"Is your family that rich?"

Zhou Ze asked as he handed Zhang Yanfeng a cigarette.

There was a reason for his question.

And Zhou Ze felt a strong sense of identification with this reason, because it was closely related to him, at least for a while.

What's the difference between a nephew (waisheng) and a nephew (zhizi)?

A nephew (waisheng) is the child of your sister, born to your sister and her husband, and doesn't share your family name.

A nephew (zhizi) is the child of your brother, born to your brother and his wife, and shares your family name.

Your own sibling's child is a nephew (zhizi), while someone else's sibling's child is a nephew (waisheng), because your sister is married into another family, and her child belongs to that family.

Of course, there's an exception: if the man has married into the woman's family.

If Zhou Ze hadn't intervened, Xu Le's situation would have been similar to that of Zhang Yanfeng's brother-in-law.

"My family used to run a small factory. When my parents were alive, they arranged this marriage for my sister. My dad was a policeman, and the factory was originally managed by my mom. After my sister got married, the factory was basically handed over to my brother-in-law. I'm not good at business anyway, and I don't want to bother with it.

"After that incident five years ago, the factory closed down, and my parents passed away in the years following due to the impact of the incident."

Zhang Yanfeng spoke as if he were an outsider. This was his professional instinct. As a veteran criminal investigator, he knew that emotional things shouldn't be brought into his work.

"Wait a minute."

Zhou Ze raised his hand, puzzled.

"Your brother-in-law is already in jail, right?"

"Yes, he's in there, for abuse."

"Then who put this villa up for sale?" Zhou Ze asked, confused.

Yingying had already transferred the ownership of this villa, so the property nominally belonging to Zhang Yanfeng's sister's family now belonged to Yingying, which meant it belonged to Zhou Ze.

"Being sold?" Zhang Yanfeng frowned, clearly unaware of this.

"Yeah, it should have been bought by my family."

"You bought this house?"

"Is that a problem?"

"You..." Zhang Yanfeng didn't know what to say.

"So, even if you didn't come to me for help, I would have come to take a look. In any case, it's my own house, so I have to sort things out."

"Maybe my brother-in-law's relatives are selling it. His name was on the house too."

"That's your family's business. Anyway, my buying the house was legal and legitimate."

"It's just a house. What I want is the truth, the truth about the deaths of my sister and my two little nephews," Zhang Yanfeng said solemnly.

Just a house...

Zhou Ze took a deep breath and looked up at the sky.

This villa hadn't been cleaned for a long time. Zhang Yanfeng would come over from time to time, but it wasn't realistic to expect him to clean the whole place thoroughly.

There was a layer of dust on the sofa. Zhou Ze blew it off and sat down, asking,

"Tell me the details again. I haven't finished reading the case file. It was a suicide by poisoning, right?"

"Yes, suicide by poisoning. My sister and her two children were huddled together when they died."

"Where?"

"Right on the sofa you're sitting on."

"..." Zhou Ze.

Zhou Ze even turned his head to look. He didn't see anything, of course, and he wasn't scared enough to jump up. What storms hadn't Boss Zhou seen? Was he afraid of this?

"If it was suicide, how is it related to your brother-in-law?" Zhou Ze asked, puzzled. "Hey, you're not deliberately trying to vent your anger, are you?"

This was just a joke. Zhou Ze still believed in Zhang Yanfeng's integrity. He was a good policeman and wouldn't do something like that.

"This case involves my relatives, so I recused myself. I wasn't directly involved in the investigation.

"The bodies were discovered by the housekeeper who came to clean every day. She called the police.

"When our police examined the bodies, we found obvious signs of being bound and abused on my sister and her two children. There were both new and old marks, indicating that they had been abused and subjected to domestic violence for a long time.

"So, the police's conclusion was that they couldn't bear the long-term domestic violence and abuse, so they decided to take their own lives. My sister did something foolish and took her two children with her to commit suicide by poisoning."

"Isn't the case pretty clear?" Zhou Ze asked.

"My brother-in-law doesn't admit it," Zhang Yanfeng said.

"But he was still sentenced."

"Although it wasn't for murder, he was sentenced to ten years for imprisonment and abuse, which led to serious consequences," Zhang Yanfeng said.

"So, what's the reason for you continuing to investigate?" Zhou Ze asked curiously.

The case was really clear.

"My brother-in-law isn't that kind of person. Although he married into our family, our family treated him very well. My parents treated him even better than they treated me, their own son, when they were alive."

Zhou Ze picked at his ear.

Every family says that.

Zhou Ze was sure that when Doctor Lin's parents talked about him to relatives, they would definitely say how good they were to their son-in-law, but now that ungrateful wretch didn't even come home.

"My sister has a good personality too. She's very gentle and considerate."

