Xiao Tang, standing beside him, was so scared that his hands and feet had gone weak, his forehead drenched in cold sweat.
However, at the center of the situation, Zou Shuyang’s expression remained unchanged. Calm and composed, he asked, “Describe it for me—what does this ghost look like?”
The old man hesitated for a moment but surprisingly cooperated and began speaking. “Very tall, very thin, all black, and sometimes his eyes would glow.”
Xiao Tang, still trembling as he took notes, froze when he heard the old man say “his eyes would glow.” Forgetting his fear, he stammered, “Glowing eyes? Like Ultraman?”
Zou Shuyang shot Xiao Tang a sideways glare. Xiao Tang immediately realized his mistake, quickly shut his mouth, and obediently resumed taking notes.
Luckily, the old man wasn’t disturbed by Xiao Tang’s voice and continued his fragmented description, “He’s thin, very thin, extremely thin. He’s tall… no, not that tall.”
The old man kept repeating himself in circles.
One moment he’d say something, and the next, he’d contradict it.
Finally, before Zou Shuyang’s patience ran out, the old man suddenly raised his head and confidently said to him, “He wasn’t very tall, but extremely thin, and his eyes glowed. But most importantly…”
What was it?
The old man suddenly leaned forward, half his body reaching toward Zou Shuyang, his voice low. “It was a… woman.”
“A woman?”
The old man gripped Zou Shuyang’s wrist with surprising strength for someone so frail. “Yes, a woman. That woman looked very familiar… too familiar. But who was she?”
Zou Shuyang looked at the old man encouragingly, hoping he would reveal the woman’s identity.
However, the old man just held onto Zou Shuyang’s wrist, his bloodshot eyes staring at him for a long time. Then, as if remembering something, he suddenly started laughing, “Heaven’s will comes around, and evil gets what it deserves!”
The old man chuckled a bit more before shrinking back again, lowering his head like a reclusive little turtle.
Zou Shuyang looked at the red marks the old man had left on his pale wrist and fell into thought.
Beside him, Xiao Tang, having recovered from his initial fear, tried to strike up a conversation with the old man. However, no matter what he said, the old man kept his head down and didn’t respond at all.
Feeling frustrated, Xiao Tang clicked his tongue and turned to look at Zou Shuyang, who also seemed to have gone quiet. For a moment, Xiao Tang started to wonder if there was some strange magnetic field in the interrogation room—why did everyone who came in here end up shutting down?
Just as he was lost in thought, Zou Shuyang suddenly spoke up.
“Have we identified the victim yet?”
Xiao Tang instinctively checked his phone and saw that a colleague had sent an “OK” emoji five minutes ago. He nodded, “Yes, we’ve identified him. The details should be in the office system.”
Zou Shuyang stroked his chin, stood up, and took a deep look at the withdrawn old man. “Have someone check his identity again. Later, take him to the lounge upstairs to rest.”
“Got it.” Xiao Tang nodded and signaled to the police officers at the door, thanking them for their hard work before quickly catching up with Zou Shuyang as they walked upstairs. “Captain Zou, should we investigate whether there’s any connection between him and the victim? From what he said earlier, it sounded like they might know each other.”
Zou Shuyang chuckled quietly and praised, “Look at you, connecting the dots now. Keep up that enthusiasm for your work. Very good, very good.”
Hearing this, Xiao Tang’s face heated up with pride. He felt that if he had a tail, it would probably be wagging by now.
Back in the office, Xiao Tang expertly logged into the office system, printed out the victim’s information that his colleague had sent over, and handed it to Zou Shuyang, who was spinning in his chair, stroking his chin.
“Shen Jun, male, born in 1995, a local…”
Zou Shuyang read through the details one by one. Shen Jun had followed the typical path of attending local elementary, middle, and high schools.
But his life took a major turn during high school.
He had killed someone in high school.
“Before the college entrance exams, he accidentally killed his high school homeroom teacher. Since he was a minor and the incident occurred in a blind spot of the surveillance cameras, the witnesses confirmed that it was an accident. He was sentenced to six years and was released from the juvenile detention center four years ago. After his release, he stayed with his mother, who ran a small stall to make a living.”
After reading the information, Xiao Tang made a personal comment, “Being a teacher really is a high-risk job. Captain Zou, if I remember correctly, your partner is a high school teacher, right?”
Zou Shuyang immediately caught Xiao Tang’s implication and shot him a sideways look, which quickly made Xiao Tang’s scalp tingle.
Xiao Tang’s not-so-brilliant mind clicked into place, and he realized that his previous comment could be interpreted as a curse. He awkwardly chuckled and was about to explain when a new message popped up on his phone.
“Captain Zou, Captain He just sent word that Shen Jun’s call records have been recovered. His last call was at 10 PM last night from someone named Jiang Hongye. The call lasted ten minutes and thirty-two seconds.”
“Jiang Hongye?” Zou Shuyang spun his chair around. “Bring him in for questioning.”
