Chapter 574: Chapter 544: Pink Teddy Bear Garbage Bag_1
Mr. Fang Mu pushed him, urging urgently:
"No more nonsense. If the car had collided on the road, today wouldn’t have been our day to investigate. Li Li sped towards the wall and crashed into it, even falling from the parking lot causing an explosion. You were the last person to talk to her; we must thoroughly investigate. This is our responsibility to the deceased. Let’s get going!"
Liu Yufei saw Zhou Ning nod subtly and waved toward Mr. Fang Mu.
"Send him to the car to wait. You guys take someone to the Golden Peacock Dance School; we’ll take him to Li Li’s residence. He has a spare key with him, right?"
"We’ve asked. He has a spare key in his car; I’ve sent someone to fetch it."
After speaking, they led the team out. Zhou Ning quickly caught up.
"Otherwise, should I ask Mr. Yang and the others to come over and help?"
Liu Yufei shook her head.
"I feel that there might not be a problem at the dance school, but we still need to take a look. Loan Mr. Qu to me. I will check out the surveillance over there. I want to meet with Kong Wanshan’s wife alone to check her location at the time of the incident. After all, as his legitimate wife, she still has a motive for the crime."
Zhou Ning didn’t waste words. He joined Mr. Zhao in Mr. Wang’s Iveco, with Mr. Fang Mu leading the way in the front.
Several cars swiftly drove toward Longcheng Road in Gulou District. Turning at the junction with Lianyun Road, they could see the Gulou District Third Elementary School not far away, and to the north was the Golden Peacock Dance School.
It seemed that Li Li’s residence was nearby. The cars turned a corner and stopped in the central road of Rongchang Garden, an old district with wide spacing between the buildings, all of which were multistory. Mr. Fang Mu and his team got out, and Mr. Zhao and Zhou Ning followed suit.
Seeing the police cars and officers, many onlookers turned their heads to watch. Kong Wanshan walked beside Mr. Fang Mu with no particular expression, his head slightly bowed, hastening towards Building 2 on the west side.
Following Mr. Fang Mu, Zhou Ning arrived at the westernmost unit of Building 2. Though the complex looked worn, the size of the homes was apparent from the windows. At such a sought-after location, the price would be steep.
They came to the third-floor western unit, and the door was already open. Mr. Fang Mu, along with Kong Wanshan, stood aside, in no rush to enter. Mr. Zhao and Zhou Ning approached neatly dressed and entered the room, Mr. Zhao to inspect, while Zhou Ning observed closely.
The apartment had an old-style layout with three bedrooms, two living rooms, and two bathrooms. The living room was very spacious, with two windows, and it was clear from the new decoration that the design was very modern. Not to mention the lighting alone, which created a significant atmosphere.
Zhou Ning cleared his thoughts, knowing that he had a bit of a fixation on interiors, always wanting to examine the movement lines and layout of any decorated home he saw.
He walked a few steps toward the interior of the foyer, where there lay a heart-shaped crystal photo on the shoe cabinet, with two people cheek to cheek, pouting lips; it was unmistakably a retouched picture of Li Li and Kong Wanshan, with Kong looking significantly younger and more handsome.
On the corridor wall hung a painting of a woman’s back. Wearing a revealing slip dress, her long hair loosely braided, she slightly turned her head, her hair flowing. She held two roses behind her back, and the curves of her shoulder blades and arms were beauteous.
At first, Zhou Ning thought it was just decorative art, but noticing the date and the mole on the woman’s lower right jaw, he quickly realized it was Li Li’s artistic photo, quite impressively shot.
Zhou Ning’s gaze returned to the direction of the master bedroom, seeing Mr. Zhao holding up several evidence bags, which suggested some findings. Photos of Li Li were placed in every corner of the room, rivaling the display in a song and dance theater.
Mr. Zhao came out quickly, holding up a camera to show Zhou Ning.
"Found these in a drawer in the bedroom: medications. There aren’t many types—cold medicines, vitamins, and cod liver oil. Of course, the most numerous are diet pills: lotus leaf tablets, enzymes, metformin. I’ve collected fingerprints from the bottles. We didn’t bring a computer, so we need to compare these with the fingerprints on file for Li Li."
Zhou Ning nodded, glancing at the bags he held, noting that all the medicine bottles were bagged.
"Let’s check the kitchen too. These are all tablets. If we go by our analysis, and the victim died of vitamin A poisoning, it’s more likely that she was poisoned through food, especially oily items, like fried food or condiments. Of course, there are also powdered forms, which dissolve easily in chloroform or esters. Vitamin A dissolves in anhydrous ethanol and vegetable oil."
Mr. Zhao blinked.
"Such a large intake at once, how could that be managed? Condiments wouldn’t be enough, would they? During the autopsy, what did we find the victim ate before lunch?"
Zhou Ning shook his head.
"The stomach contents were in a state of digestion for about half an hour to an hour. I’ve already instructed Zhu Xingxing to take samples from the victim’s liver and the base of the stomach for testing. If it was consumed in the morning, we might detect something since the toxic reaction from vitamin A occurs about six hours after ingestion."
Mr. Zhao waved his hand and looked toward the kitchen.
"Then let’s search it, and take samples of various condiments and food for testing."
The two opened the refrigerator and spice cabinet to search. At first glance, the victim didn’t cook much; there were hardly any spices in the house—just a bottle of peanut oil and sesame oil related to grease. Other than that, they only found instant food like instant noodles, from which they pulled out a large number of seasoning packets.
