The door opened. The one who opened it was Cai Hengmu’s son, Cai Yan.
He was wearing a set of cow-print pajamas, his hair still a mess. He was a signed streamer for a video website and a moderately famous content creator who was nocturnal. Although it was already afternoon, he looked as if he had just woken up.
He recognized Yuan Yue but was a little surprised why he had come at this time.
“Are you here for New Year’s greetings so early this year? Or did I get the date wrong, is it already the Spring Festival?”
Yuan Yue smiled. “No, I’m here to see Uncle on a work matter.”
Cai Yan was taken aback, looking back suspiciously at his own father who was walking over at the sound of their voices. “Work? A case? You can still talk about this stuff with a good-for-nothing like my dad?”
“You rotten kid, what kind of way is that to talk.”
Cai Hengmu, walking up behind his son, had a face longer than a donkey’s.
“I’ve eaten more salt than you have rice. You were still suckling when I was solving cases.”
“Dad,” Cai Yan interrupted nonchalantly, “you were only a criminal police officer for a few months, and even then, you couldn’t solve cases and could only jump out of windows to hide from victims’ families. You have the nerve to talk about solving cases in front of Brother Yuan? Are you going to talk about how your reputation as a useless glutton has spread even more widely without Brother Yuan knowing, and how it’s become a running joke in the police force for decades?”
One doesn’t hit a person’s face in a fight, nor expose their shortcomings in an argument. Cai Hengmu truly couldn’t keep his composure and made a move as if to strike.
Cai Yan pursed his lips.
Yuan Yue quickly stepped in between the father and son. “Uncle Cai, I have something to discuss with you.”
Cai Hengmu said grumpily, “Let’s talk in the room.”
Cai Yan yawned. “What room, just talk in the living room. I’ll go back to my room to sleep. It’s rare for Brother Yuan to come, so I’ll make you a pot of tea before I go.”
“No trouble, I’ll be leaving soon,” Yuan Yue politely declined.
However, Cai Yan acted as if he hadn’t heard and slipped into the kitchen to start preparing.
The remaining two in the living room sat down on the sofa. Cai Hengmu sat down casually. “What is it, really?”
Yuan Yue lowered his voice slightly. “It’s about Accountant Tang’s case. You were one of the main investigators back then, so I wanted to ask…”
Xin Yongchu had already mentioned some of the background of this case.
At that time, the Yi’an County government had allocated funds to build a new campus for Yi’an First High School. The project was undertaken by a local company called Jingfu Real Estate. Everything went smoothly at first, until September 18th, when Accountant Tang, who was about to pay the semi-annual wages to the migrant workers, was found dead at home.
Accountant Tang was not the only victim in this case. There was another victim at the time, the then-boss of Jingfu Real Estate, named Sun Fujing. On the same day, he was a victim of a home invasion robbery. He was luckier; he wasn’t hit hard and managed to play dead to escape. And because there was no cash in his house, the several thugs left quickly without getting anything. He described the appearance of the culprits to the police, but it was not very specific. He was terrified, and his statement at the time was incoherent. There were only two points he remembered clearly with clear wording: he remembered that of the two culprits, one had very long hair and a tattoo on his arm, and the other had a northern accent that was hard to understand.
Surviving the ordeal was Sun Fujing’s fortune, but fortune is always accompanied by misfortune.
The wages that Accountant Tang planned to distribute were stolen, causing the funding chain for the new campus of Yi’an First High School under construction to break directly. Sun Fujing begged and pleaded, raising funds from multiple sources… but it was just a drop in the bucket.
In the end, Sun Fujing’s company went bankrupt, and the new campus of the First High School became an unfinished project.
To this day, it remains abandoned there, with no one to take it over.
Reviewing the entire case, Accountant Tang was murdered around 9 p.m. No one was home that day; his wife was working the night shift as usual.
Sun Fujing was attacked around 9:30 p.m. The perpetrators stayed in his house for about 10 to 15 minutes.
As one of the main investigating officers at the time, Cai Hengmu’s line of thinking was somewhat unique. He believed that Sun Fujing’s testimony was not detailed enough, such as how the perpetrators left, how they struck him, and how they searched the place.
He also felt that the characteristics of the suspects were too obvious and that their lack of disguise was very strange.
He concluded that the culprit must have known Accountant Tang for a long time; otherwise, it would be impossible to choose a time when his wife was working overtime and Tang was home alone to commit the crime. The conspicuous features like hairstyle, tattoo, and accent were all deliberately displayed, used by someone familiar to disguise themselves and confuse Sun Fujing, thereby misleading the police’s investigation.
Otherwise, why would they give up on searching Sun Fujing’s home so easily?
Why not take some valuables from the Sun family?
