Chapter 353: Chapter 341 The Sealed Notebook_1
Elder Hu’s comment attracted everyone’s attention.
He picked up a pen and circled different parts of the characters for "ten," "ten thousand," "kidnap," "person," "ransom," and "money."
Although the fonts varied greatly, one could say they didn’t look alike at all, their bent hooks, vertical strokes, and dots all shared a common feature, which was the deliberate pauses in the writing.
"Look at these characters. Even though they were written with different hands and there was a deliberate attempt to disguise the handwriting, some habits can’t be easily changed. This person must have learned calligraphy, that sort of childhood training with character-practice books. There’s a writing habit of liking to pause deliberately, and I’d say the writing with both the left and right hands is pretty good. I determine that the characters on these two sheets of paper were written by the same person."
This analysis made Zhou Ning’s eyes light up; it coincided with some of his earlier thoughts. However, these analyses also confused Zhou Ning, so he had not brought it up to Xu Dayuan.
"Elder Hu, may I understand it this way: that the person who wrote this received a good education, at least in childhood, to train both hands to write simultaneously, and even to copy from character-practice books, more than just the neat writing required by schools. It at least indicates a well-off family background, not necessarily a scholarly family but at least parents or elders who are educated?"
Elder Hu laughed and looked at Zhou Ning, nodding slightly.
"You’re trying to get words out of me, aren’t you? Normally, I would definitely give you a negative answer. I’m only responsible for discerning handwriting, and I can’t make judgments about other matters. However, your hypothesis is very good, and I quite agree with it.
After all, this habit of pausing and the way the bent hooks are deliberately lifted during the writing are more like the techniques used in practicing brush writing. I also think this person has received strict training. Not to mention ballpoint pen calligraphy, even their brush calligraphy won’t be poor.
As for the family background, I think ordinary families rarely emphasize training their children in brush writing to such an extent. It feels like a level of skill that cannot be achieved by any training class.
Look at this name. When he wrote it, he must have forgotten to disguise it. The upper half of this connected ’卩’ character already passes through a horizontal stroke. I remember in Zu Yunming’s character-practice book there is this writing habit, it’s from a brush cursive character-practice book."
Whether he understood much, who knows, but Mr. Zhao kept nodding his head on the side.
"Elder Hu means that it was written by one person, but at different times, right?"
"Right, different mental states and moods can be seen in the writing."
Hearing this, Mr. Zhao was already rubbing his hands together eagerly.
"Great, this way we can combine the cases."
Elder Hu glanced at Mr. Zhao then his gaze fell on Zhou Ning, maintaining professional decorum by not continuing to inquire.
"Alright, do you need me to provide you an appraisal report? If not, I’ll be going and won’t hold you up from continuing your work."
Zhou Ning regained his composure and grasped Elder Hu’s hand.
"Thank you so much, Elder Hu, you’ve resolved our perplexities upon your arrival."
Elder Hu waved his hand, already standing up.
"Girl, take me back, please. If you need anything later, you can find me anytime. Now that I’m living in Qindao, I realize after retiring that working every day is actually quite interesting. I’ve spoken more today than I usually do in a week."
"Then Elder Hu, feel free to come here whenever you like. I’m collaborating with Qin University on some software, and actually, I think we can systematically arrange the knowledge you possess. After all, there are far too few professionals in this field. If a computer could conduct some level of analysis, it would enhance the capabilities at the grassroots level of case handling."
Elder Hu was taken aback, looked at Xia Momo, then suddenly burst into hearty laughter.
Zhou Ning was bewildered.
Caught off guard by this sudden change, he didn’t know what had happened. Xia Momo, a bit embarrassed, waved at Zhou Ning and then tugged at Elder Hu’s arm.
"Stop laughing, let’s go back quickly."
Elder Hu, seeming to find something even more interesting, stopped laughing, looked at Zhou Ning, then at Xia Momo, and nodded as if realizing something.
"Now I get it. That’s why you sought me out to help. Alright, I won’t disturb you two any further. But Director Zhou, what you just said—the Xia Family girl just mentioned it to me. Unexpectedly, you both thought of the same thing. Actually, we tried it before, but the collaborating party couldn’t perform these recognitions, and they didn’t understand what I was trying to express."
Zhou Ning’s interest was piqued. He hadn’t dared to promise anything before, but now things were different. Their team had established various databases to a high standard, particularly the facial reconstruction system was already well-regarded, and capable individuals were eager to join the R&D center. They were not short of talent.
Just as Doctor Lu initially said, you just state your ideas, and if anything is lacking—money he’ll fund, people he’ll find; all needs can be met, just requiring clear direction and expertise in the field.
"Elder Hu, over two years ago, when Mr. Xia and I first manually reconstructed a face, I had no idea that the team established by Qin University could successfully create these databases and design the software. Now we are already working on Version Six and even pushing forward in other directions.
What I can tell you is that the Qin University’s team is quite professional, and now it comprises outstanding individuals from various fields. My mentor Li Chengbin is even here overseeing Ph.D. students, which speaks volumes about the regard for Qin University. So, I hope you’ll go have a look, visit the research center, see how our facial reconstruction system operates, and then decide what to do next?"
Elder Hu stared at Zhou Ning for a long while, then nodded seriously.
