The 502 frozen corpse case has finally been solved and the interrogation process has begun.
In movies and TV shows, the work of the police is over the moment the suspects are successfully caught, but in reality that's when the really tough battle begins.
Interrogation, hard work, the combination of using both carrot and stick tactics, eighteen different techniques and seventy-two different ways to discern the validity of the criminals' confessions from the false ones, repeated interrogations to break them down one by one, and finally taking them all down.
It is difficult to describe in words how many times the police are forced to advance and retreat, and how many battles of wits and bravery take place. The only thing that can specifically be seen is how many overtime hours the criminal investigation detachment of the Municipal Public Security Bureau has worked, and how many times the lights of the deputy chief's office have been on all night.
The sound of water in the bathroom stopped. After a few moments, Yan Xie, with damp black hair like a hedgehog, pushed the door open, humming a Xiao Huang tune. He went into the cloakroom, pulled out a black T-shirt from a drawer that was too stuffed to close, and paused as he started to put it on again.
Then he threw the T-shirt away in a flash, which left him half-naked, his firm back hadn't yet dried, and took out the T-shirt that he only wore on blind dates all year round.
Half an hour later, deputy chief Yan was wearing a pair of sunglasses on his nose, his hair was waxed and styled. He was dressed in a custom-made shirt, Cesare attolini trousers and wore a watch that cost more than a car. He drove the car, the price of which was equal to ten such watches. He happily walked out.
After another half an hour, deputy Yan's pleasant mood was severely tested
.
'No', he grabbed the doctor who was making rounds and disgruntledly pointed at the eighth ward, "Am I paying such an amount for them to have dates here everyday?"
Doctor: "...."
Yang Mei eagerly ladled out a third bowl of chicken soup: "Come, Jiang-Ge, Xiao Liu has been cooking for half a night, let's have another bowl! Ah-"
Jiang Ting: "Wait, let's talk about it, just put it down..."
Yan Xie coughed heavily, straightened his sleeves, and entered the door with his head held high.
Yan Xie's image in Yang Mei's heart was very complicated, on one hand, she was very grateful, on the other hand, whenever she saw Yan Xie with his attitude of "I owe you a beating, come if you can", she felt that her heart resonated with Chief Wei, who couldn't wait to send Yan Xie back to Mars with a fly swatter.
"I have something to discuss with Captain Jiang,"said Yan Xie in a seemingly amiable and reserved tone, "Go out for a while, you can come back after I'm gone."
Yan Mei: "???"
Yang Mei couldn't help but open her mouth to retort when Yan Xie glanced at the innocent face of Jiang Ting with the corner of his eyes and said in an aggravated tone. "Ding Dang has confessed."
"Yang Mei, go back first", Jiang Ting immediately took his good advice: "you can come back when you have time."
".... " Miss Yang could only suffer in silence as she packed up and left the ward, feeling angry and resigned.
Just as Yang Mei turned around the corner of the corridor of the inpatient department, she saw a young woman in her early twenties with her arm in a sling, taking a walk to the window.
When Yang Mei had a chance to look at the figure that looked a bit familiar to her, she frowned and suddenly remembered that it was the intern of the Criminal Investigation Department who had been sent to the hospital with Jiang Ting that night. Her name was Han Meimei.
--Han Xiaomei's injuries couldn't be considered serious, and under normal circumstances she would have been sent to a public hospital. But she piggybacked on the fact that Consultant Lu was in a coma on the verge of death, and got into this private hospital where everyone had a private room just like in a hotel. So the bill was naturally sent to her boss.
With her hand in a sling, she carefully tried to move her stiff shoulders, when all of the sudden she heard a languid, high-pitched female voice behind her. "Han Meimei?"
"Hey?"
Han Xiaomei turned back and was suddenly almost blinded by the beautiful lady's flashing 24K golden diamond dog eyes.
Yang Mei's dyed chestnut hair was pulled back, there was a diamond key necklace on her snow-white neck, she was wearing a dark pink velvet skirt, light pink suede high heels, and a bag that Han Xiaomei might not be able to afford even with half of her year's salary. She walked half circle around Han Xiaomei as she looked up all the way from Han Xiaomei's two-yuan plastic slippers to her hair that had not been washed for three days, her perfect makeup accentuated her eyes that had a certain undisguised harshness to them.
"Are you the trainee policewoman who was sitting in the car with Brother Jiang at the time of the accident?"
Han Xiaomei was so frightened that she finally realized who the young lady was: "Yes, my name is Han Xiaomei, and you must be Yang--"
Yang Mei made another half-circle, walked gracefully and swayed, showing off her S-shaped proud figure in all directions, pressing two fingers coated with pale pink nail polish against Han Xiaomei's cheek and gently skimming over and carefully observing her skin. The scene looked as if she was examining the mouth of a donkey before buying one.
