Eyes that are the same as those of evil

Chapter 16 The Case of Soul-Seeking at the Coffin 5
What did Zhao Li do that his own family thought he deserved to die?

Tan Ming suddenly thought of the soybeans in Zhao Li's pocket.

He immediately called the forensic team to focus their examination on the soybeans, and then called the funeral team to inquire about the custom of stuffing soybeans into the mouth of the deceased.

He barely ate two bites of the fried rice noodles he bought before handing them to Tan Jia and leaving in a hurry.

Tan Jia watched his hurried departure, her brows furrowed.

Last time, the excuse was "I dreamt about seeing a corpse and then turned myself in." This time, it's a roundabout way of asking questions and smuggling in personal agendas to make a difference to the case investigation.

What about next time?
……

The survey results on soybeans came out quickly.

Forensic examination confirmed that the soybeans in Zhao Li's pocket were covered in sweat stains, indicating that Zhao Li had been holding them tightly for a long time before his death.

Moreover, the amount of soybeans was incorrect. According to custom, three soybeans should be placed in the mouth of the deceased and seven should be scattered in the coffin. However, there were only a few soybeans left in the whole bowl in the mourning hall. Where did the rest go?
Was too much spilled into the coffin by accident? Or was even more stuffed into the deceased's mouth?
Why was Zhao Li sweating so much at that time?
Tan Ming had a thought that was about to surface: "There's probably something fishy about Old Master Zhao's death."

Xiao Chen was shocked: "Then, then we have to dig the person out again, open the coffin, and perform an autopsy?"

Zheng Yan nodded: "Go and do some ideological work with the Zhao family."

The task was notoriously difficult; when Xiao Chen mentioned it, he was nearly overwhelmed by the furious Zhao family.

They had been listless and silent before, but now they were as agitated as a machine gun charging forward, refusing to budge no matter how seriously they were told.

"Don't you want to find out exactly how Zhao Li died? Don't you want to know who killed Zhao Mingqian? Both of them died under mysterious circumstances, and you'd rather let the murderer mingle among you than find out the truth?!"

“Our Zhao family is already a joke! Now they want to investigate my elder brother for patricide… My elder brother is a good man, he would never do such a thing!”

"The old man had terminal cancer and passed away the day before yesterday afternoon! He has now been laid to rest, protecting our Zhao family descendants. To open the coffin? Impossible!"

As they argued, they started crying again.

"That's it, that's it! Even if our eldest brother did something he shouldn't have, we won't blame him. Mingqian did it for Grandpa... we won't blame him either! Let's just leave it at that, we won't investigate anymore!"

More than thirty people cried out, glaring angrily at the police, determined not to compromise.

Zheng Yan looked at Zhao Man, the only one who wanted to find out the truth. Her thin body, sitting in a wheelchair, looked like a piece of paper, as if it had been blown away by the wind.

Her eyes were red and swollen, and she looked dazed. Surrounded by her aunt and uncle, she no longer asked for an investigation as she had before.

Silence is also an answer; the biggest victim no longer wants to continue the investigation.

Zheng Yan watched the farce unfold without pressuring Zhao Man, only informing her to call them if anything happened, and then told the second team to leave the scene first.

On the way back, an intern in the team asked, "Team Leader Zheng, are you really not going to investigate?"

Xiao Chen answered on his behalf: "How could that be? This is a criminal case involving murder. But with the Zhao family doing this, it's really difficult to advance the case. Investigating from other places won't be as effective."

"We still need to investigate. Tan Ming, how's the investigation into Zhao Mingqian's social connections going?" Zheng Yan asked. "We've asked a few of his ex-girlfriends and male friends who have been in contact with him recently, but we haven't found any more clues. However, it's said that Zhao Mingqian has some ambiguous relationships, but we don't know their identities. We'll have to wait for the technical team to check Zhao Mingqian's phone to find out," Tan Ming said.

“In a self-built house in the countryside, there are no surveillance cameras. The whole family can get together and discuss things directly. There probably aren’t any online chat records either…” If we can’t get the Zhao family’s confessions, it will be really hard to investigate this case.

The group returned to the police station with sighs and groans. The only good news was that they finally had time to eat.

It was well past lunchtime, so they ordered rice bowls from the restaurant across the street and continued to analyze the entire case while eating.

After they had almost finished eating, Zheng Yan's phone rang. An unfamiliar number appeared on the screen, and when he answered, it was Zhao Man's voice.

"Shh—" He gestured for the others to stop talking and asked Zhao Man in a gentle voice what was wrong.

"Uncle, thank you for your hard work these past two days... I'm sorry, I know I made things difficult for you today..." Zhao Man seemed to be in a private space, very quiet, so much so that the suppressed sobs in her voice were quite obvious.

Zheng Yan guided him by asking, "Don't you want to investigate any further? Your father is dead, and even if the matter concerning your grandfather is proven, no case will be opened for investigation. You don't need to worry about your father's reputation."

“But…but after my father died, all I have left are these relatives. I have to go abroad for surgery in half a month…” After choking up, Zhao Man murmured weakly, “I will carry on my father’s last wish and live well. It’s just that my family company can only be taken over by Brother Mingyue…”

They've already made plans for the future; the Zhao family probably tried to persuade them privately for a long time.

Zheng Yan then asked, "So what did you want to say when you called?"

"I... I wanted to ask if there's any way to recover the money my father gave to my fourth uncle's family over the years?" Even though she didn't want to pursue the matter further, Zhao Man's tone still betrayed her resentment when she spoke of the suspected murderer.

Zheng Yan seized the opportunity to say, "That was something your father gave them willingly. There were no IOUs or records of each transaction, so it's probably impossible to recover it. However, if it's found out that Zhao Mingqian was indeed the murderer who killed your father, then you can sue his family for compensation."

Zhao Man hesitated for a moment: "Let me think about it... No matter what, I will never let them touch a single penny of my family's money again. I can tolerate other people wanting money, but... Uncle, do you know that if I want Fourth Uncle's family to be separated, I have to use this as a pretext to ask Brother Mingyue and the others to sign documents..."

If Zhao Mingyue were a money-grubbing person, he would definitely agree that losing a relative in exchange for a company is a much better deal.

The eighteen-year-old girl knew that she was unlikely to be able to keep her father's inheritance, so she racked her brains to find some guarantees, but it was pointless to ask a policeman who only wanted to investigate the case.

After a few more words, the person on the other end silently hung up the phone, and Zheng Yan began to sigh.

“The whole family are wolves whose appetites have been inflated by money. They’re blocking the investigation, and I’m afraid I’ll receive news of Zhao Man’s death again tomorrow.”

After all, once the eldest son's family is wiped out, the money left behind will truly be ownerless, and then it will be easy for others to steal it.
Xiao Chen: "Why doesn't Zhao Man hire a lawyer to help her inherit the estate and leave? She is now the sole primary heir to Zhao Li's estate."

“She has more than 30 relatives, and she is in a wheelchair. It’s a problem whether she can even leave her house.”

Tan Ming said, "We're secretly keeping an eye on things in Shiyuan Village? They probably won't hold any more rituals after Zhao Li and Zhao Mingqian's deaths. Some people will leave one after another, and something fishy might come out."

Zheng Yan nodded.

I thought we could only patiently wait for the murderer to slip up, but unexpectedly, a major turning point came that very night.

Zhao Mingqian's mother, Liang Yun, said she had important clues to provide.

(End of this chapter)