“Ye Jian’s death probably has nothing to do with Zhou Rong. The two of them were publicly die-hard brothers. Logically speaking, one is San Jiang Kou’s richest person, a big boss with rumored underworld background in society, and the other is a public servant, the Criminal Investigation Division chief—these two kinds of people should avoid suspicion and keep their distance no matter what. However, Ye Jian never cared about this and frequently attended Zhou Rong’s banquets. This kind of public relationship had an extremely bad influence. Previously someone anonymously reported him, and the unit leadership also talked with him. Bureau Chief Lu warned him multiple times in front of us, but he refused to accept it and even got into arguments with Bureau Chief Lu.” As Zhang Yi’ang’s group walked through the residential complex where Ye Jian lived, Wang Ruijun introduced him to the relationship between Ye Jian and Zhou Rong.

“Did Ye Jian ever settle criminal cases for Zhou Rong?” Zhang Yi’ang asked.

“That didn’t happen. Previously someone anonymously reported that Ye Jian was Zhou Rong’s protective umbrella. Superior public security agencies specially sent people down to investigate. After investigating thoroughly, Ye Jian had no business dealings with Zhou Rong whatsoever, and financially he was clean too. The superiors could only advise him that this profession wasn’t suitable for getting too close to businessmen. Although he didn’t directly intervene to help in business matters, Zhou Rong having Ye Jian as such a friend still had other conveniences.”

Zhang Yi’ang knew that this so-called convenience was influence. The Criminal Investigation Division chief addressing you as sworn brothers—even if he doesn’t directly help you settle troubles, who in the underworld would dare provoke you? On the legitimate side, Zhou Rong had money to pave the way, plus an uncle who was Deputy Director of the Provincial Public Security Department, so naturally everything went smoothly.

Li Qian asked curiously: “How did Ye Jian end up together with Zhou Rong?”

“He and Zhou Rong are old classmates. The two played together since childhood. Oh right, Lu Yibo, Lang Bowen, and the two of them are also old classmates. Ye Jian often said the four of them were ironclad brothers.”

Zhang Yi’ang stopped in his tracks and asked: “Who is Lang Bowen?”

“He is—”

“I know, I know!” Li Qian blurted out. This case had always been discussed by those few veteran criminal investigators. Questions involving background information finally gave her space to contribute, so she couldn’t help rushing to answer: “Lang Bowen is the boss of Aotu Company. Aotu Company was originally founded by his parents. His parents were both English teachers. In the nineties they went into business doing foreign trade, then later opened an auto parts factory, naming the factory Aotu. Supposedly at first his parents handed the entire factory over to his younger brother to manage, while Lang Bowen partnered with Zhou Rong to do business elsewhere. Later, after his younger brother took over for just a few years, the factory was poorly managed, incurred many debts, and he was even arrested for fraudulently obtaining export tax rebates. The factory also faced auction. So Lang Bowen came back to take over the factory. After working for several years, he began getting involved in real estate and quickly grew big. Now Aotu Company is San Jiang Kou’s second-largest real estate developer, and it often joins forces with Zhou Rong’s Rongcheng Group to invest in projects.”

Zhang Yi’ang frowned: “His parents are both English teachers… The eldest is called Lang Bowen—don’t tell me his younger brother is called Lang Botu?”

“Yes, how did you know?”

“Do they have a younger sister called Lang Bocui?”

“There’s no younger sister. It’s just the two brothers. Do you know their family?”

“I don’t.” Zhang Yi’ang snorted, figuring out why Lang Bowen’s parents would resign and go into business in the nineties. What would English teachers with that kind of accent still be doing staying at school if they didn’t resign?

At this moment, Song Xing spoke up: “Bureau Chief, the banquet Ye Jian attended the night before last was the grand opening reception for one of Aotu Company’s properties. Zhou Rong, Lang Bowen, Lu Yibo—all these people attended.”

Zhang Yi’ang nodded, instructing him to carefully check all surveillance footage inside and outside the hotel and on nearby roads before the incident, making sure to quickly clarify what exactly happened before Ye Jian’s death and why he would come to the riverside alone late at night.

