Shen Linpeng arrived quickly, not keeping Ruan Bei and the other person waiting for too long.
He was the captain of the city's criminal investigation team and had connections with people in various branches, so finding out about a robbery and assault case was not difficult for him.
Ruan Bei couldn't tell him about his own background, so Qin Gu was vague in his words, guiding Shen Linpeng to think about revenge by evil cultivators, and also told him about the ghost he had just encountered outside the police station.
Shen Linpeng had been with the two of them and had seen a lot of things. Hearing this, he didn't dare to take it lightly and asked his colleagues at the branch office for the record of the robbery case to read.
Since Ruan Bei is a family member of the victim, it is only right that he should learn about the situation.
According to the police file, this was just an ordinary robbery. They didn't even succeed, and the victim ended up beating them up by taking on two opponents.
The two robbers, one named Chen Baogen and the other Song Bo, were both thugs with criminal records. They had been arrested many times during crackdowns on prostitution, illegal publications, organized crime, and gambling, and had become familiar with the police.
They never committed any major crimes, so they were released after a short time in jail. They were as familiar with the police station as if it were their own home.
The policeman who brought the case file to Shen Linpeng introduced him to the man: "The one who was in charge of making decisions between the two is this Song Bo. His father was an old hoodlum. He was caught up in the crackdown back then and was executed. Song Bo's mother ran away, and he had no one to take care of him. He's been hanging around on the streets since he was a kid."
"This Chen Baogen is a coward, just a small fry. He was left to keep watch when his gang stole gasoline from someone's car."
Shen Linpeng quickly finished flipping through the case file and handed it to Qin Gu. Ruan Bei leaned over to look at it with him.
The statement clearly records that the police also asked them why they went to the old street so early in the morning and why they wanted to rob Ruan Licheng.
In his statement, Song Bo said that he was out of money and happened to hear that the shop owner had gone on vacation, so he tried to pry open the door to see if there was anything inside that he could sell. Unfortunately, he ran into the owner when he returned.
Although Yin Zhuo and Ruan Licheng were also two people, one was older and the other was a young man. Song Bo considered himself to be a street urchin who had never backed down from a fight. He figured he could rob these two first and then make them open the shop to see if there was anything he could take away to sell.
Who would have thought that kicking a steel plate would backfire? No, Yin Zhuo was an alloy steel plate, and he broke both of his feet.
Chen Baogen's statement was similar to his, except that he added "Brother Song said" before every reply, which made him seem particularly indecisive.
Ruan Bei wasn't in this line of work, and just looking at the statement, he couldn't really tell anything. It seemed to be just like the policeman had described—a typical robbery.
Qin Gu returned the case file and asked Shen Linpeng, "What do you think?"
Shen Linpeng tapped on the table and said to the policeman, "Could you bring me the case files of the two of them that they were involved in before?"
The policeman paused for a moment, then asked, "Is there a problem?"
Shen Linpeng smiled and said, "Although I haven't seen any clues, I have a feeling..."
He pointed to Chen Baogen's name: "This person is a bit strange."
"What do you mean?" Qin Gu also became interested and reviewed his notes again, but couldn't find any problems.
Shen Linpeng explained, "If he were really that timid and indecisive, would he dare to participate in these illegal activities time and time again? Is this place a place where a coward can come in again and again?"
If he was coerced, that's another matter, but although his statement was full of references to Song Bo, it was indeed true that he voluntarily went with Song Bo.
Upon hearing this, the young policeman suddenly realized what was going on and immediately ran to retrieve the case file.
When he brought over several files related to Chen Baogen, he also looked through them and indeed found some problems.
For example, in all gang crimes, Chen Baogen usually received the lightest punishment. At first, the young police officers thought it was because he was timid and not deeply involved, but if it happened every time, it would be very suspicious.
Moreover, it's quite remarkable that someone as unenthusiastic as him still received a fair share of the money and wasn't kicked out of the gang.
"Should I get someone to interrogate them again?" The young policeman felt like he'd been fooled after reviewing the case file.
Shen Linpeng wanted to help Ruan Bei and Qin Gu, so he offered, "Okay, I'll do the interrogation, is that alright?"
