Chapter 2163 - 1180: Clues

"No wonder you’re the chief!" Yang Xiao secretly admired, seeing his own reflection in Chief Zhou.

Quickly, Ye Zheng and a few others rushed over after hearing the news, and after witnessing Chief Zhou’s transformation, they were in awe of Yang Xiao, completely at a loss as to what extraordinary method he used to thoroughly persuade Chief Zhou.

Seeing that everything had already been discussed, Chief Zhou didn’t hold back and generously brought out the Protective Gourd that his wife had gotten from the old Taoist, which had cost him quite a bit of money.

Everyone on site received one, and he even recited a spell to them that could enhance mana on the spot.

This was all taught by the old Taoist; Chief Zhou’s principle was to believe in its usefulness first before deciding if it truly worked.

If it turned out to be ineffective later, he knew which mountain the old Taoist lived in; one might escape the monk, but not the temple.

Now that everyone was on the same page, Ye Zheng didn’t avoid Chief Zhou and immediately called out Guo Tiejun, asking him to recount what happened with Feng Xiaoyan the previous night.

"At that time, Feng Xiaoyan and I were queuing to enter the cinema when a young man playfully messing around with his friend didn’t watch his step and knocked over the snacks in Feng Xiaoyan’s hand while stepping back."

"To express his apology, the young man gave his soda to Feng Xiaoyan, and they chatted for a bit."

"Upon learning that the young man was a worker from the second workshop, Feng Xiaoyan took the opportunity to ask him about matters in the plant."

"They had a good conversation, but as the young man hadn’t been there long, they didn’t get much info in the end. Once the movie started, we went our separate ways," Guo Tiejun recalled.

"Hiss—" Yang Xiao took a deep breath. It seemed that the ghost misunderstood the relationship between Feng Xiaoyan and the young man, seeing it as Feng Xiaoyan’s infidelity.

As absurd as it seemed, considering Ma Jing was targeted by the ghost and killed after performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in the cafeteria, it seemed understandable.

Having died unjustly, the ghost’s mindset had become twisted; any normal interaction between a man and a woman was misinterpreted as adultery or infidelity towards marriage or love, leading to the murder.

Wang Yong, Feng Xiaoyan, and Ma Jing were all the same.

Oh, Wang Yong was an exception; he wasn’t entirely innocent.

Soon after, Captain Ding hurriedly returned. After downing several big gulps of water, he caught his breath:

"Chief Zhou, the task you assigned me has been clarified. Zhang Xiujuan, Pan Xiaoxiao, and... Old Zhang from the equipment department indeed have a problematic private life."

"Zhang Xiujuan has a boyfriend but often fools around in dance halls. Her boyfriend has quarreled with her over it multiple times, but she doesn’t care."

"Zhang Xiujuan is a good dancer and bold; she eventually hung out with several young men who frequently went to the dance hall, danced with them, and often received gifts from them."

"What she wears and uses are gifts from others, including that pair of dance shoes on her feet, which is high-quality merchandise brought back from abroad by a young man through contact."

"As for Pan Xiaoxiao, she appears single but has two ambiguous relationships, one of which is with her night school classmate."

"After night school, she goes to the lakeside where another young man waits for her."

"Pan Xiaoxiao manages her time strictly, and the two young men still don’t know about each other’s existence."

"They both pursued Pan Xiaoxiao fervently, but she always remained noncommittal, simply saying they were friends, playing a balancing act, flirting ambiguously, using them as backups."

"We only got this information from her roommates; Pan Xiaoxiao has concealed it well from others."

"By the way, according to the female employees who worked the same shifts with her, the person Pan Xiaoxiao truly likes is Song Wei from our maintenance department’s second section."

"However, despite Pan Xiaoxiao’s attentiveness, Song Wei has consistently remained indifferent and completely ignores her," Captain Ding said in one breath.

"Who is this Song Wei?" Yang Xiao asked curiously.

"He’s Director Song’s son, a very outstanding young man," Chief Zhou introduced.

"Heh, Pan Xiaoxiao has quite high standards," Zhao Xuejun grinned.

"Captain Ding, please continue," Yang Xiao looked at the sweat-drenched Captain Ding, clearly understanding his hard work during this period.

"Now about this Old Zhang from the Cultural Palace equipment, he’s the worst of all!"

Captain Ding curled his lips and said in a sharp tone, "He’s married with kids, yet he still messes around outside."

"He has a wife, yet he’s intimately involved with a female apprentice, finding it inconvenient in the daytime when many people are watching, they take advantage of their work convenience to meet at the cinema at night."

"Old Zhang arranges the tickets, and they always sit together in the back row’s dark corners, taking advantage of the dark environment where everyone’s attention is on the film screen; below, they’re hugging and flirting."

"Originally, Old Zhang and his wife kept things somewhat controlled while she was around the factory. But recently, Old Zhang’s father-in-law got sick, and his wife took leave to care for him, so Old Zhang let himself go completely, going to movies every night, messing around with the apprentice."

"The cinema staff can witness this, but given Old Zhang’s longstanding tenure in the plant, no one wants to speak out and offend him," Captain Ding sighed, shaking his head slowly.

"On the night Old Zhang got into trouble, was he also at the cinema secretly meeting that female apprentice?" Yang Xiao asked.