TPODN Chapter 47

It was just after six o’clock, and the leadership floor on the fifteenth floor of Maoyuan Building was already silent.
“Is everyone gone?”
Hearing Lu Yao ask this, Jiang Kefan nodded.
“The three people who stay at the company the latest every time are the chairman, the general manager, and the head of the product planning department.”
“Police officers, what are you here to see this time?” Jiang Kefan asked nervously.
“It’s okay, I want to see other places this time,” Wang Linfei said with a smile.
…
Wang Linfei spread out the blueprint of Maoyuan Building.
“Where should we start?” Jiang Kefan asked.
“Let’s start with the women’s bathroom.” Wang Linfei said.
Probably thinking it was a joke, Jiang Kefan chuckled. However, Wang Linfei quickly walked towards the restroom.
“Why don’t you wait here?”
Jiang Kefan said to Lu Yao, seemingly thinking that Wang Linfei really needed to go to the bathroom.
“Okay.”
Wang Linfei, who was about to enter the toilet entrance, suddenly turned his head.
“Lu Yao!” Wang Linfei shouted.
“What? I have to go in too?” Lu Yao’s eyes flickered, she had never been in a men’s restroom in her life.
Pretending he had no choice, he had to follow in. Jiang Kefan couldn’t help but stare blankly at the scene.
This was the first time Jiang Kefan had ever entered a men’s restroom in her life, luckily there was no one on this floor. Lu Yao followed Wang Linfei cautiously into the restroom and saw that Wang Linfei had already set up a ladder in the center. On the right side were urinals and a washbasin for cleaning.
“What do you want to check?” Lu Yao asked, puzzled.
“The inside of the ceiling,” Wang Linfei climbed up the ladder.
Wang Linfei pointed to a forty-centimeter square maintenance hole in the ceiling.
Sitting at the top of the ladder, Wang Linfei took out a flat-head screwdriver and loosened the metal parts resembling screw heads. After opening the partition of the maintenance hole, the inside of the ceiling was exposed.
“Could it be that the inside of the bathroom ceiling can directly lead to the chairman’s office?”
In an instant, the figure of a ninja flashed through Lu Yao’s mind.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s possible. But, just in case, I still need to confirm it,” Wang Linfei said.
Wang Linfei reached into the maintenance hole with both hands, gently propped himself up, and poked his head into the maintenance hole. A series of nimble movements, like an expert in freehand rock climbing. Lu Yao sighed that this man was really amazing.
“I’ll go in and take a look.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Linfei disappeared as if swallowed by the maintenance hole.
The surroundings returned to silence. Even if she strained her ears, she couldn’t hear any footsteps.
At this time, Lu Yao suddenly thought of Jiang Kefan, who should still be waiting outside. Lu Yao couldn’t help but worry about what kind of associations she would have seeing herself and Wang Linfei walking into the men’s restroom together.
After opening the bathroom door, as expected, Jiang Kefan was still standing in the elevator lobby. Since she had her back to her, she couldn’t see her expression, but she seemed to be thinking about something.
“Sorry, it should be done soon.”
Hearing Lu Yao’s voice, Jiang Kefan turned around, and it could be seen that she had taken a deep breath.
“You’re really checking the restroom!”
“Actually, I’m checking the inside of the ceiling, maybe I can solve the mystery of the locked room.”
For some reason, Lu Yao felt that her tone was weaving an excuse.
“Locked room?”
Jiang Kefan looked at Lu Yao incredulously.
“Yes. If Minister Zhao Menglin is really innocent, then the chairman’s office at the scene of the crime becomes a locked room.”
“Minister Zhao is definitely innocent.”
Jiang Kefan said firmly.
“Yes, we also know very well that he is not that kind of person.”
“That’s not what I meant… Of course, Minister Zhao is not that kind of person, but…”
Lu Yao felt that Jiang Kefan wanted to say something but stopped.
“Do you know something?”
Lu Yao asked gently.
“Even the smallest details are fine, can you tell me? Maybe Minister Zhao can be released because of this.”
“It’s about the blanket.”
“Blanket?”
“Because Minister Zhao fell asleep in his chair that noon, I helped him cover the blanket on his body. However, because the blanket kept slipping off, I later secured the blanket.”
“How to fix it?”
“The backrest and armrests of Minister Zhao’s chair are relatively narrow, so I tucked a corner of the blanket in. However, this requires a little skill.”
