Reborn in 1995, Criminal Investigation Records

Upon seeing the expressions of the two police officers, He Yu knew he had guessed correctly. He immediately wanted to slap himself twice; his mouth was truly foul!

According to He Yu, he originally planned to rest at home for a while before seriously looking for a job, but his father always talked about just getting by and not getting by, and took it upon himself to find him a job.

He actually loathed that kind of hard-working job, which required him to toil all day long. What was the difference between him and those farmers who toiled in the fields?

To think that a college student like him would be reduced to competing with manual laborers was a disgrace to him.

During his work hours, he would disappear from time to time, ostensibly to conduct research, but in reality he would just play mahjong in the card room. He was envious of the boss who could earn money just by providing the venue.

Yeah, why don't you open your own mahjong parlor?

From then on, he skipped work even more frequently. Knowing his father's temper, he frequented various mahjong parlors in the south of the city, creating the illusion for his family that he was still at work.

In one conversation, someone argued with him, saying that card and mahjong parlors also need to know how to collect debts, otherwise what if they can't get the money they lent out back?

He joked at the time, "Then let's lock them down in a dark manhole and teach them a lesson."

Some people even joked that they should hide more food and meat in the manholes so that it wouldn't be thrown in later.

"Where is that card room located?" Dai Yan opened his notebook, his face grim.

"Um..." He Yu swallowed hard. "Has something really happened?"

"Don't ask questions you shouldn't ask. Location, and who else did you know at the time, or who else had distinctive features?" Dai Yan asked, bowing his head to take notes.

If Master Liu and He Yu's memories are correct, then the murderer likely heard the information from them; otherwise, the timeline of the remains wouldn't match.

According to He Yu's recollection, the card room was located in the eastern part of the south of the city, which was easy to find. The owner seemed to be a woman. There weren't many people in the room at the time, only four or five, who were all waiting for their card-playing partners.

Two people left the deepest impression on him. One was a bald man who looked tough and had a scar on his head. This man said he could be his debt collector.

There was another woman who was already wearing a long skirt when it was still a bit cold. She had something tattooed on her neck that extended downwards.

"After you opened this, did you contact that bald guy?" Dai Yan, who was taking notes, suddenly looked up.

"No, no..." He Yu hurriedly waved his hand. This was a legitimate place. He wouldn't do anything like that, and there was no need for him to provoke those people. Besides, he felt he couldn't control them.

......

"By the way, where did you buy this thing? It must have been expensive, right?" Before leaving, Zhou Yang pointed to the air conditioner hanging on the wall.

"Hey, it's a secondhand item I bought. It's not even a modular one, so it's not worth much! The main problem is the installation and adding parts!" He Yu glanced at Zhou Yang's finger and said nonchalantly.

When the two returned to Chengnan Street and found the chess and card room at the address He Yu had given them, half an hour had passed.

As soon as I lifted the curtain, the smell was the same as the one I had just experienced in He Yu's mahjong room.

Zhou Yang looked up and thought, "Wow, are people who play card games this rich these days?"

There's air conditioning in here too. If you didn't know better, you'd think you'd traveled to the future. It's 95 now, and Zhou Yang saw more air conditioners in one day than he had in the previous two weeks.

Dai Yan glanced around and led Zhou Yang toward a corner.

A door, yellowed from smoke, was half-open. Inside, three people were playing chess: a man and a woman, while another person was scratching his head in frustration, gesturing something in the air with his right hand.

"Brother, let's play cards outside..." The man who was playing chess looked up and said, noticing Zhou Yang and his companion at the door.

"You're the people in charge here, right?"

Only then did the remaining two raise their heads and look at Shang Daiyan.

Normally, only officials ask this question; those in the underworld don't. Ordinary card players call Tiger the boss.

Without wasting words, Dai Yan flashed his police ID and led Zhou Yang inside, where they found a chair and sat down.

"I'll take a few minutes of your time to get some information!"

After a brief conversation, the identities of the three people became clear. The woman's name was Feng Dan, and she was the person in charge of the card room. The person sitting opposite her was her younger brother, Feng Qiangqiang, and the person standing was Feng Qiangqiang's friend, Deng Yang.

Zhou Yang and Dai Yan first explained their purpose, and then asked He Yu about the situation that day. After all, four or five months had passed, and none of them remembered the situation very well.

However, all three of them knew exactly what He Yu was describing about the two people.

The bald man was called Bald Scar. As for his real name, they didn't know much about him. They had only heard that he used to be a gangster, but after being slashed on the forehead, he retired from the underworld and started working as a peacemaker, often arguing and mediating disputes.

As for that woman, according to Feng Dan, she didn't come often, but she was very popular and easily became friends with the men who played cards. She claimed to be visiting relatives in Ning'an and her name was Meimei.

According to Feng Dan, the bald man with the scars was not only found in card and chess rooms, but also in video arcades, billiard rooms, nightclubs and other places. She had seen him several times last month.

As for Meimei, it had been a while since I'd seen her.

As for the other person's characteristic that the two asked about—a fracture in the left hand and foot—there has been no progress on this.

Finally, seeing that they couldn't get any more information, the two got the addresses of several areas where Baldy Scar frequently appeared and then decided to leave.

"Boss Feng, if you remember anything, you can call this number to contact us!" Dai Yan tore off a piece from his notebook, wrote down a long phone number, and handed it over.

"Okay, don't worry!" Feng Dan said, lifting the glass on the table behind her and pressing the phone underneath.

Zhou Yang glanced over and saw a dense array of various contact methods.

"Alright, we'll be going now!" Zhou Yang called out. "Looks like Boss Feng's business is doing pretty well; they've even got air conditioning!"

"How much is this piece of junk worth!" Feng Qiangqiang had just opened his mouth when Feng Dan glared at him and shut him up.

"The electricity bill is the main problem; it's expensive because the machine was installed secondhand!"

"What a coincidence! Both of your card and mahjong parlors are equipped with secondhand equipment!" Dai Yan joked.

"Two companies?" Feng Qiang was taken aback, then stiffened his neck: "Didn't that kid say there was only one for us? I'll get... hiss..."

Feng Dan tightened her grip, her expression unchanged, but then quickly let go, because Zhou Yang turned back after hearing her words.

"What's the name of the person you mentioned who sold you the air conditioners? Where is he located? Could you please provide us with his contact information or address?"

Feng Dan glared at her younger brother, but didn't try anything funny.

Following Feng Dan's finger, Dai Yan copied a name from the dazzling list under the glass. He didn't know the name; everyone called him "Secondhand Smoke."

"How strange!" Stepping out of the mahjong parlor, Dai Yan looked at the addresses: "A mahjong parlor in the west of the city, a card room in the east of the city, and a used air conditioner dealer in Xiangjiang Street!"

"What's so strange about that? As long as it's cheap, that's fine. But what I'm wondering is, where did they get their air conditioner from?"

Zhou Yang thought so too. Buying secondhand items in this era was risky and had limited channels. Basically, you had to advertise in the newspaper's GG column, then look at the listings, haggle, disassemble, ship them back, and reassemble them. The whole process was exhausting and time-consuming, so the price naturally wouldn't be low.

But judging from He Yu and Feng Dan's words, the price they paid was not high. Could there be something fishy about it?