Chapter 62: East Sea Residential Compound

Zhou Yi and Qiao Jiali, dressed in plainclothes, drove the Santana and parked across the street from the main entrance of the Donghai Residential Community.

"Sister Qiao, has everything been sorted out with Officer Miao on that end?" Zhou Yi asked.

Qiao Jiali nodded. "Old Miao asked me to pass along a message. Their precinct captain has given the word: full cooperation with Officer Zhou's work."

"Sister Qiao, stop teasing me. How on earth do I have that much pull?"

"It's true. If you don't believe me, ask him yourself next time and see if I'm lying."

Qiao Jiali handed over a bottle of water and said, "Actually, you didn't have to rush to come to work today. You were injured in the line of duty after all. You could have filed a request and rested at home for a couple of days."

"Thanks." Zhou Yi took the bottle and took a sip. "This little scratch is nothing. Back in the day..."

Mid-sentence, Zhou Yi realized his slip of the tongue and instantly clamped his mouth shut.

"Back in the day, what?"

"Back... back in the day, I got hurt in police academy, and I was bouncing around as good as new by the very next day."

Qiao Jiali harbored no suspicion toward his words, simply smiling as she said, "Youth is a wonderful thing. I was just like that back then."

Zhou Yi let out an immediate sigh of relief, silently reminding himself that he would need to be much more cautious in his words and actions from now on.

"If you ask me, you simply couldn't put this missing persons case out of your mind."

Qiao Jiali was spot on; Zhou Yi truly could not let go of Zhang Hui's disappearance.

The reason was simple: Xu Jiaguang had failed to show up for their appointment on time.

A man who had taken to the streets holding protest signs due to police inaction had stood them up after receiving a promise from the Municipal Bureau's Major Crimes Unit.

That was entirely abnormal!

Intuition told him there was something fishy going on.

That was precisely why he and Qiao Jiali had come to the Donghai Residential Community now.

"If Zhang Hui has indeed met with foul play, then this Xu Jiaguang is our prime suspect." Qiao Jiali, of course, was well aware of the issues at play.

Zhou Yi nodded. "Sister Qiao, you and I are on the same page. The tricky part, however, is that we need to see a person alive or a body if they're dead."

"Right. Without a corpse, we can't open a formal case, nor can we interrogate this Xu Jiaguang."

The two got out of the car. Zhou Yi walked toward the Donghai Residential Community, while Qiao Jiali headed toward a sanitation truck currently loading and unloading garbage.

Inside the community's security guard booth, a security guard well past fifty was nodding his head to the rhythm of Beijing opera playing on a radio, occasionally nodding and greeting the elderly residents passing in and out.

The guard had just picked up a glass mug brimming with goji berries and was about to take a drink when he looked up and spotted Zhou Yi standing outside the window.

"Well, young man, you gave me a start."

"What is your honorable surname, sir?" Zhou Yi asked, casually pulling out a cigarette pack and handing one over.

The old man accepted it with a beaming smile, tucking it behind his ear. "My surname is Zhang. Is there something you need, young man?"

"Uncle Zhang, how many years have you worked here in this community?"

"Oh, that's been quite a long time. Back when this community was built in '76, I was already guarding the construction site here. After people moved in, I stayed on as a security guard."

Most residential compounds built in the 1960s and 70s initially served as employee dormitories for work units. Given the poor economic conditions in the early years, many heavy industry enterprises allocated housing to attract workers. Much like a steel mill dormitory, the Donghai Residential Community was in a similar situation.

"Is that so? Then you must be exceptionally good at your job for them to be so reluctant to part with you," Zhou Yi flattered him.

The old man took a sip of his goji berry water, a wide smile spreading across his face that he couldn't quite contain, though he casually muttered, "So-so, just so-so."

"I'd like to ask you about someone. I wonder if you know her?"

"Go ahead, name her. There isn't a single person in this community I don't know."

"Zhang Hui, do you know her?"

"How could I not know her? Isn't she the one who vanished last week? Her husband lately has been coming over every single—"

The old man abruptly stopped mid-sentence, casting a wary look at Zhou Yi.

"What are you doing? Why are you asking about this?"

Zhou Yi calmly smiled and said, "My fault, my fault. I forgot to introduce myself. My surname is Zhou, and I'm from the Red Sun Food Company."

"Food company? Oh, oh, oh. You're from Zhang Hui's workplace, right?"

"That's right, that's right. The grocery store where she worked is run by our company. Well, since she's gone missing, the company has been quite worried, so they sent me to look into the situation."

The old man gave a thumbs-up. "Then your company is truly wonderful. Very humane."

Zhou Yi thought to himself: If this company were truly humane, you would have seen someone from our office long ago.

However, since the primary objective was to gather intelligence, he immediately plastered a wide smile across his face.

"Uncle Zhang, when was the very last time you saw Zhang Hui?"

"Just the night she vanished. She had bought some groceries and was leading her daughter into the compound. I just happened to stand up to stretch my legs at the time, and she even greeted me."

"Were you on duty that evening?"

The old man pointed to the guard booth behind him and said, "It's always me. I live right here."

Zhou Yi glanced inside. There was an inner room—very small—containing a single bed and a few daily living supplies.

"What time do you usually lock the community's main gate at night?"

"I don't lock it."

"What?" Zhou Yi was momentarily stunned, quickly asking, "You don't lock the main gate at night?"

"What would I lock the door for? Having it open makes people coming and going so much more convenient."

Zhou Yi was dumbfounded. If the residential gate wasn't locked at night and there were no security cameras, that posed a serious problem.

The probability of Zhang Hui having left of her own accord or having been taken away by someone skyrocketed. After all, finding eyewitnesses in the dead of night was nearly impossible.

"Then what if a bad guy gets into the community?"

The old man gave a dismissive wave of his hand. "Won't happen. I sleep light. If anyone comes or goes, I'm bound to hear it."

Zhou Yi threw up his hands in resignation. Forget it; rather than a security guard, this old man was more like a stone guardian lion at the gate—his primary function was simply acting as a mascot.

"Uncle Zhang, how is the relationship between Zhang Hui and her husband normally?"

"Their relationship is fantastic, always joined at the hip. For people of their age, you'd think they'd avoid public displays, but they'd be all over each other outside," the old man said with a hint of grievance.

These words left Zhou Yi even more confused.

If the community's security guard, acting as a bystander, could tell their relationship was good, then Xu Jiaguang had even less motive to commit a crime.

Could it be that Zhang Hui genuinely just vanished?

Zhou Yi asked a few more questions, handed the old man another cigarette, and then departed.

After reuniting with Qiao Jiali, the two exchanged notes.

"I've asked the sanitation workers. Ever since Zhang Hui went missing, no suspicious biological tissue has turned up in any of the nearby garbage bins."

Zhou Yi nodded. This served to rule out the possibility that Zhang Hui had been dismembered after meeting her end at home.

Dismemberment naturally required the disposal of the remains.

Dumping the body was the most probable method of disposal.

Given that Zhang Hui had a daughter at home, it was unlikely the body disposal would be carried out in multiple trips across several days. If the dismemberment and disposal had to be completed in a single night, the dumping site couldn't be too far or too complex relative to the crime scene.

Yet, this security guard who disliked locking the gates had invisibly increased the difficulty of the investigation.

Of course, the old man couldn't be blamed; after all, no one could have anticipated such an event.

In fact, even two decades later, many places remained the same, lacking strong security awareness.

The only difference was that later on, urban surveillance became widespread, preventing certain incidents from occurring.

"Oh, right, Sister Qiao, the security guard provided a clue of some value."