For a moment, Cai Dingkun was speechless.
"I see you and your wife have a good relationship."
Seeing that Hu Jia was no longer dwelling on the previous question, Cai Dingkun breathed a sigh of relief and hastily replied, "We do, we've been married for almost 15 years, we were young when we got married."
"Then you didn't close the door for her when you went out."
"Close the door? What door?"
Cai Dingkun looked confused. Why was this police interrogation so different from what he imagined? They jumped from one thing to another, and he didn't understand what they were asking.
"Your wife just suffered a grievance. You went out in the middle of the night to chase Han Xiu, and you didn't close the door for her? Aren't you afraid Han Xiu would come back to find her in secret?"
"Didn't I close the door? I did!" Cai Dingkun immediately interjected.
"Did your wife lock the door?"
"Yes!"
"Oh, I remember now. Your wife said she was too scared to come out and was just sitting on the bed, trembling."
"Yes, yes, she was terrified."
"Ah! She's quite pitiful. In the future, when something like this happens, protecting your wife is the most important thing."
"Yes, Officer, you're right."
"You didn't catch him, so you must have felt heartbroken when you saw your wife when you got back."
"Yes, I was heartbroken. She was crying the whole time."
"Where was she crying?"
"On the bed."
"How did you know?"
"I saw her."
"Wasn't the door locked?"
"Uh..."
Hu Jia and Cai Dingkun conversed with such ease, their question-and-answer session flowing smoothly.
Yu Yi'an, watching from the side, was dumbfounded, his admiration for Hu Jia flowing like the Yellow River, never-ending.
He truly was a police officer from a big city! Such skill in extracting information.
First, he asked if their relationship was good. Then, he asked if Cai Dingkun had closed the door for her.
If you say your relationship is good, then you would naturally close the door.
But if the door was closed, how could it not be locked?
Therefore, Cai Dingkun said his wife had locked the door.
Then, the conversation shifted to what happened when Cai Dingkun returned home.
As a result, Cai Dingkun, caught off guard, inadvertently revealed too much.
This guy is amazing. If I were to ask, I would have said, "What was your wife doing when you got home?"
Such a direct question would surely make Cai Dingkun wary, and he might have received a different answer.
Yu Yi'an grumbled in his heart, it seemed there was much to learn in criminal investigation.
...
The small town returned to its usual quiet. Cai Dingkun's meat stall remained there, with no one daring to approach. Soon, the town's gossip reached Tong Meng's ears.
Hearing that Hu Jia seemed to have solved another case, Tong Meng was so angry she wanted to stomp on the ants on the ground.
She thought that by coming down with Hu Jia and the others, she would get some clues. To her surprise, she hadn't accomplished anything and had just watched them solve the case.
Tong Meng was speechless.
And Li Han, he had been tailing that group for the past few days. She thought he was trying to uncover secrets, but he seemed to be avoiding her.
Just now, Tong Meng wanted to go to the pawnshop and asked Li Han to accompany her. Li Han actually refused, which infuriated her.
As expected, men are like that once they've gotten what they want. It seems Tong Hua was right, to control someone, you need to hold their weakness.
And now, Tong Meng sat facing the pawnshop owner.
She was wearing a mask and had changed her hairstyle, and behind her stood two menacing men.
They were the "Knife-Wielding Men" who had just arrived in town, and they held the pawnshop owner Hong's weakness: his wife and child.
"So, what's so strange about that ledger?" Tong Meng swung her feet.
"I really don't know. Aunt Yue just asked me for the ledger. I thought I had dealt with all the pawns from that year, and it wouldn't be useful to keep it, so I gave it to her." Owner Hong was sweating profusely, his fingertips trembling.
"Are you just going to hand over a shop's ledger to anyone?"
"He's not just anyone. He's the former owner of this pawnshop. Besides, that ledger is from five or six years ago, it has no value."
"It might have no value to you, but it's very valuable to them." Tong Meng stared coldly at Owner Hong and added, "It's very valuable to us too."
Owner Hong looked crestfallen. "But I really don't know what they're doing with the ledger."
"What exactly did Aunt Yue say to you? Recall every detail for me." Tong Meng glanced at the men behind her. "Every detail you recall will determine the value of your wife and child. It depends on whether you think they're worth it."
The threat was palpable.
"I... I think..." Owner Hong was truly miserable. He had no idea what secret the ledger held. Moreover, even if there was a secret, Aunt Yue wouldn't tell him.
"Aunt Yue came to me that day and asked if I still had the ledger from five or six years ago. She said it had her late husband's handwriting on it and she wanted to keep it," Owner Hong said. Aunt Yue's late husband had managed this pawnshop for several years, but Aunt Yue only asked for the 1924 ledger.
"When I brought her water, I saw her looking at the June records, and she was looking very carefully, column by column. I thought it was strange then. If you're looking for your late husband's handwriting, why not look at any page? Why stare intently at June?" Owner Hong didn't ask further, assuming Aunt Yue was lost in memories of her late husband.
June?
June 1924.
Was there anything special about this date?
Tong Meng thought hard about everything during that period, but her knowledge was limited, and she couldn't come up with anything.
"Then what? What else did she say?"
"Nothing else. She just said she would take the ledger. And she also told me that another young lady might come to pick up the ledger the next day, and if she gave her name, please hand it over to her."
Tong Meng was so angry she felt a pain in her liver. These people had already planned for her. How could she have thought she was so clever back then?
After leaving the pawnshop, the "Knife-Wielding Men" took the ledger and the newly acquired information and headed back. Tong Meng found a place to change back into her own clothes and walked back to the village, buying snacks along the way and observing the streetscape.
Meanwhile, Lü Qingqing exchanged their interrogation notes with Hu Jia. In the end, it was clear that the couple had problems.
"Perhaps it's not one of them lying, but both of them are lying," Hu Jia mused, then added, "They're still too honest."
Lü Qingqing looked dejected. Yes, this couple didn't seem like wicked people. Even if they were involved in Han Xiu's murder case, it must have been out of desperation.
Just look at their testimonies. They clearly hadn't coordinated their stories. What can you say? They were inexperienced, not sharp-minded.
However, the law does not make allowances for mistakes.
...
Liu Yuxin stayed by Cao Changming's side. Since Cao Changming was still a suspect, he had to spend the night at the police station.
"That person is the one you told me about, right?"
"Mm-hmm!"
"That's good."
"But that's the past."
"Can you get past it?"
Liu Yuxin remained silent.
Seeing this, Cao Changming sighed softly. "If you can't get past it, then do what you feel is right."
Liu Yuxin looked up at Cao Changming. She reached out and covered the back of his hand. "Life is composed of one journey after another. Each journey has different scenery. Once you've passed it, it's in the past. My life's journey has reached your scenery, and I'm willing to linger for this scenery. But the scenery I've seen before has already been remembered, that's a fact. However, since I didn't stop for him back then, I won't now."