While Captain Yu was interrogating everyone, Xiao Lou was taking notes the whole time, writing down every single one of their testimonies. After Zheng Weiguo left, Xiao Lou asked, " Who does Captain Yu think the murderer is more likely to be?"
Yu Hanjiang picked up the notebook and said while looking at it, "At present, Zheng Weiguo and Liu Yuming are the most suspicious. First, they were both in room 2, so they could easily confirm whether Li Zhemin was asleep. As long as the other three were asleep and the door was closed, the crime would not be discovered by anyone. Second, both of them had a motive to kill. Third, there are obvious loopholes in their confessions."
He placed the notebook on the table and gently pointed to one of the records: " Zheng Weiguo said that he found Li Zhemin's body in the morning and then stole the IOU—how did he know that Li Zhemin would have the IOU on him? Who would carry an IOU with them when they go on a trip?"
Xiao Lou's eyes lit up: "That's right. Under normal circumstances, IOUs are kept at home and only taken out when needed. Nobody carries them with them at all times."
Yu Hanjiang nodded: "The only explanation is that Zheng Weiguo asked Li Zhemin to bring the IOU on this trip. Perhaps he lied to Li Zhemin, saying he would repay the money and tear up the IOU in front of him. In that case, Li Zhemin would naturally bring the IOU with him."
IOUs serve a special function: they are written when borrowing money and torn up in front of the borrower when repaying it; this is considered standard practice.
Yu Hanjiang's speculation is reasonable. Only if Zheng Weiguo takes the initiative to ask Li Zhemin to repay the money will Li Zhemin bring the IOU and tear it up in front of him after he repays the money.
Xiao Lou said, " Captain Yu means that Zheng Weiguo stealing the IOU was not accidental, but premeditated?!"
Yu Hanjiang's gaze was deep as he analyzed in a low voice: " Zheng Weiguo knew that Lao Li liked to play cards with them, so he made up an excuse in advance to have Lao Li bring the IOU. He secretly stole the IOU during this trip. Without the IOU, Lao Li can renege on his debt and delay paying it off."
Following this line of thought, Xiao Lou analyzed, "Perhaps Zheng Weiguo checked where Li Zhemin's IOU was before getting on the bus?"
Yu Hanjiang nodded: "Obviously, he knew very well that the IOU was in Lao Li's pocket."
Xiao Lou frowned slightly: "In this way, Zheng Weiguo becomes a prime suspect. He was worried that the theft of the IOU would lead to his exposure, so he simply killed Li Zhemin. He thought that only he and Lao Li knew about the loan, and that as long as Lao Li was dead, he wouldn't have to repay the money and wouldn't be suspected. Unexpectedly, Liu Yuming, who shared the room with him, would accidentally see the IOU."
Yu Hanjiang said, "Moreover, Liu Yuming knew that he was addicted to gambling and had divorced his wife, so his flawless plan was unfortunately exposed."
The two were silent for a moment—if the murderer was indeed Zheng Weiguo, his motive was clear, given that he was a diabetic and knew the safe dosage of insulin; being in the same room made it easy to confirm whether the victim was asleep, and he had ample time to commit the crime.
Is it really that simple?
Yu Hanjiang felt something was off. After thinking for a moment, he said, " Zheng Weiguo would definitely have torn up the IOU immediately after stealing it. We didn't find any fragments of the IOU, so we only have witnesses, not physical evidence. If he really did kill the person, he can deny it to the death, and we can't do anything about it."
You can't convict someone based on eyewitness testimony alone, because people can lie.
If Zheng Weiguo is truly the murderer, his best course of action would be to insist on "I didn't know about the IOU," turning Liu Yuming's accusation into a false accusation. After all, another person who knows... Li Zhemin is dead, and there is no way to verify his testimony.
Xiao Lou asked in confusion, "We didn't find any scraps of paper in the trash can. Where did the IOU go?"
