A group of panda policemen, with dark circles under their eyes, tried to cheer themselves up and went to the hot pot restaurant together.
Zhang Mei was still on the road when she got the call. Because of her legs, the policewoman who took her out offered to take her home, and she didn’t refuse. She smiled and agreed.
“Really? You want to go to my restaurant and check it?’
Feng Kaiyuan explained on the phone, “I’m sorry. We need someone to be there. Could you please come to the scene? “
“Ah, I’m so sorry."
Zhang Mei smiled demurely and spoke with some hints of admiration, “My leg really hurts. I’ll give the key to this female officer later and ask her to bring it over."
She was now just a frail and sickly owner who wasn’t involved in this case, and she didn’t want to be there, but she cooperated by handing over the keys. It was already considered sensible of her. The Seventh Precinct couldn’t force her to be there.
Feng Kaiyuan had to adcl, “But we are not familiar with your restaurant."
“Zhang Hua hasn’t left yet, has he? He doesn't have a car and he lives in a dormitory. He often comes to my hot pot restaurant, so you should ask him to be there.”
Zhang Mei obviously didn’t care about exposing her relationship with Zhang Hua, and after she said that, she asked, as if to make light of the situation, “How is it with my husband? Will he be coming home tonight?”
“We still have to ask Mr. Zeng about some details. I’m afraid it will take a while.’
“Okay."
Zhang Mei grippecl her mobile phone, while her red lips slightly hookecl up, “Then please. Although I have a bad relationship with Zou Mingfang, I still hope you can find the murderer as soon as possible.”
She hung up the phone. The policewoman who was driving looked back at her while they were waiting for the traffic lights to change, “Miss Zhang, was it a call from the precinct?"
“Yes, they said they’re going to my hotpot restaurant. My leg hurts too much, so I can’t be there. I’ll give you the key later, please bring it over to them."
Zhang Mei’s attitude was very good, so the policewoman smiled along, “Okay, thank you for your cooperation.”
In the middle of the night, Dragon Sea Restaurant and the hot pot restaurant above opened their doors. Lin Shiheng took Shui Wei up to the hot pot restaurant with him.
This was the first time they came. After all, Zhang Mei had no dealings with Zou Mingfang on the surface before, and never had any conflicts. Therefore, it was only routine questioning before, because she was Zeng Longhai’s wife.
When the hot pot restaurant’s lights were turned on, the room suddenly brightened up, the neatly placed tables, chairs and benches looked very clean, and the bright floor was a beautiful solid wooden floor.
“The decoration isn’t quite the same as downstairs.”
Lin Shiheng glanced around a few times, “The interior of Dragon Sea Restaurant is the exterior design here. On the contrary, the exterior there became the interior here."
Shui Wei felt it was a little strange, too. She looked around and wondered, “This hot pot floor design is so strange. Obviously, it covers a large area, but why is it so narrow? “
Feng Kaiyuan opened his phone ancl pulled out a photo, Tve read some information. The hot pot restaurant wasn’t like this before, they renovated it twice, and ended up like this.”
“Hmm, this is a photo of the hot pot restaurant from before.”
Lin Shiheng was the first to take the phone ancl look at it, “Judging from the photos, the previous decoration was better than the current one.”
Yuan Fang nodded, “Yes, if you didn’t tell me that, I would have thought that this photo was the after-renovation picture, and this restaurant right now is the before picture."
“What kind of renovation ends up feeling more crowded?”
Feng Kaiyuan touched his chin, “Maybe the owner was scammed? Last time, when my Aunt reclecorated her new house, she was scammed, and dragged me out to arrest the renovator. That time, even I was too scared to go home."
“No.”
Shui Wei recalled and said, “The owner said that she had worked her way up from doing ocld jobs here and there. She had worked in construction, so it’s reasonable to say that she should know what she was doing."
Lin Shiheng added, “Judging from her remarks and various actions, she’s a very confident person, who would take the leacl in planning everything. Scamming such a person is highly unlikely. Blueprints would usually be given before renovations for a store this size."
“I got it."
Yuan Fang went out to make a phone call with his mobile phone. When he came back, he looked confused, “I contacted the renovation company that decoratecl this restaurant. They said that the blueprints were from Zhang Mei, the owner herself, and they just renovated it according to the blueprints."
“Ancl at that time, the renovation workers from the company also raised questions after reading the blueprints, saying that if they followed the blueprints, the effect would definitely be worse than the original, but the owner insistecl on following the blueprints.”
As soon as Yuan Fang pointed it out, Feng Kaiyuan raised his head ancl looked at Yuan Fang. The two spoke in unison, “There’s something up!”
