On the police side, after capturing Mei Dong last night, they first learned of Liu Bei’s whereabouts from Zheng Yongbing, then learned from Li Qian that Zhou Rong had been robbed, so they launched a two-front operation.
In the morning, outside the demolition area where Liu Bei’s whereabouts had been reported yesterday, over ten police cars surrounded all the exits so tightly not even water could pass through. Police tape was everywhere, keeping curious passersby far away.
Near noon, Zhang Yi’ang arrived at the scene. After passing through an alley several dozen meters long, he found Wang Ruijun busily directing operations and called him aside, asking in a low voice: “What’s the situation on Zhou Rong’s side?”
Wang Ruijun answered with full energy: “Last night I immediately followed your instructions, Director, and overnight arranged for many experienced veteran plainclothes officers to lie in ambush in all directions around Zhou Rong’s villa. After working through the night, we discovered that starting around nine this morning, Zhou Rong’s company security team, Hu Jianren, the Lang Bowen brothers, and others all rushed to his house collectively. It looks like Li Qian’s intelligence wasn’t wrong—Zhou Rong really was robbed!”
“Of course it couldn’t be wrong. I saw Zhou Rong being robbed with my own eyes—it wasn’t hearsay!” As soon as these words fell, the two turned their heads and saw Li Qian standing nearby, glaring at Wang Ruijun huffily. Wang Ruijun opened his mouth but couldn’t speak. If it were any other officer eavesdropping on leadership conversations, he would have kicked them to the moon long ago. But since it was Li Qian eavesdropping, he was helpless.
“Li Qian—” Zhang Yi’ang looked at her in surprise. “How did you get here?” He thought that after last night’s ordeal, Li Qian would surely be scared out of her wits and wouldn’t dare cause trouble again. How had she popped up here?
“I heard something happened here and rushed over immediately.”
“I mean, after being frightened last night, today… why did you come again today?”
“Who says I was frightened? Could last night’s little incident scare me?” Li Qian raised her head, completely different from her terrified appearance last night. “Yesterday I lacked experience, but I had prepared a dagger in advance. Otherwise I couldn’t have escaped first with all four limbs bound and transmitted this precious intelligence to you all. Yet some people don’t appreciate it and doubt what I saw with my own eyes could be false. Hmph! Their conscience has been eaten by dogs! Now I’ve thought it through—I’m the one who discovered Zhou Rong was robbed. I have the right and I demand to participate in all subsequent investigations. Otherwise all the credit will be stolen by others!”
“Li Qian, don’t worry. I won’t steal your credit—I still want some dignity,” Wang Ruijun said with an embarrassed smile and shook his head. Turning around, he noticed Director Zhang’s expression wasn’t very happy, so he immediately looked serious. “What are you thinking? Of course the Director even more wouldn’t! Who would steal your credit?”
Only then did Zhang Yi’ang nod: “Li Qian, don’t worry. Ruijun and I both guarantee that if Zhou Rong’s case is solved, you’ll definitely get top merit. As for charging into battle later, let the veteran detectives handle it. Last night was too dangerous for you! If there’s nothing else, go back to your unit and rest. I’ll have someone take you. Xiao Wang…”
“Director,” Li Qian interrupted him. “There’s something I need to discuss with you.”
“Go ahead.”
“Too many people here.”
Wang Ruijun looked around and said: “It’s fine, just the three of us. Others can’t hear.”
Li Qian glanced at him: “Three is still a bit many.”
Wang Ruijun froze for a few seconds, coughed, straightened up, and turned to walk away.
Only then did Li Qian speak: “Director, if Zhou Rong’s case is solved and you report to your superiors, will you say I infiltrated Zhou Rong’s house and discovered the intelligence?”
Zhang Yi’ang was stunned. Of course that was impossible. If Li Qian’s uncle found out about this, that would be the end of it. He could only answer vaguely: “I suppose we don’t need to explain the specific case-solving process so clearly.”
“Then if I don’t participate in the subsequent investigation, when you apply for merit for me later, seeing that I did nothing but got merit anyway, how can others be convinced?”
“We can say you helped greatly with the investigation through technical means.”
“But if Uncle Guo asks me specifically how I investigated, I haven’t done that kind of work and can’t explain it, so I’ll have to tell the truth.”
“You—”
“So—” Li Qian’s lips curved up, her tone brooking no refusal. “I must participate in the subsequent investigation!”
