Chapter 173: Which Criminal Investigator Have You Seen Smoking Hua Zi?

This kind of case sounds far-fetched, but with no actual evidence, is the most headache-inducing.

Just the reason for filing the report alone is absurd enough.

The victim knew in advance that he would be harmed, and he really did die.

Even the manner of death was exactly the same as the prior prediction.

I don't want to know how I came to be, I only want to know how I ceased to be... yet someone actually managed it.

No wonder he's a famous entrepreneur — with an IQ like that, it'd be hard not to prosper.

A life is at stake, and the law stipulates: as long as there's a suspicion of homicide, or the family has doubts about the cause of death, the police must open a case and conduct the necessary investigation.

Yu Dazhang had barely read the opening of the case file when he already understood the feelings of the officer who had handled this case back then.

Nowhere to start.

The forensic examiner had already concluded it was a natural death.

How on earth do you investigate that?

And Liu Zhengyang had died in his own home, with not a single person beside him at the time of death.

He was holding a video conference with company executives in his home study when he suddenly fell ill and died.

The company executives watched through the video as he clutched his chest, his face turning blue-purple, and finally collapsed, unable to get up.

Realizing something was wrong, they immediately called Liu Zhengyang's family and summoned an ambulance.

In the end, they still couldn't save him.

The ambulance hadn't even arrived when Liu Zhengyang had already breathed his last.

The latter part of the case file contained interrogation records of the Liu family members, including the butler, servants, housekeeper, driver, and so on, all with corresponding written statements.

Because no suspicious points were found, and no evidence could prove Liu Zhengyang was murdered, this case was simply shelved at the Hongkou branch.

Since more than a year had passed, it was treated as a cold case.

Yu Dazhang read through the case file once more from beginning to end, but found nothing worth noting.

"In June next year, the Liu family's butler fled abroad..."

He muttered to himself while recalling.

In his previous life, this case was solved because of the butler's flight.

And the one who filed the report was the Liu family's only son, Liu Siyuan.

This was something he'd heard in his previous life while chatting gossip with a colleague.

Supposedly, the butler had opened the safe inside the villa, taken a large amount of valuables, and made his escape.

After Liu Siyuan discovered it, he immediately contacted the other party, but the other party only left him a video.

In the video, the butler admitted that he had murdered Liu Zhengyang.

Apparently it was because Liu Zhengyang usually didn't treat these servants of his well — to put it bluntly, he didn't respect people.

But as for the specifics of how it was done, Yu Dazhang didn't know.

Gossip is gossip — it usually goes off-topic as the conversation goes on, and certainly can't record every detail as rigorously as a case file.

"Was the butler ever caught later?"

Yu Dazhang no longer had much impression of the specific developments of the case afterward.

Because it wasn't his case to lead, he hadn't paid much attention to the follow-up progress.

But there was one key fact beyond all doubt: that butler definitely got away.

The video was real too — he'd heard that the technical department in his previous life had verified it.

The person in the video was indeed the butler himself, and it was also sent through the butler's real-name authenticated messaging app.

Then this case is simple — first bring that butler back for interrogation.

He got away in the previous life, but in this life, isn't the man right here?

Yu Dazhang wasn't in a hurry either, and read through the remaining three cases once more.

Two missing-person cases, one unidentified-body case.

Even the most recent of the three cases was over two years old, and not a single one had a concrete suspect.

Cases like these can't be sorted out in a short while.

Yu Dazhang stuffed the case files of the three cases back into the document bags.

Take it slow — no one's rushing him anyway. Rice has to be eaten one bite at a time, and cases have to be handled one at a time.

What he lacked least right now was time.

Just as Yu Dazhang was considering when to formally take over, an officer from the detachment squad came over.

"Dazhang, busy?" he said, looking at Yu Dazhang with a smile:

"If you need someone to run errands, just say the word — no need to be polite with me."

One could say his posture was very low, the intent to curry favor extremely obvious.

