After leaving Liucheng Prison, the two went directly to Jinshui Town. Although Jinshui Town was not under the jurisdiction of Ning City, it was very close, which indirectly confirmed why Mo Nai was on the Liukun section of the K367 national highway in the first place.
Jinshui Town, like thousands of other towns that had lost their young and able-bodied population, had most of its people choosing to leave with their families to work elsewhere. Zhang Xinyou was just a small microcosm of the town’s male labor force. Most of them went to Liucheng. This was perhaps the inevitable fate of large cities, to always have the obligation to accommodate the population from surrounding towns.
In a small place like this, going back three or four generations, everyone was a relative. A strange character like Zhang Xinyou, who had been in and out of prison six times, was also very famous among his relatives. Naturally, they were as keen to recount his deeds as Mo Nai’s aunt was.
They said that Zhang Xinyou didn’t usually come back because his relatives and friends didn’t like him. He didn’t even come back every year for the New Year. However, he came back quite frequently for the Qingming Festival. Perhaps he thought his ancestors couldn’t talk in the ground and thus couldn’t scold him, so his “family affection” had grown stronger.
“He’s probably afraid of having a hard time underground. He’s even willing to pull money out of his pants to buy a wreath during Qingming. It’s very rare.”
“With a guilty conscience from killing someone, of course he has to be diligent about funeral matters.”
Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin then asked if he had ever inquired about or been very concerned about any news over the years. This question was very general, and Zhang Xinyou’s relatives and friends all said they didn’t know.
They then asked if anything impressive had happened in the town nine years ago, in 2007.
Most of them still shook their heads. Finally, a man who had also worked in Liucheng as a construction worker, thought for a long time and said, not very certainly, “I know one thing, but it’s definitely not related to Zhang Xinyou. It was Old Qi, who worked with me back then. His daughter died in 2007. His daughter was deaf and mute, not easy to raise. I think she was hit by a car and killed because she was deaf? Aiya, I don’t know the details. Anyway, her death was a relief and a turn of luck for him. His son is very promising, got into a university in the capital. He’s very impressive. I heard he’s even bought a house in the capital. It’s just that he and his wife had short lives. Their son became successful, but the old couple themselves are gone.”
This sounded like just a complaint about his own different fortune due to his children, starting from the same point as someone else. At first, Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin just listened to it as an anecdote, since the person they were visiting was very talkative.
When they were leaving, Huo Ranyin looked at the keychain Ji Xun was tossing up and down in his hand out of boredom. He suddenly thought of something, turned around, and asked the old man, “Where is that dead girl buried? Is it in the same place as Zhang Xinyou’s ancestral grave?”
The old man was stunned for a long while. “…This, it should be there. In recent years, everyone is required to be buried in the public cemetery.”
After leaving the old man’s house and walking on the town’s road, Ji Xun chatted with Huo Ranyin.
“Do you think this is related to Mo Nai’s case?”
“It’s too early to say. But this is still a piece of information worth noting.”
This was how case-solving was. When you were clueless, you had to pay attention to even the smallest piece of information. Perhaps the key to solving the case was hidden in that inconspicuous little corner.
Ji Xun had no objections and went with Huo Ranyin to “Old Qi’s” house.
At “Old Qi’s” house, the son was in the capital, and the parents and daughter were all dead. But there was someone in the house. It was a relative who was looking after the house for them. Huo Ranyin took out his police ID, and the relative was quite willing to talk.
“The Qi family has two children, one named Qi Meng and one named Qi Yuan. If you ask me, Old Qi is also a character. The names he gave his children all reflected their lives.”
“He didn’t name them. A fortune-teller came up with them back then. He was a capable one,” the relative’s wife interjected from the kitchen. This small interruption did not affect their conversation.
“Qi Meng, that child, I know her. She had a hard life. She wasn’t killed by a car. She jumped to her death from a building at Old Qi’s construction site.”
“Suicide?”
“It should be suicide. I haven’t heard anything else. Anyway, on a perfectly fine day, the little girl just jumped to her death. When we asked Old Qi and his wife why their child jumped, they both said they didn’t know. But everyone understood. It’s not easy to raise a deaf-mute girl. Because of this, Old Qi and his wife were even scolded by the foreman and fired. That New Year, Old Qi cursed for a long time among his relatives, saying his daughter was a money-losing good, that after raising her for so long, she had no conscience at all. She just died, and even delayed her younger brother’s studies.”
“How did she delay her younger brother?” Ji Xun interjected. “If he was fired from this construction site, couldn’t he just go and work at another one? It can’t be called a delay.”
“You don’t know. That construction site was at the university town. They were working there, and wasn’t her younger brother just right to go and audit the professors’ classes at the university?”
Two completely unrelated people, at this moment, intersected in a strange way.
Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin looked at each other, both seeing a hint of astonishment in the other’s eyes.
“Was it the construction site of Liucheng University? When exactly did she die?” Huo Ranyin said, his voice starting to become aggressive.
