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墨書 Inktalez
The South City is part of the Old Town District, and Weimin District is one of its areas. Here, old bungalows and vintage buildings abound, steeped in history. Especially after the development of the New District, this place has become even more desolate. Although we had learned the names and approximate addresses of Qiang and Lu Weiguo, finding two people in such a large area was no easy task.
It was particularly challenging since we only knew their names and had no idea what they did for a living. This made the search even more complicated. Mary's computer had received permission from the Kaiyang City Public Security Bureau to connect to the household registration network, and she was currently searching for basic information about these two individuals in the background, but it would take some time. Finding people and checking surveillance footage are always the most time-consuming tasks in investigations.
While Mary continued her work in the background, we had no choice but to contact police officers from various precincts to have them simultaneously check on these two individuals. Meanwhile, we hurriedly went to grab a bite to eat while waiting for news. To our surprise, we ended up waiting until four in the afternoon. There were quite a few people named Qiang in this district alone—over ten, in fact. We could only wait until Lu Weiguo was also located so that we could compare and identify who these two were.
Before long, Mary exclaimed, "We have results! Lu Weiguo is not a common name; there's only one in Weimin District. I've found his exact address. If we can find someone named Qiang in this area, I believe it must be them."
As she spoke, Mary began comparing records on her computer. Through cross-referencing various "Qiang" entries sent by different precincts, we discovered that there was indeed someone named Qiang just across the street. It seemed that Zhao Kaifang's last boyfriend from high school was indeed one of these two.
Dezi drove us quickly to this location.
We first arrived at Lu Weiguo's home. From the outside, although the old house looked dilapidated, the ground in front was kept clean, indicating that someone regularly tidied up. This suggested that Lu Weiguo's home was occupied, but it didn't confirm whether he had moved out.
Thinking of this, I stepped forward and knocked on the door. It wasn't long before a woman came out; she appeared to be around twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with a round face and wearing rubber gloves on her hands. She looked damp as if she had been doing laundry.
Seeing us, she asked with confusion, "What do you want?"
I replied, "Is this Lu Weiguo's home?"
The woman nodded.
It seemed we had come to the right place. I took out my police badge to identify myself and said to her, "We are police officers here to ask about Lu Weiguo. Is he home?"
Upon hearing we were police officers, the woman froze for a moment before turning back inside and shouting, "Lu Weiguo! Are you out there doing something illegal? There are a few police officers looking for you outside! You worthless scoundrel! You spend all your time outside causing trouble instead of earning money! Lu Weiguo, get out here!"
The four of us exchanged glances; it appeared that Lu Weiguo's wife was quite domineering. Amidst her shouting, a man's voice came from inside saying, "What are you yelling about? What illegal things am I doing? Are you trying to embarrass me even more? If the neighbors hear this, it'll be so humiliating!"
"Who knows what you're doing outside! Mind your own business! I'm going back to my laundry!" his wife retorted as she walked inside.
Soon after, Lu Weiguo emerged and said to us, "You are police officers; what do you want with us? I'm a law-abiding citizen! I haven't done anything wrong; you must have the wrong person."
I asked him, "Do you know someone named Zhao Kaifang?"
“Zhao Kaifang?” Luwei Guo hesitated for a moment before saying, “Is it the same Zhao Kaifang from the first high school?”
Hearing Luwei Guo say this, we could be a hundred percent sure that the person we were looking for was indeed him. I spoke up, “Zhao Kaifang has been killed. Our investigation revealed that during high school, your relationship with Qiang and Zhao Kaifang was quite complicated. We are just conducting a routine inquiry; if you weren’t involved, we won’t make things difficult for you.”
“What?” Luwei Guo exclaimed in surprise. “Zhao Kaifang is dead? I didn’t do it, I swear I didn’t do it.”
I smiled and said, “We will find out whether you were involved or not. However, this isn’t a suitable place to talk. Why don’t we go inside to discuss?”
Upon hearing this, Luwei Guo showed an awkward expression as he glanced at us and then at his wife who hadn’t come out yet. After hesitating for a long time and confirming that his wife wouldn’t come out, he finally said, “Look, officers, I can’t talk about this inside. You saw how fierce my wife is. If she finds out about my past with Zhao Kaifang from high school, I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep my legs intact.”
“Alright, alright!” Luwei Guo rushed out, slightly ajar the door, and whispered, “You must investigate Qiang as well in this matter, right? How about this: I’ll go with you to Qiang’s house. We can talk there! He’s just a single guy living alone; you can ask him anything you want.”
