Chapter 14

After arriving at the airport and parking the car, Wang Rui first called Xu Wen.

As expected, when the other side heard that a criminal police detective wanted to talk to her, she immediately said to meet in the waiting hall and asked Wang Rui not to come to the office.

Xu Wen was wearing a well-fitted work uniform, and her figure was slightly plump.

She had no makeup on, and her permed short hair puffed out beside her cheeks. There were two faint yellow patches on her cheekbones. Foundation could have covered them, but she seemed not to have even applied skincare cream, and her skin looked dry and dull.

This was a woman with decent looks, but one who was unwilling to spend time dressing herself up. Someone who had eagerly thrown herself into a new life after divorce should not have been in this state.

"Yes, the two hundred thousand was what I gave him." Standing in a quiet corner of the waiting hall, Xu Wen pressed herself close to a person-height monstera plant, clasped her hands together, and said awkwardly.

"You gave him cash?" Yan Dongcheng asked.

"He was muddleheaded, he didn't understand anything, he only knew how to play music, he couldn't even figure out bank card transfers. He wanted cash, so I went to the bank and withdrew it for him." Xu Wen spoke very fast. "What happened, did Old Liu get into trouble?"

"One of Old Liu's friends died unexpectedly. We are investigating the cause of death."

"Is it about Bai Yong?"

"Yes, you know Bai Yong?"

"Of course! Bai Yong was Old Liu's good friend from when they were little. I saw him a few times in the first years after we got married. Later, for some reason, the two of them seemed to stop keeping in touch, and I never heard Old Liu mention Bai Yong again."

"Ms. Xu, sorry, we need to ask you some private questions."

"Go ahead," Xu Wen said readily with a nod. "That's why I didn't ask you to sit in the office. There are other colleagues in the office, I don't want others to hear."

"Why did you and Old Liu get divorced?"

"Because of personality..." Xu Wen said hesitantly. "He always complained that I didn't understand him, but I traveled such a long way to work every day and then go back home, all to accommodate him. Otherwise I would have moved to live over here by the airport long ago. My job wasn't easy either, so why couldn't he understand me a little!"

"Just because of that, you divorced?" Yan Dongcheng raised his eyebrows.

"Of course it wasn't that simple... I wanted children, but he came home every day after midnight reeking of alcohol, and not once was he sober! Every time I brought it up, he got angry with me, and he wouldn't properly communicate or discuss it. The two of us grew farther and farther apart."

"Who brought up the divorce first?"

"It was him. I actually hadn't planned to divorce him, I wanted to just muddle through. But he suddenly became firm and insisted on divorcing right away. He didn't fight me over the property division. I wanted to keep the house, so he transferred the ownership to me and only asked for the two hundred thousand in savings."

"Did he have an affair?"

"I suspected that too at the time," Xu Wen bit her lower lip. "But I didn't find any evidence. After the divorce, as far as I know, he lived alone, so he probably didn't have an affair. He just suddenly went crazy and thought I was getting in the way of his freedom!"

"Did he keep in touch often with childhood friends and middle school classmates?"

"He basically only hung out with people in music, those people in his band, and music lovers, fans, and the like that he met in bars. The crowd was pretty mixed, and that's one thing I didn't really like."

"Any women among them?"

"I didn't notice any. He wasn't the kind of man who was very lustful. He did have his good points..." Xu Wen suddenly reacted and stared wide-eyed at Yan Dongcheng. "Could it be that you suspect Old Liu?"

"We are investigating the cause of Bai Yong's death. Old Liu and Bai Yong were good friends, so we need to understand Old Liu more thoroughly."

"Oh! You scared me," Xu Wen patted her chest. "Old Liu would absolutely never hurt anyone. I lived with him for ten years, I know him best. He looked fierce, but he was actually a pretty kind person, loyal and righteous, the kind of man who would go through fire and water for his friends. Back then I was moved by him, and that's why I married him without hesitation."

Xu Wen shifted her weight from one leg to the other, looking a little unsteady.

Yan Dongcheng thanked Xu Wen and ended the conversation.

Xu Wen led them through the hall and out the side door, where the parking lot lay right outside.

"Thank you, please head back!"

"Take care on your way..."

Yan Dongcheng and Wang Rui walked side by side across the road to the entrance of the parking lot. Looking back, they saw Xu Wen still standing far away, seeing them off.

"Old Liu's ex-wife is pretty good," Wang Rui said as they walked into the parking lot. "Last night Old Liu criticized her for half a day. I thought his ex-wife would be awful, but compared with her, Old Liu really doesn't deserve her."

"In a marriage, once one person no longer has their heart in it, no matter what the other person does, it will never be pleasing."

"Bian Ranxin?" Wang Rui blurted out. "Could it be that Old Liu is still thinking about his old crush?"

"Look at the timeline. Old Liu's divorce happened about when Bian Ranxin returned to the city and started running a fashion company here."

"Five years ago!"

...

Xiao Yuan worked at lightning speed. The investigation arranged at the morning meeting had him bringing the materials to Yan Dongcheng that afternoon.