Yu Hanjiang thought for a moment, then suddenly said, "Perhaps he ate it?"
Xiao Lou: "..."
Yu Hanjiang had encountered a similar criminal before. In order to destroy evidence, he ate the crumpled paper, and once it was digested, nothing could be found in his stomach.
If Zheng Weiguo's testimony is correct, he woke up at 7 a.m., when some elderly people were already up. If Zheng Weiguo went to throw away the trash, he would easily be seen. Therefore, the most reasonable thing to do was to swallow the torn pieces of paper, and even God wouldn't be able to find him.
Xiao Lou sighed and rubbed his forehead: " Captain Yu is right. If the IOU was stolen, no one can find it, so why should he admit it?"
Yu Hanjiang said, "From the perspective of criminal psychology, his actions are a bit like 'a cornered dog jumping over a wall' because he was too suspicious and worried about being caught. In order to clear his name of the crime of murder, he had no choice but to admit to theft—stealing the IOU, which is a much lighter punishment, while murder is punishable by death."
Zheng Weiguo's suspicion cannot be ruled out, but it cannot be confirmed either.
Xiao Lou asked with a headache, " What about Liu Yuming? His loophole is... rummaging through the trash can in the middle of the night?"
Yu Hanjiang said, "Getting up in the middle of the night to search for a watch in the trash can is such an absurd excuse. They played cards until 2 a.m. before going to sleep. Most people would check the time before going to sleep. He should have noticed that his watch was missing then. Why didn't he search for it? Instead, he slept for an hour and then sneakily searched for it at 3 a.m.?"
Xiao Lou said, "His explanation was that he was afraid of being seen rummaging through the trash can, which would be embarrassing."
Yu Hanjiang said, "Who would see it? At 2 a.m., everyone except those few night owls is asleep. He could have waited until his three roommates were asleep, closed the door, pretended to go to the bathroom, and found the watch."
No matter what, it's illogical to say that you discovered your watch was missing at 2 a.m., went to sleep, and then got up at 3 a.m. to look for it.
Xiao Lou pulled out Liu Yuming's application form from a stack of documents.
His "spouse"
"In that section, he filled in the information: his wife had left the company and was working at another company. He also had a 25-year-old unmarried son who worked as a doctor."
From this perspective, Liu Yuming is also highly suspicious. His son is a doctor; even if he didn't have diabetes, he could easily ask his son about the dangers of diabetic patients injecting excessive amounts of insulin. Furthermore, it would be very convenient for him to ask his son to help him buy syringes and insulin injections.
However, he now has a wife and son, and a happy family. Is it really necessary for him to kill someone over a long-standing issue from more than 20 years ago when his wife cheated on him?
Yu Hanjiang thought for a moment and said, "The accident happened in carriage 6, and our investigation has been limited to carriage 6. Since we have been assigned to manage two carriages respectively, perhaps there will be clues in carriage 4 as well."
Xiao Lou nodded in agreement: "Then how about this, I'll go ask around in carriage number 4... By the way, little Yu Xinxin fell asleep at 10 pm last night, maybe she woke up in the middle of the night and found something."
Yu Xinxin and her family will get off the bus tonight, not going to the final stop, which is obviously unrelated to the case. However, the little girl has a lot of scenes in the locked room scene, so there might be clues there.
Thinking of this, Xiao Lou stood up and said to Yu Hanjiang, " Captain Yu, I'll go ask Yu Xinxin first, and then I'll look for you."
Yu Hanjiang nodded: "Okay, be careful."
The two split up.
Xiao Lou went to carriage number 4 to find little Yu Xinxin, while Yu Hanjiang continued to interrogate the other elderly people.
He called over " Sister Mei, " the one in room number 1 who had a hearing problem.
The old lady's real name was Mei Ruohua. When she was young, she was the head of the human resources department of a company, responsible for recruiting people. Yu Hanjiang knew that she had hearing problems, so he simply took out paper and pen and wrote down the question in his notebook: "Aunt Mei, what is your relationship with Li Zhemin like?"
