This is also a 2in1 chapter, enjoy~
Zhao Xuemei ran back to the dormitory and fell on the bed crying, crying so hard that the female workers nearby ran to comfort her. Yue Xingwen gave Lin Manluo and Qin Lu a wink, and the two immediately followed.
The female worker in the same dormitory as her, patted her shoulder to comfort her while asking with concern, “Xuemei ah, the police didn’t give you a hard time, right? Why did you cry so much that your eyes were swollen?”
Zhao Xuemei choked up and said, “They didn’t give me a hard time, they just asked me about Dayong’s situation.”
She sniffled, her eyes were red and her voice was trembling slightly, “I grew up with Dayong, and our two families were neighbors. After his brother and sister-in-law died, he went out to work and was worried that A-Liang was young and spent his money recklessly. So, every month he was sending me money to buy school supplies, clothes, snacks and such for A-Liang.”
Qin Lu whispered, “So, the police found out that brother Dayong often sent you money, and they came to you for confirmation?”
Zhao Xuemei bit her lip and nodded. Her emotions were obviously a little out of control, while crying, she said, “I and brother Yong are just like a brother and sister. Brother Yong sent me money, I gave it to A-Liang without touching a single penny. I never expected that brother Yong actually fell to his death after only a month at the construction site! If I had known, I would never have let him come here. I’m the one who got him into trouble *sobs*!”
A month? The timing of this coincided with the registration of the Weibo’s side account found by Xingwen.
Lin Manluo and Qin Lu looked at each other and immediately grasped this key point and asked, “Did brother Yong come to the construction site only a month ago? Wasn’t he here in the beginning?”
Zhao Xuemei choked up and explained, “He is a cement worker, who was originally renovating a house for a nearby family, which happened to be finished last month. We were hiring temporary cement workers at the site, so I asked him to come here and try it. A-Liang only scored 280 points in the university entrance examination, and he wasn’t even admitted into the university. So, he brought A-Liang to the construction site to learn as well. Both of them came together.”
It was important to note that Zhao Dayong and Zhao Liang came to the construction site only last month.
The workers had mentioned that when Zhao Liang came, the logistics assigned a dormitory to let him live with a man named Yan Kai. This surnamed Yan was a relative of the Director Zhang, and he bullied Xiao Liang everyday in the construction site, forcing Xiao Liang to go to the building to sleep on the floor.
Lin Manluo was a little puzzled. “As uncle and nephew, why don’t they live in the same room?”
Zhao Xuemei said, “Because brother Yong came to the construction site first. A-Liang was still in Zhao Village at that time and came two days late. Zhao Anming took the initiative to say that he wanted to live with brother Yong. Brother Yong has been honest and silent since he was a child, so he was too embarrassed to refuse when others said to live with him, and since Zhao Anming is from our hometown, they both know each other.”
Lin Manluo said, “That means, after brother Yong came to the construction site, Zhao Anming took the initiative to pull brother Yong as a roommate, so when A-Liang came, there was only one dormitory left, and he could only live with Yan Kai?”
Zhao Xuemei nodded her head.
The female worker next to her sighed and said, “Xuemei, don’t be too upset. It’s rumored all over the construction site that Zhao Qiang and Dayong like you, and both of them were fighting for you out of jealousy, so that’s why Zhao Qiang pushed Dayong down. There’s certainly no such a thing, right?”
Zhao Xuemei clenched her fists tightly, full of shame and anger. “A-Qiang and I had already met our parents a long time ago, and we are ready to get a certificate when we return to our hometown for the New Year. Brother Yong and I are innocent, and it wasn’t because of me that they were fighting! We’re all sad about brother Yong’s death. What does his accidental fall have to do with Zhao Qiang?! Those people are really talking nonsense, and they’re not afraid to twist their tongues!”
Qin Lu comforted her softly, “Sister Xuemei, of course we believe in you.”
Lin Manluo said, “By the way, the incident at our construction site is on Weibo’s hot search, did you see it?”
Zhao Xuemei took out her mobile phone and said, “Weibo? Let me see.”
