Replacing the Evil Way

Chapter 17: Unpleasant “first meeting”

During the special task force meeting, Chong Zhen handed over the investigation results to He Wei. After briefly reviewing the information, He Wei discovered that Cheng Zesheng was not the only child; he had an elder brother named Cheng Zhenqing, who was four years older but was abducted at a young age. Cheng Zesheng’s parents searched for two years but couldn’t find any leads, so they eventually had Cheng Zesheng.

Cheng Zesheng’s lost elder brother was named Cheng Zhenqing. After his son was abducted, Ding Xiang felt that the name was not appropriate, as it implied that clear water had no fish. Hence, when their second son was born, they named him “Zesheng” to express their wishes for blessings and grace. Chong Zhen showed the family photo from the necklace to Cheng’s parents, and Ding Xiang couldn’t believe her eyes. She saw the resemblance between the man in the picture and Cheng Zesheng, evoking a sense of maternal affection.

They believed this must be their eldest son, but they couldn’t fathom why he didn’t acknowledge them and only went to find Cheng Zesheng. Moreover, Cheng Zesheng had kept this matter hidden and never mentioned his brother. If the police hadn’t asked about it, Ding Xiang thought she would never see her eldest son in this lifetime.

Regarding the collection of firearms, Cheng’s parents were at a loss and couldn’t understand why their son would do such a thing. Cheng Zesheng had been obedient and well-behaved since childhood, and he had never bought a gun, even in Canada, where gun ownership is allowed. Yet, upon returning to China, he set up an arsenal. It was beyond their imagination as parents.

“Basically, that’s the situation. Cheng Zesheng’s parents are clueless. They not only have no idea where Cheng Zhenqing is but also want our police to help find their son.” Chong Zhen sighed, “We are also at a loss. At the moment, we’re not even sure if Cheng Zhenqing really exists. Nobody around Cheng Zesheng has ever seen him, including his closest assistant and agent; they don’t recognize him at all.”

“He does exist, and the guns found in the basement have extracted the fingerprints of other people. Moreover, as long as someone lives here, it’s impossible to erase all traces,” said He Wei, putting down the documents. “That’s also where I think the suspect is smart. Instead of trying to erase the traces completely, they made them unidentifiable.”

“Now the focus is on finding Cheng Zhenqing?” asked Yun Xiaoxiao.

“Chong Zhen, I’ll leave that to you. Make a copy of the photo and conduct an investigation within a five-kilometer radius of Cheng Zesheng’s home,” He Wei said, taking a sip from his teacup. “Finding people is one aspect, but other suspicious points are crucial too, like how Cheng Zesheng appeared at the mansion. He didn’t drive, and there were no surveillance cameras capturing him walking there for all those days. It’s very suspicious.”

“There are indeed many suspicious aspects, like the third party being completely absent and the murderer’s whereabouts unknown. I even suspect his brother might be the killer.” 

After Hu Songkai’s remark, several members of the task force at the meeting nodded, feeling that the deduction was highly likely. Wu Xiaolei, who was transferred from the neighboring anti-drug squad, asked, “According to Cheng Zesheng’s parents’ testimony, Cheng Zesheng should have no knowledge of firearms, so the weapons cache is unrelated to him?”

“You can’t say that. Cheng Zesheng knew how to use a gun,” He Wei flipped open the identification report brought by the technical team earlier this morning. “The examination results for the spent casings and bullets found in the basement are out. They were fired from the same Type 92 pistol as the bullet retrieved from Cheng Zesheng’s body. Furthermore, his fingerprints were detected on the casings. I believe he fired all those rounds.”

“But the murderer’s behavior is strange. Why did they only take the casings and leave the bullet?” Chong Zhen asked.

“Probably… they couldn’t easily find the bullet inside the body? Sometimes, it requires X-rays to detect them,” Yun Xiaoxiao said.

Xia Liang tilted his head, “Not enough time? Fear of being seen?”

Wu Xiaolei speculated, “Or perhaps they were afraid and didn’t dare to dig them out.”

He Wei pondered, tapping his pen on the desk. No, none of these explanations seem right. If the murderer took the casings and left the gun behind, it suggests they didn’t want to be caught by the police. But not disposing of the bullet would leave more straightforward rifling marks for comparison.

