Chapter 259

The old house of the Bai family was a brick-and-tile house built in the 1970s of the last century.

It had a very traditional layout structure.

Behind the main house stood a row of low buildings, with the kitchen on the right and the pigsty on the left. In the countryside, a pigsty is not only for raising pigs; it also serves as a latrine.

After Zhao Lianyue's father-in-law passed away, no one lived in the house anymore.

There were no pigs kept in the pigsty either.

Usually the main gate remained tightly shut.

Today, two police cars and a procuratorate special vehicle suddenly arrived; many nearby villagers gathered to watch the commotion, privately discussing whether something had happened to Bai Yongjun.

But……

When the criminal police escorted Zhao Lianyue out of the vehicle, the onlookers' gossip shifted instantly, and they began heatedly debating what crime the Bai family's eldest son-in-law had committed.

"Please make way, folks—watching the spectacle is fine, but don't crowd too close."

Zhang Yong got out of the car and immediately began maintaining order, ordering his subordinates to pull up police tape and keep the onlookers outside the cordon.

An iron lock hung on the Bai family's main gate.

Lin Dongfan inserted the key and gave it a gentle twist—sure enough, it wouldn't turn; getting this key into the right keyhole seemed a bit tricky.

Lin Dongfan turned to Zhao Lianyue and asked, "Director Zhao, can't you be more straightforward? You're wasting everyone's time—just tell me which damn door this key actually opens."

"This isn't my house, so why are you asking me? Who should I ask? Hell knows whether this key is the one you found in my office."

Zhao Lianyue was determined today to resist to the end.

He was right—this key is indeed not the one seized from his office, because that key has already been locked away as evidence.

The key Lin Dongfan now holds is a spare key prepared by the special task force.

Lin Dongfan couldn't be bothered to argue with him.

Breaking down doors wasn't something he'd never done before; Lin Dongfan had someone fetch a claw hammer from the car trunk, and a few blows rendered the iron lock useless on the spot.

After entering the house, Lin Dongfan first took stock of the interior environment.

It was steeped in a strong sense of the era.

In the hall hung a portrait of a great leader, with the horizontal scroll reading "Purple aura comes from the east!" The left vertical couplet: "Purple aura from the east brings fortune from the west"; the right: "Auspicious light advances from the south, wealth from the north."

It promised both fortune and wealth.

Back then, it was probably a family that never lacked food or clothing.

The hall had two rooms on the left and two on the right; Lin Dongfan originally intended to try the key on each door in turn, but none of the four rooms were locked.

So he went into the rooms to look for locks, testing any locked drawers or cabinets he saw.

Still, he couldn't find the lock that this key would open.

Zhao Lianyue let out a smug chuckle: "Don't waste your effort—whether I'm corrupt or not, even if I'd really embezzled mountains of gold and silver, I wouldn't hide the money at my father-in-law's place."

Lin Dongfan smiled faintly: "You can't be sure—people like you have all sorts of money‑hiding tricks, the hallmark being the unexpected."

"Fine, then take your time looking; I'll stay with you to the end."

Smiling, Zhao Lianyue grew increasingly calm.

He thought to himself, "I've indeed done something unexpected—so what? Even if you, kid, had your head blessed in a temple, you still couldn't figure out my scheme today."

Just as Zhao Lianyue was feeling smug.

Jian Sining suddenly came over to report: "Chief Lin, the kitchen and pigsty out back are both locked."

Hearing that, Zhao Lianyue's face flickered with a hint of shock—though it passed quickly, Lin Dongfan's keen eyes caught it.

Lin Dongfan slapped Zhao Lianyue's shoulder twice, hard, and laughed: "Director Zhao, didn't you say you'd see this through to the end? Let's go—let's check out the back."

"Go ahead and look—I'm not scared of you!"

Zhao Lianyue retorted sharply with his mouth, but inside he was panicking, thinking that his elder brother-in-law must have buried whatever needed burying—after all, that was his own sister…

Before Zhao Lianyue could recover, Zhang Yong shoved him with one hand: "What are you staring at? Move!"

"Don't push me—I can walk on my own."

Zhao Lianyue followed Lin Dongfan and Jian Sining through the rear door of the hall; the row of low buildings lay just a corridor away from the main house.

Lin Dongfan first tried the lock on the kitchen door—it wouldn't open.

Then he moved to the lock on the pigsty door.

"Click!"

As the lock cylinder turned and the upper latch sprang up, Lin Dongfan's heart gave a jolt—what the hell is a surprise? This, damn it, is a surprise!

Lin Dongfan shoved the pigsty door open with his palm, and a stinging stench hit him, nearly making him vomit up last night's meal.

The smell is strong!

Lin Dongfan quickly waved his hand to fan the air, stepping outside to gulp two breaths of fresh air.

Zhang Yong is a brave soul; he pinched his nose and went in to inspect the scene. The pigsty isn't large—on the left is the pig pen, on the right the latrine, and at the back a pile of miscellaneous items.

This latrine is a fairly typical rural latrine found in southern regions.

Beneath it lies a large, deep cesspit.

Wooden planks are laid across the top.

On the planks there is a rectangular hole slightly larger than a cigarette; people squat over it to relieve themselves.

Having grown up in the countryside, Zhang Yong had experienced this for over a decade; using the toilet tests one's anti‑splash skill—if you don't hold the water down, you'll get a butt‑full of feces in no time.

But now Zhang Yong obviously has no mind to lament how hard life—or using the toilet—is.

That pungent odor is drifting up from the cesspit.

Years of rural life and police work have made Zhang Yong sense that something is off; this sharp stench isn't just ordinary feces smell.

Zhang Yong turned and came out, his face grim to the extreme.

Jian Sining asked: "Captain Zhang, what's the situation inside?"

"Wait a moment, I'll speak later." Zhang Yong turned and ordered his subordinate criminal police: "Go to nearby residents' homes and borrow a few feces buckets, then clean out the cesspit."

After his subordinates received the order and left.

Zhang Yong then pulled Lin Dongfan aside, nervously reporting the situation: "Brother Fan, I suspect there's a corpse in the cesspit; that stench is coming from the corpse."

Lin Dongfan's sword-like brows furrowed: "Could it be a dead pig? Or perhaps a chicken or duck that accidentally fell into the cesspit and couldn't get out?"

Such situations that Lin Dongfan mentioned also often happen in rural areas.

Villagers commonly raise chickens and ducks; if a chicken or duck accidentally falls into the cesspit and can't get out, it dies inside, which often happens, and if not retrieved it will start to smell.

Zhang Yong, however, shook his head and analyzed: "If a pig had fallen in, the family would be missing a pig and would have noticed; they'd have fished it out long ago. As for chickens and ducks, I think it's unlikely too—their bodies are small, so they couldn't produce such a strong stench of decay."

"This Zhao Lianyue—I really underestimated him!"

At a glance, I saw Zhao Lianyue already nervous, with cold sweat beading on his forehead.

It looks like Zhang Yong's judgment was correct.

Lin Dongfan had originally only wanted to find the stolen money, but instead he uncovered a mysterious murder case, and his anger flared up instantly.

Lin Dongfan walked straight over to Zhao Lianyue.

He coldly asked: "Director Zhao, didn't you say you'd see this through to the end? Stand up straight, stop shaking your legs! Speak—what's hidden in the cesspit?"

!!!

Zhao Lianyue's legs were indeed disobedient, trembling more and more severely, and without realizing it he had already wet his pants.

He held back tears, his lips trembling uncontrollably: "I… this… this has nothing to do with me; since my father-in-law passed away, I haven't come to White Family Ditch for half a year."