SOTC Chapter 39

“Gu Zheng! Gu Zheng, come quickly, what do you think this is?”

Not long after Xu Qing and Gu Zheng returned to the apartment, Xu Qing’s phone received a series of what appeared to be garbled messages from an unknown number.

Gu Zheng picked up the phone and his expression suddenly became serious.

“Gu Zheng, what’s wrong?”

Xu Qing couldn’t understand what Gu Zheng’s sudden change meant.

“It’s Lao Sun. This is the code between Lao Sun and me. He sent me what happened after we left 1201. This guy likes to hide everything. Even when ordering a bowl of noodles, he likes to hide half a braised egg in the noodles. This time, he told the whole story, which means he feels he might be in danger.”

“Danger? What does that mean? Isn’t Officer Sun the captain of the Criminal Investigation Team?”

Xu Qing was shocked by Gu Zheng’s statement.

Gu Zheng shook his head.

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“There’s no time to explain. Yang Xu, Yang Xu, I’m going over!”

With Gu Zheng’s shout, Yang Xu immediately poked half his head out from the cloakroom.

“Hey, Boss Gu, what do you need?”

“Stop talking nonsense, come out and help me. Stand here by the wall.”

“Boss Gu, what do you want me to do?”

Yang Xu put down the book in his hand a little inexplicably, and swayed to the position Gu Zheng pointed to.

Xu Qing watched from the side and suddenly understood what Gu Zheng wanted to do at this moment.

“The living room of room 1201 is a rectangular structure. The bloodstain appeared in the southeast corner because someone’s head hit the protruding position of the wall. Judging from the direction of the bloodstain, the injured person was facing the long side of the living room, and the width of the living room is about 3.5 meters. Yang Xu, lie down now, with the back of your head on the edge of the wall.”

“Like this, Boss Gu?”

Yang Xu lay down very cooperatively.

“Very good.”

Gu Zheng nodded, and then continued –

“Yang Xu is 1.75 meters tall. After lying down, his heel is in this position, compared to the situation at the scene in room 1201, it’s about ten centimeters shorter than the injured person. When we went to the scene, the floor hadn’t been cleaned, and there were no stains on the floor near the injured person’s feet that could cause slipping. On the contrary, the tiles used for the floor decoration are a kind of non-slip tiles, so there were traces of the leather shoe heels rubbing against them. In other words, the injured person should have fallen at a position about 1.8 meters from the short side of the living room. But judging from the length of the friction marks left on the floor, the position where he was standing before he fell was about 2.5 meters from the short side, which is where you are now. But the living room in Xu Qing’s home is a bit small, I can imagine that what’s in front of you now isn’t a wall, there’s still a full meter of distance from the wall. The bathroom door is on your right-hand side, and a wall is on your right-hand side behind you. There are no stains on your feet that could cause slipping, so why would you suddenly fall backward and leave such a trail of shoe heel friction on the floor?”

“Because someone was standing in front of me and pushed me?”

Xu Qing said thoughtfully.

“No, if that were the case, the friction marks on the ground should be much shorter. Yang Xu, get up, stand in my position, and Xu Qing, go get a pillow and put it on the edge of the wall.”

After completing the preparations, Gu Zheng stood behind Yang Xu and pushed him hard.

Gu Zheng is 1.8 meters tall and has a strong physique. Yang Xu, on the other hand, is slightly thin. Under Gu Zheng’s push, he didn’t leave a friction mark on the ground like at the scene and then fall on the wall.

Instead, he almost fell to the ground on the spot, with his legs bent.

“Ouch…Boss Gu, you’re too ruthless.”

The pillow that Xu Qing placed obviously didn’t have any effect. When Yang Xu got up from the ground, he touched his buttocks with a painful expression, but there were no injuries left on his head.

“Did you see that? When people face danger, they will instinctively react to protect more important parts. The moment I pushed Yang Xu, his body had already produced similar behavior, so if it was a frontal push, it would be difficult to produce such a situation. Only when an accident happens suddenly when a person is unprepared is it possible for this situation to occur.”

“Unprepared situation? What does that mean?”

Xu Qing was confused by Gu Zheng’s statement.