If the murderer was the one who issued that expedition order, then starting from Cheng Zesheng’s time of death, they had plenty of time to handle the bullet. Even if it was difficult to find, considering the bullet hit his chest, they could have patiently searched by dissecting the tissues. Timidity could also be ruled out. In He Wei’s mind, this was a thoughtful killer, fully capable of handling the crime scene perfectly. But there must be a reason why they didn’t do it.

“I definitely wouldn’t dare to dig it out,” Xia Liang shook her head, “Besides, he was a handsome guy, and having a big blood hole in his chest would ruin his beauty.”

Suddenly, He Wei raised his head, “What did you say?”

“Uh… I wouldn’t dare?”

“The next sentence.”

“He was a handsome guy, and having a big blood hole in his chest would ruin his beauty?”

He Wei found Cheng Zesheng’s autopsy report and flipped to the external examination section. Phrases like “neatly trimmed nails,” “no splatter bloodstains on the face,” and “clothing intact with no signs of a struggle” caught his eye, and an idea suddenly struck him.

It wasn’t a matter of unwillingness; it was a matter of not having the heart to do it.

Their thinking had been fixed, assuming that whoever manipulated the crime scene to cover up the truth must be the murderer. But they had overlooked the presence of a third person who meticulously groomed Cheng Zesheng, even helping to trim his nails. Their relationship was extraordinary, and for some special reason, they had no choice but to assist the murderer in manipulating the crime scene.

Who was this third person? A young male, around 180 cm tall, with a strong psychological resilience, adept at concealing the truth, and perhaps with homosexual tendencies, paying great attention to appearance…

Not enough information; there’s still too little to go on. The more He Wei thought about it, the deeper he furrowed his brows. He had been handling cases for many years, and this wasn’t the most complicated one, but it was the first time he couldn’t get a complete profile of the suspects present at the scene.

——

The sky was already dark, and two more days had passed at the bureau. He Wei closed the case file, intending to go home, take a shower, and change clothes.

As the car stopped at the entrance of Future Domain, He Wei looked up and noticed that only a few houses still had their lights on. He felt that it was quite nice this way – peaceful, without anyone disturbing it. However, as soon as he opened his front door, he sensed something unusual.

The first thing he noticed were the two unpacked shoe covers on the shoe cabinet at the entrance. He remembered it clearly; he had left them there last time and hadn’t taken them out at all. There was also some dust on the floor of the hallway, revealing a wavy shoe print.

After taking photos with his phone, He Wei put on plastic gloves from his pocket and also unpacked two shoe covers from the shoe cabinet, trying not to disturb the shoe print as he walked into the living room, treating his home like a crime scene.

He first checked the windows on the balcony and found no signs of forced entry. Then he opened the door, but there were no fingerprints on the doorknob either. Based on the situation at the scene, He Wei could deduce that the suspect had entered using a key. In a typical case, he would suspect someone familiar with the victim.

In the living room, kitchen, and bathroom, all the furniture remained in place without any changes. He Wei went upstairs to the second floor, walked to his bedroom door, and finally found an indistinct fingerprint on the handrail. He hurried downstairs, grabbed a roll of tape, carefully covered the fingerprint, and then gently peeled it off. The fingerprint appeared clear on the tape, showing the pattern of a right loop, indicating it was from the right thumb.

After extracting the fingerprint, He Wei finally used his key to unlock the door. As soon as he pushed it open, he concluded that the intruder had not entered this room; they had only glanced inside and closed the door again.

There was one more room across the hall. He Wei stood at the doorway, suddenly feeling a strange sensation. He gripped the handrail, pressed down on the lock, and slowly pushed the door open. It had been a long time since his heart had raced like this, as if it were his first time at a crime scene, performing an autopsy, or firing a gun – all that nervousness returning.

But there was nothing inside.

He Wei was taken aback, facing this empty room. It took him a while before a faint smile appeared on his lips, and he stepped back and closed the door. Perhaps working on so many cases had made him hypersensitive, and he wondered what he had been expecting just now for no reason.

Nothing seemed to be missing from the house; the person had gone in and out like a tourist. He Wei couldn’t fathom who would dare to break into the police dormitory, and he couldn’t understand the purpose of this visit. The intruder didn’t even enter his room. Although there wasn’t anything valuable in the house, they could have taken his laptop after breaking the lock to at least cover their travel expenses.

