SFTD -Chapter 42 Mystery of the Dry Bones (Part 6)

“Wait a second, I brought the registry book with me.”

As he spoke, the dentist flipped through the register, found a page, and pointed to a phone number for Zhou Hai to see.

“Here, look. Her name was Yu Hongyu. Twenty-one years old. She lived in Bian Family Village, Taonan Town. Half a month ago, it was time for her braces adjustment, but she never came. I called her, but her phone had already been disconnected for unpaid fees. I even tried again last week, but still couldn’t reach her.”

Zhou Hai nodded and handed the registry over to Captain Hu, who immediately understood and instructed one of the investigators to verify the household registration information.

“Did you talk with Yu Hongyu about anything else? For example, her family situation, work, income, boyfriend, things like that?”

Doctor Zhang leaned slightly closer to Zhou Hai.

“The moment you opened your mouth, I knew you were in the same profession. The reason she convinced me to make braces for her was because she told me a little about her situation. Honestly, it was heartbreaking. She said she only had her father. Her mother ran away when she was little. And her father… wasn’t very bright mentally. The villagers had helped support them so she could at least finish middle school. Recently, she’d gotten a boyfriend and wanted to make herself look prettier. She wanted to fix her teeth so she could gain his approval, and then she could take better care of her father in the future. As for work, I think she said she was a warehouse manager at some forklift factory. Her monthly income was only two or three thousand yuan—just enough to survive.”

The more Fengzi listened, the brighter his eyes became. The family background matched Zhou Hai’s earlier deductions almost perfectly. They’d been handed such an excellent lead, yet had wasted eight whole days. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became.

He lifted his foot and kicked lightly at Yu Yongliang, who was sitting beside him.

“I’m saying, don’t you have any thoughts about this?”

Yu Yongliang was a simple man. Blinking nervously at the furious Fengzi, he clearly feared the people from the Municipal Bureau’s Forensic Center.

He swallowed hard and asked shakily, “What thoughts?”

Hearing that answer felt like punching cotton. Fengzi no longer even wanted to bother with him.

Not long after, the investigator who had taken the registry returned and handed two printed A4 sheets to Captain Hu.

Captain Hu glanced at them before passing them to Zhou Hai.

The girl looked fairly ordinary, but there was a youthful spirit in her eyes and brows that made her pleasant to look at. Considering it was an ID photo, it already looked quite good.

Zhou Hai handed the photo to Doctor Zhang.

“Take a look. Is this her?”

Doctor Zhang examined it carefully and nodded firmly.

“Yes. In person she looked even prettier than the photo.”

Captain Hu stood and shook Doctor Zhang’s hand, then instructed an investigator to take him downstairs for an official statement. He specifically reminded them to personally escort him back afterward and properly thank the clinic so the investigation wouldn’t affect their business.

While saying this, Captain Hu kept glaring fiercely at Yu Yongliang, frightening him so much that he shrank his neck and hurried off to work.

“We’ve identified the victim. Now we can visit her home. Maybe we’ll uncover something even bigger.”

By now, Captain Hu admired Zhou Hai completely. He immediately arranged vehicles to depart. Fengzi parked the car they had driven in the Criminal Police garage since the victim’s skeletal remains were still inside.

Half an hour later, the convoy arrived at Bian Family Village in Taonan Town.

Because the local village committee had been contacted beforehand, they found the place without much difficulty and arrived at Yu Hongyu’s home.

The moment he saw the house, Zhou Hai frowned deeply.

Even in this era, he hadn’t expected people to still live in such dilapidated conditions.

Two mud-brick tile-roofed rooms stood there, the paint on the walls completely peeled away.

Compared to the neighboring houses, it was much shorter.

The so-called courtyard was merely a fence made of bamboo sticks tied together and driven into the ground.

Still, the yard itself was fairly tidy. Though weeds grew among the vegetable patches, the plants remained vibrant with life.

The victim had already been dead for over twenty days. No one knew how her father had been surviving during that time.

Pushing open the gate, a village committee worker walked ahead and entered the house directly.

A moment later, he turned and came back out.

“No one’s inside!” the village worker said.

“Hongyu’s father isn’t mentally stable. For the past month, he’s been eating at his younger brother’s house. Last week his sister-in-law hit him twice. He got agitated and had another episode. No one knows where he ran off to.”

Captain Hu gestured behind him.

“Everyone, spread out and look for him.”

Zhou Hai and the others stayed behind. Xu Biao had already suited up and entered the house holding an inspection lamp, while Fengzi and Xiao Liang eagerly followed him inside to begin a meticulous search.

Zhou Hai circled around outside the windows once before glancing at the village committee worker.

“What kind of person was Yu Hongyu?”

“Hongyu was a hardworking girl. Straightforward and quick with her hands. She fiercely protected her father. When she was barely a teenager, her aunt poked fun at her father once, and Hongyu immediately started arguing with her on the spot. She was good at managing a household.”

Captain Hu suddenly asked, “Did Yu Hongyu’s family have any other relatives in Bian Village?”

“The Yu family doesn’t have many people. In her father’s generation, there were only two brothers. She had one younger uncle, six years younger than her father. The uncle was mentally normal, but timid by nature, and his wife was extremely domineering. So unless absolutely necessary, Yu Hongyu would never ask them for help. Even after her mother ran away, she never troubled her uncle’s family. Only in the last two years, after her father became a bit clearer mentally, did the two families start interacting somewhat.”

“Did their family have any enemies or disputes with anyone?”

The village worker froze for a moment and stared at Zhou Hai in surprise.

“What enemies could a fool’s family possibly have? Everyone in the village treated them pretty well! Oh right, I heard Hongyu’s aunt even introduced her to a marriage prospect—a technician from a nearby factory. The whole village was talking about it.”

“Didn’t Hongyu once argue with her aunt? Why introduce her to someone afterward?”

“That happened many years ago. Things got better later.”

The moment Zhou Hai heard this, his attention was instantly captured.

The victim’s boyfriend had never appeared. Yu Hongyu had been missing for so many days, yet nobody had come asking about her.

Did he not care?

Or did he already know exactly what had happened?

“Where does her uncle’s family live?”

The village worker pointed toward a yellow two-story building north of Yu Hongyu’s house.

“That yellow two-story building belongs to her uncle, Yu Jianrui.”

By then, Xu Biao and the others had already finished examining the rooms. Frowning tightly, Xu Biao pulled Zhou Hai aside.

“Her house is a mess. Someone came looking for something, and they had a very clear purpose. Yu Hongyu’s wardrobe was completely rummaged through, and afterward all the items were just tossed back inside randomly instead of being put back properly. And it definitely doesn’t look like her father did it.”

Zhou Hai frowned.

“You mean the person who searched the place wasn’t worried about being discovered, because they knew Yu Hongyu could never come back to confront them?”

“Exactly.”

Zhou Hai stepped into the house.

The red brick floor had been worn smooth over the years, leaving obvious walking paths. This house had clearly stood for a long time.

Fengzi and Xiao Liang were in the main room flipping through the victim’s photo albums and a diary, but apparently they had found nothing.

The east room belonged to Yu Hongyu.

The moment Zhou Hai entered, an open wardrobe immediately came into view. All the clothes inside had been twisted together and stuffed carelessly back into the cabinet.

One of the drawers of the desk on the north side had also been pulled open, with miscellaneous items scattered all over the floor.

Who would come searching through such a poor, nearly empty home?

And what exactly were they looking for?