Qingtang District, inside the office of the Criminal Police force.
Captain Lin Wei enlarged the monitoring he copied on the computer screen, and checked it carefully. Around 00:00 am, they did not find anyone entering or leaving the building in the monitoring area, so he pushed the time forward and started from the time to get off work.
Xinghai Building was a comprehensive office building with a number of companies and studios settled in it.
Generally, most of the units would get off work on time at 6:30 in the afternoon, but some network companies were working 996, and it was common to work overtime until 9:00pm. Usually the Xinghai Building was locked at 10 o’clock on time, if there was a company to work overtime more than 10:00 pm, they needed to tell the security guard room in advance.
Yesterday was Wednesday, and no unit worked overtime pas 10:00 pm.
Lin Wei poured a cup of coffee, drinking while watching. He started to watch from 6:30pm and soon found Yue Xingwen, Lan Yarong, Lin Manluo walking out the door side by side. The deceased Zhou Ziyang was also with them in the same elevator downstairs.
Lin Wei pressed the pause button and asked, “Xiao Jiang, what do you think?”
Jiang Pingce said, “The report stated that Yue Xingwen was an intern at Minghui Law Firm. He said that when he got off work yesterday, he accidentally heard the deceased calling in the stairwell and mentioned ‘appeal if not satisfied’. At that time, Yue Xingwen should wait for the elevator next to the stairwell. After the deceased finished the phone call, he took the same elevator downstairs. The time makes sense.”
Lin Wei watched the monitoring thoughtfully and asked, “Do you think Yue Xingwen is not suspected?”
Jiang Pingce said decisively, “Of course not. If he is a murderer, he can’t be the first to report. Moreover, he is an intern, who just arrived in the law firm today, there is no motive to kill Lawyer Zhou.”
Lin Wei nodded and continued to look back at the monitoring.
From 6:00 to 7:00 pm was the peak period of the Xinghai Building, monitoring people coming and going. Many delivery boys were going in and out, no special people were found. Until around 8 o’clock, most units were off duty and the hall gradually became empty.
Lin Wei watched the empty hall on the screen, yawned, and fast-forwarded at quadruple speed.
Jiang Pingce also sat next to him and stared at the screen intently.
The lobby was empty, with occasional security guards walking back and forth, and the lights of the entire building were turned off.
At 9:50 pm, a figure suddenly appeared on the monitor, only to see that person wearing a black tracksuit, sneakers, wearing a duck-tongue hat, dragging a black suitcase in his hands, and walking quickly to enter the elevator.
Because the security guard was not at the door at that time, he was not found.
Lin Wei immediately pressed the pause button and pressed the key to zoom in. Jiang Pingce also sat upright, “Is it Zhou Ziyang?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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No one had come in since the building was locked, so there were only two explanations——
The first one, the murderer climbed up the air-conditioning pipeline from the side of the building. This building had a 40th floor height and it was difficult to climb up the roof all the way.
The second one, the murderer, did not leave the Xinghai Building at all. So, whether the building was locked or not, the murderer could climb up the rooftop in the dead of night and push Zhou Ziayng down.
Captain Lin agreed and said, “Go back and check the Xinghai Building’s access records to see who did not leave yesterday.”
Jiang Pingce followed captain Lin to see the monitoring and saw at 3 o’clock in the morning. Without other findings, they slept in the duty room’s sofa fully dressed.
The next day, Yue Xingwen called Lin Manluo and Lan Yarong back to work together with the law firm when the police had arrived. The police came earlier than them, directly into the office of the deceased Zhou Ziyang.
The law firm’s colleagues had puzzled expressions.
Last night, a heavy rain washed the blood on the scene. Therefore, the people who came to work this morning did not realize that a murder happened in the building. It was only when the police started asking them questions about Zhou Ziyang in turn that everyone reacted—— Something probably happened to Lawyer Zhou.
A female lawyer with the best relationship with Zhou Ziyang said, “Lawyer Zhou was at the same level as me. He was admitted to Beijiang University of Political Science and Law at the same time, and his results have always been a first grade. He is particularly good during the school, and married the school flower Liu Lan. After graduation, he signed to Minghui Law Firm, and his performance was very bright, he could win 80% of his handling lawsuits.”
Captain Lin asked, “Has he ever had any private feuds with anyone?”
The female lawyer shook her head and said, “He has a close affinity for people. In the law firm, his popularity is also very good.”
The police also visited other colleagues of the law firm. Most of them said that Zhou Ziyang had a good personality and had a good popularity, but also often treated everyone to drink milk tea. He got along well with his colleagues.
Only one female lawyer quietly told Captain Lin, “In March last year, I saw Lawyer Zhou quarreling with Lawyer Qi. It seemed that Lawyer Zhou grabbed a big client of Lawyer Qi. Lawyer Qi also sent Moments at that time, saying that some people are really hypocritical and disgusting.”
Lawyer Qi? Jiang Pingce wrote down this key information in his book.
Captain Lin quickly found him. The lawyer named Qi Zhaoge had an inch hair, wore silver-rimmed glasses, looked smart and competent, and was a little grumpy. After hearing Captain Lin’s question, he said with a sullen face, “I have been serving as the legal advisor of the Jinxing Group. Last year, the legal advisor of the Jinxing Group had suddenly changed to Zhou Ziyang. I was kept in the dark and only learned about it in the end.”
