Chapter 9

“Do you know Bai Yong?”

“Of course I know him, he sings at our bar!”

“Do you know Bai Yong’s wife?”

“I’ve met her.” Lisa lowered her eyelids and stared at her palm.

“You and Fan Mingyuan……”

“Fan Mingyuan is my boyfriend.”

“Mm.” Facing this young girl, Yan Dongcheng found it somewhat hard to get the words out. “Fan Mingyuan and Bai Yong’s wife, did they used to date?”

“Not only did they date in the past!” Lisa angrily clenched her fist and punched her knee. “That woman was married, her child was already several years old, and she still came to seduce my boyfriend. Once I caught them red-handed, that bastard Fan Mingyuan actually refused to admit it no matter what!”

“Did you tell Bai Yong about this?”

“Several times, I wanted to tell Bai Yong ge, but in the end I still couldn’t say it. Bai Yong ge was such a good person, I didn’t want to hurt him. Besides, if Fan Mingyuan that bastard found out, he would definitely never pay attention to me again!”

“Bai Yong was a very good person? Were you very familiar with him?”

“Bai Yong ge was the star of our bar, handsome and a great singer too. A lot of customers came specially to support him. Sometimes the flower baskets or fruit platters customers gave him, he would just pass them on to us. If customers sent drinks, he only let the band members drink them, saying we young girls couldn’t drink alcohol.”

“Do Fan Mingyuan and Bai Yong usually drink and eat together?”

“Them? At most, after Bai Yong ge finished singing, Fan Mingyuan would treat him to a couple of drinks.”

“Just casual acquaintances?”

“Yes, not close friends.”

“How long have you been with Fan Mingyuan?”

“Four years.”

“What did he do before he opened the bar?”

“It seems like he was in trade.”

“You’ve been together for so long, he must have told you quite a lot about the past, for example, before his career became successful, he went through some hardships?”

“Of course he did, he said he used to do odd jobs on ships, and it was really hard!”

“What kind of ship, it wasn’t in this city, right?”

“It was along the coast, he said it was a fishing boat. But sometimes he would also say that their boat ferried people to Japan or something…… I don’t really understand. It seems like it was a fishing boat that also carried people on the side like that.”

Yan Dongcheng and Wang Rui exchanged a look. As expected, Fan Mingyuan had a suspected background of working on a smuggling boat, and the destination was Japan.

“Bai Yong ge is gone, and you came to ask me about the situation, so why do you keep asking about Fan Mingyuan?” Lisa asked in confusion, her eyes wide.

“Everyone who had contact with Bai Yong, we have to investigate.” Yan Dongcheng said patiently.

“Anyway, I think Fan Mingyuan wouldn’t hurt Bai Yong ge for that woman. He already didn’t want to keep in touch with that woman.”

“He told you that?”

“Yes.”

……Yan Dongcheng wanted to speak but stopped himself.

“Do you often hang out with Bai Yong?” After a moment of silence, Yan Dongcheng asked, “Eat late-night snacks, sing songs?”

“Not really often, Bai Yong ge was very busy, he had to support his family.”

“When was the last time Bai Yong hung out with you guys?”

“At Xiaobao ge from the band’s birthday party, I think it was before New Year’s Day, in November the year before last. Bai Yong ge treated everyone to late-night snacks, then we went to sing karaoke.”

“Who was there?”

“Vivian, the rest of us, plus the five people from the band, and Bai Yong ge also called over his good friend.”

“Do you remember who Bai Yong’s good friend was?”

“Of course!” Lisa covered her mouth and laughed. “I’m not being appearance-ist, but the guy called Lao Liu was really rather ugly, and then Bai Yong ge said he secretly loved a beauty, beauty and the beast, haha, so I remembered it very clearly!”

“Who did Lao Liu secretly love?”

“It seemed he said it was a former classmate, a woman who’d been in magazines, a designer or something……”

“You didn’t remember wrong, it was Lao Liu who secretly loved that woman who’d been in magazines, not Bai Yong?”

“No. Bai Yong ge was so handsome, it’s not like he was the kind of person too afraid to chase girls. If Bai Yong ge had secretly loved someone, I would definitely have found it strange and pressed for more details!”

From the expression on Lao Liu’s face when he brought up Bian Ranxin that day, Yan Dongcheng had already seen it. Today, he merely got confirmation from Lisa’s words.

On the matter of secretly loving Bian Ranxin, Lao Liu had lied.

Perhaps out of male pride, Lao Liu had been too embarrassed to tell the truth in front of the police, and only said that Bai Yong liked Bian Ranxin. Or perhaps there was some other reason.

After coming out of Lisa’s messy single apartment, Yan Dongcheng and Wang Rui discussed along the way whether Bai Yong and Lao Liu’s relationship with Bian Ranxin had anything to do with the case.

Wang Rui insisted there was no connection. Bian Ranxin did not like those two men, she had ignored them when they were in school, and after graduation there was even less chance she would have any contact with them. If the criminal police had not come looking for her, she probably would have long since forgotten those two people, and might not even recognize them if she saw them walking down the street.

Yan Dongcheng did not really agree with Wang Rui’s view, and always felt something was off. With furrowed brows, he was deep in thought when his phone suddenly rang, it was a call from the criminal investigation detachment office.

“Captain Yan,” special task force member Xiao Yuan’s voice was a little excited, “I found an important clue!”

Yan Dongcheng and Wang Rui immediately rushed back toward the police station. After hurrying back to the unit and going upstairs to the office, Xiao Yuan was already waiting for them.

Xiao Yuan, who was in charge of data investigation, had only just graduated from graduate school last year. His name was Yuan Gonglu, he specialized in network technology, and he was an outstanding special talent specially recruited by the bureau.

