Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After a while, several police officers bought delicious Western style food for Zhao Yu and the others, including steak, hamburger, pizza and so on, all of which were hearty dishes that Zhao Yu liked. Lately, Zhao Yu had only been eating plain porridge, so he totally forgot his doctor’s orders and finished all of what the officers had bought for him!
Because they were pressed for time in this case, he kept working even during the meal, watching the video that Wu Xiumin had recorded when she was interrogating Han Kuan last night for the second time. It turned out that during the interrogation, Wu Xiumin had asked Han Kuan the names of his classmates from Beiqian.
Han Kuan had said that five classmates, including him, went to Beiqian. They were four males and one female, all of whom were invited there by Lang Xiangyang.
However, because it was long time ago and Han Kuan was not close with these classmates, he couldn’t remember their names. Other than Lang Xiangyang, he only remembered a girl named Li Yan. This was because when they had first arrived at Beiqian, the SARS epidemic was at its climax.
At that time, Li Yan was afraid that she would get infected if she stayed in Beiqian, so she went home early. When they had all started working, they were assigned to different places, so there was not much communication between them. This explained clearly why he could not remember their names.
Zhao Yu carefully observed Han Kuan’s reaction. It was just like Wu Xiumin had said… Except for his evident tiredness, he displayed no signs of nervousness or excitement. In fact, when he spoke, he was so emotionless and calm that it almost seemed as if he was telling someone else’s story.
But, when Zhao Yu thought about Han Kuan’s reaction when his wife had died, which he also thought was way too calm, Han Kuan appeared to be reacting in a truly abnormal way.
This was especially true when Zhao Yu recalled Han Kuan’s astonishing reaction in the restroom. As Zhao Yu pondered all of these things, he was convinced that Han Kuan must know something, even if he was not the murderer from the Devil Case.
Just as Zhao Yu was watching the video, Miao Ying got some new information. Through visiting witnesses, she had learned that one of the victims from the Devil Case, a teacher at the Guang’an Special education School, was known for bullying students.
Rumors even said that he had actually sexually assaulted some female students! And… The shop owner in Yingping was involved in a scandal, where he apparently forced female employees to take off their clothes in front of him!
When he heard this, Zhao Yu instantly remembered that Captain Jin’s yellow notebook also mentioned this fact about the shop owner’s past transgressions. However, because the persecuted female employees denied being assaulted by the shop owner, the police did not end up charging the shop owner.
Now, it seemed that the rumors might be true, and either the owner paid the employees to silence them, or the employees were unwilling to admit being assaulted to the public. After learning about this, Zhao Yu and Cui Lizhu felt that there were striking similarities between the Devil Case and the Headless Female Corpses Case.
All of the victims in the Devil Case seem to have bullied others before they were killed, and the murderer’s motive was to punish these people by using extreme methods. As he thought of this, Zhao Yu wondered… Is Han Kuan a victim of bullying… Or is he a terrible murderer?
Although Han Kuan was a major suspect, Zhao Yu felt that Han Kuan and Li Fei were two completely different people. If Han Kuan was really the murderer from the Devil Case, he should not be behaving so calmly.
The Special Investigation Group worked very hard, as did the Yaoming Police Station, in order to help Zhao Yu, and thanks to their joined efforts, it only took a single morning for them to find the information about the students who had gone with Han Kuan to Beiqian.
What they found confirmed that Han Kuan was telling the truth. He did go to Beiqian with four males and one female, a total of five people. And… The girl, Li Yan, did indeed return home because of the SARS outbreak.
So, the focus of the investigation shifted to the three boys. They learned that the three boys, just like Han Kuan, had only stayed at Beiqian for half a year, earned a big sum of money with the teacher, Lang Xiangyang, then returned to their hometowns to work.
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At present, the Yaoming police had contacted their local police stations and were investigating the three people’s hometowns in order to see if there were any similar cases to the Devil Case that had occurred in their jurisdictions before. If there were any similar cases, this might help them to catch the real murderer, as once there was a suspect, they would know what to do next!
Because Li Yan had been ruled out as a suspect, Zhao Yu immediately asked Cui Lizhu to call Li Yan, so that they could question her further in hopes of finding out more about the situation that specific year. But, after the call went through, Li Yan refused to cooperate because she thought that it was a prank call. So, she promptly hung up!
Zhao Yu and others then had to contact the local police, who contacted Li Yan’s manager at her workplace and confirmed that they were indeed the calling on official police business. Finally, Li Yan believed them.
Once that she was convinced that it was indeed the Criminal Division that was calling, Li Yan agreed to cooperate. Fortunately, Li Yan had a good memory, and she was immediately able to name all of the other students, including Han Kuan.
Li Yan said that the reason she had followed Lang Xiangguo to Beiqian to work was that she was from Nanjiang, which was not far from Beiqian. At that time, she was mainly responsible for delivering goods and bookkeeping. What she did was simple, but she earned a lot for it.
However, money was not as important to her as her life. So, when SARS suddenly broke out, she chose to resign from her position and go home. Although Lang Xiangguo was somewhat reluctant to see her go, he could not stop her. So, she went back to her hometown in Nanjiang after having worked there for less than half a month.
At Zhao Yu’s suggestion, Cui Lizhu requested over the phone, “Please tell me more about the other students.”
“The others? Okay…” Li Yan recalled for a moment, then said, “Liu Haoran was responsible for deliveries with me, Sang Wenliang was in charge of transportation, and Li Qiang and Han Kuan were technicians, who were responsible for equipment installation and maintenance…”
Upon hearing this, Zhao Yu’s eyes lit up as he wrote down Li Qiang’s name. Of all of the three people, only Li Qiang and Han Kuang did the same job! So, in Zhao Yu’s mind, Li Qiang was now under the greatest suspicion!
Li Yan thought for a moment, then said, “Among those boys, only Han Kuan was a stranger to me. The other three boys were my classmates! Mr. Lang was the head teacher of our class, while Han Kuan was in Class 11. I didn’t ever understand why Mr. Lang wanted him, but I figured that maybe he was really skilled…”
Not in the same class? And… Not his head teacher? While Zhao Yu was pondering this with a puzzled look in his face, Officer Wang gently pulled him aside and showed him a piece of information.
This information was that Li Qiang was from Zhao County, which was under the governance of Yingping. That was to say, Li Qiang’s hometown was in the vicinity of Beiqian.
As Beiqian was the location of the Devil Case, if Li Qiang was the murderer, and any of the same types of murders had happened later in that area, it would have inevitably attracted the police’s attention. Therefore, Zhao Yu began to suspect Li Qiang less and less, as no similar cases had been reported.
Zhao Yu thought… If Li Qiang is not the murderer, then…
At this time, Li Yan was still talking on the phone. While Zhao Yu was putting all of the materials that he had just obtained on his bed, he suddenly found another problem.
Among the five students, only Han Kuan was from Golden City, which was very far from Beiqian. The other four people all lived within the vicinity of Beiqian!
As Han Kuan was not in their same class and his hometown was far away from Beiqian, it was strange for Han Kuan to have come to work in Beiqian. Equally as strange, Lang Xiangyang was not Han Kuan’s head teacher!
Suddenly, Zhao Yu noticed something important, which left him stunned. He suddenly wondered… Lang Xiangyang, why did you choose Han Kuan? So… The issue is not with the students, but the teacher!