SOTC Chapter 34

“Team Xue, do we have to keep watching? We’ve already watched these tapes almost twenty times…”

Xue Yan had been in the county Public Security Bureau’s screening room for almost twelve hours, and sitting next to him was Zhang Rui, an intern recently assigned to the Criminal Investigation Team.

If only one person is always investigating a case, many details will inevitably be overlooked.

So Xue Yan chose to have Zhang Rui join him in following up on Wang Nongxin’s case.

This was mainly because Zhang Rui was transferred from another county for his internship. He had a clean background, so there was no need to worry that he would have any involvement in this case.

But the downside was that Zhang Rui was still young. The young man in his mid-twenties often lacked patience and couldn’t help but complain a little.

“Wang Nongxin’s body was discovered forty-eight hours after his death. Whether he committed suicide or not, since Gu Zheng’s fingerprints were left at the scene, then Gu Zheng must have been to the deceased’s home, right? We’ve watched these tapes more than twenty times. They contain surveillance footage for a whole week leading up to the discovery of the deceased, but I haven’t seen any man resembling Gu Zheng enter Building 9 where the deceased lived. Xiao Zhang, think about it now. Is it possible that Gu Zheng never actually went to the deceased’s home?”

“If he didn’t go, how were the fingerprints left at the scene? I don’t think that’s logical.”

Zhang Rui was obviously stunned after hearing Xue Yan’s question. He thought for a long time and finally answered like this.

“Illogical? You also think it’s illogical. Then let me ask you another illogical question. The surveillance only covers the five days before the body was discovered, which means there is only surveillance footage from the five days before the deceased’s death. Let’s assume that the person who killed Wang Nongxin wasn’t Gu Zheng, and that Gu Zheng visited Wang Nongxin earlier and left his fingerprints in his home. Is that possible?”

“I don’t think that’s possible either.”

Zhang Rui thought for a while again and shook his head.

“Among the evidence found at the scene with Gu Zheng’s fingerprints, one item was a cigarette butt. And in the remaining cigarette butts in that ashtray, there were only Wang Nongxin’s fingerprints. We learned that Wang Nongxin usually smokes, and he has a strong nicotine addiction. It is very strange for someone who likes to smoke not to empty the ashtray for more than five days. Unless the deceased never returned home after Gu Zheng went to his home that day, but we saw in the surveillance that Wang Nongxin went home every day.”

“Very good, Xiao Zhang. Clear thinking and keen observation. Then how do you think this problem should be explained? Now the question is no longer whether Wang Nongxin committed suicide, but when did Gu Zheng leave his fingerprints in Wang Nongxin’s residence? If he came to Wang Nongxin’s home, the surveillance should have recorded it. If he didn’t come, how do you explain the fingerprints? Under normal circumstances, judging from the number of cigarette butts in the ashtray, Gu Zheng should have come to his house within one to two days before Wang Nongxin’s death, but Gu Zheng’s figure did not appear in the surveillance.”

Xue Yan patted Zhang Rui on the shoulder and raised this question again.

In fact, the main reason why they were watching the surveillance over and over again was that there were too many illogical things about Wang Nongxin’s death.

“Then I really can’t think of why…”

Zhang Rui said somewhat ashamed.

“When I first became a criminal police officer, my team leader at the time told me that if any case reveals a logical paradox, then we must carefully recall what details have been overlooked, and most of the truth is often hidden in the details. Let’s recall, on the day of Wang Nongxin’s death, we investigated everyone who entered Building 9 and did not find anyone with criminal suspicion. But at that time, we didn’t investigate suspicious people who entered Building 9 the day before, right?”

Xue Yan didn’t blame Zhang Rui. Instead, he started to sort out the logic again.

“But on the day before the estimated time of death, no suspicious people entered Building 9. I don’t understand what you mean, Team Xue…”

Zhang Rui looked at Xue Yan with some confusion.

“What I mean is that logically, Gu Zheng should appear in the video one to two days before the deceased’s estimated time of death, but now we haven’t seen it. At the same time, during these two days, we haven’t seen any suspicious people entering the deceased’s building, so is it possible that one day’s video during these two days is fake? The identification department only identified the video from the day of the incident until the day of the victim’s estimated time of death, but the previous video was not identified. I think this possibility is very high now, so you should immediately send these two tapes to the identification department and let them identify them again. Time is tight, so please urge them to do it as quickly as possible.”

“Understood, Team Xue, I’ll go now.”

Zhang Rui, who had just joined the Criminal Investigation Team, couldn’t keep up with Xue Yan’s train of thought, but in fact, even Xue Yan himself was having trouble keeping up with his own train of thought.

The situation of these cases in Yulin County was changing too quickly, and the branches that were constantly being involved were also becoming increasingly complex.

