Chapter 355: Chapter 343: There is a Snake_1
July 3, 2012
After many days of investigation, there was almost no progress.
Following the list provided by Zhu Yantao, all the relatives of the Zhu and Fang families, as well as the couple’s friends, were checked one by one.
During the time of the incident, nothing unusual was discovered, and everyone seemed actively cooperative with the police investigation, except for Fang Duo and Fang Qing, of course, since Fang Duo was not in the country, and Fang Qing couldn’t be contacted.
As for the DNA lineage screening of Chen Gang’s relatives and the Fang and Zhu families, no relevant information was found. Much work had been done, but there was no progress, which made Xu Dayuan somewhat frustrated at this moment.
Early in the morning, Xu Dayuan arrived at the laboratory, pushed the door open, and saw Zhou Ning and Liu Yongxin in front of a whiteboard looking at something while Mr. Zhao was gesticulating and talking beside them. Xu Dayuan hurried over.
Upon hearing footsteps, the three turned their heads and when they saw Xu Dayuan approaching with a dark face, Mr. Zhao coughed and quickly stepped back two paces, after all, nobody wanted to be mistakenly burned by such wrath—it was essential to avoid its sharp edge at this time.
"The leader is here, have some water to cool down,"
Mr. Zhao handed over a bottle of mineral water, and Xu Dayuan drank it with his head down, then heaved a sigh.
"The investigation isn’t going well, I’m starting to doubt whether the two cases are truly related."
Liu Yongxin’s brows were knitted tightly, this statement didn’t seem like something Xu Dayuan would say—especially since the handwriting expert had already analyzed that the two ransom notes came from the same person, which was quite solid evidence.
Moreover, both the survivors and the injured had very similar bone fractures.
The laboratory had been busy helping Xu Dayuan and his team compare various submitted DNA samples, hence Cheng Xinghui’s severed finger temporarily didn’t yield any valuable information, which they also found regrettable.
Seeing Liu Yongxin was about to erupt, Zhou Ning stretched out his hand to hold Liu Yongxin’s arm down.
"Master, don’t rush, the investigation hitting a deadlock might not be a problem of direction, but rather an issue with the investigation itself."
Xu Dayuan motioned to Zhou Ning with a nod of his chin.
"Go on."
Zhou Ning gestured for Xu Dayuan to sit beside Liu Yongxin before he continued,
"Mrs. Cui’s side has a huge quantity of tests, but all these are screening to see who among Chen Gang, the Zhu household, the Fang household, and their friends are related to the Chen family. The DNA you extracted was from Chen Gang’s uncle and cousin, right?"
Xu Dayuan nodded.
"Right, Chen Gang was killed in 2000. At the time, fingerprint comparison and family member identification were done after his death, and there was no requirement to preserve the deceased’s DNA samples, so a comparison with close relatives had to be done. Is there any problem with that?"
Liu Yongxin pointed to a photograph of an old house with a pen and looked helplessly at Xu Dayuan.
"Director Xu, I think you’ve overlooked something. After Chen Gang’s parents died, he dropped out of school at fourteen and worked in Cheng Zhi’s wholesale department. His biological uncle and uncles wouldn’t just ignore him like that, even taking the boy to the construction site and keeping him busy for half a year without pay."
"Since there were no developments on your end, we suspected that Chen Gang might not be biologically related to them at all, so we decided to visit the scene."
Xu Dayuan was taken aback and stood up abruptly.
"I really did not consider that. Liu Yufei went to investigate the Fang family, Mr. Zeng had He Chunyang investigate the Chen family. At the time, Chen Gang’s uncle and cousins just said that the kid was introverted and didn’t associate with them; we thought it was just a personality issue. Alright, don’t just sit there, if you want to go to the scene, then hurry up. I was planning to go there myself to meet with Chen Gang’s family members."
Zhou Ning didn’t pursue the matter; assessing work capability wasn’t his place to comment. However, he understood that the Chen family preferred to do less rather than more, which indeed made sense.
An hour later, the group arrived in Hanxingou Village, Banqiao Town, Qidong District.
Mr. Zeng and He Chunyang were waiting at the village entrance. It was the last day of June, and the weather on Qindao was extremely hot. However, Mr. Zeng dared not hide in the car to enjoy the air conditioning. When he saw Xu Dayuan and his team’s car stop, he scurried over.
"Leader, you’ve arrived!"
Xu Dayuan grunted twice. Seeing He Chunyang approach, he waved his hand to signal for them to get in the car.
"When you previously investigated Hanxingou Village, did you go straight to Chen Gang’s uncle and cousins’ houses, or did you go with the village committee after inquiry?"
He Chunyang was aware of Xu Dayuan’s temper; such a question naturally indicated that there had been some oversight before, and he was very polite in response.
"As soon as we arrived, Mr. Zeng and I went straight to those two houses. They were quite cooperative, answered whatever we asked, and they were quite willing to provide blood samples. Leader, did I do something wrong? Please, criticize and correct me."
Mr. Zeng blinked and didn’t dare to join in. Xu Dayuan sighed and gestured for everyone to come closer.
"Call the people from the village committee. It’s best to find two elderly people who are familiar with Chen Gang’s parents, and ask them directly whether Chen Gang was adopted or born to them. Also, Chen Gang’s old house—did his uncle and cousins take it over?"
He Chunyang was taken aback and quickly gestured for someone to call the village committee’s person in charge. Mr. Zeng watched Liu Yufei’s expressions from the side but couldn’t discern anything, so he quickly said,
"We’ve inquired a bit these past few days. Besides Chen Gang the murderer, almost nobody in their village interacts with Chen Gang’s uncles. One family lives on the east side of the village and the other on the west. As for Chen Gang’s old house, the two families have been fighting over it."
"Because it’s going to be demolished?"
At Mr. Zhao’s inquiry, Mr. Zeng clapped his hands and nodded, stating enthusiastically,
