Chapter 861: Stolen Work Clothes

“Ah, Mom!”

Early in the morning, Lin Dongxue was awakened by Xu Xiaodong’s frantic shouts while she was sleeping on the sofa in the meeting room. She rubbed her eyes and sat up. The sunlight seeped through the gaps in the curtains, glaringly bright. She checked the time—it was around six or seven in the morning.

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked.

Xu Xiaodong, sitting on the recliner, let out a sigh of relief. “It’s just a dream. I dreamt my mom… I need to make a phone call.”

He pulled out his phone, his brows furrowed throughout the call. Lin Dongxue felt anxious too; Xu Xiaodong’s mom was a good person, and Lin sincerely hoped nothing bad had happened to her.

“Hello, the mobile phone you have called is currently unreachable. Please try again later.”

“My mom’s in trouble!” Xu Xiaodong’s voice trembled, almost on the verge of tears. “I need to go home and check.”

“Maybe she’s still asleep. By the way, doesn’t her phone have a tracking app?” Lin Dongxue opened an app, tapped a few times, and said, “Look, your mom is at home now.”

Xu Xiaodong was still worried. “What if it’s just the phone at home?”

“Do you have to think of the worst-case scenario?”

His phone rang—it was his mother calling. Hearing her voice, Xu Xiaodong finally felt relieved.

At that moment, Chen Shi walked in from outside, carrying a bag of breakfast. He sat down on the sofa and smiled, “Didn’t sleep well, huh?”

“And look at us. You’ve got dark circles under your eyes too,” Lin Dongxue remarked.

“Let’s eat breakfast! A full stomach will cheer us up a bit.”

Chen Shi bought sandwiches and coffee. He mentioned that their usual congee shop wasn’t open yet, and Lin Dongxue found the coffee sour in her mouth after drinking too much the previous night.

After eating, Chen Shi went out to investigate the case, and Xu Xiaodong followed. He said a walk would clear his mind a bit.

The three returned to the scene of the first murder case. They inquired around, and a lady selling preserved eggs said, “Small workshop? I’m not sure! But that night, I saw two people in blue overalls walking in. One of them stood under that utility pole. I thought they might be thieves, so I took a closer look.”

“What did they look like?”

“Something like…” The lady couldn’t describe well. Lin Dongxue pulled out old photos of Zhou Xiao, but the lady shook her head. “Not him!”

Lin Dongxue then showed a photo of Song Lang, taken from Lin Qiupu’s desk. The lady still shook her head. “Not him either. This person was younger, with a pockmarked face, about his height.” She pointed at Xu Xiaodong.

Chen Shi asked, “Was there anything written on their overalls?”

“Something… something Food Company.”

“Could you be more specific? Please.”

“There was a ‘日’ character, I can’t remember the rest.”

That was all the lady knew. After thanking her, the three discussed. Lin Dongxue said, “The person described by the lady doesn’t seem like Zhou Xiao.”

“Maybe he’s an accomplice, or maybe… she got it wrong, but we have to investigate even if she’s mistaken!” Chen Shi said.

“A food company with ‘日’ in its name. I’ll have the bureau check it out,” Lin Dongxue said.

“I’ll ask around some more, see if there are other witnesses,” Xu Xiaodong said.

The bureau contacted the commercial department and found these names: “Wu Yaori Food Company”, “Jiari Mei Food Company”, “Rijinsheng Food Company”. The addresses were quite far apart. With Lin Dongxue’s experience in investigations, visiting all three would take a whole day. But in their current situation, having leads to follow was a blessing.

“Let’s pick one!” Lin Dongxue said.

“The lady only remembered the ‘日’ character, so the other two names might not be very clear. It could be complex to figure out. Let’s go with the first one!” Chen Shi suggested.

“But I have a strong feeling about ‘Jiari Mei’,” Lin Dongxue said.

“Okay, let’s go with your gut feeling!”

So Lin Dongxue assigned the other two companies to her colleagues and went with Chen Shi and Xu Xiaodong to Jiari Mei Food Company. Upon seeing the factory building of the company, Lin Dongxue immediately felt discouraged. It was a large-scale operation, with machines humming and producing tons of noodles. There was no way someone could hide here.

“Looks like my gut feeling was wrong. Let’s leave,” Lin Dongxue said.

“I know why you had that gut feeling. This company advertised on TV before. You subconsciously recognized it… that’s the power of advertising! But since we’re here, let’s ask around!” Chen Shi said.

They found the personnel manager inside and asked, but the manager shook his head. “We haven’t sent any vehicles to that address.”

“Do you have warehouses or branches in the city?” Chen Shi asked.

“Our warehouses are all here. We mainly operate on orders, especially since it’s food; we don’t keep large stocks to avoid spoilage.”

“Alright, thank you!”

As they were leaving, Chen Shi overheard snippets of conversation:

“Haven’t found it yet? Go borrow a set. Leaders from the district are coming this afternoon. Can’t be seen in such shabby clothes.”

“Damn thief, why steal clothes of all things.”

Chen Shi walked over, replacing a greeting with a cigarette, and said, “Sorry to interrupt. I overheard you talking about lost uniforms?”

“Who are you…”

“Police!”

“Wow, even a small matter like this gets a case opened? The police are really dedicated!”

“Can I ask where it was lost?”

“A couple of days ago, we went to take a shower. When we came out, our coats were gone.”

Chen Shi noticed the two men seemed somewhat nervous, one of them occasionally glancing at the supervisor nearby. He said to the workshop director, “I’d like to speak with them alone.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

After the workshop director left, the two workers visibly relaxed a bit. Chen Shi said, “I hope you won’t hide anything. This concerns a murder case. Any tiny clue you provide could be crucial.”

“Is it poisoning?” Worker A asked.

“No, it’s a homicide.”

“Homicide? Oh, I see now. So that’s what happened.” Worker A suddenly realized.

“What do you mean?” Worker B didn’t understand.

“The person who stole our clothes that day wasn’t a good person,” Worker A explained to Chen Shi. “Here’s what happened. We were out delivering goods a few days ago. We parked the car and went into a restaurant. When we came back, the car was gone. We were terrified! It was the company’s car. If we lost it, how would we compensate? We searched around and finally found it in an alley. The car was fine, but our clothes on it were gone…”

“And our IDs,” Worker B added.

“Yes, our IDs too. But the thief actually threw the wallet down, which was quite strange. We were in a hurry and had to deliver the goods quickly. Later, we thought about it and got scared. What if the thief poisoned the goods we delivered? If someone died from poisoning, wouldn’t we be held responsible? So… so we lied to the supervisor about going to take a shower. We had no choice.”

“Can you tell me the address?” Chen Shi asked.

“South side of Taian Road, towards Shengshi Cinema.”

Chen Shi knew the place. “I remember that street is the red-light district.”

“There are also places to eat…” Worker A blushed.