Chapter 12 Chapter Eleven The Murderer

Wei Jiong rested his chin and looked listlessly at the "Grandma of the Land" on the podium, feeling that he could fall asleep at any time.When he was in a trance, he suddenly felt the phone in his pocket vibrate again. Wei Jiong smiled.Don't look, it must be Lao Ji. After Lao Ji learned how to take pictures with a mobile phone, Yue Xiaohui taught him how to use WeChat.The old man played so high that he would receive more than a dozen photos from him every day.There are still lifes, scenery, and Lao Ji's selfies.However, the quality of most photos is not very good, either out of focus, or pitch black.Wei Jiong couldn't bear to dampen the old man's interest, so he encouraged him a lot—just play with him.

Just as he was thinking, Wei Jiong's peripheral vision caught sight of Yue Xiaohui who was sitting obliquely in front.She was secretly waving at him with an uncontrollable expression on her face.Wei Jiong raised his eyebrows and asked her silently: "What's wrong?" Yue Xiaohui didn't answer, but pointed to the phone in her hand. Wei Jiong turned on his phone and saw Yue Xiaohui just sent a WeChat message: "Look at Lao Ji's WeChat, haha, the old man has grown up." Curious, Wei Jiong opened Lao Ji's WeChat and found that what he sent this time was not a photo, but a video.

The phone vibrated again, it was from Yue Xiaohui: use earphones. Wei Jiong replied with "OK", looked up at "Grandma Land", and secretly took out the earphones from his pocket. This is a video of only twenty seconds. Lao Ji was supposed to be in the yard at the time, and the subject of the shooting was a group of old people walking on the Yonglu Road.The picture is fairly stable and the sound is quite clear.Wei Jiong watched it twice, but couldn't see anything special about this video, so he sent a "?" to Lao Ji. Lao Ji replied quickly: "It's pretty clear how to shoot."

Wei Jiong laughed secretly, the old man still hasn't learned how to use punctuation marks. Wei Jiong: "Not bad, not bad, Director Ji." Lao Ji: "Hahaha it's a work of practice". Wei Jiong was about to reply him when he felt his arm being pushed by his deskmate.Wei Jiong turned his head subconsciously, and found that his deskmate was pointing at the podium with one hand and his ear with the other. Wei Jiong immediately understood what was going on, and hurriedly reached out and pulled off the earphones.Almost at the same time, he heard the voice of "Grandma from the Land": "That male classmate, tell me what I just said?"

After class, Wei Jiong packed his schoolbag sullenly, thinking of downloading a sample essay for written examination online. "No less than a thousand words!" This old lady is cruel enough.Wei Jiong muttered, got up and left the classroom.As soon as he went out, he saw Yue Xiaohui leaning on the heater in the corridor, looking at him with a smile on his face. "What are you doing, gloating?" "I can't." The more Yue Xiaohui smiled, the happier she became, "I'm particularly gloating." Wei Jiong was also happy: "It's all Lao Ji's fault."

"Don't blame him, you're too stupid." Yue Xiaohui walked to the cafeteria side by side with him, "I don't have any sense of anti-investigation." "Just to watch that broken video, a thousand-word check." "That's easy to do, just copy one at random." Yue Xiaohui turned around and walked backwards, "At worst, I'll help you——I have experience." "Okay, you bear joint responsibility." Wei Jiong said with a smile.He didn't resent Lao Ji in his heart.An old man who has difficulty walking but is full of curiosity about the world, and has a strong interest in new things.For him, the mobile phone is a novel toy, and it is also a good way to pass the time and relieve loneliness.He understands Lao Ji, and more of a sympathy, like trying his best to protect a candle that is about to go out.

"Teach Lao Ji to go online later." Wei Jiong quickened his pace and followed Yue Xiaohui, "He must like it." The door opened, and an old woman with white hair poked her head out and looked Du Cheng up and down: "Who are you looking for?" "Are you Yang Guiqin?" Du Cheng took out his police officer ID from his pocket, "I'm a policeman." The old woman didn't intend to open the door at all, and she still looked suspicious: "Are you okay?" "Xu Mingliang is your son, right?" Du Cheng smiled, "Return to the case."

