Chapter 46: Something’s Not Right

Chapter 46: Chapter 46: Something’s Not Right

Sun Di held the recording pen a little closer to Yu Zhiming and pressed the play button.

"A line of orioles sings in the green willows, CHIRP... CHIRP..."

The voice seemed to erupt from the depths of the speaker’s diaphragm, sung in a distinctly operatic, aria-like style.

The final onomatopoeic "CHIRP CHIRP" almost made Yu Zhiming lose his straight face.

Yu Zhiming understood. The person on the recording was messing around, deliberately avoiding a normal speaking voice to make identification more difficult.

After a pause of no more than two seconds, another strange voice came on.

"A line of orioles sings in the green willows, CROAK... CROAK..."

’Great,’ he thought. ’Now they’re even making frog noises.’

As Yu Zhiming expected, the subsequent voices all recited the same line, "A line of orioles sings in the green willows," but not a single one sounded like a normal person speaking. Each tried to be as ridiculous as possible.

It seemed that to differentiate themselves, each person had deliberately added an animal sound.

Yu Zhiming heard, in succession, a cow’s moo, a sheep’s bleat, a rooster’s crow, a duck’s quack, a dog’s bark, and a goose’s honk...

Yu Zhiming kept a straight face and listened patiently. He finally reacted when he heard a voice imitating a wolf’s howl.

"Pause!"

Yu Zhiming pointed at the square-faced man and said, "That’s your voice."

Sun Di, who had pressed pause, asked for confirmation, "Dr. Yu, are you sure it’s his voice?"

"Do you want me to play it back so you can listen again?"

Yu Zhiming chuckled softly. "Voice identification at this level is as obvious to me as a bonfire in the dark. There’s no need for a replay. I’m certain."

Sun Di said nothing and pressed the play button on the recorder to continue playing the sounds...

However, Yu Zhiming had no reaction even after the voices of all twenty people had been played.

Sun Di asked considerately, "Dr. Yu, you haven’t identified Qin Fang’s father’s voice yet. Should I play it again?"

Yu Zhiming shook his head. "Don’t waste your time. Uncle Qin’s voice isn’t on this recording."

Sun Di’s expression darkened. "Dr. Yu, are you sure you didn’t mishear?"

"I can tell you for a fact that I recorded these voices myself. Qin Fang’s father is definitely on here."

Meeting Sun Di’s scrutinizing gaze, Yu Zhiming smiled faintly. "Chief Prosecutor, you don’t need to test me."

"The eleventh voice on here, the one imitating a dog’s bark, that’s your voice."

"But Uncle Qin’s voice is absolutely not on this recording."

Yu Zhiming then said in a clear voice, "Chief Prosecutor Sun, you must know that I specialize in auscultation and percussion."

"Do you know how much a person’s heartbeat can vary under different levels of physical activity or with different medical conditions?"

"Do you know how subtle those differences can be?"

"Also, our internal organs—the stomach, intestines, liver, kidneys—they ’speak’ when something is wrong."

"I can hear all of it."

"So, do not question my professional expertise in voice identification."

Seeing Yu Zhiming adopt the stern, inviolable air of an expert, Sun Di exchanged a look with the square-faced man, and a smile spread across his face.

"Dr. Yu, please forgive our doubt and our little test. We are now completely convinced."

Sun Di pulled up another file on the recorder. "Dr. Yu, now, please listen to the recordings of the suspects we’ve collected."

He once again held the recorder close to Yu Zhiming and gently pressed play...

The sounds Yu Zhiming heard next were rather chaotic.

Sometimes it was a two-person Q&A, other times it was a chat among several people, and there was always some background noise as interference.

Yu Zhiming pricked up his ears, focused his mind, and listened through one recording after another.

The seventh recording was another conversation between several people.

Yu Zhiming maintained a serious expression, showing no reaction, until he heard a certain phrase.

"Drink tea!"

Yu Zhiming’s eyebrows shot up instantly. He said, "That’s him. The guy who said ’Drink tea’."

He emphasized, "I’m not mistaken."

Sun Di quickly pressed pause on the recorder, his voice filled with excitement. "Good, we’ve got him."

Yu Zhiming was also very happy to have found the guy.

A thought occurred to him, and he asked, "Chief Prosecutor, will I need to testify in court and identify him by voice?"

"According to my schedule, I’m supposed to go to Binhai next weekend."

"Dr. Yu, that won’t be necessary!" the square-faced man replied.

He sized up Yu Zhiming with great interest. "You’ve pointed us to the real culprit."

He continued, a hint of pride in his voice, "If we can’t find ironclad evidence of his crime, uncover his motive, and make him confess obediently..."

"...then we’d be completely useless. Might as well quit and go home to sell sweet potatoes."

The square-faced man extended his right hand. "Dr. Yu, let’s have a formal introduction..."

"I’m Li Yifan. I specialize in criminal investigation in the provincial capital..."

After Yu Zhiming saw off Sun Di and the criminal investigation expert from the provincial capital, it was time for dinner.

He happened to notice that the refrigerator was already stuffed full of all kinds of vegetables, fruits, meat, eggs, poultry, and milk.

