BANG!
Chen Ge locked the door and dragged the hammer into the room. He looked around. The room was simple with little furniture, and there was a pungent smell of subpar cigarette smoke in the air. There was a metal plate on the coffee table, which was filled with cigarette butts, and there were holes on the couch that were probably cigarette burns.
"You're a heavy smoker?" Chen Ge acted like he had returned to his own home. He grabbed a chair and sat in the living room close to the door.
"Does that count as a question?" Zhang Li crossed his arms and stood beside the coffee table. He looked very guarded.
"Just answer the questions that I ask. This is for your own good." Chen Ge glanced at the cigarette butts; they came from various brands, but they were all cheap brands.
"For my own good?" Zhang Li retreated several steps to lean against the window. "What do you want?"
Chen Ge placed the security pass on the table and put the hammer away. "Who is the girl that came to the Haunted House with you this morning?"
"My little sister. She just got fired from her job. She wasn't feeling great, so I asked for a day off to accompany her to the theme park."
"When the two of you entered the Haunted House, why did you purposely evade the students from Western Jiujiang Medical University? Were you afraid of being recognized?" Chen Ge kept his questions broad. When Zhang Li fell into the trap, he would then tighten the scope.
"The students don't like me. If they recognized me, it might be troublesome." Zhang Li took a deep breath. "But my sister and I have gotten used to it already."
Realizing that there were words left unsaid, Chen Ge asked, "Gotten used to what?"
"My sister used to study at the university, but she got into an argument with another girl at the school due to some conflict. Coincidentally, the girl disappeared the next day." Zhang Li's fingers tightened. "Then someone created a rumor at the school, saying that the girl's disappearance had something to do with my little sister."
The thing was indeed quite a coincidence, or else Lee Zheng would not have listed Zhang Shihan and Zhang Li as suspects. Chen Ge nodded. "What did the rumor say?"
"Initially, those jerks would at least gossip behind my sister's back then, but then they came to confront my sister, saying the girl committed suicide because her depression triggered after she had a falling out with my sister. Some even called my sister a murderer, and it was her who hid the body." Zhang Li paused to grab a cigarette from his pocket and light it. After a puff, Zhang Li felt better. "Many of my sister's friends left her, and my sister was at her lowest point of her life then. She even walked around the school personally to find that missing girl, but unfortunately, she couldn't find her."
"No wonder you're so cold to the students at the university." Chen Ge looked at Zhang Li and after a while, he said, "The police once contacted me, saying in that missing girl's case, you and your sister were both serious suspects, and their suspicions were not unfounded. From motive, time, and ability, you two were the biggest suspects."
"We did not kill anymore! The girl's disappearance had nothing to do with us!" Zhang Li was annoyed, but he did not dare show it. He could only chew on the cigarette to vent his anger.
"I know you two didn't kill anyone, and you're not the real killer; you've just been used." When Chen Ge heard the details from Zhang Li, he understood how careful the mastermind was. He not only dealt with all the clues, he even made use of these students and came up with two scapegoats to confuse the police. When Zhang Li heard Chen Ge use a confident tone to say that they were not the killers, the man looked at Chen Ge with surprise, and he realized that perhaps this man was not so bad.
"You took a day off from work today, so you might not have heard the news. The body of the missing girl has been found, and her killer has turned himself in." Chen Ge did not hide anything from the man.
"Who is the killer‽" Zhang Li squeezed the cigarette out and walked to Chen Ge.
"It's the staff from your university who always dresses smartly. I think his name is Liu Zhe."
"Liu Zhe‽" Zhang Li stood there stunned like he could not accept this reality.
"Liu Zhe is just one of the killers. There is still another one that is missing. We only know that he is related to the underground morgue."
"We?" Zhang Li felt Chen Ge's term was curious.
Chen Ge's face turned serious. He pointed at the door. "Do not tell anyone what I'm going to say."
Zhang Li nodded quickly. "I'm the only tenant on this floor, so there's no need to worry about eavesdropping, and I will not tell a third person."
"Okay." Chen Ge told out his phone to show his conversation with Captain Yan, Inspector Lee, and Lee Zheng, then he added, "Actually I'm an informant planted by the police. I've helped them with many cases before."
Zhang Li nodded dumbly. For some reason, he was slowly convinced by Chen Ge.
"The condition of you and your sister is still dangerous." Chen Ge then dropped another bomb. "The other killer is still out there, and things are still dangerous. He is very familiar with Western Jiujiang Medical University and should be hiding in plain sight. Temporarily, we have no idea who he is, and to stop people from panicking, I came to see you privately to find out some information."
"I will tell you everything I know." Zhang Li no longer sounded that guarded. He sat down next to Chen Ge, his attitude completely different from before.
"We need information on the underground morgue, the more detailed the better." Chen Ge voiced his need.
"Didn't the school provide some to the police already when you came last time?" Zhang Li was suspicious, but he still chose to believe Chen Ge. "There is a blueprint for the morgue inside the library's database. If you need it, I can snap a few pictures for you."
"That's a good start." Chen Ge was not satisfied. "You've been working at the school for so many years already, have you discovered anything weird at the underground morgue or run into something not explainable by science?"