Chapter 291: Chapter 289: Incomplete Information

"Are you even making money?" Zhao Yongliang asked, looking at Tian Liu. "You’re giving things away and refusing payment."

"Of course I’m making money. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been so willing to turn down a few bucks," Tian Liu said, then looked at them. "Officers, do you think... he’ll come again tonight?"

Su Miaoyi and the others didn’t speak.

Generally, after such a huge commotion last night, it was unlikely something like this would happen again today.

But... there was always a chance.

Especially since they were dealing with a criminal.

"Let me be clear, I’m a good person. I haven’t done anything to trouble my conscience in over thirty years," Tian Liu said. "So if it really was the Sheep Horn God making an appearance, I wouldn’t be scared. But this is someone *using* the Sheep Horn God. What if this person kills on sight?"

Su Miaoyi looked at her.

Tian Liu said, "I mean, I’m so close, right next door. What if he gets desperate and kills me too? It’s fine during the day when there are people around, but I’m truly terrified at night."

"We’ll increase police patrols at night, just like last night. We’ll have officers patrolling the village in shifts," said Zhao Yongliang.

"Okay, good, good," Tian Liu agreed.

After leaving the general store, Su Miaoyi asked Zhao Yongliang, "Was that Xiao Min just now the same Tian Min mentioned in Tian Dajiang’s case file?"

"Yes."

"She can’t speak?" Lu Zhishen asked.

"Yeah," Zhao Yongliang said. "She used to be able to speak, but after what happened with Tian Dajiang, she experienced a trauma. She hasn’t spoken since."

"Why wasn’t that mentioned in the case file for Tian Dajiang?" Chu Xingrou asked, looking at him.

"Well..." Zhao Yongliang trailed off, unable to explain.

Chu Xingrou didn’t ask again.

"Has she always lived in the village?" Su Miaoyi had a feeling that, from her clothes to the condition of her skin, Tian Min didn’t seem like someone who spent all her time in the village.

"She has an aunt in Chang City and visits her every month," Zhao Yongliang explained. "Her aunt owns a small market in Chang City that sells dried fruit. She often goes over to help out, and her aunt pays her for it."

Su Miaoyi nodded.

The group headed to Tian Dajiang’s home.

Tian Dajiang’s parents didn’t seem very welcoming.

"Here you are again. You keep coming, year after year, asking the same questions. It’s been three years, and you still haven’t found the killer. What’s the point of all this asking?" Mr. Tian said bitterly.

"These are officers from Jinghai, here to help us crack the case," Zhao Yongliang whispered to Mr. Tian. "Be a little more polite."

"So what if they’re from Jinghai? Where’s the murderer? We want the murderer. It doesn’t matter to us where these officers came from," Mr. Tian retorted.

Mrs. Tian gave him a thump. "That’s enough."

Mr. Tian took a puff from his long-stemmed pipe and fell silent.

"Please, have a seat," Mrs. Tian said.

Lu Zhishen nodded and asked, "Did Tian Dajiang always live with you?"

"He did," Mrs. Tian said.

"Haven’t you already asked all this? You ask over and over, but it doesn’t solve anything. It’s all just for show. You don’t do anything concrete," Mr. Tian grumbled, his back turned to them.

"Don’t mind him. He’s always full of nonsense," Mrs. Tian said.

Lu Zhishen looked at her. "Did Tian Dajiang have a place he liked to go to be alone?"

"What do you mean?" Mrs. Tian didn’t understand his question.

Lu Zhishen repeated, "Besides the house, where did he usually spend most of his time?"

Mrs. Tian thought for a moment. "There used to be a small shed next to our orchard on the mountain. He went there a lot around that time. Once in a while, he’d stay there until very late before coming home."

"A small shed?" Lu Zhishen asked.

While he was asking, Su Miaoyi and Chu Xingrou looked around the house.

