Chapter 40 Chapter 40 (Updated on June 28th) Peaceful...
"...the blood type matches, but the range is too wide. There are so many type AB people, so I can't pinpoint Lin Fei."
Back at the Municipal Bureau, Ji Yinhe handed the file box to Tang Ci and sighed in distress, "When will DNA technology be developed and expanded?"
"I'll discuss the situation with Cui Bin and the others." Tang Ci took a few steps toward the door. He caught a glimpse of the dark circles under her eyes and suppressed the urge to offer more concern. "Let's find a place to rest for a while."
"It's okay, I'm not sleepy!" Ji Yinhe patted his chest stubbornly, "I can still--"
Then he couldn't help yawning.
A rich aroma wafted from a corner of the office. Lu Zheng walked over and handed her a cup of dark brown liquid.
"What is this? Chocolate?" Comrade Xiao Ji took it and took a sip curiously. The bitterness made him frown. "This ash-water-like thing, could it be coffee?"
Lu Zheng weighed the coffee beans beside him. "Yes, these dark roasted beans are rare in Jiangtan. Most of what's on the market is instant coffee powder with coffee creamer... When I was abroad, I often drank this kind of hand-ground coffee to stay awake. This method is called American coffee. If you add some ice cubes, it will be even more refreshing."
After hearing what he said, Ji Yinhe pinched his nose and took a few more sips.
After getting used to this sour, bitter and astringent taste, I still feel weird about it.
After drinking a cup, I felt much better and stopped yawning.
"Thank you, Teacher Lu!" She happily washed the cup and returned it to Lu Zheng, then stood in front of the blackboard in high spirits to sort out her thoughts.
The door creaked open, and Xiao Wu and Cheng Mo, who had gone to check on Lin Fei, came back exhausted.
Cheng Mo glanced into the inner room, "Where's Captain Tang?"
Ji Yinhe replied: "I went to see Director Rao. How are things going over there?"
"I've asked everywhere: the port, the train station, the bus station, the airport, even people back home... but no one's seen her." Xiao Wu gulped down the water from his teacup. "Either she took bus No. 11 to get out of Jiangtan, or she's just like Qi Hang—"
He tilted his head, stuck out his tongue and made a gesture of wiping his neck.
Ji Yinhe took a deep breath and turned to face the blackboard.
This result is not surprising.
But as the old saying goes, "If he's alive, I want to see him; if he's dead, I want to see his body."
Lin Fei can't be found, but even if he's dead, there should be a body, right?
Is it buried in some unknown corner deep at the bottom of the river?
Her eyes fell on Qi Hang's name again.
Why was he drowned in the river instead of being buried or destroyed in other ways?
Simply because the first scene was by the river?
Ji Yinhe's pupils moved slightly to the "Jetta" next to him, and suddenly constricted!
Because... in addition to other people, the murderer also has to get rid of this car, and the vehicle scrapping plant in Jiangtan City is far away on the other side of the city. Sinking the car into the river is the best and only way!
"Lin Fei, Lin Fei..." Ji Yinhe came back to his senses, muttering the name softly, recalling everything about her.
"...my brother's ex-girlfriend, who was also a salesperson employed by the ceramics factory..."
"There are so many people in the company, especially since she's still at the grassroots level, it's normal that she doesn't know them..."
"She ran away too, she ran away a long time ago..."
A salesperson who went deep into the grassroots of a ceramic factory and often went in and out of the warehouse and kiln workshop, so the best way to deal with her body was -
Ji Yinhe's eyelids twitched suddenly, and the noisy office seemed to stand still for half a second.
The answer emerged from deep within my heart.
"...burned." Ji Yinhe turned around with a cold expression, staring at everyone in the office and Tang Ci who had just walked in, and repeated in a terrifyingly soft voice:
"I think if the murderer was Wei Manli, Lin Fei's body might have been sent to the kiln and burned."