There was no change in expression on the old woman's face, but she was already planning to close the door.Du Cheng took a step forward and pressed the toe of his shoe against the door. "And - to send warmth to families who have lost their only child." Du Cheng took out his hand from behind, a bucket of soybean oil. The old woman looked at the oil barrel, then at Du Cheng, and silently moved away. The room is small, and the interior items are simple and old.An unpleasant smell hangs in the air.Du Cheng sniffed and found that the smell came from a huge freezer in the corner.

"The government finally thinks of families like ours?" The old woman was carrying the oil barrel into the kitchen. "Does the criminal's family also send it?" "Yes." Du Cheng said perfunctorily, and quietly walked to the corner.The freezer was an old model and made a loud roar.The cabinet was covered with dark red stains, and through the glass cabinet door, it could be seen that it was stuffed with offloads such as pig intestines and liver.Some pieces of meat have spoiled, showing a dark green color. "It can be eaten." The old woman returned to the living room and saw Du Cheng looking at the freezer, "Cook it, it's fine."

"You... are still selling pork?" Du Cheng took out a cigarette and lit one to temporarily dispel the odor in his nasal cavity. "It's a long time ago, and the bed was transferred to my nephew." The old woman stared intently at the cigarette next to Du Cheng's mouth, "If you can't sell it, bring it to me—I have to live too." Du Cheng noticed the old woman's gaze and handed over both the cigarette and the lighter.The old woman took it in her hand, pulled out one skillfully, and lit it. "You alone?" "A butcher who also gave birth to a murderer's son, who would want me?" The old woman exhaled the smoke ring and looked at the cigarette case, "It's the government family who smokes it, it's a good cigarette."

