Chapter 255: Following Procedure

Zhao Hongda hesitated slightly and walked toward a small door behind the counter. Qi Fei followed closely.

Zhao Hongda gave a bitter smile: "I'm not running away. If you are not at ease, follow me."

Through the small door behind the counter, it was the back of the storefront. The keys in Zhao Hongda's hand jingled. A few people passed through the stair corridor full of debris and followed Zhao Hongda to the residence on the second floor.

"This is where I live temporarily to watch the shop. You can't tell my wife about Li Yang'er's matter. It's been so many years," he said while rummaging through the messy boxes. Finally, he found a kraft paper package, which was old, and the surface of the kraft paper was already fuzzy. He handed it to Qi Fei without saying anything.

Qi Fei opened the package, and the contents were beyond his expectation. It was actually a passport.

Opening the passport, the photo inside was indeed Li Yang'er's.

"How did Li Yang'er's passport get to you?" Qi Fei asked vigilantly.

Zhao Hongda said in shame: "There were indeed many people spreading rumors that Li Yang'er planned to go abroad back then. I was head-over-heels in love with her, afraid that if she left, I would never see her again. In a daze, I had a very stupid idea, which I think is stupid now. Speaking of which, it was inspired by the woman in the red sweater. That day I saw her leave, I learned her appearance and walked in openly. Those cleaners wouldn't remember whether it was a man or a woman living in this room. Seeing me so confident, they thought I was living together. I tried to flip through it, and really found her passport."

"You stole someone's passport?!" Qi Fei only felt it was incredible.

"I didn't intend to steal it! I said I was head-over-heels in love with Li Yang'er back then. I originally planned to wait for her to come back, take the passport, confess to her, and beg her not to go abroad. I held the passport and waited for her for a long time, but when she came back, I flinched again. Seeing her close the door, I didn't have the courage to go up and talk to her. Thinking about it, I had to bring the passport back first. Originally, I thought she would come back to the market to do business sooner or later, and I would find an excuse to say I picked it up, and it wouldn't be too late to return it to her. As a result, after that, she never appeared again."

"Heh, no wonder you didn't remind her that someone entered her room. It turns out you also did bad things," Wu Shanqiu said unhappily.

Zhao Hongda didn't admit it: "I was just cowardly, I didn't think about doing bad things. But I knew she couldn't go abroad during that time. No matter what, she had to spend time re-applying for a passport. But a few days after that, the merchants in the market couldn't contact her. I was worried she had an accident back then."

"Ha? You were worried she had an accident and didn't call the police?" Wu Shanqiu couldn't hide her speechlessness.

"I was afraid of being caught by the police as a thief, and I entered her room. If she really had an accident, wouldn't I jump into the Yellow River and not be able to wash it clean?" Zhao Hongda quibbled, "Besides! I went out and found that I accidentally touched the seal she put in the drawer, and my hand was stained with ink. Didn't TV say you police would find fingerprints to convict? There might be my fingerprints in that room. I wasn't one hundred percent sure Li Yang'er had an accident, so reporting to the police wasn't looking for trouble?"

However, for Qi Fei, these were not important. Li Yang'er probably died, which they knew. Qi Fei cared about the other information he said: "You just said, you touched the ink from the seal? Are you sure?"

There was no air conditioning in the room. Zhao Hongda's oily face was twisted. Finding memories was as difficult as finding the passport just now: "What's wrong?" He didn't understand why this matter suddenly seemed important. "I thought about it later, the seal was placed in the drawer without a cover, so I got a large piece of ink on my hand. We do business, we can definitely distinguish the ink."

"You said Li Yang'er's schedule was very regular. According to her habits, what time did she leave the hotel that day?" Qi Fei asked.

"Uh, I don't know about that. Generally, don't people go out in the morning?"

"You entered her room in the evening, right? Because you wanted to wait for her to finish work and come back?"

"Right..." Zhao Hongda answered blankly, not understanding what these questions of Qi Fei meant.

Zhong Kui had already guessed what Qi Fei cared about and said on the side: "If Li Yang'er went out early in the morning, even if she had used the seal, it would have been dry by the time you arrived. If you got more than a little bit on your hand, it means the ink left on the seal was still wet. It seems the intention of that lady in the red sweater sneaking into Li Yang'er's room has been found."

Wu Shanqiu also reacted and took the conversation: "Oh! She stole Li Yang'er's seal to forge a contract?"

"Hmm, wanting to swallow Li Yang'er's payment, it's impossible to say that if the person is gone, it will naturally belong to them. The procedures that should be followed still have to be followed," Zhong Kui said coldly.

"Come with us to identify the person..." His mood was indescribably heavy.

"Ah? Identify, identify what person?" Zhao Hongda asked uneasily.

Qi Fei didn't answer, just took out his phone and operated it alone in the corner for a while, then handed the phone to Zhao Hongda.

The phone stored a group of photos, sliding back and forth, all young women, but looking at the clothes, they were all people from more than twenty years ago.

"Who is the person wearing the watermelon red sweater you saw?" Qi Fei asked.

Among the photos, Qi Fei tried his best not to focus on one of them. That was a photo of his mother, Xi Zi Yun. The feeling of being pulled between being a police officer and a person involved almost tore him apart. He knew this was a trap set by Xi He for him. In order to save Qi Dongjun, he had no way to stay out of it from the beginning.

Zhao Hongda was still looking at these photos back and forth. Although only a minute or two passed, for Qi Fei, it was unprecedentedly long.

He hoped that all the clues he had traced so far related to Xi Zi Yun were just coincidences, hoped that Zhao Hongda would shake his head after reading and tell him that there was no one he knew in the photo.

However, Zhao Hongda's hand sliding the photo finally stopped on one of them: "Although I don't remember very well, if you want to say the closest one, it is this woman."

No accident, no reversal, Zhao Hongda's finger fell on that photo of Xi Zi Yun.

"Are you sure?" Qi Fei asked.

"After all, so many years have passed. If you want me to guarantee it, I can't, but that woman was very beautiful, with big eyes. It is eight or nine out of ten that it is the woman in this photo," Zhao Hongda replied.

Everything was clearer, everything was more disappointing. Qi Fei went downstairs dejectedly, passed through the crowded corridor, and walked out of the clothing store.

Zhong Kui's voice came from behind: "Eh? Has the posture of this clothing model always been like this?" ===== CHAPTER 256 =====