Yu Dazhang understood the meaning behind his words, shook his head and said: "I'm just looking at the case files, nothing going on."

As he spoke, he glanced around and noticed that every officer in the room was staring in his direction.

That officer immediately showed a disappointed expression, though his mouth still said:

"Then you carry on, but if you need anything, you must tell me, okay?"

"Definitely, definitely." Yu Dazhang agreed readily.

Better not rush to take over... he secretly made this decision in his heart.

The team has two slots, so if he takes over a case now, no matter who he picks as team members, it'll be inappropriate.

Pick two, and he'll offend everyone else.

Later he simply gathered up the document bags of all four cases.

That way others would think he had no leads on the cold cases in the bureau either.

He had only just read the case file once and already arrested the butler in the Liu Zhengyang case — was that reasonable?

!. Read

How were the other officers supposed to feel, especially the ones who had previously handled this case? Wasn't this basically slapping them in the face?

Even if he had to make an arrest, he couldn't act now — he had to stall for at least two more days.

He could use those two days to study the case again, and if there were any loopholes, he'd be able to spot them in advance.

After work, Yu Dazhang first called Qu Tuotuo and learned she hadn't driven today, so he went straight over to pick her up.

The two had arranged during the day to have dinner together that evening.

The last time at the apartment she was renting, things had gotten pretty unpleasant with Su Mi, and Yu Dazhang had always felt a bit guilty about it.

It was just a green-tea bitch playing a little trick — no need to deal with it in an over-the-top way.

But then again, Yu Dazhang's moral底线 wasn't that high.

Respecting the old, loving the young, respecting women — these traditional virtues were useless to him.

He had always believed that to judge a person, you had to look at what they had done; you couldn't generalize based on their age or gender.

If he had believed in traditional virtues, he would have died on the mountain in Fenglin Town long ago.

Arriving in front of the Yisheng Group building, Yu Dazhang didn't get out of the car; sitting inside, he called Qu Tuotuo.

In no time at all, Qu Tuotuo appeared at the main entrance with a paper bag in her hand.

Seeing her looking around, Yu Dazhang honked the horn once.

Honestly speaking, he was actually quite enjoying this feeling of being in love right now.

Especially after going through the ambush incident, his fondness for Qu Tuotuo had shot up even more.

If it weren't for her, even if he had survived, he'd definitely be struggling in the ICU right now.

After getting in the car, Qu Tuotuo placed the paper bag on her lap, then took out a carton of cigarettes from inside and started tearing off the outer packaging.

Yu Dazhang glanced into the paper bag and saw it was full of whole cartons of cigarettes — at least seven or eight of them.

He couldn't help feeling a little curious:

"Bought them for your dad?"

"What?" Qu Tuotuo glared at him:

"My dad doesn't smoke. These are for you."

"I don't smoke either." Yu Dazhang cut in immediately.

The moment he said it, he realized something was off — it sounded a bit like he was taking advantage of her.

Luckily Qu Tuotuo didn't bother with it either, and continued:

"You don't smoke, but your coworkers do. Having cigarettes in your car is the same as keeping good tea at home."

Only then did Yu Dazhang catch on.

Just the ways of the world.

Keeping good tea at home is for when guests come over.

Keeping cigarettes in the car works the same way.

"Getting along well with coworkers is very important."

Qu Tuotuo tore open the outer packaging of the whole carton, then took out a single pack from inside and kept unwrapping:

"I heard your place values interpersonal relationships even more than the regular workplace."

After opening the cigarettes, she pulled open the glove compartment in front of the passenger seat and put the cigarettes inside.

"Um…" Yu Dazhang scratched his head, looking a bit awkward:

"Getting along with coworkers is indeed important, but the grade of these cigarettes seems a bit too high."

He had seen it clearly just now — that bag was full of whole cartons of Huazi, and all of them were the soft-pack kind.

Sis, have you ever seen a criminal investigator smoke Huazi?

What kind of family is this!

(End of this chapter)