Chapter 682 - 567: The Desolate Grave

Chapter 682: Chapter 567: The Desolate Grave

The atmosphere in the conference room was heavy, the air thick with swirling smoke.

It felt like a throwback to the eighties and nineties. Back then, every detective wore a leather jacket with a leather satchel tucked under one arm. They were all chain-smokers, with a gun in their bag and a cigarette dangling from their lips.

The smoke made Shen Xin’s eyes water as he silently watched Xu Jinguang.

They had been discussing it all afternoon and still hadn’t reached a decision.

Some were against it, fearing it would only stir up the hornet’s nest.

Of course, there were also those in favor. The investigation had been running since February. It felt like a bottomless pit, a constant drain on manpower and resources. To say they were mentally and physically exhausted was no exaggeration.

Xu Jinguang’s brow furrowed deeply. He reached out to stub out his cigarette, a flicker of resolve in his eyes. He coughed to get everyone’s attention, then said in a low voice, "Let’s rattle his cage. The way this case has dragged on, I don’t think we have any other choice."

"But!" he added, his tone shifting abruptly, "on one condition: all preventive measures must be airtight. We need a plan that accounts for every possible contingency."

"We’ll deploy every technical surveillance method we have. We cannot give Lu Weihong any opportunity to destroy evidence. And let me be clear: if anyone screws up and evidence is lost, they’ll answer to me first."

Rattling his cage was a last resort.

But they had to be fully prepared for the possibility that Lu Weihong might do something desperate.

Everyone in the room exchanged glances and said nothing more.

The decision was made. Now, it was time to work out the details of the plan.

No one objected to the pretext Shen Xin had come up with. But if they were going to put on a show, it had to be convincing. This was just to rattle Lu Weihong, so the lie needed to be well-crafted, plausible, and rich with detail.

For instance, how were the ’panda’s’ skeletal remains discovered? Who found them? When and where? And how did the subsequent investigation lead them to Lu Weihong?

They had to treat the whole thing like a genuine case.

While Shen Xin and the others were hammering out the details of the plan, Ding Yuwei and Zhao Tianxing had already arrived in Pingyi County.

They contacted the local police on behalf of the special task force.

The county’s Criminal Investigation Division sent a deputy captain to meet them.

He was very polite.

After all, this was a case designated by the Ministry, not some minor affair.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Ding Yuwei got straight to the point.

They would divide their efforts. She asked the local Pingyi police to help track Lu Weihong’s itinerary from his visit years ago.

Meanwhile, Ding Yuwei headed straight for Li Suhua’s hometown.

Chezhuang Village in Liuyu Town.

Pingyi had a complex topography. It was mostly mountainous, with high elevations to the north and south flanking a central valley with fertile soil.

Chezhuang Village in Liuyu Town was situated in the central-western part of Pingyi. The terrain consisted mainly of low mountains and hills. It was a large village, bisected by a major north-south artery for Pingyi, the S241 Provincial Highway.

Zhao Tianxing followed the GPS to the village committee office.

After getting out of the car, he couldn’t help but say, "Yuwei, Li Suhua’s parents have already moved away. Who are we going to talk to here? It’s been four years; I doubt anyone will remember if Lu Weihong ever came."

In a truly remote village, a stranger would stand out.

But Chezhuang Village was clearly not one of them. With the provincial highway running through it, strangers passed through every day, heading north and south.

The key witnesses—her family—had already moved away.

In 2009, after Li Suhua committed suicide by jumping from a building, her parents were devastated.

Then, in 2011, their son—Li Suhua’s brother—brought the elderly couple to live with him in Ludong Province City.

When they were investigating Li Suhua before, they had contacted her parents. They said that for the first couple of years, they would still occasionally return to their old home.

But in recent years, they’d stopped coming back altogether, and the old house had been left to fall into ruin.

Ding Yuwei led the way into the village committee office. "Lu Weihong likely came here in secret," she said as they walked. "There’s no point in looking for Li Suhua’s parents. I just want to figure out why he came here, and what, if anything, he did after he arrived."

Zhao Tianxing asked no more questions. He figured he was just the muscle; he’d leave the thinking to Shen Xin and the others.

They found the village director, a young official named Xu Yuanping who was born in the nineties.

He was a little curious when Ding Yuwei flashed her badge. Why would two officers from Nanjiang be investigating a case all the way out here in Pingyi?

Being cautious, he called the police to verify their identities.

Once he confirmed they were genuine police officers, his demeanor warmed, and he greeted them enthusiastically.

"Li Tan? Right, his family moved away to Ludong Province City. They haven’t been back in years. His son even had his household registration transferred."

Director Xu was very familiar with the affairs of every family in the village.

This Li Tan was, in fact, Li Suhua’s father.

Ding Yuwei asked, "Director Xu, Li Tan’s family may have moved, but they must still have relatives in the village, right?"

In many rural areas, a village is often dominated by a single large clan, making most residents relatives. Her relatives in the village would likely be very clear on her family’s circumstances.