Before long, everyone arrived at Ye Jian’s home. The door was already open. Forensic personnel were examining the indoor situation with the consent and witness of family members, hoping to find any traces to clarify Ye Jian’s living conditions in the days before his death.

The group changed into shoe covers and entered the house. The forensic personnel said Ye Jian’s home was basically intact, with no visible signs of having been ransacked.

Zhang Yi’ang surveyed the entire house. This was a set of old apartments over seventy square meters. Standing at the door, one could see through it at a glance. The entrance opened to a small living room with a greasy leather sofa. On the small coffee table, scattered cigarettes and miscellaneous items were thrown about haphazardly. Opposite sat a television covered in dust, seemingly just decoration on ordinary days. The left side of the living room connected to the kitchen, where the oil stains on the range hood’s mesh had almost become stalactites. The right side connected to a bathroom and two small rooms—one bedroom, one study.

Zhang Yi’ang looked around the house once without finding anything, finally arriving at the study.

Although called a study, there weren’t many books on the bookshelf—mostly newspapers and miscellaneous items. The four treasures of the study were naturally absent. Ye Jian wasn’t that type of person. Against the wall stood a writing desk with an old computer, a printer that looked quite new, and messily stacked files. Zhang Yi’ang put on gloves and flipped through these files. Most were work-related things from the unit, showing nothing suspicious. At this moment, he noticed a white sheet of paper pressed under a stack of file folders.

He pulled out the white paper. Written on it were three characters: “Luo Ziyue,” along with a phone number and an address in a certain residential complex.

“Luo Ziyue, the Mayor of San Jiang Kou?” Zhang Yi’ang pondered. He hadn’t been in San Jiang Kou long, but he still knew the names of the government’s main leaders.

Besides Luo Ziyue’s name and contact information, there was nothing else written on the paper. He didn’t know whether what Ye Jian wrote down was some kind of clue or contact information he had asked around for because he wanted to ask the mayor to help with something. But very quickly, he realized that the relationship between Luo Ziyue and Ye Jian was extraordinary.

Below this white paper were two more photographs.

The first was a group photo of five people with a plastic cover on the outside. The cover was old with one corner curled up. In the lower right corner of the plastic cover, the year and month the photo was taken were written with a marker pen in Chinese characters. The handwriting was elegant. Calculating, it had been sixteen years. The second was a group photo of six people. Below it, the year and month of shooting were also written with a pen, still in Chinese characters. The time was eleven years ago. The two photos were separated by five years.

In the first photo, a young man stood in the center with four men surrounding him. After Wang Ruijun carefully identified them, he introduced that the four people behind, from left to right, were the young Ye Jian, Zhou Rong, Lang Bowen, and Lu Yibo. The man in the middle was Lang Botu, Lang Bowen’s younger brother by two years. Behind everyone in the photo was the Aotu Auto Parts Factory. Flower baskets were placed at the entrance celebrating the Aotu Auto Parts Factory’s relocation to a new site. It appeared to be a commemorative photo from when the Aotu Auto Parts Factory relocated that year. The five people were dressed simply, all wearing young and cheerful smiles on their faces, smiling at Zhang Yi’ang.

The background of the second photo five years later had changed to a lobby resembling a large building. Flower baskets were similarly placed at the entrance. This time the words on the baskets read celebrating the opening of Aotu Real Estate. In addition to those five people in the photo, there was one more person. After identification, the additional person was precisely Luo Ziyue. Wang Ruijun said at that time San Jiang Kou hadn’t yet upgraded from county to city status. Luo Ziyue was the director of the County Committee Office.

The central figure of the photo had changed from the younger brother in the previous photo to the older brother Lang Bowen. Lang Botu now stood at the edge on one side, appearing somewhat dejected. The remaining people still formed a surrounding circle. Among the six people this time, except for Ye Jian who still wore a simple jacket, the rest were all in suits and ties, and the innocence on their faces had become maturity.

