Chapter 62 Finding a Clue

Wu Zhenri had spent the entire day on a train, returning to Mumian Town on the fourth day after Xu Qi’s disappearance. Along the way, officers from the local police station had called repeatedly to urge him on, instructing him to report directly to the station the moment he arrived in town.

Instead of going straight there, he got off the train in the city and headed directly to the braised food shop that he and Bao Furong rented and ran together. He dialed Bao Furong’s mobile phone multiple times, but it remained switched off.

Finding the shop tightly shuttered when he arrived, a growing sense of suspicion took hold of him. He even began to suspect that Xu Qi’s disappearance was directly linked to her, figuring that once he found Bao Furong, he could uncover Xu Qi’s whereabouts.

To his surprise, Bao Furong was not inside the shop. He unlocked the door with his key and pushed it open, only to be hit by an intensely heavy stench of blood.

*Furong must have bought some fresh pig heads or something to make braised dishes again,* Wu Zhenri thought to himself. *That kind of smell is unavoidable.*

He walked all the way through to the back room of the storefront, finding nothing out of the ordinary. He then came back out, locked the door, and took a vehicle to Mumian Town. Walking straight to the entrance of the police station, he took out his phone, found the number of the officer who had called him several times, and dialed back to announce that he had arrived.

An officer holding a phone to his ear walked out of the police station, looked at Wu Zhenri, and asked, "Are you him?"

Seeing Wu Zhenri nod, the officer gestured with his hand, led him into the duty room for detailed questioning, and soon learned that Xu Qi’s disappearance might be connected to Bao Furong, who sold braised food in the city.

Just as the officers decided to have Wu Zhenri lead them to the braised food shop in the city for an inspection, the fax machine in the interrogation room began to beep.

After a few rings, it spat out a piece of intelligence. A young officer taking notes picked it up, glanced at it, clicked his tongue, and handed it to a stern-looking, tall officer sitting behind the desk. "Director Liu, take a look at this," he said.

Director Liu carefully read through the fax, then looked up at Wu Zhenri. "Bao Furong sells braised meat, right? This fax states that a strange incident occurred in Yulin Town. A local resident reported that someone bought several pounds of braised meat from a woman selling it. Just as a child was about to take a bite, he suddenly asked why a certain tangled piece of meat didn't look like it came from a pig, but rather resembled a human navel. The family became alarmed, and upon closer inspection, they found that the braised pork tongue, ears, and other parts looked like human organs rather than anything belonging to a pig..."

Wu Zhenri listened with wide eyes, stunned. Director Liu stared at him and asked, "Could the disappearance of Xu Qi, a teacher at the town middle school and your wife, be related to this? It's hard to say." Frowning, he continued, "Wu Zhenri, let me ask you, where is the hometown of your mistress, Bao Furong, who sells braised meat?"

"Group 13 of Crescent Moon Village in Yulin Town."

"Have you been to her hometown to look for her?"

"I just got back, how could I have looked for her? I was just about to go."

Hearing this, Director Liu raised his voice and addressed the officers present, "Higher-level public security authorities have instructed that police stations everywhere must assist in investigating the 'human meat braised food case.' We must investigate all braised food shops and stalls within our jurisdiction and report any intelligence immediately. Our Mumian Police Station must actively cooperate and not slack off. Based on what Wu Zhenri has stated, we must link the investigation of Xu Qi's disappearance with the 'human meat braised food case.' There just might be a connection between them."

***

At that moment, Director Liu decided that Wu Zhenri would lead the way, and he, along with two officers named Xiao Wu and Xiao Bi, would go to Group 13 of Crescent Moon Village in Yulin Town to investigate Bao Furong's situation.

Driving there in a police car, they originally intended to speak with Bao Furong in person, but she was not at home.

From her parents, Director Liu learned that Bao Furong had been taken to the town by Aunt Liu, a local matchmaker, to meet a young butcher named Wu Haoshuang for a prospective match. It was uncertain whether anything would come of it; she had gone yesterday and had not returned home since.

Hearing this, anger flared inside Wu Zhenri, and he cursed inwardly: *Damn it, I treat you like a concubine, yet you sneak back to your hometown behind my back to look for a husband. Fine! So be it. Now that I know about this, if I see you today, I'm going to have a showdown. You won't be running that braised food shop anymore either—we're through, let's go our separate ways!*

Once the police car arrived in the town, a few inquiries led them to Wu Haoshuang, who was selling meat at his stall in the vegetable market.

Director Liu said to Officer Xiao Wu, "You share the same surname as Wu Haoshuang. You should be the one to talk to him."

Xiao Wu glanced at the pig's head on the stall, pointed at it, and started chatting with Wu Haoshuang, "Wu Haoshuang, is that pig's head selling well or not?"

Wu Haoshuang was startled. Three police officers stood before him—faces he had never seen before—and one of them even knew his name. Could something have gone wrong?

