I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 209: Chapter 207: Too Many Suspicious Points

Qi Feng took a few officers with him to Wanxiang Village.

They could have just called the local town police station to ask about the situation, but Zhuang Yanzheng felt it would be more reliable to have someone go check out Liu Shitang’s residence in person.

After Qi Feng and his team left, word came back from the bank.

Liu Shitang had bought the house with cash, paid in full.

There wasn’t much money in any of the bank accounts under Liu Shitang’s name. The largest transactions, both deposits and withdrawals, were only a few thousand yuan.

Where the cash came from was unclear.

”Such a large sum of cash... When he bought the house, Liu Shitang would have presented his household registration, ID, bank statements, and so on. Did no one find that strange? Weren’t they worried about the source of the cash? Didn’t they verify it?” Su Miaoyi asked.

She voiced the questions, but they had found no information related to them.

It seemed the transaction hadn’t drawn any particular attention at the time.

Perhaps they just asked a few questions and processed it?

Su Miaoyi found it quite strange.

Later that night, they contacted the neighbors in 1602 to ask them some questions.

The neighbors had bought their apartment over a decade ago.

However, they had only lived there for three years after buying it before moving abroad to accompany their daughter for her studies.

Now that their daughter had graduated and was returning, they were planning to renovate the apartment before moving back in.

During the three years they lived there, a young couple lived next door. When they left, that same young couple was still living there.

So, they didn’t know Liu Shitang and had never seen him.

When they returned two weeks ago to start renovating, the apartment next door was empty.

Next, they contacted the previous owner of 1601.

The previous owner wasn’t in Jinghai. He had been doing business in the south for years and had been renting the apartment out the entire time, until a buyer came along over a year ago and he sold it.

He didn’t know anything else.

As for the residential complex’s surveillance footage... it was only kept for a maximum of three months.

That night, Su Miaoyi helped review the surveillance footage.

In the portion of the elevator footage she watched, at least, no one had gone to the sixteenth floor except for the gas meter reader.

The footage Lu Zhishen was watching, on the other hand, was full of people coming and going.

Besides the couple from 1602 who had returned from abroad, there were also the members of the renovation crew.

Zhuang Yanzheng had already contacted the renovation company and sent officers to question them.

According to the downstairs neighbor, Liu Shitang may have been dead for over a year.

But they still had to wait for the autopsy results. Since the body had been frozen, the time of death might not be accurate.

That’s why they still had to meticulously review the last three months of surveillance footage.

Another sleepless night passed.

Lu Zhishen pounded on his aching, swollen, and sore legs.

As for Su Miaoyi, besides not seeing anything significant on the surveillance footage, she hadn’t had any of her ”visions” either.

She stood up, stretched, and rubbed her lower back. Tilting her head, she saw Lu Zhishen pounding his legs.

The night had passed, and the hair Lu Zhishen had tied up had come loose.

Su Miaoyi glanced at his hair, then touched her own.

Hers was already greasy, but Lu Zhishen’s was still quite fluffy.

’We both have hair, so how come his is so good at saving shampoo?’

”I’m starting to think you’re low on vitality,” Su Miaoyi said suddenly.

Lu Zhishen looked up at her. ”You try walking for over four hours and then pulling an all-nighter...”

He trailed off mid-sentence.

Because the person standing in front of him had also walked for over four hours and pulled an all-nighter.

”I have plenty of vitality. I’m perfectly healthy,” Lu Zhishen declared, defending his constitution with great certainty.

Su Miaoyi chuckled. ”Now *that’s* what someone with plenty of vitality looks like.”

She watched as Zhuang Yanzheng strode over, full of vigor, taking long strides.

Lu Zhishen glanced at him, then lowered his head again. ”He’s at a level where just looking at him makes me tired.”

”I’m not looking either. It’s making me tired, too,” Su Miaoyi said, sinking back into her chair.

”So, from now on, can I call you two the ’Low-Vitality Siblings’ of the CID?” an officer nearby joked.