Grandma Mei, wearing thick reading glasses and holding a magnifying glass, carefully examined the words in the notebook before speaking: "Little Li? I personally recruited him into the company. He doesn't have a high level of education, but this young man is very clever and learns things exceptionally quickly."
Yu Hanjiang: "Which department was he assigned to when he first joined the company? Who mentored him?"
Grandma Mei said, "He was interning in the company's sales department, and Niu Dapeng was his mentor. Niu Dapeng was like a half-mentor to him."
Yu Hanjiang continued, " Have you heard about how he won over the boss's daughter and stole Niu Dapeng's manager position?"
The old lady nodded: "Yes, of course I know, everyone in the company knows."
Yu Hanjiang quickly wrote: "Did anything unexpected happen during his pursuit of the young lady?"
Grandma Mei sighed, coughing as she said, "Well, it's a long story. I've practically watched Ruirui grow up; I'm ten years older than her, and she's like a little sister to me. Back then, Liu Yuming was pursuing her. They'd known each other since college. Liu Yuming was handsome and talented, and Ruirui had been smitten for a long time. But Ruirui was rather reserved and shy about dating at work. I even encouraged her, telling her that girls should be more proactive. She was even planning to say yes, but a week later, she suddenly came to me crying, saying she'd been... you know."
Yu Hanjiang paused slightly, frowning as he asked, "Raped?"
Grandma Mei shook her head: "It wasn't that serious. It was Xiao Li's birthday that day, and he invited a lot of young girls to his house for a party. He can cook, and the girls all wanted to try his cooking, so they all went. Of course, there was drinking involved at the dinner table, and Ruirui drank some too. She can't hold her liquor, and she got drunk and didn't remember anything. When she woke up... sigh, drinking really does harm people!"
Yu Hanjiang finally understood.
Why did the young lady, who was about to take her relationship with Senior Brother Liu, suddenly change her mind and marry Li Zhemin?
It turns out that this was all orchestrated by Li Zhemin —he had long planned to use the boss's daughter to climb the social ladder, deliberately luring several young girls to his house. Perhaps he drugged the young lady's drink and took advantage of the group's drunkenness to sleep with her.
Grandma Mei continued, "That's when Ruirui got pregnant. She felt ashamed and embarrassed to continue being with Liu Yuming. Plus, Xiao Li felt guilty towards her and vowed to treat her well. Heartbroken, she simply married Xiao Li quickly, and they had the wedding within a month. Xiao Liu was heartbroken at the time, sigh..."
"Cough cough cough..." Grandma Mei coughed and sighed, "Only Ruirui's dad and I know about this. Xiao Li really went too far. He said he was drunk and didn't know what he did, but I don't believe him! I've been there, and when a man is really drunk, he's like a lump of mud. When his mind isn't clear, can that thing even stand up?"
Yu Hanjiang: "..."
Although the old lady's words were a bit direct, as a man, Yu Hanjiang agreed with her point of view.
If a person is completely drunk and loses consciousness, it is impossible for them to have that kind of impulse. Only when they are half-drunk can they use alcohol to embolden themselves—besides, Li Zhemin may not have been drunk and deliberately slept with the young lady.
He'll stop at nothing to climb the ladder.
Yu Hanjiang followed up with, " How is Li Zhemin's wife, Ruirui, doing now?"
Grandma Mei suddenly teared up: " Ruirui was such a pitiful girl... She got married for only six months when her father died of lung cancer, leaving the company to her, his only daughter. She was pregnant at the time and couldn't manage the company, so she had to ask Li Zhemin to help her. She had a difficult childbirth and her health was always poor. In less than two years, she suffered from postpartum depression and passed away."
So, does this mean the entire company has fallen into Li Zhemin's hands?
