Chapter 16

The case meeting was about to begin. Li Qingyao had been busy all morning and his mouth was dry and his eyes were dry. He picked up the cup and ran to the tea room to make tea.

She had just washed the cups when someone walked into the tea room, their tall shadow blocking the light from the door. She turned around and saw Chen Pu, and blinked.

Chen Pu didn't even say hello to her. He walked to the tea table with two boxes of tea tucked under his armpits and a gray-black porcelain cup with a wide mouth and gold rim in his hand. He took out the two boxes of tea and threw them next to the pile of tea, chrysanthemum and wolfberry jars that everyone had put there.

The tea was found by Chen Pu at home early in the morning.

Li Qingyao immediately leaned over and took a closer look at the words on the tea box. Oh, it was an old brand of Baihao Yinzhen. This box cost over a thousand.

Chen Pu had a gloomy face and went to wash the teacups.

Li Qingyao: "As the boss, you put the tea here to let everyone who sees it get a share?"

Chen Pu was rinsing the bottom of the cup with his head down: "Nonsense, it was given to me by someone else. It's almost moldy when I keep it at home."

Li Qingyao picked up the box and saw that it was clearly this year's new tea! She opened a box with a smile on her face, poured a little into the cup, and carefully sealed the tea bag.

Hot water poured into the cup, and the tea leaves were full and green, with a faint fragrance. Li Qingyao took a deep sniff.

Chen Pu squinted at her greedy look, sighed in his heart, and walked to the tea table with the cup in hand. His eyes fell on a simple paper bag of tea leaves beside him: "Is this the tea you brought?"

"Well, it's not a famous brand, but my uncle stir-fried it, and it's pretty good."

Chen Pu frowned and seemed to hesitate for a while before he grabbed her bag of tea and poured it into the cup. This man's hand seemed to have no sense of gravity, and he poured out half a cup of tea in one go. He didn't care, and picked up the cup and poured hot water into it.

Li Qingyao was stunned: "Do you eat it as a meal?"

Chen Pu leaned over and took the cup of water with one hand, and raised his eyelids: "Can't bear to part with it?"

Li Qingyao held the teacup in both hands and shook his head: "I just thought of an idiom."

"what?"

A cow chewing a peony. Li Qingyao had a cute smile on his face: "It's worth it."

Chen Pu didn't expect her flattery to be so shameless. He finally smiled and said, "I told you not to do that." He took the full cup of tea and walked away briskly.

-

Only one day and one night had passed since the night of Liu Huaixin's death, but the work in the four reconnaissance directions arranged by Chen Pu had basically come to an end.

Fang Kai, who was in charge of the investigation of Zhang Liangwei, had already concluded that Zhang Liangwei had nothing to do with the murder. His abnormal behavior at the murder scene was mainly due to the anonymous letter and his suspicion of Liu Huaixin. However, there was no progress in investigating the anonymous letter along this clue. Fang Kai had organized people to compare the handwriting of more than 60% of the teachers and students of No. Middle School, but no match was found. Who wrote the anonymous letter and who the insider was was still an unknown mystery.

Yan Yong reported the results of the physical evidence investigation: the autopsy further confirmed that Liu Huaixin died of excessive blood loss, the fatal wound was the wound on his wrist, the body did not suffer other internal and external injuries, and did not take poison, the cause of death was clear and unique. Importantly, the results of the on-site DNA and fingerprint test comparison came out, and there were more than a dozen people, including several colleagues of Liu Huaixin, including Zhou Cen, Gao Jichang, Fang Chenyu, etc., and Zhang Liangwei's fingerprints were also among them. In addition, there were fingerprints of several relatives of Liu Huaixin, distributed throughout the house-this is consistent with Liu Huaixin's daily social circle, and it does not mean that these people are suspects. In addition, there are only Liu Huaixin's fingerprints on the suicide note, pen, fruit knife, bathtub, recorder and watermelon knife.

The third line is the crime scene monitoring and personnel investigation that Zhou Yangxin is responsible for. The building where Liu Huaixin lived has a total of 42 households on six floors. During the time of the crime, 14 households were empty. Of the remaining 28 households, 16 households who did not know Liu Huaixin and had no motive to kill him were removed, leaving 12 households. Among these 12 households, 10 were school teachers, and 2 were rented houses by senior high school students. Gao Jichang and Fang Chenyu also lived in the same building, Fang Chenyu lived on the first floor, and Gao Jichang lived on the fifth floor.

Finally, there is the Zhang Xiyu case line that Chen Pu and Li Qingyao are responsible for. Li Qingyao printed out all the transcripts from yesterday and distributed them to everyone. After reading the transcripts, everyone was a little surprised - it turned out that the information Li Qingyao prepared was different from others. She wrote all the formal transcripts in the previous format, with clear organization and clear facts. But at the end, she also attached a few pages of paper, which recorded every detail, objectively, and without any subjective judgment, recording the clothes, accessories, office environment, etc. of each person she interrogated. This even includes the Apple watch worn by Sun Haochen, the bookshelf and lighter in Gao Jichang's office, and Fang Chenyu's brand-name shirt. Because these people were only interrogated, not suspects, the police could not take photos and record these things. Soon someone realized that with these seemingly useless details recorded by Li Qingyao, those who did not go to the scene also had an immersive and intuitive impression.