“There is only this possibility. Yang Xu, I’ll cooperate with you again, stand in the corner.”

“Again? Boss Gu, spare me, is this how you usually handle cases?”

“Otherwise? For us, the most important thing is to be able to restore the situation that occurred at the scene. What does it matter if you fall a few times?”

Gu Zheng said without thinking.

“Okay, okay! Boss Gu is still ruthless, then what else can I say? Cooperate, definitely cooperate.”

While speaking, Yang Xu obediently stood in the corner opposite Gu Zheng, but because Xu Qing’s living room was relatively narrow, the two chose to stand on the longer side of the wall.

“Okay, now you stand in this position, I’ll come and hit you.”

“Hit me? You run over and hit me?”

Yang Xu confirmed.

“Yes, let’s do it now, use your greatest strength to hit me.”

“Okay, then don’t blame me if something goes wrong, Boss Gu.”

Yang Xu nodded, and then suddenly used his strength and rushed towards Gu Zheng.

Yang Xu has been engaged in writing work for a long time, and of course, his strength is completely incomparable with Gu Zheng, who came from the police.

However, the acceleration of the sprint increased his impact force. When he hit Gu Zheng, Gu Zheng’s figure swayed and unconsciously retreated backward.

During the process of retreating, Gu Zheng deliberately slipped on his feet, and the whole person suddenly fell forward, hitting the pillow that Xu Qing had prepared.

“Gu Zheng!”

“Boss Gu, are you okay?!”

“What could happen to me?”

When Gu Zheng climbed up from the ground, his expression was still a little distorted.

Even with a pillow, the body still received the impact from the ground.

But Gu Zheng seemed to be completely unaffected by this. As soon as he got up, he immediately continued –

“Did you see that? There is only that one possibility. The information Lao Sun sent said that he did find such a person. About 1.9 meters tall, strong physique, responsible for site safety at Yuzhou Quick Construction, and there is indeed a wound on the back of his head. It is said that he was lying in the hospital for nearly half a month and has not yet recovered. Although Lao Sun’s side hasn’t done blood sample comparison yet, I’ll just assume that he is the injured person who left the bloodstains at the scene.”

“Then what?”

Xu Qing asked immediately.

“Then it’s about the person who hit him. Yang Xu, you continue to stand in the corner, let’s try to simulate the situation at that time. Judging from the distance I retreated just now, you should be standing in this position, about half a meter away from me, and I’m standing in the corner. What do you feel like now?”

“I feel very depressed…because I don’t know what Boss Gu wants to do.”

“That’s a very abnormal feeling. We can use inanimate objects as an example. If you force a wild cat into a corner in this place, then you are very likely to be attacked by it. This is the same for people, it’s a kind of instinctual continuation. But according to Xie Hu, the deputy general manager of Yuzhou Quick Construction, they were holding a company employee gathering at the time. No matter what kind of gathering it was, I can now be sure that there was such a person in the gathering who was forced into this corner and was filled with fear. He must be shorter than Zheng Baoshuan, but his strength should be slightly greater than mine.”

“Then what were the others doing at that time?”

When Yang Xu finally gradually entered a state of thinking, the words he said always gave people a particularly amazing feeling.

“Others?”

“Yes, Boss Gu, didn’t you say it was a gathering? There shouldn’t be just the two of them at a gathering. If that’s really Zheng Baoshuan, and you’re the one who pushed him, then what were the others doing when you were forced into the corner? Also, was Wang Nongxin present at that time?”

“Wang Nongxin was killed in room 1201. I found the cabinet used to transport the body there, so he must have been present at that time. Judging from his height, Wang Nongxin is about 1.8 meters tall, which meets the height requirements of the pusher, as for his strength…”

Gu Zheng looked at Yang Xu thoughtfully.

“Zheng Baoshuan should be working on the construction site, his strength must be great. Wang Nongxin sits in the office, even if he’s physically strong, he shouldn’t be his opponent, right?”

“So you think the person who was forced into the corner was Wang Nongxin, right?”