Su Miaoyi and Lu Zhishen both looked at him, then sighed in unison without a word.

They were too tired to even speak.

”Never seen anyone ’low on vitality’ who can fight so well,” Zhuang Yanzheng said, placing breakfast on the table. ”Any leads?”

Su Miaoyi and Lu Zhishen both shook their heads.

”What about the renovation crew?” Su Miaoyi asked, grabbing a steamed bun.

”No leads there either. We’ve questioned everyone, and they all match the people in the surveillance footage,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Lu Zhishen poked a straw into a cup of soy milk and handed it to Su Miaoyi before grabbing another for himself. ”What about Qi Feng’s team?”

”Eat first. We’ll discuss it in the conference room when you’re done,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

As soon as he said that, Su Miaoyi and Lu Zhishen stood up with their buns in hand.

”No eating in the conference room,” Zhuang Yanzheng stated.

They both sat back down.

They quickly finished their food and went to the conference room.

Everyone’s eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep.

Zhuang Yanzheng cut right to the chase. ”Liu Shitang sold his house in Wanxiang Village five years ago. We talked to the villagers, and they said he was an idle good-for-nothing. He couldn’t even manage the six mu of land his family owned; he wouldn’t even pull the weeds. If he had money, he’d spend it. Once it was gone, he’d do odd jobs to earn a little, and then spend that too.”

”What about the money from selling the house?” Su Miaoyi asked. She remembered there were no deposits of five figures or more in his bank account.

”It was a cash transaction, eighty thousand in total,” Qi Feng said. ”The villagers said that not long after he sold the house, over fifty thousand was stolen from him. He reported it to the police, but it was never recovered. He probably spent the rest not long after. Anyway, the impression he gave was that he was always broke.”

Su Miaoyi frowned, silently cursing the thief before asking, ”Where did he live after selling the house?”

”He set up a prefab shelter outside the village—one of those small, corrugated, fire-proof container units, just big enough for a bed,” Zhuang Yanzheng said, pulling up a photo.

Everyone looked at the screen.

The photo showed the inside of the shelter was a complete mess. The bed was piled high with clothes. Next to it were a washbasin, a bucket, a television, and a kettle. In another corner was a pile of waste cardboard and plastic bottles.

The shelter was small to begin with, and with all the junk piled up, there was barely any room to stand, let alone sleep on the bed.

”What kind of odd jobs did he do?” Lu Zhishen asked.

”Whenever a family with a lot of land needed an extra hand, he’d go. About a hundred yuan a day,” Qi Feng said.

Lu Zhishen nodded.

”Everyone in the village said they hadn’t seen him for over a year,” Qi Feng said.

”He disappeared, and no one called the police?”

”The local town police station has a record. A year ago, in July of last year, the village reported Liu Shitang missing. They sent people to look for him, but he was never found,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”The missing person poster Qi Feng photographed on the utility pole was for Liu Shitang.”

”The villagers all thought he might have gotten lost or had some kind of accident,” Qi Feng said.

”Did the villagers mention anything unusual?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”A little over a year ago, around March of last year, the villagers said he suddenly bought a new phone. It was last year’s latest model, cost over eight thousand yuan, and he showed it off for a long time,” Qi Feng said.

”When the villagers asked him where he got the money, he wouldn’t say. Then someone joked that he must have stolen it, and he got into a fight with them. He said he was about to get rich—that he wouldn’t just buy a new phone, but a big house in the future, and they’d all be green with envy.”

Su Miaoyi and Lu Zhishen were both puzzled for a moment, then exchanged a look.

”Didn’t anyone ask him where the money was from?” Lu Zhishen asked.

”People asked, but he wouldn’t say. He just kept saying he was going to get rich. After that, the villagers saw him around less and less, and then he disappeared completely,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”Because of all that, some villagers even suspected he’d been taken away by some criminal gang...”

Just as he was speaking, an officer suddenly came over. ”Captain Zhuang, we’ve got a homicide.”

...