Traveling Back to 1994 (Part 4)

Lian Chi calmed his breathing slightly, opened the notebook in his hand, and wrote while looking at the corpse in the water tank: "Victim, male, aged 35 to 40, height approximately 1.65m to 1.7m, body heavily decomposed, bruising on both cheeks and corners of the mouth, a stab wound on the chest, suspected cause of death is penetration by a sharp object, time of death was five days ago..."

At this moment, the auntie, while vomiting, stepped forward. She looked closely and then shouted: "It's him, Jiang Fugui from Building 4, I'm absolutely sure it's him!"

Quite a few people nearby heard the news and ran over.

"Jiang Fugui? Didn't he go back to his hometown to visit relatives?"

At the same time, Director Liu opened the window of Jiang Fugui's house, took out a small key from the corner, and helped Lian Chi and the other open the door to Jiang Fugui's home.

This was a very ordinary small apartment, one bedroom and one living room.

The floor, dining table, walls... Looking around, everything was exceptionally clean and tidy.

Lian Chi walked into the kitchen.

The kitchen, like the bathroom, was exceptionally clean.

Lian Chi turned his head to look at Shen Jianshe.

Shen Jianshe shook his head.

He also didn't find anything wrong, such as bloodstains.

So this place was likely not the primary crime scene of this murder.

As the workers from the plastics factory gathered in larger numbers, their voices grew louder.

"Who on earth killed Jiang Fugui?"

"How could the killer do this? Brother Fugui was such a good person. Before, when my mother was seriously ill and my family couldn't scrape together the money for her treatment, I could only go door-to-door to borrow money. At that time, my best friend was only willing to lend me ten yuan. But Brother Fugui, whom I had only met a few times at the cafeteria during lunch, didn't hesitate to lend me fifty yuan after hearing about my family's situation."

"...Before, when my wife gave birth to our second child and had a difficult labor, and my mother fell and broke her leg, no one could go to the hospital to take care of my wife. It was Brother Fugui who helped me work the night shift for a whole month so I could have time to care for my wife and child."

"I've never heard of Jiang Fugui having a grudge against anyone either..."

Hearing these words, Shen Jianshe said: "In other words, this case shouldn't be about revenge."

Could it be just robbery and murder?

Lian Chi said: "No, this is definitely a revenge case."

Shen Jianshe asked: "How so?"

Lian Chi opened the notebook in his hand, looked at the line "bruising on both cheeks and corners of the mouth," and said: "If the killer acted on impulse, they would only need to stab the victim to death, why beat the opponent's face? That's not a vital spot, so it's highly likely that the victim and the killer were arguing at that time, and the victim refused to say what the killer wanted, which was why the killer beat him."

Shen Jianshe nodded: "Makes sense."

Then Lian Chi turned to ask Director Liu: "Besides you, who else has the key to the water tank on the rooftop of Building 3?"

Director Liu replied: "Besides me, there's another key with the factory director, and then the water company. They send someone to read the water meters every two months."

Shen Jianshe said: "Just now when Director Liu opened the door, I noticed there were no other footprints on the ground, and the rust on the lock was very even. It probably hasn't been opened in a long time."

Meaning, the killer definitely didn't go through that iron door to reach the rooftop of Building 3.

Then how did he get up?

Lian Chi and the others looked up, seeing Building 4 right nearby.

Two minutes later, they, along with Yang Yiran, arrived on the roof of Building 4.

Building 3 was one meter taller than Building 4, but since the two buildings were less than half a meter apart, climbing from Building 4 to the roof of Building 3 was not very difficult.

The group immediately searched the connection between the two buildings.

Very quickly, Lian Chi discovered: "This place..."

Everyone gathered around, seeing a clear indentation near the roof of Building 3.

Then, Shen Jianshe discovered a fresh scratch on a water pipe on the roof of Building 3.

Clearly, the killer had used the water pipe on the rooftop of Building 3 as an anchor, using a rope to pull Jiang Fugui's body from the roof of Building 4 to Building 3.

Lian Chi concluded: "The killer is highly likely someone from the plastics factory, and lives in Building 4. Since the killer didn't dismember the victim, it proves that the disposal site he chose was not far from the crime scene, requiring no effort to conceal."

This was the experience he had drawn from the robbery and murder case ten days ago.

Lian Chi then turned to ask Director Liu: "Director Liu, do you have the resident lists for Building 5 and Building 4?"

Director Liu replied: "Yes, yes."

Lian Chi said: "Please give me a copy."

Director Liu replied: "Alright."

Shen Jianshe said again: "Even with the resident list for Building 4, I'm afraid it's like looking for a needle in a haystack."

