Chapter 101
Chapter 101
I stared blankly at my father.
I couldn’t believe those words had come from his mouth.
In my heart, he had always been a responsible man, someone who took ownership of his actions.
“Dad, when Mom left us back then without a word, you never said a single bad thing about her in front of me. You taught me to be a man of integrity.”
“Fang Man died such a horrific death.”
My voice choked up. “I can’t run away, and I won’t. If I don’t catch the killer, I’ll never have peace for the rest of my life.”
My father stared back at me, stunned. He took a sharp breath. “And if you do catch the killer, then what?”
“We live in a society ruled by law. If you can’t produce evidence to prove his guilt, you have no way of getting justice for Fang Man. What do you plan to do, resort to vigilante justice? You’d be committing a crime yourself. Have you thought about me or your grandfather?”
I calmed my emotions and said, “I know where the line is. I won’t do anything reckless, but I have to know who he is. Then I’ll find a way to put him behind bars. Otherwise, I’ll never be at peace, and Fang Man will never rest in the afterlife.”
Having said all there was to say, my father had nothing left to add.
I was an adult now. If I was determined to do something, there was no way he could stop me.
Without another word, he turned and went upstairs.
Back in the car, Meng Yifan sighed. “A parent’s love is truly bittersweet. Your dad is just afraid something will happen to you.”
I nodded. I knew, of course, that he was worried about me.
When my mother left, he was in the prime of his life, yet he never remarried or even looked at another woman.
He was simply afraid that I, his son, would be mistreated by a stepmother.
So, no matter how selfish his words sounded, his heart toward me was selfless. He just didn’t want me to get hurt.
Next, Meng Yifan and I headed back to the factory.
I sought out Wang Hua again and asked him to help me look up the security guard’s home address.
After all, I was Chen Guowen’s son; Wang Hua was willing to do me this small favor.
He quickly found out where the guard, whose surname was Wang, lived.
Meng Yifan and I didn’t delay, driving straight to the guard’s house.
The security guard lived in a peri-urban area between the city and the countryside. He usually commuted to work by bicycle.
Under normal circumstances, he should have cycled home after finishing his shift last night.
The reason he hadn’t returned was because someone had invited him out for drinks.
The person who invited him to drink was the person who killed him.
When we arrived at his house, a crowd had gathered at the entrance. The air was filled with the sound of wailing and commotion.
These people were likely relatives who had just received news of his death.
“Excuse me, who is Wang Shujun’s wife?” I asked, stopping one of the younger men.
This young man didn’t seem particularly affected by Wang Shujun’s death; he was busy playing on his phone.
He pointed toward a woman who was crying hysterically, then lowered his head back to his phone.
Meng Yifan and I walked directly over to her. “Ma’am, we’re friends of Brother Jun. He told us yesterday that if anything happened to him, we should come find you.”
This was a lie we had made up, of course.
But the woman didn’t overthink it. She invited us into the house for a private talk.
She was weeping bitterly. Her husband was dead, and seeing the poor condition of their home, I realized life would only get harder for her from now on.
After a long while, she stopped crying and asked us how her husband had died.
“Ma’am, what did the police tell you?” I asked.
The woman choked out, “The police said my husband had been drinking. He fell into the river while drunk and… he’s just gone.”
Meng Yifan shot me a look, his eyes flashing with surprise.
I had been right. Wang Shujun really had been drinking before he drowned.
“He didn’t come home after work and went drinking instead. Did he mention that to you beforehand?” I asked the woman.
She nodded. “He did. He called me and said he was going to eat out before coming home, so I didn’t need to save any food for him.”
“Did he say anything else?” I pressed.
The woman’s eyes flickered with hesitation as she shook her head.
“He definitely said something else,” I urged. “Sister-in-law, Brother Jun’s death wasn’t simple. He didn’t just get drunk and fall into the river on his own; someone pushed him. If you’re hiding something from us, Brother Jun might have died for nothing.”
The woman suddenly became agitated. “What are you saying? My husband was murdered? How is that possible? He was just a security guard. Who could he possibly have a grudge against?”
I said, “The person he was threatening. Whoever he was blackmailing is the one who pushed him in. You know who that person is, don’t you? Did you two receive a sum of money recently?”
I wasn’t just bluffing. The person who stole the motorcycle wanted Wang Shujun to keep quiet, so naturally, there would be hush money involved.
Knowing now that there was more to her husband’s death, the woman stopped hiding the truth. “We… we did receive a sum of money. Old Wang said someone at the factory stole a motorcycle and gave him five thousand yuan as hush money.”
“I tried to talk him out of it at the time. I told him if the police found out, he’d go to jail too. But we’re poor, and we have two children to raise. Old Wang said the police wouldn’t find out because the surveillance cameras were turned off. Besides, he said the person who stole the motorcycle was a leader at the factory.”
Meng Yifan and I were instantly energized.
“Sister-in-law, did Brother Jun mention the person’s name or their position at the factory?” I asked hurriedly.
The woman shook her head. “He didn’t say. He only said the person was a leader. He also mentioned that he never expected that person to steal anything, since they usually acted so respectable.”
I asked, “Was the person who invited him out for drinks last night that same leader?”
The woman burst into tears again. “Yes. Old Wang said that person was going to give him another ten thousand yuan. I even warned him-I said a motorcycle isn’t worth that much to begin with, so why would he give you so much money? Could there be a problem? I never imagined that heartless beast would actually kill my man…”
Seeing that the woman was on the verge of fainting from her sobbing, we didn’t press any further. We comforted her for a while and offered a thousand yuan as a funerary gift.
We left Wang Shujun’s house.
We still hadn’t figured out who the person was, but the scope of our search had narrowed.
“There are so many low-level leaders in the factory, and Wang Shujun didn’t tell his wife the name. That’s still a lot of people to sift through,” Meng Yifan sighed.
I told him the scope was small enough. Although Wang Shujun hadn’t given a name, he had described the person’s characteristics.
“That person’s position shouldn’t be low-at least higher than Wang Hua’s. Also, this person puts on a very respectable front…”
While we couldn’t identify him yet, if that person had invited Wang Shujun out for drinks last night, he must have prepared that ten thousand yuan. Otherwise, Wang Shujun wouldn’t have gone.
Therefore, he likely withdrew the cash yesterday.
“Song Xiaotian is about to be released. We can narrow it down to a few suspects first, then wait for him to get out and have him check their bank accounts.”
Just as I mentioned Song Xiaotian, a phone call came through. It was Song Xiaotian’s father.
Over the phone, he said Song Xiaotian had been cleared for release. He was on his way to the detention center to pick him up and asked if we wanted to come along.