Chapter 83: Boiled Fish with Sichuan Pickled Cabbage

The construction took place more than six years ago.

When the society developed too fast, people, things and relationships would undergo drastic changes. It was an uphill task to find out those who had been involved in the construction project.

Huo Shan indicated that he did not keep in contact with the original subcontractor for the concrete masonry portion. Even the documents back then were no longer kept for records.

Bai Muchuan sent a detective by the name of Xie Hui to make a trip to the Urban Redevelopment Bureau to get the records of the construction project of “The Palace”, while Tang Yuanchu took the task of finding Sun Shangli’s lover.

Huo Shan’s understanding of that man was only the name and that he was Sun Shangli’s college classmate.

So Tang Yuanchu decided to start investigating from the college.

Sun Shangli was a native of Jin City while she went to college in Shan City.

It was another city a few hundred kilometers away from Jin City.

Tang Yuanchu sought the assistance of the police officers of Shan City to investigate and received information in the afternoon.

During Sun Shangli’s college days, she did have a classmate named Tan Ziyang.

Nevertheless, from the teachers to classmates, none of them knew that they were each other’s first love during college.

Hence, when Sun Shangli made a name for herself, such gossip never appeared on the Internet. No one ever mentioned that she had a first love called Tan Ziyang.

The police at Shan City got ahold of Tan Ziyang’s information from the college and found out that Tan Ziyang was not a native of Shan City but Ha City instead. A classmate of his who had stayed to teach in the college told the police Tan Ziyang did work in Jin City for a period of time upon graduation, and that he would occasionally chat with them in their chat group. The last time when he appeared in the chat group, he had mentioned that he would leave Jin City to go back to his hometown.

Subsequently, he did not contact any of his classmates again.

The pace of life now was fast, so constant contact between classmates and friends were very limited. A classmate failing to contact for a few years was too normal, and nobody would suspect anything unusual about it.

The next day, Tang Yuanchu made a trip to Ha City to understand the situation.

He came back two days after.

Tan Ziyang’s family was very poor. His mother remarried when he was small; his father suffered from cataract for many years that he had a problem recognizing people in front of them.

His son had not gone back for years. His elderly father was so bogged down by living that he did not even make a report that his son had gone missing.

Such are the woes of the people living in poverty.

Tang Yuanchu bought some daily necessities for Tan Ziyang’s father and got ahold of a DNA sample for testing. The results were not surprising. The human tissues found in the wall of the fifth floor showed a 97 percent probability of a parent-child relationship with Tan Ziyang’s father.

“Boss, want to apply for Huo Shan’s arrest?” Tang Yuanchu asked energetically.

He was bubbling with excitement as this was the first time he could oversee and handle a major case.

Bai Muchuan, however, shook his head. “Let the owner of ‘The Palace’ come to Jin City to assist in the investigation!”

“Ah?” Tang Yuanchu had a bewildered look.

Wasn’t the owner of “The Palace”, Bai Munian, his elder cousin?

Well… Tang Yuanchu completely could not understand.

“Boss, are you doubting him…”

“No!” Bai Muchuan narrowed his eyes slightly. “I’m suspecting the other parts of ‘The Palace’ might contain human tissues. We have dug a wall, but I can’t possibly dig holes at every wall of the building?”

“…”

“Bring more police dogs, start from the first floor all the way to the ninth floor. Search carefully!”

It can’t be right? It’s creepy enough to have a wall like that , Tang Yuanchu thought.

If the entire building was filled with all these spooky human tissues, what kind of place would this be?

Pieces of a dead person all over the walls?

When Tang Yuanchu thought of all these, his spine went numb and chilly.

“Boss, how’s the progress over at Xie Hui’s end?”

“There’s no progress.” Bai Muchuan furrowed his eyebrows. “The records at Urban Redevelopment Bureau stated that Huo Shan’s company was listed as the sole developer of the project. There isn’t any other information about the subcontractors.”