As their words fell, the two that had quite the tacit understanding and felt proud of themselves, high-fived.
“The renovation took place 2 months ago, ancl according to Zhang Hua’s statements, that happened to be the exact time period when the owner offered to get back together with him ancl he refused."
Feng Kaiyuan speculated, “Is it possible that the owner was jealous because Zhang Hua rejected her for Zou Mingfang, so she chose to kill her?”
“Think about it, her husband likes Zou Mingfang, and her kept lover also likes Zou Mingfang. Tsk tsk tsk, that would be quite the mindset.”
Shui Wei followed suit, “There are some doubts. Why would she renovate the store? The look is also worse than before the renovations ...”
“But her limbs aren’t that healthy. Even if she wanted to stuff the victim into that lighting fixture, she wouldn’t be able to. Did she have an accomplice? Zhang Hua?”
Lin Shiheng slightly narrowed his eyes. He turned his head and scannecl around the restaurant and suddenly opened his mouth to ask, “Where would the downstairs lighting be from this floor?”
Shui Wei was just about to say that. She recallecl the lighting’s location in Dragon Sea Restaurant, took a few steps and walked around. The location of the Dragon Sea’s restaurant entrance should be under the hot pot restaurant’s cashier counter. She closecl her eyes while following her memory, ancl turned left. In less than two steps, she stood in front of the door.
“It should be here.”
A large lock was on the door so Zhang Hua, who was downstairs, was brought up.
“Do you know what this is for?”
“Lounge.”
Zhang Hua looked at the door, his face grimacing, “It’s the lounge that I use every time I’m in the restaurant with Sister Zhang Mei. Because there are some of my things in it, I’m afraid others will find it, so it’s usually looked.”
“Do you have the key?"
“Yes.”
Zhang Hua hastily took out the key in his pocket in a panic ancl opened the door with a shaky hand, “Comrade police, it can’t really be Sister Zhang Mei, right? She’s very fragile, and normally doesn’t walk if she’s not going to the bathroom.”
“We won’t know if we haven’t checked it out.”
According to her memory, Shui Wei walked towards the bed of the lounge with a couple of steps. She pullecl away the small wooden bed, the reached out and tapped on the edge of the floor.
After lying down for a while ancl listening to the sound, she jerkecl her head up and looked at Lin Shiheng: “Leader Lin, it’s hollow!”
“I’m afraid we’re going to have to pry it open."
As her words fell, she suddenly felt a chill covering her body. Shui Wei, who was investigating the case with confidence, started shivering from the cold.
-Tick tick.
— Ticktick.
The familiar sound of water dripping entered her ears. Shui Wei looked up in a daze and saw the woman standing beside her, blankly staring ahead.
Her pupils dilated for a moment, and subconsciously went to look at Lin Shiheng. When she saw her boyfriend still standing there, her tense nerves relaxed a little.
There’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s just a deacl body. As a police officer, being afraid of a corpse would be embarrassing.
— Ticktick.
-Tick tick.
Zou Mingfang didn’t speak, but the sound of the water droplets was very loud. The constant dripping was a little distracting.
Shui Wei was hypnotized by the noise.
Don’t Hsten to it! Chant Buddhist scriptures.
Consider it as carrying the corpse around to solve the case. The ghost won’t move if she didn’t move.
Anyway, she’s a ghost, if the ghost really wanted to do something to her, she couldn’t resist. At worst, she would be killed, and she would become a ghost too.
At the thought of becoming a ghost if she was killed by Zou Mingfang, Shui Wei had a joke popping up in her head at an awkward time.
— “Dicl you just kill me?"
— “Well, duh...”
“Pfft — cough cough ..."
She almost laughed out loud, so she coughed to suppress her laugh.
“Ah Wei?”
Feng Kaiyuan was seriously studying the cracks and corners of the floor. when he suddenly hearcl a cough ancl got startled. He looked up in confusion and looked at Shui Wei.
“It’s okay, just a little colcl."
Shui Wei hastily stood up and held back the chill in her body. She stretched out her hand and gestured, “It’s a little longer than the lighting box."
Feng Kaiyuan continued to bury his heacl to check the area under the becl. Suddenly, his eyes noticed something. He reached out and carefully pullecl out a strand of hair from the gap.
“Leader Lin, got something."
Lin Shiheng wore some gloves, and pickecl it up. He slightly lifted it up against the light, and carefully examinecl it.
“Long, yellowish hair.”
“Zhang Mei has meclium length black hair. This isn’t her hair."