Chapter 121 Chapter 121 Zhang San also comes from another world...

Provincial prison.

"—Team Leader Ji, Teacher Lu, you're here so fast! We didn't expect something like this to happen!" Han Feiyang strode out of the prison gates, sighing deeply. "The body is still at the scene. Please come in with me."

Ji Yinhe and Lu Zheng followed the guards through the dark corridors of the provincial prison. Time seemed to have stood still here. The prisoners stared at the hurried police outside like zombies. Someone asked curiously, "I heard that Zhang San and Gong Xie escaped from prison to take revenge on society. Did they succeed?"

"It's none of your business!" Han Feiyang shouted and knocked on the iron fence with his baton.

Ji Yinhe was very calm. "If they succeed, they won't be sent back to prison."

“…” The prisoner retracted his head in boredom.

Turning a corner, at the door of the single cell, Ji Yinhe saw five or six prison guards and two prison doctors whispering in the corridor. When they saw them coming, they quickly made way for the corpse covered with white cloth lying on the ground in the middle.

"Old Han, there's no hope of saving him." The famous and experienced prison doctor shook his head.

Han Feiyang pounded the wall in frustration. "We just didn't keep an eye on him for one afternoon, and he committed suicide! How are we going to explain this to the police and the procuratorate?"

Ji Yinhe stared at the human figure outlined on the white cloth, feeling an indescribable discomfort in his heart.

...The person in front of her was very unfamiliar. It seemed that he was not the Zhang San who had fought with her at the Golden Ring Hotel late at night two days ago.

She took a deep breath and looked around. "Officer Han, Zhang San is a serious criminal, alone in a solitary cell, right? There aren't any dangerous items here. Are you sure it was suicide?"

"Yes," Han Feiyang said with a wry smile. "At the time, except for the patrol guards, everyone else was having lunch. The ordinary prisoners went to the cafeteria, and the solitary cells were the most important. Two colleagues and I came over to deliver lunch—a steamed bun with pickled mustard greens and minced meat. No cutlery was provided."

Lu Zheng asked: "How was Zhang San's condition at that time?"

"He seemed quite normal, sitting on the bed in a daze." Han Feiyang pointed at the two colleagues behind him. "The three of us can testify against each other. We all saw him finish the steamed buns and lock all three doors in the corridor before leaving... Oh, and there are surveillance cameras. If you're worried, you can go to the technical room."

Ji Yinhe nodded. It would be difficult to falsify information with surveillance, and everyone was a comrade in the same system and would not disgrace their duties as people's policemen.

Lu Zheng squatted down, reached out to lift the white cloth on the ground, and carefully observed Zhang San's body.

The person lying on the ground was pale, his lips had turned purple, and there was a deep mark on his neck.

Han Feiyang explained, "He probably took off his vest, tore it into strips, and hung it on the iron bars on the door, and hanged himself to death."

“…” Ji Yinhe took two steps closer and saw a creepy smile still hanging on the corner of Zhang San’s lips.

Lu Zheng put on gloves, twisted Zhang San's head and did a simple examination. He whispered, "The cord groove is located between the hyoid bone and the thyroid cartilage. The strangulation mark is deep in front and shallow in the back, and there is a hollow shape, which is consistent with suicide by hanging."

They exchanged a knowing look.

——The death penalty is already a foregone conclusion, why would he still commit suicide?

Ji Yinhe turned around and said, "Officer Han, could you please show me all of Zhang San's belongings?"

Han Feiyang responded and came back two minutes later with a small brown paper box.

In fact, Ji Yinhe and Lu Zheng had already checked it once when the prison break happened a month ago.

This time she looked at it carefully again. The clothes he wore when he was arrested and imprisoned were more than 20 years old. His family had not sent him anything over the years. The rest were clothes and simple daily necessities provided by the prison.

——There are no clues at all.

Comrade Xiao Ji returned the things to Han Feiyang, crossed her arms and frowned.

In fact, if you think about it carefully, Zhang San and Gong Xie escaped from prison together and committed three major bombings. With his natural integration into modern society, he doesn't look like a person who has been imprisoned for more than 20 years.

Even the reason for his escape from prison is strange and remains unexplained.

...Could it be him?

A vague guess suddenly arose in Ji Yinhe's mind.

A prison guard rushed over and whispered something in Han Feiyang's ear. Han Feiyang nodded and looked at the two detectives in front of him. "Zhang San's relatives are currently unavailable. We are going to send him to the funeral home and issue a notice. If no one claims him after a month, he will be cremated and buried in a centralized location."

Everyone found a cart and lifted Zhang San up together.

Ji Yinhe and Lu Zheng followed Han Feiyang and watched the prison guards push Zhang San's body out of the solitary cell. At this moment, the door of an interrogation room was pushed open, and two pre-trial police officers came out with Gong Xie, who was handcuffed and shackled.

A corner of the white cloth was blown up by the wind. Gong Xie stared at the face of the person on the cart and shouted, "Zhang San is dead?"

Han Feiyang frowned and waved his hand, asking the prison guard to take the man away quickly, but Ji Yinhe's eyes rolled and he suddenly had an idea.

"There's no need to hide it from you anyway." She looked him straight in the eye and said, "Yes, Zhang San is dead, and no one has claimed him. He's going to be sent to the funeral home for cremation."

"What?!" Gong Xie's expression collapsed in an instant as the guards simultaneously twisted his arms. "If the family doesn't claim the body, won't it be sent to the hospital for those students to practice swordplay?"

"Who told you that?" Han Feiyang glared, "We are not so inhumane..."

