Chapter 583: 553
"It’s clear now. The truck’s brake marks form an S-shape. It was originally traveling in the middle lane, but it seems to have swerved, braking from the middle to the right, then turning towards the left. The total brake distance is 34 meters."
"As for the police car, the brake marks, from far to near, are in a straight line, with a braking distance of 11.7 meters. The residue is particularly deep. Mr. Zhao infers that the speeds of the two vehicles were similar, but it seems the truck was attempting to avoid something."
Mr. Zhao pursed his lips tightly and glanced at Zou Jialong.
"This judgment is not accurate. At a speed of 60 km/h, the braking distance is around 14 meters, and the reaction distance is about 5 meters, so the total braking distance is 19 meters. At night, reaction speeds are slower, so the lighter color in the latter part of the 11.7 meters indicates that the police car’s speed was between 50 and 60 km/h.
However, with the truck’s total braking length at 34 meters and the presence of curved driving marks, I believe the truck’s speed was around 100 km/h. It didn’t brake hard in the middle, after all, it was carrying a heavy load. The marks indicate it was pumping the brakes and that it was a curved trajectory."
"From the brake marks, there is another faint set of marks next to the police car. I think there was another vehicle at the scene of the accident because if someone were overtaking the truck from behind at that speed, it wouldn’t be realistic. I feel there was a car in the oncoming lane and it was traveling in the middle.
And in front of the police car, it blocked the police car’s view. The truck had already started braking in an attempt to avoid it, although it avoided the car in question, the police car that was close behind couldn’t make another evasive move, thus resulting in the accident."
Zhou Ning narrowed his eyes; Mr. Zhao’s conclusions matched the video Wang Weili had taken. He also felt that at the time of the accident, there was a car driving away in the distance, but neither the truck nor the police car had a dashboard camera, and there were no surveillance cameras nearby, making it difficult to make any judgments.
"Mr. Qu, check the recent surveillance footage from the intersections on the roads branching eastward from here, during the time of the incident. Screen all vehicles that appear."
Mr. Qu nodded, as he was checking the call records, WeChat, and QQ messages of several individuals. Zhou Ning’s instructions had him swiftly switch screens to search for surveillance images. After several minutes of searching and everyone fixated on the screen, no footage was found; it was a repeated frustration for Mr. Qu.
Eventually, the area of the search was expanded farther afield, and many vehicles were indeed identified.
"Boss, there’s no useful surveillance nearby, probably due to road construction. Even the traffic lights are out of power. To the south is Kangtai Road and Xicao Kuang Village Intersection, to the north is Ecological Park Central Road. Passing the Xiaoyang River branch, you only find cameras on Nankang Road.
But there are many vehicles that pass through these camera-covered intersections; I did a rough count, and in the timeframe of the incident, there’s a total of thirty-four vehicles of various sizes. How are we going to investigate them, all thirty-four?"
Zhou Ning nodded his head.
"Check them all; we need the information on all these vehicles."
Mr. Qu pulled a face like he was constipated, Mr. Zhao gave him a slap on the back and a look that said now was not the time to be obstinate, as even Zhou Ning was feeling the urgency.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, let’s go. We’ll find a tow truck to take both vehicles back. The autopsy on the truck driver’s body should already be underway by Zhang Qiangmin and his team. Should we have a look there, or go to the hospital?"
Zhou Ning thought for a moment and then waved his hand.
"Let’s head to the hospital first. With no on-board records, we have to hear what they have to say. Let them continue with the autopsy of the truck driver. Regardless, the truck’s speeding is undeniable."
The traffic policeman nodded his head.
"We also believe that the truck was speeding and the driver was fatigued, considering the time of the incident, which is when people are most tired."
Zhou Ning smiled and nodded at Wang Weili.
"Thanks a lot. If you remember anything else, feel free to call us at any time. Later, if we come across some unusual scents, we might ask for your assistance in identifying them."
"No problem, I’ll head home then."
Wang Weili rode away on his tricycle, turning down a dirt path next to the accident site, heading straight for the village. Zhou Ning glanced over, noting that indeed from that position one could not see the situation on the east side of the truck, which had blocked the line of sight.
The group got into their cars, without any further chatter. Mr. Qu kept busy, only pausing when passing through a tunnel. Zhou Ning didn’t ask any questions.
Just as they were nearing the Central Hospital, Mr. Qu called out:
"Boss, I’ve matched all the call records. Xu Qingquan’s call history over the past three days included four outgoing calls and seven received calls, mostly from colleagues in the orchestra. He had a call with his elder sister Xu Qingshu on September 1 at 7:01 AM, and only two calls with his girlfriend Zhong Xiaoyan.
One was on August 30 in the afternoon, lasting less than two minutes. The following was on September 1 at 1:33 PM. I checked, and this would be after the time Li Li fell from the building. Zhong Xiaoyan called Xu Qingquan, and they talked for a full 8 minutes."
The call to Xu Qingshu was to pick him up and take him to the station, while Zhong Xiaoyan, having witnessed someone drive through a wall and someone else falling, would naturally be frightened and call her fiancé for comfort, which is perfectly normal.
