Famine

Chapitre 33

Ah Hu gave him the money, and the transaction was complete. The man thanked him and turned to leave. "Please wait a moment!" Ah Hu called out to him. "Master, I'd like to ask you about someone. Is there someone in your shop named Hong Bentao? Like you, he's also a food deliveryman."

The deliveryman glanced at Ah Hu, his eyes rolling upwards, revealing black-rimmed goggles above his eyes.

"What do you want with him?"

Great, there was no denial, which means Hong Bentao was with him. He was probably off today or delivering food elsewhere.

"It's very urgent. Master, could you please tell him what time he gets off work? We'll wait for him here."

"He quit; he just left a couple of days ago."

Ah Hu was terrified of hearing this, and sure enough, what she feared most came to pass. She hurriedly asked, "Do you know his phone number? We really need to speak to him urgently."

The deliveryman shook his head, walked down the steps, went to the electric scooter, unlocked it, and kicked the brake open...

Suddenly, Nono dashed down the steps in three strides, each step covering more than ten steps in a single bound! In the blink of an eye, she was on the sidewalk, shouting at the deliveryman who had just gotten on his electric scooter:

"Hong Bentao!!"

It's just that his kicking the brake gave him away. That signature move—while others kick it open with one kick, he kicks it carefully several times, as if afraid of breaking it.

After Zoe's death, Hong Bentao became extremely cautious in everything he did. When faced with two suspicious strangers, his instinctive reaction was to avoid them.

Near Jing'an Temple, in a KFC restaurant, Ahu was devouring a pizza. It wasn't so much that he was starving, but rather that his good mood had whetted his appetite; once the pizza got cold, it lost its flavor. Other customers stared at him, even the staff gave him sidelong glances. Nuonuo went to the counter and bought three drinks. Hong Bentao glanced at the iced cola but didn't touch it. He then took out his phone and called the restaurant, saying he wasn't feeling well and needed to take half a day off.

"Mr. Hong, is 13901673693 a mobile phone number you've used before?"

Hong Bentao nodded slightly.

"Why aren't you using it anymore?"

"I bought my phone quite early, in 1997. Back then, China Mobile was still called China Telecom. The first batch of GSM network phone numbers were all 139, with the 0 at the end representing the first batch of users. I chose the number myself; I liked the last few digits, 3693, because it sounded good. There's a saying in Shanghai, 'Three, six, nine, make cash,' and at the time I worked in a decoration company, dealing with many clients every day. It was both a lucky number and easy for clients to remember."

Later I met Zoe. She really liked this number and called me "369". Every time we were intimate, she would stroke my buzz cut and call me by my nickname.

After her death, my phone rang inexplicably several times, the caller ID showing an unknown number. Each time I answered, there was either complete silence or a strange, noisy sound, faintly resembling a woman's weeping.

Oil painting No. 51: 773 Horror Series 13

Section 84: The Suicide Message Delivered by Number

Hong Bentao kept his head down while speaking.

Ah Hu was eating pizza, making loud chewing noises and slurping sounds while drinking cola. Nuonuo glared at him, and Ah Hu realized what was happening. He put the half-eaten pizza back into the box and closed it.

"Was Zoe's suicide because she discovered your relationship with An Ruohong?" Nuonuo asked.

Hong Bentao shook his head: "No, she hasn't found out about this yet."

"Did you hide her suicide note?" Ah Hu asked, wiping his oily lips.

"I haven't seen the suicide note."

Fearing they wouldn't believe him, Hong Bentao repeated, "Really, no."

"That's strange. Why did she commit suicide?"

Nono's patience was wearing thin. As she walked in the dark, each time she saw a glimmer of light, she thought she had reached the end, only to find it was just a firefly. Her frustration was palpable.

"I'd like to know too."

After saying this, Hong Bentao fell silent.

For the next few minutes, everyone fell silent. Nono opened the pizza box and started eating, her chewing sounds even louder than Ahu's, probably trying to stimulate her brain cells through the large secretion of saliva, so she could think about this puzzling question.

If no reason for suicide can be found, then there is only one explanation---

Ah Hu looked at them and uttered two words:

"murder."

"The time of death was noon. Where were you then?" Ah Hu asked Hong Bentao.

"I was discussing something with Lao Chou at the shop near Xinzhuang Station," Hong Bentao added, "business matters."

"Besides Zoe, were there any other people in the family at the time?"

Without hesitation, Hong Bentao answered definitively, "She should be working at the clinic at this time. I don't know why she went home, let alone whether there were any strangers there."

"So, besides the two of you, is there a third person who has a key to your house?"

Ah Hu remained calm and unhurried, proceeding step by step.

"Hmm...yes." Hong Bentao nodded.

"who?"

