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墨書 Inktalez
Dai Sheng led us to the house he once rented. According to him, ever since that incident occurred, he had never returned to that little place. He was unsure of the current situation inside the house or whether the two boys were still living there; everything remained a mystery.
We followed Dai Sheng to a village near a school, where a sign at the entrance read "New Town." Along the way, we saw many young couples who were students. The village was flanked by newly constructed buildings, not very large in size. Everywhere we looked, there were signs saying "For Rent" or "Daily Rental," suggesting that this village was built primarily for nearby university students.
The house Dai Sheng had rented was located further inside the village, away from the entrance. A small iron gate appeared before us. Dai Sheng reached through a small square hole in the gate and pulled back the latch from inside, then pushed the door open as if he were quite familiar with it.
As the three of us entered behind him, we discovered that beyond the iron gate lay a hidden world. Inside was a bungalow with three equally sized rooms. From the outside, all three wooden doors were tightly shut, giving the impression that no one lived there. Dai Sheng glanced back at us and said, "The room I rented before is the one on the far left. The other two are occupied by two boys, and there was another guy I met for the first time then."
I nodded and remarked, "It looks like no one is living here. Have they all moved out?"
Dai Sheng shook his head without responding and walked into the middle room, kicking the door hard. The force of his kick sent splinters flying everywhere as the door swung open. Before we could say anything, a voice shouted from inside, "Who the hell is it!"
Before the words even faded, a figure darted out.
I took a closer look at the room, which indeed matched Dai Sheng's description: it was rectangular with just this single space. Against one wall stood a large double bed. The bedding was tangled and carelessly tossed aside. There were cans of soda and leftover food containers scattered about, with clothes piled in one corner—utter chaos.
Next to the bed was a small stool holding a power strip filled with various cords: phone chargers, computer power cables, and kettle wires—too many to count. The floor was littered with trash, and many areas were covered in greasy black stains that made it look filthy; every few steps released a sour odor.
As I surveyed the mess, not only did someone emerge from the kicked-open room, but two others—a man and a woman—also stepped out from the adjacent room. The man wore only a pair of boxers while the woman was fully dressed; she was smoking and looking coldly at us.
They appeared to be around twenty-one or twenty-two years old—college students.
"Who are you?" asked the student who had just come out of the kicked-open room as he sized us up. Upon recognizing Dai Sheng, he sneered, "Aren't you that guy who wears what? A green hat? Kicking my door? You think bringing these little thugs will scare me? You bastard! Let me tell you, your girlfriend has been with us more times than you can count!"
Hearing this in front of all of us made Dai Sheng's face flush red with anger as he trembled uncontrollably. "Zhou Jun, say that again!"
"Bastard!" Zhou Jun shot back. "Green Hat King!"
Unable to hold back any longer, Dai Sheng kicked Zhou Jun hard in the stomach. Though Zhou Jun stumbled back from the blow, he quickly regained his balance and charged at Dai Sheng to grapple with him. I exchanged glances with Dezi; he nodded and stepped forward to grab each of their wrists.
With a twist outward, both men found themselves half-kneeling on the ground in pain, crying out loudly. I pulled out my police badge and addressed everyone present: "We are police officers investigating a homicide; you'd better cooperate!" With that, Dezi released both men. Upon realizing our identities, Zhou Jun dared not act out further and obediently stepped aside.
Dai Sheng snorted coldly before speaking up again: "Officer Shao, these two are involved in what happened before. This one is Zhou Jun; that one is Xu Shaoyang. I don't know who that girl is or another guy who isn't a resident here; you can ask these two!"
I let out a sound and said to Zhou Jun and Xu Shaoyang, "As I mentioned earlier, we are here today to investigate a murder case regarding Zhao Kaifang. Zhao Kaifang is dead; do you know about this?"
Zhou Jun exclaimed in surprise, "What? Zhao Kaifang is dead?"
"I don't know! We've been in the house!" Xu Shaoyang replied.
Zhou Jun quickly explained, "We really didn't know. Since we returned here after class last night, we haven't gone out again. We can vouch for each other on this! When did Zhao Kaifang die? Was it murder? If it was suicide, then you wouldn't need to come to us."
Xu Shaoyang added, "That's right! If you hadn't come, we would still be sleeping!"
A college student's day cannot be counted from the morning; I knew that well. Many college students often stay up all night playing on their computers or looking at their phones until three or four in the morning, then sleep until one or two in the afternoon before starting a new day. Given their reactions, it was normal for them not to know about Zhao Kaifang's death, but I couldn't draw any conclusions yet.