Yu Hanjiang picked up the form; Li Zhemin's "spouse" column did not say "deceased," and the spouse's name did not include "Rui."
"The word '..." he thought for a moment and asked, " Did Li Zhemin marry a second wife?"
Grandma Mei said angrily, "That Xiao Li has always been immoral! Not long after Ruirui left, he got together with a young and beautiful Nurse, and married her in less than a year. His son was still young at the time and had no idea that his mother was actually his stepmother!"
Yu Hanjiang: "..."
Grandma Mei continued, "By the way, he also had a son with his second wife, who is currently in university."
Yu Hanjiang glanced down and saw that this matched the information on the form. Li Zhemin currently has two sons, one from his ex-wife Ruirui and the other from his current wife.
Yu Hanjiang took a detailed note of what the old lady said and then asked her another question: "You are the most senior employee in the company. Do you know who organized this trip?"
Grandma Mei said, "It was organized by Li Zhemin's son."
Yu Hanjiang raised an eyebrow in surprise: "Oh? It's related to his son?"
Grandma Mei said, "A few years ago, his son graduated, and Li Zhemin handed the company over to his son with peace of mind, retiring early to enjoy his retirement. His son is indeed very successful. After taking over the company, the business flourished, and he made a lot of money. Then he went into real estate. It is said that he recently developed a housing project and made a net profit of several billion. So he took out some money to treat our company's retired employees to a free trip as a benefit for us."
Yu Hanjiang's brows furrowed deeper and deeper. He gripped his pen tightly and quickly wrote down the last question: "How did you know that his son paid for everyone's trip?"
Grandma Mei said, "The company's HR manager is a new young woman who doesn't know much about the retired employees, so she consulted me, her former manager. I asked her what she wanted, and she said the boss asked her to compile statistics so that she could give out benefits to the retired employees... Isn't this free trip a benefit?"
Yu Hanjiang lowered his head and pondered for a moment.
Grandma Mei had probably talked too much and was a bit emotional. She clutched her chest and started coughing violently; the dry cough was heartbreaking to hear. She likely suffered from asthma and shouldn't talk too much, and Yu Hanjiang didn't want to keep the seventy-year-old woman questioning her for too long, so he let her go for the time being.
***
In carriage number 4, Xiao Lou walked up to little Yu Xinxin with a smile and said, "Xinxin, Uncle has a few questions for you, is that alright?"
Yu Xinxin really liked this gentle-smiling uncle and immediately nodded, saying, "Okay!"
Yu Xinxin's mother was hesitant to entrust her daughter to strangers; her face showed obvious hesitation. Xiao Lou quickly added, "You can come with me to the office. Don't worry, I just want to ask your daughter a few questions."
The woman breathed a sigh of relief and followed Xiao Lou, carrying her daughter.
Xiao Lou arrived at the attendant's office in carriage 4. The woman carried Yu Xinxin in, her face full of anxiety: "What happened? I heard someone screaming in carriage 6, and the door was locked."
Xiao Lou said, "It's nothing. Two elderly people had a disagreement, and the flight attendants are handling it. Don't worry." He smiled at Yu Xinxin and asked softly, "Xinxin, did you sleep well last night? I saw you fall asleep at ten o'clock. Did you wake up in the middle of the night? Little girl, you can't lie. Tell Uncle the truth."
Yu Xinxin glanced at her mother, and seeing her mother nod, she answered seriously, "I woke up around 3 a.m. and needed to go to the bathroom, but Mom was asleep, so I didn't wake her and went to the bathroom by myself!"
Xiao Lou praised, "Xin Xin is so sensible."
Her mother said with relief, "This child has been sensible since she was little. She never makes us adults worry about things like going to the toilet or getting dressed."
Xiao Lou gently patted the child's head and asked softly, "When you went to the toilet, did you see anyone walking around in carriage number 6, or hear any strange noises?"
Yu Xinxin smiled and said, "Yes, an old lady also went to the toilet, and she kept coughing!"