I am a super cop

Chapter 3033 He disappeared
The sudden situation made Gu Chen feel that this place was very strange. Although Zhang Meng's dog was not very wary, it would bark a few times if it encountered strangers.

But now he's dead in the yard, his throat slit by a sharp weapon.

Clearly, a fight had taken place here, but a dog wouldn't bite its owner, so there must have been someone else involved.

Or, to put it another way, someone got into a conflict with Zhang Meng, and Gouzi went to protect his master, only to be killed by the other party.

But now, Gu Chen found no signs of a struggle in the room, which puzzled him greatly.

"Nobody's here." After checking the bathroom, Gu Chen confirmed that there was no one else in the room, including all the wardrobes and places where people could hide.

It was originally an old two-bedroom apartment. Gu Chen was very puzzled as to where Zhang Meng would go.

"That's strange." Lu Weiwei crossed her arms and said thoughtfully, "What's Zhang Meng up to? How could he suddenly disappear?"

"And the dog was also killed. What happened? Did something happen to him?"

As Lu Weiwei pondered, she also thought of the phone call she made to Zhang Meng yesterday. Suddenly, Lu Weiwei's eyes lit up, and she looked at Gu Chen and said:
"Junior Brother Gu, don't you think Zhang Meng got into trouble yesterday?"

“Yes.” Gu Chen nodded in agreement, and slowly said, “The dog in the yard died yesterday, so obviously Zhang Meng must have had an accident yesterday as well.”

"Yes," Lu Weiwei nodded silently, speaking without further ado.

“I felt something was wrong when I made the call yesterday. At first, the call went through but no one answered. Later, the call simply stopped going through.”

After thinking for a moment, Lu Weiwei added, "It's possible. Something happened to Zhang Meng yesterday afternoon."

"Because it's evening." Gu Chen stated his opinion as soon as Lu Weiwei finished speaking:

"Judging from the condition of the dog in the yard, it was probably killed around yesterday evening."

“The call went through yesterday afternoon,” Lu Weiwei said.

Gu Chen thought for a moment and slowly said, "Perhaps Zhang Meng was in danger at that time, but it was inconvenient for him to answer the phone."

"Of course, anything is possible. The most important thing now is to figure out what exactly happened here."

Taking a deep breath, Gu Chen looked around and said, "The room is very clean; it has obviously been carefully cleaned."

“If a murder has occurred here and the killer has cleaned up the scene, that would be very troublesome.”

"Perhaps the murderer thought that since Zhang Meng lived alone, even if he killed Zhang Meng, no one would know about it in a short period of time."

"Yes, that's what I feel too." Hearing Gu Chen say this, Lu Weiwei slowly replied:
"It's just a feeling that the murderer believed Zhang Meng was someone who was rarely noticed."

"Perhaps Zhang Meng's neighbor might know something," Gu Chen said thoughtfully.

Lu Weiwei's eyes lit up, and she slowly said, "The old lady we met before, she knows Zhang Meng. Why don't we go and find her?"

"Okay." Gu Chen nodded silently upon hearing this.

Lu Weiwei added, "However, there are very few residents here, so finding these neighbors will probably be quite troublesome."

“No matter how troublesome it is, I have to find out. I need to know what exactly happened here. Just the fact that a dog died in the yard doesn’t prove anything.”

"Because Zhang Meng is not here and the room is very clean, we cannot conclude from this that a murder has occurred here."

Taking a deep breath, Gu Chen said again, "From now on, let's check the room first, and after we make sure there are no problems, we'll go find Zhang Meng's neighbor."

“Okay.” Hearing Gu Chen say this, Lu Weiwei nodded in agreement.

The two then turned on the lights in the room and began to carefully search every detail.

However, after going around the room, the two were surprised to find that there was nothing wrong with it and everything seemed normal, which made them feel incredible.

Lu Weiwei crossed her arms and said thoughtfully, "Although the room was cleaned very thoroughly, there were no signs of murder. It was as if a clean, retired old man had meticulously cleaned it."

With a soft sigh, Lu Weiwei added, "This is very troublesome."

"No matter how troublesome it is, we must get to the bottom of this." Gu Chen took a deep breath and said thoughtfully.