Xu Yuanping nodded. "Of course. Here in Chezhuang Village, we have two major surnames: Li and Hu. I remember Li Tan had two older brothers and a younger sister. The sister married a man from Changzhuang Village to the south."

"His middle brother went to the Northeast, but his eldest brother, Li Hao, is still here. How about I take you to him?"

So this Li Hao would be Li Suhua’s paternal uncle.

Xu Yuanping immediately hopped on his electric scooter and led them toward the northwest side of the village.

Li Hao’s home was one of the two-story houses there.

They found him next door, playing cards at the entrance with a few other old men.

He was a short, elderly man and seemed surprised by their arrival. But as soon as Ding Yuwei mentioned Li Suhua, his expression changed with recognition.

"That all happened so many years ago," Li Hao said, tossing his cards down and turning to them.

Ding Yuwei nodded but didn’t offer an explanation. Instead, she pulled out a photo of Lu Weihong and asked if anyone had seen him in the village back in August 2015.

Most of the young people in the village had left to find work elsewhere, leaving behind a population of seniors.

’So, while these old men might not be as effective as the women’s intelligence network at the village entrance, they were probably the next best thing.’

Li Hao took the photo and frowned slightly. "Oh, this is Weihong. Suhua’s boyfriend."

Lu Weihong and Li Suhua had been serious enough to be discussing marriage.

Li Suhua had brought Lu Weihong home to meet her father, and Li Hao had met him when the family hosted them.

"August 2015?"

Li Hao shook his head. "No, I didn’t see him. He never came back after Suhua died. Besides, by 2015... how many years had she been gone by then? Her parents had already moved away. What would he come back here for?"

The other old men also shook their heads; none of them had any recollection.

Ding Yuwei handed the photo to Zhao Tianxing and told him to canvas the village with it.

Then she asked Li Hao to take her to Li Suhua’s grave.

Li Hao hesitated for a moment before leading her there.

It was a fair distance away, so they went by electric scooter.

Li Hao now farmed the land that had belonged to Li Suhua’s family. Her grave, however, wasn’t in their family’s ancestral plot.

"It was an old custom," Li Hao explained. "Unmarried women weren’t allowed in the ancestral burial ground. So, Suhua’s dad found someone to pick out a spot for her, right at the edge of their family’s land."

Li Hao explained as they walked along the narrow ridges between the fields. Before long, they arrived at a lone grave mound.

Cremation had become more common in recent years, but back then, traditional burial was still the norm.

There was no headstone, only a solitary mound of earth.

It was late March, and spring had returned to the Earth. Weeds grew in thick patches all around, blanketing the grave mound as well.

"Her parents rarely come back, not even for the Lunar New Year. I’m the one who comes to burn some joss paper for the New Year and the Qingming Festival," Li Hao said, standing beside her.

’He said that, but judging by the small size of the mound and the surrounding weeds, it was clear the grave was rarely tended to.’

There was a custom of adding fresh soil to the grave mound each year. A small mound meant that no one had been doing so.

Ding Yuwei glanced around. Amidst all the vibrant life, she felt the desolation of a lonely, untended grave.

’According to my theory,’ she thought, ’Lu Weihong made a special trip to Pingyi to say goodbye to his past.’

’So, it’s possible that on that day, he stood right here, in this very spot, paying his respects to Li Suhua.’

’But was that all? Just to pay his respects?’

Ding Yuwei mused silently, trying to emulate the famous detectives from the movies and deduce something useful from the slightest clue.

But ultimately, she came up with nothing.

She turned and asked Li Hao if anything unusual or out of the ordinary had happened after August 2015.

Li Hao actually chuckled at that, asking what could possibly be unusual about a grave.

"Officer, what is this all about?" Li Hao pressed. "Suhua committed suicide, didn’t she? Your own people ruled it that way back then."

Ding Yuwei just smiled and said it was nothing.

She circled the area again, searching for any kind of trace.

’But after four years, what could there possibly be to find?’

After lingering for a long while, she had no choice but to head back to the village with Li Hao.

Zhao Tianxing’s canvassing hadn’t turned up anything yet. With no better ideas, Ding Yuwei joined him, hoping they might find something together.

By evening, they still had nothing to show for their efforts.

The two of them were having dinner at a small restaurant beside the provincial highway when they got a call from the county’s Criminal Investigation Division, updating them on the search for Lu Weihong’s itinerary.

It was the same story: no progress, no leads.

It had been four years, after all.

Zhao Tianxing was a fast eater. He wiped his mouth and said he was going to book their rooms.

Ding Yuwei nodded. Once Zhao Tianxing had the rooms booked, they would head back to the village to continue their interviews.

"A lot of people were out working during the day," she explained. "More people will be home at night, so we’re less likely to miss someone."

Zhao Tianxing didn’t mind either way. He did what he was told. He gave a nod and headed out.

Unexpectedly, the evening’s interviews actually yielded a breakthrough.

Around eight o’clock that night, they interviewed a villager with the surname Hu. After carefully studying Lu Weihong’s photograph, he recalled that Lu Weihong had indeed come to the village. It was a morning in August 2015, just before noon.