CH 58

Edited by: Dust Bunny

“A hunger strike?” Gu Xizhou asked. 

The tall, thin man nodded with a wobbly exhale and said, “I also listened to what the people inside the courtyard said. They said when the old man died, he was nothing but bones. That kind of appearance is just wretched.”

Gu Xizhou’s face slightly changed when he heard him, then he tensely continued to chat with the man. The other person only knew so much about the situation, but the time period matched. The deceased’s time of death was last year over winter vacation, which was close to the time period of Zhou Yiguang’s parents’ deaths.

After breakfast, the two left the small restaurant. Fang Zhi opened his mouth, but he didn’t speak. He looked somewhat pale.

Gu Xizhou brought him to enter the neighborhood. At the gate sat a middle-aged man with ruddy cheeks

and an unkempt beard. Fang Zhi went over and knocked on the table beside the man. 

“En? Who are you looking for, ah?” asked the middle-aged man, covering his mouth as he yawned. He dazedly opened his eyes to see two strangers.

Fang Zhi said, “Hello, we are police officers. We want to ask you a few questions.”

When he heard that they were police officers, the middle-aged man quivered and appeared to sober up. He gulped and said, “Police officer comrade, ah, what do you want to ask? Just say it!”

“You are this neighborhood’s security guard. Do you recognize everyone in the neighborhood?”

The middle-aged man replied, “I know them. I recognize them all. We were all relocated from a demolished neighborhood. The old neighbors in this district all used to be part of a production team. I can recognize anyone with a glance!

Gu Xizhou said, “In your eyes, what kind of person is Zhou Yiguang?”

After Zhou Yiguang was mentioned, the middle-aged man suddenly sighed and said, “I knew you came to ask about Lao Zhou’s matter… Ai… I still want to know why there was a head inside that cement block!

“Last year, when we attended his parents funeral, we said he was finally free. Unexpectedly, this kind of thing happened. These years haven’t been easy for Lao Zhou. He looked after his paralyzed father, and his mother, too. In my eyes, he is a very ordinary person. He was dragged down by his parents for so many years and never complained and did his utmost to take care of them. 

“He opened that tea shop, but he never once played mahjong. In fact, he used to be very fond of playing, but because of his parents, he was put into rather dire financial straits. He has a good temper, and he’s a good man. I still can’t figure it out… I don’t think he would kill someone!”

“En. When his father died, you attended the funeral?” asked Gu Xizhou.

“All of the old neighbors in the courtyard took part. Everyone offered condolence money,” the middle-aged man said.

Gu Xizhou raised his eyebrows and asked, “Did you see his parents’ bodies?” 

“How could I not see it? He didn’t have any close relatives or anyone to help carry the coffin. His father died at home. All the people in the yard rushed to help. When he died, there were only bones left!”

“His father really died after a hunger strike?” Gu Xizhou asked.

“Of course!” the middle-aged man said passionately. “Don’t tell me you doubt Lao Zhou? I’ll have you know! It’s impossible! Absolutely impossible! Even if he killed someone, it definitely wouldn’t be his father!”

“Last year! I personally saw Lao Zhou kneel at his father’s bedside, begging his father to eat something. His father didn’t eat, ah! We also tried to persuade him. Uncle Zhou said he didn’t want to hurt his son anymore. I saw it with my own eyes!” 

Gu Xizhou saw that the middle-aged man had grown emotional and comforted him for a moment. Then he asked, “Did Zhou Yiguang have any enemies?”

“Not as far as I know. After his father was paralyzed, he opened the tea shop in the community. Because of his father, he rarely went out. Generally, he stayed in the tea shop, mixed tea and poured water for the customers, and turned over his father. If a paralyzed person doesn’t turn over, they’ll get bedsores. Uncle Zhou’s body didn’t have a single bedsore!”

“But, I don’t know if he made any enemies when he was working outside…”

“Where did he work? Do you know who hired him?” Gu Xizhou inquired. 

The middle-aged man thought for a moment before saying, “I’m not sure.”

“Thank you. Do you know anyone who had a good relationship with Zhou Yiguang? We want to investigate this matter.”

The middle-aged man mentioned a few homeowners and said, “These are all people who frequently played mahjong at his shop. You can ask them.”

“Are they all at home?” 

