Chapter 8: The Disabled Boss, A Crucial Clue

As someone entered the interrogation room, the middle-aged woman inside became visibly agitated and attempted to stand up. "Comrade officers, why have I been brought here? I haven't done anything wrong!"

Lin Che and Li Li took their seats, with Li Li leading the questioning and Lin Che taking notes. "Auntie, don't be nervous. We're not saying you've done anything wrong. We just need your cooperation in a case. Please tell us everything you know truthfully."

"I'll cooperate, I'll cooperate!"

The middle-aged woman was extremely nervous, fidgeting in her seat. Lin Che noticed that she appeared much older than her actual age and had a disability in her right arm, which was missing half of its length. The wound seemed to be over a decade old. "Are you Liu Ahua?"

"Yes, yes."

"Do you own Ahua Convenience Store? How long has it been open?"

"Yes, it's mine. It's been open for about five or six years."

"Liu Ahua, do you know a woman named Zhou Xinyu?"

"Zhou Xinyu..." Liu Ahua repeated the name, thought for a few seconds, and then shook her head. "No, I don't."

Li Li and Lin Che exchanged glances. Lin Che then held up a photo of Zhou Xinyu. "Take a closer look. Do you recognize this person?"

As soon as Liu Ahua saw the photo, she immediately nodded. "Yes, yes, I know her. I didn't know her full name, but I always called her Xiao Zhou. She often came to my store to buy things and supported my business."

Li Li nodded and continued, "Were you close with her?"

"Not really. We just chatted a bit when she came to buy things."

"What did you talk about?"

"Just casual things, like how the price of fruits had gone up or which vegetables were fresh."

Li Li held up a milk bottle in an evidence bag. "Do you sell this kind of milk in your store?"

Liu Ahua examined it carefully and confirmed, "Yes, this milk sells well. I have an agreement with the distributor in this area, and they deliver it every morning."

"How many bottles do they usually deliver?"

"Twenty bottles."

"Do they usually sell out?"

"Pretty much. Sometimes they're not enough, but I don't dare to order more. This milk is all about freshness. If it doesn't sell on the same day, no one will buy it the next day."

"What do you do with the unsold ones? Do you change the date and sell expired milk as fresh?"

At this point, Li Li's tone and gaze became sharper. Liu Ahua, frightened, stomped her feet and waved her hands. "No, no! I run a neighborhood business. If I did that, I would have been shut down long ago! The unsold milk is discounted the next day. There are a few people in the neighborhood who specifically buy this discounted milk to feed their dogs. If it still doesn't sell by the end of the day, I boil it for my daughter to drink. I would never let it sit until the third day! The neighbors support my business. How could I do something so harmful?"

"Did Zhou Xinyu come by the day before yesterday, on the 28th?"

"The day before yesterday... Yes, she did!"

"What time did she come, and what did she buy?"

"It was around 5 p.m. I was cooking at the time. She bought a bottle of milk, half a winter melon, and a pomelo."

"Did you talk about anything?"

"We just chatted a bit. She said she had been feeling a bit overheated lately and wanted to buy a pomelo to boil the peel for tea, saying it would help cool her down. I specifically picked one with a thick peel for her. I also told her that winter melon soup helps with heat, so she bought half a winter melon. She even asked me how to make winter melon soup."

"Before that, did anyone suspicious come to your store?"

Liu Ahua thought for a moment and shook her head. "No, it was mostly regular customers from the neighborhood."

Lin Che gestured to Li Li to pause for a moment. "Liu Ahua, you mentioned that when Zhou Xinyu came to buy things, you were cooking. Could you see what was happening in the store from the kitchen?"

Lin Che asked. "No, I couldn't."

"How long was it from the time you left the store to cook until Zhou Xinyu came to buy things?"

"At most ten minutes. I was just stir-frying a dish when I heard her call me."

Lin Che nodded. "Let's continue."

Li Li asked a few more questions. Lin Che's phone vibrated—it was a message from Xu Yang, saying that Wang Wan's secretary had arrived. Lin Che arranged for Xia Jie to take over the note-taking.

In the break room, Yu Huan closed her laptop and stood up to greet Lin Che as he entered. She was still dressed the same as she had been during their noon meeting. "It's almost midnight, Secretary Yu. Did you just get off work?"

"The company has been very busy lately."

Lin Che poured a glass of water and handed it to her. "Did Ms. Wang send you?"

"No, I came on my own."

Yu Huan's words made Lin Che pause before sitting down. "Secretary Yu, let's talk in the interrogation room."

"Alright."

On this side, Xu Yang was in charge of the main questioning. "Secretary Yu, you accompanied Ms. Wang Wan here at noon but didn't say anything. Now you're here alone late at night. Is it because what you have to say isn't appropriate for Ms. Wang Wan to hear?"

"No, it's because I saw the progress report on the case released by the police. It mentioned Xinyu's cause of death, time of death, and the procedures followed by the police station after receiving the report. It said the case is still under investigation, but it didn't say it was a suicide. Plus, at noon, you didn't allow Ms. Wang to take Xinyu's body. Can I assume that there are still issues with the case and that Xinyu might have been killed by someone else?"

"Secretary Yu, we can't disclose the details of the case. Let's start with why you're here."

Yu Huan nodded. "To be honest, although Xinyu had attempted suicide many times before, I don't believe the current Xinyu would harm herself. I didn't say anything at noon because I didn't have evidence to back up my claims at the time."

"Are you saying you have evidence now?"

"I'm not sure if it counts, but after seeing the police's case update, I don't think I'm overthinking it. There might be more to Xinyu's death."

Yu Huan took out a few sheets of paper from her bag, which contained printed WeChat chat records. Lin Che skimmed through them and found them similar to what he had seen from his cousin. The conversations showed that Zhou Xinyu had a very positive attitude toward life.

"And this—" Yu Huan took out a contract termination agreement. "This is a contract termination agreement my lawyer friend helped Xinyu draft. In June, Xinyu came to me and said she wanted to terminate her contract with the comic website because the editor had sold the copyright to her new comic without her knowledge. She also suspected that the website had been embezzling part of her earnings since 2016. My friend went to the comic website on November 16th to negotiate the termination and compensation, but the other party was very uncooperative. According to the recorded conversation, the editor of Mengman Comics, Wang Qiong, made many threatening remarks, including that she would take revenge on Xinyu!"

Lin Che and Xu Yang exchanged glances. This was a very useful piece of information that they hadn't uncovered before. "We will investigate this matter further."