"This Zhang Meng is indeed very suspicious."

"If his previous purchase of that expensive watch for 32 yuan was already hard for us to explain, now we also know some things about his relationship with the watch's owner, Wang Tianming."

"But what about now? The dog in the house suddenly died, and the other person is nowhere to be found. That's very strange."

"Ugh." Lu Weiwei's head was buzzing too. After taking a deep breath, she slowly said:

"How about this, let's go ask Zhang Meng's neighbors first, maybe they know something."

"That's all we can do." Gu Chen had no better options at the moment, since everything here seemed to be telling him that the problem wasn't so simple.

After leaving the room, Gu Chen took off his shoe covers and gently closed the door. When leaving the yard, to prevent any damage to the yard, Gu Chen asked Lu Weiwei to go out first, and then locked the yard from the inside.

Then they climbed over the wall again.

Finally, the two of them went directly to the area around the residential complex to look for other residents.

Although the place was already dilapidated and even the roadsides were overgrown with weeds.

However, it is still possible to quickly identify other residents here.

Because in places where people live, there are usually not many weeds in front of the door.

Gu Chen and Lu Weiwei finally found another family's house a few buildings away from Zhang Meng's.

So the two of them went to the door of the house and prepared to knock.

After all, this is also a ground floor unit, and it's a household with a yard.

"Knock knock knock, is anyone home? Knock knock knock." Lu Weiwei knocked on the door.

Soon after, a commotion was heard in the courtyard.

"Who is it?"

The speaker was an old woman.

Lu Weiwei quickly asked again, "Is anyone home?"

The old lady walked to the gate of the courtyard and opened the door.

Upon seeing Lu Weiwei and Gu Chen, his eyes suddenly lit up.

Lu Weiwei and Gu Chen arrived at the same time, pleasantly surprised, because the old lady who opened the door was the very same woman they had met on the street the day before. "Oh, it's you!" Lu Weiwei exclaimed with delight, smiling as she spoke.
"Do you remember me?"

"Who are you? You're the one who spoke to me yesterday?" Although the old lady was old, her memory was still good.

Gu Chen quickly added, "That's right, we saw him on the roadside yesterday, and we even asked you about Zhang Meng."

"Yes, yes, it's you." Upon hearing this, the old lady looked at Gu Chen again and became even more certain.

Gu Chen quickly asked again, "Have you seen Zhang Meng from yesterday to today?"

"Zhang Meng?" Upon hearing Gu Chen's words, the old lady thought for a moment and shook her head: "Never seen him before. What? Do you need to see him?"

“We did have something to discuss with him,” Gu Chen said.

"Oh." The old lady nodded silently, then continued to ask, "Did you see him yesterday?"

"I've seen him." Gu Chen nodded silently and continued to explain:

"However, after we left, we tried to call him, but the phone was unreachable and eventually turned off."

“We came to find him early this morning, only to find his dog dead in the yard, its throat slit by a sharp weapon.”

"What? Zhang Meng's dog is dead?" The old lady was shocked upon hearing the news and slowly said:
“I know his dog. It always stays with Zhang Meng. Wherever Zhang Meng goes, the dog follows.”

“When I saw Zhang Meng on the street, he always had this dog with him, but how did this dog die?”

"I don't know what's going on either," Gu Chen shook his head and said without further ado.
“We found that the door to his house in the yard was unlocked. We were afraid that something had happened to him, so we climbed over the wall and went into his house. But the house was very clean, and we didn’t see Zhang Meng.”

"So, I came here to ask you if you can find Zhang Meng's whereabouts."

"Oh dear." Hearing Gu Chen say this, the old lady also looked worried:
"I don't know either. I rarely see Zhang Meng. I really don't know anything about Zhang Meng's situation."

After a pause, the old lady added, "But Zhang Meng's sudden disappearance is definitely not normal."

"I think if he had something to do, he would have taken the dog with him, right? And the dog died in the yard, which is definitely not normal."

“Yes, if you think it’s abnormal, then it’s definitely abnormal.” Hearing the old lady say this, Lu Weiwei couldn’t help but chime in.