However, Zhong Xiaoyan probably didn’t know that the person involved in the incident was connected to her fiancé and prospective sister-in-law in such a complicated way, and at the time, Xu Qingquan also didn’t know that the victim was Li Li.
To Zhou Ning’s surprise, there was no call history with Li Li in these records.
"Go back further. If there’s no phone contact between Li Li and Xu Qingquan, could they have been in contact through WeChat or QQ?"
"Wait a moment. At first, I found one WeChat account for Li Li, but that was used to contact all of her students’ parents, so it’s for office use. It was only after Kong Wanshan appeared that we found another WeChat account, and she had communicated with Kong Wanshan using this account."
Chief, don’t start anything, I’m just getting to the essential part. Through Xu Qingquan’s WeChat, I discovered that the previous two accounts were both registered with her real-name verified mobile phone, while another number was not real-name verified.
The WeChat account that was registered stayed in contact with Xu Qingquan. They didn’t talk much, and there were no flirtatious pictures, texts, or voices, just times, question marks, numbers, numbers with plus and minus signs. I didn’t understand what it meant at first."
Mr. Zhao leaned in.
"What kind of plus and minus, tell me and I’ll crack it for you. Let me tell you stories like this, I know a lot about them."
Mr. Qu didn’t dare delay, found the chat logs, and pointed to a section saying:
"What does ’three minus eight’ with a question mark mean?"
Mr. Zhao paused, raised his hand to touch Mr. Qu’s forehead, and Peng Shinian also came over to join in.
"What does that mean, I don’t understand either, explain it carefully?"
Mr. Zhao sighed and looked at them with a pitying gaze.
"Cultured folks, you just went to learn culture. Zhu Xingxing, cover your ears, come let me explain what it means. These are Chinese characters, so of course you wouldn’t understand. It should be represented by numbers, and if you put the three closer to the minus sign, don’t you see it looks like an aerial view of a male organ 3-.
As for the ’eight’, here it’s a pictogram, no need for me to explain, right? Put it together, with the question mark, and this specific time, on analysis, it’s just a question: ’Hook up tonight?’ Look what Li Li replied, ’W!’ That means ’later tonight.’
So, all this seemingly jumbled content was actually the times they planned their dates. According to what’s here, they met up at least three times a week, and always after eleven p.m. Wow, such frequent contact, even more frequent than with his fiancée."
Zhou Ning looked up at Mr. Zhao, and Mr. Zhao quickly shut his mouth, knowing he’d said too much. Zhou Ning scrolled up but didn’t see the earliest time and then asked:
"When did these two start contacting each other?"
"They registered in November 2012 and added each other as friends then. It seems they already knew each other at that time."
"Did Xu Qingshu mention yesterday when Xu Qingquan decided to marry his girlfriend and established the fiancée relationship?"
Mr. Zhao thought for a moment.
"I think he did mention it. Last October, they planned to marry, and then in November, they bought this apartment. My God, is this because of Li Li they bought the apartment, or did they know each other after buying it? That means before they even moved in, they were already fooling around?"
Zhou Ning sighed. The information they had now wasn’t accurate, they had to check it out one by one.
"One’s dead, and the other still isn’t out of danger. Let’s visit the hospital, get the keys to Xu Qingquan’s house, and let’s take a look there. After all, the pillow Li Li was holding in the morning was found in Xu Qingquan’s suitcase. Although he wasn’t the last person she saw before she died, the two had a sexual relationship and motive."
As he spoke, the car swerved, and Zhou Ning looked out the window. They had already arrived inside the Central Hospital. Zhou Ning glanced inside the car, knowing he couldn’t let everyone get out - arriving en masse would be too intimidating.
"Mr. Zhao and I will go over. You all wait in the car. Going together would be too overwhelming."
Peng Shinian raised his hand and stood up immediately.
"Can I come with you? I want to collect the residues from Xu Qingquan’s shoes, and we’re going to Xu Qingquan’s house later, right? Plus, the victim’s home is downstairs. I want to collect some dust from the two rooms for comparison - it’s part of the microscopic world of biology."
Everyone looked at Peng Shinian while Zhou Ning nodded and gestured with a wave:
"Then let’s all go, but don’t blatantly carry the sampling equipment."
Jumping out of the car, Mr. Zhao poked Peng Shinian’s arm curiously.
"Tell me, what is this microscopic world of biology you’re comparing?"
"For example, the contents of the dust, like dust mites, which are one type. These two were often shuffling the cards in bed, so the dust mites must have been exchanged. There are a lot of types, around 34, and we can check if they’re present, any residues on the body, and even compare maturity levels and such."
Mr. Zhao looked amazed, scanning Peng Shinian up and down before his gaze settled on the space between his legs. Peng Shinian took a step back defensively, covering his groin and tilting his head in bewilderment towards Mr. Zhao.
"Mr. Zhao, your gaze is pretty scary; what are you staring at there for? You have a girlfriend. Don’t tell me you’re questioning your orientation."
Mr. Zhao rolled his eyes and let out a laugh.
"Nah, I’m just amazed. Your mastery of Chinese is improving by the day; now you even know what ’shuffling the cards’ means."
