Qu Hongying and Wu Daojun exchanged a glance that said, See? He claims he's out of ideas, but he's actually full of them. If you don't put pressure on him, he'll slack off and retreat!
Leaving aside the first suggestion, which covered far too many vague and scattered targets-parents, siblings, wives, children, relatives, friends, and so on-the other two pointed in very clear directions.
There were only a handful of influential, respected mid-level managers at the factory. They were mostly department heads, including workshop director Huai Guangkuo.
Although the whistleblower, Dou Guozhong, hadn't said so, they could both guess that the person who had picked him up and helped hide him must have been Huai Guangkuo.
From that, they could deduce that Dou Guozhong and Huai Guangkuo were actually very close. They usually pretended to be distant to keep people from noticing-or, more precisely, to mislead and deceive the Shanhai Group.
Finally, there was the "retired but highly respected veteran who was the soul of the factory"... To that, old Mr. Huai Jinqi would have said, "You might as well just name me!"
"Ahem, Zhou Yi makes an excellent point. He's really opened my eyes and cleared things up. Then let's waste no time and split into two teams. Section Chief Wu and I will investigate Wang Qing's and the others' families, relatives, and friends. Zhou Yi, you go talk to Huai Jinqi and Huai Guangkuo and see what you can find out. After all, you know the father and son better!"
Director Qu didn't hesitate for a moment. Not only did she declare that Zhou Yi's remarks had shown them a clear path for the investigation, she also volunteered to take on what appeared to be the most difficult and complicated work.
"Come on, let's get moving right away."