“Does that mean Huo Shan is lying?”

“Not necessarily.” Back then when some construction firms won the bid for the projects, due to funds and risks, they would subcontract the jobs privately. It was a deal between companies, so there must be data over at Huo Shan’s end. I’ll get Xie Hui to conduct a search on his company!

“That’s why this Huo Shan is weird,” remarked Tang Yuanchu with a puzzled face. “The dead person was his love rival, so he’s the biggest suspect. By right, in order to shrink the responsibility, shouldn’t he be trying all ways and means to provide their information to us?”

Bai Muchuan thought for a moment and suddenly sneered. “He might not be the murderer, but he surely has something to do with the killer.”

…

Xiang Wan stayed at home for the next two days and started to feel restless as Bai Muchuan did not contact her at all.

That day when Bai Muchuan sent her home, he had specially told her not to recklessly deduce the development of the case so as not to affect the police from solving it. But after two days of not hearing from Bai Muchuan, she couldn’t sit still any longer.

Actually, she did not quite understand how writing and continuing her novel would affect the police from solving the case.

Well, a good citizen should cooperate with the police. Since Detective Bai had asked her not to do it, she could only comply.

Hence, she did not update any details about the case for the past two days. Instead, she wrote about the romantic development between Detective Fang Yelan and Rong Xiaonuan due to the case. Occasionally, she would also add in Officer Gu Yusheng which gave rise to a strange love triangle.

Geez!

What bullsh*t!

Xiang Wan felt so awkward when she looked at the romance drama plot she wrote that she felt like pulling her hair.

Urgh! This case can’t drag on anymore, from the pace that I’ve set, there needed to be some developments for the case, Xiang Wan thought.

She was a web novelist and that was exactly her job. Why should she bother about how the police would solve the case?

Xiang Wan decided to give herself a good treat and work on the case development plot for her novel.

For the past two days, she and Fang Yuanyuan had been ordering takeout deliveries that her stomach began to show signs of discomfort. She had visited the toilet for at least 10 times and had a sudden and irresistible craving for home-cooked food.

Sichuan style boiled fish with pickled cabbage.

Sichuan style beancurd.

Twice-cooked pork, sauteed spicy chicken…

Oh no, I can’t take it anymore!

Xiang Wan gulped as she thought of all these food. She changed her clothes and decided to go out and buy some ingredients.

It was a friday.

Maybe because the next two days was the weekend, the adults and children she met while on the way to the supermarket had cheerful expressions.

Their good mood affected Xiang Wan as well. She put away the case behind her and diligently picked the necessary ingredients. As she bought a lot of food for cooking, she was panting heavily when she climbed the stairs to her apartment.

Oh my poor waist, if I don’t work out, it’s gonna get rusty , Xiang Wan thought.

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She sighed and placed the bags of ingredients on the floor. She decided to have a short break before continuing the way up.

Suddenly, she heard some faint, soft cries of a child.

Xiang Wan looked up out of reflex.

She was currently standing on the stairs of the third floor. The cries were coming from upstairs.

Could it be the boy from the fourth floor?

Xiang Wan continued to listen for a little while more. That child’s cries were so heartbreaking that it was impossible for her to ignore.

Did something happen? Should I go up and ask?

There were two voices bickering rather hot-headedly in Xiang Wan’s head.

A voice said not to meddle in others’ affairs. That boy had a mom. What should she say when she knocked on their door? They might think she’s crazy.

The other voice argued that what if the child needed help? If she didn’t go up to ask, wouldn’t that be leaving the child in a lurch?

The first voice rebutted that it was common for kids to cry and throw tantrums. Meddling with their business by citing the reason of not leaving someone in the lurch sounded too stupid.

The second voice insisted to go check it out as she could not bear to hear those cries anymore.

Finally, Xiang Wan took the bags of food and arrived at the door of her fourth floor neighbor.

The sobbing cries came from inside. Only the kid was crying as she did not hear any other voice inside.