*
"Cheng Mo, check how many kiln workshops Chenggong Porcelain has in the suburbs of Jiangtan City, especially the ones that make bone china! Also, where is Wei Manli's former lover now?"
"Xiao Wu, prepare the car, contact the traffic police to clear the way, and tell the police station to keep a close eye on Jinghu Villa and prohibit Gong Chenggong and Wei Manli from leaving!"
"Teacher Lu, please call Ye Qing and all the other forensic doctors who don't have urgent work to do, and bring your tools and go out!"
Tang Ci strode in, assigned tasks to everyone on standby in the office, and finally walked to Ji Yinhe.
"Director Rao has agreed to this operation, but we still have no idea where to start. There are so many workshops, and each workshop has so many kilns. Where should we start?"
At this moment, a huge map of Jiangtan City was spread out on the desk in front of everyone. Each kiln workshop was circled by Cheng Mo with a red pen, which was very eye-catching.
Ji Yinhe's finger slowly moved across the map, connecting Chenggong Ceramics, Jinghu Villa and Rongshu Lane, and then drew a line in the center leading to Qingyi River.
Finally, she pressed her fingertips hard on the workshop along the line.
"I think we can start our investigation from this place - the third kiln workshop."
"Xiao Wu, quickly contact the local police station!" Tang Ci looked at Lu Zheng, who was walking quickly with a large booklet in his arms, and asked with a frown, "Any new evidence?"
"This is the 1994 yearbook I brought back from Chenggong Ceramics today. It was also the last year before the ceramic factory's transformation." Lu Zheng handed the book to Tang Ci, motioning him to look at the group photo on it, and pointed at one of the faces.
"This is the director of the third kiln workshop. Does he look familiar to you?"
Xiao Wu stretched his head to take a look and exclaimed, "This guy looks exactly like Gong Xie!"
Ji Yinhe walked to the window with the yearbook in his hand, and stared at the man's wrist in the midday sun.
"He's also wearing a Swiss Rolex, with a round silver dial and a dark black leather strap!" She turned around and quickly fished out the blood-stained watch from the evidence box. "Look! It's a couple's watch!"
Several people present immediately shouted—
"Wow! The accomplice has been identified!" "It was effortless!" "They all match up!"
"...Could this workshop director be Wei Manli's lover?" Xiao Wu's eyes widened in realization. "Then this woman is incredibly bold. She actually arranged for him to be right under Gong Chenggong's nose!"
"This is what they call the darkest place under the lamp!" Tang Ci patted his apprentice's shoulder and shouted excitedly, "Move out!"
*
Jinghu Villa, in front of the Gong family villa.
"Sir, we're home." The driver, Lao Zhao, pulled the handbrake, turned around from the driver's seat, and softly called Gong Chenggong who was sleeping in the back seat.
“Hmm—”
Gong Chenggong woke up from a short and drowsy dream and pressed his solar plexus.
Maybe because he met Ji Jianguo’s daughter the night before, he just dreamed of the days when he was young and worked hard with Old Ji and Tianxin.
But why is there no one around me now?
Gong Chenggong looked at the luxurious villa outside the car window, lost in thought.
He opened the car door and was about to get out when Old Zhao stammered and called out "Mr. Gong".
"What?" Gong Chenggong stopped.
"...I have something to tell you." Old Zhao seemed to have mustered up his courage. "I heard the police came to our house in the middle of the night and asked about the case... The deceased's name was Qi Hang. Is that true?"
"Yes." Gong Chenggong raised his gold-rimmed glasses with his fingers. "What exactly do you want to tell me?"
Old Zhao didn't say anything, opened the armrest box, took out a work ID and handed it over with both hands.
"I found it a few days ago when I was washing my wife's imported Crown." Old Zhao's eyes dodged. "It's Qi Hang's ID card at Feixun... I heard from my old friends who work long-distance at the transportation company that they never leave this ID card behind..."