"Aunt Song, she's our part-time housekeeper. She works six days a week, with Sundays off. Her working hours are from 1 PM to 6 PM. She cleans the house, buys groceries, cooks, and does laundry. Usually, no one is home during this time. The clinic closes at 7 PM, so my home time is uncertain. Sometimes it's 7 or 8 PM, sometimes later, depending on how busy the shop is."

Domestic service worker is the official term for nannies, maids, and hourly workers. Luwan City Garden, Luban Apartment, and Zijin Xinyuan share a neighborhood committee located in Zijin Xinyuan, which is closest to the Huangpu River. It has a service project that introduces domestic service workers to residents of the community free of charge. Among them, Aunt Song is quite popular. She is from Hunan and is an excellent cook, especially her spicy chicken, which is even better than that of restaurants. As a result, her clients are spread across the three communities. She usually works for one family in the morning and another in the afternoon, occasionally squeezing in another job during her lunch break. She is paid six yuan per hour and earns 1,500 to 1,600 yuan per month, which is much higher than that of laid-off workers.

Through the neighborhood committee, Ahu and Nuonuo met Aunt Song. She was in her forties, quite robust, with prominent veins on her hands—clearly the hands of a working-class person. Her husband also worked in Shanghai, and the couple had a son studying at university in Nanjing and a daughter attending middle school in Shanghai.

The three of them sat in the garden of Zijing Xinyuan. There was a branch of Sinan Road Kindergarten in the community, and the teacher was leading the children to play games in the garden, with the children's voices making a lot of noise.

Aunt Song said that she goes to Zoe's house to work at 1 p.m. First, she cleans the room, vacuums the floor, dusts the furniture, wipes the bathtub and toilet, takes out the clothes that are clean in the washing machine one by one, hangs them on the balcony, and then mops the balcony. These chores take at least an hour and a half. Then she goes to the Nonggongshang Supermarket to buy groceries, comes back to wash, cook, and prepare the meal. She puts the cooked dishes and soup on the dining table, leaves the rice in the rice cooker, and then leaves. That is her whole job.

That day, she arrived at work on time, unlocked the door, and found the house empty and quiet. As usual, she began her housework. About half an hour later, the doorbell rang. She opened the door to find two policemen. One of them, whom she recognized, was Officer Zhang from the Wuliqiao Police Station, who frequently patrolled these neighborhoods. They looked serious as they went up to the balcony and looked down. From Officer Zhang, she learned that the woman who owned the house had committed suicide by jumping from the building. Aunt Song was stunned, and the vacuum cleaner she was holding fell to the ground.

"Aunt Song, please think carefully. When you came to work, was there anything unusual at home? For example, was the house messy, were things knocked over, was there blood on the floor, or were the drawers in disarray?" Ah Hu asked her.

Aunt Song shook her head and said, "The police asked the same question, even more in detail than you did. They stayed in the room for a long time, looking around. I lost all interest in doing housework and just followed the police around. I thought to myself, no matter what, the man of the house hasn't come home yet, so I have to keep an eye on this house and make sure nothing is stolen. These days you have to be wary of everyone, even the police."

"Did you find a suicide note or a letter on the table?"

"No. The lady of the house is a doctor, very clean, and never leaves mail on the table. Occasionally she'll leave a note to remind me, like asking me to buy a sea bass, make fried pork chops, or tell me not to cook rice but porridge instead. She'll read it and then throw it away. But there definitely wasn't any that day; even the police couldn't find it."

Ah Hu had asked everything he needed to ask, and couldn't think of anything else to ask. Zoe's time of death was noon, and Aunt Song came to work at 1 p.m. There was an hour's interval, allowing the murderer to calmly clean up the scene and leave.

"Aunt Song," Nono began to ask.

Oil painting No. 51: 773 Horror Series 13

Chapter 85: It seems she really has something to hide.

Aunt Song shook her head almost without thinking, it seemed the police had asked the same question.

"There's nothing wrong with it. The balcony is tiled with dark brown floor tiles, and the windows are closed. There's a bulk cement dock belonging to a tunnel engineering company on the Huangpu River, and the cement used by nearby construction sites comes from there. Large trucks come to load it, and the dust flies everywhere, even on the 31st floor, you can still sweep up a thin layer of cement dust. So many families in the community have installed frameless windows on their balconies to block the dust."

Where's the balcony door?

"You mean the sliding door from the living room to the balcony?"

"Yes, is that door closed or open?"

"Let me think..." Aunt Song blinked and thought for a long time before saying confidently, "It's closed, but the latch isn't fully closed; it opens with a pull."

"Aunt Song, could you please describe your journey to the balcony, making sure you don't miss a single step?" Nuonuo said earnestly.

"I opened the sliding door, went to the balcony, opened the window to let some fresh air in the living room, mopped the floor, and then hung the clothes to hang up. It's that simple, nothing more."

Aunt Song gestured with her hands as she finished speaking in just a few words.

"Are you sure the window is closed?" Ah Hu pressed, his tone somewhat urgent.

