Chapter 9 - Case 1: Dismemberment

Chapter 9

“Divorce?” With tears in her eyes and a bitter smile, Zhong Qing said, “During the first year of marriage, he pretended to be normal, but rarely slept with me except for those few days in the middle of the month. Then after I got pregnant, he let me nurse the baby in peace and rarely slept with me. One day, I logged on to his computer and found some pictures of random men. I cried about it and told my mother, my own mother’s first reaction was, ‘This must never be known to anyone else.’ It was as if it was some kind of scandal that couldn’t see the light of day.”

“In the beginning, I didn’t understand my mother. I felt like the people closest to me shouldn’t make decisions for me, and I cried all day then. Then I realized that my mother’s words weren’t entirely wrong. Do you know how people reacted when they found out that I was married to a gay man? The first thing they thought was that I must be an unscrupulous woman, otherwise why did he have to marry me and not someone else? He is the one who was obviously at fault, but I am also sinful, dirty, and sick in the eyes of others!”

Zhong Qing’s smile was bitter, and the words that had been suppressed for a long time finally came out, “Those friends and relatives who knew about this incident not only didn’t help me, but also thought that I was stupid, that I deserved it, and that I was abnormal. But in fact, I’m the victim! Apart from getting married to a man who didn’t love me, I wasn’t in the wrong!”

“You’re right. I’ve wanted a divorce more than once or twice, but if I could have gotten one, I would have done it a long time ago. The elderly, the life, the son, the family, everything will be caught up in the middle. It’s just not something that I can divorce when I want to.”

“You’re probably not familiar with a term called ‘co-wives’. Nor will you know what kind of group it is, what kind of life they live, and don’t slam your superficial understandings on us. We, the co-wives, have a far more miserable life than you can imagine.” Here she tried to laugh again. The meek woman seemed to be gone, replaced by a vicious somewhat hysterical woman, “After he died, I was a little sad but I was more relieved……”

As Zhong Qing said this, her shoulders were shaking, as if she had let out over a decade’s worth of pressure. This time her crying was not for Lin Zhenghua, but for the past ten years of her life. She seemed to cry for a while before she realized her disposition and covered her face, “I’m sorry, can I go to the bathroom?”

Before Song Wen and Lu Siyu could answer, she got up and walked to the bathroom.

The two men were silent for a while. They were not unaware of the group of co-wives. Every gay person seems to encounter this problem when they reach a certain age. Should they choose a woman to marry or continue to choose the one they love? After all, there are only a few who can get married abroad. If they don’t get married, regardless of whether they have a stable partner or not, this kind of de facto marriage may not be recognized for a lifetime. There are some homosexuals who compromise, then the co-wife falls victim.

Lu Siyu sat on the side and bowed his head for a while. He suddenly asked Song Wen in a small voice, “Captain Song, can I ask you something?”

Song Wen was familiar with Lu Siyu’s current expression and raised his watch. Sure enough, it was 12:01. It was mealtime again. He had no choice but to guess what Lu Siyu wanted to do. He frowned and said, “Little ancestor, you don’t want to warm up food in the funeral home, do you?”

Lu Siyu nodded and shook the high-grade Japanese bento box he was carrying in his black backpack.

“……” Song Wen was incomparably overwhelmed, “Ancestor, when did you go to bed yesterday?”

“I didn’t look at the clock, maybe two or three o’clock.” Even if the sky falls, Lu Siyu can’t skip the three meals a day. Lord, he can’t help being hungry. His biological clock was extremely accurate. It was meal time and it was like an inflatable doll that had been deflated, the whole person lost his radiance.

Seeing that he was about to lie down on the table, Song Wen felt helpless. He suppressed his temper and negotiated with him eloquently: “Wait, let’s first find a convenience store?”

“Why don’t I go by myself…” Lu Siyu made a suggestion.

“…….What did they teach you at the police academy? Two or more people must be present during investigations.” Song Wen grabbed him, and then he looked at the time again, “Okay, I will speed it up, so endure for another half an hour okay? Just half an hour……”

While Song Wen negotiated with Lu Siyu, he felt really aggrieved as a Captain. He was obviously a criminal police captain, but now doing this work, was he really not a nanny? But no matter how resolute he usually was, and how much he said; when he was stared at by Lu Siyu’s beautiful eyes, he felt as if he had met his nemesis and had no power to fight.

After a round of bargaining, Lu Siyu finally nodded his head.

As soon as the two of them reached an agreement here, Zhong Qing came out of the bathroom. Song Wen walked up to her and asked her, “Ms. Zhong, how did you get here?”

“I just took a taxi, I don’t know how to drive……” Zhong Qing had just washed her face, but her whole body had a slight sense of panic, not the calmness she just had. She kept stroking her messy hair with her wet hand.

“Can I give you a ride home and stop by your house?” Song Wen asked.

“This…… “Zhong Qing hesitated, “The house is a bit of a mess……”

This was a tactful excuse. Song Wen pretended not to understand: “We are on the way. It won’t be long. My colleague is in a hurry to eat.”

