The time quickly arrived at noon.
At lunchtime, everyone came to the canteen together, centered on Jiang Pingce and Yue Xingwen. They sat down, observing the employees of the Chemical Factory while eating.
There was a discussion at the table not far away——
“Why did sister Chen suddenly resign ah?”
“She said that she was not feeling well and wanted to go back to recuperate for two years. Originally, we wanted to see her off at dinner in the evening, but she refused, hurriedly packed up her luggage and left, as if there was something urgent.”
“Speaking of which, the same batch of them who came to the factory have resigned one after another in the past 6 months. I’ve always felt that something isn’t quite right…”
At this point, two people happened to pass by the table with their meal trays, and the gossiping employees immediately stopped talking.
It was Xue Xiaolian who passed by with the meal tray.
Among the people who came to the factory together, Xue Xiaolian and Lin Yusen were the ones who had not resigned yet. Xue Xiaolian’s weight was visually estimated to be over 150 pounds and she had a large black birthmark on her face, which, with her slightly thick eyebrows, gave her entire facial features look fierce and vicious. She didn’t seem to be well liked at the factory, sitting in the corner eating and being shunned by passers-by.
Yue Xingwen observed her movements from the corner of his eyes. She was eating alone, her expression was calm, seemingly unconcerned about the chatter around her. A few moments later, a girl with a ponytail sat down across from her with a tray in her hand, and said, “Sister Xue, thank you for last night. I’ll return the kettle to you later.”
Xue Xiaolian glanced up at her and said, “You’re welcome, I still have a kettle there, you can use it first.”
Zhou Qiqi smiled. “Thank you sister Xue, then I’ll take it first and talk about it again on the weekend.”
They talked while eating and seemed to have a good relationship.
Yue Xingwen couldn’t help but wonder in his heart—— Zhou Qiqi was one of the suspects they had identified so far, graduated from the Department of Materials Chemistry, was responsible for the approval of warehouse materials in the factory, and had easy access to toxic materials. Coupled with the fact that her surname was Zhou. She was likely to be related to Miss Zhou Jianan, who was killed back then.
But if she was the murderer and came to take revenge, why did she have such a good relationship with Xue Xiaolian? Could it be that Xue Xiaolian wasn’t involved in the events of that year?
Jiang Pingce saw Yue Xingwen’s doubts and said in a low voice, “It’s possible that Zhou Jianan’s death had nothing to do with Xue Xiaolian back then, or even, the truth of the matter, is that Xue Xiaolian told Zhou Qiqi?”
Yue Xingwen was silent for a moment and said, “In other words, among the 7 people who entered the factory in the same batch back then, there were 5 people who participated in ‘that thing’, including Peng, Cheng and Yu who resigned before, Chen Xiumei who resigned today, and Lin Yusen from the laboratory?”
“En, Chen Xiumei met with Lin Yusen on the rooftop last night, but did not communicate with Xue Xiaolian in private, which also shows that Xue Xiaolian is likely to have nothing to do with ‘that thing’.”
“In this way, the murderer’s next target is likely to be Lin Yusen?”
Both of them looked at each other and suddenly stopped discussing——because Lin Yusen happened to pass by them with a tray in his hand. This laboratory director wearing silver-rimmed glasses had a cold aura of ‘whoever close to me will be dead’, and his eyes were sharp, which was a person that was difficult to mess with at a glance. Moreover, he did not show signs of panic about the resignation of his companions.
Yue XIngwen typed on the chat channel and asked: “Xin Yan, did you finish the experiment he asked you to do?”
Xin Yan said: “Half finished. I’ll continue in the afternoon. Ke Shaobin had just checked this person’s resume in detail and found a very strange thing—— Zhou Jianan, who died in a fire 20 years ago, and Lin Yusen were actually high school alumni.”
Yue Xingwen was stunned: “High school alumni? Same class?”
Ke Shaobin came out and said: “En. I hacked into Lin Yusen’s computer, found a high school graduation photo and found that the two people used to be in the same frame, which was the graduation photo of the 7th class of the 3rd year of Luo Cheng high school. Lin Yusen was admitted into the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Science and Technology, but Zhou Jianan wasn’t admitted to the university, and only studied at specialized training school. After graduation, Zhou Jianan first came to work in the factory and Lin Yusen entered the Chemical Factory one year later than her.”
Ke Shaobin sent the photo copied from Xiao Tu to the WeChat group. Yue Xingwen opened his mobile phone and looked at it. Sure enough, he saw the two people that Ke Shaobin had circled in the photo.
Zhou Jianan stood in the second row and Lin Yusen was in the third row. At that time, the photos were all black and white, but the appearance of these two people were easy to distinguish. Lin Yusen wore glasses, looked elegant in a group of bumpkins; Zhou Jianan had two twisted braids that were very popular at that time, black pants and a white shirt, clean and beautiful, and she had a gentle smile.
Lin Manluo said in the group: “Zhou Jianan is very beautiful ah, a pure natural beauty.”
Lan Yarong said: “Do you think she is very similar to Zhou Qiqi?”
Ke Shaobin looked up at Zhou Qiqi and quickly typed: “I let Xiao Tu analyze Zhou Qiqi’s facial features and compare it with Zhou Jianan’s data. Let’s take a look.” He said that and sent the computer-analyzed data to the group.
