You're supposed to be a security officer, what case are you solving?

Chapter 282 The Vanished Lover!
January 22, 1998 (Lunar calendar 24).

In southern China, it's the Little New Year, a week before the Spring Festival.

The temperature was very low that morning. Without even looking at the thermometer, Zhong Aihua knew that the temperature must have dropped below zero.

He woke up in the morning and turned to hug the person next to him, but he missed.

The bed was cold, but it still smelled of my wife's body fragrance.

Zhong Aihua opened her eyes and heard the weather forecast coming from the radio in the living room.

"According to the Central Meteorological Observatory, our city will experience heavy snowfall in the next two days. Temperatures in the northern areas may drop to minus five degrees Celsius. With one week left until the Spring Festival, we urge all citizens to take precautions against the cold..."

After the weather forecast finished, the radio crackled with static, and then a piano piece, "Für Elise," filled the room.

The music is soothing and flowing, accompanied by the sound of running water in the kitchen.

Zhong Aihua opened his eyes, struggled to get out of bed, put on his down jacket, and went to the living room.

The room was clean and tidy, with a beige sofa cover on the sofa and a wedding photo of the couple on the wall.

The television and refrigerator were spotless, and were also covered with off-white covers to prevent dust from settling on them.

in the kitchen.

A petite figure stood with her back to me, frying eggs with a spatula. Her back was straight, and her wavy hair was tied back, like a beautiful peony blooming in the cold winter.

Zhong Aihua felt very happy to have married such a woman; he felt incredibly fortunate.

I met Yin Hong about six months ago. She was a cosmetics counter clerk in a department store. I met her when I was buying lipstick for my mother.

When Zhong Aihua first saw Yin Hong, she was immediately struck by her beauty.

This girl is so beautiful, she seems to exist in this world.

So much so that Zhong Aihua didn't dare to approach her at all. A single glance from her made Zhong Aihua feel like a schoolchild who had made a mistake, unable to look her in the eye, and she slunk away without even buying her mother a birthday present.

After returning home, Zhong Aihua was distracted and kept thinking about the girl.

Her stunning beauty surpasses that of even the most beautiful movie stars.

The next afternoon, Zhong Aihua mustered up her courage and went to the department store again, but she still didn't dare to approach her.

His initial enthusiasm vanished the moment he saw the crimson color.

He was about to back out, thinking he would just take a quick look at her from afar and then forget about her.

But Yin Hong took the initiative to approach him and asked if he had been here yesterday and if he needed to buy anything.
Looking back now, Zhong Aihua feels that she made the wisest decision of her life: one must have the courage to face death, and at the same time, the courage to express love.

Facing the girl who looked like a lotus emerging from the water, he nodded: "Yes, I want to buy a lipstick."

"For your loved one?" The other person smiled sweetly.

"No, it's for my mother."

"You're so filial." The other person looked at him with surprise.

Danan County is a poor county, and the impact of the wave of layoffs has made it difficult for some families to even feed themselves, so the department store's business is not as good as before.

A young man spending money to buy lipstick, and a high-end one at that, as a birthday gift for his mother, is no ordinary family.

Yin Hong, dressed in a crimson overcoat with a name tag pinned to her chest, was tall and wore a pair of delicate high heels. She enthusiastically and generously introduced the lipstick brands at the counter to Zhong Aihua.

Zhong Aihua's father was the director of the Mining Bureau, and her mother also worked at a bank; they belonged to a highly educated family.

Several years ago, Zhong Aihua watched a Japanese drama on TV called Tokyo Love Story, and he thought the girl in front of him looked very much like Honami Suzuki.

Zhong Aihua couldn't remember what kind of lipstick she had bought at all, and stared at the girl intently.

For the next month or so, Zhong Aihua went to the department store every few days. Of course, he couldn't say he was buying lipstick anymore, but he bought all kinds of other cosmetics, to the point that his mother became the biggest beneficiary, praising him for being filial.

Zhong Aihua is a low-key and reserved person. Unable to find an excuse to get close to Yin Hong, she could only resort to this clumsy method.

Until one day, when he went there again, Yin Hong stared at him angrily and said, "Don't you have money to burn? Don't come here again..."

These words plunged Zhong Aihua into an ice cellar, as if the sky had collapsed.

But the other person's next sentence pulled him from hell to heaven.

"If you want to see me, you can wait until I get off work and we can go for a walk."

Zhong Aihua still remembers the smile on Yin Hong's face, and how excited he was at the time, with the dizziness of falling from a great height flashing through his mind.

And so, Zhong Aihua would wait for Yin Hong to get off work every day, and then they would go for a walk in the park in the county town.

Danan County's economy is driven by coal mining, and there are very few places for leisure in the county town. The two of them explored almost the entire county town.

They were seen dating everywhere. When they got tired of it, Zhong Aihua took the first step in his life and proposed to Yin Hong.

Yin Hong did not agree immediately. She hesitated for half a month before finally accepting Zhong Aihua's marriage proposal.

