Animal Detective

Chapter 250 - 230: Baiting the Hole, Patience (Part 2)

He shoved his phone camera in Jiao Guoyi’s face and yelled.

"Everyone, come look! The police are arresting people for no reason! They can’t find the real killer, so they’re framing me! Is there any justice left in this world?!"

He screamed at the top of his lungs, attracting a crowd of people who had come to the station on other business.

Jiao Guoyi’s face was livid. "Zhou Hui, what do you think you’re doing? This is a police station! Don’t cause trouble. You’d better think carefully about your next move!"

"Me, cause trouble?"

Zhou Hui wasn’t scared in the slightest. He thrust his hands in front of Jiao Guoyi. "Go on then, arrest me! You cops are so powerful, so impressive. You arrest anyone you want! How amazing! I’m just a common citizen; I can’t fight you. So I’ll just have to be scared, won’t I?"

"Wife, call our people. Tell them to come over and see just how powerful these police officers are."

"Jiao Guoyi, if you’ve got the guts, then arrest me! In any case, if you don’t give me a straight answer today, I’m not leaving!"

Holding his phone in one hand, he gestured with the other for Jiao Guoyi to hurry up and arrest him.

He was completely surrounded by onlookers.

Jiao Guoyi was so angry a vein bulged on his forehead.

In the shadows, Shen Xin was fuming.

Liu Jie’s expression was grim; he said nothing.

Jiao Guoyi was clearly not someone to be trifled with. Wasting no time, he pulled out his handcuffs and cuffed one of Zhou Hui’s hands.

’Does he really think law enforcement is a joke?’

A single charge—disrupting public order at a government office—was enough to deal with a scoundrel like him.

Seeing him actually get cuffed, Li Jing rushed over.

"Jiao Suo, don’t! He’s not in his right mind. Don’t lower yourself to his level."

As she spoke, she smacked Zhou Hui on the head, telling him to hurry up and apologize.

Jiao Guoyi stared hard at Zhou Hui. ’What’s your game?’

Zhou Hui mumbled something, but the cold steel of the handcuffs made him choose the rational path. He turned his head and said, "Jiao Suo, I was wrong. Please, be the bigger person and let me go."

Jiao Guoyi snorted. He didn’t remove the cuffs. "First of all, this isn’t about me ’letting you go.’ Let me ask you: Did we arrest you without cause? Did we question you without following legal procedure?"

Zhou Hui got another slap from Li Jing and shook his head, saying no.

Only then did Jiao Guoyi unlock the handcuffs. He made Zhou Hui delete the video in front of him before letting him leave.

The two of them got in their car and drove away.

The crowd of onlookers slowly dispersed.

Meanwhile, Lai Yong quietly began following Zhou Hui.

Liu Jie walked up to Jiao Guoyi and offered a word of comfort.

"I’m fine."

Jiao Guoyi waved it off, saying that in his many years as an officer, he’d seen countless scoundrels, more plentiful than fish in the sea.

If he got angry at them every time, he would’ve made himself sick long ago.

"Liu Zhi, if that kid really did kill Han Xiaolong, we can’t let him get away with it," Jiao Guoyi added.

Luo Limei was getting on in years, and it was inconvenient for her to travel all the way to the sub-bureau.

So she often came to the local station to ask about the case.

Her back was stooped, and she’d pedal her three-wheeled cart all this way. He couldn’t bear to see it.

"Don’t worry."

Liu Jie nodded, told Shen Xin to get in the car, and they went to rendezvous with Lai Yong and the others.

After leaving the police station, Zhou Hui first returned to his company.

The two of them stayed there until evening before finally heading home.

However, Li Jing went back to their home in town.

They had a large, single-story apartment in a complex in town called Hengfeng Century Mansion.

Zhou Hui, on the other hand, drove back to Wuba Village.

This development invigorated Liu Jie.

His company was in town, so Zhou Hui rarely went back to his village home.

After Mao Yanru caused a public scene, screaming that he was Han Xiaolong’s killer, he had immediately rushed back to Wuba Village.

’What’s he up to?’

Zhou Hui’s home in Wuba Village was located on the west side of the village.

After making money from his company, he had the old family house rebuilt. Now it was an impressive two-story villa with its own private courtyard.

Currently, only his mother, Huang Qingmei, lived there.

The car slowly pulled over to the side of the road.

Diagonally across from them was an alley that ran east to west. Zhou Hui’s house was the second to last one down the alley.

Through the wrought-iron fence, they could see a Mercedes S-Class parked in the courtyard.

"Liu Zhi, why do you think he’s come back now? To destroy evidence? If there was any evidence, he would’ve destroyed it long ago. Why wait until now?" Lai Yong said from the driver’s seat, watching Zhou Hui’s courtyard from a distance.

Liu Jie raised a pair of binoculars, took a brief look, then turned and asked Shen Xin for his thoughts.

Shen Xin and Ding Yuwei were sitting in the back seat.

Ding Yuwei’s canvassing today had once again turned up nothing.

As for the list, aside from those who had moved away or were working out of town, they had pretty much gotten through all the remaining names.

The old dog gave no reaction, which meant the suspicion on Zhou Hui continued to mount.

Shen Xin said, "I think he came back for his mother."

Liu Jie nodded; he thought so too.

Mao Yanru’s public outburst must have spooked Zhou Hui, which was why he rushed back here—to give Huang Qingmei further instructions and get their stories straight.

Lai Yong thought for a moment and said, "In that case, Liu Zhi, should we have someone from the Qingyuan Police Station pay Huang Qingmei a visit? We can see what she says. After all, we have a legitimate reason to investigate now."

Mao Yanru shouting that Zhou Hui was the killer was reason enough to continue the investigation.

Liu Jie considered it, then nodded in agreement.

Liu Jie glanced around and said, "Alright. Have the Qingyuan station go through the village committee and get more cameras installed around the village."

He pointed to a utility pole at the end of the alley, only about a dozen meters from Zhou Hui’s gate.

"Install one there, aimed at his front gate. Don’t mount it too high. Add a microphone, too. We might get an unexpected break."

"This is a rural village. Staking the place out so openly is going to attract attention."

It’s not like the city, where there’s constant traffic. You can park on the side of the road, and no one will notice you.