Sure enough, after the two faces were individually plucked from the photo and then used overlapping analysis, the degree of overlap was very high.
Liu Zhaoqin said: “The facial similarities are in line with the laws of genetics, and Zhou Qiqi should be Zhou Jianan’s daughter.”
This conclusion shocked everyone, and Zhou Qiqi’s suspicion instantly rose to the highest. But at present, there were still many difficult explanations, Yue Xingwen said: “Zhou Qiqi is taking her mother’s surname, where did her father go, can Young ke find out?”
“I’ve searched through the decades and couldn’t find information about her father. What’s even stranger is that Zhou Jianan’s personal resume has always been filled out as ‘unmarried’, so I suspect this child is illegitimate? The director of workshop No. 2 that everyone suspected before. His resume, with ‘widowed’ entered in the relative section, and his age, profession, and position all in line with the murderer, which is also convenient for commiting crimes.”
“You mean, father and daughter join forces to avenge the dead?” Yue Xingwen asked.
“Otherwise, it was a little difficult for Zhou Qiqi, a little girl in her twenties, to kill three old fritters in their 50s who had been in the factory for most of their lives, right? How was she going to control those three adult men?” Ke Shaobin asked.
“I think Xiao Ke’s train of thought this time makes a little sense. Zhou Qiqi is very young, she has not been in the factory for a long time, and she should not be too familiar with these seniors. How can she ask someone out, poison them quietly, and kill three in a row?” Zhuo Feng carefully analyzed: “It will be much easier to achieve if there is an accomplice.”
“It’s all just speculation, there’s no evidence.” Jiang Pingce calmly interrupted everyone’s brainstorming: “At present, we still have to start with the evidence, first check whether the suspect has the time to commit the crime, and in addition, find the location of the body as soon as possible.”
“That’s right. Pingce and I suspect that the bodies of these people are probably still in the Chemical Factory.” Yue Xingwen said.
“You mean the body was corroded by chemicals?” Xin Yan frowned and said: “Chemical Factories usually have sewage treatment tanks. The wastewater and the waste generated after passing through the production line need to be treated before they can be discharged. The smell of the waste water tank is pungent, and it’s really not easy to spot a body if you break it up and throw it in.”
“Can you guys stop talking about mutilated corpses during meals!” Ke Shaobin picked the braised pork on the plate, and said bitterly, “It affects appetite too much.”
“Just get used to it.” Liu Zhaoqing said with a smile, “When we learned human anatomy in our freshman year, we also used to eat next to the corpses, teachers at noon.”
“...” Ke Shaobin resisted the urge to vomit, turned off the mobile phone interface, out of sight.
After the meal, Xu Yishen and Zhang Xiaonian also returned, and the line of the warehouse they investigated also yielded results.
Xu Yishen sent two photos in the group: “The warehouse managers of the factory are all elderly people over 60 years old, one is named Li Daqiang, the cousin of the owner of the Chemical Factory, who likes to play fight the landlord when guarding the warehouse, and often sleeps on night shifts, but because of his relationship with the boss, no one dares to say anything about him. The other, surnamed Zhou, is a retired employee who has been rehired. Li Daqiang was on the night shift on July 19th, August 2nd, and August 16th, the night before the three resigned.”
Zhang Xiaonian added: “We also checked the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper of the Chemical Factory has a three-person shift. On the three days of July 19th, August 2nd and August 16th, the people on duty were all different. Senior brother Xu asked them about it, and they all said that they had not heard any abnormal noises in recent months, and no one had gone out at night.”
Yue Xingwen flipped through the chat records in the group and carefully sorted out his thoughts.
Li Daqiang, the warehouse manager, with his relationship with the boss, was very inattentive on duty, either playing ‘fight the landlord’ or sleeping, and most likely, the warehouse key on him was stolen by the murderer and he was equipped with a spare. Then, the murderer could take advantage of his lack of attention to sneak into the warehouse and get the required highly toxic agent.
There was a high probability that Zhou Qiqi was Zhou Jianan’s daughter, but the possibility of her committing a crime alone was very small. So, either she had an accomplice, or, she wasn’t the real murderer, and the murderer was someone else.
At present, the most suspected was still Yu Chenming, the director of workshop no. 2 who was registered as ‘widowed’; And Lin Yusen, who appeared in the high school graduation photo, was in the same class as the deceased and was now the director of the laboratory.
The next priority was to find the boy of the deceased.
In the afternoon, everyone worked in their respective positions, while sorting out and analyzing all the information they had so far, and the four girls went through the information of the factory owner from scratch to confirm that they hadn’t missed anything.
Until the dark, Yue Xingwen said on the chat channel: “Find the corpse team, sign up if you are willing to go!”
Jiang Pingce said: “No need to move as a whole, half is enough. The rest can keep an eye on the suspects in the dormitory.”
Liu Zhaoqing raised his hand: “I’ll sign up, I’m not afraid of corpses.”
Xin Yan: “I’m going too, so that everyone doesn't accidentally contact dangerous chemicals.”
Qin Lu asked: “Do you need my teleportation skill?”
Yue Xingwen said: “Yes. In addition, senior sister Manluo needs to go too, your vine may also be used.”
Jiang Pingce quickly stretched out his right hand: “Senior brother Liu and Xin Yan go to my dormitory with Xingwen. Senior sister Manluo and Qin Lu go downstairs in a different position, and try to find dark colored clothes to wear.”
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