Thinking over and over that he had broken no laws and had nothing to fear, he spoke frankly, "It sold well a few days ago, but recently it hasn't been selling at all. The reason is that a strange thing happened around here. Word is that a woman was selling braised meat, and human organs like tongues, ears, and navels were found inside. I didn't see it with my own eyes, so I don't know if it's true or just a rumor, but it's ruined everything and hurt our business. Normally, items like pig heads and tails are in high demand, but for the past few days, people making braised meat haven't dared to buy them. Even when people buy authentic pork, they suspect it might be mixed with human meat, which is really affecting our sales of these cuts."

As he spoke, Wu Haoshuang pointed to the greasy, neglected pig's head sitting on his meat stall.

"I want to ask you about someone named Bao Furong," Xiao Wu said, abruptly shifting the topic and staring intently at Wu Haoshuang. "Do you know her?"

"It's hard to say," Wu Haoshuang replied with a bitter, faint smile and a low voice.

"You don't need to answer just yet," Director Liu said, stepping forward. As he introduced himself, he made a request, "We are police officers from the police station in the neighboring county of Mumian, and there is a matter we need your cooperation with. Can you pause your work for a moment and step aside with us so we can ask you some questions?"

Wu Haoshuang said to a fellow butcher nearby, "Trouble you to watch my stall for a moment." He then immediately walked out from behind the meat stall and followed the three officers out of the vegetable market. Wu Zhenri followed behind them as well.

Approaching the police car, Xiao Bi, the officer driving, pressed the remote control, and the car doors popped open automatically. Director Liu had Wu Haoshuang wait outside while the officers got into the car one after another, closing the doors and windows. Whatever was said inside could naturally not be heard from the outside.

Director Liu asked Wu Haoshuang, "We heard that a matchmaker tried to fix you up, introducing Bao Furong, the village beauty of Crescent Moon Village in Yulin Town, to you. Is that true?"

***

"Yes, it is! But I didn't agree. I'm still thinking about it."

"Since she's the village beauty and quite attractive, why didn't you agree?"

"You don't know the whole story. While Bao Furong is certainly pretty, she's also very loose. The matchmaker told me that she already became pregnant with another man's child, but that man refused to marry her because he was marrying someone else instead. He was keeping her as a mistress, but she wouldn't stand for it, which is why she had the matchmaker come talk to me. I knew her before she got pregnant and had even expressed my love to her, but she turned me down then! I haven't completely turned it down this time either; I just told the matchmaker one condition: she has to get rid of the baby in her belly first, and once she has fully recovered, we can talk."

Xiao Wu took out his notebook and wrote down everything Director Liu asked and everything Wu Haoshuang answered. After having Wu Haoshuang sign the notes, they let him get out of the car and return to his meat stall in the market.

Director Liu led the officers in conducting a thorough sweep and investigation of all hospitals in the local area and surrounding towns. With Wu Zhenri continuing to assist them, they spent three days visiting over 100 hospitals. Finally, in Room 06, Bed 04 of the obstetrics and gynecology ward in a local private hospital, they found Bao Furong, who had undergone an abortion just a day earlier and was lying in bed receiving an IV drip.

Naturally, the officers did not recognize her, and Bao Furong had used an alias when checking into the hospital for the abortion. But the moment Wu Zhenri arrived, he recognized her—no, he spotted her instantly—and asked her right in front of the officers standing there, "Do you know where Xu Qi is?"

Bao Furong gently shook her head. Wu Zhenri asked again, "Why didn't you tell me when you went to get an abortion?"

Bao Furong replied, "There was no need to tell you. That's the kind of relationship we have."

Director Liu observed that her expression was somewhat flustered. Connecting this with what Wu Zhenri had told them about her and Xu Qi, he became convinced that Xu Qi's disappearance was very likely linked to her.

At that moment, Director Liu gently patted Wu Zhenri on the shoulder, motioned for him to step out of the ward into the corridor, and whispered, "Your task now is to cooperate with us. Stay right here in this hospital under the pretext of taking care of Bao Furong to monitor her, and report any developments to us immediately. Before she recovers and is discharged, you need to work on her and get her to provide useful clues regarding Xu Qi's disappearance."

However, no matter how many days Wu Zhenri spent accompanying Bao Furong in the hospital, he could not get a single piece of information out of her.

During this period, Director Liu and several officers searched the braised food shop operated by Wu Zhenri and Bao Furong, discovering a razor with dried, blackened bloodstains on it. Technical testing by the public security criminal investigation department confirmed that the blood was human, not animal. From this, they deduced that Xu Qi had been murdered, and that the razor might well have been the murder weapon.

Consequently, the moment Bao Furong completed her discharge procedures, Director Liu invited her to the Mumian Police Station for interrogation as a prime suspect.