Yue Xingwen and Jiang Pingce took a taxi to Qin Shiyin’s home in the suburbs according to the address given by Ke Shaobin.
The residential buildings in the Xiushui Garden Community were all 7-story staircase houses, no elevator, and the paint outside the building had faded. It looked a little old. The area of the community was small, there were only 5 buildings in total. Residents had lived here for a long time, and the neighbors knew each other, which was also convenient for Yue Xingwen and Jiang Pingce to visit and investigate.
When both of them came to the neighborhood, they saw many grandparents sitting in the pavilion chatting.
Yue Xingwen and Jiang Pingce walked over side by side. Jiang Pingce took out his police card and asked a 70-year-old grandmother, “Hello grandma, we are investigating a case. May I ask, do you know Qin Shiyin who lives in Building 4, Unit 2, Room 601?”
When the grandparents saw the police card, their faces were full of curiosity. They privately discussed, “What happened ah?”
“Why did the police come to our community?”
The grandmother who was asked, answered seriously, “I certainly know Xiao Yin, she is beautiful, but she doesn’t like to talk. I rarely see her go out, only a few times when she commutes. She will also say hello to us briefly.”
A grandfather next to her said, “She seems to be a teacher, right? This child is really promising. Her mother died early, her father brought her up and she went out to work at a young age, helping her father reduce the burden. She is very sensible.”
Jiang Pingce took out his book and asked while taking notes, “How did her mother die?”
A middle-aged man said, “Car accident. One night, her mother was hit by someone while crossing the street, and this seems to be ten years ago? I remember that Xiao Yin was still in junior high school.”
Yue Xingwen asked, “Is her family only her and her father now?”
The grandmother said, “She also has an older brother who works in another place and will only come back to see them during the New Year. It’s Xiao Yin, who went home after graduating from college, and I heard that she is a music teacher in a training center. We don’t know anything else.”
From the conversation between the grandparents, they learned that Qin Shiyin’s mother died early in a car accident, and there were still his father and older brother in the family.
It had been a week since she resigned from the Xinghai Building Training Center. Senior sister Lan asked her colleagues in the building and she had not been in the Xinghai Building since she resigned. She was not captured in the monitoring that day, and she should not have been present at the time of the crime.
So, what about her father and older brother?
Qin Shiyin was not at the scene, maybe her family was angry for her and killed Lawyer Zhou?
Yue Xingwen and Jiang Pingce decided to go to Qin Shiyin’s house in person.
Both of them came to the door of Room 601, Unit 2, Building 4 and knocked on the door.
A moment later, a girl came to the door, looked out through the cat’s eye and asked softly, “Who?”
Yue Xignwen said mildly, “Hello Miss Qin, we are police officers of the Qingtang District’s Criminal Police Force, there are some things I want to find you to investigate, is it convenient to open the door?” Jiang Pingce immediately took the police card and showed it to her, “This is my police card.”
Qin Shiyin was stunned for a moment, opened the door, and said suspiciously, “Police? Why are you looking for me ah?”
Yue Xingwen asked, “Can we come in and talk?”
Qin Shiyin was silent for a moment, nodded, let the two into the house, and poured water for them.
The girl’s face was pale, her hair was simply tied in a ponytail behind her head. She was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, and when she handed Yue Xingwen water, her wrist faintly showed some scars, as if it was cut by a knife.
Hearing from the doctor that she had recently self-harmed, it seemed that the girl’s depression was already very serious.
Yue Xingwen looked around quietly. The room was clean and simple, three rooms and one living room. She and her older brother each had a room, and the master bedroom should be her father’s room. According to neighbors’ descriptions, her older brother was working in another place, and only came home for the New Year; Her father was working outside, and she was the only one at home at this time.
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.
Yc atf KN rajcv kjr j qlmaegf ogjwf rtbklcu j ojwlis qbgagjla bo j ojwlis bo obeg. Hlc Vtlslc ibbxfv nfgs rlwlijg ab tfg wbatfg ktfc rtf kjr sbecu. Lfg wbatfg kbgf j mtfbcurjw, nfgs afwqfgjwfcaji, jcv Hlc Vtlslc rtbeiv yf obegaffc bg oloaffc ja atf alwf. Ktf ulgi rwlifv yglutais, jcv atf bivfg ygbatfg jcv rlrafg rabbv ys atf rlvf bo atflg qjgfcar. Ktf ojwlis ibbxfv tjqqs.
