I became the Counterpart of the Winner in a Period Novel

Chapter 406 - 345: Twists and Turns

Jiang Mingyue "saw" those things from Zhang Lanlan’s mind, all hidden under the bed of Zhang Lanlan and Zhuang Xuechi, but she couldn’t tell if Zhuang Xuechi was aware of it or not.

Next, Magpie Street became exceptionally quiet, as if fearing any loud noise would awaken something bad.

Everyone became restless and uneasy.

It seemed that as long as Xie Yunhai didn’t come out, they couldn’t live in peace.

Meanwhile, An Jian also finished inspecting the scene.

Zhang Zhenhe’s body was found in the cellar of Lanhe Qingyuan, and the key was that when An Jian and his team arrived, perhaps scared by their own actions, Gu Jinhong was still in the basement, her charming face splattered with blood. Near the wall corner where she sat was a blood-stained knife, now turned brown, with the blade matching the marks on the victim’s body exactly.

As the only person at the scene, Gu Jinhong was naturally taken as the primary suspect.

If Gu Jinhong would admit to it, this gruesome case would be concluded.

But despite her vacant, dazed state, Gu Jinhong never admitted it, only muttering a name occasionally in her nonsensical babble.

"Yunhai"

However, this shifted everyone’s attention to Xie Yunhai.

Could it be that Xie Yunhai was the real culprit? Stepfather and stepson, after being abused, the stepson finally unable to endure, escaped with a grudge, and now finally erupted, taking revenge, which also seemed reasonable.

Yet, this is only a fleeting thought, and the truth must be determined based on evidence.

Gu Jinhong was brought into the Southern Institute, and the victim’s body was also taken back, where Forensic Doctor Qi again confirmed that the instrument was indeed that fruit knife.

So now the focus temporarily shifted to the fruit knife, while Duke of Thunder, Wen Yu, and others visited Gu Jinhong’s neighbors, friends, and family, finally finding something.

It was confirmed that Gu Jinhong had indeed bought the fruit knife six months ago at the household goods counter in a department store, and friends who had visited her home also testified that they had seen Gu Jinhong use a similar knife to cut fruit for them, suggesting it was the same knife.

After obtaining consent from the Xie Yunhai family member, Forensic Doctor Qi performed an overnight autopsy, ultimately detecting traces of a sedative in the body.

The morning after the incident, Duke of Thunder and his team followed the trail to find who sold such drugs, tracking it to the black market, where the people inside, fearing a raid, scattered in panic.

The always stern Duke of Thunder couldn’t help but remark: To make a living, life isn’t easy for anyone!

After a morning’s investigation, they finally got a result. A man named Lai Wu had been selling it, and he had a good memory, recalling Gu Jinhong’s characteristics. Now, it was nearly confirmed Gu Jinhong had bought the sedative. The time was right before the night of the incident.

If it was some staff planning a murder, they would be directly sentenced.

But with Gan Fengzhe overseeing things, any doubts would not be tolerated, and if there were any unreasonable points, they would dig deeper, at any cost.

The motive? Further investigation revealed that after Gu Jinhong left the Southern Institute holding center, due to her tainted record, her job dismissed her. Her husband, Zhang Zhenhe, lost his job the day after she was detained, implicated by her. People speculated, could it be the stepfather with a grudge acted against her? After all, he was a notorious wastrel, and Gu Jinhong, after losing her job, couldn’t bear Zhang Zhenhe’s violence, choosing resistance, which led to the scene in the cellar.

It sounded reasonable, but there was still no concrete evidence.

On the third day following the incident, An Jian gained new information. Three days before the blood-soaked night, Gu Jinhong borrowed five hundred yuan from a friend surnamed Wu. Wen Yu and Duke of Thunder went to Jing County to meet Mr. Wu, finding out he was Gu Jinhong’s former husband’s teacher. Xie Qinglan had died, and the teacher, having learned years later that his most cherished student was gone, personally traveled to Nanxi City, but unfortunately, Xie Yunhai had already left home, and right or wrong was up to Gu Jinhong’s word alone.

Mr. Wu had always thought Xie Yunhai went astray, ran away from home to become a thug, squandering the genetic potential of his student. Of course, it’s just regret over wasted potential. Using the pretext of buying a house for Xie Yunhai to hold a wedding, Gu Jinhong easily borrowed five hundred yuan from Mr. Wu.

So where is the five hundred yuan? Just three days, where’s the money? Even if it was all spent, there should be some trace.

Because that five hundred yuan was missing, everyone became more convinced things didn’t add up, and it seemed they had previously overlooked Zhang Lanlan.

But who can definitively say that children aren’t capable of great betrayal?

And the whereabouts of the five hundred yuan was a mystery, along with cash and bank books in the house, possibly valuable jewelry, and then the land title of Lanhe Qingyuan? The land title was massive, and the courtyard was specifically marked to be left to the Xie Family descendants due to ancestors’ contributions in Yun Dian, but now they found these things missing.

Not a single two-cent stamp or a ten-cent note, too clean as if a pack of assets had been whisked away by a wealthy white man.

To say, a thief wouldn’t leave things so spotless, surely household management isn’t that careless, but even so, a full mobilization search turned up not a penny, increasingly eerie.

And at this moment, there was movement on Huang Mao’s side as well.

"Ming Yue, Zhang Lanlan and her husband seem to be packing to leave."

"Stall them, I’m on my way now."

"An Jian, let’s go!"

Jiang Mingyue deployed her spiritual power to watch the small house closely, noticing that the couple had already packed a rattan box, indeed preparing to leave. As to whether they were just relocating or moving stolen goods, it wasn’t clear for now.

"Don’t move! Zhang Lanlan, Zhuang Xuechi, please come with us. Someone reported that you two are hiding contraband." An Jian snatched the rattan box from Zhuang Xuechi’s hand.

There was a new development, everyone was very pleased.

But naturally, Zhang Lanlan wasn’t happy.

Perhaps out of guilt, she couldn’t keep her story straight even during normal questioning.

The longer the questioning dragged on, the more inconsistencies arose, pointing to Zhang Lanlan having issues.

But she kept insisting she witnessed Gu Jinhong committing murder.

Fortunately, a twist emerged, Xie Yunhai had already asked his brothers Shanque and Jiangzi to investigate who was around Lanhe Qingyuan and possibly saw or heard anything unusual on the day of the incident.

After enduring sleepless nights staking out like fishing in the ocean, they finally reeled in two not-so-lucky fish.

Dodo and Mao Tu were a pair of partners, seldom failing in their petty thefts and sneaky antics over the years. Of course, this might be due to their lack of greed. As long as they had a meal of two coarse buns, they could bind their hands and feet, reducing action and naturally reducing failures as well.