Zhong Qing looked at Lu Siyu, who was rubbing his stomach with one hand on the side. He was indeed hungry and his chest was almost attached to his back. She said nothing, but reported an address. If the police wanted to go, how could she, a woman, stop them?

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The three people got into the police car. Song Wen drove, Lu Siyu sat in the passenger seat and Zhong Qing sat in the back. The woman seemed to have been immersed in the emotions just now, and there were low sobbing sounds from the back seat from time to time. Song Wen didn’t want to press too hard, so he didn’t ask her any more questions. He should go through the process to apply for a search warrant of Zhong Qing’s residence, but he prefers to take her by surprise, only in this way can he uncover more hidden truths.

Zhong Qing’s residence wasn’t too far away from the funeral home. Only about fifteen minutes away, not too far from the room she had rented before.

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Song Wen was the most familiar with the terrain of South City, and he had drawn a mental map in his mind so that this location would be just right to form an equilateral triangle with Lin Zhenghua’s company; all of which could be reached in ten minutes by car.

This apartment is a six-story old-fashioned building. The residence is on the fourth floor, and the area is quite large. It has three bedrooms, two living rooms, one kitchen and one bathroom, and there are balconies in the front and in the back.The two of them changed into their disposable slippers, and after Zhong Qing introduced them in, she went to the side and poured two cups of water for them.

She seemed to have recovered from the death of her husband and the interrogation she had just gone through, she was as indifferent as usual: “We don’t have any guests often at home, so it’s a bit messy.”

That was a really modest statement, the house was amazingly tidy. The entire residence could be seen to have very few traces of Lin Zhenghua.

“This is my room, this is my son’s room. Lin Zhenghua doesn’t come back often, if he does come, he’ll stay in the guest room.” Zhong Qing briefly introduced it. They were husband and wife, yet they lived like two tenants under the same roof.

Song Wen walked in and looked at the photo wall in Lin Shang’s room, which had several pictures of the family. There was one of his father taking him to the playground when he was young, one of him visiting a museum when he was older, and one of Zhong Qing and Lin Zhenghua celebrating Lin Shang’s birthday. The family in the photo didn’t look unusual at all compared to the average family.

Lu Siyu also came over to take a closer look, one of the photos was slightly crooked. He blinked and couldn’t help but reach out and arrange that photo neatly.

Zhong Qing said, “He has no feelings for me but he is good with his son. After all, he is a father. Before today, I still had a trace of hope and didn’t tell him his father’s death… I don’t know how I should tell him.” At this point, Zhong Qing had an embarrassed expression on her face. After all, this is not a glorious thing.

Song Wen’s gaze fell on the side of Lin Shang’s desk, which was full of study tools, and on the other side of the desk, a few merit awards were placed.

After a few glances here and there, Lu Siyu seemed to lose interest and floated to the kitchen with his bag on his back. He pointed to the kitchen countertop and asked, “There used to be a juicer in this spot, right?” The countertop was a few years old and somewhat yellowed. In one of the spots, the color was different from other parts, and there was even an arc-shaped mark can be seen.

“Oh, there was actually a juicer there. I originally bought it to make juice for my son, then Lin Zhenghua used it a few times and thought it was good, so he took it away. I don’t know where he took it. I always wanted to buy it again, but I keep forgetting.” Zhong Qing replied in detail again, answering in a seamless manner.

Song Wen knew in his heart that the juicer originally placed here should be the same one on site, in terms of size and shape. He watched Lu Siyu looking around in the kitchen, going in and not coming out; as if in the next second he was going to ask if he could use their microwave oven to heat up a meal. He was very worried about affecting the glorious image of the police department.

Seeing that it’s almost time, Song Wen took out a business card from his pocket and said to Zhong Qing: “Well, we won’t bother you anymore, this is my business card. If you think of any clues, please call me at any time. You can also go to the police station to find us. According to the regulations, the remains need to be kept for a while before they can be cremated…..”

Lu Siyu had almost seen enough, and took the initiative to walk outside the door. He walked to the door and suddenly stopped when he was changing his shoes.

Song Wen was standing on the side and talking to Zhong Qing, who took the business card and kept nodding, then she looked at Lu Siyu from the corner of her eyes. That handsome looking little detective was now bowing his head to put on his shoes. The two policemen were a bit difficult to deal with, as if they had already seen through everything.

Lu Siyu, who wore one of his shoes, suddenly raised his head and smiled at her. She didn’t expect that this man would look even more beautiful with a smile, and she was slightly intoxicated.

Lu Siyu stretched out his hand, and in a very casual manner, his slender fingers ran across a pair of men’s leather shoes on the ground…

At that moment, Song Wen happened to turn around and he didn’t see it, but Zhong Qing behind him seemed to have suddenly thought of something, and her face instantly paled like paper……

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Translating team shenanigans

/At murder scene/

LSY : Let’s find a microwave! ლ(´ڡ`ლ)

/At Funeral home/

LSY : Where is the microwave? ◔ ⌣ ◔

/At suspects home/

LSY : Do you have a microwave?(◕‿◕✿)

Song Wen, translating team: