“Hey, Introvert Two, what do you mean by that? Why do you need to take a look at the crime scene?” Li Ergou impolitely taunted. “It is easy for you to say, as if it was no big deal. Do you know how much my cow is worth? Do you think you can afford to compensate my losses, given your family’s financial situation?”
Miao Ying observed from behind. She could clearly see that Zhao Yu’s cheeks moved, likely because he was gritting his teeth and getting ready to strike.
However, Zhao Yu’s ability to control himself once again shocked Miao Ying. Unexpectedly, Zhao Yu put on a smile and said, “Uncle Ergou, I have no idea how much your cow is worth, but I brought along some money with me today. I am not sure if the amount will be enough to compensate you.”
As he spoke, Zhao Yu opened the car door and took out one million dollars in cash. In order to leave a more impactful impression, while reaching into the bag for the cash, he deliberately knocked over the bag, causing many bank more notes to fall on the ground!
Gosh…
Wow…
Oh my God…
At that moment, everyone who saw the money was exclaiming! No one had expected Zhao Yu to bring so much money. It was a jaw-dropping sight, and caused a buzz among the crowd.
Li Ergou stared hard and could not believe his eyes. He said, “You… So many… ”
“Uncle Ergou, I know that most of the cows in our village do not exceed twenty thousand dollars.” Zhao Yu bent over to pick up the money from the ground and smiled contentedly. “If I were to compensate you with fifty thousand dollars, it should be more than enough, right?”
“What? Fifty thousand dollars?” Li Ergou swallowed hard. In fact, his cow was only worth about ten thousand dollars. Hearing Zhao Yu’s offer to compensate him fifty thousand dollars, he could not help but feel overjoyed. He smiled broadly and said, “Oh dear… I did not expect Introvert Two to strike it rich! Alright, since we are old neighbors, fifty thousand dollars will do, ha ha ha…”
“Good!” Once Zhao Yu finished picking up all the money, he pointed to the homestead next to the house and said, “Now let me visit the crime scene first. I wish to find out more about how the cow died before I compensate you.”
“Well… Of course… Of course…” Li Ergou was easily influenced by money, thus replied with a humble voice.
Zhao Yu handed Miao Ying the bag containing the money, then turned to walk towards the homestead.
“No, ah Yu, you cannot give them the money. This whole matter is questionable!” Zhao Yu’s mother wanted to rush over to stop him, but the quick-witted Miao Ying stopped her.
“Don’t worry, aunty, let us take a look before we decide what to do next!” Miao Ying smiled and assured Zhao Yu’s mother. Hence, Zhao Yu’s mother did not stand in the way.
The homestead beside Zhao Yu’s house was initially purchased at a low price from the brigade five years ago. But the price of the homestead had multiplied, as the price of housing properties soared in recent years.
After the purchase of the homestead, Zhao Yu’s family had no money left to build a new house on it. Zhao Yu’s father began to plant vegetables on the land, gradually turning it into a small vegetable garden.
Coincidentally, the opposite side of the homestead was Li Ergou’s house. The distance between the cow shed in Li Ergou’s house and the homestead was very close.
When Zhao Yu approached the homestead, he saw that, just as Li Ergou said, there was a lock on the fence door. But the lock had been opened.
Before Zhao Yu stepped into the homestead, he checked the door lock. He observed that the lock could easily be pulled opened, without the use of a key.
“Look! This lock has long been broken.” Zhao Yu’s father quickly clarified, “Anyone can open the lock easily. Besides, I only planted some vegetables, and there was nothing valuable in the homestead. Sometimes, I even left the homestead unlocked!”
“Hey, stop finding excuses!” Li Ergou retorted. “When I came over this morning, I could clearly see that the lock was locked.”
Zhao Yu carefully observed the doorway, before stepping into the homestead. Sure enough, a big yellow cow was lying in the vegetable field, at the entrance of the garden, and the cow’s throat was slit. Blood oozed out from the slit, and the patch of land surrounding it was stained red with blood. The scent of blood filled the air.
“Oh, my!” Zhao Yu bent over and said, “What a pity to lose such a big cow!”
“A purebred Luxi cow!” Li Ergou echoed. “It makes my heart ache to see such a cow go to waste!”
