Chapter 16: Get Down to Business
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Hey! Good day, Chief Xu! What happened just now?”
Once Bai Wu opened the door, Zhu Jing she was instantly pushed into the office by a bunch of rubberneckers outside before she could even balance herself. She scratched her head and asked Xu Lan awkwardly. Her eyes glanced towards Bai Wu while she asked about the incident where he cried.
“What about it, don’t you guys have work to do? Why are you guys crowding here to watch? Where’s Xiao Li? Did he go out of the solar system to buy a pack of cigarettes?”
Xu Lan was not angry. Instead, he found it funny. In a matter of two days, this little guy had bought over everybody in the police station. He did not know that Bai Wu was this capable.
“I’m here, Chief Xu. I was back for quite some time.” Xiao Li emerged from the crowd when he heard Xu Lan called out his name.
“Come here.” Xu Lan gestured to him by curling his fingers with his palm facing downwards. After Xiao Li reached forward to him, both of them stared at each other for two seconds.
“Where’re the cigarettes?”
“I gave it to Chief Sun Fei.”
“My G*d, did you just buy a pack?!” Xu Lan kicked Xiao Li on the calf and said, “Go back to work. There is still no lead in this case. Do all of you want to work overtime together with me?”
Xiao Li stood aside in pain, while he watched everyone leave gloating over his situation. He sulked and waited for his punishment. Zhu Jing was the one who came in first, why did he end up with the consequences.
“Is the reporter still there?” Xu Lan cleared his mouth and drank another sip of water.
“Yes, yes she is,” Xiao Li answered immediately.
“Go and invite her to the interrogation room, we’ll head over to interview the parent. Who did we talk to yesterday? Bring the person over as well.”
Bai Wu already left together with Zhu Jing. What an ungrateful little rascal. He just mentioned that he only liked him, but he was involved with everyone in this police station.
“Huh, are we really bringing her along?” Xiao Li looked at Xu Lan blankly, his face was so emaciated that his cheeks looked like there were two black grapes mounted on it.
“What about bringing her along?”
Xu Lan was already suppressing his anger. When he heard what Xiao Li said, he kicked on his calf again. Although he kicked it gently, his foot settled on the previous footmark, leaving Xiao Li in a lot of pain.
“No, nothing. I shall go and invite the female reporter to the interrogation room at once!”
Xiao Li ran out of Xu Lan’s office like fire rockets and went to call Wu Wendi. Xu Lan brought along the case files of the Jingxinyuan victim, Li, and walked towards the interrogation room.
The case files indicated that the father of the victim was forty-nine years old this year, named Li Kui. He was an honest construction worker. At the moment, he was sitting anxiously inside the interrogation room. His body was very darkly tanned by the sun. This man who was rubbing his hands together matched the description in the case files.
Nevertheless, it was him, a simple worker who blocked the entrance of the police station for two days and asked for justice to be served.
Certainly, his intention was not to make things difficult for the police. Xu Lan let him into the station, just because this person had not approached them to contact his daughter since the incident. Instead, he chose to make a scene in front of the station after the news release.
“Are you Mr. Li? Please, have a seat. My name is Xu Lan, and I am the one in charge of this case,” Xu Lan said. Li Kui stood up hastily after he saw Xu Lan enter with the doc.u.ments.
“Hi, Officer Xu. Please, you have to help my daughter! She, her death was tragic!” Li Kui said grieve-strickenly while he held onto Xu Lan’s left hand.
“I can a.s.sure you, we will try our very best to bring the killer to justice.”
Xu Lan laughed dryly and retracted his hand from Li Kui. Shortly after, Xiao Li brought Wu Wendi and the police officer from yesterday, Xiao Xu, along.
Li Kui’s expression turned green after seeing Xiao Xu.
“What are you insinuating, Chief Xu? I am here for my daughter’s innocence. You brought people over to interrogate me, are you suspecting that it was me who killed my daughter!”
“Aha, you have misunderstood us, Mr. Li. We just wanted to know more about your daughter’s circ.u.mstances. We are not going to interrogate you. Look, I even brought the guy to apologize to you. Please calm down.”
Xu Lan perceived Li Kui’s reaction very clearly. He then pouted his lips to signal Xiao Xu to make an apology.
“I am sorry, Mr. Li. Yesterday, my att.i.tude was not very decent. Please do not take any offense.” Xiao Xu was fuming inside, but he still followed orders and apologized to Li Kui. He even served him a cup of tea after apologizing.
“Oh, it’s alright, no worries. I, you guys don’t have to be so courteous.” Li Kui received the cup of tea from Xiao Xu hurriedly and placed it on the table. He mumbled something with his lips and whispered inaudibly.
“Mr. Li, do you want to look at your daughter?” Xu Lan asked all of a sudden.
“Uh, this… I thought I am not allowed to do so for the time being?” Li Kui answered sheepishly while he rubbed his hands.
Xu Lan narrowed his eyes and scrutinized Li Kui from head to toe, while his expressions remained neutral.
“It’s fine. You can have a look together with me.”
Yesterday, when the victim was still at Jingxinyuan, Li Kui chose to seek for redress at the police station instead of going over to find his child. Up until this moment, he also did not initiate any request to see his daughter. After hearing Xu Lan’s suggestion, he had to think for a moment before answering.
“We do not allow any photography here. Reporting of any information related to this case is also strictly prohibited. Do you understand?” Xu Lan gave Wu Wendi a warning look and asked.
“Yes,” Wu Wendi nodded.
Then, Xu Lan led both of them to forensics on the second floor. In the meantime, Sun Fei was found leaning against the stairs while smoking!
“Ah, I brought Li’s family member to see her.” Xu Lan took the cigarette bud from Sun Fei’s hands and gave it a smoke before putting it out.
“Okay.” Sun Fei met with Xu Lan’s glance and proceeded to guide them inside. When they pa.s.sed by the filing cabinet, he retrieved a stack of photos and handed them over.
“This might come to you as a shock, Mr. …” Sun Fei stopped when Wu Wendi b.u.mped against Xu Lan that was in front of her with a terrified expression after glancing briefly at the photos.
“You can stay outside for a while. This is not really suited for girls,” Xu Lan said with knitted brows.
Li Kui revealed a terrified and agonizing expression after he got the pictures. He was so shaken up that he could not even stand still.
“Officer, this, my daughter, please, you’ll have to punish the murderer severely! Who is that conscienceless!” he howled in anguish.
“Definitely, we will.” Xu Lan signaled Xiao Li to hoist him up and followed Sun Fei inside.
“Nan Nan! Please get up and look at me, I’m your dad…” Li Kui threw himself in front of victim Li, filled with grievances and sorrow. He kneeled on the floor and called out his daughter’s nickname.
He cursed the murderous killer and cried for his daughter to be brought back to life and not to leave him all alone at the same time.
Xu Lan and Sun Fei exchanged glances and called Xiao Li to leave together.
“What a f*cking lowlife!” Sun Fei spat onto the ground.
“Looks like this pack of cigarettes was quite worthwhile!” Xu Lan blew a loud whistle.
“What happened?”
Wu Wendi ran over and asked after she saw them came out shortly after they went in. Xiao Li looked at them like a fool, not knowing what was going on.
“Right. Chief Xu, what happened?” Xu Lan thought to himself, it would be an overstatement to say that Xiao Li’s eyes looked like black grapes.
“You’ll know after seeing the monitors,” Sun Fei could not help but mention. His face drooped after looking at Xu Lan.