Xiang Wan knocked on the door gently. “Hello little boy, are you alone at home?”

“Little boy, did you hear me? Are you feeling unwell? Is your mom at home?”

She knocked on the door several times when the boy finally went near the door and responded to her with a sobbing tone, “My mom’s not at home…”

The sobbing young voice of the little kid made her heart full of sympathy.

Xiang Wan was glad that she came to knock on the door.

She softened her tone as she was worried she might frighten the child.

“Don’t cry anymore, alright? Be a good boy and wait for your mom to come back home. You can watch some television shows or things like that…”

“I’m hungry! Boohoo… I’m really hungry…”

Hungry? Xiang Wan looked at the bag of snacks she bought as well.

“If that’s the case, open the door and I’ll give you some food.”

“Boohoo… Mom’s not at home. I can’t open the door… there’s bad people outside…”

Oh he knows about this!

Xiang Wan was speechless but felt that children nowadays were very alert and on their guard.

But what she should do as he was hungry?

Xiang Wan thought for a moment and said, “I’m the big sister who lives upstairs. We see each other frequently, do you remember? I’m not a bad person, you can open just a little for me to pass the food to you, just…”

The door suddenly opened.

There wasn’t any indication and he did not wait for her to finish her sentence.

Xiang Wan: “…”

Who was the one who said that kids nowadays were alert and were on their guard?

The moment she said she was the big sister staying upstairs, the door immediately opened.

A sobbing small face filled with tears and snot appeared in front of her.

“Big sister…”

He was a polite child.

Xiang Wan used a tissue to wipe the little boy’s face before she gave some biscuits and bread to the little boy.

“Here, you can have these.”

“Thank you, big sister!”

The little boy stuffed the food into his mouth. From the way he ate the food, he seemed to be really hungry. Xiang Wan felt sympathy for the adorable kid, her eyes curved as she smiled at the boy.

“Eat slowly, be careful not to choke.”

“Hm, hm, hm…”

“Where did your mom go? Why are you alone at home?”

It was just a casual question, yet the little child was put on guard. He was chewing on the bread and lifted his teary eyes at her for a glance then lowered his head, not saying a word.

“Little fellow!” Xiang Wan stroked his head. “Okay, you better go inside and lock the door. Big sister need to go back home now.”

“Mom…” The little boy’s sudden loud voice stunned Xiang Wan for a moment.

Mom? She followed the child’s line of sight to look behind her.

That boy’s mother was wearing a long white one-piece dress. Her face was ashen and was standing and looking at Xiang Wan from behind.

The environment was as though suddenly chilly and the woman’s eyes were also chilly. She stood unmoving just like a ghost.

Goodness! Xiang Wan’s heart skipped a beat; she was nearly scared to death.

How could someone walk so lightly without any sound?

XIang Wan tried to calm herself down and smiled at her. “You’re back?”

The woman looked at her as well as her child who had stopped crying. “Thank you.”

“Oh, it’s alright,” Xiang Wan replied, embarrassed. “You walk so lightly that I didn’t even hear anything.”

The woman smiled. “You could have been focused talking to him that you didn’t notice.”

“You’re right.” Xiang Wan felt that everytime she spoke to her, she was either awkward or embarrassed. Then she pointed upstairs and said, “I’ll get going then.”

“How much is it?” The woman suddenly asked.

“Eh?” Xiang Wan was confused as she looked at the expressionless face of the woman.

“The food.” The woman pointed at the food her child was holding on his hand. “How much is it?”

“Oh, it’s alright. There’s no need for money. It’s just some food for the kid, don’t worry about it. We’re neighbors after all.”

“Thank you!” The woman walked over, opened the door and held her child.

Xiang Wan waved at the mother and son. While she was walking up the stairs, she couldn’t help turning for another look at them.

The mother and son were still standing at their door, looking at her in silence.

That scene somehow felt familiar like a ghost movie she had watched before, and she suddenly felt a little spooked by it…