There was a lead at the time that someone had seen people matching Sun Fujing’s description at the long-distance bus station the next day. The two were carrying large and small bags, wearing hats, and hurriedly bought tickets to get on a bus.
The main investigator of another case suggested following this lead.
Cai Hengmu disagreed. The police force had limited manpower for this case. If they investigated the bus station lead, they couldn’t investigate the direction he provided. He spoke eloquently at the meeting for a full half-hour, making his ideas sound spectacular, and even cited a lot of advanced foreign criminal psychology experience as supporting arguments. In the end, he convinced the police leadership and his colleagues, and the case was investigated according to his line of thought.
Cai Hengmu was a very good storyteller.
All his abilities were in storytelling and bragging.
After that, Cai Hengmu investigated Accountant Tang’s social circle for a whole month with no results. When he wanted to go back and trace the bus station lead, it had long since vanished without a trace.
The case thus became a cold case.
This incident became the Waterloo of Cai Hengmu’s life. From then on, his career went downhill. He had just officially become a criminal police officer after being an outstanding auxiliary officer, but not long after, he became a community police officer. Then, due to complaints about his temper and other issues, he finally became a traffic cop.
…
When Cai Yan came out with the tea tray, Yuan Yue was already preparing to leave, and his dad had gone back to his room to play chess.
“I have something to do at the bureau, so I can’t have your tea,” Yuan Yue said apologetically.
“It’s fine.” Cai Yan looked around. “Let me walk you out.”
“No need.”
“Just to the door.” As he spoke, Cai Yan had already opened the door for Yuan Yue. At this moment, he said as if unintentionally, “By the way, Brother Yuan, I saw on First Moment’s report that there was a poisoning case in Ning City just yesterday, right? You must be quite busy.”
“It’s already been debunked as a rumor, don’t overthink it,” Yuan Yue said.
“Is that so? It’s best if it’s nothing.”
“Don’t worry,” Yuan Yue replied, then added, “Also, Xiao Yan, Uncle Cai is actually not as bad as you think…”
“Brother Yuan, that’s because you see him through a filter,” Cai Yan sneered. “Honestly, how much of those police stories he told you were true and how much were false? You can’t think my dad is some great educator just because you didn’t turn out bad. I hate the way he boasts without thinking. Other policemen neglect their families because they’re contributing to society; he’s a waste at home and a waste in society. Do you really think his jumping out the window to escape is a joke? No, he’s just human scum. Every time Accountant Tang’s family came over, his guilty face would make me lose my appetite for months.”
“Actually…” Yuan Yue wanted to say more, but didn’t get the chance.
Cai Yan, as if a floodgate had opened, cut off Yuan Yue and spoke without stop.
“Also, that brawl he’s always bragging about, leading a group of neighborhood cops against the gangster-like property management—you don’t live here, so you don’t know. Ever since the developer’s boss went to jail, our neighborhood has had no property management. Since then, we get burglarized an average of three times a year.”
“…”
“Can you believe it? This is a police compound. The police academy’s principal lives upstairs, the public security bureau chief lives downstairs. It’s the grand headquarters of police comrades, and it’s constantly targeted by thieves. They even had an internal meeting and concluded that thieves also have a chat group, and our neighborhood is listed as an easy target in that group. So the thieves come one after another, endlessly. Even if a thief is caught the next day, it’s useless; they’ve already transferred the stolen goods.”
“I’ve come face-to-face with a thief at least twice. Once, he crept into my room and touched the sole of my foot. Another time, my dad and I were arguing on the balcony, and he was climbing on the window outside. My dad even grabbed his hand, but he still broke free. From the sixth floor to the first floor, in just a few dozen seconds, as fast as someone from the special forces.”
“…” Yuan Yue found it both amusing and felt he should be sympathetic.
“So Brother Yuan,” Cai Yan finally concluded, “take my advice, don’t get mixed up with this old man. You won’t get any results.”
After seeing Yuan Yue off, Cai Yan returned to his room.
He sat down in his computer chair and clicked on the screen. On the screen was a popular science video he had posted at midnight the day before.
“How Far is Silver Nitrate from Our Lives?”
In half a day, the view count had already reached 50,000, just about matching the average readership of his past videos.
Moreover, the video had a lot of shares, comments, and likes, more than his past videos.
Of course, this wasn’t because his skills had improved by leaps and bounds overnight. It was just a popular science video that anyone who could use Baidu could make. The reason the video had so many clicks was simply due to the trending topic.
It was due to the widespread attention and discussion of the Ning City poisoning case, and also because of people’s rebellious mentality to discuss this secret even more under the police’s constant post deletions.
He wasn’t the first to make a video either. Videos surrounding keywords like poisoning, silver nitrate, and milk candy had already dominated the rankings on C-Station.
