Chapter 198: Chapter 197 The Origin of the Foot Injury_1
Zhou Ning and Mr. Zhao both turned their gaze to Xu Dayuan, who slapped Mr. Zhao’s fat face away.
"Speak if you’re going to speak, what’s with the face all up in mine? You make a good point, if it was Xing Xiaoli who injured Tan Ran, she wouldn’t delve into it and might even cover up for Xing Xiaoli. But according to what Zhou Ning said, with injuries so severe, how could no one in the team know?"
Zhou Ning thought for a moment.
"An injury can’t be hidden, a cut and a fracture with a severed nerve are both injuries; one is at most scolded a bit, while the other won’t be so easily dismissed. It’s just unknown how he handled it at the time, after all, there’s no hospitalization record of hers at the central hospital.
However, as the team doctor, surgeries for cuts and fractures are entirely different, others might be covered up, but he couldn’t possibly be covered up. Moreover, there are the coaches; with an injured foot, one cannot train normally, did they not notice either? Or did they just let Tan Ran make a fuss?"
Xu Dayuan furrowed his brow.
"It seems we need to have a serious talk with Doctor Zhang and Wang Ligang. They must be hiding something."
"Xing Xiaoli is also worth questioning. He should know about Tan Ran’s injuries. By the way, are their cars still here? I’ll call Yang Xuetong over, have Mr. Zhao go with him to check the cars. The luggage will need transporting, so the mode of transportation is key."
Xu Dayuan waved his hand to someone beside him, and Bai Ruixin came over.
"Take Mr. Zhao and the others and go downstairs to check the cars. I had them hand over their car keys last night, but I was so busy I forgot all about it."
As he spoke, he opened a drawer with four small bags inside, each containing a set of keys and a note, stating who owned which car.
After giving the dirty keys a glance, Mr. Zhao first put on gloves, then took them and looked towards Zhou Ning.
"I’ll call you immediately with any news."
Xu Dayuan patted Zhou Ning on the shoulder, then turned to look at the few people in the room.
"Keep investigating here. You’ve got all their car license numbers, so focus on those. Of course, try your best to identify the drivers’ faces too. If they were driving, check those cars as well. Zhou Xiaozhou, come back to the team with me; we’ll talk there. It’s our home turf."
Zhou Ning didn’t object; indeed, it was less nerve-wracking to talk at the criminal police team where there was less of a sense of oppression.
...
An hour later, interrogation room of the first brigade of the criminal police detachment.
Team doctor Zhang Yu sat inside, while Xu Dayuan tapped on the files laid out on the table with a pen.
"Tell me, why is there forgery here?"
Zhang Yu looked surprised, shaking his head constantly.
"Forgery? I didn’t forge anything."
"If you didn’t forge anything, then tell me, where are the X-ray results from Tan Ran’s physical exams in 2010 and 2011?"
Zhang Yu bowed his head, neither explaining nor speaking anymore, simply silent for a while. Xu Dayuan stood up and walked over to Zhang Yu.
"Thought through how you’re going to deal with me? If you don’t want to tell us the truth, then I see no point in talking. Once everything is investigated and it’s proven that you falsified medical records, do you think you can still be the team doctor? There goes your rice bowl, right?"
Zhang Yu looked up, waving his hands repeatedly.
"I just took out the X-rays, didn’t touch the examination results or any of the lab work."
"You think I’m a three-year-old? What else didn’t you touch? When did Tan Ran injure her right foot in 2009? How did it happen?"
"Tan Ran told me she was hit by a figure skate on the top of her foot..."
Xu Dayuan raised his hand, interrupting Zhang Yu’s words.
"Don’t tell me what Tan Ran said. I want to know the actual truth. Don’t tell me you don’t know a thing and that you’re helping her cover up. Are you not aware of the severity of her injuries?"
Zhang Yu looked stunned, obviously shocked by this statement. Zhou Ning, observing through the single pane of glass, also stared intently at Zhang Yu, whose performance as the team doctor was too natural, with nervousness, fear, and concern, every detail in place.
Now it seemed, both Zhang Yu and Wang Ligang were suspects, but what would killing Tan Ran mean to them?
Were they afraid of her parents demanding compensation, or of a potential lawsuit?
Zhou Ning couldn’t figure it out.
Zhang Yu cried, yes, covering his face, motionless for a long while. When he finally moved his hands, his face was already covered in tears.
"On January 22, 2009, it was the twenty-seventh of the twelfth lunar month, the last day of training. Mr. Wang and his wife drove back to Liaodong early in the morning, having not been home for several years.
I remember it was just past one in the afternoon when I had finished eating lunch, and I received a call from Tan Ran. She said she got injured during training and asked me to accompany her to the hospital. I was puzzled at the time because it’s normal for athletes to get injured and for her to take the initiative to arrange a hospital visit meant it wasn’t minor.
Upon arriving at the gym, I was dumbfounded; there was blood all over the ice and ground. Xing Xiaoli was crying beside Tan Ran, who, on the other hand, was comforting him. I quickly took Tan Ran to the hospital, but she didn’t let Xing Xiaoli come along, telling him to clean up the stadium and make sure no one found out about the blood.
I took her to Hospital 401, as it was the closest, and was shocked at the diagnosis: Tan Ran’s metatarsal was fractured, and the nerve damage on the dorsum of her foot was very serious. I wanted to call Mr. Wang right then, but Tan Ran disagreed, saying if I made the call, she’d tell Mr. Wang about me accepting her red packets."
"Continue, so you covered it up?"
Zhang Yu nods.
