Chapter 48: Chapter 48: The Person in the Ice_1
Xu Dayuan nodded and went to the office with Zhou Ning before continuing,
"It’s a long story. Cui Gongyi is the sales manager of the company, quite capable, but he has a bad reputation. During the investigation yesterday, it turned out that although many people acknowledged his work ability, no one knew what kind of projects he was getting involved in outside, constantly borrowing money."
"Did Wang Zhihua also lend him money?"
The only thing Zhou Ning could think of was this. He had seen Wang Zhihua’s photo, clearly a very honest person. For someone like that to do something so crazy, there must have been some cause that drove him to madness, and furthermore, he couldn’t resolve it through normal channels.
Xu Dayuan nodded again.
"Yes, not just Wang Zhihua. According to incomplete statistics from yesterday, in three years’ time, he had borrowed money from no fewer than twenty individuals in their company, ranging from forty or fifty thousand to more than two hundred thousand.
Wang Zhihua lent him two hundred and eighty thousand. The reasons for borrowing varied. It was only when we started investigating that they learned about other people’s debts.
Last month, Wang Zhihua had a fight with Cui Gongyi in the company office building. The office staff reported that Wang Zhihua was demanding money from Cui Gongyi because his child was sick and urgently needed the money for surgery. He said Cui Gongyi had been putting him off for half a year and that he needed the money back within a couple of days no matter what."
Back at the company, he was also fined two thousand yuan on the grounds that he had stirred up trouble and disrupted normal production. He was lectured several times by the workshop director and office staff."
Zhou Ning was startled. That was the incomplete statistic; if the entire company was investigated, or even extended to Cui Gongyi’s friends and acquaintances, wouldn’t the amount be even larger?
"What did Cui Gongyi borrow the money for? Moreover, with so much money involved, didn’t the people at their company communicate with each other?"
Xu Dayuan sighed.
"The company is large, and since he manages sales, many people can’t refuse him when he asks for money. There are not a few cases of robbing Peter to pay Paul. We’ve already printed his bank statements, which show over five million yuan coming in.
As for expenditures, the greatest amount went to the Pumen Casino. He went there twice a year, lost everything each time before returning. As for his residence, that was already mortgaged to the bank and the loan has been overdue for four months."
Zhou Ning pursed his lips tight. It seemed that Wang Zhihua had come to understand the situation, knowing he couldn’t get the money back, as the person had no assets to repay, which is why he must have been driven insane.
"Have you contacted Wang Zhihua’s family? Doesn’t his child need surgery funds?"
Xu Dayuan let out a long sigh, removing his hat and tossing it aside, as if it would somehow help him continue speaking.
"This morning, we contacted Wang Zhihua’s family. Yesterday morning, his son died. He couldn’t afford the medication to prolong his life from leukemia. His daughter-in-law called him yesterday morning and berated him, saying that with their son gone, she didn’t want to live either and told him not to bother coming home, to just die outside."
The rest of his words, Xu Dayuan didn’t continue.
Zhou Ning could imagine a father scrimping and saving to raise money for his child’s treatment. However, he never expected that the money he lent to his boss, who not only wouldn’t return it but also completely denied it, leading to his son’s death and leaving no hope for him to live on, leaving only one way out.
"I’ll check if the lab reports are out. If they are, I’ll deliver the autopsy report to you immediately. As for the money Cui Gongyi borrowed... is it possible to recover a portion for those owed?"
Xu Dayuan shook his head.
"There’s no evidence. Inside the entire company, those who had money borrowed from them didn’t know each other, so no one knew Cui Gongyi was like this. Even those with IOUs can’t get anything because Cui Gongyi has no assets in his name to repay the debts.
The car’s insurance company will compensate a little, along with a bracelet and other things found in his car, but that isn’t nearly enough to fill one person’s gap. It’s already good of the company not to pursue the cost of the forklift Wang Zhihua drove.
I examined the surveillance carefully. When he woke up, Cui Gongyi’s car was still there, not yet towed away. He probably intended to douse it with gasoline, but the gasoline exploded once it touched the fire. Such things can’t be dwelled upon for long. You should prepare the materials; we can close the case on this side."
"What about the other phone with the cracked screen? Did you check it?"
"We checked. It was used for gambling. There isn’t any valuable information."