She opened Weibo in front of everyone, swiped to the home page, skillfully entered the keywords ‘construction site’ on the search column, and saw a #A Worker Falls to His Death at Xinyue Plaza# hot topics. She clicked into the topic, and the number of comments had been tens of thousands.
Zhao Xuemei was stunned and said, “So many forwards and comments? Did someone from the construction site take brother Yong’s photo and send it up?”
She did not seem to know it, and the account had not left a comment under this post. Upon clicking on the Weibo’s topic, she saw the shocking bloody photo, and she began to cry uncontrollably again.
Lin Manluo and Qin Lu looked at each other, exchanged a few pleasantries with them and turned to leave, going back to relay the results of their investigation to Yue Xingwen word by word.
At the same time, Liu Zhaoqing and Zhang Xiaonian went to approach Zhao Liang and also told Yue Xingwen the results of the inquiry.
Liu Zhaoqing said, “A-Liang was summoned by the police because he was the only one in the building at the time of the crime, and he was on the sixth floor. However, the police found there were no fingerprints or footprints of him at the scene where Zhao Dayong fell from the crane on the seventh floor. In addition, he is close to his uncle and there is no motive for the crime. The suspicion is ruled out for now.”
Zhang Xiaonian added, “The police also checked his injuries and confirmed that he was beaten by Yan Kai from the same room as him. Yan Kai also wrote a review at the police station, admitted his mistake, said he was drunk that day, was woken up by the child’s snoring, so he slapped the child when he was upset, and both of them reconciled at the police station.”
Ke Shaobin adjusted his glasses and said, “It seems that my previous guess that he was abused and then he killed his uncle can be ruled out.”
Yue Xingwen put these new clues in his mind and analyzed them. “Zha Dayong came to the construction site last month, which coincided with the registration time of the Weibo’s account ‘Seeking Justice’. In other words, Zhao Dayong’s presence gave the murderer the idea to expose the incident and began to planning the killing.”
Ke Shaobin asked seriously, “Is it possible that Zhao Dayong came to the construction site in September and found that everyone’s wages were unpaid, and the workers were complaining, so he registered this Weibo’s side account himself to help everyone?”
Yue Xingwen looked back at him and said, “There are photos of Zhao Dayong’s death scene in Weibo. He couldn’t just take his own death photos and post them online. Of course it’s possible if this account was registered after he arrived at the construction site in September, and he shared the password with others.” Yue Xingwen paused, “If this is the case, wouldn’t Zhao Dayong have known that he would die?”
Jiang Pingce said lightly, “He may also have committed suicide.”
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.
As soon as this sentence was spoken, the students around the room drew in a cold breath.
Aljcu Ulcumf mbcalcefv ab rjs, “Ktfgf lr cb agjmf bo atf wegvfgfg’r mglwf ja atf rmfcf, atf regnfliijcmf vlv cba mjqaegf j atlgv qfgrbc batfg atjc Itjb Gjsbcu jcv tlr cfqtfk fcafglcu atf yelivlcu, jcv atfgf lr cb mief ifoa ys atf wegvfgfg lc atf ecvfgugbecv qjrrjuf. Slatfg, atf wegvfgfg mjc jqqfjg jcv vlrjqqfjgfv ilxf j utbra, tjr qijccfv ibcu fcbeut, jcv lr mjealber fcbeut cba ab ifjnf jcs fnlvfcmf yftlcv bg—— atfgf lr cb wegvfgfg.”
Yue Xingwen looked at Jiang Pingce and said, “If Zhao Dayong committed suicide, then the surveillance wouldn’t capture the murderer entering or leaving the building; there were no traces found in the underground passage; The police found no fingerprints, hair or other information of the third party at the scene, called the relevant people to question, and released them due to insufficient evidence… All of this can get a reasonable explanation.”
Why couldn’t they found the traces left by the murderer?
Because there was no murderer.
Zhao Dayong climbed the building himself and jumped down himself, drawing a series of attention to himself by committing suicide.
Liu Zhaoqing frowned tightly, “Is it necessary to sacrifice so much to gain attention by committing suicide? He is Zhao Liang’s only guardian, and if he dies, won’t Zhao Liang be an orphan?”