“But, why is this…”
“After Manager Liu discovered the chairman’s body, he entered Minister Zhao’s office. At that time, Minister Zhao was still covered with a blanket, exactly the same as when I fixed it.”
In this way, maybe this can be used as indirect evidence to prove that Minister Zhao never got up from his seat before falling asleep.
“Is it possible that Minister Zhao put it back on himself?”
“I think it should be quite difficult, because Minister Zhao’s hands were still close to his body and covered the blanket.”
Lu Yao fell into thought. Of course, this doesn’t mean it’s absolutely impossible…
“Did you tell the Huangle District Police Station about this?”
“No, because I was too shocked at the time and completely forgot about the blanket. However, I remembered it after a long time. Even when Manager Liu grabbed Minister Zhao’s chest, the blanket was still on him. It wasn’t until he was forcibly pulled up by Manager Liu that the blanket fell off.”
Maybe, this inconspicuous thing can be used to defend Minister Zhao.
“If necessary, can I ask you to testify in court?”
“Okay.”
Jiang Kefan didn’t think that the old man would make the action of putting the blanket back on. Because even if he could put the blanket back on, it would not prove his innocence. Conversely, even if the blanket slips off, it does not necessarily mean that he is the culprit.
This kind of seemingly weak evidence can often give people the impression of being innocent. Sure enough, Minister Zhao is innocent.
“In addition, there is one thing that is forbidden to be told to outsiders.”
It seemed that after finishing the blanket incident, she felt much more relaxed, and Jiang Kefan actually let it slip.
“Actually, Manager Liu was threatened not long ago.”
“Threatened? Who is the other party?”
“I don’t know, but…”
Lu Yao patiently waited for Jiang Kefan to continue.
“Our nursing and care center once had a fatal accident. Although it did not constitute a criminal case at the time, the compensation issue seemed to be quite tricky. Among the family members of the deceased, there was a more radical person who broke into the company several times, and it seemed that they all ended in reconciliation.”
“How long ago was this?”
“About two years ago.”
“Do you know the specific content of the threat?”
“I don’t know, I heard it from an old colleague. I only heard that it seemed that they were going to set the company on fire, or spread the word that the chairman’s family would also suffer the same fate. Although these are almost all rumors, it seems that the police were alarmed once. However, the real problem occurred after this incident.”
Jiang Kefan hesitated for a while and continued.
“It happened last fall that the chairman’s window was shot.”
“Shot? Was it a sniper rifle?”
Lu Yao looked stunned.
“No, I heard it was a BB gun. Early in the morning, after Li Meng entered the company, he found a hole in the east window of the chairman’s office, and a BB gun pellet was embedded in the opposite door.”
“Pellet?”
“It seems to be a bullet for a BB gun.”
“Did you report this to the police?”
“There was no record at the time. It should be that the stock was about to be delisted, so they tried their best to block the news and didn’t want to create a scandal. However, after that incident, a lot of anti-theft equipment was installed on the fifteenth floor.”
Many questions in her heart seemed to be gradually explained.
“However, after this incident, you should have told the people at the Huangle District Police Station about the last incident, right?”
“Yes.”
Those people at the Huangle District Police Station! Lu Yao felt very angry at the police at that police station. Chairman Zhou Runmin was not only threatened, but even sniped at. These were all very powerful clues, indicating that the murderer was likely to be someone outside the company.
The people at the Huangle District Police Station did not tell the people from the “Special Criminal Investigation Unit” about this. They probably felt that the case team was a special department and had no real power. If the case was solved, they would not be able to claim credit!
Lu Yao stomped her feet angrily, no matter what, the case team was also a department of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, so was this insubordination?
Just then, there was a sound from the bathroom, it should be Wang Linfei coming back. Then she heard the sound of tap water flowing, Lu Yao turned around and opened the door of the men’s restroom.
“What’s wrong?”
Wang Linfei looked very miserable, covered in dust from head to toe. Especially the knee area, like a layer of chalk ash, a piece of gray and white.
“No matter what kind of building, it is impossible to clean the outside of the ceiling.”
Wang Linfei frowned, washing his face with water.
“The ceiling is made of gypsum board and asbestos sound-absorbing board. The whole piece is pure black gypsum powder. I was afraid that the board would be overloaded and cause the entire ceiling to fall, so I had to climb under the skeleton structure made of lightweight steel, but I still made it look like this.”
“As a result, what did you find?”