This should had been a happy family, but unfortunately her mother died in a car accident ten years ago and Qin Shiyin was raped five years ago. The family’s psychological trauma was difficult to heal.
The girl didn’t seem to like to look at people very much, she lowered her head, her eyes were fixed on the ground. She sat there stiffly and asked in a low voice, “Officer, what are you going to investigate? Why did you find my house?”
Jiang Pingce asked, “From ten to twelve o’clock the night before yesterday, where were you?”
The girl thought carefully, “The day before yesterday? Was it a rainy day?”
“That’s right. Did you go out the night of the heavy rain?”
Qin Shiyin shook her head and replied, “No. I have been resting at home since I quit my job and went home. I haven’t left the community this week, and I usually eat at the community and buy vegetables in the supermarket, then come back to make it myself.”
Jiang Pingce asked, “Why did you resign?”
Qin Shiyin bit her lip and replied in a low voice, “Because recently, my body is not very comfortable.”
Patients with depression couldn’t be too stimulated. Yue Xignwen considered the wording, and said with gentle eyes, “Don’t be afraid, we just look for you to understand some information. Do you know Lawyer Zhou Ziyang?”
Qin Shiyin’s body was stiff, her face was even palen than before. She was silent for a long time before nodding and replied, “Know.”
“Then do you know that he works at Minghui Law Firm on the 40th floor of Xinghai Building?”
Qin Shiyin was stunned, and looked up at Yue Xingwen. “What do you mean? He works at Xinghai Building?”
Jiang Pingce and Yue Xingwen looked at each other. The girl looked surprised, seemingly unaware. Or was she a first-class actress and it was all an act?
Jiang Pingce said in a deep voice and said, “He works at Minghui Law Firm on the 40th floor of Xinghai Building. You are in the Children’s Training Center on the 27th floor of Xinghai Building. Working in the same office building, have you seen him recently?”
Qin Shiyin shook her head without hesitation and replied, “I haven’t seen him. The working hours of our Training Center are different from other units, because the children have to go to school, and they have time to learn in our Training Center in the evening. We have classes from Monday to Friday starting at 7 pm. On weekends, from 10 am to 10 pm, I rarely met others in the office building.”
Such working hours really missed the rush hours of other units.
However, Law Firms did not have a strict check in system, and some lawyers could even skip the Law Firm when they were busy with cases and organized the information at home. When they encountered a trial and had a meal with clients, they did not need to take leave. Minghui Law Firm was a ‘partner’ for them, and the boss did not interfere with the freedom of the lawyers.
So, did Qin Shiyin know that Zhou Ziyang works in the Law Firm on the 40th floor? Had she seen Zhou Ziyang in the building?
Now that Zhou Ziyang was dead, Qin Shiyin bit the bullet and said she didn’t know, there was indeed no proof of death.
Yue Xingwen followed up and asked, “You went to work in the Xinghai Building. Did you find a job by yourself, or was it introduced by someone?”
Qin Shiyin said, “I applied for the job myself. Originally, my father wanted me to take the teaching certificate and go to a regular middle school to become a music teacher, but I felt that it was too tiring to go to school as a teacher to work on time every day. Relatively speaking, the Training Center had more free hours and higher income. Therefore, I found a Children’s Training Center to teach vocal music to the children.”
Although the girl in front of him was pale, she spoke clearly and in a soft and good voice. She didn’t look like she had a guilty conscience. Jiang Pingce frowned, wrote down the information she said in the notebook, and then asked, “Do you know Liu Lan?”
Qin Shiyin looked calm, “I don’t know. Who is Liu Lan?”
Yue Xingwen then asked, “Where does your father work? What kind of work is it? Is it convenient to say?”
“My dad has been running a taxi outside in the past few years.”
“Your older brother works in Anming City, right?” Jiang Pingce looked at her and said, “Has he been in contact with you recently?”
“My older brother is an accountant. Recently their company was liquidated at the end of the month, he was very busy every day. He hadn’t contacted me for a week, and he would only come home to see me and my dad during the New Year’s holiday.”
Yue Xingwen and Jiang Pingce looked at each other, stood up, and said politely, “Thank you for you cooperation, if necessary, we will contact you again.”
Qin Shiyin got up to send them out, and when she was about to reach the door, she suddenly asked, “Officer, can I ask, why are you looking for me? Who had an accident?”
Jiang Pingce looked back at her and said in a low voice, “Zhou Ziyang is dead.”