Han Xiaomei, the donkey, was trembling with fear from the inspection, only to hear Yang Mei lazily say, "The car that was wrecked was mine."
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to... " Han Xiaomei didn't know why she started apologizing in a reflex.
"Don't you interns have any other jobs to do?"
"I really didn't notice at the time...huh?"
"Why are you following Jiang-Ge all day long? If you are so free, why don't you go out on the street and catch thieves?"
Han Xiaomei really was a donkey, unaware of the undercurrent's raging murderous aura: "Oh, because Deputy Chief Yan asked me to keep an eye on Jiang... Lu... Advisor Lu, saying that he must be the first to be notified of any movements, and that he would immediately kill Advisor Lu if he took half a step, so..."
Yang Mei was really surprised: "Yan Xie? Why?"
Han Xiaomei stretched her neck and looked into the distance to make sure there was no one around before whispering, "I don't know, maybe straight male cancer has a crush."
Yang Mei sucked in a mouthful of cold air, almost taking three backwards steps on a spot. Han Xiaomei with her mouth open also made a meaningful face at her.
"...." However, Yang Mei was the one who dragged Jiang Ting from the scene of the highway accident and sent him to the hospital to save his life. The woman who had gone through countless ups and downs over the years, reacted in the blink of an eye, quickly formulating an offensive and defensive strategy and tactical object within seconds, as she grabbed Han Xiaomei's rough hand.
"Sister!"
Han Xiaomei: "???"
"Look at your skinny little pitiful face, come with your sister."
Yang Mei smiled like a young female fox and said affectionately,: "Good, older sister will treat you to dinner."
-
"Did Ding Dang confess?" Meanwhile in the hospital room, Jiang Ting asked to confirm.
Yan Xie pulled up a chair at random and sat down near the bed with his elbows resting on the armrests on both sides and his fingers crossed. He crossed his long legs. He resembled a young and handsome CEO, smiling and looking at Jiang Ting for a long time, before he said one word as if singing: "Dang~ran~la."
Jiang Ting replied, "I thought she would be the most difficult one to crack."
"It mostly depends on which god personally questioned her. Your guess?"
The hospital room was full of sunshine, there was a handful of lilies at the bed head, emitting a fragrance. Jiang Ting's face was plain white, and at first glance it seemed it was of the same shade as the soft cotton-white hospital gown; his arms were crossed in front of his chest as he was leaning on a loose pillow.
Although it was not obvious, the corner of his light red lips did curl up, "Isn't this god sitting in front of me right now."
Yan Xie's smile visibly deepened.
"Hey, but seriously." Yan Xie casually took a soft Chinese cigarette in his mouth and pulled his chair forward: "How did you know that Ding girl was the fourth kidnapper?"
Going back in time to 10 days ago. Yan Xie was standing by the side of the police car, he turned back and saw the window slowly lowering to reveal Jiang Ting's fair white cold cheeks. Then he said - not three kidnappers, but four.
So when Yan Xie broke into the factory, he was the first to grab Ding Dang and seize the gun from her hands after the explosion. The results have proved that his judgement was a life-saving decision for the hostage.
Jiang Ting said, "It should be true that Ding Dang went to the police station, but it wasn't an attempt to turn herself in, it was to make a report."
Yan Xie made a graceful gesture for him to continue.
"She wanted to report Ding Jiawang, Chi Rui, Wang Le and others, saying the same thing she told Chu Ci later; putting the entire responsibility for organizing drug trafficking as well as her involvement with Hu Weisheng on her father. This matches Zhang Jiao's confession. Perhaps the mother and daughter had secretly discussed and agreed what to say just in case everything would come to light. Which is understandable, since most women love their children more than their husbands."
"So after Diao Yong had been taken in custody and Ding Dang found out that she was under police surveillance, she knew she was under suspicion. The only idea she could think of at that point was to preempt the police, so she went to the police station with the intention of giving her already prepared speech."
Jiang Ting took a breath and said, "But, perhaps through observation, conversation or other means, Chi Rui and others sensed that she had a change of heart, so they made the first move and kidnapped her as well."
"And then she chose to work with the kidnappers," said Yan Xie.
"Yes, she had to." Jiang Ting said, "because your theory is quite correct, the female accomplice in Hu Weisheng's car on the night of the 502 incident was Ding Dang. She probably even deliberately murdered Feng Yuguang."
Yan Xie, with a cigarette in his mouth, smiled and looked at him for a moment, then finally leaned back in the back of his chair and slowly repeated: "Premeditated murder."
He didn't speak for a while, as if he enjoyed being alone with Jiang Ting, and then asked, "You guessed that, too. Tell me how."