"...Zhang San." Gong Xie realized, "Zhang San lied to me! Instructor Han, do you know where my mother's body was sent?"

Han Feiyang scratched his forehead and said, "It happened a year ago, who still remembers it... Wait for me to call and ask!"

Two minutes later, he came back clutching his cell phone. "Don't worry, Wei Manli has been cremated and buried with other long-unclaimed ashes."

When Gong Xie heard this, he swayed a few times and fell to the ground with a bang.

"So it was all Zhang San who lied to me!" He burst into tears and snot. "Officer Ji, if I knew the government had buried my mother, I would never have followed him to escape from prison... I hate my father, my brother, and you, but I also know I'm no match for you. It was Zhang San who said my mother was thrown away like garbage that gave me the idea of ​​revenge against society..."

The two pre-trial police officers questioned Gong Xie for two whole days but couldn't get a single word out of him. They didn't expect that the secret would be revealed just like that.

They quickly took out their equipment to record, while Ji Yinhe sighed silently and exchanged a glance with Lu Zheng next to him.

It seems that the real situation is exactly as they described. Gong Xie was just a shield being driven forward, and Zhang San was the mastermind behind the whole case.

But now Zhang San has committed suicide, and nothing can be asked of him. His motives will eventually become a secret hidden behind his death, buried in the dust of time.

Ji Yinhe raised his eyes and stared at the prison yard outside the window. The prison guards had already carried the body covered with white cloth onto the prison van. He felt a mixture of emotions.

After handling so many cases, this was the first time she failed to find out the truth.

That night happened to be the weekend, so Tan Li gave the entire special criminal case investigation team a holiday and asked everyone to go home and have a good rest.

Ji Yinhe drove back to Jiangtan.

The night in Meiqingyuan was still bustling with people. Old Wu, Chen Ma and other neighbors were sitting under the big banyan tree. Comrade Lao Ji was holding the remote control and said that he wanted to show his wife and daughter the first episode of "Happy Camp". Comrade Xiao Ji was standing in the kitchen, helping Ms. Lian mix the cold dishes while talking about the outcome of the case.

"...So, I think Zhang San might be from another world, just like his parents!"

Lian Qiao frowned and said nothing.

"Even if he's not traveling through a book, he seems to be from the future!" Ji Yinhe said firmly, "Judging from his various behaviors, there's something wrong with him!"

Lian Qiao hummed, "It's not impossible."

"Right!" Ji Yinhe put down his chopsticks and clapped his hands. "That must be the case... But there's one thing I can't figure out. Zhang San was already in prison over 20 years ago. Did he already travel through the book at that time? Or was he a person from the future from the beginning?"

"Not necessarily." Ji Jianguo poked his head in during the interlude of "Happiness is the Brightest Star in the World." "He probably just put it on recently."

Ji Yinhe blinked, "Huh?"

Ji Jianguo walked into the kitchen to serve the dishes. "Well, actually, your mother and I came into this world in different ways. I came into the body of the original owner—Ji Jianguo in the book—before he entered the plot! To be honest, your father is much more handsome in the other world! At that time, I looked down on this boy who dressed like a bumpkin and had a bunch of vampire relatives behind him..."

"No wonder!" Comrade Xiao Ji suddenly realized, "So the reason your relationship with Grandpa and Uncle is so bad is because they're completely different people!"

"What are you saying? Could it be that I'm deliberately not getting along well with others?" Ji Jianguo said angrily, "They're just going too far!"

"That's right!" Comrade Xiao Ji naturally stood on his father's side. "Then how did Mom dress?"

"Oh, I was wearing one." Lian Qiao put the soup pot in the middle of the dining table and took off her apron. "I was working when I was suddenly sucked into a tunnel of glittering stars! It was like 'Interstellar'... Oh, you haven't seen that movie, it's still a decade away. Remember to go see 'Galaxy', it's amazing! Anyway, it was just a glittering tunnel, and I was so anxious that I kicked around in it, and it seemed like I had kicked something to pieces, and then I landed in this world."

This was the first time Ji Jianguo had heard such a detailed version of the story. He couldn't help but stare, "You're not in a hurry to wear it to work, are you?"

"...What's wrong with loving your job and being dedicated to it?" Lian Qiao raised her hand and slapped her husband on the head.

Comrade Xiao Ji began to imagine the scene described by his mother.

"——The star-studded tunnel sounds like the Milky Way!"

"Hey, you're right! I also think you look like the Milky Way, so when I was pregnant with you, I decided to name you Ji Yinhe." Lian Qiao clapped her hands, thanking the tunnel. After all, without it, your father and I wouldn't have met, and you wouldn't be here.

"..." Ji Yinhe rubbed her face and sat down at the dining table, "I thought this name was a metaphor for the two of you being the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, going through a difficult and unforgettable love journey!"

Ji Jianguo chuckled, "It's not complicated at all, it's simply because your mother was attracted by my beauty. Ouch, if you hit my head again, I'll stop growing hair!"

Lian Qiao withdrew her hand and motioned for Old Ji and Little Ji to drink the soup while it was still hot. "Yinhe, why don't you stay at home tonight? Your father and I have decided to give you a chance to interrogate us. If you have any questions, please tell us tonight."

Ji Yinhe, who was holding the bowl of rice, opened his mouth and made an "uh" sound.

——Lu Zheng was still in a nearby restaurant, eating beef noodles and waiting for her to return to Jingzhou together!

"Then...I'll call my colleague!"

She took out her mobile phone and quietly walked towards the bedroom. She heard Ms. Lian ask behind her:

"I heard from the Municipal Bureau that you and Teacher Lu are in a relationship?"