Chapter 1062: The Tea Owner

This time, Lu Chuan smoothly obtained the configuration list for all the mineral water.

There were a total of thirty-two people.

It’s hard for ordinary people to imagine that a mineral water company would serve only 32 individuals.

But that’s exactly the case. The mineral water company run by Chen Debao is actually a subsidiary of the Dongzhou City Urban Investment Group.

And it is a subsidiary that has been losing money for years.

However, these matters are not Lu Chuan’s responsibility.

It’s not that no one is overseeing these issues; it’s just that the time hasn’t come yet.

The issue of privilege in Dongzhou City isn’t just a matter of one or two incidents; there are signs aplenty.

No incidents today doesn’t mean there won’t be tomorrow; sooner or later, something will happen.

And Lu Chuan can also see how arrogant the people at this mineral water company are just by how he was stopped earlier.

After obtaining the list, Lu Chuan didn’t leave immediately, but started asking what kind of tea these people liked to drink.

Both the sales manager and Chen Debao cooperated very well this time.

They had no choice but to cooperate; the police chief was sitting right there.

Wu Guodong is the police chief; this position is only one of his roles, and he holds other positions as well.

In terms of status, Wu Guodong is one of those 32 people, a figure in Dongzhou City whose slightest movement can shake the entire city.

The sales manager, named Zhang Baojun, is actually responsible for delivering water to these important figures every day.

"Director Lu, twelve leaders like to drink tea..."

Even Zhang Baojun and Chen Debao now know that Lu Chuan is also a deputy director of the Public Security Bureau.

Although he is the deputy director of Haizhou City’s High-tech Zone Public Security Bureau, Lu Chuan is young, only in his twenties, and he is already a deputy director at a district and county level police station.

Wu Guodong was taken aback when he learned this.

Lu Chuan looks just about twenty-six or twenty-seven, yet he’s already a deputy director of a district and county sub-bureau.

Wu Guodong was also born of the criminal police; he recalls that at Lu Chuan’s age, he was still working overnight shifts in the Criminal Investigation Team.

Not to mention a deputy director, back then he hadn’t even attained a deputy team leader position in an action group.

Moreover, Lu Chuan is now an expert-level figure in the provincial-level Major Crimes Unit.

The future prospects are limitless.

"How many people like to drink Da Hong Pao Tea?"

Da Hong Pao Tea?

Zhang Baojun was a bit stunned.

He knows which leaders like to drink pure selenium-rich mineral water because the packaging is different, so he sends it directly to them. However, some leaders like to boil this water to make tea.

But as for what specific tea these people drink, Zhang Baojun truly doesn’t know.

Seeing the expression on the other side, Lu Chuan knew that this might indeed be asking too much.

"Da Hong Pao... I do know one person who likes to drink top-grade Da Hong Pao."

Zhang Baojun kept silent, but Wu Guodong, sitting beside him, suddenly looked at Lu Chuan.

Oh?

Lu Chuan turned his head: "Director Wu, who is the person you’re talking about?"

"The chairman of the Longteng Group, Gao Xinxin."

Gao Xinxin?

Lu Chuan was slightly surprised; the name definitely sounds female.

"A woman?"

Wu Guodong nodded: "Yes, Gao Xinxin likes to drink Da Hong Pao, and it’s the top-grade kind. I heard that just a couple of ounces of it can cost tens of thousands of yuan. Last year, during a business gala event in the city, I had several interactions with her, and it was Old Wang who told me about this."

"Oh, by the way, Old Wang is the deputy mayor in charge of investment promotion."

A woman?

The chairman of Longteng Group?

Suddenly, Lu Chuan felt that this seemed to be getting more and more confusing.

The Red-clothed Killer started committing crimes 15 years ago, and after each murder, they would sever some parts of the victim’s body, and cut off some fingers or toes to detach them from the body.

And the Red-clothed Killer would deliberately leave some fingerprints or footprints at the crime scene each time, and the implicated individuals clearly have alibis.

The intention doesn’t seem to be to frame anyone, but merely to divert the police’s attention, and this diversion seems quite low-level.

Moreover, all the Red-clothed Killer’s targets are relatively young women dressed in red.

The characteristic of the murders is a single lethal thrust, directly cutting the throat leading to the victim’s death.

Additionally, the victim had been assaulted before death, with the perpetrator leaving bodily fluids inside them.

But this time, the case seems to reveal even more information.

The black garbage bag containing the victim’s fingers has been traced, and its owner is someone named Gao Zhiyuan, who worked at the same supermarket as the victim.

However, Gao Zhiyuan also had an alibi, proving he was on a business trip at the time and couldn’t have returned to Dongzhou City to commit the murder.

Additionally, according to Gao Zhiyuan, he usually throws the garbage bag in the dumpster downstairs from his residential complex.

A large-scale investigation has been conducted at Hongsheng Garden, where Gao Zhiyuan resides, but no significant clues have been found yet.

As for the Da Hong Pao tea leaves in Gao Zhiyuan’s garbage bag, it’s confirmed that Gao Zhiyuan doesn’t usually drink tea, and he couldn’t afford a top-grade Da Hong Pao that costs over ten thousand yuan.

Through trace evidence analysis on these tea leaves, it was determined that the water used to steep them was the selenium-rich mineral water, a specialty of Dongzhou City.

Now, the person capable of enjoying this type of mineral water, who also loves tea and can afford such expensive tea leaves, is none other than the chairman of Longteng Group, Gao Xinxin.

This makes no sense and defies logic.

Gao Xinxin is a woman; she can’t be the killer.

But if Gao Xinxin isn’t the killer, then why are these tea leaves connected to her?

"Director Wu, I need to have a conversation with this Gao Xinxin."

If the reason remains unclear, Lu Chuan decided he needs to meet her.

He is determined to find out why the Da Hong Pao tea leaves appeared in the black plastic bag containing Zhu Panpan’s severed fingers.

At present, there are a few possibilities for why Zhu Panpan’s fingers ended up in the black plastic bag.

The first possibility is that the garbage bag’s owner, Gao Zhiyuan, is the murderer, and he cut off the victim’s fingers and tossed them into the garbage bag.

But the possibility of Gao Zhiyuan being the murderer is nearly non-existent, as he has a clear alibi and couldn’t be two places at once.

So, if Gao Zhiyuan isn’t the murderer, then the killer might have deliberately or inadvertently taken Gao Zhiyuan’s garbage bag and carried it from his residence’s complex, five kilometers away to North Second Lane on Jianguo Road, and disposed of it there.

Furthermore, the killer might have put what could be leftover Da Hong Pao residue that Gao Xinxin drank into the garbage bag.

The logical inconsistency here is why the killer would place Da Hong Pao residue into the garbage bag. What was the necessity of that?

Or was the intention to deliberately point the clue towards Gao Xinxin?