"Feng Yuguang has been relying on psychoactive drugs like Adderall and Modafinil to pass his exams, and in Beijing he should have had a regular and trusted seller. But after coming to Jianning, due to the risk which express delivery of illegal drugs involved, coupled with the very urgent need to buy them, he accepted Ding Dang who was in close proximity as his new supply source. What he didn't expect was that Ding Dang was actually trying to kill him."
"Feng Yuguang's second-to-last call on the night of the murder was to Ding Dang. I'm guessing that Ding Dang received the call and gave him another unregistered cell phone number to contact her, which also served as a way for her to confuse the follow-up investigation. Feng Yuguang dialed the unregistered cell phone number and followed the instructions to get into Hu Weisheng's car. The rest of the story is exactly the same as you guessed before."
Jiang Ting paused and leaned his head back against the soft pillow, subconsciously rubbing his throat.
Yan Xie had noticed that this was Jiang Ting's habit when he was thinking. He couldn't take his eyes off of him, and suddenly his throat felt a little tight. Then Yan Xie couldn't help but swallow his saliva.
--as if that hand was gently fondling his neck.
"Then why do you suspect her of intentional murder?"
As if to disguise his strange appearance, Yan Xie hardened his eyes and asked with a smile: "Perhaps she purely wanted to seduce Feng Yuguang into taking drugs, just got the wrong product."
Jiang Ting shook his head.
"The drug Feng Yuguang took was a failed imitation of Ding Jiawang's, and should have been destroyed long ago. Even if there was a surplus, it wouldn't be randomly piled up in the pot like methamphetamine. So the possibility of 'taking the wrong goods in passing' was unlikely. Furthermore, Hu Weisheng probably didn't even know about Ding Dang's attempt to kill Feng Yuguang, otherwise he wouldn't have touched Feng Yuguang's bag and sold it to a second-hand luxury shop the next day, leaving such an obvious clue leading to himself.
Hu Weisheng was trying to protect Ding Dang and he had a die-hard attitude of not confessing. Having such a loyal and courageous boyfriend, if Ding Dang wanted to kill Feng Yuguang and even Hu Weisheng wasn't aware of that, her murder motive must've been more subtle."
At this point Jiang Ting changed his tone and smiled, "But I also said this is just my speculation. The sentence for premeditated murder is different, Ding Dang wouldn't admit it."
Yan Xie clicked his tongue and pointed his index finger at Jiang Ting.
"She admitted it."
Even Jiang Ting was surprised, "Oh?"
"I personally led a half-day battle to literally dig up three feet of earth in the Dings' courtyard and found the evidence as expected! Guess what we found?"
This time it was Jiang Ting who made the gesture of please speak.
"Corpses." Yan Xie said, pleasantly amused at the surprised stare from across the room, "More than a dozen poisoned bodies of stray dogs and cats, their dates of death were very close, and Ding Dang's DNA was found on several claw tips."
Jiang Ting drew in a light breath, understanding, "Testing the lethal dose."
"- Deliberate poisoning, ironclad evidence." Yan Xie clapped as he continued, "That girl collapsed on the spot, hahaha!"
Witnesses, material evidence, and confession files all correspond to each other, forming a tight chain of evidence, completely nailing this gang of armed drug manufacturers.
Yan Xie had fought this battle so well that it could only be described as beautiful.
"Was Ding Jiawang really the one who introduced Hu Weisheng to his daughter?" asked Jiang Ting.
Yan Xie waved his hand, "Hey, don't listen to that girl's bullshit. The boss of the Sanchunhua KTV explained that Ding Dang had been their famous socialite since long ago. Hu Weisheng always bought her drinks, one thing led to another and the two hooked up. It was only then that Ding Jiawang was dragged into the water to start making drugs. From the beginning there was never such thing as being forced into prostitution."
Jiang Ting seemed to be somewhat saddened and sighed, "This girl."
"Young people these days, tsk tsk..."
Jiang Ting gently cupped his chin and shook his head, not agreeing.
"What are you thinking about?" Yan Xie was sensitive enough to pursue the question.
"...I'm thinking." Jiang Ting said slowly, "Ding Dang was the source of the gang's start of drug production and the connection that linked Hu Weisheng's drug trafficking channels to Ding Jiawang's hub. Meanwhile, she was as seductive, deadly, and addictive as a drug to Hu Weisheng or even more men..."
He seemed to be pondering the appropriate description, before finally saying, "For some reason, this trait makes me uncomfortable."
Yan Xie noticed that the word he used wasn't disgust, dislike, or even revulsion.
It was uncomfortable.
-- A person's discomfort with someone's trait may be due to a triad of contradictions, or, perhaps, because they see in it a side of themselves that they don't want to look at.
"Why do you care about her? How can a death row prisoner make anyone comfortable."
Yan Xie's face was expressionless, and he naturally relaxed his neck muscles, as if he suddenly remembered something he said: "Oh right, Hu Weisheng's autopsy. The results are in."
