The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 290 Drunkard
"Yes, that's right. The nanny was doing a great job, but a while ago the employer suddenly said they didn't want her anymore, without saying why. The lady was furious. Luckily, I heard she found another job in Baishui Community." The nanny rambled on.

"It seems you two keep in touch?" Qi Fei asked. "We'd like to meet her."

Qi Fei walked out of Huantai Community again, and when he passed the entrance of the real estate agency, he suddenly stopped and looked at the property information at the entrance.

"What's wrong, Fei-ge? Do you want to buy a house in this neighborhood?" Wu Shanqiu asked, puzzled.

Qi Fei pointed to the information above and said, "Do these two houses look familiar?"

Wu Shanqiu followed Qi Fei's finger and immediately noticed something unusual: "Huh? Aren't these the upstairs and downstairs apartments of Ma Ziqiang's? What a coincidence that they're both for sale?"

Qi Fei walked into the real estate agency. Recently, the real estate market has been sluggish, and several salespeople were sitting at their workstations chatting idly.

Qi Fei inquired about the two properties for sale. Upon seeing that the police had arrived, a man who appeared to be the store manager answered, "These two houses were originally intended to be rented out, but they weren't doing well, so we decided to sell them instead."

"Do they belong to the same person?" Qi Fei asked.

"No."

"Then why sell them all?"

"I heard it from the landlords. Both of these houses were owner-occupied, but their neighbors—oh, the ones who died a couple of days ago—were so noisy at night. They were very rude when they tried to talk to them, so the landlords couldn't stand it and moved out. The same problem happened when they rented them out; the tenants couldn't sleep well at night and all wanted to move out after a few days. The landlords found it troublesome, so they listed the houses with me for sale. But the market is bad right now, and I don't think they'll sell them anytime soon."

"Ha, what kind of argument must have gotten so bad that it drove someone to sell such a nice house?" Wu Shanqiu asked curiously.

"That's easy, just ask the two landlords," Qi Fei said.

Because of the real estate agency, they were able to contact two people without much effort.

The first call was to the downstairs apartment. A man's voice came through the phone. Upon hearing that the caller was inquiring about Ma Ziqiang's family, the man seemed reserved: "I saw people in the residents' group saying that this guy surnamed Ma is probably dead. Well, I have nothing to say about that."

"Do you have a conflict with Ma Ziqiang?" Qi Fei asked.

“No conflict, what conflict could there be? I wouldn’t dare have any conflict.” The man said this with obvious emotion. “I’ve been living here for several months now, there’s nothing to say.”

"I heard that Ma Ziqiang's house is very noisy at night. Have you reported this to the property management?" Qi Fei continued to ask.

“The property management company doesn’t dare to get involved in their business. Because of Ma Ziqiang, they’ve replaced several security guards. The new guards heard that they’d lose their jobs if they got involved, so they don’t dare to take it seriously. If I had any other options, would I have sold the house?” “Hmm? What’s their background? Why can the property management company just change people like that?” Qi Fei asked curiously.

"He's nothing special, it's just that this Ma Ziqiang is capable. He always manages to get the security guards to beat him up. If the security guards beat up the residents, they'll have to be fired, right?"

Why did the security guard hit him?

“Ma Ziqiang has that ability to make people so angry they’re ready to fight. I’ve experienced it once and I know it. So I know there’s nothing I can do about it. When you encounter someone like that, you can only accept your bad luck. I’m not short of money, so I’ll stay away from petty people.”

This person's evaluation of Ma Ziqiang was unexpected; it was completely different from the evaluation he had received from Ma Ziqiang's friends. Qi Fei asked with great interest, "Could you elaborate?"

"About a year ago, I moved to Huantai Community. At first, I ran into Ma Ziqiang a few times in the elevator and had a pretty good impression of him; he was quite polite. But late at night, there were always footsteps coming from upstairs. I didn't know what they were doing walking around like that. This noise happened every day, and I thought they were working the night shift, so I didn't pay much attention. But one time, they started banging on things, thump thump thump. I couldn't stand the noise anymore, so I went upstairs and knocked on their door. Ma Ziqiang came out, reeking of alcohol. I argued with him, but he said I was nobody who had the right to tell him what to do, and that I was a poor wretch who bought a house on a mortgage. Haha, I remembered we had chatted briefly in the elevator before, and he mentioned he was on a mortgage. He remembered saying he wasn't completely drunk. He's a scumbag," the resident said indignantly.
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In Baishui Residential Area, Qi Fei and his group met Ma Ziqiang's former nanny.

Unlike the stereotypical image of a nanny, the woman in front of her was about the same age as Song Yun and dressed quite fashionably.

"I am Gong Juan. I heard that your employer had an accident?" the nanny asked, without any surprise.

"Yes, Ma Ziqiang is dead. We want to ask you about his family situation," Qi Fei asked.

"Um, they're pretty good to me." Although she said that, Gong Juan's eyes kept darting around, which did not escape Qi Fei's notice.

"I heard you were suddenly fired. What was the reason?" Qi Fei asked knowingly.

Gong Juan got angry: "I don't know either. At that time, the landlady suddenly told me not to work anymore. I asked her if there was anything I was unhappy about, but she wouldn't say. Later, she gave me an extra month's salary, and I couldn't say anything. I thought she had found a better nanny, but then I heard that she hadn't found a new one. Everyone knows that it's hard to work in their family. If I weren't hardworking, I wouldn't have persisted for more than half a year, and they still fired me like this!"

The nanny kept complaining, and Qi Fei sensed something was wrong: "From what we've learned, this family is quite nice. You said they're notoriously difficult to work with, but what exactly makes them so difficult?"

Gong Juan shook her head after hearing this: "We've seen it all in our line of work. Many families look respectable on the outside, but only they know what they're like behind closed doors. But we're principled and won't gossip about other people's family affairs."

“We are investigating a case, so tell us everything you know.”

“These are just everyday family matters, and have nothing to do with your police investigations.”

"I'm guessing Ma Ziqiang and Song Yun's relationship isn't that great?" Qi Fei said. "I've been to their house a few times. The doors have been replaced, there are many dents on the floor from things being thrown, and the furniture has anti-collision strips with scratch marks on them. Those marks were left at different times. It's normal for one door to be replaced, but almost all of their bedroom doors have been replaced, which means they've been deliberately vandalized. It means they argue a lot at home. Am I right?"

As Qi Fei analyzed, Gong Juan's expression changed, as if she were overwhelmed by unpleasant memories. She sighed, "This employer is good in every way, except he drinks heavily and then starts causing trouble..."