On the other side, the detectives were still working tirelessly on Ye Jian's case. Although the investigation hadn't yielded any breakthrough results yet, Li Feng's interrogation had unexpectedly brought to light the disappearance of Deputy Director Lu Zheng. In the interrogation room, Zhang Yi'ang, Wang Ruijun, Song Xing, and others sat together with grave expressions, collectively staring at Li Feng, who was handcuffed to a chair across from them. They had just received an extremely sudden piece of intelligence.
The reason Li Feng had so many murders on his hands initially stemmed entirely from his wife, Jiang Ying.
He and Jiang Ying had grown up in the same village. Jiang Ying was a year younger than him, and they had been childhood sweethearts. When Jiang Ying was sixteen, she was raped by a cousin in the village, who was a local bully. Jiang Ying's parents were threatened by his family and dared not speak out. When Li Feng found out, he went to settle the score, but in the ensuing fight, he accidentally killed the man and was sentenced to twelve years in prison. After his release, Li Feng sought out Jiang Ying, only to discover she had already married. Her husband, far from sympathizing with her past trauma, instead abused her and later forced her into prostitution. Enraged, Li Feng decided to go all the way and killed Jiang Ying's husband and his entire family. He was caught on the spot by villagers and handed over to the local police station.
This was a major case, and the police station immediately notified higher authorities. But before reinforcements could arrive, that very night, Li Feng took advantage of a moment of inattention to injure the officer guarding him, seized a gun, and escaped. He took Jiang Ying with him, and from then on, they were on the run.
He sustained himself through theft and robbery, during which he killed several innocent people. He drifted from place to place committing crimes, eventually hiding in Three Rivers Estuary. It was said someone had hired him to kill someone there, but the job fell through, so he stayed temporarily.
"You previously stated that you came to Three Rivers Estuary because someone hired you to kill someone, but you discovered the target was a police officer, so you didn’t go through with it. Is that correct?" Song Xing asked.
Li Feng's expression remained indifferent. Ever since his arrest, he had been like this—neither resisting the authorities nor showing any signs of panic. He knew he was facing the death penalty and had been cooperative in recounting the events, insisting that everything was his doing and that his wife Jiang Ying was completely uninvolved, pleading with the police to spare her.
"Yes, it was Xiao Fei who approached me. Xiao Fei was someone I knew from my time in prison—you can check. Later, after I had multiple murders on my hands and fled to Jiangsu, I ran into him on the road by chance. I initially planned to kill him to silence him, but he treated my wife and me to a meal and even gave me two thousand yuan as escape money, so I couldn’t bring myself to do it. After drinking that day, he told me someone had hired him to kill a person in Three Rivers Estuary for a million yuan. He had never killed anyone before and was willing to split it fifty-fifty with me if I did it, so I agreed. It wasn’t until I arrived in Three Rivers Estuary that I realized the target was an old police officer, and a high-ranking one at that. Killing him would cause a huge uproar. My wife absolutely refused to let me go through with it. As for me, I thought about how young our child was and how much money we’d need in the future. Even if I got caught after this job, at least I’d leave them some money. So I told Xiao Fei that killing a cop would require two million from the employer, with half paid upfront as a deposit. A few days later, I never saw Xiao Fei again. My wife and I were tired of running after all these years, so we decided to settle down in Three Rivers Estuary and opened a small shop."
Song Xing took out a photo of Lu Zheng and asked, "Was this the police officer you were supposed to kill?"
"Yes, that’s him. I remember his surname was Lu."
"Lu Zheng?"
"That’s the name.""Then who killed Lu Zheng later?"
"Lu Zheng was killed by someone else? I wasn't involved, I don't know. But I don't think it was Xiao Fei—that kid doesn't have the guts. Maybe the employer hired more than just him."
"Are you sure you didn't kill Lu Zheng?"
Li Feng smiled faintly. "Boss, why would I lie to you? The crimes I've committed before are enough to get me executed ten times over. If I did it, I'd admit it."
"Where did Xiao Fei go?"
"I don't know. I didn't trust him enough to let him keep my phone number. We agreed to meet at a certain intersection every night at seven to stay in touch, but after that, I went there for many days in a row and never saw him again. I think maybe after he told the employer about the two million, the employer thought he was unreliable and killed him to silence him."
"Do you know who the employer is?"
Li Feng shook his head. "Xiao Fei wouldn't say. He was probably afraid I'd go straight to the employer and take the whole job. There are rules in this line of work, so I didn't press him for details."
After interrogating Li Feng, Zhang Yi'ang hurried back to his office and called a meeting with several key team members.
Everyone agreed that Director Lu must have been murdered.
Lu Zheng had been missing for so long that physical evidence was surely gone by now. The only lead was a witness—the person called "Xiao Fei." Xiao Fei had served time in prison with Li Feng, so his identity would be easy to verify. The only concern was that, as Li Feng speculated, Xiao Fei might have been killed by the employer to silence him, which would completely cut off this lead.
The key to uncovering the truth behind Lu Zheng's disappearance now lay in finding Xiao Fei, but whether they could find him was up to fate.
After much discussion, the team shifted their focus back to the Ye Jian case.
In the small city of Three Rivers Estuary, two important detectives had been killed within six months. Statistically, this couldn't be a coincidence—there must be some connection between the two cases.
Zhang Yi'ang asked everyone to summarize their investigations over the past few days to determine the next steps.
Forensic Doctor Chen had made no progress. They only knew that Ye Jian had been hit by a car before being stabbed, but the inconsistent directions of the knife wounds remained a mystery. Zhang Yi'ang had sent people to press for updates several times, but Forensic Doctor Chen always dismissed them: "I've been a medical examiner for over twenty years. If I can't figure it out, who can? Stop rushing me—I'm still trying to make sense of it!... My lumbar spine has nothing to do with the autopsy results!"