Jinxing Group, the city’s largest Network company, with an annual profit of more than billions. Being robbed of such an important client, Lawyer Qi inevitably felt resentment.
Jiang Pingce asked, “At 00:00 last night, where are you?”
Lawyer Qi: “Sleep at home.”
Jiang Pingce: “Do you have an alibi?”
Lawyer Qi grabbed his hair in annoyance and said, “I’m single, how can I have an alibi by sleeping alone at home?!”
Captain Lin laughed a little and asked directly, “Zhou Ziyang stole your client, have you been holding a grudge?”
Lawyer Qi blew up, “Yes, I do hate him! But I’m a lawyer, studying law. Even though I hate a person, I can’t kill him! It’s not worth hitching your future for such people.”
Captain Lin’s gaze was sharp, “I didn’t ask you if you killed him, how do you know… that he died?”
Lawyer Qi froze, a panic flashed in his eyes, but he calmed down quickly and said, “Coming to the office early in the morning, but also looking for everyone to ask the news of Zhou Ziyang, you are the criminal police, right? Since the criminal police were alerted, someone must have died. If it’s a simple case of disappearance, it can’t be filed in less than 24 hours.”
His words were indeed true. Zhou Ziyang was in the office yesterday afternoon, and everyone saw it. And this morning, the criminal police came to the door. Naturally, it would not be a missing case, the biggest possibility was that he died, or he was involved in the murder.
Immediately after, there was another intern lawyer that broke the news, “A few days ago after work, I came back to get something I left. I inadvertently saw Lawyer Zhou embracing a woman into his office, and the woman seemed to be the young designer Chen Yueqin of the Moonlight Design Studio downstairs. I only saw the two of them enter the office together, I don’t know anything else!”
Captain Lin asked, “Chen Yueqin? Does she usually come to your law firm?”
The intern lawyer said, “No. I felt strange when seeing her at that time. I thought she had some legal issues and asked Lawyer Zhou for consultation, but it was just that… Lawyer Zhou put his arm around her shoulder, and the two looked very intimate.”
In other words, Zhou Ziyang was likely to have an extramarital affair.
Captain Lin sent someone to the Moonlight Design Studio downstairs to ask Chen Yueqin, but the other party was not familiar with Lawyer Zhou and found him once, just to consult the legal issue, because her sister wanted to divorce her brother-in-law and prepared for a lawsuit.
The investigation of the law firm lasted more than two hours.
Captain Lin asked very detailed questions, Jiang Pingce listened on the side and noted down two key people suspected: Qi Zhao, Chen Yueqin. The former had a business conflict with Zhou Ziyang, and the latter had an ambiguous relationship with Zhou Ziyang, both of which had motives for the crime. Moreover, neither of these two people had an alibi for last night.
However, Jiang Pingce felt that the case was not that simple.
At present, Zhou Ziyang’s mobile phone was missing, they didn’t know the owner of the necklace they found on the top floor, and the suitcase they saw on the monitoring last night was not found. Zhou Ziyang brought a suitcase into the Xinghai Building, and that suitcase must be very important.
When several police officers returned to the office, Ke Shaobin was also at the scene, collecting information from the deceased’s computer.
Captain Lin asked, “Has the combination lock on the drawer been deciphered?”
Ke Shaobin said, “Six digits password will take a little time.”
Captain Lin said, “As soon as possible.”
Ke Shaobin was there to decipher the password, Jiang Pingce searched the office with others. The office area was nearly 100 square meters, very luxuriously decorated. Behind the desk was a wall of bookshelves, and all of it was law-related books. Jiang Pingce carefully swept through the bookshelves, suddenly, his gaze fixed on a vacant compartment in the middle middle of the bookshelves.
There was a little dust around the grid, but it was clean in the middle. It seemed that something was originally placed here, and was taken away? Judging by the shape, it was a long strip. Jiang Pingce was very sensitive to graphics, he imagined it in his mind…
What would be placed on the shelf and leave a long strip of marks? A photo frame?
Since the things were taken away, this compartment was empty, and Jiang Pingce could not be sure.
At this moment, Ke Shaobin’s voice came from the side, “Captain Lin, the password is unlocked.”
Jiang Pingce immediately walked over, and saw Ke Shaobin open the locker drawer——
The drawers were full of cash.
Stacks of banknotes that should add up to hundreds of thousands.
Jiang Pingce wondered, “He keeps so much money secretly in the locked drawer and not deposited in the bank, is it illegal income?”
Immediately after, a colleague’s voice came from behind him, “Captain Lin, the suitcase has been found!”
There was actually a secret door in the cloakroom in the corner of the office, and after pushing it open, there was a storage room. There was indeed a black suitcase in the storage room, which was exactly the same as the suitcase taken in the monitoring.
Captain Lin raised his eyebrows and said, “Open it and take a look.”
There was no password on the suitcase, Jiang Pingce leaned over to open the lock——
The suitcase was also packed with cash neatly, as well as two large checks totaling more than 5 million.
So much money ah!
Thank you for the chapter.❤❤❤
I wish everyone being rich as that Lawyer (but live longer)
Thank you for your translation 💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗
And the plot thickens!