Chapter 517: Evidence (2/2)

”Even criminals have their own code of conduct,” sighed Xiaotao.

We proceeded to interrogate Xiao Lie, whose confession roughly corroborated Xiao Gang's, though there were slight discrepancies in the details. Xiao Lie also didn’t mention the help that the Blade Master secretly provided.

After the interrogation, I asked an officer to extract their fingerprints from the cups they used. We confirmed that the fingerprints on the bug belonged to Xiao Lie after comparing them. Their cooperative relationship with the Blade Master was obvious.

It was already three in the morning by the time we left the bureau and Bingxin was exhausted. Before leaving, I asked the fat officer to investigate a man named Shen Lijuan. That night, I slept the best ever since we arrived in Liangchuan.

At nine the next morning, the fat officer called and asked if we wanted to visit Ma Sanyou's home, to which I agreed of course. He asked us to wait while he sent someone to pick us up.

Since this wasn’t a formal investigation, only Xiaotao and I took the trip. After a while, an officer pulled up in front of the hotel and drove us to an old commercial street. Pointing to a closed store, he said, ”This is where Ma Sanyou used to work.”

After jotting down the address, I asked, ”Has no one rented the place for the past twenty years?”

”This street originally fared poorly, and on top of that, the locals came to know about the murders. Who would dare rent the store of a murderer?”

Then, the officer drove to an adjacent street and entered a neighborhood with uniform red-bricked, tube-shaped flats. The streets were lined with plane trees. It felt as if we had stepped into the 1980s and 1990s of Nanjiang City that no longer existed.

Ma Sanyou's home was located on the first floor–Unit 4. Before we entered his flat, I noticed burnt marks on the door frame. On the wall were words written in red paint: What goes around comes around. The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine.

When we knocked on the door, a middle-aged lady with a baby next door asked, ”Who are you looking for?”

”We are the police here to investigate something. Does anyone live here?”

”Oh, you’re policemen!” the woman exclaimed. ”Is the man next door a criminal? I’ve long thought of him as strange. He rarely shows up and even if we bump into each other occasionally, he doesn't say hello. Look at what’s written on the wall. He’s definitely not a good man. Around a month ago, someone threw a burning bottle at his house in the middle of the night, scaring the daylights out of me. Fortunately, it was put out in time! Alas, it’s really scary to live near to someone like him. If he’s a criminal, you should arrest him at once. God knows if someone decides to take revenge on him and inadvertently harms us instead!”

From the woman’s accent, she was clearly not a local.

At this moment, the door behind us opened, and the woman quickly entered her home with her child in her arms, as if she had seen a ghost.

We turned around to see a pale face behind the security door. The man was about thirty with unnaturally pale skin, and he had long hair that covered his eyes. He exuded a gloomy aura.

”Who are you looking for?” he asked coldly.

”Are you the son of Ma Sanyou, Ma Qiaojun?” said the officer.

”Haven’t you done enough? My father committed those crimes. What does it have to do with me? For twenty years, all you do is harass us? You police are a bunch of pigs!”

With that, he slammed the door shut, the sound reverberating through the corridor.