Eyes that are the same as those of evil

Chapter 103 The Army of Justice 5
Jin Xiangyuan's steamed bun shop is located at a crossroads. It is said that because the buns taste good, many restaurants and hotels order them from him. In addition to individual customers, his shop is open from five or six in the morning to two or three in the afternoon, and after taking a nap, it is open from five or six in the evening to eight or nine.

He was hurriedly called home by his neighbor this morning, and temporarily entrusted the shop to the helper he had hired. Now he is rushing back to take over the business.

Zheng Yan and his group went to a steamed bun shop.

The intersection was indeed bustling with people, and even in the afternoon, people continued to come to buy steamed buns. However, the person standing in front of the steamer selling things was someone else. Jin Xiangyuan was sitting in the shop, head down, wrapping steamed buns.

Tan Ming went in and called him. Jin Xiangyuan shuddered before he came to his senses and asked them to sit down.

"Why didn't you take a break? You're busy again so soon," Zheng Yan asked gently.

Tan Jia observed his reaction from the side and heard him give a bitter laugh and say, "It's a little better when I'm busy, but I still can't believe this happened. My brain is like mush."

"Please accept my condolences. For the sake of your family's peace, the most urgent task is to find the murderer as soon as possible. Half a day has passed; have you thought of anyone suspicious?"

Jin Xiangyuan shook his head again, his eyes red: "The murderer stole things and killed my whole family... I can't think of anyone I could have such a deep grudge against. Even if we had some minor arguments, it wouldn't be this serious, would it?"

Tan Ming briefly told him about their visit, and then asked, "Is it possible that she is your ex-wife?"

“Impossible!” he immediately retorted. “My ex-wife and my mother have conflicts, but she loves her son very much. How could she possibly harm her son? Besides, she just saw her son recently and said she was going on a trip out of town.”

Zheng Yan reassured them, "We just don't want to overlook any possibility. Think again, could it be a competitor of your steamed bun shop?"

"Where would a steamed bun shop get competitors? We're just small businesses. Although we've made some money, there are plenty of people who are richer than us."

"The murderer may have known that you only have elderly people and children at home, and initially only wanted to steal your money. The murder was an impromptu act. Think back again, has anyone frequently asked you how much money you've made?"

Kim Hyang-won propped his head up as he recalled, his fingers gripping his hair in obvious pain.

While he was trying to recall, Tan Ming and the others questioned the other two helpers at the steamed bun shop.

"I heard that steamed bun shops are quite profitable, but I don't see that they make many steamed buns here. Are they almost all sold out in the morning?"

"Yes, and the store's main profit comes not from selling individual items, but from supplying in bulk. A batch of raw dough is delivered to several restaurants and hotels in the morning and evening, and other breakfast shops also get their supplies from us."

"You've turned steamed bun shops into suppliers!" Tan Jia asked curiously. "How many steamed buns do you make a day?"

The man glanced at her, seemingly thinking she wasn't a proper police officer, and his answers were all directed at Tan Ming: "I can't count them all, I'm sick of them."

"Besides making and selling steamed buns, are you responsible for anything else? Like buying vegetables and meat and delivering them?"

"The owner does most of the grocery shopping himself, and we arrive at the store a little later than him. He also does most of the deliveries himself, because there are more deliveries at night. He lets us go home first and then delivers them slowly by himself."

Tan Jia realized that there might indeed be a problem with the cost aspect.

She then asked, "Are your salaries high? It sounds like Mr. Kim does most of the work himself."

The other person subconsciously pursed their lips, then quickly glanced at Jin Xiangyuan's direction.

She sensed something was amiss and pressed her advantage, asking, "What's wrong? Is his salary too low, or is there a problem with the workload? Don't worry, when we investigate a murderer, we need to deduce the suspect's motives from the victim's true circumstances." Tan Ming glanced at her, thinking that she had learned her rhetoric quite well from Captain Zheng.

The helper hesitated for a moment, then finally whispered, "It's not that I'm betraying the boss at this time, but he really is... just a nice guy on the surface. We heard his steamed bun business was doing well, and thought he had some special recipe, so we came to learn from him. But after we got here, we found out he's just so-so. Now that he has us two apprentices, he doesn't seem to care much about making steamed buns anymore. We're basically the ones making them all day long, and he just makes a little bit at a time. He's also responsible for buying meat in the morning and delivering it in the evening. To be honest, if we weren't hoping to learn how he negotiates business with those restaurants, we would have quit long ago."

Oh, so Kim Hyang-won is a heartless boss who likes to exploit his employees.

Based on the clues found so far, the Jin Xiangyuan family may have some flaws, but they are not evil enough to warrant the judgment of that "righteous person".

Is this case really related to the mysterious person?
While she was still pondering the connection, Zheng Yan had provided a clue.

Jin Xiangyuan remembered someone.

“Wang Laoyao from Pozi Street used to live in the ping-pong room in our community. He was idle and always ate on credit. A while ago, he bought some steamed buns from me and kept asking me if I had made a lot of money. I don’t know who told me that, but he even said that since I was so rich, it wouldn’t hurt for me to give him a few steamed buns. I cursed at him a few times, and he even spat at me.”

They asked seriously, "What's this person's real name?"

“It seems to be Wang Kai, Wang Kaichun?” Jin Xiangyuan said, then paused for a moment before adding, “I’m just guessing, it’s not certain. I’ve lived here for so many years, I don’t want to treat everyone like a murderer.”

Zheng Yan expressed his understanding, and then led a group of people to Wang Kaichun's home.

Wang Kaichun is a 40-year-old bachelor with no job, no proper family, and both parents deceased. He is an alcoholic who likes to steal and do petty theft, and he either freeloads or runs up his bills when he eats out.

The reason people were willing to extend credit to him was because he was on welfare and could always pay back a little money each month.

Another reason is that people don't want to offend these thugs.

“He sounds like a habitual thief,” Tan Jialu said. “But would someone like him be so afraid of being caught stealing that he would kill someone?”

Zheng Yan walked ahead, turned around and looked at her, saying, "I've discovered a flaw in you now. You always want to achieve things in one fell swoop, and you want to find someone who perfectly matches your characteristics right away."

She raised her eyebrows, remembering that her aunt had said the same thing.

Zheng Yan then said earnestly, "But solving cases isn't that easy. You have to be prepared for the initial investment to go unrewarded. Look at crime dramas, the suspects who appear first are usually not the real culprits. Don't you carry a clay figurine with you? Try kneading it to calm your mind."

Tan Jia pretended to obediently take a deep breath, then took out the dough figurine and kneaded it.

But he said, "It's because I experienced the murderer's perspective in my dream that I was able to skip the steps in solving the problem when I already knew part of the answer."

Tan Ming coughed twice, intending to whisper a lesson to her not to argue with her boss like that, but Zheng Yan stopped and looked at her with great appreciation.

"That's true. You're a dream specialist, which makes you different from people like your brother. I like your personality."

Tan Ming: "..."

I really want to roll my eyes.

Sorry I'm twenty minutes late, hehe, because I scrapped all my drafts and rewrote them. This time I came up with a much better plot that connects the previous and subsequent parts~


(End of this chapter)