The crackdown on organized crime began with the arrest of the mother-in-law.

Chapter 1383: Three Clues, Three Teams

One team was responsible for reviewing Qin Lifeng's oil mill's accounts, investigating his clients and suppliers with whom he had financial dealings, and checking for any debt disputes. The second team was responsible for visiting Qin Lifeng's neighbors, friends, and regular customers of the oil mill to understand his personality traits, interpersonal relationships, and recent unusual behavior. The third team was responsible for retrieving Qin Lifeng's mobile phone call records, finding the person who spoke to him on the evening of September 10, and verifying the other party's identity information.

The investigation began with the team reviewing the accounts. A meticulous review of Qin Lifeng's oil mill's ledgers revealed that the mill was operating well, with income and expenses balanced and no significant losses. The ledgers recorded customer and supplier information for the past year. Several customers had small outstanding debts, all under a few hundred yuan, and most were acquaintances; it was unlikely that such a small amount would lead to a murder. The team contacted these customers one by one. They all confirmed owing Qin Lifeng a small amount for oil, but stated they had agreed on a repayment date and maintained a good relationship with him, with no conflicts. One customer said, "Boss Qin is a very good person. Sometimes when we're short on cash and owe him a little for oil, he never pressures us, saying he'll pay whenever he has the money. How could we possibly argue with him, let alone harm him?"

Meanwhile, the team members who visited Qin Lifeng's neighbors and friends also received preliminary feedback. According to the neighbors, Qin Lifeng was gentle, honest, and spoke softly, rarely getting into arguments. After his wife passed away, he raised his son, Qin Xiaoyu, alone, showering him with love. He was always ready to help neighbors in need, earning him a very good reputation in the neighborhood. "Qin Lifeng was a good man. He always came to help with anything, big or small, in our family. A while ago, my wife was hospitalized, and he helped take her to the hospital and even paid the medical bills," one neighbor remarked. "I never expected something like this to happen to him; it's such a pity."

The team members also visited several of Qin Lifeng's friends, all of whom said that Qin Lifeng had not shown any unusual behavior recently, nor had he mentioned any conflicts with anyone. One friend said, "On the afternoon of September 10th, I was drinking with him at a small restaurant in town. He was in a good mood at the time and even said that after he finished his busy period, he would take his son on a trip. I didn't see anything bothering him, and he didn't mention anyone opposing him."

The team investigating Qin Lifeng's phone call records also made progress. Call records obtained from the mobile carrier showed that Qin Lifeng did indeed make a call at 8:30 PM on September 10th, lasting approximately 5 minutes. The caller was a local mobile number registered to Liu Jianjun, a grain and oil wholesaler in Qinghe Town and one of Qin Lifeng's main suppliers. Xiao Zhou immediately led the team to Liu Jianjun's grain and oil wholesale store to verify the information.

Liu Jianjun, 45 years old and slightly overweight, looked surprised to see the police at his door: "Officers, what do you want with me?" "Do you know Qin Lifeng? You called her at 8:30 pm on September 10th, and you two argued on the phone, right?" Xiao Zhou asked directly. Liu Jianjun hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "Yes, I know her. She's my client. We did argue a bit on the phone, but it wasn't anything serious."

"What exactly did you two argue about? Why did you argue?" Xiao Zhou pressed. Liu Jianjun sighed and said, "It was about a batch of sesame seeds. The sesame seeds I supplied to Qin Lifeng were originally agreed to be 8 yuan per jin, but on September 10th, the market price of sesame seeds rose to 8.5 yuan per jin. I called Qin Lifeng to discuss whether we could raise the price by 0.5 yuan, but he disagreed, saying that we had already agreed on a price and couldn't raise it arbitrarily. We argued about it for a bit, and he said I was going too far. I got a little angry too, so I hung up the phone."

"Do you hold a grudge against Qin Lifeng because of this? Where were you on the morning of September 11th? What were you doing? Can anyone testify to that?" Xiao Zhou continued to ask. Liu Jianjun quickly shook his head: "How could I hold a grudge over such a small matter? We've been cooperating for many years and it's always been a pleasant experience. It's not like I would kill someone over a mere 50 cents difference. On the morning of September 11th, I was doing business at the wholesale store. The employees and many customers can testify to this. I simply didn't have the time to commit the crime."

Xiao Zhou immediately questioned the employees and customers at Liu Jianjun's shop that day. Their accounts were consistent with Liu Jianjun's, all confirming that Liu Jianjun had been in the shop the entire morning of September 11th and had not left. Meanwhile, the team members also verified Liu Jianjun's physical characteristics and footprints. Liu Jianjun was 168cm tall, weighed 80kg, and wore size 43 shoes, which completely did not match the suspect's characteristics of "size 41 grid-patterned footprints and a weight of 65-70kg" found at the scene, thus ruling him out as a suspect.

To further expand the scope of the investigation, Xiao Zhou led his team to visit many long-time customers of Qin's oil mill, hoping to find more clues. However, all the customers said that Qin Lifeng was an honest person with a good service attitude and had never had any conflicts with them. One long-time customer said, "I have been buying sesame oil from Boss Qin's oil mill for more than ten years. His sesame oil is of good quality, the price is fair, and he never shortchanges me. Sometimes when I forget to bring money, he lets me take the sesame oil first and pay later. How could anyone harm such a good person?"

During the investigation, the team also discovered that Qin Lifeng had no other businesses besides running an oil mill, nor was he involved in illegal activities such as gambling or loan sharking, and his social relationships were relatively simple. His bank account transaction records showed no large sums of money flowing in or out recently, nor any unusual transfer records, ruling out the possibility that he was murdered due to an economic dispute.

In addition, Xiao Zhou arranged for his team to investigate Qin Lifeng's whereabouts before he went missing. By reviewing the town's surveillance footage, they discovered that around 9:00 AM on September 11th, Qin Lifeng, wearing blue overalls, appeared alone at the crossroads at the west end of the town, and then turned and walked towards Wangjia Village. This perfectly matched the forensic doctor's estimate of the time of death as "between 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM on September 11th," suggesting that Qin Lifeng was on his way to Wangjia Village when he met with misfortune. However, the surveillance footage only captured Qin Lifeng walking in the direction of Wangjia Village; it did not show where he specifically went within Wangjia Village, nor did it show him traveling with or contacting anyone else.

The team members then went to Wangjia Village to investigate Qin Lifeng's whereabouts, asking villagers if they had seen him.