241: Chapter 241 The Desperate Situation Brought About by Two Minutes
"But all these hypotheses are based on the premise that we can prove a person can ride a motorcycle back and forth on this stretch of road in sixteen minutes," Gu Qingcheng said.
Lei Zhen nodded. "So we need to find some professionals to conduct a test immediately."
After saying that, he strode to the door and pulled it open with a yank.
Four or five guys immediately tumbled into a heap on the spot.
"Stop eavesdropping. Qingcheng and I weren't watching porn; we were studying the video of Li Hongyan taking a bath."
The group scrambled to their feet, their faces flushed with embarrassment.
"Master, what are you saying? How could we possibly suspect you and the Mistress like that?" Zhu Xiaojun chuckled sheepishly.
Lei Zhen spoke solemnly, "Do any of you know those 'energetic youngsters' who ride off-road motorcycles?"
One of the Auxiliary Police Officers named Liao Anqian said, "Yeah, I do. A buddy of mine rides off-road bikes; he's even the head of a club."
"That's perfect. I have a test coming up, and I'm putting you in charge of this."
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The next day, Liao Anqian invited seven or eight professionals from the off-road club to conduct the test. To verify his own suspicions, Lei Zhen also decided to visit some of the nearby residents.
"He Mingwei hasn't ridden a motorcycle in years. If he wanted to complete this challenge, he would definitely have practiced in advance. If so, someone must have seen him."
Gu Qingcheng agreed, so she followed Lei Zhen along.
Before long, they found an elderly person living alone by the side of the road.
The old man sat on a stool at his doorway, staring blankly ahead, lost in thought.
"Grandpa, do you know He Mingwei?"
"He Ming-what?"
"He Mingwei."
"What Mingwei?"
"He Mingwei!"
"He-what Wei?"
Lei Zhen gave a wry smile, remembering he had cigarettes with him. He handed one over and even took the initiative to light it for the old man.
With one puff, the old man instantly perked up.
Lei Zhen continued to ask, "How old are you this year?"
The old man blew a smoke ring. "Seventy-five. What, you got a problem with that?"
"Not at all. Do you usually sit here like this?"
"Yeah. My legs aren't good and I don't like walking. When I've got nothing to do, I sit at my door and look at pretty girls to cultivate my mind."
"Then, have you recently seen an off-road motorcycle practicing on this road? I mean passing by repeatedly."
Lei Zhen spoke while pulling out his phone, pointing at a picture of a motorcycle on the screen.
"A motorcycle like this."
The old man squinted at it, then shook his head. "Haven't seen it."
"Take another look," Lei Zhen said, unwilling to give up.
The old man still shook his head. "I sit here every day from morning till night, and I've never seen that kind of motorcycle."
Indeed, most motorcycles used for commuting in rural areas weren't this kind of off-road model; they didn't even have a back seat.
Gu Qingcheng said, "Could it be that he didn't practice on this road?"
"Unlikely," Lei Zhen shook his head. "Completing the full trip in sixteen minutes is an extremely difficult challenge. Forget about not practicing; practicing anywhere else would be useless."
"But the old man wouldn't lie, right?" Gu Qingcheng's face was full of conflict.
Lei Zhen paused, suddenly thinking of something. "Then, Grandpa, did you hear the sound of a motorcycle passing by at night? A very loud kind."
"Yes," the old man replied immediately without even thinking. "I heard it often a while back. Around ten o'clock at night, I could hear a motorcycle pass by seven or eight times. And the sound was exceptionally loud. It even drowned out the sound of me watching 'Bright Sword.' It made Li Yunlong on the TV curse his head off!"
Lei Zhen's spirits instantly lifted. Just then, the motorcycle Liao Anqian had brought for the test sped past on the nearby road, its engine roaring violently.
"Grandpa, was it this kind of sound?" Lei Zhen asked.
"Yes, yes, yes, that's the sound! I was wondering back then, who's racing back and forth on the road in the middle of the night?"