"I can understand that you didn't know about Zhao Kaifang's death, but you must know that she was pregnant, right?" I continued to ask.
Zhou Jun and Xu Shaoyang exchanged glances and nodded simultaneously. Zhou Jun spoke first, "We knew about that. Actually, we had been involved with Zhao Kaifang for a while. The day Dai Sheng went to the basketball team was when we went to see Zhao Kaifang. But one day, unexpectedly, Dai Sheng came back without calling her; we were all caught off guard."
"Not long after that day, Zhao Kaifang became pregnant," Zhou Jun continued. "She said she used protection when she was with Dai Sheng, but not with us. The child in her womb must belong to one of us three! We all urged her to get an abortion, but she refused! She insisted on having the baby."
"We were all stunned!" Zhou Jun continued. "Even though there was only a one-third chance, I wasn't ready to become a father at such a young age! No matter how much we tried to persuade her, she wouldn't listen. One day she agreed to have an abortion. So she came to us for money, but after getting the money, she didn't go through with it; instead, she bought a new phone!"
"She said she had never had a new phone and needed one badly; the abortion could wait," Zhou Jun said. "So we pooled our money again and gave it to her, insisting that she must have the abortion. She agreed, but then we didn't see her for half a month!"
At this point, Xu Shaoyang spoke up: "I saw her once during that time; she still hadn't had the abortion and said she didn't have enough money and felt it was dangerous. So I gave her a thousand yuan myself so she could have the surgery as soon as possible. But after more than half a month, we could see her belly had grown; she hadn't had the abortion at all! We had no idea where she spent the money!"
"We pooled our money for her a third time and warned her that this was the last time," Xu Shaoyang continued. "But she kept dragging it out; it had been over seventy days and her belly was becoming more obvious. If it got any bigger, the law might not allow her to have an abortion anymore, but she just wouldn't listen!"
Zhou Jun then said, "We figured out what this woman was really doing! She was just scamming us for money, deliberately seducing us and using her pregnancy to con us over and over again. Altogether, we gave her about twenty-three thousand yuan!"
"Then one time—around seventy days into her pregnancy—she came asking for more money," Xu Shaoyang said. "At that time Brother Ma pointed his finger at her and told her that if she came back again without any money, he would take her life! Brother Ma is a big shot in New Town; he controls these places where these bungalows are located. Those days were when the three of us were together with Zhao Kaifang—you know what I mean."
Zhou Jun nodded in agreement and said, "Brother Ma's words were effective; after that day, we never saw Zhao Kaifang again. She stopped calling or texting us; we thought everything had passed just like that. But we still don't know why Zhao Kaifang died!"
Xu Shaoyang quickly said, "We didn't kill her! Why would she testify against us?" He pointed at the girl who was smoking.
The girl threw the cigarette butt on the ground and stomped it out. "That's right, those two were with me all night. We didn't go anywhere else. If it weren't for that kick you just gave us, we would still be sleeping now. But I was asleep, so I don't know if they went out or not. I have a class soon, and I don't know anything about what you're talking about. Can I leave now?"
Zhou Jun and Xu Shaoyang kept emphasizing that they were unaware Zhao Kaifang had been dead for five days, or perhaps they knew and were deliberately misleading our investigation. This needed further scrutiny. I said to Zhou Jun and Xu Shaoyang, "Where is that Mark you mentioned? Can you take us to him?"
Zhou Jun nodded and said, "He usually hangs around New Town, but we haven't seen him for a while. However, I know where he lives in New Town; I can take you to find him! But this really has nothing to do with us; you need to get to the bottom of this!"
"Whether it has anything to do with you depends on the evidence," Dezi interjected. "Regardless, let's find this Mark first!"
I nodded and said to Mary, "Mary, take this girl and Xu Shaoyang to Captain Li for questioning. Make sure to ask them about their activities over the past week, understood?"
"Got it," Mary replied with a nod.
Mary took Xu Shaoyang and the smoking girl to find Captain Li, while Zhou Jun led us to look for Mark.
An unsolved mystery: a 21st-century airborne troop mysteriously appeared in North America, rescuing an Indian red-haired beauty, enjoying the company of a blue-eyed busty blonde, dominating Wall Street, amassing wealth across America, and initiating a Han ethnic colonial global model.
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