It was a bit of a pity that he hadn’t made it to the homepage.
He scrolled the mouse wheel up and down.
He was a child who had been praised for being smart since he was young. His previous puzzle-solving game videos also used high intelligence as a selling point.
From the moment Yuan Yue appeared at the door, he had been wondering why he came at this time.
A major case had just occurred in Ning City. Although the police had debunked the report from First Moment as false news, his Ning City netizens in a group chat had shared some gossip. The perceived probability of seeing police in supermarkets had increased, proving that something was up.
And Yuan Yue was the captain of Ning City’s first criminal investigation team. Instead of participating in a case that obviously required a lot of police resources, he came to his house to reminisce.
It was obvious. As for his useless old man, the only useful thing about him was the first-hand information on the Accountant Tang case from 22 years ago. Yuan Yue’s visit was 100% for this old case, but this case hadn’t been active for many years. Why was it suddenly being pushed forward now?
It must be, the police must have gotten some very important clue!
A 22-year-old cold case was in itself a very compelling story.
Cai Yan was somewhat secretly excited. Although his dad was a good-for-nothing, he did have a lot of first-hand information. The script for his video was definitely not comparable to those who relied on watching crime documentaries or reading stories on Zhihu. There were many videos on C-Station that analyzed cases. Maybe he could ride this wave of popularity and find a new way to get attention?
Thinking even more boldly, maybe he could even help push this case to be solved!
Huo Ranyin took a call from the bureau.
He listened for a while, hung up the phone, and said to Ji Xun, “Some clues. The purchase channel for Xin Yongchu’s silver nitrate was Taobao. He bought three large bottles of silver nitrate on January 15th. The pre-trial interrogation team got an important confession during further questioning of Xin Yongchu. Xin Yongchu said, ‘The first victim in Ning City should have appeared by now.'”
“A slip of the tongue,” Ji Xun mused.
“That’s right, a slip of the tongue. Xin Yongchu is in police custody, all his communication devices have been confiscated, and he can’t contact his accomplice. This first case must have been planned in advance. If it was random poisoning as he claimed, how could he guarantee only one victim, and that this victim would happen to be poisoned shortly after he was taken in?” Huo Ranyin said.
“Additionally, by verifying Lian Dazhang’s testimony, his family purchased the milk candy from a nearby Lianhua Supermarket on January 29th. The milk candy used for his company and hotel banquets was a new batch replenished from the flagship store online on the 29th. No abnormalities were found in any of the visible surveillance footage.”
A strand of hair fell in front of Ji Xun’s eyes, obstructing his vision.
Ji Xun tilted his head up and blew a breath at the strand of hair.
“When Xin Yongchu talked about the poisoned person, he specified the scope to Ning City. Poisoning during the factory or online distribution process couldn’t ensure the poison would only exist within Ning City. So the poisoner could only have targeted packages heading to Ning City during the shipping stage. But I think the police should have ruled this out as well, right?”
“Yes, the packaging and labeling of the milk candy are done by two different groups of people, with no overlap. According to warehouse surveillance and the person in charge’s recollection, there were no subsequent instances of packages being opened.”
“Then, whether Lian Dazhang was targeted or a victim of random poisoning, to poison him, it had to be done by some means near his living area. In other words, whether it was the milk candy at Lian Dazhang’s home, company, or hotel, it was all within the murderer’s sight or imaginable space and scope. So…”
“So his wife, daughter, and even his colleagues, all had the opportunity to commit the crime. Taking advantage of his habit of eating candy, it would be possible for him to be poisoned if someone secretly put a poisoned candy in his pocket when they were close to him,” Huo Ranyin added.
“How many poisoned candies were in his pocket?” Ji Xun asked.
Huo Ranyin frowned. “Only one, the one he ate. Not only that, but we’ve checked all the other milk candies and haven’t found a second poisoned one.”
“That’s strange. Why was ‘TA’ so confident?” Ji Xun said thoughtfully. “I eat candy quite frequently, but I often switch the candies in my pocket, or put many in, or forget and throw the clothes with candy in the pocket directly into the washing machine. My home is also full of expired candy. Candy is a snack that is easily forgotten and consumed. What method did he use that we haven’t thought of, to ensure that all this would definitely happen within a certain time frame? This was agreed upon with Xin Yongchu and is the key move to threaten the police to solve the case quickly. Otherwise, it’s like he’s also playing Russian roulette, gambling on his own success… and this is absolutely not tolerable in a meticulous plan.”
At this moment, Huo Ranyin’s phone rang again.
The two stopped their conversation. Huo Ranyin answered the phone. After a very short while, his expression darkened, and heavy dark clouds covered the sky layer by layer.
He hung up the phone and told Ji Xun.
“First Moment has posted on Weibo again.”
