Chapter 512: Chapter 483 Escape_1
"I don’t know, they might need to check out that modified car. The two young masters have gotten themselves into some kind of trouble. My daughter is alone in the dorm, and I don’t know if she’ll start crying when she wakes up. If I had known today was going to be a wash, I wouldn’t have come at all."
At the mention of the dormitory, Zhou Ning’s steps halted. The facility had quite a few employees, and although people weren’t allowed to live in the factory area, it generally provided room and board. He had indeed forgotten about the dormitory aspect and quickly made his way over there.
"Your family, not from around here?"
The two workers didn’t expect a cop to approach them, and for a moment they were nervously at a loss, but they still nodded.
"From the village down below, we’re just regular workers, we don’t know anything, really!"
Zhou Ning gestured with his hands, trying to make his expression as friendly as possible, and glanced at the roads within the factory area. Not to mention in front of the factory buildings, there were only four or five workers here. He waved to them, and they all gathered around.
"This factory provides you with free room and board? Is the dormitory inside the factory area?"
At this question, the workers seemed a bit puzzled, but as long as the question didn’t involve the boss, they were still willing to answer. The person who had mentioned having a daughter in the dormitory nodded his head.
"They provide free food and accommodation, and you can even live with your family. It’s considered the best deal in this area. But our dormitory isn’t inside the factory area. They said it wasn’t allowed during the fire inspection, so we rented a small building behind the car city. Even so, it’s not fully occupied. The place is nice, it’s just that sometimes there’s a lot of noise, because occasionally... the boss’s family... "
The person next to him tugged at the worker, who then seemed to realize he might have said something he shouldn’t have.
Zhou Ning waved his hand, his gaze moving from worker to worker. When he saw a man in his forties, the man stared at Zhou Ning for a while, then gave a couple of furtive glances in the direction of the factory’s west outer wall. He then held up one finger and quickly lowered his head as if none of this had anything to do with him.
In that instant, Zhou Ning knew, the one who left behind all the evidence was this man right before his eyes.
"No worries, I was just making small talk. The dormitory is the first building outside the western wall, right? The police have already gone to check it out, and we’ll withdraw soon, so we won’t be affecting you for too long."
Having said that, Zhou Ning returned to the factory building, where Liu Yufei raised an eyebrow at him; Zhou Ning waved his hand.
"Seal off this workshop. After everything has been examined, we’ll proceed to the next step. Let’s go!"
Sun Gaotie looked bewildered.
"Eh, we’re leaving just like that?"
Mr. Zhao patted the back of his head and whispered a reminder:
"Weren’t you just told to follow orders? How could you forget that so quickly? When they say go, you pick up your things and evacuate. Hurry up and help load the car."
Everyone quickly got in the vehicles, but two were left behind to seal off the workshop and even stayed in the factory area. Not until they were in the car did Zhou Ning speak up hastily:
"I think I know who left the traces for us—that forty-something-year-old maintenance man, not very tall. When I asked about the dormitory, he gave me a look towards the west side and then gestured a ’1.’ The other maintenance workers let something slip; it’s their boss’s family that occasionally stays there."
Liu Yufei’s eyes lit up as she waved to the driver, Mr. Wang.
"Hurry up, follow what Zhou Ning said, and find that dormitory building."
As Zhou Ning directed the way, he gave a detailed account of his conversation with the workers. Once they were out of the factory area, they indeed found a small road to the west side, just south of the auto city. It seemed to be a self-built small-property housing estate in the village.
The patrol car’s lights were off, and Mr. Wang found a secluded spot to park. Only then did Liu Yufei begin coordinating the personnel. After all, although they knew it was building one, it was still difficult to pinpoint exactly where.
Mr. Zhao took off his police uniform and donned a baseball cap, wandering over to the opposite side of the road where there was a small shop. He struck up a conversation, and soon he came back at a quick pace carrying a pack of cigarettes, his face and Zhou Ning’s beaming with delight.
"Got it all figured out. This area is a small estate built by the original Dingjia Village, and it houses migrant workers from the car city. As for the people from their car repair company, they rented units in building one, numbers 1 and 2.
The place is definitely large enough. The other unit at the top floor on both ends has attics, and it’s often noisy at night with men and women jumping and shouting, and the lights are as dazzling as those at a nightclub. Based on this description, I think the top-floor units on both ends with attics could belong to Mr. Zhu."
Liu Yufei gestured, calling over several detectives and arranging something before instructing Zhou Ning and the others:
"Wait down here and listen for my signal."
Before Zhou Ning and the others could respond, several officers had already dashed up the stairs. Not long after, there were sounds of knocking and berating, followed by wailing.
Mr. Zhao grinned and nudged Zhou Ning’s arm.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, it looks like Liu Da has caught someone."
Zhou Ning nodded. Just then his phone rang; it was Liu Yufei. He quickly answered.
"Come up, not a single one missing."
Hearing this, without needing Zhou Ning’s instruction, the group grabbed their gear and dashed up the stairs.
The doors of the two units on the fifth floor were wide open. Two men, wearing only their shorts, were pressed to the ground with their hands twisted behind their backs. They were incessantly shouting insults, their arrogance indicating they were used to being spoiled rotten.
"Let me go, dammit, what the fuck? You’re hurting me!"
"So the police think they can break into homes whenever they like? I’ll sue you until you don’t have pants to wear, ah!"
Following the last shout, Fang Mu grabbed ahold of the man’s arm, eliciting a scream.
