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Chapter 140

When Zhang Mingli\'s grandmother received the call asking her to come to the police station to identify the body, her first reaction was that it was a scam call.

"You heartless scammer! My son is living well in America. It\'s your son who\'s dead, trying to deceive an old lady like me. You have no conscience!" Zhang Mingli\'s grandmother, though in her seventies, still had a strong, forceful voice.

"Grandmother, you say your son is in America. Has he ever video called you or come back to visit?"

"My son can\'t come back from abroad, but he always sends money and clothes from overseas. During Chinese New Year, he even sent me a red envelope with several hundred yuan. You\'re just a scammer!"

Li Qiang, Zhang Mingli\'s uncle, was listening to the conversation nearby and took the phone: "Mother, let me talk to them."

"Qiang, they\'re saying Bao is dead."

"Mother, you already said they\'re scammers. Let\'s ignore them."

He took the phone and walked outside before speaking: "Officer, you\'re saying my brother is dead?"

"Yes."

"Ah, I knew something had happened to Bao. Otherwise, why wouldn\'t he have come back all these years? He was always the most filial one! Officer, I\'ll come to the police station shortly to identify the body. Please contact me directly for any matters, don\'t contact my mother. I\'m worried she won\'t be able to handle the news."

"Alright."

When Li Qiang arrived at the morgue, Mu Mian pulled open the freezer drawer and said, "This is your brother\'s body."

Li Qiang didn\'t cry or make any excessive movements. He just stood there, looking down at his brother\'s body. All these years, he had believed his brother was really working abroad, thinking he was doing well, even though he never called home or sent any news.

When he heard about his brother\'s death, everything that hadn\'t made sense suddenly became clear. So his brother had been dead all along.

"How did my brother die?" Li Qiang asked.

"Preliminary findings indicate the cause of death was asphyxiation," Mu Mian replied.

In the past, Mu Mian would have told him that his brother had been pushed down the stairs, suffered a head injury, and then the killer had preserved the body with coarse salt and tung oil before encasing it in concrete. But now Mu Mian knew that victims\' families didn\'t really want to know the details of how their loved ones died.

Fang Rui and Zhang took Li Qiang to the interrogation room to take his statement.

"Officers, was my brother murdered? But he was just an elementary school teacher, honest and kind, well-liked by everyone. How could anyone want to murder him?"

"Mr. Li, please don\'t worry. We need to understand some details from you," Zhang handed him a glass of water. "When did you completely lose contact with your brother?"

"It was around August 2004, during the summer break. My brother\'s wife, Zhang Huanhuan, suddenly called home saying my brother was having an affair and was making a huge fuss about getting divorced. None of us knew what was happening at the time. At first, we didn\'t believe it - my brother had always been an honest person, and they had such a good marriage. But that year our family had just received a house and a large sum of money from relocation compensation, so we wondered if the money had changed him. We tried our best to calm my sister-in-law down, and eventually she agreed not to divorce.

We planned to have a family meeting to properly talk to my brother, but he wouldn\'t answer my calls. When I went to his house to look for him, I heard that Mingli was in the hospital, so I went there to see her. After I left the hospital, I received a text from my brother saying he had gone abroad with Juan and told us not to look for him.

Three months later, he sent another text saying he had settled down in America and not to worry about him. After that, we never received any more messages from him. My sister-in-law\'s family came to our house and caused a huge scene. Feeling guilty, we gave them a large sum of money to finally settle the matter."

"But your mother said your brother often sends money from abroad?" Zhang questioned.

"Ah, that was just to make my mother feel better. She loves my brother the most, and if she knew he was missing, she would have worried herself sick. I often buy things myself or withdraw cash, package them up with fake shipping labels, and tell my mother they\'re from my brother. To make it more convincing, I even deceived my wife and children - they all believe my brother regularly sends money home."

"Didn\'t you think about reporting it to the police?"

Aliali: 674546a8c4f3f33ac44c92ac"During the first few years after he went missing, I really believed he had gone to America. He used to talk about how great and free America was, saying he would definitely visit if he had the money. I thought maybe he really had gone there. Later, I started feeling something was wrong - even in America, he could still make phone calls home. I thought maybe he had met with foul play in America, but I had no connections there and didn\'t know how to report it. I never imagined he hadn\'t left the country at all."

"Do you still have those text messages?" Fang Rui asked.

"Yes. I keep that phone charged regularly and maintain the phone plan. I was afraid my brother might call and I wouldn\'t be able to receive it," Li Qiang said. "The phone is at my house. I\'ll go get it right away."

"How was your brother\'s relationship with his wife?"

"It was good. They fell in love naturally. You young people might not know, but twenty-some years ago, most marriages were arranged - it was rare for people to find their own partners. My sister-in-law was also an elementary school teacher. They taught at the same school and gradually fell in love. That\'s why I could never understand how my brother could have an affair and abandon his family to go abroad."

"How was your brother with his daughter, Zhang Mingli?"

"He absolutely adored her. Let me put it this way - back then, how many men would smile after their wives gave birth to a daughter? When Mingli was born, my brother announced it to everyone with such joy, you\'d think his wife had given birth to a son. Before the relocation compensation, they were very poor, but they would scrimp and save to give their daughter the best of everything. That\'s why I never really believed my brother would abandon his wife and child over an affair."

Zhang couldn\'t help but sigh inwardly - if Li Bao had known Zhang Mingli wasn\'t his biological daughter, he probably wouldn\'t have smiled at all.

"Did your brother show any unusual behavior before he disappeared?" Fang Rui asked.

"Unusual behavior? He kept calling me during that period, but wouldn\'t say what was wrong when I asked. He was always trying to get me to drink with him. My restaurant was just starting up then, and I was extremely busy, so I didn\'t pay much attention to him. Thinking back carefully now, maybe my brother really was having an affair at that time."