About twenty minutes later, Jiang Hongye, Zou Shuyang, and Xiao Tang were sitting in another interrogation room.
Jiang Hongye had a careless attitude, showing no signs of being nervous about being summoned.
Zou Shuyang glanced at Jiang Hongye and chuckled, “You’re pretty calm.”
Jiang Hongye waved his hand dismissively. “Can’t help it. After going to the police station so many times, you get used to it.”
After getting out of juvenile detention, although he regained his freedom, with a criminal record and no education, he couldn’t find a proper job. Even restaurants wouldn’t hire him to carry plates. Over time, he had to resort to petty theft to get by.
In the past few years, he’d been in and out of the police station so often that his record was stacked high. He spent more than half the year in detention. The police officers all recognized him by face.
So, being called to the public security bureau this time didn’t scare him at all. Besides, sitting across from him was a young and handsome cop, who didn’t seem intimidating at all.
“Let’s cut to the chase.” Zou Shuyang said, noticing that Xiao Tang was ready with his notes. “Do you know Shen Jun?”
At the mention of Shen Jun’s name, Jiang Hongye’s expression flickered for a moment, but he quickly recovered. “Yeah, I know him. We were in the same class in middle school. We were pretty close back then. After middle school, I didn’t do well in school, and I didn’t like studying anyway, so I dropped out. He went on to No.4 High, I think.”
“And then you both ended up in juvenile detention?”
Jiang Hongye nodded, surprisingly honest. “At the time, I heard his teacher was always giving him a hard time, so he said he was going to teach the teacher a lesson. He asked me to back him up, so I went with him. Who would’ve thought it would end up like this?”
Zou Shuyang continued, “We found out that around 10 PM last night, you had a phone call with Shen Jun.”
Jiang Hongye nodded first, then asked, “Is that why you called me here? Did Shen Jun get into trouble? You need me to help explain things?”
“Shen Jun is dead.”
“Dead?” Jiang Hongye was stunned. It took him a while to respond, “You’re saying… Shen Jun is dead?”
Jiang Hongye’s reaction was strange.
As Zou Shuyang took a sip from his water cup, he observed Jiang Hongye from head to toe.
He seemed genuinely surprised, but within that surprise was a hint of fear.
But soon, Jiang Hongye calmed down and asked, “Can you tell me how he died?”
The question wasn’t against protocol. “He fell to his death from a height at an unfinished building on Xiyi Road.”
“Xiyi Road, unfinished building…”
Jiang Hongye kept muttering these two locations, his face turning pale, and soon sweat began to drip from his forehead.
“Mr. Jiang, did you remember something?”
It took calling his name several times before Jiang Hongye snapped out of it. Then, lowering his head, he mumbled in a guilty tone, “I… I called Shen Jun last night because I wanted to meet up with him.”
Zou Shuyang set down his cup with a “click.” “Why meet up? From what I understand, you hadn’t been in contact with him since you both got out of juvenile detention. After all these years, why did you suddenly want to meet?”
Jiang Hongye lowered his head further, his hands clasped together, his clothes trembling slightly. “I didn’t want to see him at first. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be in the mess I’m in today.”
“Then…”
After a long silence, Jiang Hongye finally said, “I went to Jiangzhou Bank yesterday to try my luck. You know, old folks aren’t as cautious as they used to be. I don’t steal much, just a couple hundred yuan, enough to get by for a few days.”
Jiang Hongye paused before continuing, “And then, I saw Shen Jun withdrawing money.”
“Withdrawing money?” Zou Shuyang was puzzled. “What about it?”
Jiang Hongye suddenly looked up, his eyes bloodshot, and shouted in agitation, “It’s impossible! Shen Jun grew up without a father, and his mother is blind. His family has always been struggling. Back in middle school, our class even raised money for his family! He just got out of juvenile detention a few years ago—how could he have savings?”
Jiang Hongye spoke each word as if his heart was bleeding, “A stack of 10,000 yuan bills, a hundred stacks.”
“A hundred thousand yuan?”
Jiangzhou wasn’t a big city. In fact, due to years of excessive mining, Jiangzhou’s GDP consistently ranked last in the country. Housing prices averaged 2,100 yuan per square meter, and in a city like this, even having more than 500,000 yuan in savings was rare, let alone someone like Shen Jun.
After calming himself, Zou Shuyang asked again, “Why did you want to meet him?”
Jiang Hongye curled his lips, “What else could it be? I ended up in detention because of him. Now that he’s made it, shouldn’t he give me a hand?”
“Then why didn’t you go?”
“Last night, I was so excited thinking about getting rich and no longer living like a street rat that I went out drinking…”
When Jiang Hongye fell silent again, Xiao Tang chimed in from the side, “Then you got into an altercation at Jiangzhou Grilled Fish on West Third Road and were taken to the police station at 3:12 AM. You were just released from the station at 9:40 this morning.”
“9:40?”
Zou Shuyang glanced at his wristwatch. It was now 11:20.
From the police station to the public security bureau…
It really was…
A particularly eventful day.
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