"That's it then." Lei Zhen stood up straight and said, "He Mingwei was afraid of being recognized, so he must have been practicing at night."
Gu Qingcheng was still skeptical. "Practicing at night? Wouldn't that be very dangerous?"
Lei Zhen said, "He Mingwei was already very familiar with this road. He only needed to come at night to get a feel for it, and that would be enough."
To verify the old man's words, the two of them found several more nearby residents. As it turned out, they all said that a while ago, there indeed was the sound of a motorcycle passing by repeatedly.
"Now He Mingwei's suspicion is growing stronger and stronger."
Gu Qingcheng also felt that the truth would soon be revealed, and she began to feel a bit excited.
After all, if this case was solved, it would become the first case independently cracked by the Qinghe Police Station.
This held very significant meaning for the entire Qinghe area.
"But there's still a problem. Even if we're certain He Mingwei could do it, where's the evidence?"
These words were exactly right. Without evidence, everything was just speculation.
The police couldn't convict He Mingwei based on a guess.
"Step by step," Lei Zhen said. "As long as we crack He Mingwei's method of committing the crime, we can follow the clues and will surely find evidence of his murder."
But soon, Liao Anqian called.
"We tested it seven or eight times. Half of the way from the mahjong parlor to Fengming Village is mountain road. The best time for a round trip was 20 minutes. A round trip in sixteen minutes is simply impossible. Not just in our Jiangcheng, but very few people in the whole country could do it. Also, my friend knows He Mingwei; they used to ride together. He said that with He Mingwei's skill level, a single trip would take at least twenty minutes."
Hearing this, Lei Zhen felt as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over his head in the middle of winter.
"What did Liao Anqian say?" Gu Qingcheng also saw the disappointed expression on Lei Zhen's face.
"He said even the most professional riders need 20 minutes for this stretch. A round trip in sixteen minutes is impossible."
Upon hearing this, Gu Qingcheng's mood also instantly plummeted from the mountain peak to the bottom of the cliff.
"Could it be that we guessed wrong? He Mingwei didn't use this method?"
Lei Zhen, however, fell into deep thought.
On this kind of rural road, riding a motorcycle was definitely the fastest way, bar none.
Unless you took a plane.
If He Mingwei killed Ou Mingquan, how did he manage a round trip in sixteen minutes?
Was there some way to shorten the travel time on this road by four minutes?
Lei Zhen was completely baffled.
He knew very well that if this hypothesis couldn't hold, then He Mingwei had a perfect alibi.
"Could I have guessed wrong?"
For the first time, Lei Zhen began to question his own judgment.
The case had entered a dead end and completely stalled.
On Zhao Gang's side, although he had submitted the self-reflection letter Gu Qingcheng wrote during her night shift, Director Zhao had declined Zhao Gang's requests for a meeting several times.
In other words, he wasn't even giving him a chance to apologize.
Time passed quickly. A week had gone by since the crime occurred. Lei Zhen informed Ou Xiaochun and his mother of the autopsy results. Learning that the old man had been strangled to death, the mother and son were horrified.
However, Lei Zhen asked them not to disclose the details of the case to the public for the time being.
As for Sister Pang's request to have Ou Mingquan's body returned for re-burial, the Municipal Bureau also refused.
After all, as long as the case remained unsolved, the body could not be returned.
But the Municipal Bureau still promised Sister Pang that if the killer couldn't be caught within half a month, Ou Mingquan's body would be handed over to them for burial.
Lei Zhen also re-evaluated the case and still felt that He Mingwei was the primary suspect.
Later, Liao Anqian invited a well-known off-road club from the city for a test, but the final result was that even the top off-road rider in Jiangcheng took 18 minutes and 12 seconds for the round trip.
It was a full two minutes short of the sixteen-minute round trip.
It was these two minutes that left Lei Zhen in a state of complete desperation.