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The two of them split up and visited all of the houses, rushing around until 5 pm.

“Judging from the neighbors we visited, they all believe Zhou Yiguang is a good son. He never complained about his paralyzed father or ill mother,” said Gu Xizhou. 

Fang Zhi: “Right. I just visited all of Zhou Yiguang’s neighbors. They all heard Zhou Yiguang crying and begging for his father to eat. The house across the street also saw Zhou Yiguang kneeling and begging his father.

“Last year over winter vacation, after his parents died in succession, there was a long time where he wasn’t open for business. Then, during that time, those children broke that cement block. Let’s look for those other children to verify it once more.”

“The head inside the concrete block appeared after his parents’ death.” Gu Xizhou raised his eyebrows. “His mother died in a hospital. Check his mother’s hospital records and see whether there’s a doctor, or maybe a nurse or so on, who went missing!”

After Gu Xizhou finished speaking, his phone rang. He answered the phone. “No, it’s already confirmed? Someone is missing… En… En… I got it.” 

Gu Ji Ji was right. Last year, there were no headless corpses found. However, over winter vacation there were an awful lot of missing persons cases. But, identifying the body was difficult. The corpse was highly rotted and was lacking a body….”

“If there’s no body, we can only search from those who went missing in that timeframe.” Gu Xizhou kneaded his forehead.

In the next two days, they confirmed that no medical personnel were missing from the hospital where Zhou Yiguang’s mother died. Gu Xizhou repeatedly visited Zhou Yiguang’s neighbors and found that this person very rarely left the district and no enemy ever came to the courtyard to find him.

After driving the repaired car home, Gu Xizhou lay down on the sofa and called the woman who hit his car that day. The woman immediately transferred the repair money to Gu Xizhou’s account without objections. 

The bill message was sent to his cell phone, and Gu Xizhou muttered, “It’s really good to be rich. These rich second generations don’t even look at the bill before transferring the money.”

“Ai, that’s right. She lives in a scenic villa area, after all, and drives a maserati. This is a rich person, ah…”

Gu Ji Ji: Die for money.

Gu Xizhou saw Gu Ji Ji’s words in the notebook and rolled his eyes, saying, “People like you who sell houses and buy cars, you shut up already. If you don’t sell them, houses will rise in value. Your lousy car will only drop in value, not rise.” 

Gu Ji Ji: ……

“Woof woof woof!”

“Woof woof woof!”

The dog son trotted up close to Gu Xizhou with a lolling tongue, rubbing up against his hand. 

“What’s wrong with it?” Gu Xizhou sat up and looked at the barking dog son with raised brows. “Didn’t it just go out for a walk yesterday?”

Gu Ji Ji: You ate a meal yesterday, don’t you want to eat today?

Gu Xizhou didn’t feel like paying attention to him. He rubbed his dog son’s head, turned over, and sat up, saying helplessly, “Let’s go, ba. I’ll take you for a walk!”

Gu Xizhou had just changed his shoes when the cell phone in his chest pocket rang. 

“Gu Ge, we found a Y chromosome identical to the deceased in the DNA comparison files.”

As soon as Fang Zhi finished speaking, Gu Xizhou immediately said, “OK, I’ll come to the police station right away!”

After hanging up the phone, Gu Xizhou lifted the dog son that was dragging the leash and took it from its mouth. The dog son was suspended in midair, looking at him pitifully with two big, round eyes.

“Woof woof woof!” 

Gu Xizhou glanced at the dog son’s wagging tail and said helplessly, “Your little spinning propeller tail is useless. We can’t go on a walk today.”

“Woof woof woof!”

The dog son was put back in the house with Gu Ji Ji. Gu Xizhou put on his shoes and grabbed his keys, driving the car all the way to the police station.

“What’s going on?” Gu Xizhou asked as soon as he entered the office. 

Xiang Yuan’s apprentice, Li Yan, explained: “Recently, some drug addicts were arrested in the city. When we registered the drug addicts’ files, we found that one of them has an identical Y chromosome. The drug addict is male, age 19, called Xu Qing. He’s a rich second generation who started taking drugs out of curiosity. His father’s name is Xu Wei, and he went missing before the new year. He was a building developer!”

