Chapter 5: Hidden Accident
He hadn’t expected this family to be so complicated. The cousin-in-law and the younger generation’s wife were having an affair. The key point was that the surrounding neighbors all seemed to know the inside story, yet not only did the couple have no plans to divorce, they could even coexist peacefully under the same roof. It was truly bizarre.
He Wei, however, wasn’t surprised. Having been a police officer for many years, what kind of things hadn’t he seen? Last year, there was a case where a son fell in love with his own mother, got jealous of his father, and stabbed him to death with a screwdriver in the middle of the night. The world was vast and full of strange things. As long as there were people, there would be all sorts of conflicts.
He recalled Pan Pinghai’s appearance—dark-skinned and skinny, the hotel owner, and having both emotional and financial disputes with the deceased. He indeed had the motive to commit the crime. But based on his investigative intuition, He Wei felt there was more to this than met the eye.
“Old He, listen to my side! This is an unexpected harvest.” Chong Zhen pulled out a photo and handed it over. The photo showed an old man with white hair, advanced in age but brimming with vitality. However, the photo was black-and-white, making it look more like a funeral portrait at first glance.
He Wei asked, “Who is this?”
“Wang Fusheng. He lived in Wangjiawa near the hotel. He lived alone and was hit and killed by a car while collecting scrap six months ago. His family is all in the city and didn’t care about him. They didn’t even show up once after he died; the village committee paid for his funeral,” Chong Zhen continued. “The country road where the accident happened has no cameras, and it was the middle of the night, so there weren’t even any witnesses. The village police station couldn’t track down the hit-and-run vehicle. No one kept an eye on the case, so it’s been sitting there ignored ever since.”
“So the person was never caught, right?” He Wei held the photo, frowning. “Is he the one haunting the hotel?”
“According to the hotel employees’ statements, he matches the description. This photo was given to me by the village committee. Look, he’s wearing a Mao suit. The ghost they saw was also wearing a Mao suit. It definitely has to be him; there’s no mistake.”
The information Chong Zhen brought back caused a qualitative mutation in the direction of the investigation. What originally seemed like a crime of passion had turned into a case of revenge. The leap was simply too massive.
He Wei opened the statement taken earlier and asked Yun Xiaoxiao: “Did Chen Lei’s family have a car?”
“No, but their yard is quite large, big enough to park a car. I also saw some car care products like windshield washer fluid and car wax.”
“Alright then. Xiaoxiao, you and Little Xia follow the Wang Fusheng lead. Find out all his recent whereabouts.” He Wei grabbed his car keys. “Let’s go, Chong Zhen. It’s your turn to run an errand with me.”
———
Wang Cui opened the door completely bare-faced. Her eyes were bloodshot. Several large bags were piled up in the living room, all filled with Chen Lei’s belongings. She had packed them up overnight, preparing to burn them all together during the funeral procession.
“Packed up this quickly?” Chong Zhen rummaged through the bags. “Oh, his razor and toothbrush are in here too. You really didn’t leave a single thing out.”
Wang Cui smiled awkwardly. “The person is gone. There’s no point in keeping these things; the more I see them, the more I’ll miss him.”
Chong Zhen recalled how she had cried so tragically to their faces last night, yet now she was acting as if nothing had happened. He thought to himself that this couple really didn’t have any affection for each other. The only reason they hadn’t divorced was probably for the sake of the child and saving face.
He Wei had come over this time mainly to ask about the car. Based on his line of thought, if this was a vengeful ghost claiming lives, it had to be connected to the traffic accident; otherwise, the phrase “claiming lives” wouldn’t make sense. Wang Cui said they used to have a daily commuter car, a red BYD. Six months ago, Chen Lei wanted to upgrade, so he sold it. Since they hadn’t found a suitable replacement, the plan to buy a new car had been temporarily shelved.
“Who did he sell the car to?”
“He went to the city to sell it. I kept the invoice.” Wang Cui went into her room to search for a while and brought out the car sale invoice. Chong Zhen kept it safe, and he and He Wei set off for the auto repair shop.
The little girl with pigtails was jumping rope carefreely in the yard. Seeing Chong Zhen and He Wei, she ran over. “Uncle, where is my daddy?”