“This, I…” the relative who answered was a bit confused. After all, it was nine years ago.
“I remember it was in October,” the relative’s wife interjected again. “Anyway, it was around the National Day holiday. It was Liucheng University.”
“Has there been any recent change in this family?” Ji Xun also asked.
“What do you mean by change?”
“What decision did Qi Yuan make recently?”
“Does giving us the house count?” the relative said this quite cheerfully. “That child has made it big. He’s going abroad. He has no ties here anymore, so he just gave us the house.”
“He’s not coming back anymore?”
“Definitely not coming back. He’s even moving the graves all at once. What would he come back for?”
This visit had an extremely unexpected harvest. With the development of events here, it could be said that they had taken a great leap forward. The case that had been clueless before, they had finally found a thin thread running through it.
On the way to Qi Meng’s grave, Ji Xun spoke to Huo Ranyin.
“So, Zhang Xinyou went to sweep graves on Qingming Festival not to sweep his own family’s graves, but Qi Meng’s grave. The reason he would sweep the grave for someone completely unrelated was entirely because Mo Nai in prison had asked him to. Mo Nai must have also asked him to pay attention to the Qi family’s news at the same time. And this time, when Zhang Xinyou returned to prison and brought back the news that Qi Yuan was going abroad and moving the grave, he couldn’t wait for the remaining 1 year of imprisonment and was willing to take a huge risk to escape from prison in advance—”
“It should be,” Huo Ranyin drove forward.
“Why are you making such a bold guess this time, more aggressive than me, instead of talking about evidence?” Ji Xun was surprised.
“Because the evidence is on the road ahead of us and will be verified soon—if Mo Nai really escaped from prison because Qi Meng’s grave was going to be moved, he would definitely come here to see Qi Meng. On Qi Meng’s tombstone, his fingerprints will most likely be found.”
The car drove all the way to the public cemetery.
When the two of them got out of the car, a small incident occurred. The cemetery’s security guard ran out of the security booth, jumping up and down, telling them to park in the correct spot:
“Stop parking randomly! Recently, all kinds of cars have been coming and parking randomly. Vans, sports cars, bicycles, electric bikes, none of them are parking in the designated spots.”
As Ji Xun saw it, Huo Ranyin had received this reprimand innocently.
It was definitely not because Huo Ranyin was careless when driving, but clearly because this public cemetery was old and in disrepair, and the lines on the ground for parking had been worn away. But Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin didn’t get angry with the security guard. Following his instructions, they parked the car in the correct spot.
Then Huo Ranyin went to Qi Meng’s tombstone.
Huo Ranyin was not a trace evidence expert, but as a criminal police officer, he was certainly familiar with some simple methods of securing evidence. They used the powder Huo Ranyin had stored in his car to dust for fingerprints on the stone tablet, then took photos, recorded a video, and carefully lifted the fingerprints with tape.
This morning, they had gone all the way to Liucheng Prison and Jinshui Town. Now, on their way back to Ning City that same night, they received a phone call.
The call was from Wen Yangyang.
Wen Yangyang tried hard to suppress her joy, but a cheer still burst out of her throat. “Captain Huo! Great news! We’ve caught Mo Nai!”
While the two were on their way to Ning City, the whole process of catching Mo Nai was also presented to them through the phone.
The process of catching Mo Nai had a bit of coincidence to it.
Ever since Mo Nai escaped from prison and created the 2.12 blood painting case, both the Liucheng Public Security Online and the Ning City Public Security Online had posted a bounty notice for him on their public accounts.
At 7 PM tonight, Wen Yangyang and Tan Mingjiu, according to the tasks assigned previously, were checking the fingerprints found at the scene one by one. One of the fingerprints belonged to a man named Duan Hongwen.
After they went to his home and were about to leave after questioning Duan Hongwen, his wife, Wei Zhenzhu, gave them a clue in a very uncertain tone.
She said she usually liked to follow the Public Security Online. Tonight, when she was passing by a KTV on her way to buy groceries, she saw a man wearing a black down coat and a baseball cap who looked very much like Mo Nai.
Wen Yangyang and Tan Mingjiu immediately went to the KTV to investigate. This operation was full of twists and turns, with a rather bizarre color—
Led by the manager, they entered a private room. In the room, there was actually a naked female corpse lying on the sofa. Next to the female corpse was a drunk man named Zhu Huan.
As for Mo Nai, after searching the entire KTV, Wen Yangyang and Tan Mingjiu did not see him.
But soon, after the body was taken away and the police car left, Wen Yangyang, who had turned back to see if Wei Zhenzhu’s claim of passing by while grocery shopping was reasonable, happened to see a person wearing a baseball cap and a black down coat walking out of a small alley behind.
Lady Luck was indeed on Wen Yangyang’s side.
Mo Nai, who had been on the run for many days, appeared under the police’s nose at a time when they were completely unprepared.
It was hard to imagine that this audacious serial killer, from his appearance, was actually a shy man of average height, with fair skin and a somewhat feminine timidity!
_