Fang Zhi added, “I already obtained the data. He went missing at a construction site last year. Because the boss suddenly disappeared, the site shut down, and the building company is on the verge of bankruptcy. After Xu Wei’s wife and children sold off the majority of their shares, someone invested in it and set the company back on the right track!”

“Come on. We’ll go visit the rehab center to meet this Xu Qing,” said Gu Xizhou mildly.

By the time they drove over to the rehab center, it was already 9 PM. Gu Xizhou met Xu Qing as he wished. Xu Qing was 19 years old. He wasn’t as skinny as the other addicts. It shouldn’t have been long since he started taking drugs. 

“Hello, you should already know why we came.” After seeing him, Gu Xizhou didn’t beat around the bush.

Xu Qing nodded reluctantly, “I know. Is the body you found really my dad’s?”

“That’s right,” said Gu Xizhou mildly. “The Y chromosome was completely identical. If you’d like, we can help you do a paternity test.”

Xu Qing waved his hands and said, “No need. In fact, he’s been missing for a long time. I don’t really feel much. It’s just unexpected to suddenly hear that he died. I feel a little regretful.” 

“Did he have any enemies?” Gu Xizhou asked.

“Working in real estate, how could he possibly not have enemies? He had tons.”

Fang Zhi pulled out Zhou Yiguang’s photo and pushed it toward Xu Qing. He asked, “Do you know this person?”

“I don’t know.” After looking at the photo for a moment, Xu Qing shook his head. “Actually, my relationship with him wasn’t very good. After he got wealthy, he didn’t return home very often. I don’t know the people he met outside. You should go ask my mom. She definitely knows more than I do. If my mom learns that he’s dead, she’ll definitely want to set off firecrackers. 

“To tell the truth, after learning about his death, I don’t know if I’m grieving or not. Say, if I hadn’t taken drugs, you might’ve never found out who he was!”

Gu Xizhou shook his head. “As long as he was reported missing, even if we don’t recognize the body, we could still compare the DNA one by one. It just takes longer, and the process is a bit more troublesome.”

After Xu Qing spoke a bit longer, he straightforwardly told them his home address. Gu Xizhou and Fang Zhi called Xu Qing’s mother in advance. “Visit, you can come, ba.”

Like Xu Qing said, his mother Deng Mei was very indifferent after learning of her husband’s death. When Gu Xizhou arrived in front of the villa, there was already an aunt there to open the door. 

“Madam is waiting for you inside.” The aunt made a gesture of invitation.

Gu Xizhou and Fang Zhi entered the villa and saw a middle-aged woman. This woman wasn’t good looking; she couldn’t even be considered ordinary. Her build was short and fat, and her face was very dark. Her body was dripping with gold and silver, resembling a wealthy local landlord. When she saw Gu Xizhou and Fang Zhi, she poured a glass of water for each of them.

“Please, sit.”

“Relax. What do you want to ask? I won’t hide anything, and I’ll tell you all I know,” the woman said casually. 

“How much do you know about your husband’s disappearance?”

The woman said, “Last year, after celebrating New Year’s, he went missing after going to a construction site to check its progress. The place where he went missing is now a shallow water garden.

“In fact, I wasn’t the first person to find he was missing. We’ve been separated for about eight years. Ever since he became a small boss, he began to raise several beautiful young women outside. But, I haven’t been doing too bad either. I’ve kept a few men.”

“Oh…” Gu Xizhou was a little disappointed. From her words, this woman should know nothing about the boss and Zhou Yiguang’s feud. He spread open the man’s photograph. “Do you know him?” 

The middle-aged woman looked at the photograph he was holding for a moment. Just when Gu Xizhou was thinking their hopes were dashed, the woman suddenly slapped her head and said, “I know! This is Lao Zhou!”

“Xu Wei and I met him on a construction site before! He looked after us!”

Gu Xizhou said urgently, “I’ll trouble you to tell me about that time in detail.”

“Lao Zhou was the supervisor of our construction site at that time, and he treated our subordinates very well. At that time, most people on the construction site were only working temporarily, and many people didn’t make enough money. You should know,” the woman recalled, “When Lao Zhou was our supervisor, he often helped us expedite money for these people. Later, when I heard something happened to his family, he resigned and left.” 

“It’s him who helped Xu Wei go from a migrant worker to a small chief labor contractor!”