No conclusive evidence pointing to a suspect had been found at the crime scene.
Lu Yibo, the owner of Fenglinwan Hotel, had already been briefly interviewed by officers. According to him, he had dinner with Ye Jian on the night of the incident. Ye Jian left first, while Lu Yibo stayed at the gathering until late. He claimed to have no idea why Ye Jian was killed.
There were no breakthroughs in the areas of the body, physical evidence, or witnesses, but some leads had still been uncovered.
Song Xing reported, "On the night of the incident, after attending the banquet, Ye Jian took a taxi from the hotel entrance to the vicinity of the crime scene. We've already spoken to the driver, but he didn't recall anything notable about Ye Jian's condition at the time. We wondered—why would Ye Jian go alone to the crime scene late at night? He must have been meeting someone!"
Everyone nodded in agreement.Song Xing continued, "We also checked Ye Jian's text messages and phone calls. On the day of the incident, he didn't receive any suspicious calls or texts. The technical team also examined his WeChat messages but found nothing unusual. It wasn’t until we reviewed the hotel’s surveillance footage that we figured out the reason."
Song Xing played a clip from the surveillance video on his computer. The footage showed Ye Jian walking alone to the hotel entrance. With his back to the camera, he pulled a note from his pocket, glanced at it briefly, then tore it into pieces and tossed it into a nearby trash bin. He lit a cigarette, scanned the hotel lobby, and quickly walked out of the frame.
"Our conclusion is that someone left Ye Jian a note, arranging to meet him at the crime scene that night, which led to the murder. It’s highly likely that the person who left the note is the killer!"
Li Qian asked, "Can we trace the source of the note?"
Song Xing shook his head. "We’ve tried every possible method, but we still have no idea who gave him the note or when."
After a moment of thought, Li Qian offered her analysis: "Someone left Ye Jian a note, arranging to meet him late at night in such a remote location—and he went alone. This suggests that Ye Jian and this person must have shared some kind of secret."
It was rare for her to participate in case discussions, and after sharing her conclusion, she looked at the others expectantly. They nodded half-heartedly, agreeing that her point made sense, though inwardly they thought, Any cop would think that. But knowing Ye Jian had a secret with someone—how the hell does that help solve the case?
Just as everyone waited for Song Xing to continue, he lowered his head. "For now... these are the only leads we have."
The discussion came to an abrupt halt as silence fell over the group. With no witnesses or physical evidence, how were they supposed to proceed?
Zhang Yi'ang observed them calmly. It was clear they were all at a loss. He sighed inwardly—the investigative skills of the Three Rivers Estuary police were indeed limited. In the end, it would have to be him, the provincial department’s expert, who stepped in. Well, so be it. That’s what leadership was for.
Zhang Yi'ang cleared his throat, ready to guide his team. "All of you have fallen into a mental blind spot. You’ve overlooked the most crucial clue left at the crime scene."
"The most crucial clue..." The group murmured, frowning. Suddenly, Li Qian’s eyes lit up. "The director’s name!"
Zhang Yi'ang shot her an annoyed glare.
Wang Ruijun quickly intervened. "It’s the VIP card—the spa center!"
"See? Ruijun has nailed it—the spa center!" Zhang Yi'ang nodded approvingly at him. "Ye Jian took out the spa center’s VIP card from his wallet and hid it beneath him before he died. That must mean it holds an extremely important clue—the key is this VIP card."
Song Xing clenched his fist and suggested bluntly, "Why don’t we raid the spa center under the pretense of cracking down on vice? Bring everyone in for questioning."
"No," Zhang Yi'ang rejected the idea outright. "We don’t know what message Ye Jian was trying to convey. How would we investigate or interrogate? Acting rashly would only alert the suspect."
"Then what should we do?"
"Yeah, there’s no other way."
The group fell into confusion.
"Here’s what we’ll do..." Zhang Yi'ang pondered for a moment before speaking decisively. "To be safe, I’ve decided to go undercover myself!""No way!" As soon as he finished speaking, everyone exclaimed in unison.
Zhang Yi'ang looked around at the group. Their expressions varied—Li Qian's cheeks flushed red, never expecting their leader to be this kind of person, while Section Chief Xu, usually the most honest, now wore the most complicated expression.
Zhang Yi'ang couldn't help but ask him, "Old Xu, you seem to have some concerns?"
"Well... concerns might be too strong a word. I'm just worried the auditing department might not approve this investigation expense. Heh... heh, it's a few thousand bucks, after all."
"I won’t be spending any money going in. Why would they need to approve it?"
Wang Ruijun tried to persuade him tactfully, "If the club finds out about your identity, Chief, they wouldn’t dare charge you. But if other departments catch wind of it, it might... might not look too good."
Zhang Yi'ang paused slightly, then shook his head, giving him a disdainful look. "I meant going in plainclothes, calling the madam out alone for questioning, and making it clear to her—if she doesn’t cooperate, we’ll shut the place down immediately!"
So this was all he meant by an undercover visit. Everyone burst into laughter, the atmosphere turning cheerful as they eagerly offered suggestions.
After a moment, Wang Ruijun remembered something and voiced another concern. "That’s a good approach, but if we don’t reveal our identities, we probably won’t even get in, let alone call the madam out. I’ve heard this club is very strict—you need to call ahead with a password just to enter. The password changes every month and is only sent to regular clients. Without it, outsiders aren’t allowed in at all."
Zhang Yi'ang frowned in thought. "Do you know the password?"
Wang Ruijun nodded. "I do!"
Under the group’s astonished stares, he quickly corrected himself. "I mean, I can get it through my informant."
"Then it’s settled. You handle the arrangements. One way or another, I’m meeting that madam tonight!"
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