The 80s Female Detective's Guide to Self-Preservation [Criminal Investigation] - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

According to Jin Dacheng’s statement, he arrived at Liang Chunhua’s house at 8:30 PM last night, carrying wine and food. This routine had been going on for nearly six months. Jin Dacheng’s wife had died during a difficult labor, and Liang Chunhua’s husband had perished in a landslide.

“As for whether their two sons know about their situation, Jin Dacheng isn’t sure himself.” Xia Qiuyuan closed her notebook. A clear web of character relationships was now drawn on the blackboard, expanding outward from the center.”

Liang Guangqi stared at the incredibly organized logic on the blackboard and muttered under his breath, “Is this how they teach at the Provincial Police Academy now? I don’t feel like I ever learned this.”

Zhuo Yuanqing shot him a blunt look. “You went to the Provincial Police Academy; Xiao Qiu went to the Provincial Police University. Do you understand the difference between an academy and a university? They overhauled the entire faculty.”

Liang Guangqi, who had graduated two years earlier, said resentfully, “I was just born two years too early! Otherwise, I’d be a Police University grad too!”

Hou Ming tapped the table, signaling them to stop bickering, and began assigning tasks. “Xiao Qi and Yuanqing, go canvas the villagers. Inquire about the social circles and relationships of Liang Chunhua and Jin Dacheng. Qin Yi, go find out the current whereabouts of their sons.”

“Xiao Sui, go to the records room. Look for files on anyone in Xiatang Village with a prior criminal record.”

Hou Ming tapped his index finger on the table, pondering where to fit Xia Qiuyuan. If he sent her directly on a field investigation with Qin Yi, Zhao Yan would likely start another argument—this is my apprentice, why is she learning from someone else?

“Alright, Xiao Qiu, for now, follow Sister Sui to the records room and help look for priors.”

“Yes, sir!”

For a newcomer to the criminal investigation team, pouring over case files was a daily necessity; it was how every detective began their training. Xia Qiuyuan had already been a detective in her past life. Back then, because she worked on the front lines, people had sneered at her, telling her to transfer to an administrative desk before she ended up crying and begging for a way out.

Hating to be looked down upon, Xia Qiuyuan had acted like a sponge. She studied everything from start to finish, filling two entire notebooks with summaries of old cases. In the end, the person who had mocked her was the one who couldn’t handle the pressure and transferred out.

Case files in the 1980s were all handwritten. For the older ones, the paper had yellowed, or the ink had blurred into illegibility. Looking at them under a dim light was enough to make one go blind.

Xia Sui pulled a mountain of files toward herself and pushed a small portion over to Xia Qiuyuan. “This is your first time handling a case like this. Take it slow, don’t rush. Not every file is useful. Check if any names from our current case appear in the statements, then see if the MO (Method of Operation) is similar. If not, set it aside.”

Xia Sui didn’t want to pressure her. “Don’t worry, a team usually handles several cases at once. These files aren’t something you look at just once. If we don’t make progress, you’ll likely be flipping through these back and forth for a while.”

“Mhm, I understand.” Xia Qiuyuan felt no pressure at all, but she couldn’t say that, so she simply started flipping through the files obediently.

Old case registrations were often redundant. Even minor cases were written in painstaking detail, enough to make anyone drowsy. Xia Qiuyuan skimmed through the entries that lacked useful information. Finding nothing in her pile, she took another stack from Xia Sui.

After going through several more stacks, her finger suddenly stopped on a familiar name.

“Liang Chunhua?” Xia Qiuyuan’s finger rested lightly on the name as she quickly scanned the record.

The case had happened only three years ago. The informant was Liang Chunhua. She claimed her son had been scammed and slandered. Apparently, a girl from the county seat had fallen for her son and, for some reason, climbed to the roof of the village primary school to threaten suicide. Before the police arrived, the girl jumped and died.

Liang Chunhua had reported it to try and save the girl, but as the other party involved, Liang Chunhua’s son never appeared in the records.

“Sister Sui, after an informant reports a crime, aren’t the police supposed to record statements from everyone involved?”

“Yes, of course.”

“This 1977 file about the Xiatang Village school suicide… why does it only contain statements from Liang Chunhua and the girl’s parents?” Xia Qiuyuan handed the file to Xia Sui. “The deceased had an emotional dispute with Liang Chunhua’s son, right? Why didn’t the investigating officer question him?”

Xia Sui frowned deeply as she finished reading. She checked the page numbers; no pages were missing. The record was complete as archived. “Strange. Why wasn’t the son questioned? Wait, let’s see who the investigating officer was.”

