Chapter 178: The Song Family’s Persimmon Paste (1/2)

“What are you making this time, Chef Song?” Dali joked.

“Just hurry and go, will you?” I snapped.

Once Dali had gone, I brought the samples I collected from the corpse to the forensics team for testing. When I returned to the morgue, I saw Xiaotao standing at the door talking to several officers. I asked her what happened and she replied, “The rich lady who was attacked had been rescued. We learned from her secretary that her company was recently in a dispute with Chen Da’s company. The rich lady usually delivered her goods through Chen Da’s company, but there was another logistics company that offered their services at a much lower price, so the rich lady broke their previous contract and switched to the other company instead.”

It wasn’t uncommon for large corporations to breach contracts. It was understandable too that the rich lady would be interested in switching to the other company since they offered a much lower price. I didn’t think that Chen Da would risk losing everything and murder the rich lady just for this trivial matter. Besides, his company was established enough that the loss of one client wouldn’t affect their business much.

Even if he did hate the rich lady for it, would he be so stupid to kill her himself, and in public to boot?

The police had also discovered that Chen Da hadn’t been to work for the past week. He was the company’s president, so no one dared to inquire too much about it. Besides, according to his employees, Chen Da often travelled alone for vacations and for work.

Apart from that, it was found that 20 million yuan was taken from Chen Da’s account recently, almost emptying it.

“Where did Chen Da travel to?” I asked.

“He loved travelling and had been all around the world,” answered the officer.

“Who withdrew the money out of his account?”

“We’re still investigating that with the bank!”

I thanked him and told him he did a great job.

“Why would a successful businessman be so stupid and murder someone?” wondered Xiaotao. “Do you think there could be more to this, Song Yang? Maybe a personal grudge?”

“We’re still in the initial phase of investigation right now,” I replied. “I think it’s best we don’t jump to premature conclusions. I know one thing for sure, though. Chen Da is definitely not a murderer—he’s the victim.”

“I agree,” nodded Xiaotao.

After a while, Dali returned panting heavily and carrying big bags in his hands.

“Dude!” he cried. “It was so hard to buy persimmons in this season. I had to search through several supermarkets before finding these unripe ones. What do you need it for anyway?”

“You’ll find out soon,” I smiled.

When we returned to the morgue, I remarked, “I discovered something puzzling when I checked the deceased’s internal organs. Although they had stopped functioning for a week, there were still no signs of decay. I think I’d better check his stomach contents.”

I asked Dali to get me a pot of hot water. I soaked the towel in it and pressed it on the corpse’s chest and back. Then, I handed Dali the pestle and mortar from my bag and asked him to pound the unripe persimmons into a paste.

Dali went about this task eagerly. When he was done, I added salt into this paste and patted it on the corpse’s chest.

“What does this persimmon paste do, dude?” asked Dali.

“It contains tannic acid which contracts the muscle tissues and squeezes out the contents of the stomach.”

“Why don’t you just cut the body open and see for yourself?”

“You’re sure you want to see that?”

Dali didn’t reply. He just pouted and looked away.

“But he’s been dead for a week, Song Yang,” Xiaotao commented. “Would the muscle tissues really contract?”

“I don’t know,” I shook my head.

Dali and Xiaotao looked surprised.

“That’s a first!” Dali exclaimed. “I don’t think I’d ever heard you admit that you don’t know something so frankly!”