Qin Shiyin’s eyes widened instantly. She covered her mouth with her hand and swallowed back the screams that came out of her mouth.
Yue Xingwen watched her face carefully. The girl’s shocked expression did not look like she was faking it. There was no obvious joy in her eyes when she heard about the death of the lawyer who had slandered her in court.
After leaving the community, Yue Xingwen frowned thoughtfully and said, “Does she really not know? When Liu Lan was mentioned just now, her performance was like hearing an unfamiliar name.”
Jiang Pingce said, “She doesn’t know Liu Lan, maybe because Liu Lan didn’t use her real name when she approached her.”
Yue Xingwen thought for a moment and agreed, “It makes sense. Liu Lan knew that Qin Shiyin was a victim of that case, so she approached her under a pseudonym? After all, once Qin Shiyin discovered that Liu Lan was Zhou Ziyang’s wife, he would definitely have an extremely strong rejection of Liu Lan. With a fake name, Qin Shiyin would not be guarded.”
Jiang Pingce said, “Both people are patients with depression, talking to each other, they can easily become friends.”
However, they had no evidence in their hands, and all of this was speculation.
Yue Xingwen sorted out his thoughts and said, “We also have to investigate Qin Shiyin’s father and older brother.”
This case was really odd in every way.
On the day of the crime, Chen Yueqin and Qi Zhao, who were at the scene, were now ruled out of suspicion. Whether it was Chen Yueqin, who went back to sleep at 11:15 pm, or Qi Zhao, who hid in the office to play games, did not appear in the monitoring and did not go to the rooftop.
However, most suspects such as Liu Lan and Qin Shiyin had never been to the Xinghai Building.
On the surface, it looked like Zhou Ziyang climbed onto the roof alone, lost his footing and fell. How did the murderer act?
Yue Xingwen always felt that everyone seemed to have missed a very important clue.
After returning to Zhang Xiaonian’s residence, Jiang Pingce asked Ke Shaobin to check Qin Shiyin’s family members, and soon found her older brother, mother and father, and surprisingly, Qin Shiyin’s older brother was not surnamed Qin.
“In a family of four, the father is called Zhao Jianming, the older brother is called Zhao Jiarui, the mother is called Qin Xiumei, and the daughter Qin Shiyin.” Ke Shaobin adjusted his glasses and said seriously, “The husband and wife have two children. The son has the father’s surname, and the daughter takes the mother’s surname, which is quite common in our hometown.”
It was indeed not uncommon for two children, each with their parents’ surname. Yue Xingwen carefully read these names, and a flash of inspiration flashed in his mind, and he suddenly said, “Qin Xiumei, I seem to see this name, where is it? Senior sister Lan, check the past case records and take a look.”
Lan Yarong immediately took Ke Shaobin’s laptop, searched it in the computer database, and soon, she found a case record from ten years ago. “Ten years ago, Zhou ZIyang represented a traffic accident case, and the deceased was Qin Xiumei.”
When everyone heard the news, their spirits were shocked at the same time.
Ke Shaobin said excitedly, “Take a look, who is the driver who killed Qin Xiumei?!”
Lan Yarong said with a complicated expression, “It’s… Zhang Ronghua.”
Everyone: “…”
Lan Yarong said, “When we searched yesterday, we only looked for the client information represented by Lawyer Zhou, and missed Zhang Ronghua. In fact, in this traffic accident case ten years ago, Lawyer Zhou was the lawyer representing Qin Xiumei and Zhang Ronghua was the defendant.”
When Jiang Pingce heard this, his face became more and more indifferent, and he frowned, “Ten years ago, shortly after Zhou Ziyang graduated, the lawyer fees he collected were not so expensive, and Qin Xiumei’s family just found him and asked him to help with the lawsuit. However, the defendant’s Zhang Ronghua is a rich second-generation and is likely to have privately bought Lawyer Zhou… What was the final verdict in this case?”
Lan Yarong said, “Zhang Ronghua lost a sum of money, the plaintiff withdrew the lawsuit, and settled out of court.”
Yue Xingwen carefully stroked the logic and concluded, “That is to say, among these several rich second-generation, Zhang Ronghua is the earliest one to know Lawyer Zhou. As early as ten years ago, when he hit Qin Xiumei with his car, he secretly bought the opposing lawyer and asked the opposing lawyer to persuade the plaintiff to withdraw the lawsuit?”
