"Did you read the contents of the letter?" Hu Jia realized the importance of the matter, especially with a high-ranking official involved.
"How would I dare?" Wang Shuiqi replied. Yi Ran was poisoned to death, how could I dare to be curious?
That was true, the more you knew about such things, the sooner you died.
An hour later, Hu Jia had extracted all the information Wang Shuiqi knew.
October 22nd, Monday. The day after Ran Min's death, Wang Shuiqi received 30,000 yuan from the other party. As requested, he had to retrieve the letter before the police could sort through Huang Yuan's belongings. Unfortunately, he had a meeting that day, so he sent a subordinate to the training institute.
The letter was found inside a leather suitcase. That night, he delivered the letter to the private room of the Heaven Suite at Jun Zai Lai Teahouse.
As for who came to pick up the letter, Wang Shuiqi had no idea.
Wang Shuiqi didn't know, but that didn't mean Hu Jia couldn't find out.
He immediately went to the Jun Zai Lai Teahouse to investigate and quickly identified the person: Wu Neng from the Materials Section of the Education Bureau.
Heh, what a nice name.
Soon, Luo Wenwu brought Wu Neng to the office, and a surprise search of his home yielded the batch of letters.
Wu Neng was also very forthright and readily admitted to stealing the letters.
"Why did you steal these letters?" Hu Jia laid the letters out on the table.
"Because I didn't want my affair with Huang Yuan to be discovered." Wu Neng was open, as everyone had already examined the letters before he came in. They were all filled with Wu Neng's sweet nothings to Huang Yuan.
When Lü Qingqing saw the contents of the letters, her face turned green.
All her life, she had heard from others about how wonderful Huang Yuan and her husband were. She never expected such filth behind that facade of perfection.
According to Wu Neng's confession, he met Huang Yuan during a joint activity between the police academy and another institution. Their clandestine relationship had lasted for a year and a half.
Just half a month ago, Yi Ran discovered their relationship. Seeing that their secret was out, they planned to come clean.
But Yi Ran refused to divorce Huang Yuan, which led him to think of getting Yi Ran fired to force his hand.
However, before Wang Shuiqi could fire Yi Ran, Yi Ran was dead. Not only Yi Ran, but Huang Yuan was also dead.
To prevent the police from discovering his relationship with Huang Yuan, he thought of retrieving the love letters he had sent to her.
It had to be said that Wu Neng's story was consistent.
However, the credibility of this explanation was not high.
"Weren't you trying to cover up your affair, and that's why you killed Huang Yuan and her husband?" Lü Qingqing was very suspicious.
After all, the government had regulations for officials, and one of them was not to disrupt other people's marriages.
Regardless of whether anyone followed it, it was always written into the law.
"No, it wasn't me. I wasn't even in Chongqing last week," Wu Neng said.
Not in Chongqing?
Wu Neng explained that on October 18th, a school in Hechuan County was in its final preparation stages. As the head of the Materials Section of the Education Bureau, he naturally had to represent the government and offer some care and support.
There were no smooth roads from Chongqing to Hechuan; it was all mountainous terrain, and one could only travel up along the Jialing River.
Therefore, on the 15th, which was the previous Monday, Wu Neng loaded his goods onto a boat and went to Hechuan. He only returned to Chongqing on the evening of the 22nd.
As soon as he disembarked, he heard about Huang Yuan and Yi Ran. That's why he arranged for Wang Shuiqi to steal the letters.
No wonder Wu Neng so readily admitted to instructing Wang Shuiqi to steal the letters; he already knew he could clear his name.
Yi Ran died in the early morning of the 19th, and Huang Yuan died on the morning of the 19th. The belongings of Huang Yuan were to be moved on Tuesday the 23rd.
Wu Neng only returned to Chongqing on Monday, which logically explained why he arranged for someone to retrieve the letters three days later.
After verification, it was indeed as Wu Neng said, and the entire case fell into a stalemate.