His father, who researched semiconductors, gave him the name Yuan Gonglu, seeing only the elegance of the characters on the surface, but not having expected the name to bring his son so much trouble.

Xiao Yuan had been given quite a few nicknames since childhood, and was often mocked because of his name. He had become somewhat neurotic about his own name, and now only allowed people to call him Xiao Yuan.

“Captain Yan……” Xiao Yuan used one hand to adjust his nearsighted glasses and held up the densely written printout in front of his eyes.

“It’s fine, just give me the gist first. I’ll look at the specific data later.” Yan Dongcheng said.

Xiao Yuan was extremely meticulous by nature. Every time there was a discussion related to the case, he always cited sources and references, and insisted on speaking based on data and evidence. Sometimes listening to him recite a long string of numbers left everyone completely baffled, and it also wasted time.

Everyone felt that this young man was conscientious at work, just a little bookish. Yan Dongcheng did not want to hurt Xiao Yuan’s enthusiasm, so he did not criticize him, but only guided him this way when it came to concrete matters.

“Oh, okay.” Xiao Yuan put down the printout, paused a little, and sorted out his thoughts. “It’s about Que Ming Mountain Villa……”

“Que Ming Mountain Villa?” Wang Rui interjected. “The villa district directly above the burial site of Bai Yong’s body? The special task force already carefully checked it a few days ago, there were more than a hundred homeowners in total, and no one associated with Bai Yong was found.”

“Mm.” Xiao Yuan sniffed, “Captain Yan asked me to check Sun Yiyi’s son…… I found that this five-year-old little boy has a property under his name!”

“In the Que Ming Mountain Villa district?” Yan Dongcheng’s heart skipped a beat.

“Yes, it was transferred from Fan Mingyuan’s name to the little boy, and it was transferred in the year before last.”

“Xiao Yuan, notify the forensic department, test the DNA!” Yan Dongcheng was walking with the wind, and was already heading out as he spoke.

“Captain Yan,” Xiao Yuan hurried after him for two steps, “Whose DNA do we test?”

“Test whether Fan Mingyuan and Sun Yiyi’s son have a biological father-son relationship.”

“Oh, I get it!” Xiao Yuan suddenly understood, his mouth opening wide.

Yan Dongcheng led the members of the Hokkaido special task force and the criminal investigation forensics personnel, and hurried to Que Ming Mountain Villa.

The villa district was only separated by one wall from the hillside where Bai Yong’s body was found. In other words, Bai Yong was buried just outside the villa district wall. On the day Bai Yong’s body was found, Yan Dongcheng had once taken the mountain path to look around the villa, but at that time he had not found evidence for applying for a search warrant.

Now that they had evidence of Fan Mingyuan’s property, he only hoped it was not too late……

As Yan Dongcheng had expected, demolition work in the villa district was already underway. Several bulldozers were rumbling away, and the two houses near the gate had just been knocked down, dust and dirt flying everywhere.

“Stop!” Several officers rushed forward and shouted to the bulldozer driver in front of Villa 3.

The instant the driver stepped on the brakes, with a boom, Fan Mingyuan’s Villa 3 collapsed.

Everyone was covered in dust, and it took a full few minutes before the drifting dust settled down.

Weeds grew thickly all around Villa 3, and the collapsed concrete chunks and broken bricks piled into a small mountain.

Half of the iron fence around the villa had been crushed down, while the other half was still standing. Inside the fence was a pile of clumped cement, sand, bricks, wooden strips, and other building materials. It looked like this house had originally been planned for renovation, but no work had ever started.

They were only a half-step too late, and the next round of evidence collection became very difficult.

In order to protect the physical evidence inside the villa, they could no longer use machinery to dig. After the crane lifted away the large concrete slabs on the upper layer of the ruins, the officers dug manually with shovels, and once they reached near the inner layer of the house, they could only search by hand.

Yan Dongcheng and all the members of the Hokkaido special task force worked together, each of them covered in dust and drenched in sweat, and they kept at it until the sun slanted westward before they finished digging.

The ruins of Villa 3 were dug through completely, and the house’s doors, windows, steps, and so on were all carefully examined by the forensic personnel.

In the main hall of the ruins, they found a flattened wire folding single bed. In the kitchen area there was a greasy board countertop, and they also found a deformed portable gas stove, a broken iron pot, and fragments of porcelain bowls and dishes.

Someone had lived in this house, and cooked for themselves.

The officers put the physical evidence into sealed bags, preparing to take it back for testing.

“Captain Yan, look at this!” Wang Rui picked up a strangely shaped piece of black cast iron.

“A cast-iron stove?” Yan Dongcheng squatted down, and his gloved finger reached into the twisted gap in the stove body, digging out a clump of ash-gray powder. “Charcoal ash!”

“This place wasn’t connected to gas. The gas stove in the kitchen was for cooking, this charcoal-burning stove was for heating! That means someone lived in this house in winter.” Wang Rui’s hair and eyebrows were covered in dust, but his eyes were unusually bright.

“Eco-friendly charcoal, smokeless charcoal,” Yan Dongcheng slowly stood up and carefully fiddled with a small piece of black charcoal in his palm. “Hexagonal concentric long-strip eco-friendly charcoal.”

“This kind of charcoal is very common, they sell it in the market, and it’s on the internet too.”

“Smokeless charcoal often gives people the wrong impression, that because it doesn’t produce any obvious smell when it burns, it’s harmless. In fact, this kind of charcoal still produces carbon monoxide when it burns.”

“The carbon monoxide that poisoned Bai Yong could very well have come from this!” Wang Rui was somewhat excited.