“Sure, why not? We couldn’t be happier. Everyone wants to learn from Captain Shen,” the young policeman said with a smile.
Shen Linpeng was laughing when he noticed Ruan Bei frowning and staring at a page of paper. Curious, he asked, "What are you looking at?"
Ruan Bei put down the file in his hand and pointed it out to them: "Doesn't Chen Baogen have another father?"
The page contained Chen Baogen's background information, with his father's name followed by parentheses (stepfather). Judging from his background, there seemed to be no problem. But what about his biological father?
"Let me inquire." The young policeman made a phone call and quickly received a reply.
He hung up the phone and explained to Ruan Bei and the others, "Chen Baogen does indeed have a biological father. His biological father's surname is Ma, and his name is Ma Chunsheng..."
Ruan Bei and Qin Gu exchanged a glance, and simultaneously thought of the same ghost: "Ma Chunhua!"
"Who is Ma Chunhua?" the young policeman asked curiously. "She sounds like a relative of Ma Chunsheng."
"Someone we know, we shouldn't have any connection," Qin Gu said casually. Shen Linpeng's eyes flickered, guessing that the Ma Chunhua he was referring to was probably a ghost.
"Xiao Lin, go and make arrangements for me to take Song Bo and Chen Baogen to the interrogation room. I'll be there right away."
"OK."
Shen Linpeng dismissed Officer Lin and waited until only the three of them were left in the office before asking, "Is that Ma Chunhua... that... you know?"
Ruan Bei nodded and muttered a complaint: "She's a girl with a bad personality."
Qin Gu sneered: "Girl? You're an old ghost of decades. Don't give her any face."
But Ma Chunhua looked like a young and beautiful girl. Ruan Bei was initially captivated by her face and took another look, which led to their subsequent interactions.
However, I dare not say these things to Kunkun, otherwise my own jealousy will boil over.
Ruan Bei thought for a moment and asked, "Then what you sensed outside the police station earlier, was it her?"
Qin Gu thought carefully for a moment: "It looks a bit like it, it should be. I'll be sure if I see it again."
“It’s most likely her.” Ruan Bei frowned and said, “Do you think it’s possible that Ma Chunhua orchestrated this, and that she wants to get revenge on me?”
Because he complained to Kunkun, Kunkun punished her, so she wanted to get revenge on him and hurt his father to make him sad.
Qin Gu couldn't help but chuckle and said, "It's not that I'm underestimating her, but with her skills, she's still so weak after all these years. Look at those guys in the eastern suburbs, aren't they all more successful than her? When I first came to her door, she was scared out of her wits. With that kind of courage, would she dare to retaliate?"
"Besides, even if she had a few more guts, if she wanted to cause trouble, there would have been plenty of opportunities when we weren't home during the summer vacation. Why did she have to wait until now?"
Ruan Bei thought about it and realized it was true.
Moreover, looking back on their brief interaction, he said that while he disliked Ma Chunhua, she didn't seem like the kind of person who was particularly evil or without any moral bottom line.
“Just thinking about it won’t do any good. Why don’t we ask Ma Chunhua?” Ruan Bei suggested.
Qin Gu touched the bridge of his nose, looking embarrassed: "I can't find her now."
The reason they were able to find Ma Chunhua back then was because they extracted a wisp of Yin energy that Ma Chunhua had slapped into Ruan Bei's arm. So much time has passed, that wisp of energy has long since dissipated. Ma Chunhua is deliberately avoiding them, so where is he supposed to find her?
"I see..." Ruan Bei was slightly disappointed for a moment, but then cheered up: "It's okay, I'll ask other ghosts. Ma Chunhua may be hiding from other ghosts, but she may not be hiding from us."
"We can give it a try," Qin Gu agreed with his idea.
After listening to their discussion, Shen Linpeng finally spoke up, saying, "Why don't we just ask Chen Baogen first?"
He's not good at finding ghosts, but he's exceptionally skilled at interrogating people.
Without further ado, Shen Linpeng went to interrogate Ruan Bei and Qin Gu, who were outsiders and could not participate; at most, they could only watch from the outside.
Shen Linpeng's professional skills are truly outstanding. He managed to uncover some new insights from what was originally classified as a simple robbery case.