Zhou Ning nodded, and as Xu Dayuan left, he felt extremely heavy-hearted. If only someone had given him a hand, even just legal advice would have done.
There was no promissory note for the loan, but a lawsuit could still be initiated based on the transfer records. If there were no assets to repay the loan, wages could be garnished with the help of the court. If he had done this six months ago, he could have at least gotten half of his money back, and the child too...
This incident would not have occurred, the bus driver would not have died, and so many innocent people would not have been involved.
Zhou Ning took a deep breath, removed his coat, turned on the computer, and logged into his email without the old computer’s typical stuttering start-up. He immediately noticed several unread messages.
Upon opening them, as expected, the test reports had come in. Wang Zhihua’s stomach and blood alcohol levels were exceedingly high, though no other issues were found in the tests. Zhou Ning printed out the report, combined it with the autopsy report from yesterday, and delivered the documents to Xu Dayuan’s office, but the man wasn’t there, so he left them on the desk and headed back to his own office.
Sitting at his desk, Zhou Ning spaced out for a moment, glanced at the software development QQ group, and found that while he recognized every word, when put together they made no sense to him. The various data appeared as cryptic as an ancient script.
Zhou Ning flipped through the messages but couldn’t focus; he needed a mental break. His work on the case had concluded, but the team was still busy these days, which meant no rest for him either. He decided to open the document he had written tens of thousands of words in before.
...
January 26, 2011
It was the final day of the ’Bitter Cold’, and the weather had slightly warmed, with the minimum temperature being only minus four degrees Celsius.
But the wind in this coastal city cut like knives into your bones, too cold even for those from the northeastern regions to bear. By the time Zhou Ning ran to his office, his hands had gone numb with the chill.
He rubbed his hands, wiped off the desk, and briskly walked to his workstation, where he first checked his email. Indeed, the lab results for the traffic accident he had worked on were in. Zhou Ning printed the forensic report and was about to bind it when the phone in the office rang.
"Doctor Zhou, come downstairs quickly. We need to make a trip."
Zhou Ning was momentarily stunned. Though they had now divided the area and the county public security bureau had been upgraded to a branch office, most of the traffic accident appraisals were still done by city institutions, so they seldom requested his team. Why would there be a need to travel now?
"Mr. He, where are we headed? I’m not prepared for anything."
"Just kidding, hurry down, and that’ll do. We’ve got a scene to attend to."
Zhou Ning was thoroughly confused, but he still grabbed his investigation kit and camera, and hurried downstairs.
Upon arriving, he saw Zhao Xinli and the others standing below with several SUV police cars parked around. They were each holding cotton coats, and upon seeing Zhou Ning, Zhao Xinli quickly waved him over.
"Come over quickly. The boss said you should ride with us. Take this cotton coat."
Zhou Ning, still bewildered, handed over his investigation kit to Zhao Xinli to be put in the trunk and took the green military coat from him, without understanding what was going on.
"What case is this exactly? Why are we being given cotton coats?"
"Last night, we got a call. Someone found a body in Baima River Reservoir. Mr. He’s team went there last night, but it was too late and the lighting was inadequate. Additionally, with the New Year approaching, it was difficult to find any excavation equipment. But we got in touch with the machinery this morning and went to take a look."
Without further ado, everyone got into vehicles and headed straight for Baima River Reservoir.
As soon as he alighted from the car, Zhou Ning zipped his down jacket all the way up and tightened the drawstrings of the hood. The area was open and windswept, with temperatures that seemed to plummet with every gust.
This was the southernmost part of Qidong District. Across the national highway was Jingkou District’s farmland, part of the Yellow River Diversion to Qingjin Project, which had turned the original Baima River beach into a deep reservoir.
The reservoir was trapezoidal in shape. The southern side bordering the national highway, the north side flanked by a dike road that was inaccessible due to winter barriers, and the western road under repair. They stood on Wenzhou South Road.
Not far off, an enormous block of ice hung from a crane, moving slowly towards the shore. Xu Dayuan and He Chunyang were directing the crane to place the ice on a truck parked nearby. Zhou Ning wiped his glasses and saw clearer, there appeared to be something entombed within the ice.
Zhao Xinli shivered beside him and blurted out instinctively:
"Damn, is that a human or a turtle demon?"
