LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 60: Cement
The three men went down in the elevator and casually found a place to eat. Gu Xizhou originally thought Si Yu was sure to look down on a roadside vendor, but unexpectedly, this guy actually didn’t care and ate with great pleasure.
“Xu Wei’s corpse was found?”
Si Yu’s subordinate, that director, would absolutely tell him what Gu Xizhou and Fang Zhi came to investigate as soon as possible. Gu Xizhou didn’t intend to keep him in the dark, and he concisely and comprehensively said, “Found the head, the body’s still missing.
“Oh, is there a suspect?”
Gu Xizhou nodded, but he didn’t say who. Fortunately, Si Yu also wasn’t a gossipy person. He didn’t continue to press him for answers.
After eating a meal, Gu Xizhou immediately received the construction company director’s phone call. “Hello, police officer comrade. Where are you right now? I’ll bring someone over to you, ba!”
Gu Xizhou: “No need to trouble yourself. We’ll come over now.”
“No no no, it’s what I should do! Give me a specific location, and I’ll bring him over!”
Gu Xizhou couldn’t decline and sent his location over. He said, “Okay, ba. I’ll trouble you.”
The three of them sat at the roadside vendor’s stand for less than five minutes before Gu Xizhou saw the bald director running all the way over from the other side of the street. Following beside him were a man around thirty years old and a young woman.
“You’re eating here?” The manager looked at their completely empty bowls on the table, his bewilderment written across his face.
As it turns out… this police officer actually treated their boss to a meal at a roadside vendor…
His gaze unconsciously fell on Si Yu. Si Yu was sitting at the side, appearing as if he didn’t mind a bit.
Gu Xizhou smiled and said, “We’re here to work. It’s quick. I can’t take your president to the western restaurant in the building next to you for half an hour, can I?”
“I didn’t mean that…” The manager reached up to scratch his hair, but he was already bald. He was forced to scratch the skin of his head. He changed the subject and said, “This is Jiang Jun. He was the foreman for the Shallow Water Garden project. He knows it well. Last year, when the police came, he also brought the police along to look at the scene.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.“Okay.” Gu Xizhou looked at Jiang Jun. “Then, I’ll trouble you.”
Gu Xizhou recognized her at a glance. She was one of the four women who had been gossiping in the restroom. Gu Xizhou stepped forward and whispered to the girl, “Don’t worry. I didn’t tell him.”
The young woman looked at him gratefully, then heard the man whisper in her ear again. “I think what you said makes a lot of sense. His heart is covered in lard.”
“Pfft.” After hearing Gu Xizhou, the young woman surreptitiously looked at Si Yu and couldn’t help but snicker.
Gu Xizhou said, “Don’t my words sound reasonable?”
“They do!” The young girl lowered her head and replied in a whisper.
Si Yu stared blankly before turning to look at Gu Xizhou. Before leaving, Si Yu moved close to Gu Xizhou’s ear as if he wanted to whisper something to him. Gu Xizhou naturally moved closer to hear. “What did you and her talk about?”
Gu Xizhou tilted his head and said, “You guess.”
Si Yu: No, I don’t want to guess!
The scene of the disappearance——Shallow Water Garden
The car parked in the underground parking lot at Shallow Water Garden. As soon as Gu Xizhou got out of the car, he smelled something foul. His brows wrinkled, and he said with a sniff, “What’s that smell?”
Gu Xizhou raised his eyebrows. Beside him, Fang Zhi used his hand to fan his face.
Jiang Jun also smelled it, and he frowned, pinching his nose. He said anxiously, “Let’s go out first, ba!”
As soon as the three of them entered the elevator, they met two more residents. “Hold on!”
Fang Zhi pressed the button to hold open the door until the two came in.
“Thank you.” After entering, the young woman looked at Fang Zhi to express her gratitude. Then, the man beside her grumbled, “Which family’s cat killed a mouse and put it in the parking lot, ah? Every day it smells like a dead rat.”
“The property manager only collects money and does nothing!” The man and woman both roasted together. “We’ve had enough like this; the group of owners should unite and switch out the property manager!”