"Ow, ow, ow, let go!"
Liu Yufei sat arms crossed on a chair, looking at the two men. Zhou Ning also stepped over, and upon seeing their faces, he was sure these two were the men from He Jiahong’s photos, their genitalia exposed.
Their skin was sickly pale, hair dyed in various colors—a look that screamed delinquents. Their sclera was a light brown, completely different from Zhu Xiaojun they had seen before, bearing no resemblance whatsoever.
Zhou Ning gave a faint smile. It seemed Zhu Yongping was really happy to be a father, managing to marry a wife of such disparate status and by doing so, securing ties with the family and firmly clinching the designated repair business for his own.
"Mr. Zhao, Mr. Sun, take their blood and fingerprints for a quick comparison, and also check if the person who just sent the specimens has left. If not, have him wait, as we have more samples needing to be sent for testing."
Though Zhou Ning’s voice was soft, it instantly quieted the two of them down. Neither was a pushover, and according to the records, they had frequently caused trouble. They were well aware of what it meant to have their fingerprints and blood taken.
However, after a few seconds of silence, the two started to struggle even more fiercely. Zhou Ning didn’t think twice and waved at Mr. Yang, prompting them to quickly enter the room.
"Boss, which kind of trace are we looking for?"
Zhou Ning held up his mobile phone to show Mr. Yang.
"A Polaroid camera. I’ve matched the film to these models and brands; they are not the common type."
Mr. Yang called over several assistants and promptly began the search.
Meanwhile, Fang Mu had already hoisted one of the men onto a chair, and though his hands were handcuffed behind him and affixed to the chair, after struggling for so long his physical strength was no longer what it had been, but his mouth was still not keeping still.
Liu Yufei picked up the other lad, who was much more compliant. With a cursory glance, Zhou Ning could guess Liu Yufei must have been firm with him, as the man dared not move.
With that, the sampling by Mr. Zhao and Mr. Sun went very smoothly. After a short while, Mr. Zhao approached Zhou Ning and Mr. Qu with a fingerprint sampler and notebook in hand, and the two of them quickly started the comparison process, as there were many fingerprints found on the car window earlier.
In a moment, they matched six prints, and upon seeing this result, Mr. Zhao broke into a smile.
"The results are good; we’ve found six," he said.
Liu Yufei gestured, instructing Fang Mu to take the cursing lad next door to be isolated.
Once the door was shut, Liu Yufei turned to the remaining lad.
"Are you Zhu Xiaoming or Zhu Xiaoguang?"
The lad glanced at Liu Yufei, initially reluctant to speak, but after Liu Yufei grabbed the collar of his shirt, he became somewhat more submissive.
"Zhu Xiaoming."
Liu Yufei nodded, pleased with the lad’s reaction.
"Good, tell me, do you know He Jiahong?"
Zhu Xiaoming nodded.
Liu Yufei slapped the table with a palm, causing a loud bang that made Zhu Xiaoming jolt and close his eyes reflexively, which along with the tattoos on his arms seemed quite out of place.
"Don’t just nod or shake your head, speak up and answer the question. How can you not understand why we found you two? Why act like this now? Answer the question."
"I know her."
"How do you know her?"
"Not very well, she’s a classmate of my sister. She was bullied once, and I didn’t let our gang help her out. We got to know each other after running into each other a few times."
Liu Yufei folded her arms, staring into Zhu Xiaoming’s eyes.
"And then?"
Zhu Xiaoming bristled somewhat but didn’t dare show too much defiance.
"And then what? What do you want to know? She’s just a classmate, it’s that simple. Whether she knows us well, I can’t say!"
Liu Yufei laughed while Zhou Ning let out a sigh. Why annoy Liu Yufei? Just tell the truth straightaway. Since they could find him here, it indicated they must have gathered a lot of evidence already. This was just asking for trouble.
Liu Yufei glanced at Mr. Sun, who had finished preparing the blood samples for testing and labeled them, then quickly waved her hand.
"Go, send these to the city bureau for testing."
Without looking back, Mr. Sun ran off.
Liu Yufei made a gesture toward Mr. Zhao, who promptly stood up.
"You let Mr. Qu make the comparison; come over and take off his pants for a comparison," she instructed.
Zhu Xiaoming was stunned, not expecting this female police officer to be so fierce to demand the taking off of pants. What kind of tactic was this? For a moment, he froze, then screamed in terror like a pig being slaughtered and clamped his legs together:
"Ah, you’re the police, why do you want to take off my pants?"
Zhou Ning let out a sigh and stood up to approach, as Mr. Zhao had already found the previously shot Polaroid photos and handed them to Zhou Ning, standing with an expression of disgust beside Zhu Xiaoming.
"Let me tell you, we are forensic doctors and trace examiners. We’ve found some photos that don’t show faces but only a certain organ, so unfortunately, we have to check yours. If you don’t cooperate and your pants get torn, you’ll be the one embarrassed going out like that."
Zhu Xiaoming was not listening to anything and kept shouting, twisting left and right regardless of his arms trapped behind the chair back. Mr. Zhao gestured, and the police officers stepped forward, one on each side, and lifted him to his feet, sandwiching his legs in between them.
Mr. Zhao grabbed the elastic waistband of the pants and yanked them all the way down, exposing the middle part of Zhu Xiaoming’s body. Zhou Ning just glanced and noticed the surgical scar in Zhu Xiaoming’s groin, then nodded slightly.
"That will do, it’s him."