"Captain Yan, the medical records from the affiliated hospital of the city medical university show that Old Liu's mother was indeed hospitalized in the rheumatology and immunology department at the beginning of last April."

"Did the old woman only discover she had rheumatoid arthritis during that hospitalization? Hadn't she gone to the hospital before?"

"No, it was an old illness of more than ten years. She often went to the hospital and had always been getting medicine from the outpatient clinic."

"Then was last April's hospitalization because the condition worsened?"

"I think it's a little strange," Xiao Yuan said, flipping through the printed medical record in his hand. "The hospitalization record says the patient had joint pain, swollen joints, and a course of illness longer than ten years, with pain worsening every season change..." He raised his head. "But she'd never been hospitalized before. It was always treated in the outpatient clinic. Why did she suddenly ask to be hospitalized last April?"

"You'll have to ask the old woman."

"Should Xiao Liu and I make a trip?"

"The old woman's health isn't good. Don't let her worry and be frightened over this."

"Then what should we do?" Xiao Yuan felt unsure. "Hide our police identity? How do we strike up a conversation with the old woman?"

"Mm," Yan Dongcheng thought for a moment. "I'll go."

In the early morning, with a thin mist hanging in the air, Teacher Peng, the retired editor, as usual came to the wetland park not far from home, and together with several companions who exercised there every day, practiced tai chi under the willow trees by the lake.

She had already become very familiar with this simplified version of Chen-style tai chi. At first she could not even stand steadily in a horse stance, but now her footing was solid, and with her breathing, she could go through the whole set smoothly, in one continuous flow.

Teacher Peng half-closed her eyes, slowly turned and moved her arms, and suddenly noticed someone standing beside her, smiling at her.

"Dongcheng?" Peng Juan was greatly surprised. "Why did you come here!"

Her son was busy with work, and Peng Juan could not remember how long it had been since she had seen his face. They usually only kept in touch by phone. Every week, she went to her son's home to deliver food, and every time she found that the food from the previous week had not yet been finished.

"Mom, come with me to meet someone." Yan Dongcheng smiled and said to his mother.

"Okay," Peng Juan said without another word, lifting her cloth bag. "Is it all right for me to wear this? Or should I go back first and change clothes?" She lowered her head to look at her cuffed sweatpants and sports shoes.

"No need to change, this is fine."

"You parked your car at the entrance?" Peng Juan was brimming with energy and strode after her son toward the park entrance.

She never asked much about Yan Dongcheng's work. Criminal investigation involved many things that needed to be kept secret, and as a detective's family member, she only had to cooperate unconditionally with her son's actions.

However, at that moment, she secretly hoped that the person her son was taking her to meet this time was a new girlfriend.

The car crossed half the city and arrived in the old district.

Dahu Green Space was shaded by trees. In the woods, people strolled and exercised in twos and threes, walking birds and playing chess. By the blue lake, a few tourists feeding the birds were laughing cheerfully.

An old woman wearing a gray wool vest, short in stature and slightly hunched, was swinging her arms and legs on the open ground by the lake, slowly practicing backward walking.

"Let's practice here," Yan Dongcheng said softly to his mother.

Peng Juan understood at once and took up her stance to do tai chi. Yan Dongcheng followed behind her to learn.

The old woman in the wool vest was attracted by Peng Juan's tai chi and came over to watch.

"Oh, this tai chi is really well done!"

"You flatter me," Peng Juan said with a smile. "Would you like to practice together too?"

"My legs aren't good," the old woman shook her head. "I can only watch you young people practice!"

"What's wrong with your legs? Rheumatism?"

"An old problem, rheumatoid arthritis."

"Then you still need to move more!" Peng Juan chatted with the old woman while doing her forms.

"Yes, isn't that why I come here every morning to exercise and breathe fresh air..." The old woman looked toward Yan Dongcheng. "Is this the student you took on?"

"He is my son. He has a day off today and came out to exercise with me."

"Auntie, hello!" Yan Dongcheng greeted the old woman.

"Oh my, what a handsome child, and so filial too, sister, you are truly blessed!"

"What blessing is there? He still hasn't found a partner until now! Sister, you already have a grandson, right?"

"Oh, don't mention it! My useless son, he originally had a pretty good wife, but he insisted on getting divorced..." Talking about her son, the old woman seemed to have a whole stomach full of things to pour out. "It was also the year his father suddenly died of a heart attack, otherwise his father would have broken his legs for sure. I told him people should know contentment, but he wouldn't listen. Look, after the divorce he never found anyone again, right! Sigh, I'm afraid I have no hope of holding a grandson!"

"Young people nowadays are all like this. They themselves aren't anxious, and they only make us parents anxious."

"Yes! When we were young, once we reached the right age we got married, and after getting married, unless something huge happened, no one would ever think about divorce. Young people nowadays are different!"

"Think it over, sister," Peng Juan slowed the pace of her tai chi and turned back to glare at Yan Dongcheng. "As for this one in our family, I don't want to bother with him anymore. Let him do whatever he wants!"

"Right, right, just calm yourself down and take good care of your body."