Unexpectedly, he interrogated Song Bo first, asking him repeatedly where he had heard that the shop owner had gone on vacation and who had initially mentioned the shop to him.
He should have asked; once he did, Song Bo was completely bewildered.
Yeah, who told him that? He doesn't usually hang out in this area, so why would he suddenly want to steal from this store?
He thought for a while before hesitatingly saying, "It's Chen Baogen, isn't it? Yes, it's him!"
Song Bo said, "He said he wanted to treat me to dinner, saying that this restaurant's braised beef was absolutely amazing. I was starving and happily went with him, but it wasn't open!"
He was furious at the time, and Chen Baogen apologized to him with a smile, saying he would invite him to another place.
Before leaving, he insisted on asking the shop owner next door why that shop was closed and when the owner would be back, as he wanted to come over for a meal.
Then the shop owner next door said that the owner of this shop had gone on vacation.
"Later, I was short of money, so I thought I'd make some money to spend." Song Bo said casually, "So I went to Chen Baogen and asked him if he wanted to do it together. Chen Baogen said he was timid, so we should do something safer and try not to run into anyone."
The two of them spent most of the day discussing the idea and finally came up with this shop. They even came over to check it out.
Shen Linpeng asked, "Who suggested that we take action this morning?"
Song Bo answered quickly: "It was Chen Baogen. It's so cold, I didn't want to get up. He said there were fewer people in the morning, so we could steal the stuff and run away. I thought it would be difficult for me to carry the stuff by myself, so I agreed."
Not to mention Shen Linpeng, even Ruan Bei could tell that Chen Baogen was behind all of this.
Ruan Bei's usually smiling eyes turned frosty. This Chen Baogen was here for his father.
A hand reached out from the side, enveloped his tightly clenched fist, and gently shook it.
Ruan Bei glanced sideways, and Qin Gu said silently, "I'm here."
Shen Linpeng had Song Bo taken away and then brought Chen Baogen with him.
He was well-versed in the elements of interrogation. Just as Chen Baogen settled down, Shen Linpeng unexpectedly said, "Song Bo has already confessed that you planned this robbery. Tell me, what was your purpose? Who instructed you to do this?"
Chen Baogen was startled, his eyes flickered, and his lips trembled as he tried to refute.
Shen Linpeng didn't give him a chance to speak, and like a machine gun, he selectively poured out Song Bo's confession, every word of which proved that Chen Baogen was the mastermind.
Pressed for answers, Chen Baogen dared not deny it any longer and lowered his head in silence.
Outside the interrogation room, Ruan Bei quietly asked Qin Gu, "Can you tell if there's a problem?"
Qin Gu shook his head: "There are no traces."
Now we can only rely on Shen Linpeng; hopefully he can get Chen Baogen to talk.
Chen Baogen refused to speak, and Shen Linpeng didn't seem impatient. His gaze swept over Chen Baogen's yellowed fingers, and he slowly strolled out, took a cigarette, and leisurely blew smoke rings.
Chen Baogen swallowed hard, held back for a moment, but finally couldn't resist: "Can I have one too?"
Shen Linpeng sneered: "You're going to jail soon and you're still thinking about smoking? Forget it, quit now. You'll be in jail for ten or eight years this time, you'll have to quit whether you want to or not."
Chen Baogen's eyes widened suddenly: "You, you're not trying to scare me. I've been to jail before. I've stolen a few things, and I haven't even stolen anything yet. No, it's not that serious..."
"Stealing?" Shen Linpeng casually stubbed out his cigarette and sat back down in his chair. "You tell me, you're planning to rob someone outright, and you call that stealing? That's robbery!"
"Do you know how robbery is punished? It starts at three years. Robbery by breaking and entering is an aggravated offense, so it can be ten years or more. Did you rob someone's shop? That's breaking and entering. You'll get ten or eight years. It's not a bad deal."
Chen Baogen was stunned: "No, no, I didn't enter the house, it was at the door..."
"Isn't that entrance part of their shop area?" Of course not, but Shen Linpeng's serious demeanor was quite intimidating.
"I didn't get anything, and I even got beaten up." Chen Baogen was very anxious, holding up his handcuffed arm to show him: "I almost broke my arm, and I still didn't get any money."
