Replacing the Evil Way

Chapter 6: One wave has just settled and another wave has risen again

Yun Xiaoxiao came back travel-worn, and Xia Liang followed behind: “Xiaoxiao! Wait for me! You’re walking so fast.”

“Still dilly-dallying in reporting for work, you have to find a purchasing agent to go to the anime expo at this speed.” Yun Xiaoxiao knocked on the door of the unit captain’s office, “Captain! We’ve checked everything out!”

He Wei was looking at the inspection report. The DNA extracted from BYD was compared with the DNA of Wang Fusheng’s son. The driver who caused the accident was undoubtedly Chen Lei. Just then, Yun Xiaoxiao and co. also came back, and He Wei beckoned her to come and talk.

Xia Liang followed in and closed the door, and Yun Xiaoxiao took out a small notebook dedicated to handling cases: “Pan Pinghai recently has been going on a lot of business trips, and he was not home every day to go on a date with Wang Cui. The two of them have been together for several years. Chen Lei had found it out quite early. Not only did he not divorce Wang Cui, but he also took this opportunity to work as a manager at the Shengshi Hotel. He didn’t care about Wang Cui and Pan Pinghai’s affairs; even the daughter was not his.”

Xia Liang continued: “Last year, he took advantage of the situation, squeezed out the finances, took control of the financial power, and began to fill his own pockets. Pan Pinghai quarreled with him a few times after he found out, but they didn’t make a big fuss. He endured it because of Wang Cui, and the three of them continued to maintain this kind of abnormal relationship. On the night of Chen Lei’s death, Pan Pinghai did come back from Muyang County and went to Wang Cui’s place as usual. The two were together and never left home.”

The pen in He Wei’s hand turned twice: “They are equivalent to family and cannot provide an alibi for each other.”

“There are also neighbors who testified that they did not go out. And something happened that night. Wang Cui didn’t say that Chen Chunhua went to their house to catch their adultery. She couldn’t stand her husband having a lover outside, and she was still a relative at home. She went to the Wangjiawa Village Committee and asked the village chief to make a decision, but the village chief couldn’t help, so she held her breath and went to make trouble by herself when she had nothing to do.”

He Wei understood. That night, there was a movie for three people. No wonder Wang Cui and Pan Pinghai didn’t tell the truth. How humiliating it would be if this matter spread to the village. They kept their mouths shut and didn’t mention their meeting. Unfortunately, the neighbors knew what was going on. Under the pressure of Yun Xiaoxiao and Xia Liang, Wang Cui couldn’t bear the pressure and gave up.

“Wang Cui and Pan Pinghai have reasons to hide it. Why did Chen Chunhua hide it? Chen Lei’s death has nothing to do with her, right?”

Hearing He Wei ask this question, Yun Xiaoxiao blinked: “Captain, this is the biggest gain from our trip.” Xia Liang rushed to the table: “The haunting matter is finally clear!”

It turned out that the haunted hotel was Chen Chunhua’s idea. She was angry because Pan Pinghai wasn’t at home and spent money on his little lover, so she came up with this idea to make his hotel unable to do business. She found Li Chenggui, who was honest and timid, and took a liking to him as a hotel security guard, so he could pretend to be a ghost, but Li Chenggui was timid and superstitious. After talking about this matter several times, the price was increased again and again before he reluctantly agreed.

It happened that an old man in Wangjiawa died in a car accident half a year ago. Chen Chunhua asked Li Chenggui to pretend to be him, but Li Chenggui quit after pretending for a few days and also returned the money, saying that he accidentally really summoned the ghost of the old man. Chen Chunhua didn’t believe it at first, but when she saw it with her own eyes in the hotel, she was almost scared out of her wits. So when she heard that Chen Lei had been killed by a ghost, she was the most frightened, fearing that it would be blamed on herself.

She swore to the sky that the murder had nothing to do with her, and neither would Li Chenggui do it. The security guard was timid and superstitious, and he would scare himself to death before killing anyone.

He Wei nodded slightly, pondering over the information that had been investigated and feeling that a crucial link was missing. Although only one person died in this case, it was still full of twists and turns, as if countless baits were thrown in the river and the fishing threads were entangled, and it was not yet possible to figure out which hook the fish was biting.