Xu Yishen also said, “I remember that Zhao Dayong is only 35 years old this year, right? During the prime of his life, after the death of his brother and sister-in-law, he was entrusted with their only son Zhao Liang to his care. Now that Zhao Liang has not been admitted to a good university, his future is uncertain, and he left his only nephew to commit suicide, which is unreasonable. If they really conspired to find someone to kill themselves to get attention, it would make more sense to find those elderly people who have no relatives at home and can’t live for several years, which is more reasonable, right?”
The 35-year-old young man, with a nephew to take care of, committed suicide by jumping off a building… This was indeed too much sacrifice.
Jiang Pingce said, “Xingwen and I were just raising the possibility, even if there is a rare event with only a 1% probability, it’s still possible to happen.”
Yue Xingwen nodded in agreement and said, “That’s right, the analysis should be comprehensive. Although Zhao Dayong’s suicide is not very reasonable, it’s also possible, and, moreover, this conclusion can explain all the current suspicions. Of course, it will be more likely that the murderer is cautious enough to erase the traces and escape through the underground passage.”
He turned his head to look at Ke Shaobin and said, “Where did the account with the ID called ‘Seeking Justice’ come from? Can young Ke find out?”
Ke Shaobin said, “Weibo’s registration is a real-name system. Since this person has been planning for a long time, he will certainly not be stupid enough to use his own ID to register. This person might have bought this account, I’ll check the source from the following list, and a few other side acccounts to see.”
Ke Shaobin opened his laptop. He had connected to WiFi, he opened all the comments in the hot topics, picked out all the IDs of several top comments about the matter of construction site’s unpaid wages, looking for their followers, following lists, and daily forwarding… tracking by following the clues, checking all the way, and he actually found that two of the side accounts were following a marketing account called ‘Boya Studio’.
Ke Shaobin said excitedly, “A studio that specializes in selling water army side accounts!”
Yue Xingwen immediately moved over to look at his laptop screen. “Can you check the purchase records?”
Ke Shaobin said, “This studio sells water army accounts, so maybe there’s an online store that specializes in selling accounts.” Ke Shaobin pretended that he wanted to buy a water army and chatted privately with the other party: “Hello, I want to buy a few Weibo’s side accounts, how can I buy them?”
The other party’s business was mature, and directly sent a link: “Hello dear, we have a variety of packages oh~, buy hundreds of water army side accounts at a time and get discounts, you can take a look.”
It was the link to the online store. Ke Shaobin clicked in to take a look, its account was very cheap, and there were various gift packages. There were many positive reviews in the comments, but also some default anonymous comments that ‘the user did not make a timely rating’.
Ke Shaobin scanned through the list of reviews quickly, finding the September reviews and locking his eyes on one of the transaction records.
—— On September 10th, the user (Zhao**) gave a positive review by default.
The user bought a ‘new account package’, which coincided with the registration time of the ‘Seeking Justice’ on Weibo. He logged into Weibo on the same day, confirmed that the account password was fine, then paid and sent a positive review by default.
Yue Xingwen and Jiang Pingce looked at each other.
In the Internet era, as long as someone had bought something online, there would always be some trace of it left behind. Ke Shaobin followed the clues and actually found the exact person who bought the account, Zhao**.
Although the two characters behind the name were mosaic, the word ‘Zhao’ was enough to associate this person with Zhao Village. Clicking into this user Zhao**’s purchase history, he found that this person had also bought discounted shampoo, soap and other daily necessities online, as well as a few cheap white short sleeves for around 20 yuan.
Yue Xingwen said, “It’s really related to the Zhao Village.”
Jiang Pingce said, “Those with the surname Zhao, Zhao Qiang, Zhao Xuemei, Zhao Liang, and Zhao Anming. Among them, Zhao Qiang and Zhao Xuemei were taken by the police for questioning, and the two came out in the early hours to have affairs and were bumped into by Long Rui, who was smoking at that time. Assuming that Long Rui had nothing to do with this matter, the alibi of these two people were credible.”