Gu Xizhou lightly knocked on the table. Finally, the relationship between the two people was clear. Gu Xizhou continued to ask. Do you know if anything happened between them afterwards?”

Xu Wei’s wife was silent for a moment before saying, “There was… Xu Wei was wrong in this matter.”

“When he first became a chief labor contractor, he didn’t have much money in his hands. At that time, being a chief labor contractor required a cushion of money, but where did we look wealthy? He looked for Lao Zhou to borrow five thousand. Because they had a good relationship, Lao Zhou didn’t allow Xu Wei to write a receipt for the loan. Later, Xu Wei refused to repay it. 

“He had just started a project, and he really had no money. Xu Wei didn’t admit it. I also… I also tried to persuade him twice, but he scolded me. I buried my conscience… Zhou Yiguang stood firm for two years, after that, he stopped looking for us.”

Gu Xizhou nodded and said, “Okay, thank you. Do you have the contact information for any of his mistresses?”

The woman shook her head, “I don’t.”

After leaving the villa, Gu Xizhou and Fang Zhi were chilled by the wind. The next day, first thing in the morning, Gu Xizhou drove straight to Xu Wei’s company. 

Just as he went upstairs, Gu Xizhou heard the company director explaining to the front desk receptionist, “Today, the big boss is coming over. Put yourself in order and make a good impression on him!”

“Excuse me, may I ask who you’re here to look for?” The receptionist asked with a soft voice. She displayed a standard smile with two dimples on her face.

The company director glanced at Gu Xizhou and Fang Zhi and prepared to leave, but Gu Xizhou called for him to wait. “Hold on. Are you the person in charge here?”

The director nodded and said, “What can I do for you? I’m very busy!” 

Fang Zhi flashed his ID. “We are police officers. We’re here to investigate the case of your former chairman Xu Wei’s disappearance.”

“Of course,” the director bowed his head to look at his wristwatch. He frowned, troubled, and said, “But our big boss is coming to check in today. I don’t have time, ah!”

“This is official business. I have to trouble you to cooperate,” said Gu Xizhou.

The company director scratched his head. “Then, wait a minute. I’ll go call the big boss over there.” 

He took out his phone, dialed the other’s number, and paced anxiously. After a moment, the call finally connected. “Assistant Yu, has the boss left? Something happened here at the company… Possibly tomorrow…”

“Oh, already downstairs. That- that’s okay, ba.”

Police officer comrade, our boss has already arrived! How about you wait a little while. I’ll hand over the information to the boss’ assistant and let somebody else from the company cooperate with your investigation!”

The company director rubbed his bald head as he spoke. 

Just then, the elevator door on the 24th floor opened and two men came in.

“Boss, Assistant Yu, hello!” The company director saw the two men enter and immediately smiled widely as he politely approached.

Gu Xizhou turned and locked eyes with one of the men. They both stared, dumbfounded, and spoke in unison: “Why are you here?”

“Si Ge!” Fang Zhi exclaimed in surprise. 

Si Yu nodded faintly at Fang Zhi. He looked at Gu Xizhou with slight exasperation and said, “What are you doing at my company?”

“This is your company?”

Si Yu raised his eyebrows and asked pridefully, “Otherwise?”

Gu Xizhou: The local tyrant is really wealthy; his properties are all over. I feel sour. 

“We’re investigating a case.” Gu Xizhou took a quick glance at Assistant Yu beside him and opened his mouth, “You learned to be clever and got a male assistant. Are you afraid a female assistant would fall in love with you?”

Si Yu: “…… ”

Gu Xizhou took a step forward and lowered his voice, “If this male assistant falls in love with you too, then there’s really nothing I can do to help you.”

Si Yu glared at Gu Xizhou. Now he really wants to beat him. What’s wrong with him?! 

“Boss, do you know them?” The company director scratched his cheek, bewildered. How could these two police officers know their big boss?

Si Yu didn’t speak. Gu Xizhou answered assuredly, “We know each other; me and him are awfully familiar with one another! Since your big boss is an acquaintance, then it’s simple: answer my questions first, and let him wait!”

The company director looked at Si Yu for help, but Si Yu only rubbed his forehead and compromised. “First, answer his questions. I’ll go sit inside the office for a while.”

The author has something to say: Good night