Genius Detective

Zhang Hao's smile gave Lin Dongxue and Chen Shi a chilling feeling.

He continued, "My father was killed by accident, but what I thought was how good this old bastard would be if he was a dog. Then, I could just easily put his body in a bag and throw it out in the trash. I used the exact same method he used to throw away his internal organs. The meat was minced and made into meatballs. The bones were scorched to ensure that there would be no smell. Later, I threw his bones into the outskirts in batches…"

Lin Dongxue interrupted him, "Do you remember the specific locations?"

Zhang Hao shook his head. "I just remember some. I went out to throw away the bones at night. Like I said at the beginning, I didn't feel an ounce of remorse for killing him. I told my wife that he didn't come back after a walk. Although I printed out missing persons notices, we didn’t post much. At that time, he didn’t care about what happened in the shop anymore. With his personality, he didn’t have many friends. No one had asked about him after his disappearance for quite some time. Only my second uncle noticed some signs. He didn’t go to the police but used it to blackmail me."

"Did you give him money?"

"Yes, sometimes a few thousand, sometimes a few hundred. Adding it all up, there might have been around two hundred thousand. But, the guy was still greedy and came to find me every three to five days to ask for money. I couldn’t bear it! Actually, my shop doesn’t use beef paste. I bought it to kill him and Zhang Kui. So long as these two guys didn’t die, I wouldn’t have a day of peace. However, I had no chance to put it into practice..." Zhang Hao shook his head, as if it was a pity.

"So, when we were eating in your shop that day, you told me that Zhang Kui was being hunted down by the triads and the other party threatened to kill his whole family. You were trying to sow the seeds for it?" Chen Shi said.

Zhang Hao smiled. "You actually noticed it."

"This question is besides the point but this old store wouldn’t open again, right?"

"The recipe is handed down from generation to generation. No one but our family can make that taste, but that’s fine. This family is the source of my life’s nightmare. I hope my son can live a normal life. I also hope that he won't hit his own children in the future..." At this point, Zhang Hao wiped away his tears.

"Your grandfather's bones were in the store. Have you always known about this?" Lin Dongxue asked.

"Actually, my father bought a basement before and these bones were hidden there by him. Later, the basement was demolished. I was afraid of it being discovered, so I moved the bones there. I had planned to deal with them bit by bit, but I ran out of time.

"What exactly is the recipe in your shop? Spices? Or do you add drugs as rumored?" Chen Shi asked. He knew it wasn’t the right time to be asking this, but as a person who loved cooking, he was very curious about it.

"Chili."

"Chili?"

"Yes, the taste of chili is very addictive. My family uses several kinds of chili to bring out this taste. The specific recipe is a family secret."

"So it was like that."

The interrogation ended. After that, the police took Zhang Hao to the areas he abandoned the bones at. They found some of Zhang Fade's remains one after another. The other parts were unable to be found, so they could only leave it at that.

As for his second uncle, Zhang Farong, after Zhang Hao's father's case was over, he was taken to the Bureau for interrogation because Zhang Hao's confession mentioned the fact that he had extorted money from him. This time, it was to clarify the matter.

A case was added onto another case. In the face of the police interrogation, Zhang Farong panicked and came up with a cheeky plan. He talked about the bad things his son had done. As a result, both the father and son were put in prison and the whole family went into the detention center neatly.

In the early morning a week later, Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue went to Zhangji Soup Noodle Shop. Surprisingly, the place had already been bought out. This was an old shop with an excellent reputation. Zhang Hao’s wife listed it and it was immediately bought after that.

The shop still hung the sign of "Zhangji Soup Noodles". The chefs were changed and it was still a lively scene in the morning. Chen Shi went inside the store and asked for two bowls of beef meatball noodles and took a sip of the soup. “The taste is too normal. It’s nothing like it was before.”

Lin Dongxue said, "I think it's easier to accept than the salty and spicy kind from before."

"This kind of taste can't keep the old customers. In short, I won't come back to this store again."

Lin Dongxue looked at the staircase in the shop and said, "Are there people still living upstairs?"

"Do you want to go up and take a look?"

"Forget it... I suddenly remembered how Zhang Hao was crying while holding his wife when he was sent to the detention center yesterday. The family was torn apart just like that."

"This time, it's the child who should get the credit."

"Humph, what a heartless guy!"

"I want to say that the path he took today came about both accidentally and inevitably. People who grow up in domestic violence grow up to become the source of domestic violence. When parents slapped them in the past, they only thought about getting some peace at that time. But they never thought about how much impact the slap would cause. Children hold grudges more than adults think. Even when they grow up, they won’t remember how good their parents were to them. They’ll only remember how their parents beat them. This makes me think of a sentence. As a parent, it’s always easy to forget that they too, were once a child."

"You have a lot of sentiments this time!"

"Hey!" Chen Shi smiled. "Thinking about it, as expected, I still don't have the foundation for being a parent. We should just stay as DINKs[1] in the future."

"Huh? Is that a proposal in disguise? I won't mention my opinion yet. Does your family agree?"

Chen Shi suddenly thought of a troublesome thing. Song Lang himself was an orphan, but bearing Chen Shi's identity, he suddenly had a pair of parents out of thin air. The last paternity test had proven their "blood relationship".

After receiving the benefits, you have to bear the responsibility. It may be time to go back and see his "parents"...

1. "DINK" is an acronym that stands for "double income, no kids". It describes a childless couple living together while both partners are receiving an income.