Zhuo Feng immediately said, “I’ve been in contact with this Long Rui, and he’s a heavy smoker. He’s from the north, more than 20 hours by train from City A. He has a son and a daughter, both in university. He is an electrician who comes out to work to earn some household expenses. Mentioning the deceased, Zhao Dayong, he said that he was not familiar with him, and had not said a few words.”
Yue Xingwen said, “He has no private intersection with the deceased. So, he went out to smoke in the early hours of the morning and really just woke up in the middle of the night to go smoking, and ended up bumping into Zhao Xuewmei and Zhao Qiang making out, just in time for the death of Zhao Dayong… Wouldn’t that be too coincidental?”
Jiang Pingce said, “It’s a bit of a coincidence. However, Long Rui’s background and origin seem to have nothing to do with Zhao Village.”
Yue Xingwen said, “If nothing wrong with Long Rui, Zhao Qiang and Zhao Xuemei’s alibi is true, or at least it means that they are not directly related to the death case. Zhao Liang, the nephew, has no motive to commit the crime, and the remaining Zhao Anming, who sits there everyday chatting and gossiping with the workers, and a lot of the information we have about Zhao Village comes from his story.”
Jiang Pingce reminded them, “He has Weibo in his mobile phone and is very familiar with its various functions. Moreover, when Zhao Dayong came to the construction site, Zhao Anming took the initiative to share a room with Zhao Dayong, so wouldn’t it be very convenient for him to observe Zhao Dayong’s work and living habits?”
Yue Xingwen nodded. “Zhao Dayong’s roommate is indeed the person who knows Zhao Dayong’s whereabouts the best. This Zhao Anming, when he got together with the workers yesterday to chat, mentioned that his family owed a lot of debts and was in dire need of money. If he didn’t get paid again, his family wouldn’t be able to refrain from making a fuss. If he killed Zhao Dayong to get attention, he had the motive to commit the crime and the conditions to do so.”
The roommate could indeed accurately grasp Zhao Dayong’s living habits. For example, he liked to get up early at 4:00am in the morning to go to the construction site.
Silence once again fell over the room.
Who exactly was this Zhao** that bought Weibo’s side accounts?
Yue Xingwen wrote down the brand of shampoo that Ke Shaobin had found out and said, “Everyone needs to work hard, let’s visit the workers’ dormitories to see who uses this brand of shampoo and soap.”
They went separate ways and went to various dormitories to borrow it under the pretext of ‘I ran out of shampoo’.
But the results were surprising——
All the workers’ dormitories on the construction site used the same shampoo and soap.
Zhao Anming kindly recommended, “This is cheap and good. It’s also available at the supermarket at the entrance.”
Yue Xingwen met his smiling gaze and asked politely, “Brother Zhao, do you know how to do online shopping? My mobile phone broke a few days ago, can I give you cash and you can help me buy a cheap phone?”
Zhao Anming: “No problem! How much budget do you have to buy?”
He said that and opened the Taobao purchase page. Yue Xingwen glanced at his username, not ‘Zhao**’, but a very Jianghu style of the screen name ‘Horizon Battle Sword’.
Yue Xingwen smiled, “I don’t have enough money in my hand, so I’ll find my friend to scrape up some and give it to you.”
Zhao Anming: “Okay!”
Yue Xingwen returned to his dormitory and was puzzled.
Who was Zhao**? Could this person hide so deeply?
Everytime they got some clues, they could not go further when they continued to check. Originally, Zhao Anming was the most suspicious, but his Taobao account name was not Zhao**. The clues of shampoo and soap were also broken.
This person was like a hazy fog, obviously around them, but they could not grasp it accurately.
The Mystery of the Construction Site 09
Yue Xingwen felt that he was caught in a misunderstanding. He was tangled back and forth between the few peopled surnamed Zhao, what if the murderer was not among these people? Zhao**, was the ID that was used for online shopping. Although it could make people think about Zhao Village, it could not prove that this person must be surnamed Zhao, and anyone could take a screen name such as Mr. Zhao and Miss Zhao for online shopping.
If the murderer was not surnamed Zhao, who could this person be?