There was another knock on the office door, and He Wei shouted, “Come in.”

Chong Zhen opened the door: “My classmate replied back just now. The address of Wang Fusheng’s remittance is the home of a mother and son. The son’s name is Chen Gui. Later, the mother remarried, and the son changed his name to Li Chenggui.”

“Xiaoxiao, go to Chief Zheng to issue a search warrant and ask ErHu to lead a team to search Li Chenggui’s house.” He Wei stood up with a “swoosh” and picked up the car keys, “Chong Zhen, come with me to the Shengshi Hotel!”

———

Li Chenggui bought a bouquet of flowers and came to the township funeral home. The staff of the funeral home asked him whose family member he was. He wanted to say “Wang Fusheng”, but he held back and gave his grandfather’s name.

His grandfather was from Chenjia Village, and he had been friends with Wang Fusheng for many years. After his grandfather left, Wang Fusheng treated him like his own grandson. When he was a child, the other party saved money from picking up scraps to buy toys for him. When he got a little older, he followed his mother to Pingchuan, but he still received remittances from time to time every year. Wang Fusheng saved money on food and clothing and almost dug out his heart and lungs1 for him, a “god-grandson” who has no blood relationship with him.

When he was finally able to take the old man to Pingchuan to take care of him in old age, unexpectedly the bad news that Wang Fusheng had died in a traffic accident in the village came. The son was greedy, and the relatives were not there. The driver who caused the accident had never been found, and the police station had a limited police force. Li Chenggui quit his job and returned to Shengzhou to work as a security guard in the Shengshi Hotel, hoping to find the driver by himself.

He had been here for more than two months but got no clue. Coincidentally, the proprietress asked him to pretend to be a ghost, and he got the news of the car accident by mistake.

“Just pretend to be that old man in Wangjiawa. He has been dead for half a year, and the driver has not been found. I feel that it has something to do with that Vixen’s family. Otherwise, why would Chen Lei sell his car? Selling a good car just like that, there must be something wrong!”

Li Chenggui’s mind moved, and he agreed to pretend to be a ghost. Among the panic reactions of everyone in the hotel, Chen Lei was the most special, shouting, “I didn’t do it on purpose!” Later, when the two of them were drinking, he spat out the truth, “An old man caused him to lose a car.” His tone was annoyed and disgusted, without the slightest intention of repentance. Li Chenggui gritted his teeth and was already prepared to kill.

He continued to pretend to be a ghost, taking advantage of the power cut to move the cameras and using the night shift to practice walking around blind spots. Fortunately, he practiced martial arts when he was a child, and his body was very flexible, so none of these things troubled him. Everything was well planned, and on a rainy night, he finally decided to act to seek justice for Grandpa Wang.

Li Chenggui put the bouquet of flowers in an unclaimed area and bowed to Wang Fusheng’s urn. The dead were gone, but the living still have to face the sun tomorrow. Forgive him for not being able to take the ashes away. After the case subsided, he would definitely find a good cemetery for Grandpa Wang to rest in peace.

After leaving the funeral home, Li Chenggui rode his electric car back to the hotel and saw the familiar Karoq at the door of the hotel. He Wei and Chongzhen were leaning against the door, smoking.

“Police officers, have you come to our hotel to investigate again?”

He Wei nodded, and Chong Zhen, who was still smoking a cigarette, leaned on the car door with one hand and asked, “Where did you go? We’re almost dried out in the sun.”

“I went to the funeral home. Today is the anniversary of my grandfather’s death. I went to pay my respects.” Li Chenggui took out his key and opened the door of the security room, letting two police officers in. He Wei and Chongzhen pinched their cigarettes and walked in together. Li Chenggui was filling a thermos cup with water. He Wei stood behind him and pulled out a stool to sit down.

“Which grandfather did you go to see? Wang Fusheng or Chen Hua?” Chong Zhen closed the door.

Li Chenggui paused and said with a naive smile: “My grandfather is Chen Hua; who is Wang Fusheng?”

Chong Zhen took out his mobile phone, clicked on a few photos, and put them in front of him: “It’s all over here, why are you still pretending to be stupid? I found these at your house—wig, Chinese tunic suit, plastic glove, shoe cover, etc. — have an explanation?”