Xue Yan rarely sat in the office, but until the appraisal result came out, he had no choice but to wait patiently in the office.

Unexpectedly, an uninvited guest suddenly knocked on the door of his office and walked in with a smiling face.

“Yo, slacking off? I knew it. People are all in a circle. No matter how conscientious they are at ordinary times, sooner or later there will be a day when they will be like me and just like to stay in the office. There’s air conditioning in summer and heating in winter. Ordinary people can’t understand that kind of comfort and peace.”

“A buddy of mine said it’s like this in prison now, warm in winter and cool in summer. Lao Sun, should I also come in and experience life and death?”

As soon as Xue Yan saw it was Lao Sun, his attitude immediately changed.

“No, no, just experience life and death in there. What are you doing coming in for no reason? I’m just a little emotional. Even Lao Xue, you look like you have no clue. Tell me, will this case ever be solved?”

Sun Tao walked to Xue Yan’s desk with a smile, then sat down on the sofa with a plop.

“Whether it can be solved or not is another matter. Does that mean we won’t investigate if it can’t be solved? And don’t come to me and talk nonsense. If you have something to say, just say it.”

It wasn’t that Xue Yan didn’t like Sun Tao, but he didn’t like Sun Tao’s style of investigating cases.

How should I put it? It’s like leading troops to fight. Some people always like to charge into battle, and some people are like Sima Yi, who always likes to use borrowed strength quietly.

In addition, Sun Tao likes to play dumb and always tries to mediate things, which is really ridiculous.

That’s right, even though Xue Yan’s words were so straightforward, Sun Tao still couldn’t help but use his roundabout habit.

He smiled first, and then slowly opened his mouth and said—

“I’ve been feeling like I’ve been set up recently. The missing funds are becoming more and more elusive, and there are extremely insufficient personnel, which leads to a lot of things I want to investigate, but I can’t find a way to start. I can only drag it on like this and then ask how things are going on your side?”

“I suspect that the surveillance footage from the two days before Wang Nongxin’s death was faked. Now I’ve asked Xiao Zhang to send the surveillance footage we took back to the identification department. If I guess right this time, then Wang Nongxin’s case will be on the right track. But I don’t know what role Lao Gu is playing in it. To be honest, I believe in him, but the more I investigate this case, the colder my heart gets. I’m afraid that I’ll find something I don’t want to see in the end.”

Xue Yan pursed his lips, frowned, and looked like he wanted to sigh but didn’t want to let out the breath.

Sun Tao understood Xue Yan’s expression very well. In his own words, it was called holding on. There were some things that he obviously couldn’t do, but he held his breath and had to persevere no matter what.

Sun Tao smiled helplessly and replied—

“It’s good to be able to find something. I’m here today to tell you this. Lao Xue, I feel like you might really have a breakthrough here, but promise me one thing, no matter what you find, don’t report it yet.”

“Why?”

Xue Yan was a little confused and looked straight at Sun Tao.

“You feel that it’s not right to continue investigating like this. Now the search range for the lost funds is getting smaller and smaller, and there are fewer and fewer personnel. You want to transfer everyone back now. You think the money may not have left our Yulin County at all. Otherwise, who would be so bold as to just throw the armored car in the suburbs like that, obviously without even the most basic cover-up? But you can’t say this. We’re responsible for investigating the case, and we can’t just change the direction of the investigation if we want to. I want to see if I can make any new discoveries and then find an excuse to transfer the people back, and combine the forces to investigate other cases. That way, the problem of personnel shortage on my side should be solved, right?”

“Anyway, there are only me and Xiao Zhang on my side now. It’s very difficult to keep an eye on even one person.”

Xue Yan smiled bitterly, and then looked at Sun Tao and smiled bitterly with him.

“Who isn’t? Now I have to wear plain clothes to investigate the case myself. Then it’s settled. I’ll wait for your good news, okay?”

“Okay, anyway, if you have any discoveries, you’ll let me know as soon as possible, and…”

Before Xue Yan could finish speaking, his phone suddenly vibrated.

Xue Yan picked up the phone and looked at it. The expression on his face suddenly changed 180 degrees.

“What’s wrong? Smiling so happily? Did your wife give birth?”

Sun Tao glanced at Xue Yan’s expression and asked with a crooked mouth.

“You kid, just make fun of me. You deserve not being able to find a partner. But I won’t argue with you. Take a good look. My guess just came true. The surveillance footage from the day before Wang Nongxin’s estimated time of death is suspected of being spliced together in time. Now the identification department is trying to restore the changed time. You can go back and blow on the air conditioner by yourself. I, Lao Xue, am going to solve a case now.”

Xue Yan shook his phone in front of Sun Tao and then quickly got up and walked out the door.

Leaving Sun Tao, who was still sitting on the sofa, couldn’t help but smile happily as he watched Xue Yan leave.