Zhong Aihua brought Yin Hong back to the city to meet her parents and told them that they were planning to get married, but her mother objected.

The mother only said one thing: She's so beautiful!

Her father, Zhong Weiguo, also said that Yin Hong was too beautiful, but he did not object like her mother did.

Zhong Aihua would never give up Yin Hong.

The parents had no choice but to agree.

The wedding was held in the city. Yin Hong's home is in Jiangcheng, Sichuan Province. Jiangcheng was designated a municipality directly under the central government last year, in 1997, and is 700 kilometers away from An'nan City. Yin Hong's parents died early, and she grew up with her uncle. On the wedding day, very few relatives came from her hometown, and they only attended the wedding banquet before returning home.

Yin Hong's parents were not satisfied with her family situation, but Zhong Aihua not only didn't care, but also felt sorry for her and treated her even better.

However, there was one thing that Zhong Aihua kept to herself and kept from her mother.

On the night of their wedding, Zhong Aihua discovered that Yin Hong had lost her virginity.

Furthermore, Yin Hong also admitted that she was no longer a virgin.

This was like a thorn stuck in Zhong Aihua's heart.

But after marriage, Yin Hong was a good wife. She not only went to work, but also kept the house clean and tidy.

No matter how busy she was, Zhong Aihua always had a hot meal waiting for her when she got home from get off work, and she took meticulous care of him.

Zhong Aihua works as the deputy director of the Dannan County Mining Bureau Office. After graduating from university, she has been working in Dannan County, in charge of business at the Dannan Coal Mine.

Although he was the deputy director, his work was not busy, of course, because of his father's connections; the burden of his work was all taken care of by others.

Zhong Aihua has a house in the city, but because of his work, he and Yin Hong have been living in a residential building next to the county park in Dannan County, which is the only apartment building with an elevator in the county.

Zhong Aihua thought her life would continue to be happy and fulfilling, but an unexpected situation occurred.

----------

"Hey, stop staring at the kitchen and come over here to make a statement."

A single sentence brought Zhong Aihua back to reality. Just a few seconds ago, he seemed to be back on the day of the incident, in the kitchen where Yin Hong was making him breakfast.

Yao Weihua waved and continued to call out, "Come on over here, don't just stand there."

"Oh, okay." Zhong Aihua nodded and walked over to sit on the sofa.

Besides him, there were five other people in the room, all of whom were criminal police officers from the city bureau.

One of the men was a tall, refined-looking man whom Zhong Aihua had seen on television. When he entered, he introduced himself as Yang Jinwen.

The other person stared intently at her and asked, word by word, "Zhong Aihua, you just said that you last saw Yin Hong on January 22nd?"

"Yes."

"Give me a specific time."

“We had breakfast. My wife goes to work at the department store at 7:30. I drive back to the city at 9:00. My mother is not in good health, so I'm going back to see her.”

What kind of clothes was Yin Hong wearing at the time?

"A scarlet overcoat, a blue long-necked sweater, white Double Star brand women's sneakers, a blue knitted scarf, and a red women's handbag."

Did she say anything before she left?

Zhong Aihua shook her head: "No, it's the same as usual."

"Nothing unusual?"

"No."

Yang Jinwen narrowed his eyes, pondered for a moment, and then said, "Zhong Aihua, do you know that you are suspected of murder?"

Zhong Aihua touched her cheeks with both hands and nodded: "I know, but I didn't kill anyone, and my lover certainly wouldn't kill anyone either."

Yang Jinwen pointed to the floor next to the coffee table, where there was a human figure pattern on the wooden floor.

The cat was crouching next to the human-shaped pattern, examining it, and was wearing disposable blue shoe covers.

"Then tell me, why did a strange woman die in your house? And then, your lover, Yin Hong, mysteriously disappeared?"

Zhong Aihua shook her head: "I don't know, I'm also very surprised."

Yang Jinwen held up the photo and showed it to him: "Take a close look. Do you even recognize her?"

Zhong Aihua took the photo; it showed a disheveled woman in a floral cotton-padded jacket lying in his living room.

She was foaming at the mouth, her face was purplish-blue, and her eyes were staring desperately at the ceiling, with a large puddle of yellow vomit beside her.

Zhong Aihua was the first to see the body, and he was also the one who called the police.

This strange woman died in her home on the night of January 22nd, but he did not recognize her.

However, his wife, Yin Hong, suddenly disappeared, and her whereabouts are still unknown.

Yang Jinwen stared intently into Zhong Aihua's eyes, but the other woman kept her eyes closed and shook her head: "I really don't know her."

"The deceased and your lover Yin Hong must have known each other."

"I, I don't know."

"I ask you, do you really understand your lover?"

"I……"

Zhong Aihua couldn't answer, and the image of the flushed face became blurry in his mind.

Yang Jinwen stood up and ordered, "Alright, start from the beginning. How did you discover the body? How did you call the police?"

(End of this chapter)