Case Files 013

Although this small villa was not owned by Wang Xin, Wang Xin still made it as if he owned the place. Wang Xin put the incense burner aside while laying out the chessboard. There were plumes of white smoke coming out of the incense burner. Wang Xin leaned up to smell it, shook his head, and poured another pot of tea for the two of them.

It seemed that Wang Xin didn't put us two little “policemen” in his eyes, and seemed to deliberately ignore us. And from the time we entered the door, when he deliberately pretended to have forgotten our identities, we could see that this person was both the fox and the tiger.

However, Yang Licheng had already informed us–when we had come up–that this villa was not owned by Wang Xin, and Wang Xin shouldn’t have been aware of this fact. Many people were like this. When they were lacking in certain aspects, they tended to over-compensate by pretending to have a lot. Wang Xin could have been more low-key but had impatiently put on the image of a nouveau riche, and the sad thing was that this nouveau riche was still pretending.

It was Yang Licheng who saw our predicament and said, “You two, sit down.”

At this time, Wang Xin pretended to be suddenly enlightened and said, “Yes, yes, I remember, now. You two sit down.”

I shook my head and said softly: “No need, we were just asking you something, and we'll leave after a brief discussion. You seem to be quite safe here, but the murderer is a pervasive person. You'd better be more careful.”

Wang Xin held Heizi first. He swung to the middle and said, “Don't worry, the two of us won't go out in the future. And there are so many people watching, there is no way for the murderer to come in and kill us.” I looked at Wang Xin's confident expression. It wouldn’t be good for me to break his beautiful fantasy at the moment. Because according to our current investigation, even Wang Yikai, who had been with us all day and night, had died in a very strange manner when the murderer wanted him gone.

If I already had figured out the reason behind the way the people killed were killed, I still couldn't fathom the reason behind Wang Yikai’s death. This is one of the few points that keeps nagging me: What kind of method would allow the murder to kill someone at a distance or when he wasn’t there in person?

Seeing that we didn't speak, Yang Licheng also began to play chess with Wang Xin on his own.

I looked around the room again, and determined that even if the murderer had a sniper rifle, there was no way to shoot through the window. After entering, I felt a lot more at ease.

“There is nothing to ask, but the other twelve people have already answered.” I leaned against the wall, looked at Wang Xin slowly and said: “So, I will ask you as a routine. On the night that Lu Zhiqiu died seven years ago, where were you, and what did you see?”

Wang Xin gave another shot, then shook his head and sighed, saying, “I did meet Lu Zhiqiu that night seven years ago. But just as I was about to say something to her, she said that she had already had an appointment with someone, and I didn't say anything more. But looking at her, she seemed a little unhappy. At that time, she owed a lot of money and got into a trouble, but she trusted me, and she told me everything. Maybe it's because I was always good to her, I might’ve left a good impression of myself.”

It seemed that this Wang Xin was still very confident. I paid attention to Yang Licheng's expression and saw Yang Licheng bowing his head and smiling bitterly. He seemed very reluctant to mention this matter. After all, Yang Licheng also liked Lu Zhiqiu and had confessed to her, but she had rejected him. Looking at Wang Xin, it seems that he was still immersed in the fantasy that Lu Zhiqiu had once liked him.

However, Wang Xin mentioned that Lu Zhiqiu had caused trouble. What trouble could it be?

Thinking of this, I said, “Did you say Lu Zhiqiu caused trouble?”

Wang Xin nodded and said, “Why, don't you know?”

“What exactly is it?” I looked at Wang Xin.

Wang Xin shifted forward, drank all the tea in the teacup, and said, “It's about buying a dog as an intern at the construction site. In fact, it caused quite a commotion at the beginning, but nobody cared. Don't look at appearances; life is unsustainable.”

I glanced at Zhao Mingkun. We really didn’t know about this.

Zhao Mingkun asked, “What's going on? We just heard someone mention it. Can you tell me the specifics of this matter?”

Wang Xin said: “This matter in itself is nothing, but because of this matter, Lu Zhiqiu had to live a tough life, and it was even more difficult at that time. How can I put it? We once saw someone kill dogs on the construction site, and when she saw it, she wouldn’t let it be.

“We probably only know about this,” I said.

Wang Xin played his piece and said to Yang Licheng: “If I drop this piece, you’ll be in danger.”

After saying that, Wang Xin sniffed the incense burner again; he choked and then coughed.

After a while, he said: “This incense burner is really intoxicating, but it doesn't smell very good. By the way, let's continue to talk about what happened seven years ago. Those workers on the construction site were a group of unqualified people. Even though they all looked proper and human-like, they were secretly cruel and merciless bunch.”

I frowned and said to Wang Xin, “Just get down to business, don't talk nonsense.”

