Chapter 191: Investigation

Soon, the police who received the report arrived in Lihua Village. When Heizi’s mother saw the officers, it was as if she’d seen her saviors. She grabbed one by the sleeve, snot and tears streaming down her face, and begged him to find the murderer who had killed her son.

"My son! He was my only son!" Heizi’s mother couldn’t stop crying. "The son I risked my life to give birth to... He’s just gone like that! If you don’t find who harmed my boy, I’ll never be able to rest in peace!"

Although many of the onlookers had a poor impression of Heizi’s mother after she had lashed out so indiscriminately at Su Qing and Cheng Beilin, their eyes reddened now as they watched her weep with such sorrow. It made sense, after all. He was her only son. For a parent to have to bury their own child was a pain that was always hard to accept.

"We will do everything we can to find the culprit," the officer in charge of the Lihua Village case replied quickly to Heizi’s mother’s plea.

The officers first examined the waterweeds and hair tangled around Little Heizi’s ankle, then questioned a few of the bystanders. Afterward, the captain of the police team walked over to Su Qing and said, "Hello, I’m Captain Du Changting from the county police department."

"Hello, Captain Du." Su Qing nodded at Du Changting.

Du Changting asked, "I heard you were the one who went into the water to pull the boy out?"

Du Changting was deeply impressed by Su Qing’s actions. The pond water this time of year was bone-chillingly cold. Anyone who could jump in to save someone either had to have undergone rigorous training or possessed incredible endurance. A young woman from a rural village clearly hadn’t had any special training, so Du Changting automatically concluded that Su Qing must have exceptional stamina.

"Yes," Su Qing nodded.

"Can you walk me through the details?" Du Changting asked, taking out a notebook.

"Of course." Su Qing thought for a moment, then recounted to Du Changting in full detail what she had seen underwater. At the time, she had been focused only on saving the child and hadn’t paid close attention to the waterweeds, but she still remembered their general location.

Su Qing pointed to a general area. "The patch of weeds should be directly below this spot. I didn’t get a close look at the time. If you have professional divers, they could go down and check, but they must take proper precautions. The water in this pond is freezing."

"Okay, thank you." Du Changting closed his notebook. "Thank you for the information. We’ll arrange for professional personnel to come and conduct an underwater investigation as soon as possible."

Heizi’s mother was desperate to immediately catch the person who had made the hole in the ice. If it weren’t for them, her son wouldn’t have fallen into the pond and drowned. Hearing Du Changting’s words, she hurriedly asked, "Officer, when can they go in the water to investigate?"

Heizi’s mother didn’t understand the complexities. She thought that as soon as they investigated underwater, they would be able to catch the person who made the ice hole.

Du Changting explained, "We still need to file a request. The fastest it could happen is a day."

After all, an underwater operation in this kind of weather was impossible without professional equipment, which was why Du Changting had been so impressed with Su Qing earlier.

Heizi’s mother grew frantic at the news. She was too desperate to find her son’s killer. Pointing at Su Qing, she said to Du Changting, "She was just in the water a moment ago! Why don’t you just have her go down one more time to help you investigate?"

Hearing this, Du Changting frowned. Before he could speak, Cheng Beilin exploded at Heizi’s mother, her face flushed with anger. "If you’re in such a hurry, why don’t you go in the water yourself? Do you think jumping in this time of year is child’s play? You go give it a try! See if you don’t freeze to death! If it wasn’t for your son, my Su Qing would be home drinking hot ginger and brown sugar water right now instead of standing out here in the freezing wind. Let me tell you, if my Su Qing catches a cold, it’ll be your fault!"

Just a moment ago, both Cheng Beilin and Aunt Cuihua had been urging Su Qing to go home and boil some ginger and brown sugar water, but Su Qing kept insisting she was fine. Cheng Beilin felt helpless; she didn’t know how to use the stoves here, and they didn’t have a thermos. Otherwise, she and Aunt Cuihua would have already gone back, prepared the drink, and brought it over. Unfortunately, in this weather, the drink would have been cold by the time it arrived without a thermos.

Cheng Beilin had been worried sick, so when she heard what Heizi’s mother said, she completely lost it. Forgetting all about her high-society upbringing, she let loose a torrent of curses at the grieving woman.

Du Changting also frowned and said to Heizi’s mother, "Ma’am, investigating the case is our job as police officers. We absolutely cannot ask a civilian to take such a risk."

Heizi’s mother just wailed, "My son... He died so mysteriously! Who on earth killed my son?"

Du Changting said, "Ma’am, we will do our best to uncover the truth."

Heizi’s mother wanted to say more, but her family members pulled her back, afraid she would say something else tactless and offensive.

Because the police had been called, the village captain from Lu Hua Village had also arrived and was speaking with Zhao Youcai off to the side.

Unable to say anything more to Du Changting after being pulled back, Heizi’s mother turned her anger on Lihua Village instead, claiming that someone from Lihua Village must have killed her child and demanding that they take responsibility.

Fortunately, the captain of Lu Hua Village was a reasonable man and put a stop to her shameless tantrum.

After all the commotion, the crowd was finally able to disperse. Apart from Heizi’s mother, the rest of Little Heizi’s family were quite reasonable. They came over and thanked Su Qing profusely. Because of how Heizi’s mother had acted, however, Cheng Beilin didn’t give them a warm reception.

"Oh no, our fish!" Cheng Beilin suddenly remembered the two fish she and Su Qing had caught. Her very first catch was among them!

But when the two of them returned to the ice hole where they had been fishing, not only were the fish gone, but the bucket and fishing rods had vanished as well.

"Argh! Who would do something so despicable?" Cheng Beilin stared at the empty patch of ice, stomping her foot in frustration. "Can’t they catch their own fish? They had to steal someone else’s!"

Su Qing gave a helpless smile. "Forget it. I’ll make you another fishing rod later so you can try again."

"I guess that’s all we can do," Cheng Beilin sighed in resignation. "What a shame. No fish for dinner today."

"Who says?" Su Qing said, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"Huh? How are we going to fish without rods?" Cheng Beilin asked, looking at Su Qing in surprise.

Su Qing shot Cheng Beilin a smug grin. "Just watch."

With that, Su Qing took out some corn grits and sprinkled them onto the water’s surface inside the ice hole. Soon, a school of fish swam over, scrambling to peck at the grits.

Su Qing’s movements were as fast as lightning. Before Cheng Beilin could even see clearly what was happening, Su Qing had snatched a four- or five-pound black fish from the water and thrown it onto the ice.

"Wow, Su Qing, you’re incredible!" Cheng Beilin rushed forward in delighted surprise, intending to hold down the big black fish. Instead, she got a face full of water when it thrashed its tail, but she was so happy she couldn’t stop grinning.

Su Qing smiled and repeated the trick, pulling out a three- or four-pound silver carp. She stunned both fish by slamming them against the ice, then grinned at Cheng Beilin. "Come on, let’s go home and cook some fish."

"You got it!"