Siheyuan: The Era of Struggle

Chapter 440 Rat Poison

Upon hearing this, Wang Jibin smiled and calmly handed the file and threatening letter he was holding to Liang Weimin, saying:

"Secretary Liang, if I'm not mistaken, the person who wrote the threatening letter is probably this Zhu Yonggui."

"Zhu Yonggui, Zhu Laonian?"

After hearing Wang Jibin's words, Li Weizhong stared wide-eyed in disbelief and said, "Comrade Jibin, are you sure you're not mistaken? I know this Zhu Yonggui. He's a coward who's not very educated. How could he possibly write a threatening letter?"

Wang Jibin was somewhat displeased that someone was questioning his eyesight, but he didn't show it on his face at all, and said in a calm tone:

"I only have a suspicion. As for whether it is this person or not, we can just call him over and ask him."

Hearing Wang Jibin's flippant words, Li Weizhong felt slighted and a surge of anger rose within him.

"Comrade Ji Bin, this won't do. We must be rigorous in our work. Without substantial evidence, we cannot arbitrarily use the workers' reputations."

I know Zhu Laonian well; he's a perfectionist. What if this matter accidentally leaks out? Will he even be able to live with himself? If something really happens, who will take responsibility?

Wang Jibin was, after all, someone He Yuanchao had invited. When He Yuanchao saw Li Weizhong trying to intimidate him with his grandstanding, his face immediately turned ugly.

“Secretary Li, you can’t say that. We only suspect Zhu Yonggui now, not that it’s definitely him. Besides, when it comes to the safety of the No. 1 factory, everyone has an obligation to cooperate with our security department’s investigation.”

If the final investigation results indicate he is not the perpetrator, I will apologize to Comrade Zhu Yonggui in front of everyone at the First Factory.

He Yuanchao spoke these words with absolute certainty, clearly demonstrating his support for Wang Jibin.

Li Weizhong was stumped, but at the same time, he was also awakened by the words "the safety of the first factory".

Li Weizhong was somewhat annoyed after being humiliated by Wang Jibin and He Yuanchao.

"Deputy Director He..."

"Alright, stop with the nonsense."

Sensing the tension in their conversation, Liang Weimin frowned, looked up, and reprimanded Li Weizhong. Then, he handed the unclear file and threatening letter to Wang Jibin, saying:

"Comrade Ji Bin, tell everyone the basis of your judgment."

After hearing Liang Weimin's words, everyone wanted to broaden their horizons, so they all gathered around Wang Jibin. Li Weizhong, who had just been scolded, was too embarrassed to come closer, but he stood behind the crowd and craned his neck to look inside.

Wang Jibin didn't hide anything, pointing to the signature on the file and the handwriting on the threatening letter:
"Everyone, first look at the character '永' in the file, and then compare it with the character in the threatening letter. When the suspect wrote the horizontal stroke with a hook, although he deliberately wrote it crookedly, his subconscious writing habits did not change."

When writing a horizontal stroke with a hook, he would apply extra pressure and tap the brush before hooking upwards, regardless of whether he was using his left or right hand. This resulted in his horizontal strokes with hooks not being written in a single stroke; you can easily spot this characteristic if you look closely.

Upon hearing this, everyone's eyes darted back and forth between the file and the threatening letter. Regardless of whether they could discern anything, they subconsciously nodded and whispered among themselves about the similarity of the handwriting.

Li Jiefang's mind wasn't on this; he was only thinking about arresting the person as soon as possible.

Seeing everyone gathered around Wang Jibin, looking at the file and threatening letter in his hand, she felt anxious and couldn't help but tug at He Yuanchao's sleeve and whisper:
"Director, what's the point of studying that stuff? I think it's more worthwhile to arrest the person and interrogate them as soon as possible."

"Don't rush, wait a bit longer and see what Secretary Liang and Secretary Li mean."

He Yuanchao also wanted to bring Zhu Yonggui back for questioning as soon as possible, but since Liang Weimin and Li Weizhong remained silent, he couldn't make a decision on his own. Although the two of them spoke in hushed tones, the others present could hear them clearly.

Liang Weimin withdrew his gaze from the threatening letter, glanced at Li Weizhong, and seeing him nod slightly, he didn't waste any more words and directly called to He Yuanchao:
“Yuanchao, send someone to fetch Zhu Yonggui and ask him about the situation.”

After saying that, he remembered Li Weizhong's words and felt uneasy, so he quickly added another sentence.

"When you go to pick up people, don't make a big fuss. Be careful with your questioning methods and don't be too aggressive."

"Yes, Secretary Liang. I'll arrange for someone to fetch Zhu Yonggui right away."

Li Jiefang felt very uncomfortable around Liang Weimin, Mo Dacheng, and the others. No sooner had He Yuanchao finished speaking than he eagerly interjected:

"Director, I'll take some men to find Zhu Yonggui right away."

After saying that, without waiting for He Yuanchao's response, he grabbed Ding Liangcai, who had been silent all along, and ran away into the distance.

He Yuanchao wanted to call Li Jiefang over and give him a few words of advice, but looking at Ding Liangcai beside him, he thought for a moment and ultimately didn't speak.

Although no one knew whether Wang Jibin's handwriting identification was accurate, things were finally starting to look promising, and the expressions of the two main leaders, Liang Weimin and Li Weizhong, improved considerably.

Watching Li Jiefang and Ding Liangcai run off into the distance, Li Weizhong smiled and said:

"Alright, let's not stand here any longer. Let's go back to the conference room and wait for news!"

Upon hearing this, Liang Weimin nodded. At this moment, the matter of the threatening letter was more important than anything else, and he couldn't care less about the copper ingots for the time being. He immediately started walking into the office building.

Everyone followed Liang Weimin back to the small conference room, hoping to see Zhu Yonggui soon. However, after waiting for almost half an hour, there was still no news.

Just as Liang Weimin was about to send someone to see what was going on, a young security guard in his early twenties hurriedly pushed open the door to the small conference room.

He entered the room, glanced at everyone's faces, and walked straight to Li Weizhong, panting as he said, "Secretary Li, something bad has happened. Zhu Yonggui has been drinking rat poison at home."

Upon hearing this, everyone in the room jumped up from their seats.

Li Weizhong grabbed the guard's arm, his face grim, and asked, "What happened? Why did Zhu Yonggui drink rat poison?"

The young guard was in some pain from Li Weizhong's grip, but seeing everyone gathered around him waiting for news, he was a little intimidated by such a large crowd and didn't dare to struggle. He grimaced and said:

“We…we don’t know…we don’t know why Zhu Yonggui…why he drank rat poison. When we went to his house…when we found him at his house, he had already drunk…drunk rat poison.”

Li Weizhong breathed a slight sigh of relief when he heard that it wasn't because of the questioning by the guards. Just as he was about to ask what happened, He Yuanchao spoke up first.

"How is Zhu Yonggui now? Is he dead or alive?"

The young security guard knew that He Yuanchao was the head of the security department of the main factory, and when he asked, he did not hide anything.

"I don't know if Zhu Yonggui is dead or not. When I came back to report, Section Chief Ding had already taken Zhu Yonggui to the hospital with people. I don't know his current situation either."

(End of this chapter)