Gu Chen quickly asked, "Grandma, is Zhang Meng usually clean?"

"Love." Hearing Gu Chen's words, the old lady nodded silently and said without further ado:
"Zhang Meng is such a clean person, the yard is always spotless."

"Moreover, the room is cleaned regularly. Even though he lives alone, it is still very well-maintained."

Taking a deep breath, the old lady asked again, "But how could Zhang Meng's dog have died?"

"Grandma." Seeing that the old lady was also hesitant, Gu Chen quickly reminded her:

Have you encountered any suspicious individuals entering this area from yesterday to today?

"Suspicious persons?" After thinking for a few seconds, the old lady looked at Gu Chen and Lu Weiwei and explained:

"Yesterday, I only saw the two of you strangers. No one else? I didn't see anyone else."

"That's strange." Lu Weiwei was completely puzzled and said slowly:

“Something must have happened to Zhang Meng. Madam, are there any other residents here? Could you take us to see them? We'd like to ask them if any of them have seen Zhang Meng?”

"Okay." Hearing Gu Chen and Lu Weiwei say this, the old lady nodded silently and said without further ado:
"I'll take you there."

Seeing this, the two men helped the old lady out of the yard.

The old lady also introduced the environment to Gu Chen and Lu Weiwei as they walked.

Because the population is so small, the facilities here are very inadequate and there is no surveillance.

The roadside was overgrown with weeds and no one was clearing them, but the only good thing was that it was quiet.

The area is lush with vegetation, so the air is fresh.

The old lady led Gu Chen and Lu Weiwei to a nearby high-rise building. Because the old lady had difficulty moving around and climbing the stairs, she shouted directly to the second-floor balcony, "Old Yang, Old Yang."

"Old Yang." Seeing that the old lady's call was weak and powerless, and worried that the people inside might not hear her, Lu Weiwei also called out along with the old lady.

A short while later, the sound of the wooden door opening was heard, and a man wearing a white vest slowly walked out.

Seeing the three of them standing downstairs, he asked curiously, "What's the matter?"

"Have you seen Zhang Meng?" the old lady asked.

"No, what's wrong?" The old man called Lao Yang also looked puzzled.

So Gu Chen quickly explained, "Hello, Uncle Yang, we are from the Furong Branch, and we have something to discuss with Zhang Meng."

"But we found that his dog was dead in the yard, its throat slit with a sharp weapon. We were worried that Zhang Meng was in danger, but his house was unlocked and we couldn't find any trace of Zhang Meng."

“The room was very clean, with no signs of a struggle, so we felt something was amiss,” Lu Weiwei quickly added.

Grandpa Yang was completely bewildered. He scratched the back of his head and then leaned on the balcony and said, "Wait for me a moment, I'm coming down."

Before long, Grandpa Yang, wearing slippers, shuffled down the stairs and came to the group.

"Officers, do you think something has happened to Zhang Meng?"

"Hmm." Gu Chen and Lu Weiwei exchanged a glance, then looked at Grandpa Yang and said "Hmm" in unison.

"Oh dear, I rarely run into Zhang Meng. He usually stays at home and only buys groceries once a week. I only occasionally run into him when I'm buying groceries."

"Does he buy groceries once a week?" Gu Chen asked Grandpa Yang for confirmation upon hearing this crucial information.

Grandpa Yang nodded silently and said without hesitation, "Yes, I go out to buy groceries every Monday without fail."

"I buy a week's worth of groceries at a time, and then put them in the refrigerator."

After a pause, Grandpa Yang added, "Anyway, Zhang Meng has his own routine. No matter how much groceries he buys, he always chooses to go out on Mondays."

"So sometimes when I go out to buy groceries on Mondays, I'm sure I'll run into him, and I'll say hello and chat for a bit."

"I see?" Hearing Grandpa Yang's explanation, Gu Chen nodded silently, and then said without further ado:
"Uncle Yang, do you know who Zhang Meng is close to around here? You mean, the kind of people he interacts with frequently?"

"In this area?" Hearing Gu Chen's question, Grandpa Yang waved his hand: "He doesn't get along with anyone. He's a rather... introverted person."

……