The two stood in the living room, smoking in silence.The old woman's white hair was disheveled and tied behind her head with a rubber band. Her upper body was wearing a woolen sweater that was so dirty that she couldn't see the color, and her lower body was a pair of black and shiny cotton trousers.Her face is covered with age spots, her eyes are cloudy and indifferent, and only when she is smoking a cigarette hard can she see a look of contentment. "Come on, what do you want to visit?" The old woman lit a second cigarette and said slowly, "Is it Mingliang's business?" Du Cheng looked at her: "Yes." He knew very well that this would be the most difficult visit and the most unavoidable one.Although it will uncover Yang Guiqin's scars and possibly face her deepest animosity at the same time, he must do it because there is still a big mystery to be solved in order to prove himself right. Hearing his answer, the old woman subconsciously glanced at a closed door on the north side of the living room, then turned her head to face Du Cheng: "Everyone is dead, what else is there to visit?" Du Cheng looked around the room and asked, "Sit down and chat, is it okay?" The old woman thought for a while, nodded, walked to an old wooden table in the corner, pulled out a chair and sat down. Sitting opposite her, Du Cheng took out his notebook and pen and put them on the table. When his fingers touched the table, he immediately felt the dust and grease accumulated over the years. "Tell me about Xu Mingliang, what kind of person is he?" The old woman rested her chin in one hand and held a cigarette in the other, puffing and puffing, her eyes fixed on a certain corner all the time.For a moment, she whispered, "My son didn't kill anyone." Du Cheng lowered his eyelids, stroked his forehead, and wrote "Xu Mingliang" in his notebook. The old woman turned her head slightly, watched the black pen slowly outline the name of her son on the paper, and suddenly asked, "Will a child who has never killed a pig kill someone?" "That's exactly what I want to know." Du Cheng raised his head and looked directly into the old woman's eyes. "I can't guarantee that I will reverse the case for Xu Mingliang, but I need the truth." "Reversal? I didn't expect this." The old woman chuckled lightly and flicked off the long cigarette ash, "Everyone is dead, what's the use of reversing the case? My son can't come back. I don't want compensation, I can eat anything live." I was speechless for a while.The old woman was smoking a cigarette and rubbing her disheveled white hair with one hand.Gradually, her head became lower and lower, and finally, her head was completely buried in the crook of her arms, and her shoulders began to tremble slightly. Du Cheng looked at her silently, listening to the suppressed sobbing from the white hair. A few minutes later, the old woman raised her head, wiped her eyes, and lit another cigarette. "Ask," she said quietly, "what do you want to know?" Xu Mingliang was an ordinary child when he was a child. When he was in elementary school and junior high school, he had never been a class leader, nor had any bad deeds or bad records.At the age of nine, Xu's father died of illness, and the burden of life fell entirely on Xu's mother, Yang Guiqin.The whole family's income comes from Yang Guiqin who works in the meat joint factory.In order to reduce the burden on the family, Xu Mingliang did not enter high school after graduating from junior high school, but entered the city's vocational technical college to study chef. In 1986, Xu Mingliang graduated from the college with a technical secondary school degree. However, due to the hyposensitivity caused by chronic ethmoid sinusitis, Xu Mingliang repeatedly encountered obstacles in his job search and could only work as a small worker in a restaurant. In 1988, Xu Mingliang simply resigned from the restaurant and stayed at home.In the same year, Yang Guiqin went through the formalities of suspension without pay at the meat joint factory, rented a stall at the Chunyang Farmer's Market in Tiedong District, and started a self-employed business.Since then, the financial situation of Xu Mingliang's family has improved greatly, and in early 1990, he purchased a white Jiefang pickup truck.Under Yang Guiqin's persuasion, Xu Mingliang ran a meat stall with his mother, and obtained the driving license in June of the same year. No matter in the eyes of Yang Guiqin, his neighbors and the surrounding vendors, Xu Mingliang is an obedient, introverted, helpful and diligent young man.During the working period, there was no conflict with customers and other vendors.When he was arrested, no one believed that he was the murderer who committed multiple rapes and murders. This doesn't explain anything.Du Cheng thought to himself that quite a few murderers were no different from ordinary people before their crimes were revealed, even more docile and polite. "Has he had a relationship history?" "What?" The old woman stared at him with wide eyes. "That's right, do you have a girlfriend - before the incident." "Probably not—I don't know." The old woman thought for a while, staring at the tabletop, and swipe her fingers lightly on it, "I was too busy at that time, and when I went to collect the pigs, I often didn't go home for a few days." "It's not normal to have no girlfriend in your twenties." "He might have had a date when he was in the technical school, but I never heard him mention it." The old woman curled her lips, "After helping me sell meat, the living circle is too small, and I have no chance to meet girls." "Then how to solve his sexual problem?" "How would I know?" The old woman smiled wryly, "I'm a mother, how can I ask?" "Do you have many friends of the opposite sex?" "Don't talk about the opposite sex, there are not many friends of the same sex." Probably because of sitting for a long time, the old woman began to rub her shoulders, "The child is obedient, he doesn't like to go out to play, and he will go home after closing the stall. I know, he doesn't like to do this , but there is no way." The old woman sighed softly and straightened up: "I once thought that if I save a few years, I won't let him do this, go learn something else, and then find a girl to start a family." "Learn something else?" "What's that called?" The old woman tapped