Animal Detective

Chapter 97: Handprint

The room wasn’t large, and things were strewn about messily.

Entering the inner room, a distinct, pungent odor hung in the air.

Shen Xin knew what it was—the so-called "old person’s smell."

Then he saw Sun Min lying in bed.

Although it had only been a little over a year since her stroke, she was already terribly thin. Hearing the noise, she struggled to turn her head and look over.

Her speech was slurred, and she mumbled a question, asking who it was.

"It’s Xiaodeng from the police station. You’ve met him."

Uncle Wang, whose full name was Wang Yongde, replied as he helped Sun Min sit up to take her medicine.

Deng Rong immediately leaned in to greet her.

Shen Xin offered a greeting as well, silently watching Wang Yongde’s movements, worried something unexpected might happen.

But nothing did.

After giving her the medicine, Wang Yongde turned on the television to a Pingtan opera program. He then asked Sun Min if she needed to use the restroom or anything else. Once he confirmed she didn’t, he led the three of them out of the room.

"I’ll go buy a bottle of water," Deng Rong said, taking the hint and excusing himself.

Wang Yongde invited Shen Xin and the other officer to sit in the courtyard and poured them both some water.

Shen Xin silently took out a voice recorder, switched it on, and placed it on the table before asking, "Sir, do you know Guo Chunping?"

"Of course. Xiaoguo was a good man."

Wang Yongde nodded. "I know what you’re here to ask. Xiaoguo told us that if the police ever came knocking, it would mean he was already dead. He said we should just tell you whatever you wanted to know. So, if there’s something you want to know, just ask."

Shen Xin and the other officer quickly exchanged a glance. From Wang Yongde’s tone, it sounded as if Guo Chunping had predicted the police’s investigation.

It felt like he was a fail-safe.

After the incident, everyone else gradually left Nanjiang. He was the only one who stayed, continuing to work at Jinhui Mansion.

After a moment of thought, Shen Xin asked, "Wang Yongde, back in 2013, were you and your wife, Sun Min, in Nanjiang? Where were you working at the time?"

Wang Yongde raised a hand, stopping Shen Xin. "Officers, you don’t need to go to all that trouble. I know you just want to ask how Liu Laibin died. That’s right. We killed him together."

Shen Xin said nothing, but he secretly clenched his fists.

With that, the Liu Laibin case was as good as solved.

"Wang Yongde, please describe the details of the crime."

Wang Yongde, however, looked perfectly calm. "First, I remember it was November of 2010 when Xiaoguo found us."

"In April of 2008, my granddaughter, Nannan, went missing in Guang’en. Our whole family searched for a long time but couldn’t find her. Later, my son died in an accident while working on a construction site. At that moment, it felt like our world had collapsed."

"But there was nothing else we could do. We had to keep searching. She was our only granddaughter."

"We kept looking until early 2009. I remember it was the last month of the lunar year, right before the New Year, when the police from Changxi Nanping suddenly contacted us and told us to come identify a body."

Wang Yongde’s voice couldn’t help but start to tremble.

It had been eight years since 2009, but for him, that day remained a living nightmare.

"We brought her mother with us, gave a blood sample, and after the identification... it was my poor Nannan."

He only managed that one sentence before tears streamed down his old face again, his lips trembling too much to speak.

Ding Yuwei quickly took out a tissue and handed it to him.

After a while, Wang Yongde calmed down and continued, "The police told us that on April 17, 2008, there was a car accident on a highway at the border of Jiaozhou and Changxi."

"A panel van had flipped over into a ravine during the night. It wasn’t discovered until the next afternoon. The driver was dead, and locked inside the van... were eleven children. They had all perished."

Shen Xin was horrified. A chill ran straight up his spine.

’Eleven?’

Wang Yongde continued, "The Changxi police investigated and found out that van was a transport vehicle for human traffickers. They were taking children they’d abducted from all over Jiaozhou to sell them in the mountainous regions."

"The police arrested the traffickers and then worked to identify the children. It took a long time to match the records before they connected one to our Nannan and contacted us."

He wiped his tears.

Shen Xin took the opportunity to ask, "So Liu Laibin was one of the traffickers?"

’If that’s the case, then it all makes sense.’

A group of people from all over the country, brought together by these eleven unfortunate children, had conspired to murder Liu Laibin.

"No."

Unexpectedly, Wang Yongde shook his head and denied it.

Both Shen Xin and Ding Yuwei were stunned.

’He wasn’t? Then why did you go to such great lengths to kill him?’

Wang Yongde let out a long sigh. "After we identified the body, we returned to Lishui. Then, in November of 2010, Xiaoguo found us. He told us something."

"The place where the accident happened was in Changxi. It’s a very remote area, on a mountain road, and the crash occurred late at night. It wasn’t like now, with surveillance cameras everywhere. So the Nanping police investigated for a long time but never found the driver who caused the accident."

"But who would have thought... Xiaoguo found him."

"Xiaoguo was a pitiful man, too. His son was in that van. His wife even jumped to her death. So he became obsessed. He just kept searching along that highway, searching and searching for that driver."

"And then, in 2009, he actually found him. It was Liu Laibin."

"He told us that Liu Laibin had been smuggling cell phones from a port south of Changxi to Jiaozhou. That night, he dozed off at the wheel and collided with the traffickers’ van."

At this point, Wang Yongde’s tone grew heavy, and a look of hatred filled his eyes.

"You know, when we were killing Liu Laibin, we asked him. We said, ’Why didn’t you call the police? You clearly heard the children’s voices inside that van.’"

Shen Xin interrupted Wang Yongde.

"Wang Yongde, are you saying that after the crash, Liu Laibin got out to check and knew there were children locked in the van?"

’If that’s the case, then the nature of the crime is completely different.’

Wang Yongde nodded. "That’s right. He got out and looked. He saw the driver wasn’t moving and thought he was dead. He was scared to death. Just as he was about to leave, he heard someone banging on the van’s cargo compartment. That’s when he realized there were people inside."

"He moved closer to listen and heard the sound of children crying. So he knew. He knew there were children in there."

"But he didn’t call the police. He ran. Even if he had made an anonymous call after he fled, that would have been something!"

Wang Yongde’s eyes were bloodshot, his voice growing frantic. "A whole van full of children! Xiaoguo told us he went to see the van. He said the door was deformed and jammed shut. From the inside, you could only see a tiny crack of light."

"And you know what? That door was covered in bloody handprints. Tiny little handprints, so many of them. That means many of the children didn’t die on impact. They were injured, left with no help, and died in agony."

Wang Yongde was sobbing uncontrollably.

"Nannan was so timid. When I think of her in that dark place, injured, with no one to help her... calling for her daddy, calling for her mommy... my heart just breaks."

"That’s why Liu Laibin deserved to die!"

Wang Yongde’s gaze was as sharp as a knife as he ground out the words, "I know he had his reasons. We asked him when we were killing him. He said he was smuggling at the time and was afraid the police would find out, so he didn’t dare call."

"But if he had just made a call—even an anonymous one—all those children... maybe they wouldn’t have died."

"So you tell me, didn’t he deserve to die?"

He stared with bloodshot eyes, demanding an answer.