After all, the workers of the plastics factory all said Jiang Fugui had almost no enemies here.

But each building here had sixty to seventy households.

Of course, he hoped they could solve this case as quickly as the last one.

After all, according to regulations, murder was a criminal case. Once the criminal investigation team arrived, this case would have to be handed over to them.

Lian Chi said: "How could that be?"

He said: "Enemies aren't just those who have openly fallen out."

"Friends and relatives turning against each other is also a grudge."

He had encountered similar cases before.

Shen Jianshe's eyes lit up: "Indeed."

"This narrows down the scope significantly."

"Not only that."

Lian Chi said: "We can also look at who among those close to Jiang Fugui had a grudge against the residents of Building 5."

"I just noticed that the three water tanks of Building 3 and Building 4 are clearly exposed, yet the killer went out of his way to bypass the water tanks of these two buildings to dump Jiang Fugui's body into the water tank of Building 5. So it's highly likely the killer did this to deliberately take revenge on one or several households in Building 5."

Shen Jianshe made a decisive call: "Director Liu, please gather all the residents of Building 5 here. We have a few questions for them."

Just then, the workers of the plastics factory had finished their shifts, so not long after, Lian Chi, Shen Jianshe, and Yang Yiran met more than a hundred residents at the drying yard in front of Building 5.

Those with stronger nerves only looked slightly pale at this moment, while those with weaker stomachs were still retching, and some even needed support.

Clearly, they all knew that they had been drinking water soaked with Jiang Fugui's corpse for the past four or five days.

They naturally hoped Lian Chi could help them catch the killer immediately, so they scrambled to report.

"Who in Building 4 had the best relationship with Jiang Fugui?"

"Niu He from the cafeteria, Jiang Feizhang from Workshop 2, Ma Dali from the logistics department... *blegh*, they often played cards together."

"There's also Sun Xiaomin from the HR department, who is his fellow townsman."

...

"Among these people, does anyone have a conflict with us?"

"Yes, Jiang Feizhang from Workshop 2. His son peeped at a girl in the school restroom, and my son reported it to the school. Since then, he has looked down on our whole family."

"Luo Yi in Room 403. Some bastard told him his four children looked like me. *blegh*, he has picked fights with me several times this month. I barely meet his wife, and besides, I had a vasectomy long ago because of my wife, okay?"

...

With their cooperation, very quickly, Lian Chi and his team narrowed down the suspects to four.

Lian Chi carefully reviewed the information of these four people, finally stopping his gaze on Ma Dali.

"Let's go to Ma Dali's house to take a look."

With Director Liu's help, Lian Chi's group quickly met him.

Ma Dali, male, 38 years old, one of the people who played cards with Jiang Fugui. His card skills were very poor, and he frequently lost money, often borrowing from Jiang Fugui. However, Ma Dali rarely repaid his debts, and like Jiang Fugui, he lived alone in the staff quarters.

Hearing that Lian Chi wanted to inspect his house, Ma Dali gave a forced smile: "Sure, sure."

Two minutes later, Ma Dali unlocked his door.

Just like Jiang Fugui's house, this was also an ordinary small apartment, one bedroom and one living room.

The floor, dining table, walls... Looking around, although old, they were very clean.

Lian Chi walked into the kitchen.

With the naked eye alone, one could see the years of grease buildup on the stove. The window beside it was no better, with two dried scallions stuck to it from who knew when, and the salt container beside it had a blackened spoon handle.

This proved that the owner of this house was not someone who particularly liked cleanliness.

Then why did the owner of this house only clean the living room so thoroughly?

Either he suddenly had a whim while sleeping, woke up wanting to do something, and cleaned the living room because he found it too dirty.

Or it was to wipe away the blood splatters from the murder.

The former case usually only happened to people who were bored out of their minds, and Ma Dali was clearly not that type of person.

So he belonged to the latter case.

But readers who often read murder mysteries knew that killing was easy, but cleaning the crime scene was difficult, because bloodstains could not be completely wiped away; the more one wiped, the more they spread.

Lian Chi returned to the living room, looked around, and finally stopped in front of the dining table.

He bent down to look along the chipped edge of the table, and indeed found a dark red stain near the wall, different from old grime.

Shen Jianshe then also pointed to a crack in the floor, saying: "There's some here too."

This meant this place was indeed the crime scene.

They immediately turned to look at Ma Dali.

But he had disappeared.

So they turned to look at Director Liu, who had slumped to the ground, and Yang Yiran, who was clutching his chest and grimacing.

Director Liu said in terror: "Ma Dali pushed us aside and ran away."

Lian Chi smiled: "Let's catch him."