“That’s just my guess, but there’s something I’m a little confused about. We analyzed it before. To fake suicide, you need a height difference. Zheng Baoshuan may meet this condition, but if you fall like that, you definitely won’t be able to kill anyone. And Wang Nongxin was in a state of extreme fear at the time, it’s difficult to disguise his death as suicide without any injuries. In this case, if you still want to force it, there are only two possibilities… Boss Gu, I want to ask you, has Wang Nongxin’s body been cremated?”

“I don’t know, but it’s been a month since it happened. If no one has objected to the appraisal report and the family members have agreed, it should theoretically have been cremated. Yang Xu, you said there were two possibilities to do this just now, what are the two?”

“External attack or the effect of drugs. After the victim loses the ability to resist, he is disguised as suicide, but this method is not clever at all, at least I wouldn’t write about it in my novel. Because if that’s the case, at least it also needs…”

“At least it also needs someone to cooperate.”

Gu Zheng’s voice gradually became cold.

It was like some kind of choice. Between trust and doubt, he had to make a decision.

“Lao Xue was responsible for the scene investigation of Wang Nongxin. I believe Lao Xue. If Wang Nongxin’s body had suffered any external trauma at that time, it would definitely have been discovered immediately. Since there wasn’t, it means it couldn’t have been an external attack.”

“Okay, if Boss Gu is so sure, then it can only be the second possibility. The victim took some kind of drug with a sedative effect before his death, otherwise it would be impossible to kill him in this way without any external injuries. Also…”

“Okay, let’s stop here.”

Gu Zheng interrupted Yang Xu’s words, and then turned his attention to Xu Qing.

“Xu Qing, tell Lao Sun our speculation. I think Lao Sun wanted to hear our speculation when he told us these things. Now that we have a speculation, let’s leave the conclusion to him.”

“Then what about you? What are you going to do now?”

“We’re going to find the person called Brother Wolf.”

Gu Zheng took a deep breath.

“Just like I speculated before, Yulin County hides a huge gang involved in organized crime. The internal division of labor is clear, their actions are meticulous and ruthless, and they have protective umbrellas. If Lao Sun is allowed to investigate, he will encounter a lot of pressure, so we must do this. Yang Xu, have you heard of this person from Chen Fan before?”

“Not at all.”

Yang Xu shook his head vigorously when he heard this.

“But I said that Chen Fan was using something to blackmail Zhao Yangfu at the time. What we are facing now is a tightly organized small-scale gang involved in organized crime. In other words, it’s a closed loop, and the outside world has no way of knowing what’s inside. Yuzhou Quick Construction is a subsidiary of Yuzhou Media, and Yulin Publishing House is the same. I’ve already told Xu Qing about Wang Nongxin’s problem. From now on, it seems that the Agricultural Credit Cooperative and Yuzhou Media are on the same line. So Chen Fan’s blackmail of Zhao Yangfu may also be related to this gang. Zhao Yangfu is definitely problematic. But now what I want to know is, where did Chen Fan get the information from? The murderer who killed Chen Fan destroyed his computer’s hard drive. In other words, Chen Fan still retained the evidence. Zhao Yangfu didn’t hesitate to kill someone for this evidence. Yang Xu, I can only place my hope on you now. You are the person who had the most contact with Chen Fan. If even you don’t know this, then this line will be completely broken there.”

“But Chen Fan really didn’t tell me anything. We just had a purely semi-forced cooperative relationship. Even if he had something, he wouldn’t tell me.”

Yang Xu fell into painful memories. He also knew that this matter was extremely important. If he could find even a little bit of clues, the possibility of clearing his name would increase slightly.

But…

“No, no, I really can’t think of anything. Boss Gu, I really can’t put my hope on me. I think, Chen Fan even asked you about the blackmail process in the name of creation, which means he doesn’t believe you at all. This matter concerns his life, how could he reveal it to you? On the contrary, Boss Gu, have you ever thought about why you were suspended? I think it’s really strange, because I see that Sun Tao and Xue Yan have investigated the case like this and haven’t been suspended yet. You obviously haven’t found anything, so how could you be…”

“Yes, why exactly?”

Yang Xu’s words made Gu Zheng suddenly fall into deep thought.

He really didn’t understand why he was suspended. After all, he hadn’t really found anything in essence.

“Could it be because someone thinks that if I continue to investigate, I might find something, or have I already found something, but I haven’t discovered it myself?”

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