Wang Xin laughed, and then said: “It was a local dog at that time. The local dog was already hung up and was about to be killed. That’s when Lu Zhiqiu saw it, and rushed to stop them. Then the migrant workers began to laugh at Lu Zhiqiu, saying that the graduates had lost their minds in school, and that this dog had to be killed. But Lu Zhiqiu was really vehement and refused, so we quarrelled with each other.”

“Everyone was a little excited at the time, and then some migrant worker started to say that it was his own dog, and whether or not he killed is his own business. Later, in the confusion, I don't know who said that, but they said that it was alright not to kill, but if you didn’t let them kill it, you’d have to buy it.”

We nodded.

Wang Xin continued: “Then Lu Zhiqiu asked how much money they wanted for the dog. As a result, the other party mentioned a number, which was basically daylight robbery. You tell what “a local dog” is worth? Tens of yuan or even a hundred yuan will do, and I’ll still won’t hesitate to buy. But you guess how much the other party asked for … the other party asked for 10,000 yuan!”

“Ten-thousand?” I said, “Will it cost that much?”

Wang Xin sneered and said, “Yes, so these migrant workers are all moths, but in order to save this dog, Lu Zhiqiu paid 3,000 yuan as a deposit first, and then collected the rest to save the dog. Those were some really black-hearted people. But because Lu Zhiqiu trusted me, I also lend her some money.”

“It's because of this incident that Lu Zhiqiu has been in a foul mood for a few days after.” Wang Xin shook his head and continued: “That's why she made mistakes at work, and her boyfriend doesn't care about anything. It's a pity that Lu Zhiqiu died, else she might’ve been my wife now.”

I shook my head. Wang Xin had a pretty nice fantasy going on, but sadly the reality was too cruel.

“That's it?” Zhao Mingkun said, “Just because you helped a little, someone will be willing to marry you?”

“Otherwise, it’ll mean you’re shallow.” Wang Xin made another move, and it seemed that the game was going well. Seated opposite to him, Yang Licheng frowned and stared at the chessboard.

Wang Xin looked at Yang Licheng and started to say: “I said at the time, although they took the money, they wouldn’t have lived a better life with it. Asking for ten thousand yuan for a dog that isn’t even worth a hundred yuan, if they didn’t pay some price, how would it be fair?"

“So what did you do?” I asked.

Wang Xin said with a smile: “You wouldn’t be able to deduce it. I posted on the Internet, in major forums, especially those discussing cats and dogs. I posted saying the construction site openly abuses dogs and posted some photos, but the photos were all fake, and I continued to post them every day.”

“You made a fake post?” I asked.

“Hey!” Wang Xin waved his hand and said, “How can you call this fake? Is the falsehood of a scholar a falsehood? I want to breathe a sigh of relief for Lu Zhiqiu. That dog, no matter how you stretch it, is not worth 10,000 yuan. That too Ten a thousand yuan from seven years ago. Do you think it is a small amount? I just added a little embellishment and said that these people specially poisoned other people's dogs with poison and then sold the meat to unknown customers.”

I frowned, feeling a little angry.

Wang Xin did not see what I was thinking but continued: “At that time, I said that these migrant workers stole our dogs, but they said that these were their own dogs, and that they would kill them in front of us. If we wanted to stop them, we’d have to pay them 10,000 yuan.”

“I can't overlook that you used public opinion to incite the masses seven years ago?” I looked at Wang Xin and said lightly.

“The masses are all fools.” Wang Xin said in a tone that saw through the world: “They are people who fan the flames. Later, I also saw someone set up some pet dog protection association in the forum and went through the trouble of looking for these migrant workers. Later, when I wanted to step back, someone naturally took over the issue for me.”

“What happened next?” I asked.

Wang Xin shrugged and said, “I don't know much about what happened later, but it seemed that someone had come to make trouble. As for those migrant workers, they quit working within a few days. Haha, it can be regarded as a huge relief for Lu Zhiqiu.”

But judging from Lu Zhiqiu's character, she wouldn’t have tolerated Wang Xin’s part in this at all.

“And Lu Zhiqiu knows about this?” I asked.

Wang Xin shook his head, smelled the incense burner again, and then said, “Lu Zhiqiu naturally doesn't know about this matter. Think about it. How touching would it be for a man to silently do so many things for a woman. I couldn’t tell Lu Zhiqiu about it. I wanted to wait for Lu Zhiqiu to find out by herself, but, after half a month, the incident happened and Lu Zhiqiu actually died.”

“You tell me,” Wang Xin looked at me: “aren’t I on a bumpy road?”

Looking at Wang Xin, I suddenly felt disgusted in my heart.

“Do you think Lu Zhiqiu would’ve fallen in love with you this way?” I said, “Relying on the internet to tell tall tales?”

Hearing my words with dripping with thorns, Wang Xin's expression changed.

(End of this chapter)