Before leaving, Chen Shi asked, "Who has the house been rented to? I want to see the rental contract."

"It's just a mother who accompanied her child as they go to school."

"Show me the contract."

"Contract... I don't know where I’ve put it. I’ll look for it..."

Li Xiang moved everything around and found a bunch of documents. Chen Shi looked at them one by one, but they all weren’t the contract. Chen Shi asked, "What about the property title?"

"It’s in Lin Hui's possession."

"Can you contact the tenant?"

"Uh... I’ll try!"

Li Xiang's hesitant attitude made Chen Shi suspicious. He dialed a number on his phone. "Sister Li, a police officer wants to confirm with you about your renting the property."

The other party said, "What police officer? I haven't done anything while living here."

"He just wanted to ask some questions. You should talk to him!"

Li Xiang handed over his phone, and Chen Shi talked to the other party to confirm that she was indeed Li Xiang’s tenant. After hanging up the phone, he said, "Let’s go over and have a look now!"

"Didn't you just call them? Why do you still want to go over?"

"We’ve already agreed prior."

"Okay, I will take you there..."

When leaving, Lin Dongxue whispered to Chen Shi, "This guy is very suspicious."

Chen Shi nodded. Li Xiang’s little tricks couldn’t get past him. He just said on the phone that there was a “police officer” who wanted to confirm the “renting of the property”. He seemed to be alerting the other party. Judging from this, the house was the key to everything.

Two hours later, they went to a newly built housing community in the suburbs. Although the facilities here were complete, the location was a bit far off. Li Xiang explained, "When the real estate was developed, it was said that there would be a subway built here, but they still haven’t started on that project. It’s because it’s too far away that we didn’t use it as our wedding house. It’s not convenient going to work from here.”

"Do you have the key?"

"Uh, they changed the locks after I rented it out."

"You actually agreed to that?"

"This is what they asked for. In order to rent it out, I had no problems with that. It’s not easy to rent out a property in this area."

"You said that the aunt only rented it to accompany her child’s studies, but there seems to be no schools nearby."

"There is. Two stations from here, there’s a middle school."

Without a key, they could only stand outside the door. Chen Shi tried to ring the doorbell, but no one answered. Li Xiang explained, "Her son is probably studying by himself and the elder sister probably went out to buy food."

"Call her back!"

"This... This doesn’t seem right. This is my family's business. Why should we drag her into this?"

Chen Shi sneered. "Okay, you should go back first. We’ll wait for her here.”

Li Xiang was embarrassed. Facing Chen Shi's grim gaze, he couldn’t do anything but go home first. As soon as he left, Chen Shi took out his unlocking tools and said to Lin Dongxue, "I promise not to touch anything inside."

"Hurry up. Don't let anyone see."

Chen Shi skillfully unlocked the door and pushed into the house. A smell of formaldehyde came out. Unexpectedly, the furniture in this room was all covered with plastic cloth. The floor was covered in dust and the toilet in the bathroom was all dry. The bed in the bedroom didn’t have sheets either.

Chen Shi smiled. "He actually wanted to lie to me. No one lives here!"

"Okay, go out quickly!"

After leaving, Chen Shi called Lin Qiupu and asked him to check for the tenant’s information through the real estate bureau. Lin Qiupu said, "You can just ask the local police to check Lieyang's real estate. Do I have to check it every time?"

"I don't know anyone here, so please check it for me!"

"It's really troublesome to handle a case in two places. I'll call some more people to go over and help you!"

"That would be great. Can they arrive by tomorrow?"

"It should be possible... Captain Peng is here and has something to tell you."

Then, Peng Sijue's voice came over the phone. He said, "Some paint residues were detected on the banknotes, which is a kind of paint for wood. Pay more attention when investigating the case. If there are samples, you can make a comparison.”

"There should be some samples, thanks!"

After hanging up the phone, Chen Shi returned upstairs. Lin Dongxue couldn’t stop him. After going upstairs, he actually went into the apartment again.

This time, Chen Shi went straight to the bedroom, opened the closet for inspection, and then lifted the headboard of the bed. There was indeed a heavy smell of paint within. He said, "Do you have a knife?"

"Would scissors work?"

Chen Shi used Lin Dongxue's small scissors to scrape off some of the painted wood. Lin Dongxue asked, "Who would put money here?"

"Who do you think?"

"Well, triads or corrupt officials."

"Corrupt officials are more likely. If it was a triad, their means of recovering stolen money would be even crazier and more extreme. If a large amount of cash hidden by corrupt officials is lost, even if it’s found, they wouldn’t dare to speak up."

"They quietly sent private detectives to find it? But the private detectives actually hurt people with guns?"

"It’s another person who tried harming her with a gun, but from Lin Hui's perspective, she thinks that they’re the same group of people chasing after her."

Although it was only speculation, everything seemed like it could be pieced together.

The next day, Xu Xiaodong and Old Zhang rushed to Lieyang. At the same time, the investigation of several clues bore results. There was indeed a room rented by Lin Hui in Luyi housing district. She only rented it for less than a month, most likely to use it as a hiding place for the money.

What's more interesting is that the husband of this "tenant" was a middle-level cadre of the Urban Construction Bureau. In fact, this house was bought by the wife and the name of Lin Hui was used on the sales contract.

Li Xiang most likely stole Lin Hui’s name stamp or forged a signature to sell the house under her name. The buyer happened to be a corrupt official. After learning this, Lin Hui was going to visit the other party, but accidentally found the ill-gotten wealth, so she concealed it.

For specific details, it may be clearer to ask Li Xiang. Now, it was necessary to call him over for an "interview", but before that, Chen Shi intended to meet his gay friend, Zhang Rui.

Chen Shi asked Xu Xiaodong and Old Zhang to arrest Li Xiang. He and Lin Dongxue went to see Zhang Rui.

Zhang Rui worked in a small factory that produced auto parts. The company only had five or six people and the factory was very noisy. The technicians used the machinery to sand and produce various accessories. The sparks scattered around.

Seeing this working environment, Chen Shi suddenly thought that as long as they had a certain level of knowledge regarding firearms, it wouldn’t be difficult to produce privately made pistols here.

Zhang Rui didn't come to work today. The co-workers said that he was in the dormitory and gave them directions.

Behind the workshop was a dormitory building. Knocking on Zhang Rui’s door, a dark-skinned and muscular man leaned on the door and asked who they were looking for. Although his skin was dark, his skin remained smooth and he looked manly with the stubble around his mouth.

Lin Dongxue thought that if people didn't know that this guy was gay, they would regard him as an ordinary tough man.

"Are you Zhang Rui?" Chen Shi issued his consultant’s ID.

Zhang Rui took it and opened it. "Consultant? Do consultants count as police?"

"I don't count as one, but she does!" Chen Shi pointed to Lin Dongxue. His gaze went past Zhang Rui's shoulders. There were many simulation pistols that could be seen inside the house.