Yesterday, senior sister Lan checked Lawyer Zhou’s past cases, and did not find that Lawyer Zhou had helped Zhang Ronghua represent any cases. The earliest tracing back to the Shen Haobin rape case five years ago, so everyone thought that Shen Haibin was the first to know Lawyer Zhou.
Unexpectedly, as early as ten years ago, Zhang Ronghua, as the ‘defendant’, actually had an intersection with the ‘plaintiff’ Lawyer Zhou. At that time, Lawyer Zhou was not so famous, and seeing the money, he nominally helped Qin Xiumei’s family fight a lawsuit, but in fact he accepted the defendant Zhang Ronghua’s money.
Lan Yarong’s face was ugly, and she said, “If a traffic accident causes death, the maximum sentence can be more than 7 years in prison! However, Zhang Ronghua was not sentenced, and the two sides settled out of court, which should be Lawyer Zhou’s obstruction. Qin Xiumei’s family did not understand the law, was persuaded by Lawyer Zhou, and finally withdrew the lawsuit after taking some compensation.”
Ke Shaobin sighed and said, “Unexpectedly, after a few years, the little girl who lost her mother at the beginning, when she grew up, went to a bar to make money, and was raped by Zhang Ronghua’s good friend Shen Haibin. Zhang Ronghua knew Lawyer Zhou, so he introduced Lawyer Zhou to Shen Haibin?”
Yue Xingwen had been very puzzled before. Shen Haibin was a rich second-generation, and he lived in Anming City. How could he be so familiar with Lawyer Zhou, who worked in Beishan City? Now it seemed that the person who was most familiar with Lawyer Zhou was actually Zhang Ronghua.
Because back then, Zhang Ronghua crashed into Qin Shiyin’s mother Qin Xiumei in a late-night car race. Qin Shiyin’s father found Lawyer Zhou in Beishan City to help, and by chance, Zhang Ronghua and Lawyer Zhou hooked up together!
Lawyer Zhou also met many rich people because of this, and only then helped Shen Haibin represent the rape case. He became more and more familiar with the so-called ‘upper circle’, and his income became higher and higher, increasing his reputation.
But he should not have expected that ten years ago, Qin Xiumei, who died under the wheel of the rich second-generation Zhang Ronghua, and Qin Shiyin, an innocent girl who was raped and insulted by Shen Haibin five years ago… was actually a mother and daughter.
He indirectly destroyed the family, and Qin Shiyin suffered from severe depression.
Yue Xingwen looked at his teammates and concluded, “Qin Shiyin’s father and older brother, both of them have the most motive to commit the crime. These two people, who knows Liu Lan? Who may be the real murderer?”
At this moment, Jiang Pingce suddenly said, “We have neglected a very important person.”
Everyone looked back at him.
They saw Jiang Pingce’s serious expression and said word by word, “Actually, on the night of the rainstorm, when Zhou Ziyang fell down, in addition to Chen Yueqin and Qi Zhao, there was another person at the scene of the Xinghai Building’s crime.”
Yue Xingwen was stunned, and suddenly a picture flashed in his mind. He asked tentatively, “The security guard on duty?”
Jiang Pingce nodded and replied, “That’s right.”
The security guard on the night shift would always stay in the Xinghai Building.
Moreover, the identity of the security guard was very similar to that of a passerby, and it was not easy to arouse the suspicion of the police.
Jiang Pingce said, “I remember that when captain Lin went to knock on the door, a middle-aged security guard came to open the door for us, and took us to adjust the internal monitoring of the building. Since he said that he had been sleeping, and he did not know Lawyer Zhou, Captain Lin asked him to make a statement and let him go back.”
Ke Shaobin’s face changed, and he searched for the personnel information of Xinghai Building in his laptop. He said in surprise, “The security guard on duty that night is not named Zhao Jianming, but if you look at his photos, does it look familiar!”
The middle-aged man in the photo looked very kind, exactly the same as the man in the family photo taken by Yue Xingwen from Qin Shiyin’s house. However, the family photo was taken more than ten years ago, and too much time had passed. His sideburns were already white, not as young as in the photo.
He was Qin Shiyin’s father.
Oooooooh!!!
Воу воу воу, так интересно! Я так взволнован
Спасибо за ваш перевод
ops, wrong language, sorry
Wow wow wow, So interesting! I feel so excitedThank you for your translation 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚
Ahhh…the suspense
wow! everything really is connected with one another, ah? I feel like my mind is twisting around into knots just attempting to follow the plot!
Qin Shiyin I mean