"It coincided with the Spring Festival, so I thought we could let her recover thoroughly. Once Mr. Wang was back, we could say the wound reopened, necessitating a few more days of rest. It seemed like a feasible cover-up, so I signed off on her surgery."
By this time, Zhou Ning had already dialed Mr. Qu’s mobile phone, asking him to check whether Tan Ran was in the January 22, 2009, admission records of Hospital 401.
Mr. Qu replied almost instantly, finding Tan Ran’s medical records and subsequently sending a photo.
Zhou Ning looked through them and, sure enough, it was almost as he’d guessed: The patient complained of a metatarsal fracture caused by being kicked by another person’s ice skate due to rotating too fast during training.
Zhou Ning forwarded the information to Xu Dayuan. In the interrogation room, Xu Dayuan glanced at his phone and then, with his arms crossed, looked toward Zhang Yu.
"Continue," Xu Dayuan said, "After Wang Ligang came back, how was the training conducted? Don’t you know that the recovery period for a metatarsal fracture is extremely important? If one engages in activities too early, or exercises improperly, it can lead to very serious consequences."
Zhang Yu kept waving his hands, his voice becoming urgent:
"I tried to stop her, but Tan Ran wouldn’t listen to me. Since Mr. Wang canceled their partnership, Tan Ran just went crazy, thinking all day about how to make Mr. Wang change his mind and let them continue as a pair. So, she completely ignored my advice and started participating in the training."
"But you didn’t tell Wang Ligang the truth, did you? You also didn’t inform Wang Ligang about the severity of Tan Ran’s injury. Even the surgery to remove the metal pins—you didn’t tell him, did you?"
Zhang Yu’s lips moved, but he just slumped into the chair.
"I... I didn’t say," he admitted softly.
"Now, tell me, where did you go and whom did you see from noon on September 7th to noon on September 8th?"
Zhang Yu hemmed and hawed for a long while, as if he couldn’t remember.
"Can I check my phone? This question is so sudden, I can’t remember. I only remember that Tan Ran and Xing Xiaoli started on holiday from the sixth since they had to prepare for the winter season after coming back."
Xu Dayuan gestured with his chin, and Zhang Yu took out his phone. Flicking through it, he pointed to the content and said:
"I was at the gym on the sixth. I took leave at noon on the seventh because it was my father-in-law’s birthday, and went to Jimi Cliff in the afternoon to buy seafood."
Xu Dayuan slapped the desk.
"You’re kidding me, buying seafood in the afternoon?"
Zhang Yu, becoming anxious, raised his phone and said:
"If you don’t believe me, ask the seafood shop. Ask them if I went in the afternoon. I had ordered mackerel early in the morning and asked them to freeze it for me to pick up later."
Xu Dayuan didn’t take Zhang Yu’s phone but continued to stare into his eyes.
"So, up until now, you’ve never told Wang Ligang about Tan Ran’s foot injury?"
Zhang Yu nodded.
"Then tell me, is there anything different about Tan Ran’s foot and leg?"
Zhang Yu’s voice became quieter.
"Her right leg is a bit atrophied, but it’s not very noticeable when she’s wearing tights. As for walking, unless she’s in a hurry, it’s not very noticeable either."
Xu Dayuan waved his hand dismissively, and as the scribe approached to get Zhang Yu’s signature, Zhang Yu was taken out, and then Wang Ligang was brought in.
Wang Ligang, eager and without waiting for Xu Dayuan to speak, blurted out:
"Officer, how is the case investigation going? Have you found the murderer?"
Xu Dayuan shook his head, his gaze fixed on Wang Ligang’s eyes.
"Answer the question first. Did you know about Tan Ran’s injury on January 22, 2009?"
Without hesitation, Wang Ligang nodded and said:
"Yes, I knew. I left in the morning, and in the evening, I got a call from Doctor Zhang, saying Tan Ran had accidentally been cut during training—quite a deep cut too. After the New Year, when we went back, it seemed the wound even split open again. Her physical condition had dropped significantly."
"Does her separation from the partnership with Xing Xiaoli have anything to do with this injury?"
After thinking for a moment, Wang Ligang sighed.
"To be accurate, it does. Because of this injury, Tan Ran stopped her physical training for too long and gained quite a bit of weight, while Xing Xiaoli was already slim and lacked in strength, making it impossible for them to complete lifts and throw jumps.
There was a major competition at the time, a men’s singles qualifying event, which made me decide to split them up and have each of them compete as singles skaters."
"What about after that? Did you shift your focus primarily onto Xing Xiaoli? Did you acknowledge the physical issues Tan Ran was dealing with?"
Wang Ligang moved his lips, seemingly wanting to counter this statement, but in the end, he nodded.
"You could say that. Because Xing Xiaoli was outstanding in that qualifying event. Yet during 2009, Tan Ran was always dealing with one issue or another, not focusing on her training and unable to control her weight. Her peak weight was over 110 pounds; forget about lifts, even jumping and spinning on her own was problematic.
So, I focused more on nurturing Xing Xiaoli, and of course, Wang Ying—although she was young, her results were very impressive, she had better innate conditions, was more diligent in training, and obedient. As for the physical problem you mentioned, I’m not sure what you’re referring to."
Zhou Ning pursed his lips; clearly, Wang Ligang had given up on Tan Ran. In his eyes, what mattered were the results, and if there was no hope for them, that person would no longer be valued.
A very pragmatic answer, yet there was nothing one could say against it. The question remained whether Tan Ran would regret protecting Xing Xiaoli, leading herself to such an awkward situation.