Yue Xingwen pressed his temple that was about to explode. Seeing him frowning, Jiang Pingce could not help but reach out and gently pat his shoulder, whispering, “Don’t think about it, just rest for a while, and talk about it tomorrow.”
Yue Xingwen could not figure out a clue for the time being, so he nodded. “Okay, everyone has been working all day, go back and rest first. It’s only the second day, and maybe there are new clues later. We can’t possibly solve the case so quickly.”
Everyone went back to their rooms.
As Secretary Qin personally came to inspect the workers today, their moods were obviously much more stable, and they did not cause any more trouble. So, they went back to sleep after having dinner.
Laying in bed, Yue Xingwen was tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep. He simply sat up and said, “Should we go to the building and take a look? In case the murderer moves in the middle of the night, maybe we can block the murderer?”
Jiang Pingce said, “We may not be able to go out at night.”
Yue Xingwen rolled over and got out of bed, tried to push open the door and walked out. Sure enough, he heard a prompt: “During the examination time, please do not leave the dormitory area at night.”
Sure enough, the library would not let them witness the murder scene directly; If they had stayed up all night on the first night and stood guard at the building entrance, wouldn’t they have seen the murderer in action? The library forcibly confined them to the dormitory area, making them to determine the murderer by reasoning.
Yue Xingwen said helplessly, “Forget it, there may be a new clue tomorrow.”
Jiang Pingce said softly, “En, don’t think too much. You won’t have enough brain cells like this, just sleep for now.”
Yue Xingwen closed his eyes and tried hard to hypnotize himself, and fell asleep unconsciously.
He expected to be awakened by screams again the next morning, but instead, the day was calm and tranquil. There was no accident, but a news came——
This news was released by the criminal police detachment of Chengnan District of City A in an official channel.
The cause of death of Zhao Dayong was determined to be ‘accidental death’.
Zhao Dayong stood in the crane in the early morning to sort out the cement, the guardrail loose, and he accidentally fell due to the crane on the seventh floor of the construction site was not stable enough, and accidentally hit the pile of steel piper on the ground, piercing his abdomen, rupturing his internal organs to death.
The police’s notifications let Yue Xingwen and Jiang Pingce look at each other.
Accidental fall?
Yue Xingwen frowned. “Closing the case so quickly, do you believe it was an accidental fall?”
Jiang Pingce shook his head. “It’s certainly not an accident, but if the police didn’t find any clues at the scene, plus the surveillance didn’t capture a third person, it really can’t be defined as murder. The timing of Weibo’s hot search is too coincidental, which makes it more likely that Zhao Dayong is… committing suicide?”
During their reasoning yesterday, they pushed out the possibility of Zhao Dayong committing suicide. Now, the police had decided that the case was an accident, and did not mention the murderer at all, so it seemed that the probability of Zhao Dayong committing suicide instantly increased.
But he was only 35-year-old, still so young. Was it too much to rely on suicide to attract media attention?
Yue Xingwen said, “If he committed suicide, then his purpose must have been more than just setting of a hot search to help the workers’ wages to be paid. I think there’s something deeper that hasn’t emerged yet.”
Jiang Pingce agreed and said, “For example, the death of his brother and sister-in-law?”
Since Zhao Dayong was a temporary worker, the construction company did not buy commercial accident insurance for him. The steel pipes piled up under the construction site and the loose crane were the direct causes of Zhao Dayong’s death. The construction company was not managed properly, taking full responsibility and needing to pay Zhao Dayong’s family, Zhao Liang, with a certain amount of compensation.
Zhao Dayong was a temporary worker, and did not sign a formal contract with the construction company. Even if the construction company really wanted to renege on the case and did not want to pay, the incident had become big and attracted the media attention. In order to calm things down, the person in charge from the construction company, surnamed Zhang, came to the construction site early in the morning, personally condoled Zhao Liang, and promised to properly bury his uncle’s remains and give him compensation.
Zhao Liang looked downcast and accepted Director Zhang’s plan.
