Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 395 Kitchen
Inside the food stall.

Chen Shu and Chen Chuan subdued the food stall owner, tied him up, and took him to a small room behind the stall, where they squatted in a corner.

"What do you want to do?" The food stall owner asked in a terrified voice.

"The police are investigating a case and have some questions for you." Chen Chuan slapped the baseball cap off the other man's head and yelled, "Quiet down!"

The food stall owner, whose bald head was exposed, was so frightened by Chen Chuan that he dared not shout anymore and squatted down obediently without making a sound.

Chen Shu, who was standing nearby, noticed this reaction and felt it wasn't the behavior expected of a kidnapper.

He pulled out his police belt from his waist and tossed it to Chen Chuan, indicating that he should give the boss an extra layer of insurance.

"Brother Shu, have you found the kidnappers? Do you need any help?"

At this moment, Jiang Hai poked his head in from outside, first glancing at the dejected food stall owner squatting in the corner, and then rushing towards Chen Shuxing to ask.

Chen Shu sighed, suddenly feeling a bit resentful of himself for being so blinded by greed and agreeing to let a young man who had just finished the college entrance exam get involved in the case.

If something goes wrong later, it will be too late for him to regret it.

Never mind, after we clear the area and take them to the station, we'll let Yan Chenxi and Jiang Hai go home.

"Alright, you won't be operating today. Come back to the team with us later for questioning. I'm going to seal off your shop for inspection."

"Officer, how many days will this place be locked down? My whole family depends on this place for their livelihood!"

Ignoring the food stall owner's complaints, Chen Shu stepped out of the small house. There he saw a middle-aged woman, about forty years old and also wearing a kitchen skirt, waiting anxiously at the door.

As soon as she saw the police officers who had arrested her husband come out of the house, she rushed over, crying and shouting, "Waaah! What did my husband do wrong? Have you arrested the wrong person? My husband and I sleep during the day and run a small business at night; there's no way we could have done anything wrong!"

Hearing the middle-aged woman's tearful account, Chen Shu felt a jolt in his heart, sensing that things were not as simple as he had imagined.

He took the woman's arms and led her to sit down in the hall. Just as he was about to ask her a few questions, he suddenly realized that the hall, which had been full of people, was now completely empty.

What if there are accomplices?
Chen Shu's heart tightened, and he called out, "Chenxi! Yan Chenxi! Where are you?"

"Here, I'm here."

Chen Shu turned around abruptly and looked in the direction of the sound, only to see Yan Chenxi standing at the shop entrance, smiling helplessly at him.

"I was hesitating whether to ask them to leave the money for the meal first. Hmm, what's wrong, Brother Shu?"

Chen Shu quickly walked to Yan Chenxi's side, looked her up and down carefully for a few moments, and then breathed a sigh of relief: "Chenxi, are you alright?"

"Are you alright? What's wrong?" Yan Chenxi asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Okay, it's good that everything's alright." Chen Shu breathed a sigh of relief, then asked, "Where did all those people who were just sitting and eating go?"

"They skipped out on the order." Yan Chenxi shrugged and looked outside. "We couldn't stop them."

This group of people has a pretty strong sense of crisis.

Chen Shu couldn't help but chuckle. He found a rope in the shop and casually tied up the proprietress as well.

"Officer, what happened to me?" The landlady finally stopped crying, raised her bound hands in front of her, and asked in confusion.

"It's okay, this is our procedure when handling cases. Just bear with it, we'll release you in a bit." Giving people a glimmer of hope usually prevents them from causing trouble.

Then, Chen Shu asked Yan Chenxi and Jiang Hai to comfort (and keep an eye on) the food stall owner's wife, and then walked towards the kitchen behind the food stall.

I was startled as soon as I entered the door.

The hygiene conditions in this kitchen were extremely poor. If the unscrupulous workshops exposed in the news were rare and special phenomena, then the kitchen of this food stall must be one of the worst, absolutely falling below the bottom line in every aspect.

The kitchen was covered in cobwebs and grime, with grease, garbage, and debris scattered everywhere. Pots and pans were carelessly discarded in every corner. A large basin filled with some kind of meat sat in the corner, blood seeping from its rim and dripping onto the floor.

The work surface was cluttered with miscellaneous items, and various ingredients in plastic bags were simply thrown on the floor. A chubby orange cat stood on tiptoe, licking food from a plastic bag that had been opened for easy access.

Just then, the cat saw someone come in, meowed, turned its plump body, and with a push of its four paws, it nimbly leaped out of the half-open window.

The whole scene was disgusting.

Chen Shu walked into the kitchen and took a look around. He opened all the cabinets and the refrigerator and checked them. Apart from the poor hygiene, he did not find anything unusual.

Looking out the window from which the orange cat had jumped out, all you could see was that stinking ditch right next to Lotus Road. It was pitch black at night, and you couldn't see anything.

As Chen Shu was about to leave, he noticed Jiang Hai, who had followed him in, squatting in the corner, carefully examining the basin of meat dripping with blood.

Chen Shu walked behind it and craned his neck to look inside. He hadn't been to the market much, so he couldn't tell whether it was pork or beef.

He casually asked, "Jiang Hai, what's so interesting about this meat?"

Jiang Hai, who was squatting down, stared intently at the scene. He gently shook his head, exuding an air of knowing full well what was going on: "According to the usual tropes in novels, this should be the flesh from the kidnapped woman's body."
"Hey, hey, Brother Shu, where have you been? Let me finish what I have to say!"

Chen Shu returned to the storage room, picked up a rice bag from the side, sat down, and asked the food stall owner, "Are you left-handed?"

"Yes, I've been left-handed since I was a child."

"What have you been doing these past few days? Briefly explain."

"I didn't do much. I bought groceries and slept during the day. I opened the shop for business at night. If you don't believe me, ask my wife. We're always together. Oh, by the way, you can check the security camera footage in our shop to see if I'm always there."

The food stall owner immediately produced witness statements and physical evidence, essentially providing on-site testimony. His perfectly normal demeanor caught Chen Shu, who thought he had apprehended a suspect, off guard.

According to the bank's video surveillance, his clothing and behavior matched those of the food stall owner. His wife might be biased, but the surveillance footage couldn't be faked.

After thinking it over, Chen Shu decided to bring the man and his wife back to the team for investigation.

He took out his phone and asked the special police team on duty to come and help take the people away. While waiting for backup, Chen Shu continued to look around the food stall, hoping to find some clues.

After wandering around the shop for a long time, Chen Shu didn't get any useful information. When he returned to the kitchen, he found that the floor was covered in water.

Looking in the direction of the sound, I saw that someone had turned on the faucet above the basin of meat in the corner, and water was dripping out, which was flowing into the already full basin and causing water to overflow.

Logically speaking, there were several drains installed on the kitchen floor, but I don't know if they were blocked or what, but the water on the floor was not flowing down.

Chen Shu waded through the puddles to turn off the tap, then turned back to scan the kitchen. The appalling environment and unpleasant smell made him want to flee. But there wasn't a single clue outside; this was the only suspicious spot in the entire shop.

(End of this chapter)