, nine years of compulsory education is quite mandatory. There must be some reason why this child is not attending school, but what that reason is remains unknown to us.
From Zhang Zijun's words, we learned one answer: after Zhang Zijun and Hao Jiamin left, the child was taken care of by Hao Jiamin. However, when they initially handled the transfer, both parents were involved in the process, meaning Zhang Zijun played a significant role as well.
What could the truth be?
At this moment, I had no way of knowing, but I understood that there must be something fishy about it.
"Do you know where Hao Jiamin lives now?" I asked.
The School Leader replied, "I don't know that; it's been such a long time since then. How about this? I'll ask their homeroom teacher, Sun Qingqing. She was their homeroom teacher in first grade."
“Sun Qingqing is their homeroom teacher, which means Zhang Zuocheng and Hu Ningning are in the same class?” I asked.
“Yes,” the School Leader replied. “What’s wrong?”
I slammed my hand on the table and said seriously, “The Murderer is Zhang Zijun; we just haven’t gathered the details that can prove he is the Murderer yet.”
“Why do you conclude that Zhang Zijun is the Murderer?” Mary asked. “Isn’t it a bit hasty to jump to conclusions at this point?”
I shook my head and replied, “No, first of all, Zhang Zijun has both the time and the ability. Moreover, his house is incredibly clean. I don’t know if you noticed a detail.”
“What detail?” everyone asked.
I said, “His shoes were dirty.”
“What does that even mean?” Gu Chen questioned. “Isn’t that a normal thing?”
I shook my head again and explained, “When you were at Zhang Zijun’s house, you should have noticed this: his home was spotless, even the corners of the shoe cabinet were immaculate. If a man has such a level of cleanliness obsession, he wouldn’t let his shoes get dirty. This means he doesn’t have an obsession with cleanliness.”
“A person without cleanliness issues keeps their home so tidy; this place could be soaked in blood.”
I looked at Mary and said, “However, what confuses me is where Guo Li ended up and where Hu Ningning is.”
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