Chapter 12 Unexplained Income

Chapter Twelve: Unexplained Income

With these questions lingering in their minds, Qin Ruonan and An Zhangpu arrived precisely at the agreed-upon time downstairs at the apartment building where Cui Lidong rented a place. After waiting for about ten minutes, they saw a middle-aged man hurrying toward them. Although the weather was already quite cold, he was drenched in sweat from rushing.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I'm a bit late! Have you been waiting long?" The middle-aged man trotted up to them, too busy to wipe the sweat from his forehead as he pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket to offer to An Zhangpu, repeatedly apologizing for his tardiness.

An Zhangpu declined the cigarette and took the opportunity to introduce himself and Qin Ruonan. Although he had already explained his profession to Cui Lidong’s landlord during their prior phone call, a formal self-introduction upon a first meeting was naturally indispensable. Cui Lidong's landlord also introduced himself; his name was Zhao Yi. He lived not far from here, but because an elderly family member needed care, he had moved in with them and rented out his own property to supplement his household expenses.

The apartment Cui Lidong rented was not far from the barbershop where he worked—probably just over twenty minutes on foot. It was not a planned residential community, but merely a few scattered old buildings. Judging by their appearance, they had been around for quite a few years. The entire building had only seven floors, and the apartment was on the top floor. It took the three of them some effort to climb up because the landlord, Zhao Yi, being middle-aged, lacked a bit of stamina. While he had taken the first half of the stairs in long, confident strides, by the latter half, his pace slowed down, and his breathing grew ragged and heavy.

"How long has Cui Lidong been renting your place?" Qin Ruonan asked while Zhao Yi paused on the sixth-floor landing to catch his breath.

Zhao Yi thought back through the months and said, "Oh, it's been quite a while now. A year and two months already."

"How is he as a tenant?"

"He's great! That young man is wonderful. We've had quite a few tenants in this place before—some didn't clean up after themselves, others fell behind on rent, and we ended up refusing to rent to them anymore. Little Cui is a fine young man. Whenever we drop by occasionally, the place is always spotless, and he never falls behind on the rent. He always contacts me proactively before the due date even arrives." Zhao Yi seemed quite fond of Cui Lidong. "Sometimes when he runs into me or my wife outside and sees us carrying things that are too much or too heavy, he even lends a hand. You don't see many young people like that these days!"

Having finished speaking and caught his breath, Zhao Yi resumed climbing. After another flight and a half, they reached the seventh floor. He skillfully fished out a set of keys, unlocked the door to his apartment, and politely gestured for An Zhangpu and Qin Ruonan to enter first.

The apartment was not large, featuring an old-fashioned layout. The living room was square and lacked external windows. The interior was precisely as Zhao Yi had described—neat and clean, unlike the stereotypical clutter of a single man's living quarters.

Cui Lidong owned very few possessions. Aside from basic living necessities, one could not spot much in the way of miscellaneous items. Because Song Chengliang's home was the primary crime scene where he was murdered, Cui Lidong's rental apartment held no exceptional forensic value. An Zhangpu and Qin Ruonan's target was the pair of hairdressing scissors that Cui Lidong treasured like his own life.

While they searched for the scissors, the landlord, Zhao Yi, followed anxiously behind them, not daring to speak and interrupt, yet unable to conceal the curiosity written all over his face. From time to time, he asked whether he was allowed to step into a particular room or touch the things inside.

Finally, they found the hairdressing scissors inside a storage box within the wardrobe of Cui Lidong's bedroom. The scissors were kept in an exquisite leather case, with only a tiny flash of silver-white handle exposed. An Zhangpu pulled out a pair of gloves from his pocket and put them on, while Qin Ruonan retrieved an evidence bag. Together, they placed the scissors, along with their leather case, directly into the evidence bag.

Aside from these scissors, they also found Cui Lidong's hairdressing tool kit in his bedroom. Inside were several other pairs of shears that had not been maintained with quite the same meticulous care, including both right-handed and left-handed models. Qin Ruonan and An Zhangpu carefully bagged them all, preparing to take them back to the public security bureau.

Although a pair of scissors stained with Song Chengliang's blood had been found at the apartment complex where Song lived, those scissors bore no fingerprints. It was still necessary to bring Cui Lidong's remaining scissors back as evidence and send them to the criminal forensics department for further testing.

Their meticulous actions finally caused Zhao Yi, who had been watching silently from the side for quite a while, to sense that something was amiss.

"I originally thought you guys came here because something happened to Cui Lidong, and I didn't dare ask, but..." He couldn't help speaking up. "May I boldly ask, did I guess wrong? Did he get himself into some serious trouble?"

"It's not confirmed yet; we're just conducting a routine investigation." An Zhangpu answered Zhao Yi's question while finishing up the placement of the scissors into the evidence bags.

