"We interviewed those four fortune tellers Zhou Guodong mentioned. According to their recollections, there are indeed quite a few villagers from Baimao Village who consulted them."
"But most were for normal needs like the passing of elderly family members, or children getting married and matching horoscopes. There weren’t any villagers as superstitious and obsessed with changing fate as we previously speculated."
"However, we did learn that after Guo Fengqun’s incident, his eldest son did consult a fortune teller from Group One hoping for better luck for the family."
As soon as Luo Fei heard this, he immediately said, "This is indeed a clue. Liao, immediately call Group Leader Zhou and have them check the records of the Guo brothers from back then, to see if they have an alibi."
"Also, it’s still early, so let’s continue interviewing other villagers and also find out more about the Guo brothers."
What followed was another tedious and uninteresting round of interviews.
Group Four of Baimao Village has about thirty households. Excluding a few who moved away or had family working outside when the incident happened, there were still over twenty households at home.
And most are elderly folks who are still around, so conducting interviews wasn’t too difficult.
Yet, after a round of visits, they came up empty-handed.
It was already past five in the afternoon. Luo Fei and Liao Xingyu discussed and decided to find a place in town to stay for the night and continue visiting other groups in the village tomorrow.
The group returned to town, ate some noodles at the same restaurant they visited at noon, and booked three rooms at a small hotel in town.
Back in their rooms, Luo Fei and Liao Xingyu made a video call to Zhao Donglai to report the day’s progress.
In cases like these, Zhao Donglai didn’t expect them to find clues immediately.
"Don’t worry too much, we don’t have other cases at the moment, so we can take our time. Also, we checked the testimonies about the Guo brothers you wanted to be looked into today."
"On the day of the incident, the elder brother, Guo Chengfu, was at the town’s clinic getting medicine for Guo Fengqun, so he doesn’t have the motive. As for the younger, Guo Chun, he was alone with Guo Fengqun at home, but no one except Guo Fengqun can confirm if he stayed home the entire time."
"So, it seems Guo Chun does have some motive," Liao Xingyu pondered, "Where is he working now? I think we should interview him."
The clues in hand were scarce, forcing them to increase interview efforts to boost their chances of solving the case.
Therefore, Liao wasn’t willing to let go of any clue.
Luo Fei had a similar thought, immediately saying, "Today I asked Guo Fengqun, and the second brother is delivering food in the city."
"Alright then, I’ll have Li Jun look into it at work tomorrow."
That night, they shared rooms, three people to a room, resting for the night. Early the next morning, they brightened up and got back to work after breakfast.
Convinced the perpetrator was likely a fellow villager, Luo Fei and Liao Xingyu decided to start from Zhou Anguo’s home and expand outward house by house.
To save time, they split into four groups of nine and visited each household.
Baimao Village initially had ten groups, but for management convenience, they merged into six groups, totaling over two hundred households.
It’s undoubtedly a Herculean task, as nine people covered only over eighty houses in two days.
As time passed, most couldn’t recall specifics, dimming any hope of gaining useful information, like putting cold water on them.
Regarding the younger Guo brother, Zhao Donglai personally led Li Jun to visit him promptly.
Regrettably, based on both their professional judgment, they didn’t think Guo Chun was likely the perpetrator.
Thus, this lead also ran cold.
It equated to three days of effort, yet they were still in the same spot.
That evening, upon returning to the hotel, Zhang Wei flopped onto the bed and lamented.
"I’m exhausted. My legs are breaking from running these days. When will this end? I miss home, my comfy, big bed..."
He Xin teased, "I told you to exercise more, and you wouldn’t be lagging now... Hurry, take a bath and get to bed early; tomorrow, we continue."
"You go ahead, let me rest a bit."
He Xin chided him some more and then grabbed his toiletries to the bathroom.
Zhang Wei turned to Luo Fei, "Leader, do you think running around is even useful? Feels like finding a needle in a haystack."
"And isn’t it just like finding a needle in a haystack," Luo Fei sighed, "The case is too old, and without other clues, this is our only option."
Even after three days of running around, he began doubting himself.
Was there an error in his assumption?
"Ugh, I can’t anymore; I need to order some food as a treat. What would you like, Leader?"
Zhang Wei said, quickly opening the food delivery app on his phone. Newest update provıded by ⓝovelFire.net
"In a small town , there’s unlikely to be delivery service; better to eat out directly... Didn’t you have three bowls of rice tonight? Hungry again?"