Reborn in 97, I solved a cold case at the Municipal Bureau

Chapter 349 Huang Yanli's Achilles' Heel
Fan Zhongliang had just reached the second-floor balcony when he saw someone running towards him, and he was so frightened that he quickly slid down.

As a result, the clothesline suddenly couldn't bear his weight and snapped with a snap.

Fan Zhongliang let out a scream and fell to the ground.

However, he lived in an old-style neighborhood with a sloping roof shed on the first floor.

He fell directly onto the shed, then rolled several times before finally landing on the lawn outside.

He felt dizzy and struggled to get up, but his legs were weak and he fell down again as soon as he got up.

Zhou Yi rushed over and pinned him to the ground, shouting, "Fan Zhongliang, you are suspected of intentional homicide. You are being summoned for investigation in accordance with the law! Behave yourself!"

Fan Zhongliang was still trying to resist, and in his wild swinging, he threw the backpack in his hand at Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi casually blocked the attack, and the backpack flew out and landed on the ground beside him, with stacks of hundred-yuan bills falling out of it.

Zhou Yi used his knee to pin him firmly to the ground, then pulled out handcuffs.

Xia Yu stood guard at the front door of Fan Zhongliang's house, never leaving his side, until Zhou Yi's voice came from the stairwell downstairs.

He rushed downstairs and saw Zhou Yi holding Fan Zhongliang, whose hands were handcuffed behind his back, with one hand and a backpack in the other.

"Keep this safe," Zhou Yi said, handing him the backpack.

Xia Yu took it and saw that the backpack was full of money.

"Call the bureau and have them send people to seal off Fan Zhongliang's house, then have the technical department conduct an on-site investigation." Zhou Yi handed the mobile phone to Xia Yu.

"Okay." Xia Yu put away his gun and started making a phone call.

"Let's go," Zhou Yi said coldly, pushing Fan Zhongliang away.

“I didn’t do it… I was forced to do it, I…” Fan Zhongliang said, tears streaming down his face.

"What's the rush? It's not time to interrogate you yet!"

After Xia Yu finished the call, he told Zhou Yi that the bureau was short-staffed and could only temporarily assign two people to take over the scene. Then the command center would contact Pan Hongjie and ask him to arrange things for the technical department.

The two immediately drove off, taking Fan Zhongliang with them straight to the Municipal Public Security Bureau.

Xia Yu was in charge of driving, while Zhou Yi kept Fan Zhongliang in the back seat to prevent him from doing anything rash on the way.

They quickly returned to the Anyuan City Public Security Bureau, where Pan Hongjie called. Zhou Yi instructed Xia Yu to take Fan Zhongliang to the interrogation room first.

Over the phone, Zhou Yi directly asked Pan Hongjie to interrogate Fan Zhongliang.

Pan Hongjie was on his way to Fan Zhongliang's house when he immediately agreed.

"Captain Pan, there's something you might need to pay attention to," Zhou Yi said.

"What is it?" Pan Hongjie had a bad feeling.

"Take a thorough look into the situation of Fan Zhongliang's wife, Chen Ting. I suspect she might already be dead?"

Pan Hongjie felt a sudden tightness in his chest. No way, five people died in this case?
Even if the case is completely solved, the city will probably use it as an excuse to criticize the issue of public security, which will put all the police officers in Anyuan in a difficult position.

Pan Hongjie nodded, feeling helpless, and said, "Okay, I'll investigate thoroughly."

Zhou Yi hung up the phone and just then saw Qiao Jiali.

Qiao Jiali looked at him and said, "How did you get so dirty? And your head is all wet, you look like a drowned rat."

Zhou Yi then realized what was happening, looked down at himself, and saw that he was indeed covered in mud and his head was soaked.

Although the rain had lessened considerably by the time they arrived at Fan Zhongliang's house, it was still drizzling, and when they had grabbed Fan Zhongliang earlier, the mud on him had covered them up.

"Dry your hair, be careful not to catch a cold," Qiao Jiali said with concern, taking out a pack of tissues from her pocket and handing several sheets to Zhou Yi.

Although Zhou Yi is very capable in solving cases, he is, after all, a young man of twenty-three. To Qiao Jiali and Jiang Biao, who are in their early thirties, he is like an outstanding younger brother in the family.

"Thank you, Sister Qiao." Zhou Yi took it and wiped the rain off his head.

He found the paper to be of really good quality, and guessed it wasn't cheap. In 1997, even ordinary families didn't use much tissue paper, let alone such beautifully packaged handkerchiefs.

Even a rough guy like Zhou Yi in his previous life rarely used such good paper.

His heart suddenly skipped a beat.