"Could it be that he hired someone to administer the poison?" Lü Qingqing analyzed.
"That's a possibility," Hu Jia said, and then suddenly remembered, "By the way, how were they poisoned? Was any of the food identified as the entry point? The delivery vehicle for the poison?"
"No," Gao Liang said with an embarrassed expression. "We checked all the food they had consumed during this period, including the leftovers from the previous night, and found no castor oil."
Hmm?
Although disappointed, this was not surprising. Perhaps the killer had discarded the container after administering the poison.
In the evening, Hu Jia once again lingered at Lü Qingqing's house, waiting for dinner.
Lü Qingqing was busy in the kitchen, creating a symphony of pots and pans, while Hu Jia repeatedly reviewed the case files and everyone's statements.
Everything seemed so normal, so flawless, with no apparent loopholes.
"Let's eat first," Lü Qingqing said, looking at Hu Jia, who was engrossed in the documents, a hint of worry in her heart.
She knew that Hu Jia's intense effort was driven by his desire to quickly solve the current case so he could free himself up to investigate the case of Li Yang being framed.
"The person who could poison Huang Yuan and her husband so silently must be someone they knew. From this perspective, Wu Neng indeed had no opportunity to commit the crime, as Yi Ran would certainly not have eaten anything he offered."
"If Wu Neng hired someone to administer the poison, that person would have to be someone Wu Neng trusted implicitly and also be familiar with Huang Yuan and her husband. However, the three of them worked in different environments, and their social circles did not intersect. Therefore, if such a person existed, they would be easy to find. But we can't find anyone, which means such a person likely doesn't exist."
"Since such a person doesn't exist, and Wu Neng himself had no opportunity to commit the crime, he can basically be ruled out as a suspect."
"Indeed, if he truly harbored murderous intent, he wouldn't have threatened Yi Ran under the guise of work. Doing so would only enrage Yi Ran."
Lü Qingqing also shared her thoughts.
"Then it seems our investigation direction was wrong," Hu Jia rubbed his nose, feeling exhausted.
"Sister, brother-in-law, if you don't eat soon, it'll get cold," Duobao tapped his rice bowl. "Can't you talk about whatever you have to say after we eat?"
Hearing her brother's teasing, Lü Qingqing blushed. What secret talk? This was work-related.
Seeing Hu Jia's wry smile, Lü Qingqing felt a pang of shyness and quickly lowered her head to sort the letters and documents on the table. "Let's go, we'll talk about it after we eat."
With quick hands, Lü Qingqing neatly folded the letters one by one and put them into their envelopes. "This Wu Neng is quite amusing. He wrote love letters and addressed them to the Imperial Censorate? What a romantic gesture!"
Hu Jia smiled and helped stuff the letters into the envelopes. "Perhaps he truly saw Huang Yuan as his own censor. After all, men in Chongqing are often henpecked and fear their wives."
Lü Qingqing's face turned redder. "You can put them away yourself. I'm going out now."
Hu Jia smiled; it was nice to tease her occasionally.
But when a long time passed and Hu Jia still hadn't come out, Lü Qingqing became a little restless.
He wasn't going to start reviewing case files again, was he?
Lü Qingqing stood up. "Dinner, didn't you hear me?"
"Qingqing, look, do you see any difference in these envelopes?" Hu Jia spread all the letters out on the table.
Different envelopes?
Lü Qingqing walked over suspiciously and carefully compared each letter.
No, to be precise, she was looking at the envelopes.
Suddenly, her expression changed.
"The handwriting on these envelopes is all different. Not written by the same person?"
Hu Jia smiled. "Indeed. We've always been focused on the content of the letters, but we never looked at the handwriting on the envelopes. These envelopes all have the same recipient address. A total of 18 letters, and the handwriting on each one is completely different."
Therefore, Wu Neng was lying.
These letters were not written by him at all.
He had swapped the contents of the letters, using love letters to lull everyone into a false sense of security!
A masterful act of deception!