Chapter 125

"Oh? Currently, the only father-son relationship known at the scene is Ying Shuigen and his two sons. You said unknown, that is, Ying Shuigen can be excluded first." Wu Shanqiu tapped her chin with the pencil she was carrying and analyzed.

The fluorescent ceiling light in the corridor refracted a white arc on Xiao Tao's spectacle lenses: "You are right. This kinship has nothing to do with Ying Shuigen. It is Huang Daqiu's. This person's DNA has a kinship with Huang Daqiu. It can basically be determined that it is his son."

"Haven't heard that Huang Daqiu has a son?" Qi Fei blurted out. The previous Hong Mei case had already given him enough understanding of Huang Daqiu's situation.

"No, no, no." Wu Shanqiu immediately shook her pencil and put forward a different opinion, "Huang Daqiu has never had a public son, but because he is promiscuous, there are many rumors of illegitimate children in the streets, but they have never been recognized by him!"

The fluorescent lamp in the police station office buzzed. When Qi Fei dragged the progress bar for the third time, his elbow knocked over the half-cold instant coffee. The brown liquid seeped into the case file, but he didn't even lift his eyelids. The reflection of the cyan-white screen cast a sharp shadow on his chin. The pier surveillance footage looked like it had been polished with sandpaper. The 30-year-old camera was struggling in the river fog, and every frame switch carried a harsh current sound. Indeed, as Qi Dongjun said, the river fog was heavy, and there were very few times when the picture could be seen clearly.

"47th second." He bit open the new glue stick with a hoarse voice, and the printed surveillance logs piled up into a dangerous building on the desktop. When Wu Shanqiu leaned over in a mint green knitted cardigan, she saw his shoulder and neck muscles tightening as if they were about to become bowstrings—the pale river fog in the screen slowly dissipated, and the headlights of the black Maybach were like candles, shaking in the black-and-white picture with film texture.

Wu Shanqiu's fingers were unconsciously picking at the keyboard film: "This fog is so thick that it can wring out water. Huang Daqiu really knows how to pick a day." She said, her nose almost sticking to the monitor. The moment the vehicle turned in the screen, half an arm was reflected on the driver's side window, like a rubbing printed by a poor printer.

"Zoom in on the right side." Qi Fei suddenly straightened his waist, and the blue light of the monitor almost ground sparks out of his pupils with this rough image quality. The pixels multiplied into a mosaic vortex, but it could still be seen that the hand holding the steering wheel was eerily clear—pale, flat, as if it were a specimen wearing medical rubber gloves.

"Hmm? Seems a bit too white?" She grabbed Huang Daqiu's business photo on the corner of the table. In the photo, the greasy fat man was fake-smiling at the camera, "I see Huang Daqiu is dark and fat, this hand could go to be a hand model."

Qi Fei suddenly grabbed the coffee cup and took a big gulp, his Adam's apple rolling, and the brown liquid leaked from the corner of his mouth and slid down his chin. He tapped the space bar heavily, and the picture froze on that eerie hand: "The picture is too blurry, if it's not a color difference..." His index finger joint suddenly knocked on the edge of the display screen, "It's very likely that this person is wearing white gloves. If it were Huang Daqiu driving himself, he wouldn't wear gloves, right?"

In the office, the accumulated dust blown up by the cool breeze of early spring floated in the light beam coming through the window. Wu Shanqiu blinked: "Ah, professional driver?"

"That is to say..." Qi Fei grabbed the phone on the table, and the phone case was squeezed by him with a squeaking sound, "On the day Huang Daqiu had the accident, another person appeared at the scene."

Wu Shanqiu straightened up, stared at the black-and-white screen, and doubted: "If this is true, why didn't this person call the police?"

"Must hurry up and ask where Huang Daqiu's driver is!" Qi Fei pressed the speakerphone button on the phone and dialed the number of Huang Daqiu's company.

A puzzled voice came from the other end of the phone: "Huang always drove to Jiangting Island by himself. How could there be a driver accompanying him this time? We asked the master before when Huang's phone couldn't get through, and he said Huang didn't ask him to drive!"

This answer made people even more suspicious: "Where is this person now?" He asked, his hand already grabbing the car keys.

Nancheng after the heavy rain finally felt some signs of recovery. The inappropriate temperature of the police station's heating made Qi Fei pull his hot and humid collar. The three frames of the ferry surveillance were playing in a loop: the man in the black suit stumbled onto the deck and almost missed his step and fell into the river.

Qi Fei grabbed the driver's address copied from the company, got up, and kicked the swivel chair: "Shanqiu, let's go meet this guy."

Qi Fei's Oxford shoes crushed the express packaging piled up at the alley entrance. The smell of moldy cardboard mixed with the condensate of the old air conditioner hit his face. The red brick building from the 1990s where Wu Chun lived was covered with cracked moss, and the rusty anti-theft nets were intertwined in the twilight. He signaled Wu Shanqiu to wrap around from the other side of the stairs, and he touched the third floor along the peeling cement railing. Qi Fei stepped on the dried instant noodle seasoning bag at the entrance of the building, and the smell of hot and sour noodles was mixed with the smell of food from Wu Chun's house. The iron door of Room 304, which was pasted with a missing corner of the "Fu" character, suddenly trembled, and the man in the gray jacket flashed out half of his body.

Wu Chun's pupils shrank into needle points when he saw Qi Fei. Although Qi Fei was wearing plain clothes, the appearance of this young stranger was enough to pull his nerves that were terrified day and night. Wu Chun rushed out of the door, threw the anti-theft door back, and rushed to the other side of the fire escape. The old anti-theft door bounced back heavily under the action of the spring, almost hitting Qi Fei's face. The dust of many years on the door lintel was shaken off, choking Qi Fei's nose, causing him to sneeze straight.

"He came down from your side!" Qi Fei roared. Wu Shanqiu braked sharply on the second-floor platform when she heard it. She grabbed the mop handle leaning against the corner of the wall and inserted it horizontally into the gap of the stair railing. Wu Chun was unprepared, his knees hit the pole, and he fell forward and rolled down the stairs with an "ouch."

Qi Fei had already jumped from the third-floor stairs to the second floor on the opposite side. The hem of his khaki windbreaker swept across the back of Wu Chun's neck, and he was about to take him down. However, they underestimated Wu Chun's ability. He ignored the pain, scrambled down to the first floor, bumped open the unit door, and fled toward the green belt of the residential area. He climbed over the winter holly bushes and climbed on the rusty fitness equipment, trying to climb over the wall, but he tore a triangular crack in his suit pants.

Qi Fei suddenly threw a bunch of keys three meters away, and the metal hit his knee accurately. Wu Chun's feet were sour and weak, and he lost his strength and knelt on the ground.

"What are you running for?" Qi Fei had already reached behind Wu Chun and buckled his arms back.

The fluorescent lamp in the police station office cast a spider-web-like shadow over Wu Chun's head. His posture shrinking on the plastic chair in the interrogation room was like a puppet with its joints pulled out. His fingers were twitching constantly, especially when he heard the words "Jiangting Island."

"The dashcam shows you returned to the city at 3:17 PM that day." Qi Fei pushed the tablet computer across the desktop, and the edge of the tempered film reflected Wu Chun's uneasy face, "But the car navigation system replanned the route to Jiangting Island pier at 4:09 PM." His index finger suddenly hovered at a certain coordinate point.