You're supposed to be a security officer, what case are you solving?

Chapter 54 A Suspicious Woman!
That night.

10 PM.

The alley entrance was pitch black.

A reinforced concrete lamppost stands on the right-hand sidewalk, its ellipsoidal glass lampshade emitting a dim, yellowish light.

Under the lights was a newsstand, and a group of people were gathered around the storefront facing the street.

Newspaper kiosks in the 1990s had several types of characteristics: one was state-owned enterprises directly operated by the postal system; the other was an affiliated business of Xinhua Bookstore.

Another option is contracted operation, either through individual businesses affiliating with or through street collectives.

Even from a distance, Yang Jinwen noticed that there was no postal sign on the side of the newsstand, so it was clear that the newsstand was privately owned.

If it were part of the postal industry, it would be impossible for them to still be working past 10 p.m.

As he ran closer, he heard Zheng Kang waving to a middle-aged man wearing glasses and a sleeveless white T-shirt.

"Don't stay inside, come out and talk to me."

The middle-aged man adjusted his glasses, nodded, and walked out from one side.

Zheng Kang grabbed his arm and led him to the entrance of the alley on the left.

Xu Guoliang and a group of joint defense team members followed behind him.

Zheng Kang nodded to Yang Jinwen, then pointed to the alley entrance and asked the middle-aged man, "Jin Hanliang, are you sure Zhang Xiaoying passed by here at 10:20 pm the night before last?"

The man named Jin Hanliang nodded: "If it's the woman in the photo you just showed me, then it must be her. I see her coming home from here every night, with a child on her back."

Zheng Kang nodded, then asked, "After she went into the alley and walked down the slope, the middle-aged woman you mentioned immediately followed her?"

Jin Hanliang shook his head: "I didn't go immediately, it was about a minute later."

"What does she look like?"

"Very ordinary, wearing a floral shirt with a wide neckline."

What are the features of her face?

"It was too dark at the time, and my newsstand was far away, so I couldn't see her face at all."

Jin Hanliang pointed to the open space below the wall at the entrance of the alley and replied, "You'll have to ask Lao Lü. He was sitting on a small stool at the time, so he should have seen it."

"What's the full name of the old Lu you're talking about?"

"His name is Lü Deping."

Zheng Kang asked in confusion, "It's past ten o'clock at night, and he still has business repairing shoes?"

Jin Hanliang nodded: "Now everyone's been laid off, right? Old Lü's whole family was laid off, and the whole family depends on him to earn some money to make a living. If he doesn't work hard, how will the family survive?"

Yang Jinwen picked up the conversation: "Since you have a family to support, why did Old Lü finish work early tonight?"

"It's Lao Lü's birthday today..."

Before Jin Hanliang could finish speaking, Jiang Jianbing had already arrived with his men.

He hadn't been riding a bike or driving a car before, so Lü Deping's house must not be far away.

Lü Deping was in his forties and had a severe hunchback, but he walked very fast.

Yang Jinwen smelled shoe polish and leather on him, the same smell as the one emanating from his stall.

Jiang Jianbing wiped the sweat from his forehead and nodded to Zheng Kang.

Zheng Kang looked at Lü Deping: "You must be Lao Lü?"

"it's me."

Where do you usually set up your shoe stall?

Lu Deping walked to the base of the red brick wall and pointed to a patch of greasy wall base: "Right here."

Yang Jinwen glanced at it. This place was no more than ten meters from the entrance of the alley. If someone went in from the entrance of the alley, they could indeed see the other person's face.

Zheng Kang took out a photo from his shirt pocket and handed it to him: "Have you seen this woman before?" Lü Deping didn't look at it immediately, but instead looked at Jin Hanliang, who nodded to him, indicating that he was not worried. Only then did he take the photo.

After all, the police in this day and age are not very popular with the public.

Jiang Jianbing, who was standing nearby, immediately took out a flashlight and shone its light on the photo.

The photo is a wedding photo of Sun Lu and Zhang Xiaoying, as there are no photos of her single status. Sun Lu has been cut out of the photo, so only half of the photo remains.

In the photo, Zhang Xiaoying is wearing a bright red dress and sitting on a stool in the photo studio.

She wore bright red lipstick and had her hair styled in a high bun, a common hairstyle for women getting married in the 1990s.

All the hair is combed back, with the top raised into a full, rounded shape, and the ends tied into a low bun, paired with a rhinestone hairnet or a pearl comb.

To others, these are just normal wedding photos, but to Yang Jinwen, they are very characteristic of the times.

Zhang Xiaoying in the photo is smiling happily, full of longing for marriage and future life.

But the desperate look in her eyes, the mutilated lips, and the poisoned body she suffered when she was murdered seemed to leave Yang Jinwen in a daze.

It was as if the woman in the photo was not Zhang Xiaoying at all, not the victim he had imagined.

At this moment, Zheng Kang reminded him, "Old Lü, take a closer look, have you seen her before?"

"I've met you." Lü Deping nodded readily.

Zheng Kang pursed his lips and continued, "When did you first meet him?"

"Yesterday... no, the night before, this woman was carrying a child on her back. She goes down the alley every night, so she must live in Wutong Alley down there, right?"

"Besides her, who else did you see?"

"After she went past, another woman went into the alley."

"How old is this woman? What does she look like?"

"She was in her forties, wearing a floral shirt, and as for her appearance, well, how should I put it, she seemed a bit sneaky."

Jiang Jianbing urged from the side, "Think carefully, can you recall what this woman looks like?"

"I……"

Lu Deping scratched the back of his head awkwardly. His fingers had several scars, and his fingernails were full of grease.

He suddenly asked, "Do you have a pen?"

Zheng Kang asked in surprise, "You can draw?"

"Besides repairing shoes, I also make shoes. I usually draw shoe soles, and I can draw some simple ones."

Yang Jinwen quickly handed him his notebook and pen.

Since there was nowhere to sit, Jin Hanliang took a small wooden stool from his own newsstand.

After sitting down, Lü Deping placed his notebook on his lap, his calloused hands gripping the pen, but he hesitated to write.

Because the lights were too dim, Jiang Jianbing kept his flashlight on, and the beam of the flashlight kept shining on the laptop.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, Lü Deping shook his head: "I can't draw it, but the image of that woman in my mind is becoming clearer and clearer."

“You tell me, I’ll draw.” Yang Jinwen took the notebook and pen and sat down on the floor.

Zheng Kang immediately asked, "Jinwen, are you sure you can do it?"

“I used to study painting at the Children’s Palace.”

Zheng Kang found these words strangely familiar, but the drawings of the figure-eight knot and the flat crowbar that Yang Jinwen had shown him during the day did prove that he could draw them, and he drew them very well.

Yang Jinwen added, "My mother passed away early, and my father was busy with work."

He left me at the children's palace, and before I went to university, I studied figure drawing for six years.

(End of this chapter)