"I mean, do these dancers abstain from spices to maintain their figure? My goodness, they’ve hoarded so much instant noodle seasoning. If it were my home, how could I let them sit there? I’d put them to use and cook some noodles," Mr. Zhao commented.
Zhou Ning’s brow furrowed. This was what he feared the most. Without consuming condiments, how could grease be ingested?
Pausing, Zhou Ning opened the trash bin, which contained a new trash bag—very girlish pink with little bears printed on it.
Seeing this, Mr. Zhao sighed.
"Hoped we’d find something valuable, but it seems she took out the trash before leaving."
Zhou Ning raised his phone to snap a picture of the garbage bag and hurried towards the door, lifting the image towards Kong Wanshan.
"Has Li Li always used this kind of garbage bag?"
Kong Wanshan glanced at it and nodded, saying:
"Seems like it, I didn’t pay attention. I haven’t come here much..."
Fang Mu shot him a sideways glance, and Kong Wanshan instantly shut his mouth, urgently asking Zhou Ning:
"What’s up, Director Zhou, any discoveries?"
"Nothing much, the room is very clean. Found some medicine bottles, though there’s a similar product, but it’s rare for someone to take a high dose voluntarily. Mr. Dui, send someone to look for the same kind of garbage bags in the trash cans and ask the neighbors when they dispose of their rubbish?"
Fang Mu nodded and gestured behind him, where seven or eight people, without needing to split up, hurried downstairs.
"You all hurry and look, make sure to ask the questions Director Zhou just mentioned. I’ve sent the picture to the group, everyone compare and search."
In an instant, everyone dispersed. Zhou Ning stared at Kong Wanshan, who appeared somewhat panicked, even more so than when he was in the interrogation room. Zhou Ning slightly furrowed his brow. Did he fear being seen?
Or was he hiding something?
Zhou Ning stole a glance at Fang Mu, who was quick-witted, instructing Zhang Ping to keep an eye on Kong Wanshan as he entered the room and closed the door.
"What’s wrong, Director Zhou?"
"I just feel like Kong Wanshan is very panicked, as if he’s afraid of being seen. His eyes keep darting up and down the stairwell, as if he’s worried someone might come by. I think perhaps he rarely comes here during the daytime.
We could ask him whether he came here last night and if there is a housemaid since the place is too clean. Li Li seems too delicate to do housework. Also, ask if he knows what Li Li had for breakfast this morning?"
Fang Mu nodded, opened the door, and stepped directly out into the corridor, not at all quietly.
"Kong Wanshan, we don’t want to waste time. A few questions for you, listen carefully and answer truthfully. I’ll check the nearby surveillance footage, and if you lie, you know the consequences, don’t you?"
Kong Wanshan quickly nodded and put on a smile uglier than crying, speaking in a lowered voice.
"Officer, please ask. Ask quickly so I can clear my name sooner. But can I go inside to talk? My cousin lives here on the sixth floor, and I don’t want to cause any trouble for the family."
Fang Mu stared at Kong Wanshan for a long while before motioning with his finger. Zhang Ping led Kong Wanshan back into the room where he clearly sighed in relief; Zhang Ping held up the police terminal, evidently searching for information about his cousin.
"Is this apartment under Li Li’s name or yours?"
"It’s under Li Li’s name, fully paid. She contributed three hundred thousand, and I paid the rest. I also arranged the renovations for her, and I still don’t know if I can get this apartment back afterward."
Kong Wanshan’s way of thinking clearly made Fang Mu pause.
"Did Li Li hire a housemaid?"
"There’s an auntie who cleans, coming over Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at ninety o’clock each time to tidy the rooms, do the laundry, and take out the trash, but she doesn’t cook. It’s four thousand a month. Today is Sunday, so the auntie doesn’t come, but sometimes Li Li calls her over by herself."
"When do you usually come here? In the evening?"
"I don’t come every day. From Monday to Friday, I come over to hang out after parties, always returning home before midnight."
"So, you don’t stay here overnight. Do you know what Li Li had for breakfast this morning?"
This question made Kong Wanshan blink, seemingly trying hard to remember. Then he pointed to his pocket and said:
"May I check WeChat? I have two phones and registered two WeChat accounts. I use the secondary account to contact her. I also call her with that secondary number. We usually communicate through this, and I log out when I’m home."
Fang Mu nodded. Kong Wanshan took out two identical phones, both without cases, which was an obvious move even to a fool.
Nonchalant, he grabbed one, logged into WeChat, and handed it to Fang Mu. He found the chat with Li Li. There were no salacious messages or inappropriate images. Li Li was not the nagging type, and after glancing at the content, Fang Mu narrowed his eyes.
"Have you two been arguing recently?"
Kong Wanshan nodded.
"I mentioned before that we were fine at first. She knew from the start about my family and that I couldn’t get a divorce. For my kids’ happiness, I couldn’t take that step, but within my abilities, I could provide her with a decent living. That was never an issue—the house, the car, whatever she wanted, just say the word.
But after the New Year, Li Li told me to marry her. I said if that was the case, then we should break up. I didn’t come for a week. She sent me a WeChat message, cried her heart out, and I felt a bit guilty. Afterward, I bought her a car."
Mr. Zhao arched an eyebrow, about to speak, but Zhou Ning stopped him.