Seeing Luwei Guo’s demeanor, he seemed quite slippery. I nodded, and he appeared relieved, putting his hands together in gratitude for quite some time. At that moment, he shouted, “Honey! The police need my help to solve a case; I’m going to be a good citizen now. You keep busy at home!”
Once outside, Luwei Guo asked us, “What happened? How did Zhao Kaifang die?”
As we walked and talked, I looked at Luwei Guo and said, “Just by looking at you, it’s clear that something must have happened between you and Zhao Kaifang. So tell me, what was your relationship with Qiang and Zhao Kaifang back then?”
Luwei Guo sighed and replied, “What kind of relationship could it be? Since you found me, you should have figured it out already. I won’t lie to you; I didn’t kill Zhao Kaifang. We stopped contacting each other two years ago. To put it in modern terms, we were just friends with benefits! Back then, Qiang and I both worked at the same repair shop; one day Qiang brought Zhao Kaifang along.”
“I was just in my early twenties and hadn’t even dated anyone yet,” Luwei Guo scratched the back of his head and continued. “Can you imagine how a virgin feels when he sees a flirtatious girl? At that time, Qiang had already been seeing her for a short while but their relationship wasn’t that of a boyfriend and girlfriend; they were also friends with benefits.”
Luwei Guo went on to explain, “Think about it—who would want to share their girlfriend with someone else? She was the first person I got involved with like that; after that, we often hung out together. During that time, I found out that both of Zhao Kaifang’s parents were civil servants in the city and they were well-off. She often took money from her family to spend on us.”
“You mean Zhao Kaifang frequently gave you money from her family?” I asked.
When we were in Blue Capital, all three of them claimed that Zhao Kaifang had scammed them out of money using the pretense of needing an abortion and had swindled them out of tens of thousands of dollars. Yet during high school, she often took money from her own home to spend on these guys. This made it seem unlikely that she was killed over money issues. It was quite strange—why did Zhao Kaifang go from giving money to scamming?
Zhao Kaifang’s parents were still civil servants and seemed to be doing well; there hadn’t been any significant family upheaval discovered.
Luwei Guo looked at me and continued speaking: “Yeah, after graduating from junior high school with Qiang, we didn’t continue our studies because our families were really poor. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have started working at sixteen. Back then I wondered what Zhao Kaifang was after? We weren’t handsome or wealthy; I really couldn’t understand what she wanted.”
"I'm curious, has she ever had an abortion for you guys?" I asked.
Lu Weiguo chuckled a few times and said to us, "That's right, several times. And you know, she never liked us to use protection; she wanted us to go straight inside her. She never asked for it, so we didn't say anything either. Just like that, she got pregnant several times, and we had no idea what she was thinking. But after getting pregnant, she would just go get an abortion by herself without asking us for money. It happened several times."
"But after he graduated, we didn't really keep in touch," Lu Weiguo continued. "During the summer vacation, we hung out once, but then we slowly lost contact. He mostly stuck with Qiang; even though I wanted him to hang out with me, he didn't refuse. You understand, right? Later, my uncle opened a shop and needed help, so I went to assist him. I stopped working at the repair shop and gradually lost touch with Qiang."
"I haven't seen her since then," Lu Weiguo said. "I don't even know if she's still in contact with Qiang. My uncle found me a partner; we just got married six months ago. If you guys spill the beans about what happened in high school, my wife would definitely cause a scene. That's why I'm eager for you to come out and talk about it, heh."
We all fell silent, and Lu Weiguo felt a bit awkward. He continued, "It's hard to believe how a good girl ended up like that. Is she still doing those kinds of things? But thinking back now, I wonder if there was something wrong with her head back then. Remembering those events feels like a dream; it's truly unbelievable. Ah, this is youth, I suppose."
We continued walking forward and passed through a block. Ahead of us was a large area of bungalows. The alleys were all intertwined and complex. Entering one of these alleys led to at least four or five paths that could take you out elsewhere. Lu Weiguo guided us deeper inside but got lost several times. He said, "I haven't been here since I got married; I'm not familiar with the roads anymore. These little alleys all look the same and are so intertwined that it's really hard to find your way."
After walking through the maze for about ten minutes, everyone started feeling dizzy. At that moment, Lu Weiguo pointed to the gate of a bungalow and said, "Officers, this is the place; I recognize their front door." With that, he walked up and knocked on the door while calling out, "Qiang! Qiang! It's me, Lu Weiguo! Open up!"
"Who is it?"
An unsolved mystery emerged in the 21st century as airborne troops mysteriously appeared in North America to rescue an Indian red-haired beauty while enjoying the company of blue-eyed busty blondes, dominating Wall Street and amassing wealth across America, thus initiating the Han Ethnic Colonial Global Model.
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