Gong Chenggong took the ID and stared at the handsome man on it for a long time before slamming the car door.
"Manli, it turned out to be you..." He sneered softly, then raised his eyes and stared at Lao Zhao, "Don't tell anyone about this... I'll handle it."
"yes……"
Gong successfully opened the door of the villa. Wei Manli was in a corner of the living room, praying anxiously to the small Buddha statue on the alcove.
"Amitabha, please bless my son to escape this disaster..."
Gong Chenggong walked over with an expressionless face.
"You're back? So early?" Wei Manli glanced at him, "Why aren't you talking? You look so eerie and scary!"
Gong Chenggong slowly raised his hand and showed her his work ID.
When Wei Manli saw Qi Hang's name clearly, her whole body was shocked and she fell to the ground.
"Honey, where did you get this?"
"Manli, I'm so disappointed in you." Gong Chenggong's shoulders trembled, and he shed Long Aotian's precious tears. "I trusted you so much and loved you so much. I even raised Gong Xie, who wasn't my son, for so many years... Why did you kill someone?"
Wei Manli was stunned for a few seconds, then got up from the ground with a sneer.
"Trust me? Love me?" She glared at her husband. "You obviously only married me because you were lustful! Wu Tianxin is dead, and you just needed a woman to relieve your loneliness!"
"I... I was so blind!" Gong Chenggong was furious. "You, you touched my weak spot! I'm going to send you and your stupid son to the police!"
Wei Manli yelled, she grabbed the crocodile leather handbag on the coffee table, and hit Gong Chenggong several times with the hard bottom of the bag.
Gong Chenggong stretched out her hand to block her fierce attack, but unexpectedly the diamond wedding ring on her left ring finger cut a huge wound on her forehead.
With a "puff", blood gushed out violently, covering Wei Manli's face.
"...Ah, Manli! I'm sorry, I didn't mean it! You know I don't hit women!" Gong Chenggong quickly covered her wound with his hand and apologized for his mistake.
"——Dad! Aunt Wei!"
Gong He, who was reading documents in the study on the second floor, heard the noise and ran down the stairs in panic, trying to separate the two people fighting on the ground.
Wei Manli was about to slap Gong Chenggong, but ended up hitting Gong He hard on the cheek.
"Son!" Gong Chenggong shouted in pain.
"Get out! I've seen through your family, you're all so hypocritical!" Wei Manli sneered and kicked Gong Chenggong on the shoulder. Then she crawled to the corner with her bloody hands and grabbed the blue and white porcelain vase on the antique shelf.
"Don't come over here!" She wiped her tears with one hand and raised the vase high above her head with the other. "If you come over here again, I'll kill myself! Anyway, I can't live anymore, and I don't want to live anymore..."
"Manli!" "Aunt Wei!"
The father and son of the Gong family rushed forward together, trying to snatch the heavy porcelain from her hands.
At this moment, the door was kicked open with a bang, and dozens of police officers, armed with police weapons, rushed in like a tide.
"Freeze! Police!"
"Put your hands up!"
"Wei Manli, put the vase down!"
…
Ten minutes later.
The interlaced red and blue lights reflected on the fountain at the entrance of the villa that never stopped flowing.
Uniformed police officers came in and out, cordoning off the scene with hemp rope.
Professor Cao proudly showed off his Seagull camera to his neighbor, "I told you, this family is no good, especially this woman!"
"Tsk, why is there so much blood!"
"Fighting or killing?"
"I heard it happened last night? I didn't even know!"
"I fell asleep too... This police officer has a very hard time!"
"Please move aside, onlookers! Stop taking pictures!"
Ji Yinhe cleared the area in front of the villa with an expressionless face, and at the same time, he calmly pulled out the lens of Professor Cao's camera and stuffed it into his bulging backpack.
Sure enough, after walking a few steps, I saw Professor Cao looking for something anxiously, and he didn't care about the suspect who was brought out.