A few years back, the police districts had been redrawn. Many village outposts were shut down, and their files were tossed into the central records room by the truckload. The volume was massive, and they had never been properly audited or organized. Xia Sui couldn’t guarantee the officer back then had followed protocol.

Xia Sui took the file out to find “Auntie Chen,” a veteran of the station. Officer Chen was the earliest female officer in the sub-bureau and was a legend for her memory. She could remember every face and name she had ever encountered.

Officer Chen glanced at the file and handed it back. “Zhao Guoying. I remember him. He was a ‘Worker-Peasant-Soldier’ student. Later, his family used connections to get him a spot at a village outpost… Ah, I think it was that Xiatang Village you went to yesterday.”

“When the outpost was abolished, the files were supposed to flow back to our bureau. But Zhao Guoying resigned and quit the force shortly after the outpost was shut down.” Officer Chen pursed her lips, pulling a rumor from her memory. “People said he met a ‘benefactor’ who was going to take him into business to get rich. He didn’t deny it.”

“If you ask me,” Officer Chen continued, “he was probably just unhappy. He was a university student stuck in a village, and after the redrawing of districts, his salary was still based on the village rate. Even the old man guarding the police gate made five yuan more than him. Who’d want to do that dirty, exhausting work?”

Seeing Officer Chen was about to start a long monologue, Xia Sui quickly put an arm around her and smiled. “Thank you so much. You veteran officers who stuck through those times really deserve all the credit. You’ve been here since the sixties—you’re the pillar of this bureau.”

“True, not everyone could—”

“Oh, Sister Chen, I have a case to get to! Let me treat you to dinner another day and we can have a long chat.” Xia Sui made her escape before she got trapped.

Xia Qiuyuan stayed in the records room until she finished every file. Finding no other anomalies, she stretched her stiff neck and waited for Xia Sui to return.

“Zhao Guoying quit a long time ago.” Xia Sui stood at the door, waving the file slightly. “Let’s go. The guys should be back from their canvas. Let’s cross-reference the info.”

The criminal investigation department consisted of three teams sharing a large hall, separated by aisles. When they arrived, Zhuo Yuanqing was setting up a mobile blackboard, reorganizing the character web Xia Qiuyuan had started.

Once everyone was gathered, Zhuo Yuanqing began his report. “Liang Chunhua’s son: Zhao Yuanming. High school dropout. No steady job. They say he’s been a troublemaker since he was a kid—always harassing the neighbors. But the kid had some luck. When he failed to get into high school, his father begged his older brother who works in the city to use connections and money to get him into a city high school.”

“According to the villagers, Zhao Yuanming hasn’t been seen for nearly two weeks. No one knows where he is.”

Zhuo Yuanqing used a magnet to pin a photo of a young man with a buzz cut to the board. “This is Jin Dacheng’s son: Jin Wu. He was a decent student in junior high, but after he met Zhao Yuanming in high school, he started following him around.”

“Coincidentally, after we couldn’t find Zhao Yuanming, we checked on Jin Wu. No one in the village knows where he is either. Jin Dacheng and Liang Chunhua claim they don’t know where their sons are.”

“As for their social reputation? It’s poor. Jin Dacheng is arrogant because of his craft and has offended many people. When Liang Chunhua’s husband was alive, he was a squad leader in the village and had some influence.”

The implication of Zhuo Yuanqing’s unfinished sentence was clear to everyone.

“So, these four haven’t exactly made few enemies…” Hou Ming rubbed his brow. “The biggest concern is that Zhao Yuanming and Jin Wu disappeared at the same time. It’s hard not to wonder if those intestines belong to one of them…”

When Xia Qiuyuan heard that Liang Chunhua’s son’s surname was Zhao, her eyes flickered. She immediately connected Zhao Yuanming to the former officer, Zhao Guoying. She didn’t say it out loud, but Xia Sui, sitting next to her, brought it up for her.

“When Xiao Qiu and I were going through the files, we found a case involving Liang Chunhua. Strangely, the deceased had a romantic dispute with Zhao Yuanming, but there is no statement from him in the records.”

Xia Sui handed out copies she had made. “The officer who handled that case was named Zhao Guoying. He was the resident officer at Xiatang Village.”

Xia Sui shrugged. “I don’t have the clearance to pull Zhao Guoying’s personal file, but Xiao Qiu and I are of the same mind.”

“Let’s pay a visit to Zhao Guoying’s house.”