————————————————————————————————————————

“Hello, who are you?”

“Police, please call your property manager over.”

The time now was 4:45 PM.

In the community where Wang Nongxin lived, Xue Yan and Zhang Rui walked into the security booth at the entrance of the community.

More than ten minutes later, the community’s property manager hurriedly arrived in front of Xue Yan with the guard, rubbing his hands and saying—

“Hello, I’m the property manager here, surnamed Lin. Just call me Lao Lin.”

Lao Lin was about 1.75 meters tall, wore black-rimmed glasses, and looked to be in his forties or fifties.

Xue Yan showed his police ID again and said to Lao Lin—

“We are from the Yulin County Criminal Investigation Team. We have some questions we want to ask you.”

“Yes, yes, Officer Xue, feel free to ask. If I know, I will definitely tell you.”

Lao Lin looked completely cooperative. Xue Yan looked at him a few times and then said—

“It’s like this, we have already sent people to investigate the murder case of the owner on the third floor of Building 7, but today I want to confirm something again. Can you tell me about the surveillance layout of your community first?”

“No problem at all.”

Lao Lin nodded repeatedly upon hearing this.

“We are a high-end residential community with a total of twenty-one buildings. There is surveillance coverage at the entrance of each building, including the community’s public swimming pool and entertainment facilities, which are also within the surveillance range. However, there is no surveillance in the floors. I said this last time. Although there are two households on each floor, they are sold together with the common areas on the same level, so they can also be regarded as private areas, and it is impossible to install surveillance. I remember you already took away the recordings of the few days when the incident happened.”

“That’s right, but this time we want to take a look at your surveillance room. Is that convenient?”

“Convenient, of course it’s convenient. Please come this way, both of you.”

Lao Lin was very cooperative and immediately invited Xue Yan and Zhang Rui to the property’s surveillance room.

This was a room of about thirty square meters. Two security guards were currently sitting in the room watching the large screen.

Xue Yan looked at it carefully. The entire large screen was made up of about thirty smaller screens, and each screen was further divided into four blocks.

Such surveillance may not be surprising in big cities, but it was indeed rare in Yulin County.

“This is your surveillance room. Because this is a high-end community, your surveillance has almost no blind spots.”

Lao Lin seemed somewhat proud when he said these words, but Xue Yan wasn’t concerned about these things. He took a few steps in the surveillance room and then turned around and asked Lao Lin—

“Are these two the only ones responsible for this surveillance, or are there others?”

“There are a total of four people responsible for the surveillance, and they all work in shifts. The working hours are until two o’clock in the evening, but even if no one is there, the surveillance will automatically work, so if there is a problem, you can just come and retrieve the records in the morning. Our surveillance data is saved for about two months, and then the previous data is cleared. By the way, Officer Xue, are you here today because there is a problem with the surveillance footage you took last time?”

Lao Lin seemed very talkative, but Xue Yan really wasn’t in the mood to chat.

He looked at Lao Lin a few times and then shook his head and said—

“Whether there is a problem or not, we will investigate it ourselves. I still have a question I want to ask you. Where are your usual surveillance materials usually stored?”

“Just in the surveillance room.”

“How many keys are there to the surveillance room?”

Xue Yan asked again. Lao Lin didn’t quite understand why he was asking these questions and instead started to get nervous.

“Three keys. One is with you, and the other two are with the security guards in the surveillance room. They close the door themselves when they are on shift. Officer Xue… you’re not suspecting me, are you? I… haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Whether I suspect you or not is another matter. When I came in just now, I saw surveillance cameras on the way from the property entrance to this room. You just said that your surveillance is cleared every two months, so the video data near the surveillance room from about a week before Wang Nongxin’s death should still be there, right?”

“Yes, of course. Before we went to investigate last time, you specifically said that all surveillance data from that time period should not be cleared, so we have kept it all.”

Lao Lin was really getting nervous. He subconsciously wiped the sweat from his forehead and immediately said to the two security guards in the surveillance room—

“Why don’t you hurry up and help Officer Xue find the surveillance data?”

“After you find it, just play it directly. Start from the day Wang Nongxin had the accident and play the video from a week before that, all of it.”

“Team Xue, we have to watch the video again…”

After watching videos for more than twenty hours continuously, Zhang Rui seemed to have developed PTSD for the videos and subconsciously took half a step back.

Xue Yan smiled, walked over and patted Zhang Rui on the shoulder, and then directly pressed him into the seat and said—

“What’s this? If we can’t find any clues, we have to watch it even if we have to watch it for a year. Young people need to have more patience, otherwise how can we investigate cases?”

“Understood, Team Xue.”

Zhang Rui had no choice but to watch the long and boring videos with Xue Yan again.

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