Huaicheng Police Station, Conference Room.

When the video began playing, everyone fell into complete silence.

The footage was shaky, likely recorded on a phone. Yet it clearly showed Zhou Rongfeng, He Qi, Xie Tangmao, and Zhang Wei in the frame.

The setting was familiar—Zhou Rongfeng’s office that the criminal police had visited earlier that day. But this was at night, with dim lighting and pulsing music. All four sat near the sofa, with various bottles of wine and liquor on the table…

Zhou Rongfeng wore a T-shirt with dress pants, looking completely different from the refined businessman they’d seen earlier. He drank arrogantly, chatting and laughing loudly with others, appearing extremely unrestrained.

He Qi, who had seemed cautious and shrewd during the day, now wore just a white shirt and underwear, his bare legs exposed, face flushed from drinking.

Xie Tangmao showed perhaps the starkest contrast to his daytime persona. He wore a suit jacket but nothing below. He too laughed continuously while drinking baijiu, his expression both wild and dark, his eyes seeming to harbor endless desires.

After a while, Xie Tangmao roughly pulled up a girl from beside him—there had been another person present.

She was unclothed.

Fury blazed in every detective’s eyes. The girl was pretty and slim, stumbling with an unnatural flush on her face, appearing dazed—who else could it be but Liu Yisha, the second victim?

What followed was an unbearable scene of debauchery.

The girl’s head was lifted, forced to drink more alcohol. Her body moved mechanically. She seemed to have lost consciousness, her eyes half-closed.

Then someone started throwing money—large amounts of red bills scattered everywhere, falling onto the girl’s body.

People around were laughing: “Haha! She’s still grabbing the money, even in this state, still trying to grab money!”

“How pathetic!”

…

Zhang Wei also stood nearby laughing with a wine glass, taking a stack of bills and hitting the girl’s unfocused face with them. The observers could see the girl clutching crumpled bills, her tightly pressed lips curling slightly upward as if smiling.

…

The accident happened when no one was paying attention.

Xie Tangmao lifted the girl’s limp body, wanting to torment her further. Somehow Liu Yisha suddenly began struggling. Xie Tangmao got angry and slapped her. Liu Yisha tried to run, but Zhou Rongfeng coldly pushed her with great force. The girl slipped on something, her head striking the coffee table hard with a dull crack.

…

He Qi lifted the girl’s hair to see lifeless open eyes and blood continuously flowing from her head. He checked her breathing. He Qi suddenly dropped Liu Yisha, collapsed to the ground, and said trembling: “She’s dead… how is she dead… just from hitting her head like that?”

The footage shook violently at this point before cutting off.

The Huaicheng Police Chief barked: “Arrest everyone in this video immediately!”

A voice cut in: “And Chen Zhaoci.”

Everyone looked at Yin Feng as he said: “The person filming must have been someone they trusted completely and who was also involved in luring the girls. I think it was him.”

—

Originally, You Mingxu’s team’s “sting operation” hadn’t been officially sanctioned, but now with ironclad evidence, there was no need for hesitation. Quickly, all four people from the video, including Zhou Rongfeng who was still recovering from his injuries in the hospital, were brought to the police station. But when police went to Chen Zhaoci’s residence, he wasn’t there. The search continued.

When the police showed the video, all their faces changed. Those who had maintained dignified appearances as suspects now wilted like frost-struck eggplants, unable to maintain any defense.

Zhou Rongfeng spoke excitedly: “It was an accident! Really, we just wanted to have some fun with her, and she agreed to it! She wanted to clear her debt and voluntarily offered to sleep with us. She suggested playing rough, yes, she suggested it! We were just some guys who lost our heads with a college girl!”

Xu Mengshan, who was interrogating him, sneered: “Bullshit! Keep making excuses. Think you can escape charges of gang rape, intentional homicide, and corpse desecration?”

Zhou Rongfeng’s response was surprisingly quick: “No, no, no, it wasn’t intentional homicide, it was manslaughter! Just manslaughter! How could we know she’d die from drinking and hitting her head? She… she must have had a pre-existing condition! Heart disease or some previous injury… that must be it! And we didn’t rape her, she was willing…”

Xu Mengshan said: “Are you even human?”

The usually composed He Qi lost his composure, breaking into a sweat, his lips trembling. Like Zhou Rongfeng, he insisted the girl’s death was accidental, unrelated to them.

But when questioned about the first victim, Zhao Feier, He Qi showed genuine confusion and surprise, not only claiming no memory of the girl but firmly denying any involvement in her death.

“Just this once!” He Qi said, face pale. “We only did it this once, Liu Yisha somehow just died! The others we played with before were all consensual, nothing ever went wrong. This… Zhao Feier, looking like that, I don’t remember her at all, definitely never played with her.”

“What about the body?” You Mingxu asked. “How did you dispose of Liu Yisha’s body?”

He Qi said: “It was Chen Zhaoci! Chen Zhaoci did it! He said he’d handle it, none of us were involved! I don’t know anything! Don’t know anything!”

You Mingxu froze.

Chen Zhaoci, it was Chen Zhaoci.

Currently the only gang member still at large.

Xie Tangmao’s reaction was the most dramatic—he directly knelt before the police in the interrogation room, launching into his act with tears streaming down his face, speaking of his remorse and blind following, claiming ignorance of everything: “They said the girl was willing, I was just convinced by them, momentarily possessed, just playing along with them…”

You Mingxu, remembering his behavior in the video, felt utterly disgusted and shouted: “Stand the fuck up! Tell the truth! With ironclad evidence, who do you think you’re fooling?”

Xie Tangmao continued sobbing, maintaining a face of remorse, his expression carefully controlled.

You Mingxu said: “Your only chance now is to tell us honestly: where is Fan Lingling? If anything happens to her, your sentences will be even heavier—prepare to rot in prison!”

Xie Tangmao hesitated before declaring firmly: “I don’t know about this! If I knew, I’d tell you immediately! The company isn’t that big, I’m puzzled too—how could someone just disappear?”

No matter how You Mingxu probed, regarding Fan Jia’s whereabouts, Xie Tangmao maintained a bewildered expression, on the verge of tears.