Jiang Ting raised his eyes.
"Peanut powder allergy."
"....?"
"The bottle of diacetylmorphine that killed him had been requested by the police canine unit for training purposes and was sent back with glucose and peanut powder mixed in. Several trainers have already been arrested by my men." Yan Xie added ," Director Lu asked Lao Huang to thoroughly investigate the contraband warehouse and found several drugs of incorrect purity, now the joint responsibility is being settled."
Jiang Ting nodded somberly for a while before saying, "What a coincidence."
Indeed - too much of a coincidence.
Even if there were a few sticks of heroin mixed with impurities, how come it was peanut powder, how come it was taken to Hu Weisheng who was allergic to peanuts?
Which parts of the night of Hu Weisheng's death were intentional?
"Coincidentally or not, it's impossible to find out for a while, but fortunately, it's only a matter of time." Yan Xie leaned in close, swiped Jiang Ting's chest with the back of his hand, and said teasingly, "The future is long - Fortunately, this little life of yours has been picked up by me."
Jiang Ting looked at him quietly, as if some obscure and indecipherable emotion was shining in the depths of his eyes.
"Take good care of it, Captain Jiang." Yan Xie laughed, "This Xishi clasps at her heart and faints, so I won't dare to overwork this Buddha in the future."
He stood up and stretched his waist cozily, clicking and pressing each knuckle, and suddenly only heard Jiang Ting call out, "Yan Xie."
His voice was not loud, at first detecting nothing unusual, Yan Xie looked over.
Yan Xie, leaning over the snow-white hospital bed with eyes as still as a pool of deep water, said: "Thank you, on the day I return to Gongzhou in the future, if it's convenient, can you be the one to send me back?"
They looked at each other silently for a moment, and Yan Xie smiled as if a pebble had been thrown into the lake without causing ripples, and then he took something out of his trouser pocket, raised his hand and threw it: "We'll talk about it later, Yang Mei's KTV is crowded, it's best to go to my house after you're discharged."
Jiang Ting caught it steadily, only to see a key in the palm of his hand, with a slightly frozen expression.
"I'm leaving," Yan Xie said without looking back, waved his hand, opened the door of the ward and walked out.
The snow-white room was quiet again, the sunlight passed through the glass window, a crystal clear water droplet slowly fell from the lily petals.
Jiang Ting tossed the key on the bedside table and quietly exhaled .
.
"Yo, Yan-Ge, have you just come back from a blind date?"
At the entrance of the Criminal Investigation Building of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, Yan Xie stepped onto the stairs as fast as he could and scoffed at the jokes and teasing of several criminal police officers: "What blind date, how vulgar! --Have you finished organizing the materials? Is the evidence list ready? Has the case file been transferred to the prosecutor's office? No? What are you doing here?! Get back to work! "
The criminal policemen dispersed in a rush with cigarettes in their hands.
"Ah, Lao Yan -" Huang Xing, director of the technical investigation, was standing at the door of the deputy chief's office and it seemed he had been waiting there for a long time.
Yan Xie looked him up and down a few times, "What's wrong with you, borrowing money?"
Huang Xing smiled dryly, but didn't hide the concern and contradiction under his eyes.
This appearance was so unusual that Yan Xie frowned unconsciously, and sure enough, Huang Xing reluctantly coughed: "The child's shirt found on the roof of the sniper building on the night of the operation had some old blood on it, and the DNA results have just come out."
Yan Xie looked slightly shaken.
"Director Lu," Huang Xing hesitated, "Director Lu asked you to come over."
".... " Yan Xie laughed, his handsome face magically collected all the emotions, and patted Huang Xing's shoulder, "I'm on my way."
He really turned around and headed to the elevator, not even asking any more questions. Instead, Huang Xing rushed after him and took half a step, as if he wanted to explain something, but eventually held back.
-
Director's Office.
Knock knock
As soon as there was a knock on the door, a familiar voice sounded: "Come in."
Yan Xie pushed the door and entered.
Behind the large desk, the swivel chair was turned back to the door, vaguely revealing a part of the arm. The computer screen on the desk was turned at an angle. Yan Xie's gaze fell on it, first recognizing the window background as very familiar - it was the public security intranet.
Then the familiar face, which saw only half an hour ago, with three four-pointed flowers on his shoulders, gave him a cold and clear look.
Yan Xie's footsteps came to a standstill.
"The sniper who had fired four rounds at the scene of the police operation and fled, pressed a child's T-shirt against the ground with a stone before leaving, it had old bloodstains on the chest and abdomen area. After a DNA comparison, it coincides with the bloodstains found during a certain police rescue operation three years ago."
The armchair turned around and Director Lu looked calmly at Yan Xie.
"It belongs to Jiang Ting - the former captain of the second anti-drug squad of the Gongzhou City Public Security Department."