Tang Ci and Cheng Mo, one in front and one behind, personally escorted the handcuffed Wei Manli out of the villa.
They wanted to get the person into the car as quickly as possible, but Wei Manli stopped, looked at the setting sun, and shouted, "Wait."
"Officer, can you let me take another look at the autumn sunset?"
She smiled slightly and raised her hand to lift the hair on her cheek.
A bright red tear of blood slowly flowed down that fair and beautiful cheek, looking shocking.
"Half a minute." Tang Ci looked at his watch.
Wei Manli stood quietly by the shimmering Mirror Lake, but Gong Chenggong chased out with his hands covering his shoulder and a look of pain on his face.
"Manli! Manli!"
Wei Manli closed her eyes, her bloody face sank into the sunset, as if she hadn't heard anything at all.
Gong Chenggong was still moving forward, but Ji Yinhe and Xiao Wu immediately stopped him.
Gong Chenggong turned to look at Ji Yinhe, "Can you tell me what evidence you found, so that I can help her hire a lawyer -"
"We found Lin Fei's work ID, clothes, wallet, and a jar of ashes hidden by the workshop director in your company's third kiln workshop."
"The third workshop..."
Gong Chenggong was stunned for a moment, two faces overlapping in his mind. He took a few steps back with sudden realization, "So that person is Ah Xie's..."
"Mr. Palace, goodbye."
Ji Yinhe nodded slightly, turned around and followed the police into the police car.
In fact, she didn't expect everything to go so smoothly.
According to the director of the third kiln workshop, who was also Wei Manli's lover, Wei Manli had religious beliefs and felt that she had done something wrong. She was ready to pray for Lin Fei's soul to be reborn, so she did not destroy everything. Instead, she left behind physical evidence that was sufficient to convict her.
As for why Qi Hang was put into the trunk and sunk into the river, it was because the incident happened suddenly and they had to sink it into the river first.
They had originally planned to find a dark and windy night to have someone retrieve the car and put Qi Hang's body into the kiln for cremation.
However, no one expected that there were sand mining machines working in the middle of the night in that river area. After a few days, Qi Hang was dug out along with his car.
On the way back, everyone was silent.
It was the time when the lights were just coming on, and the street lights stretched one after another to the end of the dim and gloomy horizon.
Ji Yinhe leaned his head against the car window, silently gazing at the dusk in the distance.
After working all night for several days in a row, she felt exhausted.
But she still wanted to know why Wei Manli killed Lin Fei and Qi Hang.
How could a person with faith do such evil things that are so harmful to the world and could send him to hell?
*
"—Of course it's for my son, Gong Xie."
The interrogation room was lit with glaring white lights. Wei Manli sat behind the interrogation table, sneering in despair.
This is the third major case Ji Yinhe has investigated since joining the Serious Crime Squad.
However, this was also the first time that I encountered a suspect who cooperated so well with Wei Manli.
Ji Yinhe took a wet towel and helped her wipe the blood off her face.
Hearing that her son was imprisoned next door, she calmly and frantically told her story:
Gong Xie's biological father is indeed not Gong Chenggong. Back then, she coveted the Gong family's money, abandoned her boyfriend, and slept with the young and handsome richest man in Jiangtan who had just lost his wife with the secret of her pregnancy.
Her subsequent life was just as she expected - she successfully entered the Gong family with a pregnancy test sheet and became the wife of the richest man. Later, she was kind enough to place her ex-boyfriend in a ceramic factory, solving his livelihood problems.
Life went too smoothly. Occasionally, in the middle of the night, she would dream of a woman in white clothes and long hair standing in the dark, staring at her silently.
Wei Manli felt that she had done something wrong and felt sorry for Gong Chenggong, so she often went to a nearby temple to burn incense and offer sacrifices.
Later, he simply brought a Buddha statue into the house and prayed every day for peace and tranquility in the Gong family, that Gong Xie would be more successful than his elder brother Gong He, and that Wu Tianxin would never appear in his dreams again.