Chong Zhen crouched down and patted her hair. “Didn’t your mom tell you? Daddy went to a place very far away and doesn’t have time to come home right now.”
The little girl shook her head. “Mommy said Daddy won’t come back. She won’t let me cry and told me to forget Daddy.”
Chong Zhen and He Wei exchanged a glance, sighing internally at this marriage that existed only in name. Growing up in this kind of environment from such a young age, they didn’t know if this child would be left with psychological trauma.
The repair shop on the invoice was in the suburbs, inside the Economic Development Zone; it was a privately run auto detailing shop. Upon seeing the invoice, the shop owner immediately remembered: “Yes, this is the car Chen Lei sold to us half a year ago. That car had been in a crash before; the bumper was replaced, and some sheet metal work was done on the front. Later on, he wanted to sell it. If he hadn’t offered such a low price, we wouldn’t have even been willing to take it.”
“What kind of accident was it?” He Wei pulled out a pack of cigarettes and handed one to the owner. The owner nodded and bowed slightly, taking it and lighting up. “He said he was driving in the countryside, hit and killed someone’s sheep, and had to pay a sum of money. Later, he felt it was bad luck, so he wanted to sell the car and buy a new one.”
Chong Zhen smiled: “And you really believed that?”
“Why wouldn’t I? We’re old acquaintances. All the maintenance for his car was done at our shop. He’s a regular customer.”
He Wei asked if the car had been sold and to whom. Coincidentally, the person who bought the car was a mechanic working at their shop, who bought it cheap for his daily commute. The mechanic took the two police officers to his home. The red BYD was parked at the door, cleaned spotless inside and out, and even coated and waxed, making it look brand new.
“Have any parts been replaced since you bought it?”
“No, no. I was the one who fixed it previously. Besides the replaced bumper, this car has no other problems. It drives perfectly!”
“That’s good then.” He Wei took out his phone to make a call. “It’s much more convenient if the major parts are still there.”
———
In the auto repair garage, Zheng Youqing wore a mask and held a spray bottle containing a prepared luminol reagent. The BYD’s bumper had already been removed. What she needed to test was whether there were any blood reactions on the front of the car. If there were, she would then extract DNA from the occult blood sample for typing.
After spraying, Zheng Youqing stood up and made a gesture. The repair shop employee at the door pulled down the rolling shutter. Instantly, the light in the garage dimmed, and a fluorescent reaction appeared on the front of the vehicle, showing up in dots and patches, mostly concentrated above the bumper.
Little Chen took out his camera to take photos. Zheng Youqing held a cotton swab and swiftly wiped the glowing areas. He Wei asked, “It’s been six months. How high is the success rate of extracting the deceased’s DNA?”
“The bloodstain content in occult blood samples is quite low. Using the M48 magnetic bead extraction method to purify and extract from such small carriers usually yields a successful profile,” Zheng Youqing said without delaying her work. Half a minute later, the fluorescent reaction gradually disappeared. She sealed the several cotton swabs she had used and placed them into an evidence box.
The shop manager and the mechanic panicked: “Didn’t he hit and kill a sheep? How… how could there be a deceased person?”
Zheng Youqing took off her mask and smiled: “We’ll soon know if it was a sheep.” She picked up the evidence box. “Do you still need me to do anything? If not, I’ll head back to the bureau to find Lan-jie to do the extraction.”
He Wei told her to head back early and be safe on the road. Although the results weren’t out yet, after seeing the luminol reaction just now, He Wei was already certain that Chen Lei was the hit-and-run driver. After fleeing the scene, he sold the car to an acquaintance, thinking he could cross the sea under the guise of heaven and completely cover his tracks.
However, what was perplexing was that Wang Fusheng’s family was all in the city. They normally didn’t contact the old man, and didn’t even come to take a look when he died. How could they possibly think of avenging him? His ashes were stored in a small funeral parlor in the township, and the storage fee was paid by the village committee. If there really was someone that close to him, why wouldn’t they have even claimed his ashes?
