wind in the dark night

Chapter 269 Silencing
Half an hour later.

Qi Yue parked his car in the alley of Xinmin Street, took a detour through the side roads, and walked to Limin Inn. The painter could understand this obvious way of hiding his whereabouts. To do such a shady business, one must conceal it from the eyes of others.

Limin Inn is a tertiary courtyard with dormitories, double rooms, multi-person rooms and single rooms. During the day, guests and visitors come in and out without the owner asking too many questions. If you are a guest staying at the hotel, you will naturally go to the counter to pay and get the key.

Qi Yue went straight to the upper room.

Under normal circumstances, the single and double rooms in a hotel are upper rooms, and the wing rooms are multi-person rooms and large bunk beds. With Liu Wanchun's status, he would definitely choose a single room when staying in such an ordinary hotel.

Li Changgong was holding a food box and standing in front of Room 6. He put his ear to the door and knocked on it, saying, "Boss, I've got the food. Open the door. The restaurant staff said that the sweet and sour pork should be eaten while it's hot. It won't taste good if it gets cold."

Qi Yue stepped forward.

Feeling someone standing behind him, Li Changgong turned around and said, "Oh, you scared me, it's Boss Qi, why are you walking without making any sound?"

Qi Yue asked: "Is there no one in the room?"

"No, the host is waiting for dinner... How could no one be here?"

"Don't you have a key?"

"My boss lives in a single room, and I live in a large dormitory."

Qi Yue reached out and knocked on the door: "Mr. Liu, it's me. I've settled the matter. Please open the door."

Still no one answered in the house.

Qi Yue felt something was wrong and said to Li Changgong, "Could your boss have a sudden illness or something? Go to the counter and tell him that he is ill and ask him to bring the spare key."

Li Changgong agreed, put down the lunch box, and hurried to the counter.

Soon, the innkeeper came hurriedly with the key plate. As human life was at stake, he did not dare to be negligent. He found the corresponding key, put it into the keyhole, and opened the door lock with a click.

Li Changgong was the first to enter, and he immediately exclaimed, "Boss, what's wrong with you?"

In the room, Liu Wanchun was lying on the ground with his face up and his eyes wide open.

Qi Yue walked over quickly and felt the person's breath. The person was no longer breathing, but his body temperature was normal, which meant that he had died not long ago.

Li Changgong's legs went limp, and he fell to his knees beside the corpse, crying loudly: "My dear boss, my dear boss, why did you leave so suddenly? What am I going to say to you when I return?"

The innkeeper sighed and said, "Looking at his condition, he is most likely having a heart attack. Some time ago, a guest about his age was still talking and laughing one second, and died in the blink of an eye... Life is unpredictable."

Qi Yue squatted down and took a closer look. Liu Wanchun had no external injuries on his body, which indeed met the symptoms of sudden death. Only the distortion and struggle on his face were almost exactly the same as Guan Dazhi's facial features before his death.

A picture slowly emerged in Qi Yue's mind: someone knocked on the door, and while Liu Wanchun was off guard, suddenly covered Liu Wanchun's mouth and nose with a towel or something like that, suffocating him to death, and then left calmly.

"Boss, what should we do?"

Li Changgong cried so hard that his nose was covered with tears.

When they heard that someone had died, the tenants gathered around. Someone on the side advised, "Brother, the person is already dead, please mourn. The body cannot be left here like this. Send it to the funeral home first, and then notify his family to come and collect the body."

Li Changgong cried even louder: "How can I mourn? My boss is a good man. When he knows which family is short of rice or oil, he immediately sends people to deliver it. During the holidays, we servants all get red envelopes. He is the best boss in the world. My boss..."

"Still a loyal servant..."

"These days, good people don't get rewarded."

"Who says it's not true?" Everyone sighed at the same time.

After coming out of the inn, Qi Yue looked around and continued walking deeper into the alley. The further he walked, the farther he was from the main street. Just like the way he came here, he needed to take a detour to return to Xinmin Street.

Generally speaking, after committing a crime, in order not to leave any clues, the murderer will try to avoid crowds and choose a relatively secluded route to leave.

The painter followed behind: "Officer Qi, where are we going?"

"Looking for a portrait of someone."

Qi Yue said without turning his head.

After passing through the narrow alley, they came to another exit. This side was a densely populated residential area. Not to mention one person, even ten people could easily shake off the pursuit.

A disheveled beggar squatted on a stone, holding a dirty lunch box, wolfing down the leftovers he begged for, and occasionally looking up at the passers-by.

Qi Yue asked: "Who has left here just now?"

The beggar rolled his eyes and continued eating.

Qi Yue took out a banknote and put it into the enamel bowl at the beggar's feet.

The beggar's eyes lit up, and he grabbed the money and put it in his pocket: "Yes, yes, quite a few."

Qi Yue asked: "What kind of people are they?"

The beggar said: "Two half-grown children were holding up a broken chicken leg to entice me, as if they had never eaten it before. There was also an old lady with bound feet... Just now a lame man walked by without paying attention and almost kicked the lunch box. No wonder he was lame. I guess he kicked someone else's lunch box and got beaten up!"

Qi Yue listened patiently and said, "That's all?"

The beggar thought for a moment and said, "Oh, there's also a man, dressed neatly, wearing big leather shoes and a tie, he looks like a rich man!"

Qi Yue asked: "What does he look like?"

The painter immediately opened the suitcase he carried with him, took out pencils and white paper, set up a folding drawing board on the spot, and was ready to draw the portrait at any time.

The beggar scratched his head and pretended to be thinking hard: "I can't remember it..."

Qi Yue gave him another two dollars: "Is that enough?"

The beggar smiled happily and said repeatedly: "That's enough, this is enough for me to eat for half a month. Hehe... What does it look like? Let me imagine. A square face, not fat or thin, with a slightly dark skin..."

During the beggar's description, Qi Yue had already vaguely guessed that the man was most likely Ning Zhiyuan, and asked the painter to continue drawing the portrait in order to confirm its authenticity. After all, there were many people who looked like him.

The artist drew the general appearance and revised the parts that were not similar. After half an hour, the portrait was basically completed.

The portrait cannot possibly be exactly like the person himself, but in the eyes of an acquaintance, a 60% to 70% resemblance is enough to confirm the suspicions in one's heart.

The person in the portrait is Ning Zhiyuan!
Qi Yue held up the portrait and studied it for a while, then tore it into pieces and threw it into a trash can nearby. He said to the painter, "This is not the person at all. You have worked in vain. Let's go."

Qi Yue secretly guessed that Ning Zhiyuan killed people on the orders of Gao Kejian. Being able to confirm who did it would at least prove one thing: the spy hiding in the Anti-Japanese United Army was most likely related to Gao Kejian, and Ning Zhiyuan was an insider.

No one else knew the situation of the gold mine except the spy. In order to ensure his absolute safety, Gao Kejian sent Ning Zhiyuan to kill Liu Wanchun while he was in Binjiang.

(End of this chapter)