Unfortunately, her prayers were not answered at first.
On the day when the incident happened at Gonghe Horse Farm, Wei Manli not only discovered that Gong Xie was being instigated by his bad friends, but also found a bag of drugs in his hand.
At first she comforted herself that even if he became addicted, with the financial resources of the Gong family, they could afford to support him for the rest of his life.
But later she discovered that her only and most beloved son was still dealing drugs!
"At that time, I just thought that if I could help him first and get rid of the people around him who were helping him with drug trafficking, maybe he would stop..."
Wei Manli stared at a scratch on the table and muttered, "Ah Xie often went out in the middle of the night. I followed him to the old warehouse in Rongshu Lane and found him and Lin Fei transporting goods together. I hid in the car and waited for him to leave. Then I went in, knocked Lin Fei unconscious, and took him to the third workshop to deal with him."
Tang Ci, the presiding judge, narrowed his eyes. "Did you kill Lin Fei then? Tell me the details."
"There's nothing much to say. I was the one who did it both times. It has nothing to do with anyone else."
Wei Manli swallowed for a while, the muscles on her neck jumped out, and her unfocused pupils seemed to have returned to that dark night, with the girl's slender neck, bulging eyeballs and the flames from the kiln around her.
"...The girl was very thin, like a kitten. I asked her how she wanted to die, and she said she wanted her body intact. I used a little force and strangled her to death, then threw her into the kiln."
She spoke such cruel words in a calm and indifferent tone, shocking everyone present.
"Because you suspect she's corrupting your son?" Tang Ci took a deep breath and asked, "Maybe Gong Xie was the one who dragged her into this?"
"I don't care about so many things. I just know that the bad things done to Ah Xie must be eliminated." Wei Manli shrugged. "The Buddha said, if I don't go to hell, who will? I'll be the evildoer and that's it."
The interrogation room was silent for a long time.
With a click, Tang Ci changed the tape and said, "Tell me about Qi Hang."
"——Qi Hang, huh." Wei Manli's eyes flashed with undisguised malice, "He's even more despicable than Lin Fei. A dirty, stinking boy from the countryside, actually wants to climb into my son's bed!"
Ji Yinhe thought back to Qi Hang's snow-white and clean room, and thought that the real dirty thing might be someone else.
Tang Ci knocked on the table and said, "Get to the point!"
Wei Manli closed her eyes. "Last Monday night, I saw him driving Ah Xie home. He even took advantage of the dark, windy, and hot night to stay for a while... I learned from Lin Fei that they deliver goods every Wednesday, so last Wednesday afternoon, I took my lover, the director of the third workshop, and his dog and went directly to the Rongshu Lane warehouse. The original plan was to do the same as when we dealt with Lin Fei - knock him out in the warehouse first, then take him to the third workshop to destroy the body. But Qi Hang is more cautious than Lin Fei. He locked the door as soon as he entered the warehouse, so we could only wait outside for him to come out."
Tang Ci nodded. "So you waited until late at night and chased his car all the way out of the city to the river?"
"Almost." Wei Manli rubbed her fingers. "He spotted my car just as we were leaving the city and cleverly got rid of us. But that small road led directly to Dengzhou after turning onto the county road. There were no other forks along the way, so we took advantage of him stopping to refuel and overtook us and waited in front of us. That's how we stopped him."
"You guys are really angry, right?" Ji Yinhe couldn't help asking, "That's why you took such a cruel approach—sinking the car into the river before he died."
Wei Manli gave a smile that was so innocent that it was almost scary.
"You are Old Ji's daughter, am I right?"
Ji Yinhe nodded.
"You're just like your father, always assuming the worst of others..." Wei Manli sighed softly, "I'm not doing this to vent my anger, nor because he's a homosexual who led my son astray... I'm doing this for his own good. He needs to suffer enough and cleanse himself of the filth so he can enter the cycle of reincarnation with a clean heart!"