"That’s right. The east side of our orchard borders the next village, and the road isn’t far to the west. We’d sometimes lose fruit, so we built a shed on the edge of the orchard. Dajiang would go watch over the fruit trees during the day."

"He went there often?" Lu Zhishen asked, looking at Mrs. Tian.

"He did. Sometimes he’d spend all day there, just coming back for meals before heading out again," Mrs. Tian said. "Sometimes he wouldn’t come back until very late at night. At first, we’d ask why he was so late, but he’d get annoyed whenever we did, so eventually, we just stopped asking."

"He was there so often, did you ever go check on him? It gets very cold here at night. Didn’t you find it strange that he was always coming home so late?" Lu Zhishen asked.

"His father went to check on him," Mrs. Tian said, glancing at Mr. Tian.

Mr. Tian smoked his pipe and said nothing.

Mrs. Tian continued, "Dajiang had fixed up the shed to keep out the rain and wind. He’d even set up a bed, so it wasn’t cold. His father went to take a look but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. It was just Dajiang by himself, playing on his phone. Maybe he just didn’t feel like being around us."

She sighed as she spoke.

Lu Zhishen was silent for a moment.

’There was no mention of this shed in Tian Dajiang’s case file, either.’

’Tian Dajiang occasionally came home late. The night he was thrown into the well, he didn’t come home at all.’

’After the crime, during the police investigation, his parents should have mentioned that shed.’

’Something like... he sometimes came home late, and we thought he was up on the mountain watching the orchard.’

’But the shed wasn’t mentioned in the file.’

’That place was very likely where Tian Dajiang was using drugs.’

Lu Zhishen looked at Zhao Yongliang.

Zhao Yongliang, after all, was just at the local substation and wouldn’t know the details of the district bureau’s investigation. He was a bit taken aback when Lu Zhishen looked his way.

"That shed..." Lu Zhishen began.

"Oh," said Zhao Yongliang. "We went up the mountain to check that shed three years ago. By the time we got there, it had already collapsed."

Lu Zhishen was a bit surprised.

"It rained heavily that night, washing away almost all traces," Zhao Yongliang said. "The shed’s only real protection from the elements was a plastic tarp stretched over it; the wooden frame wasn’t very sturdy. The rain and wind were heavy that night. It didn’t look like the culprit destroyed it—it looked like it had collapsed in the storm."

"We cleared the collapsed shed but didn’t find anything," Zhao Yongliang added. "And because of the rain, we couldn’t lift any footprints."

Lu Zhishen nodded.

In the yard.

Chu Xingrou saw Su Miaoyi standing motionless in front of a pile of branches in a corner of the yard. Thinking she’d spotted something, she walked closer and asked tentatively, "Sister Miaomiao, what is it?"

Su Miaoyi pulled on a pair of gloves and picked a piece of black fabric off a branch. It was a tiny scrap with jagged edges, as if it had been ripped from a piece of clothing.

A large pile of branches, presumably for firewood, was stacked in this corner of the yard.

The pile was high, and there was a hollow space underneath it, right up against the wall.

It looked as though the branches had been propped up to form a cavity.

Su Miaoyi put the small piece of fabric into an evidence bag.

Chu Xingrou put on gloves as well and tugged on the branch where the fabric had been snagged.

It didn’t budge.

’There was too much piled on top; it was packed too tightly to be moved.’

’So it was very likely that someone had been in here. Their clothes must have gotten snagged, tearing off the piece of fabric.’

"It looks like someone has been in this hollow space under the branches. The ground looks like it’s been trampled," Chu Xingrou said, looking down. There were many branches on the ground, and some were broken. "They look recently broken, probably from being stepped on."

The yard was paved with decorative bricks, which wouldn’t hold footprints.

"It’s so tight in here. The old couple wouldn’t have crawled into this spot just to get or pile branches, would they? Could someone have been hiding here? Judging by the broken twigs, it looks like someone was here recently."

"Let’s go ask them," Su Miaoyi said.

...

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