Chapter 172: Chapter 83 Doubts Abound (Request for Subscription and Collection)_2
It was similar to what they had understood before; Chen Chahua’s parents died early, and she lived with her only uncle, but their relationship was not good, and it was severed after her marriage.
Hearing this, Yang Su was a bit puzzled, "Since her uncle raised her, she should be very grateful, right? Why would their relationship be bad?"
Ge Da’an sighed, "Isn’t it all about the compensation money from her parents..."
It turned out that Chen Chahua’s parents died in a mine collapse accident. Later, the mine gave a large sum of compensation money, but since Chen Chahua was young at the time, the money was handed over to her uncle for safekeeping.
But when she grew up and asked her uncle for the money, he was unwilling to give it to her. Moreover, her uncle’s family treated her poorly, either hitting or scolding her since childhood, so their relationship froze over.
"I have to say, Chen Chahua is also quite heartless. Although her uncle was wrong, he did raise her. How could she be so ruthless, leaving for so many years, never contacting anyone, and not even returning when her uncle passed away two years ago."
The two of them were noncommittal about his opinion.
In their view, if the truth was as he said, it was completely understandable that Chen Chahua would not associate with her uncle’s family.
But this raises a question: if Chen Chahua hated her uncle’s family so much, why did she make that phone call at the time to specifically tell them she was leaving?
Although this might not have much to do with the case itself, figuring it out could be key to solving the case, so both of them felt it necessary to confirm once more.
"Village Chief Ge, can you tell us who is still living at her uncle’s house? We want to learn a bit from them."
"Wang Jian’s two sons are working out of town now, only his wife Zhang Lan still lives in the village."
Wang Jian was Chen Chahua’s uncle.
"Then could we trouble Village Chief Ge to take us there?"
"Then come with me."
The two followed Ge Da’an to Zhang Lan’s house. As soon as they entered the yard, they saw a woman in her fifties with a bundle of pigweed in her hand, walking out.
"Zhang Lan, are you home?"
Ge Da’an greeted and pointed to Luo Fei and Yang Su, "These two are detectives from the criminal investigation team, they want to ask you some questions."
Upon hearing they were from the criminal investigation team, Zhang Lan quickly put down the pigweed and came over, somewhat nervously asking, "What brings you two here?"
"Auntie, don’t worry, nothing’s wrong. We’re just here to learn about Chen Chahua."
"Chahua? Hasn’t she been gone for several years now? What else is there to learn?"
"Well, recently the county is conducting a population census, focusing on missing and uncontacted persons, so it’s necessary. We hope you can cooperate a bit; we’ll leave after asking."
"Oh, I see. Please come in and sit down, let’s go inside and talk."
Ge Da’an was in a hurry to go home for lunch, so he left after saying these words.
Luo Fei and Yang Su then went inside with Zhang Lan.
After pouring them each a cup of tea, Zhang Lan sat down opposite them.
"Officers, just ask whatever you need to know."
"Auntie, according to Village Chief Ge, there seems to have been some conflict between Chen Chahua and your family, is that right?"
Luo Fei tried to ask as tactfully as possible to avoid offending the other party.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Lan just snorted and frankly said, "Isn’t it all about her parents’ compensation money?"
Luo Fei had imagined she wouldn’t want to bring up the compensation money she had taken, but she spoke about it so casually that he quickly seized the opportunity and asked, "Auntie, could you tell us more about it?"
"Chen Chahua’s parents’ compensation money was indeed with her uncle, but raising her was no easy task; food, clothing, schooling—all cost money, didn’t they? We struggled too..."
Zhang Lan started lamenting about their poverty and was very aggrieved, "But that ungrateful girl didn’t consider our difficulties at all. Under Yang Dawei’s bad influence, she insisted we return the money to her. Don’t you think that’s ungrateful?"
Luo Fei did not express his view but asked, "Are you saying that the reason Chen Chahua asked for the money was because of Yang Dawei?"
"Isn’t that right? Chahua was obedient before, but everything changed after dating Yang Dawei. She even dared to go against her uncle and me for him. I’m telling you, Yang Dawei is no good!"
"What happened after that?"
"Of course, her uncle didn’t agree. Why should we give her the money after raising her? So that brat kept insisting on severing ties with us. Sever? Fine, do it! Like we’d be afraid of her."
Zhang Lan sneered dismissively.
From her tone, it was evident that they had intended to keep the money all along.
Luo Fei asked calmly, "So you really severed ties after that and had no further contact?"
"Exactly, after that incident, Chahua married into Yang Dawei’s Yang Family Village, and she never returned for holidays or festivals. But Yang Dawei came every so often to cause trouble."
"What did he cause trouble about?"
"Of course it was about money!" Zhang Lan was furious at the mention, "Officer, you tell me, what right does he have to demand money? Does this money have anything to do with him?"
"Anyway, I always felt he was with Chahua for the money, and sure enough, later he frequently committed domestic violence. As you know, Chahua was beaten and ran away, leaving no trace for years."