Chapter 202 - 202: The System Is Feeling Grievous. The Host Suspects It Has Cracked Again?
Chen Jianguo is dead.
He was found dead in a small river not far from their home. Surveillance footage showed that he had walked to the riverbank himself and stayed there for a while. Then, as if he wanted to catch some fish, he ventured into the water and accidentally slipped and fell. His head happened to hit a nearby rock, and shortly after, he sank beneath the surface.
It was a little past three in the morning when someone returning home from the night shift spotted a figure floating in the river. That’s when the call to the police was made. Upon arrival, the authorities handed the case over to Su Xuan. After all, the deceased was no one else but Chen Jianguo.
“Oh, old man, how could you leave us like this!’
“If only I hadn’t argued with you…”
“Leaving us as orphans and a widow, what are we going to do!
“You heartless old man…”
“Oh, old man…”
When Su Xuan approached, Lan Xiaofen had already been called out by someone. She was by Chen Jianguo’s lifeless body, crying uncontrollably. It seemed she had just rushed out of bed, her clothes inside out. Her wailing filled the air, causing those nearby to lower their heads, fearing tears might escape their own eyes. The commotion had drawn a crowd of onlookers.
The crowd gathered around consisted of people who had argued with Lan Xiaofen just yesterday morning, along with their family members. Seeing Lan Xiaofen cry like this made some of them feel sympathetic. After all, this was a life at stake.
“What happened to Chen Jianguo?”
“Why did he end up in the river?”
“I heard he had an argument with Xiaofen and ran out before falling into the
river…”
“Oh my! No wonder Xiaofen is crying like this! She isn’t blaming herself for this, is she?”
“It’S really unfortunate. They had a fight just yesterday, and now he’s gone…”
“It’s a complicated situation…”
“Yeah… and I don’t know when Chen Jianguo’s son is coming back…”
Whispers and hushed conversations spread through the crowd, making Lan Xiaofen’s crying even more heart-wrenching during the pauses.
Su Xuan furrowed his brow as he looked at Lan Xiaofen and then at the lifeless body on the ground. “Has the forensic expert arrived?” he inquired. “Do we know how much time elapsed between the discovery and the time of death?
Have we reviewed the surveillance footage?”
Su Xuan had just arrived and hadn’t had a chance to view the surveillance footage. However, his colleagues who had already done so provided him with the information.
“Chen Jianguo left his house around nine o’clock yesterday evening,” one of them explained. “He stood by the riverbank for over half an hour before falling in at 9:53 PM. He struggled in the water for about ten minutes before sinking to the bottom.”
“The body was discovered by Mr. Zhang, who was returning home from work.
He called the police.”
Hearing this, Su Xuan frowned and glanced over at Mr. Zhang, the one who had discovered the body. Mr. Zhang seemed visibly anxious about the situation, constantly asking when he could finish giving his statement and go home.
After a few seconds of silence, Su Xuan instructed someone to take Mr. Zhang to record his statement. If it was indeed an accidental drowning, then Mr. Zhang’s role as the discoverer wouldn’t be too significant. What bothered Su Xuan more was the timing of Chen Jianguo’s fall into the river.
It all seemed too coincidental. Su Xuan couldn’t help but wonder. However, at this moment, Lan Xiaofen was still sobbing uncontrollably by the side of the body, wailing loudly. Moreover, there was no appearance of any sin values on her.
But the situation was just too coincidental, making it hard for him to believe that this was just an accident.
“System, is it possible that we’re facing another one of those situations where there are sin values but they don’t appear?” Su Xuan couldn’t help but think about the frustratingly unreliable nature of this system, as it had caused him trouble before.
However…
[Ding! Host, please refrain from slandering the system.]
The system had its dignity!
Su Xuan:…?
Even though there were no sin values, Su Xuan still wasn’t entirely reliant on the guilt point labels provided by the system. The circumstances surrounding this incident were too suspicious, and Su Xuan couldn’t help but entertain the thought: Did Lan Xiaofen harbor a grudge from their altercation earlier in the day and resort to violence?
But looking at the surveillance footage, it was clear that Lan Xiaofen had no connection to this incident. Yet, if they followed the facts, Lan Xiaofen, who had been involved in a domestic violence case earlier that day, was under significant suspicion.
However, what surprised everyone was Lan Xiaofen’s reaction when she heard that the police were suspecting her. She widened her eyes, incredulous, and retorted,
“Are you guys out of your minds?”
“I’m married to Jianguo!”
“Even if he did slap me, so what? We’ve been married for so many years, and our child is already grown up. Do you think I would kill him over something
like this?”
“I mean, officers, please don’t make the investigation sound so absurd, alright?”
“I’d rather it be me who used violence… then I would have given up halfway for sure…”
As she spoke, Lan Xiaofen, who had momentarily paused her crying, started sobbing again. She was genuinely grieving over her husband’s death.
Their family wasn’t particularly wealthy. During the demolition, they hadn’t received much compensation due to bad luck. On top of that, they had spent a significant amount on building and renovating their house, depleting their savings.
Even if they had real marital conflicts, it was unthinkable for her to kill her husband. There were future expenses for their child, and if her son were to get married and have children, both of them, the elderly couple, would need to provide financial support. For the sake of money, she couldn’t possibly let their family suffer such a significant loss, especially considering their deep emotional bond built over so many years of marriage.
Though she had indeed been very angry yesterday and had wanted to give him a beating, causing his death was out of the question. What on earth were these police officers thinking?
“You old man, why did you have to die so early?
“Why didn’t you take me with you when you died?”
“How am I supposed to live alone from now on?
“Why are you so heartless? Why did you leave so soon without waiting for me…” “Jianguo!”
Lan Xiaofen’s voice in the darkness seemed to carry an eerie and ghostly quality. Su Xuan’s face turned somber. At this moment, he was indeed feeling a bit perplexed.
“If it wasn’t for Lan Xiaofen…”
“Have there been any conflicts with him recently?
-Not just in the past month, but in the past three months. Find them all for me!”
“I’ll check the records…”
Chen Jianguo’s body had been taken to the forensic examination room, while Lan Xiaofen, who had fainted from crying, had been temporarily sent to the hospital. The police contacted Chen Jianguo’s son, Chen Naidong, who was on his way back from Hangzhou.
“Su Xuan, what do you think?”
Zhou Qiang rushed over in a hurry. His vacation had just ended, and he had heard about the incident. Perhaps due to spending a lot of time with Su Xuan recently, he came to find Su Xuan as soon as he heard the news.
“Do you really think it was the deceased’s wife who killed him?”
He looked at Su Xuan with skepticism.
In Zhou Qiang’s perspective, Su Xuan shouldn’t be someone who jumps to conclusions without fully understanding the situation.
“No,” Su Xuan replied, “I just think this whole situation is too much of a coincidence.”
“Lan Xiaofen and the deceased had just had a conflict, and then he died the same night.”
“It’s necessary to consider her as the prime suspect.
However, this didn’t mean that Su Xuan believed Lan Xiaofen was the one responsible for the death..