Zhang Yi’ang stared at her blankly, discovering she had actually become enlightened and knew his weak spot. Zhang Yi’ang swallowed and weighed things in his mind. Better to deal with the immediate matter first, then worry about the rest later. He said: “I agree to let you participate in the subsequent investigation, but you must follow my orders and absolutely cannot act on your own again!”
“You can’t order me to sit at a computer checking information.”
“I—”
“Must go to crime scenes, must participate in arrests!”
Zhang Yi’ang took a breath: “You must stay by my side.”
“It’s a deal!”
Zhang Yi’ang hesitated, but could only say: “It’s a deal.”
“Pinky swear!” Li Qian extended her finger and hooked Zhang Yi’ang’s large hand, pulling it.
In the distance, Wang Ruijun, the superfluous person whose conscience had supposedly been eaten by dogs, glanced at them unwillingly and suddenly discovered the two were doing a pinky swear. He sighed—the perks of being a leader were really different. At that moment, he saw Director Zhang beckoning to him, so he immediately ran over.
Zhang Yi’ang pressed his lips together and instructed Wang Ruijun: “Let Li Qian participate in future investigations.”
“Let her participate?” Wang Ruijun was speechless. Sure enough, physical contact easily led to insider deals. However, he didn’t dare interfere with the leader’s private life, so he changed his mind and readily agreed: “No problem!”
“Continue talking about Zhou Rong.”
Wang Ruijun glanced at Li Qian and saw she was now openly standing beside them listening. Since Director Zhang didn’t stop her, he felt at ease saying: “After Zhou Rong gathered the main gang members, these people stayed at the villa for at least an hour, then scattered. We had limited manpower and couldn’t follow them. I contacted the informant Xiao Mi provided by Zheng Yongbing. He’s a driver who doesn’t participate in specific matters. He heard from others that Zhou Rong sent out a large number of people to find two men.”
“What about Zhou Rong himself?”
“He’s been in the villa the whole time until now, hasn’t gone out.”
Zhang Yi’ang thought for a moment: “This time Zhou Rong must be using maximum resources to find those two robbers. We can’t follow all his subordinates, and once our surveillance is discovered we’ll alert them. How about this—go arrange people to keep a close watch on the villa situation. We’ll send additional personnel separately and try to catch those two before Zhou Rong does.”
After sending Wang Ruijun away, Zhang Yi’ang brought Li Qian forward and came to a house cordoned off with police tape. Around the house, forensic examiners and evidence department personnel were shuttling about. When Song Xing saw him, he put down his work and brought him to a pile of slag. The sand on top had been turned over and spread flat. The dark brown sand was obviously somewhat moist—clearly bloodstains.
“What’s the specific situation?” Zhang Yi’ang stared at the sand for a while, then beckoned to call over several key personnel. Li Qian also pretended to be a key person and moved to the side to listen to everyone discuss the case.
Song Xing first spoke to clear himself of responsibility: “Last night I followed instructions and assembled over forty people from criminal police, special police, and other departments. We surrounded all the entrances and exits of this area. That night we sent plainclothes officers in first to investigate. They didn’t find Liu Bei. When daylight came, the main force swept in collectively. We searched every house but still didn’t see Liu Bei. However, we discovered this patch of sand has large amounts of bloodstains, and the floor on the second floor of this house also has bloodstains. From the traces, the perpetrator transported sand from below to upstairs, cleaned the blood upstairs, then swept the sand back downstairs.”
Zhang Yi’ang’s gaze turned toward Forensic Examiner Chen. Old Chen stated very definitely: “I dare guarantee one hundred percent—someone died, and the time was last night!”
“Where’s the corpse?”
“Where the corpse went, I don’t know. I only handle autopsies.”
Li Qian nearby interjected: “But without seeing the corpse, how can you be sure someone died?”
No one in this world could question Forensic Examiner Chen’s professional skills, and Li Qian was no exception. He immediately glared angrily: “Don’t you see so much blood? Three years’ worth of menstrual blood flowing out at once—could this person still be alive?”
Li Qian muttered in a low voice: “Without lab analysis, how do you know it’s human blood?”
Forensic Examiner Chen snorted coldly and looked at her with disdain: “Lab analysis? I still need lab analysis? I’ll tell you, instruments are useless to me. I’ve been a forensic examiner for thirty years. I look once and can one hundred percent determine this is human blood, and the time was last night! Hmph, when I first became a police officer, everyone present was still a child. Back then I encountered a case where I also only saw blood all over the ground and couldn’t find the corpse. At that time someone asked me, Xiao Chen, do you think the person is dead or alive? Guess what happened—”
Everyone had no interest in guessing the rest of the story. Song Xing directly interrupted him: “Forensic Examiner Chen, what other information is there?”
