Chapter 105 Is Mai Ruoyun the murderer?

When Chen Mo arrived outside the detention cell,

the scene he witnessed was Uncle Wang being meticulously served by the other five people.

With five people working together on his limbs and head, he was receiving all sorts of pressing and kneading.

From time to time, Uncle Wang could be heard moaning in comfort.

"Mm, Xiao Ma, your technique still needs improvement. It's not as good as the people I met in the other detention cells."

"Xiao Liang, put a bit more strength into it."

"Xiao Zhang, you're using so much force; are you dissatisfied? If so, why don't I give you my extra suitcase to use?"

In short, seeing this scene made Chen Mo feel that Sister Qing's worries were entirely unnecessary.

His status here was probably higher than it was at home, right?

He even had people giving him free massages.

It was like a fish returning to the sea—completely free and easy.

Shaking his head, Chen Mo quietly retreated.

Just then,

Liu Fengxia also rushed back from outside.

The two entered the meeting room and immediately compared their current findings.

"You go first."

"You go first."

Both spoke at the same time.

Chen Mo raised his hand, gesturing for her to speak first.

"Mai Ruoyun, 29 years old, clothing store owner, a Luocheng local. Her parents are retired. She has had eight boyfriends in the past, but for various reasons, none of them ended in marriage."

"Upon deeper investigation, I found that Mai Ruoyun gave birth to a son with an ex-boyfriend four years ago. The father then vanished, and the child is currently being raised by her retired parents."

"Further investigation confirmed that Mai Ruoyun and Xu Feng indeed have an improper relationship. We visited many hotels and found a room registration record in Mai Ruoyun's name at one of them."

"Based on the receptionist's identification of the photo, it's confirmed that the person who checked in with Mai Ruoyun was indeed Xu Feng."

After Liu Fengxia finished speaking, she walked over to the water dispenser, filled a cup, and gulped it down.

She looked at Chen Mo while drinking.

"Everything you just said, Xu Feng has already told me."

In a few short sentences, Chen Mo explained the reason for Xu Feng's divorce, how he and Mai Ruoyun got together, and the matter of winning the lottery.

"You've made that much progress?!"

Liu Fengxia was startled by Chen Mo's news while she was mid-sip.

She let out a series of 'cough-cough' sounds as she choked on the water.

She had been running around outside for so long, sweating profusely from exhaustion.

Yet Chen Mo, sitting comfortably in the Municipal Bureau with the air conditioning on, had obtained the information she had worked so hard to find.

"Xu Feng puts on a tough front but is weak inside. Once you find his weakness, he's very easy to handle."

Chen Mo explained casually.

He then saw Liu Fengxia pull out a tissue to wipe her mouth.

"So, Xu Feng has currently been cleared of suspicion, whereas this Mai Ruoyun is now a major suspect."

"To confirm her as a suspect, we need to establish that she definitely knew about Xu Feng winning the lottery."

Liu Fengxia looked at Chen Mo, summarizing the next focus of their investigation.

"Yes. If Mai Ruoyun knew in advance that Xu Feng had such a large sum of money, then after three years of effort with no progress—and just when Xu Feng finally agreed to a divorce, Li Xiaolan caused more trouble—that would be Mai Ruoyun's motive for murder."

Chen Mo was the first to agree. He had actually been thinking about how to confirm this fact.

But honestly, after three years, it wasn't easy to determine.

It wasn't impossible that Mai Ruoyun had simply happened to pass by the lottery center and seen Xu Feng's figure.

Generally speaking, unless Mai Ruoyun confessed personally, there really wasn't much evidence to prove she definitely knew about the lottery.

Just as Chen Mo was pondering,

Liu Fengxia lowered her head and flipped through the results of her earlier investigation.

"Look at this."

"Mai Ruoyun opened a clothing store, but she has no business sense."

"According to our inquiries with neighboring businesses, her shop basically had no customers. It was in a state where she lost money every day it was open."

"We later learned from the merchants that Mai Ruoyun owed a debt of about 50,000 yuan. Two months ago, people even came to the shop to cause a scene, forcing her to pay back the money immediately."

Hearing this, Chen Mo immediately understood what she meant.

Liu Fengxia continued, speaking first.

"Exactly. The fact that she owed a debt increases the suspicion that she chose to kill because she was short on cash and desperate for money."

"By the same token, she couldn't scrape together 50,000 yuan in a short time; if she could, she wouldn't have waited for debt collectors to come to her door."

"So, how did she negotiate with the debt collectors?"

The meaning was clear: she must have given them a specific time when she could pay back the money.

If Mai Ruoyun had given a specific repayment date,

it naturally followed that she knew about Xu Feng having money from the lottery.

"I underestimated you."

Chen Mo showed a look of appreciation.

Being able to immediately react to a single detail and find the key to breaking the case...

She certainly deserved his praise.

"Heh."

Liu Fengxia let out a chuckle and called Xiao Song in, telling him to contact Mai Ruoyun's creditors.

After Xiao Song left, the two were once again alone in the meeting room.

"What's the current situation with the victim Li Xiaolan's younger brother?"

The brother Chen Mo was referring to was Li Sheng.

The person they had initially found through the casino.

"Upon learning his sister was dead, he locked himself in his room and won't see anyone."

"The officers staying at his house say he's extremely grief-stricken right now."

"After all, with their parents gone, his sister was his only remaining relative in the world."

Liu Fengxia shook her head and sighed.

It was indeed pitiful.

As for Chen Mo, his state of mind no longer fluctuated regarding such misfortunes.

In the cases he had handled before—Wang Chongyang, Li Yao, Lin Xixi, and so on—which one of them wasn't pitiful?

He was already used to it.

"Wait, why did you suddenly ask about Li Sheng?"

"Don't tell me you think he could be the killer too?"

The sympathy on Liu Fengxia's face vanished instantly as she considered the possibility.

But they knew too little about him. Aside from the casino chip found in Li Xiaolan's abdominal cavity, Li Sheng, her own brother, was almost entirely free of suspicion.

And a chip swallowed into the stomach didn't prove that Li Sheng was the murderer.

"There's actually one point you haven't noticed. I didn't look into it too much before because of Xu Feng."

"When a chip the size of a one-yuan coin is swallowed, a normal person's stomach would basically pass it within 2 to 3 days."

"But the chip was still lodged in Li Xiaolan's abdominal cavity. This indirectly indicates that Li Xiaolan had contact with her brother, Li Sheng, within the three days prior to her death."

After Chen Mo finished speaking, he saw Liu Fengxia nod.

She indeed hadn't noticed this before, and the forensic doctor hadn't told her either.

Since she had never seen or dealt with a case involving someone swallowing a coin, she hadn't thought about it.

"How about we look into Mai Ruoyun's side first?"

"My brain is about to run out of capacity."

She rubbed her temples. In the past, she had handled cases one step at a time.

Working with Chen Mo had become a two-pronged approach; as soon as one point of doubt was resolved, another would appear.

At the same time, she couldn't help but marvel in her heart that Chen Mo's ability in criminal investigation was indeed formidable.