HH Chapter 4

Fang Yuan was jotting down notes and looked up to ask, “What did he do for work?”

The old man reacted as if hearing a joke. “Work? He was too lazy to work, sucking his mother’s money dry and then his wife’s.”

At this point, the officer sent to Tian Mingwei’s house returned and shook his head at Fang Yuan, who understood immediately. “Where is his mother now?”

The old man shook his head. “She’s gone, a few years ago.”

Fang Yuan nodded and continued, “Do you know if he had any recent conflicts or arguments with anyone?”

The old man shook his head again. “I don’t know about that, but he often wasn’t home. Sometimes he came back cursing, sometimes acting crazy, saying he was going to make it big.”

“Thank you, sir.” Fang Yuan closed his notebook with a smile and then thought of something else. “By the way, you mentioned he was very affectionate with his wife initially. When did he start changing?”

The old man thought for a moment. “About a year after they got married… Before that, we all envied their relationship. Who knew he’d turn out to be like that?”

By the time Fang Yuan finished the interviews, it was noon. He dragged himself back to the station, where Chen Xiaonuan and Zhang Erbao were already reviewing surveillance footage. Fang Yuan approached them. “Where’s Team Leader Cheng?”

“I saw him heading that way,” Chen Xiaonuan said. Just then, Cheng Ye emerged from the hallway. Chen Xiaonuan called out, “Team Leader Cheng, Fang Yuan is looking for you.”

Fang Yuan straightened up and walked over to Cheng Ye. “Team Leader, the deceased is Tian Mingwei, who lived at 223 Chenghua Alley. According to the locals, he had a severe tendency for domestic violence.”

“Match it against the database,” Cheng Ye instructed. “Erbao, check into Tian Mingwei’s background.”

“Yes, sir!” both responded in unison. Cheng Ye, rubbing his knuckles, approached Zhang Erbao. “Give me a copy of the surveillance footage.”

“Okay,” Zhang Erbao replied.

They had only been watching the footage for a few minutes when someone knocked and entered. “Team Leader, the chief wants to see you.”

“I’m not going. Tell him I’m busy,” Cheng Ye said dismissively, his eyes fixed on the screen.

“The chief said if you don’t go, he’ll come here himself,” the young officer at the door said, looking a bit apprehensive.

Cheng Ye frowned slightly, paused the footage, and looked at the officer. “Got it.”

As the messenger was about to leave, Cheng Ye called out, “Jiang Fei, check the victim’s clothes.”

“Okay.”

Cheng Ye folded his arms, staring at the paused video. After a while, he got up, closed the door, and left.

……

“Xiao Pei, I’m telling you, Cheng Ye has a bad temper sometimes. Be patient with him.” The chief looked worriedly at the new recruit he had worked hard to bring in. He couldn’t afford to have this star ruined by Cheng Ye.

“I understand,” the man replied calmly with a smile. “I heard you assigned him many partners before, but he rejected them all. Is there a particular reason?”

The chief sighed and finally nodded, his tone softening. “Cheng Ye had a partner before, named Li Jiang. But during a raid…”

“Chief Zhang, there’s no need to bring that up again.” Cheng Ye’s voice was tense as he entered, his expression stiff. He glanced at the person sitting on the couch before looking back at the chief.