Shen Linpeng said lazily, "Attempted robbery is still robbery, but they call it self-defense."
Chen Baogen: "..."
He was completely stunned.
Shen Linpeng sighed and said, "If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. It's only ten or eight years. How old are you now? In your thirties? It's okay, you'll only be in your forties or fifties when you get out. By the way, do you have a wife and children? If so, get a divorce as soon as possible. Don't delay your wife from getting married, and it's not good for your children to have a robber as their father."
If not, that's fine. If the person who instructed you pays enough, you can get married. I just don't know if you'll be able to have your own child at that age. If not, you can adopt one. You'll grow to love your child as you raise them.
But you have to consider inflation. Look at how much prices have risen now. Can you compare this to ten years ago? In another ten years, I wonder if your little bit of money will still be enough for you to get married and raise children.
Chen Baogen: "...I, I..."
How can he adopt? He can't adopt; he needs to have his own child!
"Officer, I've told you, can you reduce my sentence?" Chen Baogen thought, what's the use of having so much money? If he really stays in prison for ten or eight years, he'll be in his forties or fifties when he gets out. How will he have his own children then?
"That depends on what you tell us." The more Shen Linpeng said this, the less Chen Baogen dared to hide anything.
He spilled out everything he knew like water from a bamboo tube: "Someone suddenly called me and asked me to come up with a solution..."
"Why not come up with a plan?"
"Find a way to kill that shop owner..."
Shen Linpeng suddenly sat up straight, while the police officers watching outside the interrogation room were in an uproar. They never expected that a robbery case would lead to a murder.
Ruan Bei's face was as if it had been coated with ice, his eyes were cold and hard, revealing a rare ruthlessness, ready to explode at any moment.
Qin Gu held his hand silently, listening to Chen Baogen's account inside.
"I wouldn't dare, really, officer, you have to believe me. I'm just a petty thief, how could I dare to kill someone?" Chen Baogen shrank his neck and looked scared, but he didn't seem to be lying.
"But that person said I didn't need to do it myself. She told me to use my brain, to go and stake out the place more often, and to bring my brothers along. She said that if he lay there in this weather, he wouldn't be able to survive without someone to help him."
As Chen Baogen spoke, he secretly glanced at Shen Linpeng's face: "Really, I'm telling the truth. I didn't even bring a knife."
“But you let Song Bo take it,” Shen Linpeng said coldly.
"No, I didn't let him, he brought it himself..." Chen Baogen's voice trailed off.
"You know Song Bo has a habit of carrying a knife, so you approached him and encouraged him to steal from Ruan's shop, and then you just happened to run into Boss Ruan. What if you hadn't met him?"
Chen Baogen remained silent for a moment, then, under Shen Linpeng's intense gaze, whispered, "Then let's go tonight. I have other brothers..."
Shen Linpeng sneered: "Being your brother is really not easy."
Chen Baogen didn't dare to speak, and Shen Linpeng asked, "What kind of person was the one who called you?"
Chen Baogen recalled for a moment and said, "I couldn't tell if he was male or female. He must have used some kind of voice-changing device. His voice sounded really strange."
"How did you contact each other? How much money did that person give you? How did they give it to you?"
“He called me, but I couldn’t get through to him. He wouldn’t let me contact him either. He made me delete all the call logs on my phone, but I still remember his number.”
Chen Baogen gave Shen Linpeng a phone number, which Shen Linpeng wrote down. Chen Baogen continued, "He gave me 100,000 yuan, saying he would give me another 100,000 yuan after the deal was done. He put the 100,000 yuan in a trash can and called me to pick it up."
Ruan Bei trembled with hatred. Two hundred thousand? His father's life was only worth two hundred thousand.
Qin Gu pulled him into a half-hug embrace and gently comforted him, "It's alright, Xiao Bei is alright, Dad is fine, we will find the mastermind behind this."
Chen Baogen added some more information about the person who hired the hitman, but it wasn't anything crucial and was pretty useless.
Shen Linpeng wrote everything down. After he came out, the police immediately took action. This was no longer an ordinary robbery.
As a family member of the victim, Ruan Beishun took a statement, mainly asking him if his father had any enemies.