her forehead with her finger. "By the way, the adult college entrance examination. I took the exam once, but I didn't pass it. Later, I hired a tutor for him." The old woman suddenly smiled meaningfully: "He wants to be a policeman the most. He has wanted to be a policeman since he was a child." At that time, the police found a large number of newspapers and periodicals in Xu Mingliang's home, a considerable part of which were novels or documentary works on criminal detective cases.This has also become the source of Xu Mingliang's "strong anti-investigation ability". "How old were you when your husband died?" "I think... thirty-five years old." Du Cheng looked at her silently for a few seconds: "Can I ask you a relatively private question?" The old woman was stunned, and looked back at him in a daze: "You ask." "After his death, did you..." Du Cheng considered his words, "with other men..." The old woman turned her head and looked out the window: "Yes." "Xu Mingliang knows about this, right?" "Yeah." The old woman withdrew her gaze and looked at the ground, "Mingliang's first year in technical school, that boy and I...the child came home suddenly that day." "and after?" "He went back to school directly." The old woman smiled, "I didn't explain it, and I can't explain it. Fortunately, the child didn't ask me, and I broke up with that person." "After that incident, has his attitude towards you changed?" "No. He didn't like to talk since he was a child, and he didn't have much to talk to me." Du Cheng nodded, reached for the cigarette case, and found that there were not many cigarettes left in it. After thinking about it, he took his hand back. "Can you go to his room?" Du Cheng pointed to the closed door on the north side of the living room. "Whatever." The old woman got up and walked to the door, and pushed it open. The room is not big, about ten square meters.On the left is a kitchen and wardrobe against the wall, on the right is a single bed under the window, and on the opposite is a desk.Du Cheng looked at the wooden bookshelf on the table, where several English and mathematics textbooks were neatly inserted.He reached out and wiped the tabletop, it was clean. "It's the same as twenty-three years ago." The old woman leaned against the door frame, "Ming Liang likes to be clean, I wipe it every day." Du Cheng hummed, turned around and looked at the single bed.Plain blue check sheets, faded.The quilt was folded squarely and placed on the head of the bed.There are several posters on the wall beside the bed, including sports stars and girls in swimsuits. "Boys of that age watch this." The old woman caught his gaze, "He's a good boy." Du Cheng remained silent, and turned to look out the window.This is the outermost part of an old residential area, facing the street. At about four o'clock in the afternoon, the dimly colored buildings on both sides have regained some vitality.Downstairs is a mini-market, where a wide range of cooked food and street food are sold, with smoke billowing in the air. "In the past," Du Cheng pointed to the downstairs, "isn't it like this?" "Well. It was a thermal power plant more than 20 years ago." The old woman stretched out her hands and drew a cylindrical shape. "Across from my house are two big chimneys." "Outside the window?" "Yes, I can't see anything when it's smoking." The old woman tilted her head, staring at the leaden sky outside the window, "Mingliang often sat by the bed, staring at the two chimneys in a daze, and didn't know what to see. of." Du Cheng nodded, walked around the end of the bed, pulled out a chair, sat in front of the desk, and quietly looked at a photo frame on the desk. It was a photo of Xu Mingliang and his family's minivan.Xu Mingliang was wearing a dark green half-sleeve shirt and blue jeans, with one hand on his waist and the other hand holding the car door, with a shy and excited expression on his face. This van is the scene of the murder and dismemberment in Xu Mingliang's confession.He confessed that he lured the victim into the car on the grounds of hitchhiking, hit the victim on the head with a hammer while he was not ready, drove the car to a secluded place, raped, murdered and dismembered the body.After wrapping the body parts in black plastic bags, they drove around the city and scattered them. make sense.The black plastic bags are the same ones used at Xu's butcher stall.The van was usually used by Xu Mingliang to transport pork, so it was reasonable to mix in pig hair when wrapping the body parts.The judgment made by Ma Jian back then was justified. What's more, the most deadly direct evidence. "Is there anything else I want to ask?" The old woman took out the last cigarette in the cigarette case, then crumpled the cigarette case, turned around and threw it on the floor of the living room. Du Cheng thought for a while: "Do you think your son didn't kill someone?" "right." Du Cheng stared at her for a few seconds: "We found his fingerprints on the plastic bag that wrapped the body parts." "He sells pork!" The old woman raised her voice, "Every day he touches dozens of plastic bags! You should check whoever bought pork!" "Only his fingerprints are on the plastic bag." "Gloves!" The old woman finally lost control of her emotions, "Won't the murderer wear gloves?" "A person wears gloves to buy pork in summer," Du Cheng asked calmly, "Don't you find it strange?" The old woman was stopped by the question, she could only stare blankly at Du Cheng, and after a while, squeezed out a sentence: "My son didn't kill anyone." "I believe what you said." Du Cheng nodded, "I can't promise you anything now, but I promise, no matter what the truth is, I will tell you." Before leaving, Du Cheng left the two packs of cigarettes in the bag for the old woman.The old woman accepted silently, and then sent him outside the door.Just as Du Cheng was about to turn around and go downstairs, he heard her stop him from behind. "Officer Du." The old woman was holding the door with her hands, only half of her body was exposed, her face suddenly looked older.It seemed that not hours had just passed, but decades. "Have you ever hit him?" "No." Du Cheng blurted out, "I didn't catch him." A smile slowly emerged from deep wrinkles. "thanks." After finishing speaking, the old woman turned around and closed the door gently.