The second piece of good news was also brought by Director Zhang. Last time, he was anxious to appease everyone and ended up being scolded away by the workers. This time, he was in high spirits and picked up the megaphone and said, “The matter of our construction unit’s wage being unpaid has aroused the great attention of the leaders! President Jiang, the boss of Dexin Group, is on the plane and will come over in person this afternoon to talk to everyone. Rest assured, we will definitely give everyone a satisfactory answer this time!”
Hearing that the developer boss was coming, the construction site was full of cheers, the workers were all overjoyed. The power of the media was indeed strong, they had organized several disturbances before, but not as effective as this one.
Sure enough, at 2:00pm in the afternoon, several cars drove up outside the construction site and a boss in a suit rushed to the site.
Yue Xingwen recognized at a glance, this person was Jiang Dexin, the president of Dexin Group, a well-known local entrepreneur who had developed many real estate projects, including the Qingshui Bay resort near Zhao Village.
Because the death of Zhao Dayong’s brother and sister-in-law was too bizarre, Yue Xingwen never reduced his suspicions about the Dexin Group. Initially he had wondered if Zhao Dayong had found out the inside story of the Dexin Group and someone was sent by Dexin Group’s boss to silence him. He couldn’t help but look at president Jiang a few more times, a 40-ish entrepreneur who looked gentle on the surface and had an amiable smile.
After he came to the construction site, he first cared about the family of the deceased, Zhao Liang, and then patiently explained to the workers, “Our Dexin group had problems with the approval of the previous project developed in City B, and the bank loan has not been approved yet, resulting in the return of funds a few months late. We have recently negotiated with the bank and I promise, at the end of this month, we will definitely pay everyone the first half of the wages, and give everyone a certain amount of compensation according to the interest!”
Hearing that there was compensation, Zhao Anming immediately asked loudly, “How much compensation will be given? Don’t play with us! A written statement must be issued, signed and sealed! If we don’t get paid again, we’ll sue you and take it to court!”
President Jiang’s face stiffened and he said, “We definitely won’t cheat everyone this time. We’ll issue a written statement and the compensation will be calculated according to the interest rate of 5% per month! Half a year adds up, each person gets a compensation of 1,000 yuan more!”
Everyone was delighted to hear that each person was getting an extra 1,000 yuan.
The secretary next to him took the megaphone and said, “Everyone, you can choose a few workers’ representatives, go to the office with our president Jiang to sign the agreement, and we, the Dexin Group, will definitely fulfill our promise.”
The workers were discussing and soon elected several representatives, and Yue Xingwen followed them to the office to draft the agreement.
President Jiang was really cunning, he gave a bunch of reasons to pacify the workers, always smiling, friendly, and gentle. The workers could not be angry with him, and finally both sides signed peacefully to finish the matter.
Whether this ‘statement’ of the agreement had legal effect or not was not discussed, things had settled down too quickly, so that Yue Xingwen always felt that something was wrong.
After president Jiang left, the uneasiness in Yue Xingwen’s heart grew stronger.
Was it so easy to settle things?
Zhao Dayong was concluded as an accidental fall and Zhao Liang received compensation, alarming president Jiang, the boss of the Dexin Group, who personally came out and promised to pay the workers at the end of the month and gave them some compensation.
The purpose of Weibo’s hot search was achieved, Zhao Dayong did not die in vain, and the workers also got additional compensation.
However, the sacrifice of one person for all of this always felt like it wasn’t worth it.
After Yue Xingwen returned to the dormitory, he began to analyze the information about the Dexin Group that Ke Shaobin had found out, but unfortunately, there were very few reports about the Qingshui Bay project.
The day passed quickly, and just as the investigation was sinking into a predicament…
At 2:00pm on the third day, the police suddenly came to the construction site and asked in a serious manner who had been in contact with Jiang Dexin.
President Jiang, who was smiling in a friendly manner yesterday, explaining to the workers and signing the agreements in his office, had actually disappeared!
well I was thinking it had to do with his brothers death too. didnt they say that he died working for a project by the Dexin group too? now I am lost lol
thanks for the chapter <3
I feel headache! Only the best students can find the answers
Thank you for your translation 💙💙💙💙
I think Dayong killed himself with the nephew’s knowledge in order to lure the boss out so that the nephew could kill him in revenge for his parents’ death.