“Is it possible that the person playing the ghost and the person committing the murder are two different people?” Chong Zhen guessed. “Maybe the old man got hit and killed, and someone started playing ghost tricks. Then the killer pushed the boat along with the current, perfectly disguising the murder as a supernatural event—killing two birds with one stone.”
“That possibility exists, which is why Wang Cui and Pan Pinghai haven’t been cleared of suspicion yet,” He Wei grabbed Chong Zhen’s arm. “Get in the car. We’re going to check out Wang Fusheng’s house.”
With the help of the Wangjiawa village committee, He Wei and Chong Zhen found the house Wang Fusheng lived in before he died. It was a dilapidated small tile-roofed house. The roof wasn’t even fully covered with tiles, entirely patched up with plastic sheeting. Compared to the surrounding two-story small buildings, it looked far too shabby. The village committee director revealed that Wang Fusheng’s son kept this place just waiting for government demolition compensation; otherwise, he would have torn down this broken-down house long ago and sold it along with the three mu of land to the family next door who built greenhouses to grow vegetables.
Wang Fusheng made a living by collecting scrap. The house was bare, and the daily necessities were exceptionally crude. The only home appliance in the entire house was a broken electric fan. Chong Zhen lifted the blanket, and a choking cloud of dust rushed at his face. He coughed twice, waving his hands in the air a few times to dispel the dust.
They rummaged around the house while the village committee director stood at the door holding the keys. He Wei chatted with him while looking for clues, managing to hear all the gossip from the surrounding villages.
“…Wang Cui is also from our Wangjiawa. After she married into Chenjia Village, she didn’t live a peaceful life. All of us village cadres know about her affairs. Pan Pinghai’s wife, Chen Chunhua, has come to our village committee to make a scene four or five times, asking us to seek justice for her. But there’s nothing we can do about it either…”
“That sounds exhausting for you guys,” He Wei bent down, shining his flashlight, and discovered several pieces of paper wedged in the crack of the bed. “Chong Zhen, come here. There’s something here.”
When they pulled the papers out from the bed crack, they turned out to be remittance slips. They were sent from the town post office; the remitter was Wang Fusheng, and the payee was someone named “Chen Gui,” with an address in Pingchuan City. The remittance dates varied from year to year, and the amounts weren’t large—about a thousand each time. But given Wang Fusheng’s financial condition, a thousand was at least the savings he accumulated from collecting scrap for a very long time.
The village committee director wasn’t sure who this “Chen Gui” was either. There was no one by that name in Wangjiawa, but they could go check the neighboring Chenjia Village.
Chong Zhen pinched the bridge of his nose: “This case is like pulling a ball of yarn; the more you pull, the more there is. Are we going to have to ask the Pingchuan Municipal Bureau for joint cooperation on this case now?”
“Isn’t this just how investigating cases goes? Is this your first day in criminal investigation? Have you traveled across the country any less?” He Wei held the remittance slips. “We have to write a report for a joint investigation. Hey, didn’t you have a classmate who went to Pingchuan?”
Chong Zhen put a cigarette in his mouth: “I haven’t contacted him in ages! On the day of his wedding, I was in Sichuan catching an armed robber and couldn’t go. On the day of his child’s one-month celebration banquet, you had me stuck outside a nightclub on a stakeout. After standing him up twice, how can I have the nerve to just open my mouth and ask for help?”
He Wei smiled: “Special circumstances require special treatment. As detectives, missions come without warning. I was still at the sub-bureau for my mom’s 50th birthday. On my way back, I ran into an armed robbery. Not only did the elderly lady not get to celebrate her birthday, I ended up in the hospital, making her so angry she ignored me for half a month.”
Chong Zhen sighed: “Choose a line of work, love a line of work…” He dug out that classmate’s number, went under a large banyan tree to make the call, and came back a while later: “He went to check. He’ll let me know when he has news.”
It was getting late. He Wei drove the car, taking Chong Zhen in the direction of the dormitories. Chong Zhen found it strange: “You, a workaholic, aren’t going back to the bureau?”
“Going back to take a shower,” He Wei rubbed his neck. “Working cases at the bureau makes you forget the time. I haven’t showered in two days.”
“You need to shower after only two days?”
“…”
noooo ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