Everyone: “…”
"What happened after we stopped the car?" Tang Ci said amidst the silence. "Tell me the details of how Qi Hang was killed. He had a blunt force wound to his head. Did you all do it together, or just you?"
"I didn't want to use force. I wanted to tie him up and put him in the car, but he was too stubborn. He didn't obey even after a few beatings. He even broke free from the snakeskin bag and ran away when we weren't paying attention."
Wei Manli's voice became hoarse and sharp as she spoke more. "The forest by the river is vast and desolate. Luckily, my lover brought a dog with him. It didn't take long for us to find him hiding behind a tree, so I hit him a few times... I just picked up a rock and threw it into the river after he fainted. If I hadn't been unlucky and encountered a sand mining team, the Jetta would have sunk to the bottom of the river for decades and you wouldn't have found it..."
"..." Ji Yinhe narrowed his eyes, "This may be the reward for your daily vegetarianism and Buddhist practice."
"Bang—"
The crisp clatter of the iron chain echoed in the room. Wei Manli leaned forward in disbelief. "What did I do wrong? I was only thinking about my child—"
"This is the confession Team Three obtained from interrogating Gong Xie today."
Ji Yinhe turned his wrist, flipped the notebook in front of him 180 degrees, and pushed it to the opposite side.
Wei Manli stared at the black words on the paper and the fingerprint in the lower right corner that she would never mistake as belonging to Gong Xie, and took a breath.
"How, how could this be..."
"You read that correctly. Gong Xie was living a life of debauchery and was deliberately approached by someone, becoming addicted to drugs. He later followed his 'upper line' into the drug trafficking network. To expand his supply chain, he even developed a group of 'lower lines' in Jiangtan... Of course, we won't let this gang go. The third team responsible for drug control is now fully engaged in tracking them."
Ji Yinhe took a breath and continued, "Speaking of Lin Fei and Qi Hang, they were both quite innocent. They were dragged into this by your son's emotional manipulation... Using porcelain to transport the drugs might have been Lin Fei's idea. She wasn't that innocent, but Qi Hang didn't even know what the goods he had delivered were until his death."
"That's impossible!" Wei Manli's chin trembled as she raised her hand and pushed the confession book away. "My child used to be so well-behaved and good... Who led him astray?"
"Ms. Wei, every one of us in this world will encounter both good and bad things. It's just a matter of probability." Ji Yinhe crossed his arms. "It was Gong Xie's dissolute life that attracted the attention of the bad guys. It was he who couldn't resist the temptation and embarked on the road of crime..."
"..." Wei Manli leaned against the back of the chair in despair, "Is it my fault that I didn't teach him well? I love him so much..."
Ji Yinhe crossed his fingers and asked in confusion, "You always say you love your son, so why didn't you come forward and confess when we went to your house last night and suggested that Gong Xie be suspected of murder?"
Wei Manli closed her eyes, lowered her head and signed the confession book with her finger, unwilling to say another word.
"Let's stop here." Tang Ci stood up and pressed his Jingming acupoint. He said to Ji Yinhe, who was still sitting behind the interrogation table, and Cheng Mo and Xiao Wu, who were listening in the back, "This is enough to convict him. Everyone go back and have a good rest."
"yes……"
The people inside and outside the room slowly dispersed. Ji Yinhe took a last look at Wei Manli, who remained silent, then stood up and walked to the door.
At this moment, the woman raised her tearful eyes and murmured softly:
"Because you will eventually find out that my son's hands are innocent..."
Then, with a loud bang, she suddenly bent her back and used inertia to slam her already wounded head against the table.
"Someone come quickly!" Ji Yinhe's eyebrows jumped and he rushed forward with a roar.
But the door was still several steps away from the interrogation table. During this gap, a voice was heard again in the interrogation room -
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
Blood dripped down the interrogation table like a crimson spring.
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