Ruan Bei thought that his father didn't have any enemies. His father was a good person all his life. If someone really hated him so much that they wanted to kill him, it was most likely that they were after him. He was the one who implicated his father.
After giving their statements, the three left the police station. Shen Linpeng saw that Ruan Bei looked deeply shocked, so he didn't ask any more questions. In the end, he could only say, "If you need anything from me, just let me know."
"Thank you so much for today, Officer Shen." Ruan Bei bowed to Shen Linpeng. He had really helped a lot today. If he had relied on himself, he might not have been able to discover Chen Baogen's suspicious behavior and get him to talk.
"Hey, stop being so polite. You've all helped me a lot." Shen Linpeng waved his hand dismissively.
Qin Gu put his arm around Ruan Bei and said on his behalf, "If you need anything in the future, don't hesitate to ask us for help."
This time, I truly owe Shen Linpeng a favor.
Shen Linpeng laughed: "Then I won't lose out."
Ruan Bei forced a smile, exchanged a few more polite words, and saw Shen Linpeng off.
After he left, Ruan Bei immediately stopped smiling, her expression panicked: "Kun Kun, tell me, who exactly wants my dad to die?"
After saying that, without waiting for Qin Gu's reply, he continued to mutter to himself, "Counting both my past and present lives, the only person I've ever really clashed with is him, Lu Sibai..."
“But I don’t understand.” Ruan Bei covered her face helplessly. “I never suspected that Dad’s accident was related to him, because I can’t imagine how he could be so heartless as to do such a thing, even if he knew his own identity and that he was switched at birth. He’s his biological father!”
Lu Sibai can disown Ruan's father and mother, and he can refuse to visit Ruan's mother even when she is hospitalized. Ruan Bei can comfort himself by saying that he was switched at birth and has no feelings for his parents.
But what child could be so heartless as to kill their parents?
If it were parents like Wang Bufan, then so be it; they wouldn't deserve to be parents.
But his parents are such good people, so good that even if they knew the child was switched at birth, if Lu Sibai insisted on not coming back, they wouldn't blame him. Instead, they would feel guilty for not being able to give their child a better life.
Qin Gu pulled Ruan Bei into his arms and gently patted and coaxed her: "This is not your fault, nor is it your parents' fault. We should not examine ourselves first just because bad people want to do bad things."
He paused, then continued, "Xiao Bei, look, everything has changed since you were reborn. Your parents are both fine, and we know that someone wants to harm them. All we need to do now is find out who's behind it all."
Ruan Bei wiped his face and nodded vigorously: "You're right, things are getting better. This time I will protect Mom and Dad and I will never let anything happen to them again."
"And me too." Qin Gu teased him deliberately, "I call them Mom and Dad too, so you can't exclude me."
Ruan Bei burst into laughter through her tears, grabbed his hand and shook it: "Yes, let's do it together."
After speaking openly, Ruan Bei felt as if most of the shackles in his heart had been loosened. He was no longer the Ruan Bei who was ignorant and powerless in his previous life. No matter what kind of demons or monsters wanted to harm his family, he dared to draw his sword and kill them.
Because the robbery suddenly turned into murder, the police estimated that they would have to go to the hospital to take a statement from Mr. Ruan again. Ruan Bei first called his mother and briefly explained the situation.
Mrs. Ruan was startled, but after Ruan Bei repeatedly assured her that everything was alright, she finally felt relieved.
Ruan Bei had to go to the hospital to stay with his father that night. The hospital where his father was hospitalized was quite far from the school, but relatively close to his home. He planned to go home first to pack some things his father would need for hospitalization.
I only had one long Mao Zedong Thought class this afternoon, so I skipped it.
He called Bai Miaomiao to ask her to answer the call for him, and also mentioned his sister's situation.
Bai Miaomiao was indeed indignant, and you could hear him patting his chest on the phone: "No problem, leave it to me. How dare she bully our sister? I'll teach that parasite a lesson!"
After hanging up the phone, Ruan Bei and Qin Gu went home first.
A few hours earlier, Lu Siyuan, after leaving school, drove straight home.
When he entered the room, he saw Lu Sibai sitting on the sofa in the living room, holding his phone and looking at something.
The scene seemed familiar. Lu Siyuan was momentarily dazed, then suddenly asked, "What are you looking at?"
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