Aunt Song found it strange; what was wrong with these two young people? She asked them more detailed questions than the police. Luckily, she wasn't old enough to forget, otherwise she really wouldn't know what to do with them.

"It's locked," Aunt Song said definitively.

Ahu and Nuonuo exchanged glances, a hint of excitement flashing in their eyes. It was as if they were walking in the dark and saw a glimmer of light. They initially thought it was just another firefly, but the light grew bigger and brighter until they realized it was the cave they were looking for.

When Zoe jumped off the balcony, the frameless window had to be open. She couldn't possibly fly out like a butterfly, then fly back to close the frameless window, and then fall at freefall speed, smashing through the fiberglass pigeon coop in the ground floor courtyard.

After pushing (or throwing) Zoe off the balcony, the perpetrator peered down and watched her fall to the ground floor. Fearing witnesses might be looking up, he hurriedly pulled back, closed the window, and rushed away from the scene. Later, Aunt Song came to work and cleaned the balcony. When the police investigated the scene, they saw the window was open and naturally assumed that the deceased had opened it in preparation for jumping. They never imagined that Aunt Song had opened it later to ventilate the living room.

The police were careless; perhaps in their eyes, it was just a routine suicide by falling. In a megacity of seventeen million people, similar tragedies happen almost every few days, so they overlooked this detail.

Who could be the murderer?

Hong Bentao said he discussed something with Lao Chou at a milk tea shop near Xinzhuang Station at noon, and that he could immediately tell if Lao Chou was lying by simply verifying the information with him. But from any perspective, Hong Bentao couldn't be the murderer; Zoe's death would bring him no benefit whatsoever.

Hong Bentao loves Zoe.

Shifting the focus to the clinic's interior, Xiao Yu helped them review the attendance records. Dr. Zhou was off the day Zoe died; Wu Laogan went to the Environmental Protection Bureau to apply for the renovation of the clinic's sewage pump and didn't return until the afternoon; An Ruohong, because she had worked the night shift the previous day, was allowed to arrive two hours late the next day, at 11:00 AM, but she didn't come. At 12:30 PM, she called Zhang Tiejing at the front desk, saying that something had happened at home and she would be a little late. In the end, she didn't arrive until 2:00 PM, making up the three hours of lateness later.

"Do you remember the first time we went to Tesco to find An Ruohong? This is what she said to us at McDonald's---"

"...I noticed Zoe seemed a bit off; she was definitely troubled. I was worried, so I asked her. She said it was because of the hot weather; sitting in the air-conditioned environment all day made her feel uncomfortable. That morning, she left work early, entrusting her afternoon appointment to Dr. Teng—something she had never done before. She didn't come to work that afternoon, and the next day, news came that she had committed suicide by falling from a building..."

An Ruohong only arrived at the clinic at 2 PM, how could she have known Zoe's whereabouts?

Ah Hu asked Nuonuo this question, but he already had the answer.

Zoe's whereabouts must have been found out by An Ruohong from someone else later. Perhaps Xiao Hui told her, or perhaps Mao Lifang told her. At the time, they were in the midst of grief and just told her casually.

An Ruohong concealed the fact that she wasn't at the clinic and even lied to Ahu and Nuonuo, so it seems she really has something to hide.

The property management company of Luwan City Garden has installed security camera systems at the front and back gates of the community and in the garage. Cameras are also installed in the lobby of each building (which is actually very small, so it should be called a small lobby) and in the two elevators.

The following is video footage from Building 6 on August 16th:

Residents frequently came and went in the elevator and lobby.

After 11 a.m., a woman walked through the lobby and entered elevator B. She was Zoe, and she had already left the clinic to go home.

Because the camera is located on the ceiling, looking down from above, it is difficult to capture the faces of passengers, but if they are familiar with someone, they should be able to recognize them.

At 12:35, another woman appeared in elevator A. The elevator was moving downwards, and she stood in the elevator without moving.

"Look!" Nono pointed at the screen, where the woman's hand was repeatedly making a subconscious gesture—touching her earring.

With this psychological suggestion, Ahu and Nuonuo immediately recognized her; she was An Ruohong.

After 11 o'clock, Zoe entered the building; at 12 o'clock, Zoe fell from the building; at 12:35, An Ruohong left the building.

The fog gradually dissipated, and things became clearer.

Shortly after Zoe returned home, An Ruohong entered her house and, taking advantage of her unpreparedness (and possibly after a struggle), pushed Zoe down.

After the murder, she hurriedly cleaned up the scene and left Zoe's house. In the elevator, feeling nervous, she unconsciously repeated one action: touching her earring.

One mystery was solved, but another arose. Video footage from elevators A and B showed that after Zoe returned, An Ruohong was not seen entering the elevator.

Oil painting No. 51: 773 Horror Series 13

Chapter 86: "Miss Ma" is An Ruohong

However, after reviewing the lobby's video footage, there was no image of her.