Zhou Ze picked at his ear again. Every older brother says that.

"My brother-in-law is also a good person. I met him personally, and I vetted him. He's not that kind of person."

"People can change," Zhou Ze comforted him.

For some reason, after listening to this long account, Zhou Ze felt like Zhang Yanfeng was a sulking child.

What the hell?

Can you call any of that a reason?

He's good, I'm good, everyone's good.

It's like the average salary income that's statistically calculated.

Who believes it?

"I've seen the bodies of my sister and her two children, and I've examined them," Zhang Yanfeng said, sitting down on the floor, not caring whether it was dirty or not. Of course, Zhou Ze thought this guy was dirtier than the floor, with the full visual effect of a sloppy TV police officer.

But somehow, this kind of sloppy police officer was very popular with young female police officers.

This case wasn't Zhang Yanfeng's responsibility, but it wasn't a problem for him to look at the case files and examine the bodies given his status.

"There were indeed a lot of scars and bruises on their bodies, and they were very serious. There were both new and old injuries, and some of the injuries looked like they were years old.

"Since she got married, my sister has basically stayed at home taking care of the children, and she rarely goes out. She has very little social interaction. She's a full-time female writer who likes to stay at home."

"And then?" Zhou Ze yawned.

"But, the problem is, one week before the incident, my son had just finished his college entrance exam, and I took him to a water park. I took my nephew and niece with me."

As he said this,

Zhang Yanfeng's eyes suddenly turned red, like a hungry wolf, he roared at Zhou Ze:

"I swear, at that time, I didn't see any scars on my nephew and niece!

"Then where did those damned,

"horrifying old injuries on their bodies,

"come from after they died a week later!"

Zhou Ze was stunned.

A week before the incident, Zhang Yanfeng took his son and nephew and niece to the water park. The two children must have been wearing swimsuits, and his nephew was definitely only wearing swim trunks. Whether there were injuries or not, Zhang Yanfeng, the veteran criminal investigator, would definitely be able to see it at a glance.

He said there weren't any, so there definitely weren't any.

If there had been any, Zhang Yanfeng would have taken a gun and gone to find his brother-in-law that very day, without waiting for the incident.

This was strange,

After someone dies,

do scars appear on their body? And even old injuries can be faked?

Zhou Ze had heard that some antiques could be aged, real objects could be made to have a patina, and calligraphy and paintings could be aged, but can injuries on a dead person's body also be faked?

"So, that's why I think there's a problem with this case!" Zhang Yanfeng took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. "It's also why I believe what my brother-in-law said, that he didn't abuse my sister and her two children."

"But what you said can't be used as evidence," Zhou Ze said.

Zhang Yanfeng nodded. "Yes, what I said can't be used as evidence, and the forensic鉴定 (jianding, assessment) results also confirmed that the two children had suffered at least two years of abuse and torture."

Zhou Ze stood up and looked around.

"In that case, things are a bit unbelievable."

"I've investigated this case for a long time, but I haven't had any clues. Until I met you, I felt that if you were willing to help me, you could definitely help me find a breakthrough.

"That chain tormented me for twenty years, and you were the one who solved it."

"Don't rush to put a high hat on me. You want to say that there are non-human factors at play behind this case, right?"

"咚咚咚 (dong dong dong)! 咚咚咚 (dong dong dong)!"

At this moment, a knocking sound suddenly came from upstairs.

Zhou Ze and Zhang Yanfeng exchanged a look and rushed up the stairs.

"That's the bedroom, my sister's bedroom."

The sound was coming from there.

Zhang Yanfeng kicked the door open directly.

But there was nothing in the bedroom.

However, even Zhou Ze could confirm that the sound had indeed come from here.

"咚咚咚 (dong dong dong)... 咚咚咚 (dong dong dong)..."

The sound came again!

"Under the bed!"

Zhang Yanfeng immediately took out his gun and kicked the bed out of the way.

Under the bed,

there was actually a blood-soaked Teddy bear,

lying on its side and waving its paws non-stop.

Even when people came, it didn't seem to notice, and continued to squirm.

Zhou Ze squatted down and pressed down on the Teddy bear. The Teddy bear was still struggling in pain, as if it was enduring some kind of torture.

But soon,

it stopped moving.

It lay prostrate on the ground, barely alive, with little light left in its eyes.

"Someone else's pet ran in?" Zhang Yanfeng said, pointing to the dog tag on the Teddy bear.

This was clearly someone else's pet, definitely not a stray dog.

"Don't worry, look here."

Zhou Ze pointed to the scars on the Teddy bear,

"These wounds have already healed, they're old wounds,

"these are the wounds that have just split open, they haven't scabbed over yet."

Saying that,

Zhou Ze turned his head to look at Zhang Yanfeng and asked:

"Doesn't it look like your sister?"