Chapter 12: Julien Eleven

Chapter 12: Julien Eleven

TL: cici, Editor: MochiMochi, QC: Lady Blue

Synopsis: "I do not accept your conclusion, Police Officer Luo."

First Published on Ainushi.

Luo Wenzhou stared into her eyes: "Family name is Feng. Was the full name 'Feng Nian' or 'Feng Nian Ge' (1)?"

"I don't know... it sounded like that. He had a light accent so I don't know which character it was, nor do I know if the last character was a title or a character in a name," said the perplexed Zhang Ting, "It was already very late, he suddenly jumped in my way with a very flattering smile and said some inexplicable words. I thought he was somewhat like a psychopath. I didn't have anyone with me, so I was a bit scared and kept saying 'I don't know'. I wanted to walk past him..."

Luo Wenzhou asked: "When was this?"

"A while ago," said Zhang Ting. "For a short while, a psychopathic exhibitionist kept walking around our company. Many people said they had seen him before, so our boss didn't dare to let us work overtime. That day, however, I had some work to finish, so I stayed at the company after office hour for a while. There were very few people downstairs, so I was a bit scared at first... otherwise I wouldn't have asked my brother to pick me up."

Thinking about the delivery man he met at the cafe, Fei Du suddenly felt puzzled and could not stop himself from chipping in: "Then the man badgered you?"

Zhang Ting nodded: "Then I saw my brother, so I wanted to walk past the man and cross the street, but somehow he followed me. At the time, I was somewhat alarmed so I nervously ran ahead for a few steps and said in a loud voice, 'Who are you? I don't know you.'. They heard that and probably thought he was a rogue, so they beat him up."

Luo Wenzhou: "Did He Zhongyi, this man on the photo, strike back?"

"No," Zhang Ting's eyes drooped as though thinking about that scene was something against her conscience, "He just held his head and dodged, only then did I realize that he looked quite young. Thinking that maybe I was too sensitive, I hastened to stop my brother."

Fei Du raised his eyes gently: "They? Who else was there other than your brother?"

Zhang Ting said: "It was my boyfriend who was driving that day since my brother had a few drinks."

Fei Du responded with an "Oh". Then an expression carrying just the right amount of disappointment appeared on his face as though he was sincere about it: "Why does every good girl have a boyfriend? Who already reached out so promptly?"

He said such an irrelevant and improper line at such a time. Luo Wenzhou frowned but did not tell him to shut up.

Zhang Ting was stirred up by his ambiguous line and blushed a bit: "It is Zhao Haochang of Rong Shun. You know him as well, don't you?"

"Lawyer Zhao of Rong Shun Law Firm?" Fei Du passed over her and shot Luo Wenzhou a seemingly unintentional glance. "No wonder this time the lawyer came so promptly."

Luo Wenzhou asked another question: "After that, did you see this He Zhongyi again?"

Zhang Ting shook her head, and looked at Luo Wenzhou with indecisiveness: "Captain Luo, it is impossible for my brother to kill."

Luo Wenzhou relaxed his facial expression, and said to Zhang Ting: "If your brother is really not related to this case, we won't wrong him. Even if we were unreasonable enough to want to casually pick someone to wrong, it wouldn't be a relative of our old director. Don't worry, since it is impossible for your brother to kill, it is impossible for him to get into trouble here."

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Zhang Ting heard those lines, but they were not that helpful--Zhang Donglai was really not a fuel-efficient lamp. She said "impossible", but deep in her mind, she was actually not very confident.

"First go in with them to take some notes," said Luo Wenzhou. "I will tell Lang Qiao to do it. Just tell her the truth, it's okay."

"I do not accept your conclusion, Police Officer Luo." Fei Du said.

Luo Wenzhou heard this comment but didn't feel surprised. He just shrugged.

Fei Du put his shirt in order, and then stood up to greet Zhang Ting and the lawyer. Meanwhile, he lowered his head to look at Luo Wenzhou. There was no trace of a smile on his face. In fact, his eyes even looked gloomy: "However, your advice is not unreasonable."

Luo Wenzhou was taken aback, but after finishing these words, Fei Du once again masked himself with his usual graceful bearing. Accompanying Zhang Ting, he left without exchanging any further words or expressions with Luo Wenzhou.

Right when Fei Du opened the car door for Zhang Ting, he saw a bus bearing police license stop in front of the entrance of the Bureau. The driver got off the bus first, pointed at the Bureau and said something. Then, a thin and small middle-aged woman, her mouth open with a mixed expression of fear and confusion, staggered out of the car.

She pressed her fingers tightly against the door, and the cotton print trousers, which drooped down along her two thin legs, were slightly quivering.

After closing the car door, the driver supported and pushed the woman towards the Yan Cheng Bureau.

Clutching the man beside her like she was grasping a life-saving straw, the woman walked a few steps staggeringly before suddenly crouching down and sobbing like she could not breathe. After a short interval, she burst into a surge of tears hysterically. Seeing this, all passersby stopped walking without exception. Some even took out their phone.

Fei Du frowned as he heard the lawyer kept telling Zhang Ting: "Their so-called 'major suspicions' have no supporting evidence at all. Don't worry, Miss Zhang; I will stay here and watch them. Once time is up (2), they must let him go!"

"He Zhongyi's mother is suffering from uremia and has been on dialysis for years. He was the only source of income for the family," Lang Qiao quickly said to Luo Wenzhou. The woman's cry was echoing and boring into the Bureau. Lang Qiao frowned as though this was against her conscience, "Can she survive crying like this? She is sick already. She be careful and not worsen her own condition."

Luo Wenzhou did not have the chance to answer her.

Another policeman of the Bureau came running over from the side: "Boss, Huashi District Sub Bureau reported. On the grounds that the murderer was suspected to have dumped the body and make the crime scene unclear to us, as well as the Sub Bureau having limited authority, they want to transfer the '520' case to us."

"Boss, there's a call from Yancheng media online. They want to know if the news that we have caught the suspect is true."

"Captain Luo, the lawyer brought by Zhang Ting has been questioning our arrest procedures all this time. We don't have sufficient evidence to take Zhang Donglai into custody! Do we have to let him go or not?"

"Cap. Luo..."

Luo Wenzhou stretched out his hand and pushed down the noises.

He picked up the phone in the vague cries of He Zhongyi's mother: "Speak, Tao Ran."

"Wenzhou, I got the monitoring record of bus No. 34."

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(1) Feng Nian or Feng Nian Ge: The last character 'Ge' could be either a character in a name or a way He Zhongyi refers to a man who is elder and senior than him.

(2) Once time is up: By law, the police are only allowed to keep suspects in the Bureau for 24 hours without convincing evidence.

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