Hearing An Zhangpu put it this way, Zhao Yi immediately took the unaddressed portion of the response as a confirmation of his suspicions. He grew instantly nervous, opening his mouth several times to ask for more details, but because An Zhangpu and Qin Ruonan were busy with their work and had no time to entertain him, he had no choice but to let it drop.

"Um..." After a short while, he finally lost his restraint and asked aloud, "What kind of trouble is he in anyway?"

"Why are you so convinced that he must have gotten into trouble?" Qin Ruonan asked back, looking up with a hint of impatience.

Zhao Yi was momentarily stunned by her question, then raised a hand to point at her and An Zhangpu: "Even if I'm not a police officer, I've watched enough television! Whenever you cops find a murder weapon or some other crucial item, don't you always wear gloves like that, not daring to touch things with your bare hands? Besides, looking at that fellow Little Cui, his gaze would always drift around when looking at people; he didn't look like a particularly law-abiding sort. You can't really blame my imagination for running wild."

"Didn't you just say a moment ago that Cui Lidong was exceptionally good—paying rent on time and being warm-hearted?" An Zhangpu couldn't help feeling somewhat helpless upon hearing Zhao Yi's one-eighty-degree shift in attitude.

"Yes, I did say that. I meant he appeared that way on the surface, but people, you know—you can know a person's face, but not their heart! My words aren't contradictory at all. On the surface, he was quite enthusiastic and never fell behind on rent, but that doesn't conflict with his shifty eyes," Zhao Yi defended himself.

An Zhangpu looked at Qin Ruonan, who wore an equally speechless expression. Neither of them said anything further. They silently finished packing up the items that needed to be taken back to the bureau and then left Cui Lidong's rental apartment.

As they were about to leave, Zhao Yi kept pressing them: If Cui Lidong really committed a crime and ended up in prison, would the rental contract between him and Cui Lidong still be valid? Could he ask the people from the public security bureau to remove Cui Lidong's belongings from his property? An Zhangpu had no choice but to tell him that before any conclusion was reached, they could not disclose anything to the outside world. As for whether the lease agreement could be terminated early before its expiration, he would have to consult a real estate attorney once the specific circumstances became clear.

Zhao Yi was clearly unsatisfied with An Zhangpu's answer, but having no other alternative, he had to let it go.

After parting ways with Zhao Yi, both Qin Ruonan and An Zhangpu felt a somewhat complex mix of emotions.

"You know, people's psychology can be truly bizarre. One moment they're praising someone to the high heavens, but the moment they think the other person might harm them or turn out to be unrespectable, they can do a complete one-eighty-degree turn," An Zhangpu said as he drove back toward the public security bureau. Fortunately, the distance was short because they needed to rush the scissors to the forensics department and then wait for Song Chengliang's family members to arrive at the bureau to claim the body and handle the relevant procedures.

"Yeah. It's very easy for someone to jump into a mud pit and cover themselves in muck, but climbing back out and washing away all the stains is no easy task. Even if the mud can be washed off, the stench will linger for a long time," Qin Ruonan sighed as well. "It's just like how dyeing a piece of white cloth black is simple, but bleaching a black cloth is an arduous task!"

"I'm starting to understand why Cui Lidong was worried that if this case were handed over to someone else, he would be prejudged as a suspect with no hope of clearing his name. Look at his landlord—someone who previously had a decent relationship with him and had no concrete evidence, yet based on mere shadows and whispers, he changed so drastically. Let alone those people who don't know Cui Lidong at all and only see his past bad record. I never had such a strong feeling about it before, but I didn't expect the power of colored glasses to be this formidable!"

When they returned to the public security bureau, Song Chengliang's parents had not yet arrived. An Zhangpu went ahead to deliver the evidence, while Qin Ruonan went to speak with Tian Yang and Mo Dou to exchange notes on the results of their investigative assistance.

Under Cheng Feng's instructions, Tian Yang and Mo Dou had been helping An Zhangpu and Qin Ruonan with auxiliary tasks. From yesterday afternoon until now, they had investigated Song Chengliang's income and discovered that his earnings from the food company were relatively meager, whereas the body-shaping center paid considerably better than his primary job. However, even with two jobs and two streams of income, his spending on purchasing that commercial housing unit still seemed somewhat over-leveraged.

Consequently, the two of them investigated Song Chengliang's bank accounts and discovered that irregular deposits of varying amounts of cash were made into his account. The larger amounts were around 100,000, while the smaller ones were at least 10,000 to 20,000. These deposits entered Song Chengliang's account in the form of cash deposits with no paper trail of bank transfers, and the timing followed no discernible pattern whatsoever.

"Could it be that besides these two jobs, Song Chengliang had a third one?" Qin Ruonan asked in surprise.

Neither Tian Yang nor Mo Dou could provide an answer. Based on the information they had gathered so far, in terms of both time and energy, it seemed impossible for Song Chengliang to sustain yet another part-time job.

So, where on earth was all this money coming from?