Zhang Yi’ang picked up the two photos and looked them over repeatedly. After thinking for a moment, he called Li Qian to bring an evidence bag, put the photos inside, and instructed: “Preserve these well. This is an important clue.”

Li Qian, with the shared confusion of everyone, asked: “What do these two photos indicate?”

“Two old photos from over a decade ago suddenly appearing on Ye Jian’s desk—don’t you find that strange?”

“Um…” Li Qian casually picked up an enamel cup being used as a pen holder on the desk. Printed on it were the words “Revolutionary Committee is Good” with a large character for “Loyalty” in the middle. She asked awkwardly, “What about this?”

Her meaning was that an enamel cup from the Cultural Revolution period suddenly appearing on the desk—wasn’t that even stranger? From the arrangement of Ye Jian’s home, one could see he was a person who paid no attention to quality of life. Casually pulling out various old items and throwing them about was quite ordinary. Even a Kangxi Tongbao coin from several hundred years ago was found in the pen holder.

“You pay no attention to details at all,” Zhang Yi’ang shook his head regretfully. “The key to investigating cases is extracting truly case-relevant clues from chaotic and complex information. You must accurately distinguish among all information!”

Everyone felt these words captured the essence of case investigation, but still couldn’t figure out what these two old photos could indicate.

Under everyone’s puzzled gazes, Zhang Yi’ang lightly pointed at the shooting dates written in pen below the two photos and said: “The shooting dates on the photos—why only write the year and month but not the specific day they were taken? Usually when photos are developed and you want to record the time, you would write the specific date, right? So it can be judged that this date wasn’t written at the time. It was written by Ye Jian recently. He only remembered which year and which month, not which day the photos were taken! You have to think—why did he take out these two photos, why did he annotate the dates above them!” He tapped the desk with his knuckles. “This is the key point!”

Everyone pondered for a moment and deeply felt the bureau chief’s analysis indeed made sense. Only criminal investigation experts could discover abnormalities from these insignificant dates.

A white paper recording Luo Ziyue’s information corresponded to two photographs, with Luo Ziyue also appearing in one of the photos. Two photos from over a decade ago abruptly appearing on the desk. The photos were annotated with the year and month of shooting, but specifically lacking the day.

Although it still wasn’t clear what the relationship was between the white paper, the two photos, and Ye Jian’s death, everyone could already vaguely sense certain connections existed within.

At this moment, Li Qian suddenly picked up another document with some characters Ye Jian had written on it. She compared it with the photos in the evidence bag and said hesitantly: “The characters annotated on the photos don’t seem to be written by Ye Jian.”

Everyone turned their heads to look. Ye Jian’s handwriting was sloppy and fat—clearly not from someone skilled with a pen. Although only a few Chinese characters indicating the date were written on the photos, the handwriting was very beautiful and absolutely couldn’t have been written by Ye Jian.

Zhang Yi’ang also leaned over to compare. This handwriting indeed wasn’t Ye Jian’s. He snorted, dismissively saying: “Since the dates weren’t written by Ye Jian, then we need to investigate it thoroughly! However, from the photos you can see Ye Jian had a very good relationship with those several people. Plus Luo Ziyue appeared both on the paper and in the photos—quite suspicious. So next, we need to focus on investigating Lu Yibo!”

“Huh?” Wang Ruijun hadn’t yet recovered from the inconsistent handwriting when he was suddenly led by the bureau chief in another direction. He couldn’t help asking curiously: “Why, if Mayor Luo is suspicious, are we investigating Lu Yibo?”

Zhang Yi’ang frowned reproachfully: “How could you forget about the VIP card hidden on Ye Jian’s body? This is the most important clue at present! The grand hotel is opened by Lu Yibo, so of course we have to investigate him!”

Wang Ruijun shouted internally: I didn’t forget! But you were clearly talking about Mayor Luo being suspicious—you didn’t mention the grand hotel at all!

What secrets does this sacred party Lu Yibo conceal?