"Sis, you didn’t have to buy all this. I’ll barely be eating at home next week, and besides, I don’t know how to cook."

Yu Zhaoxia placed a chicken drumstick on Yu Zhiming’s plate. "We can’t just leave the refrigerator empty."

"Better safe than sorry. If you suddenly get hungry in the middle of the night, you won’t find anywhere to buy food."

An idea occurred to Yu Zhaoxia. She looked at Fu Xiaoxue and instructed, "Xiaoxue, for the next little while, you’re going to practice cooking with me—stir-fries and noodle dishes."

"You’re also studying in Binhai. On weekends, and when you don’t have class, you should go over to your uncle’s place and cook for him."

Fu Xiaoxue’s eyes widened, hardly believing what her mother had just said.

"Mom, you want me to cook for my uncle?"

Yu Zhaoxia’s gaze turned sharp. "Is there a problem?"

"Hasn’t your uncle been good enough to you?"

"You’re not a child anymore. Isn’t it right to cook for your elders?"

Seeing the increasingly dangerous look in her mother’s eyes, Fu Xiaoxue flinched.

Thinking of her own hide, she quickly declared, "It is! It absolutely is!"

"Mom, Mom, I promise I’ll be good and study cooking with you very seriously, so that when Uncle is in Binhai, he can eat food that tastes just like you made it yourself."

Yu Zhaoxia harrumphed. "Xiaoxue, when I was your age, I was already out working to earn money."

"You’re a college student now, and at a prestigious university no less. Stop thinking of yourself as a child, and don’t take your elders’ care for granted."

"You should also think about giving back and taking care of your elders in any way you can."

Her words seemed to strike a chord with Fu Xiaoxue.

She straightened her posture and said with a serious expression, "Mom, I understand."

"From now on, I’ll try to hold myself to an adult’s standards and grow into someone capable and respected by others, just like my uncle."

Her words made Yu Zhiming feel a swell of pride, like seeing his own niece finally growing up. He felt quite gratified.

However, that feeling of pride didn’t last long.

After dinner, the little rascal was all over Yu Zhiming, wheedling and pestering him to go shopping for clothes with them.

Her reason was that her mom’s taste in clothes was too unfashionable and old-fashioned, completely out of touch with today’s youth trends.

And any choices she made would likely be mercilessly shot down.

When that happened, she would need him, the one person they both trusted, to mediate.

Helpless, Yu Zhiming had no choice but to go shopping with them...

On a summer night in Liyang County Town, its few main commercial streets were quite lively.

Yu Zhiming accompanied the mother-daughter duo for over two hours, which included watching a commotion for nearly twenty minutes.

During that time, Xiaoxue only bought a single pair of pants, while he, on the other hand, was bought two entire summer outfits from head to toe.

The commotion they watched was a fight between two women.

Judging from the insults they were hurling at each other, it was a confrontation between the official girlfriend and the "other woman."

It wasn’t that Yu Zhiming wanted to watch; it was Yu Zhaoxia and Fu Xiaoxue who were watching with great relish, completely unmovable.

This left Yu Zhiming rather speechless.

’A gossipy mother-daughter pair who love a good spectacle...’

After what felt like an eternity, the two women finished their brawl. Yu Zhiming, whose legs felt worn to nubs from all the walking, immediately regretted the next words out of his mouth.

Those words were, "Why are they playing funeral music over there?"

"Over there? Funeral music?"

Fu Xiaoxue said, puzzled, "That’s another commercial street over there. There are no residences, so why would there be a funeral?"

"Maybe someone is causing trouble?"

"Mom, should we go take a look?"

Yu Zhaoxia nodded. "Okay, let’s go see. It’s not late, and there’s nothing to do at home anyway!"

With that, the mother and daughter took each other’s hands and briskly walked off on their own.

Yu Zhiming could only shuffle along after them...

The funeral music was coming from a well-decorated clothing store, in front of which a large crowd had gathered to watch.

Yu Zhiming only had to wait by the side for three or four minutes before Fu Xiaoxue ran back, chirping excitedly as she reported her findings.

"An electrician came to this shop this morning to do some repairs and was accidentally electrocuted."

"His family wants the shop owner to take responsibility and pay compensation."

"The owner says the electrician’s death was due to his own negligence, so it’s not his fault. At most, he’ll offer a small amount of compensation out of humanitarian goodwill."

"The two sides couldn’t agree, so the family brought the body here, put it in the shop, and started holding a funeral service with the dirge and everything."

Yu Zhiming just said, "Oh." He continued, "There’s nothing to see here. It’s just morbid. Let’s get going..."

There really wasn’t much of a spectacle to see.

Urged on by Yu Zhiming, Yu Zhaoxia and Fu Xiaoxue left, looking a little disappointed.

As Yu Zhiming was leaving, he glanced curiously through a gap in the crowd.

He saw a large white cloth laid out in front of the shop, with the distinct shape of a human body underneath...

But it was what he saw in that one glance that made Yu Zhiming stop in his tracks...

’Something’s wrong...’