“This building is divided into fire-proof areas from behind the corridor, and cement walls are also separated on the outside of the ceiling. Therefore, it is impossible to reach the ceiling below the chairman’s office from the outside of the ceiling.”
“I see, then the assumption of entering the chairman’s office through the ceiling can be ruled out, right?”
“If it’s a person, of course it’s impossible. However, we can’t say for sure about monkeys.”
“What do you mean?”
“Because the air-conditioning duct runs through the partition wall of the fire-proof area and extends into the chairman’s office. Therefore, as long as the monkey is put into the duct, it can sneak into the chairman’s office.”
“So that’s how it is, you mean entering through the duct. However, even if you get to the chairman’s office, can you enter the room?”
“The structure of the air outlet is roughly the same everywhere. It can be easily removed with a light push. The structure is quite simple. This has been confirmed when you inspected the chairman’s office.”
Hearing what he said, Lu Yao remembered the scene where Wang Linfei easily removed the air outlet cover.
“Then you mean that the murderer led the monkey to the outside of the ceiling and made a hole in the middle of the duct, and then let the monkey in?”
“I also confirmed this just now, but the ducts here don’t seem to be prepared in advance.”
“I see…” Lu Yao suddenly noticed something.
“Wait, is the inside of the ceiling in front of the fire-proof area unobstructed?”
“Yes.”
“Then, can you also enter from the ceiling of the women’s restroom?”
“That’s right, but I’m a woman, so I can’t help but have some scruples.”
Wang Linfei said it as a matter of course.
Does that mean I don’t have any scruples about entering the women’s restroom? Lu Yao looked helpless.
“… So, where did the monkey enter the duct from?”
“The only possibility is from the equipment mechanical room.”
Wang Linfei carried the ladder out of the men’s restroom, and Lu Yao followed behind. Wang Linfei walked to the door next door and asked Jiang Kefan, who looked confused, to open the door of the equipment mechanical room. Jiang Kefan took the elevator downstairs and brought back a bunch of keys that looked like a steering wheel.
A huge iron box occupied half of the area of the equipment mechanical room.
“This is the air conditioner on the fifteenth floor. The duct next to it is connected to the total heat exchanger, which is used to exchange outside air, adjust it to the appropriate temperature, and then send it to the air conditioner. The wind sent out from the air conditioner is sent to the duct I just mentioned that can lead to the chairman’s office through the combustion chamber above.”
Wang Linfei spoke eloquently, as if he was the equipment person in charge of this company.
“The combustion chamber is just a simple air-conditioning channel, but this side can be disassembled,” Wang Linfei said.
The position of the combustion chamber was close to the ceiling. Wang Linfei climbed up the ladder, took out large tools, and disassembled the latch fixed to the partition of the combustion chamber.
“If the monkey wants to enter from the air-conditioning duct, it can only be from here.”
Looking down from above, Lu Yao discovered that what Wang Linfei said seemed likely to happen.
Wang Linfei took out his mobile phone, turned on the flashlight and probed inside. Dust covered the entire inside of the duct.
“The air outlet in the chairman’s office is relatively clean, but even in the windward state, it will still accumulate dust.”
“In that case, as long as you have passed through here, you can see it immediately,” Lu Yao said.
Not to mention monkeys, even mice can probably leave clear traces on the dust.
“Then…?”
“It means that taking care of the monkeys is completely innocent!”
Although Lu Yao was very happy to be able to clear Keke and Lili’s names, the mystery of the locked room became more and more difficult to solve.
…
“Lu Yao, I’m hungry, let’s go eat.” At this moment, Wang Linfei was covered in dust.
“Okay!”
Lu Yao agreed hesitantly.
The two of them happened to feel a little hungry, so they walked into KFC.
“I think we should first summarize what we learned throughout the day, and then discuss the direction after tomorrow.”
Wang Linfei took a big bite of the spicy chicken burger and said. The dust on his body was almost impossible to remove. His “shape” attracted the curious eyes of other customers in the store, but he didn’t care at all.
“We should have investigated the details of this case almost thoroughly,” Wang Linfei said.
“No, Wang Team, how do you know so much about mechanical products like air conditioners?” Although the analysis of the case is very important, Lu Yao still wanted to ask about the aspects she was interested in first.
“I’ve lived in Fengyun City alone for so long, and I usually like to study some strange things. I’m a man, so I must be interested in machinery,” Wang Linfei said casually.

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