"That's a good idea." Fang Kai smiled slightly, "Xiao Li, thank you for your hard work."

Yan Yong was amazed: "This is several thousand words, you are really good at writing."

Li Qingyao just smiled shyly: "I'm a newcomer, so I can only start early. I don't know if these are useful, so I just wrote them down. If I do something wrong, please give me some advice."

Everyone looked at her with more loving eyes.

Only Chen Pu looked numb.

"Okay." Chen Pu said, "Everyone's information is synchronized. Now let's talk about how to arrest people next."

Some people seemed to be thinking about something, while others looked at each other in bewilderment - does Chen Pu mean that they can catch the person today?
Everyone took out their black notebooks and pens, ready to take notes. Li Qingyao also received a black leather notebook this morning, but she thought the pen tip was not fine enough and the ink was not smooth enough, so she continued to use her own light blue translucent fountain pen. Chen Pu's eyes quickly swept over her pen and began to call out people: "Lao Fang."

Fang Kai touched his chin and said, "I think the most clear and valuable results of the current investigation are the fingerprints in Liu Huaixin's home. It can be concluded that the murderer did not clean the scene. Then, there are only a dozen acquaintances' fingerprints, which point to two completely different possibilities: First, the murderer is among these dozen people, and the fingerprints he left at the scene on the day of the crime are also mixed in with these fingerprints. It is even possible that he also understands this, so he did not clean the scene; second, the murderer is not an acquaintance of Liu Huaixin, and has never been to his home before. He has a high degree of anti-reconnaissance awareness and did not leave any fingerprints. I personally tend to the first possibility."

Everyone nodded. Fang Kai had always been the most reliable person in the team besides Chen Pu. He was mature and steady by nature, and would either not speak or speak when he was sure of what he was saying.

"I agree with Fang Kai's opinion. The murderer is among those dozen or so acquaintances." Yan Yong spoke up second. "The surveillance camera at the entrance of the building where the crime occurred did not capture any suspicious persons entering or leaving. The crime occurred at dinner time, when 12 households were at home and had interactions with Liu Huaixin's daily life. If the murderer was among them, he could easily leave the scene, flee back home, and escape surveillance."

"How many people overlap on the two lists?" Chen Pu asked.

Yan Yong quickly compared the information and answered, "There are six people in total, all men: Fang Chenyu, Gao Jichang, two other first-year high school teachers: Xu Fangming, Zhao Ruiyun, and two parents of third-year high school students: Qian Yuanling and Wu Xuefeng."

However, Zhou Yangxin seemed to like to go against Yan Yong. He put the black notebook on the table and said, "Although I also tend to believe that the crime was committed by an acquaintance, I am responsible for the surveillance, so I have to sing two different tunes: First, although the current investigation shows that the 12 households other than these 16 households have no connection with Liu Huaixin and have no motive for murder. But after all, we only investigated for one day, and if there is a deeper motive, it is possible to miss it; second, the building has only one entrance and exit, but there is a small road behind the building and no surveillance. It is not impossible for the murderer to escape from the lower floors. Of course, both possibilities are very small."

Yan Yong said angrily, "You still say it's very unlikely? Our police force is limited. We can't check every direction. It will take forever to find out! Do you know about the 80/20 rule?"

Zhou Yangxin, a new copyist, looked very thin and hard under his black T-shirt: "Whether to investigate or not is one thing, but leaving no trace of the part I'm responsible for is another."

Chen Pu spoke up and made the final decision: "Zhou Yangxin is right, everyone should learn from him. I have noted these two points, are there any others?"

Everyone was discussing it, and from the perspective of physical evidence, many people agreed that the crime was committed by an acquaintance. At least now, we have a list of suspects, right?
Li Qingyao wrote down every key point they said in his notebook, and before he knew it, he had drawn a picture of the intertwined relationships. He was biting the tip of his pen and frowning in thought when he heard Chen Pu say, "Li Qingyao, stop being a quail."

Li Qingyao looked up and saw Chen Pu staring at her... mouth with a look of disgust?

Li Qingyao realized it belatedly and spit out the pen, and everyone fell silent.

Last time, during a short meeting at the crime scene, Chen Pu arranged the direction of the investigation, and this newcomer only said one thing to Chen Pu: the deceased committed suicide. Although her reason sounded reasonable, it was obviously contrary to the general direction of the investigation. Now Chen Pu personally led her to investigate the case for a day, and everyone also wanted to hear how much weight this top student from the provincial department had.

Li Qingyao put down her notebook and pen, rested one arm on the table, and let the other arm hang down, with her palms folded together, her fingers white and slender, her back straight, like a simple and elegant little white crane among a group of droopy-headed and rustic criminal police. She said, "I also agree that it was an acquaintance who committed the crime. The third person at the crime scene, Zhang Xiyu's lover, was between Fang Chenyu and Gao Jichang."

This novel is slow to heat up, and the first case is rather realistic and depressing. Since it is the introduction to the whole book, please be patient. There will be emotional drama, and it will pick up in the second volume.

thank you all!