“That’s it. As for who killed Liu Bei, that’s your criminal police department’s business. I don’t care.”
“What! You’re saying Liu Bei was killed!” Everyone present cried out.
Forensic Examiner Chen looked at them matter-of-factly: “Isn’t it obvious Liu Bei was killed?”
Song Xing refuted him: “We’re here to arrest Liu Bei. Discovering so much blood should mean Liu Bei killed someone else and escaped. How could it be that someone else killed Liu Bei?”
Forensic Examiner Chen said very disdainfully: “How did you become a police officer with your analytical ability?”
“I—”
“Song Xing, didn’t I just confirm with you whether people saw Liu Bei come empty-handed last night or carrying a suitcase?”
Song Xing nodded: “Yes, I said Liu Bei was dragging a suitcase.”
Forensic Examiner Chen turned to ask Section Chief Xu from the evidence department: “Old Xu, didn’t you just say there were signs of a struggle upstairs, two people’s footprints, and suitcase wheel marks?”
Section Chief Xu also nodded, because there were quite a few bloodstains on the ground and sand downstairs, so the scene traces were very clear.
“Isn’t this a very obvious conclusion? Judging from the traces on the ground, there were two people upstairs last night. We’ve compared the footprints—the person with small feet was Liu Bei, the other person had large feet. Liu Bei dragged the suitcase upstairs, but in the end it was the other person with large feet who dragged the suitcase away. So where did Liu Bei go? With so much blood on the ground, Liu Bei must have been killed by the other person, and the corpse was carried out in the suitcase.”
Section Chief Xu, reminded by him, hurried back to study the traces of the suitcase coming and going. He discovered that indeed the traces when leaving were deeper. The situation was exactly as Forensic Examiner Chen said—after Liu Bei was killed, the corpse was loaded into the suitcase and dragged away, so the departing suitcase was heavy and naturally the traces were deeper. He also agreed with Forensic Examiner Chen’s judgment.
Forensic Examiner Chen spread his hands: “I’m a forensic examiner, yet at critical moments I still have to handle crime scene trace analysis. So annoying!” Though he said it was annoying, his expression was very proud, and his back with the herniated disc was held perfectly straight.
Everyone stood in place, carefully considering Forensic Examiner Chen’s conclusion. From the scene traces, his analysis did make sense. But Liu Bei was a desperate criminal—it would be good enough if he didn’t kill others. Now he was killed by someone else instead. Was this possible?
Forensic Examiner Chen swept his gaze over everyone, looking at them disdainfully: “You still don’t believe Liu Bei has been killed?”
Song Xing coughed and said: “Forensic Examiner Chen, this is after all your one-sided speculation—”
“My one-sided speculation? I’m telling you, the conclusions I state never have a second possibility. I’ll make a bet with you—we’ll take these bloodstains back to compare DNA. If the DNA isn’t Liu Bei’s, I’ll resign. If the DNA is Liu Bei’s, you resign!”
“We don’t need to… don’t need to bet so big.” Song Xing cried out. He was completely overwhelmed by Forensic Examiner Chen’s momentum.
Zhang Yi’ang coughed and publicly took a stance: “I believe Forensic Examiner Chen’s judgment.”
Everyone immediately sided with Forensic Examiner Chen, blaming Song Xing one after another. Forensic Examiner Chen’s conclusions were always ironclad—how could there be errors? But you—the first time catching Liu Bei you didn’t press the elevator button and almost got Li Qian killed. Last night catching Mei Dong, his subordinate used a diversionary tactic that almost let the tiger return to the mountain. Later you brought a group of people to catch Liu Bei and still came up empty-handed. Now you actually have the nerve to question Forensic Examiner Chen’s conclusion.
Zhang Yi’ang pondered for a moment. Just as they were about to arrest Liu Bei, Liu Bei was killed by someone else. This matter was confusing and required further investigation. Right now the most important thing was still Zhou Rong. Catching the two robbers before Zhou Rong was no easy task, especially since this matter was confidential. Zhou Rong’s robbery couldn’t be disclosed to too many people, so they couldn’t mobilize large forces. How to catch these two—better consult Director Gao.