“Well!” Zhao Yu carefully observed the scene and began to analyze, “This is such a big cow. If it was already dead before appearing at the scene, it would be challenging to carry it here. So, someone must have brought the cow here to slaughter it, which is to say, this is the crime scene of the case.”
On hearing Zhao Yu’s analysis, everyone felt very alert. As there were too many people out there, those who could not get in had to tiptoe and look inside from the fence.
“Too many footprints from the crime scene have been destroyed, and it would be challenging to extract the fingerprints, too,” Zhao Yu murmured to himself. He put on a pair of white gloves and examined the dead cow.
“Tsk tsk…” Zhao Yu shook his head and said, “Look! There are a lot of dents on the ground next to the body of the cow. These dents must have been left by someone who knelt here. This shows that there should have been four to five people holding the cow down, so that the cow would not struggle to attract attention, thus allowing one of them to slit its throat! ”
As he was speaking, Zhao Yu turned to the slit wound on the throat of the cow. He added, “The wound is a cross cut, well-executed and neatly cut. This shows that the killer is experienced in slaughtering cows. You can also see that there is no sign of smudging or spreading of blood stains around. This also shows that when the cow died, it must have been held down by people.”
Li Ergou and the others listened carefully but did not fully understand what Zhao Yu meant. Zhao Yu felt around the cow’s body, then pulled open the cow’s mouth to take a look.
Unexpectedly, after taking a few glimpses, he said in a surprised tone, “Wow! Great discovery! Come and take a look! There are many blisters in the cow’s mouth, and there is also a skin ulceration, caused by the rupture of blisters. This is clearly a sign of a bacterial infection. Uncle Ergou, this is a sick cow!”
“Ah?”
Hearing this, both Li Ergou and his wife could not help but tremble.
“This…” Li Ergou said in initial denial, “Are you sure? Our cow has always been healthy. How could it be sick?”
“Yes, yes!” Li Ergou’s wife echoed, her voice trailing off.
“It does not matter!” Zhao Yu said, “I am a senior detective in charge of criminal cases. If I was able to solve the Mianling case, not to mention that it was an extraordinary case, as compared to this ordinary cow murder case, I can surely solve this. I will ask the technical expert of our police station to come over and run a test to see if the cow is sick or not. Uncle Ergou, if your cow is not sick, then this must have been a misunderstanding. This then means that the dead cow is not yours after all.”
“No, it… it could be sick!” Li Ergou’s wife hurried over and say, “Some time ago, the cow looked a little listless. But… What has this got to do with your family stealing, and the murdering of the cow?”
“How does it not matter?” Zhao said quickly. “Is it not obvious enough? The cow was probably dying in your house, and you deliberately pulled it over into our homestead to kill it, planning to extort money from us. You are too much!”
“Zhao Yu, you are slandering me!” Li Ergou shouted. “Just as you said, we need evidence in a case. Now that there is no evidence in all that you have just said, your family has to take responsibility.”
“Cool down, cool down. Be calm!” Zhao Yu raised his hand and said, “In fact, there is a lot of evidence here. Do you not see? Generally, when you slaughter a cow, you will need to use ropes to tie up the cow first. However, in this case, it involved a sick cow. Thus, you do not see any traces that the cow was tied up beforehand.”
“In other words, when the cow was killed, it took a lot of effort to hold the cow down, in order to prevent the cow from struggling. Thus, the reason why there were dents left behind. So, as soon as I get my colleagues from the forensic department to run some tests, I can surely find the real murderer.”
“Huh?” Li Ergou was startled and paused for some time. After that, he asked, “How is that possible? With only a few dents, you can find the real murderer?”
“Of course!” Zhao Yu affirmed, “A test can easily match any DNA and dander sample. When the time for the test comes, my family will surely cooperate to take the test. Your family will cooperate too, right?”
“How… How can it be?” Li Ergou was in disbelief. He said with his voice trailing off, “We will cooperate, but is it troublesome?”
“What? You mind the trouble? Haha…”Zhao Yu laughed and said, “Well, I have the most direct evidence here. Do you wish to know what it is?”
As Zhao Yu spoke, he turned to the body of the cow and said, “I already know where the murderer hid the murder weapon. Do you believe it?”