It was getting late, and He Wei couldn’t dwell on this anymore. He needed to focus on more important matters. He prepared a packet of instant noodles, planning to take a shower and eat before heading back to the bureau to have the fingerprint analyzed.

In the bathroom, He Wei turned on the showerhead. The soundproofing of the frosted glass door was excellent, to the extent that even the sound of the door opening at the entrance was drowned out by the running water, and no other noise could be heard inside.

Tonight, Cheng Zesheng was moving out. He entered the apartment carrying a travel suitcase and heard the sound of water coming from the bathroom, assuming that his “neighbor” had arrived first. Since the neighbor was taking a shower, it wouldn’t be convenient to greet them now. He dragged his luggage and noticed a bowl of instant noodles on the coffee table with a fork stuck into the packaging, and the aroma of braised beef noodles wafting out from the gaps.

Cheng Zesheng picked up the bowl and looked at it. His neighbor seemed to have a similar taste; they both liked eating this kind of original-flavored braised beef noodles. He wondered which colleague from the police department it was. They must be quite busy, having instant noodles for dinner.

He put down the noodles and went upstairs to pack his belongings. As He Wei finished drying his hair and walked into the living room, he immediately noticed that the dinner on the coffee table had disappeared.

Narrowing his eyes, He Wei quickly walked to the entrance, finding new traces on the floor, circular imprints that resembled the wheels of a suitcase. He looked around the living room, then proceeded to the staircase and began to climb the stairs, step by step.

He Wei first opened the door to his own room, finding nothing unusual. Then he pushed open the door to the room across the hall – still nothing, just emptiness. There was only a bed, a table, and a wardrobe in the room. However, he noticed that the window, which had been closed earlier, was now half-open, allowing the gentle breeze of early summer to drift in.

Cheng Zesheng was in the midst of folding clothes when suddenly the door seemed to be blown open by a strong gust of wind. His immediate reaction was to turn around and look at the window. It couldn’t be the wind; even if it were, it should have been the wind coming from outside.

He walked to the door and glanced outside, but his neighbor hadn’t come up, and there was no one at the door. He couldn’t figure out why the door had opened just now. Cheng Zesheng shrugged, closed the door again, and continued organizing his clothes.

*Clap.* The door behind him closed, and He Wei turned around, glancing at the half-opened window. Could the wind be strong enough to close the door like that?

He examined the room carefully. The wardrobe had been closed before, but now it was open halfway. He Wei stroked his chin, trying to piece together the scene in his mind: someone had come in with luggage and started unpacking clothes, just like he had done on the day he moved in, sitting on the floor sorting things out.

But there was nothing here. Clearly, someone had entered, yet he couldn’t find a trace of that person.

He Wei took out his phone, switched to video mode, and started recording the room. Sometimes, electronic eyes could capture more than human eyes. As Cheng Zesheng stood up and walked past He Wei, the camera screen briefly flashed a shadow, and in the blink of an eye, everything returned to normal.

The door behind them opened again.

Cheng Zesheng went downstairs as the sound of running water in the bathroom ceased. His neighbor had already finished showering, but the bowl of instant noodles on the coffee table was still there. It had been soaked for too long, and the soup had been fully absorbed by the noodles, turning them soft and clumpy.

Where was the person? They hadn’t come to eat the noodles after they were done. Cheng Zesheng stood at the bottom of the stairs and shouted upstairs, “Hey! Your instant noodles will go bad if you don’t eat them soon!”

No response.

He called again, but there was still no answer. Cheng Zesheng sat back on the couch, assuming the neighbor might have been called for a last-minute assignment. He often faced such situations himself – whenever a call came, he would drop whatever he was doing and prioritize the task at hand.

After confirming that the neighbor wasn’t really home, Cheng Zesheng didn’t eat dinner either. He decided to just have the instant noodles himself. When the neighbor returned, he would let them know he had done it to avoid waste.

He Wei came downstairs, feeling a heavy cloud of doubt after spending so long upstairs with no results. He sat down on the couch, the uncertainty weighing on his mind.

His stomach growled again, causing his brows to furrow in frustration. The fact that the neighbor wasn’t around was one thing, but what about the instant noodles?

One person was slurping noodles on the couch, and the other propped his chin, brows deeply furrowed, forming a stark contrast.

Though they were just a seat apart, they couldn’t perceive each other’s presence at all.