"Okay, I’ll take your word for it. Have the Xia Family girl take me there later to look around. Although I don’t know what your system is like, it sounds impressive. I understand what you mean; if you could create those fanciful software, there’s no reason mine couldn’t be possible too, is that what you’re saying?"
Zhou Ning nodded.
"It’s a pity I have a case at hand, otherwise I really would want to accompany you for a look. I won’t say too much of polite words now, since I know you’re in Qindao, I will not hesitate to trouble you in the future."
"For someone your age, to speak so appropriately and to understand what we old folks think, that touches my heart more than anything. Okay, continue with your work. Once we’re less busy, we’ll have a proper chat."
Elder Hu nodded with a smile and quickly left with Xia Momo.
Zhou Ning could tell that Elder Hu had been moved by what he had said. In fact, when Doctor Lu initially mentioned that he could develop such software and even made such a big fuss about it, Zhou Ning’s first reaction was that if the investment was huge and the software couldn’t be made, it would be fine as long as he did not lose money.
Shaking his head, he gestured Mr. Zhao to put away the two pieces of paper. Then he quickly went upstairs, knocked on the door, and entered the conference room, just in time to see Xu Dayuan and Liu Yufei chatting with Fatty.
Xu Dayuan looked at Zhou Ning with an inquiring gaze. Zhou Ning nodded vigorously, and Xu Dayuan clenched his fists, clearly excited.
Mr. Zhao had already run over and sat down next to Fatty, whose real name was Zhu Yantao.
"His name is Zhou Ning. He came with me to your noodle shop last time. He’s the head of the forensic department at the Qindao City Bureau, in charge of autopsy work for criminal cases. So, everyone sitting here is trustworthy."
Zhu Yantao patted Mr. Zhao’s chubby hand to stop him from continuing. The smile on his face was faint, but one could feel his relaxation.
"There’s no need for such an introduction. Like I told you, since I’ve come back with you, I trust you all. Besides, you grew up in the big courtyard; I know what kind of person you are. In the past few years, I resisted looking into this case, not for any other reason, but because my spouse has a weak heart and can’t stand such things.
Last year, she had a bypass surgery and is now quite well. As you said, some things, if left unattended and not questioned, do not simply go away. They always remain the thorns in one’s side, especially during festivals when you see others enjoying the company of their family, that feeling emerges.
I’ve told my spouse that we want to clear things up this time. You ask whatever you need to, without worrying about my feelings or anything else. As for the items left by my son and his family, the valuables have been returned to us. I’ve brought them here; from the day they were given back to us, I’ve never opened them. I don’t know if they would be of any help to your case."
As he spoke, Fatty opened a backpack behind him and took out a wooden box.
Upon opening it, there were three plastic evidence bags containing a filigree gold lock, a ring, and a hairpin. Indeed, in the crevices of the filigree gold lock, one could see brownish-black bloodstains.
Zhou Ning was particularly struck by this as he had closely examined the images the night before, enlarging them to take a better look. Indeed, just like Fatty said, he had kept these items sealed, which was indeed beneficial for the investigation.
Mr. Zhao quickly took the box and solemnly placed it on the table.
"Don’t worry, Fatty, we’ll handle these carefully. They will be sent for testing later. After all, the various technologies we have now have advanced so much compared to eight years ago."
Zhou Ning pursed his lips, saying nothing.
This was not the time to give Fatty too much hope. The old man was up in years and could not withstand such dramatic ups and downs. Xu Dayuan passed over a cup of water and then said,
"Okay, since you’re ready, let’s start making a record. We need to know some details about timing. If you can’t remember anything, just tell us outright, and we’ll move on to other questions."
Zhu Yantao nodded and took out a notebook from his bag, spreading it open to reveal densely packed entries detailing what was done, when, and where. Xu Dayuan was stunned upon seeing it.
"Is this... have you been keeping a record?"
Zhu Yantao nodded with a smile, sighing as he said,
"I’m getting old and always feel my memory isn’t good. After my son’s family tragedy, I thought about it every night. Eventually, I decided to write down the whole process, even printing out the call records from that time. I couldn’t do much as a father, but this was a way of comforting them, I suppose."
Xu Dayuan pushed the notebook to Mr. Zhao, instructing,
"Make copies of all these."
Xu Dayuan paused, then continued to ask,
"When you received this threatening letter, you reported it to the police immediately, right?"
"Yes, to say something you might not want to hear, my biggest regret was calling the police. I keep thinking that if I hadn’t called them back then, maybe my son and his family could have lived."
Xu Dayuan patted his shoulder. He had just glanced briefly at the notebook, which contained various timings of the incident, apparently with no record prior to the incident.
"Uncle, try to recall, before April 14, when was the last time you saw the three members of their family, or just one of them?"
Zhu Yantao nodded.
"I remember, April 14 was a Wednesday. The last time I saw them was on Sunday, April 11. They came over to my house to play for a whole morning. Yueyue even said she wanted to take my granddaughter swimming. I joked that my granddaughter would become a professional swimmer someday."
Xu Dayuan took a deep breath; asking these questions was pressing for him too, but the investigation had to continue.
"Could you tell me, what about the social relationships of your son Zhu Guotai and Fang Yue?"