The way Li Chenggui looked at Chong Zhen and He Wei changed. He was no longer the honest security guard and seemed to be a different person, calm and composed, without any panic: “The proprietress asked me to play tricks and scare the customers in the hotel. I later stopped but didn’t throw the things away. Isn’t this acceptable?”

Chong Zhen smiled, and his tone was lazy and even a little careless: “It’s acceptable, as long as no casualties or financial losses are caused. This kind of behavior will only be educated. But if you kill someone, this can’t be solved by just education, right?”

“I haven’t even been to the rooftop; how can I kill people?” Li Chenggui looked at him and said, “Do you have my fingerprints? Are there any traces of me going up?”

Chong Zhen became serious: “Still stubborn? The buttons found at the scene can be identified as being from the same tunic suit! Do you think sophistry is useful? Now, the confession weighs less, and the evidence is more important. As long as the chain of evidence is complete, a zero confession can still convict you!”

“So I’ve been wondering what the murder weapon that was used to attack Chen Lei was.” He Wei, who had been silent all this time, stood up, walked to Li Chenggui’s side, and reached for the rubber baton hanging from his waist. Li Chenggui suddenly stretched out his hand to hold it down, and He Wei smiled: “It’s so heavy; is it custom-made? Generally, there are no such specifications on the market. By the way, since you have some anti-reconnaissance knowledge, don’t you know how advanced the technology is for the current trace inspection? The molecular exchange will inevitably occur when things come into contact, and DNA can be detected as long as dander is attached; even if you have wiped it clean, we can still detect it.”

Li Chenggui’s face became tense as time passed. He Wei was not in a hurry. He lit another cigarette and handed him one: “You are filial, but the method is wrong.”

Li Chenggui was silent for a moment, took the cigarette and lit it, and after smoking one, he felt relieved: “It took a lot of talk to find someone to order this baton on the Internet, but the effect is good. As soon as it went down, Chen Lei just screamed, which was comfortable to hear.” 

He stood up, and without having time to drink the freshly brewed tea, he stretched out his hands: “Let’s go. I also went to see Grandpa Wang today; I have no regrets.”

In the supernatural homicide case at Shengshi Hotel, security guard Li Chenggui was handcuffed and sent to the police station as the suspect. Before entering the interrogation room, Li Chenggui looked back at He Wei and smiled slightly: “Officer He, you helped me, but I didn’t expect that you would catch me.”

He Wei was taken aback, and just as he was about to ask him what he meant, the other party had already entered the interrogation room. Chong Zhen took a baton and studied: “Hey, Lao He, the equipment on the technical team is really so advanced? Fingerprints and dander can be detected even after being wiped clean?”

“How could I know?”

“…But what you said seemed to be true!”

“Scaring him. This is also a method of handling cases; learn a little bit.”

———

The case of falling from a building was finally over, and it was rare that no one had to work overtime tonight. He Wei invited colleagues on the team to a dinner party. Yun Xiaoxiao didn’t attend. She made an appointment to go to the spa at night to save her dull and dry skin. Tomorrow, she was going to listen to the male god’s concert.

Shaking his head and sighing, Xia Liang poured beer for He Wei: “I really don’t understand. Going to see what kind of male god, isn’t the male god sitting with us?!”

Hu Songkai grabbed Xia Liang’s neck: “Hey, you seem to have a problem with Xiaoxiao chasing stars? Are you jealous?”

Xia Liang blushed instantly, anxiously defending himself. Chong Zhen patted him on the shoulder and said earnestly: “We understand. We understand. Who hasn’t had a time of budding love, right?”

The dinner party lasted until midnight. He Wei drank a little too much, fell asleep after returning home, and was woken up by a phone call at three o’clock in the morning:

“Unit Captain He, come here quickly; there is a shooting case here in the Chengnan mansion!”

He Wei’s chaotic brain instantly woke up. He got up and cleaned himself up in three minutes. He picked up his coat and went out. After taking two steps, he turned around and ran to the room at the end of the corridor, knocking hard on the door.

“Chong Zhen! Get up! There is a case!”