Beside them, Jiang Jun somewhat coughed awkwardly, ke ke, and cleared his throat. The property here was also owned by their construction company. He asked, “Has this been a problem for a long time?”
The young woman nodded and said, “Yes, ah! It’s been a long time. At first, they found several dead mice on the property. After they were cleaned up, the ventilation was pretty good for a while, but for some reason, now it’s started happening again!”
“Are you all here to buy a house? The houses here are all nearly sold out!”
Jiang Jun shook his head, saying, “No, we have something to do here.”
Shallow Water Garden had been built for less than a year, and because it was in a top grade district, the environment was very good. Also, because it was located on the second ring road, the occupancy rate was very high. As far as the eye could see, nearly every home had traces of life.
After leaving the parking lot, Jiang Jun brought Gu Xizhou and Fang Zhi to stroll around the entire neighborhood.
“This is where Chief Xu put his car back then. At that time, we’d only developed two buildings: the current no. 1 and no. 2 buildings. This is the distance. The police officers came to investigate the scene, but there was nothing to find.”
Gu Xizhou nodded. He looked at the distance Jiang Jun indicated and was silent for a time.
Not finding anything was quite normal. First of all, Xu Wei’s time of disappearance was undetermined. By the time he was reported missing, it was possible he’d already been long dead. According to what Gu Ji Ji told him, it rained many times during winter vacation in Ningqing last year. Even if there were bloodstains or traces of a struggle, the rainwater would have washed them away.
“Okay, thank you.”
“I’ll go around the property,” said Jiang Jun with a frown.
“Let’s go together. I just thought of something.” Gu Xizhou looked at the positions of the no.1 and no. 2 buildings again.
When they arrived at the estate, they saw that it had been surrounded by a mass of owners. “I want to register a lodge against you! When will that odor in the parking lot be resolved?”
The property’s service staff explained, “Please don’t get angry, everyone. With regards to the parking lot, there’s a dead rat problem. We already dealt with the dead rats those kitties threw in the parking lot before. Now that there’s still a smell, we’re also searching for the cause. We hope you can give us some time.”
“How much longer, ah? Every day we have to wait?!”
“It’s really been investigated already! There are no dead rats inside the parking lot, and there isn’t anything else either!”
Gu Xizhou quietly interrupted the group and asked the property staff, “Are you sure there are no dead mice in the basement?”
“None!” said the woman, without the slightest hesitation.
Gu Xizhou turned around and asked the owners who came, “Hello everyone. I want to ask, when did you say the bad smell appeared? What has this kind of smell in the first place?”
“Before, there were several months of heavy rain. The rainy season made the basement very damp. After that, it started to stink!”
“Right, I also remember it was like this!”
“It seems so, ba? What are you asking this for?”
Gu Xizhou and Fang Zhi looked at each other. Maybe they’d found the body. Gu Xizhou turned to Jiang Jun and said, “Help me find a hatchet. We want to go to the basement.”
Jiang Jun wrinkled his brows and turned to the property’s staff member, saying, “I’m from the head office: the supervisor, Jiang Jun. Look for a hatchet.”
After getting the hatchet, Gu Xizhou tested the weight and nodded. He said to the owners at the side, “Could I trouble a man among you to bring me to the place where the smell is strongest?”
“I can. What do you want to do?” One of the men among them nodded and asked.
“I’ll help you find the source of the bad smell.”
Gu Xizhou said with a smile.
After the men returned to the underground parking lot, Gu Xizhou went to where the stench was heaviest and carefully looked at the nearby cement pillars and walls.
“What is he doing?” The man asked helplessly, looking at the other two in bewilderment.
Jiang Jun looked pale, already aware of what was about to happen, while Fang Zhi helped Gu Xizhou look for the position of the body.
“It’s here, the worst smell!”
The man heard Gu Xizhou speak before immediately brandishing the ax, smashing it into the surface of the wall. ‘Kuang dang’, the cement fragments scattered!
Embedded in the cement was a clearly visible portion of a human hand, the rest shrouded in darkness.