Because he thought of Xu Nian. Xu Nian's family was obviously well-off. Not to mention what she usually wore and used, just take that professional high-powered microscope, which was an imported product that ordinary families simply couldn't afford.

Zhou Yi knew how Xu Nian got her family background; it was inextricably linked to her father, the bureau chief, who was forced to remarry in her previous life.

Xu Nian's father was a bureau chief, and his administrative rank should be at the division level.

Qiao Jiali's husband, Director Zhang, whom everyone flattered, was also a section-level cadre.

In some respects, Director Zhang's influence might even surpass that of Director Xu. Moreover, both are at the division-level, one in his prime, and the other nearing retirement in his fifties. Zhou Yi's heart skipped a beat; the thought suddenly crossed his mind: what if Director Zhang wasn't clean either?
What should we do with someone as good as Sister Qiao?
But then she thought back to her previous life. Before she went to the provincial capital, she didn't seem to have heard of any city leaders being punished for illegal or disciplinary violations. The most memorable one was Xu Nian's father.

I hope I won't be a jinx again.

"Sister Qiao, have you finished talking with Huang Yanli?"

"Hmm, guess what you found?"

Zhou Yi said with a smile, "If you put it that way, then of course there is."

"She is definitely the type of person who responds better to gentle persuasion than force, so I used conversation to work on her mindset. The principle is actually very simple; I only focused on one point."

"What?" Zhou Yi asked curiously.

“Her son. No matter how she treats others, or what kind of person she was in the past, I’m certain that her biggest weakness isn’t money, but her son. So no matter what I say, I always bring up her son to slowly break down her defenses.”

Zhou Yi nodded. Usually, everyone has something they care about very much.

Relatives, love, money, ideals, freedom.

During interrogation, the key to breaking through the suspect's psychological defenses is to grasp what the suspect cares about most and then make a breakthrough.

That is, their Achilles' heel.

Huang Yanli kept talking about money, but the real issue was her son.

She herself admitted to Zhou Yi that her family was poor and that if she hadn't married Zheng Guangming, her family wouldn't have been able to afford a decent house in their entire lives.

Given that she worked odd jobs everywhere after graduating from high school, it can be confirmed that she has lived a relatively frugal life since childhood due to family reasons.

Although we are now well-off, the deficiencies of our youth can never be made up for or filled.

This is what is meant by "what one cannot obtain in youth will ultimately trap one for life."

Therefore, she would never let her son experience such a life. This is why some children grow up in a pampered environment, precisely because their parents suffered enough hardship in their childhood and then projected their emotions and regrets onto their children.

This is a typical psychological projection phenomenon.

"So what information did she reveal?" Zhou Yi asked.

Qiao Jiali nodded and said with a smile, "Why don't you go and take a look at the statement?"

"Sister Qiao, stop keeping me in suspense."

Qiao Jiali said that she spent a long time and was very patient in communicating with Huang Yanli.

Then she gradually steered the issue toward her son.

For example, you could ask her, "Doesn't your son ever ask where his dad is? Does he miss his dad?"
For example, if you can't be there for your son as he grows up, and he never sees his mother again, how helpless would he feel?

In the end, she said Huang Yanli's psychological defenses had basically collapsed, and she was constantly in tears.

"What she meant was that although she had many grievances against Zheng Guangming, especially after that woman named Bai Xiuxiu appeared, she had argued with Zheng Guangming many times about it, and their marital relationship had once dropped to a freezing point."

"But she was actually quite grateful to Zheng Guangming, because Zheng Guangming treated his youngest son very well. He even made a will, leaving 60% of his assets to his youngest son, Zheng Tianyu, while Zheng Tianlan and she each received 20%."

Zhou Yi was very surprised. Zheng Guangming had actually made a will long ago? And Huang Yanli knew the contents of the will, so Huang Yanli had even less of a motive to hire someone to kill him.

Because the female corpse was not pregnant, and as long as Bai Xiuxiu was not pregnant, even with a will, it was still not enough to drive Huang Yanli to the point of murder.

……

Let's rewind to a little over an hour before Zhou Yi returned. In the interrogation room, Huang Yanli's eyes were red, but she kept her head down and didn't speak.

Qiao Jiali said softly, "Huang Yanli, we police are here to help you, not to harm you, but the premise of helping you is that you have to tell us the truth. I won't lie to you, Fu Daqing has already been arrested in another city. If he confesses first, it will be detrimental to you in terms of the veracity of his confession and the determination of criminal liability in the judicial process."

"Huang Yanli, your son is only five years old, right? This is the cutest and most clingy age for his mother. Doesn't he want to keep calling 'Mommy' to you all day long?"

When her son was mentioned, Huang Yanli smiled involuntarily.

But a casual remark from Qiao Jiali became the final straw that broke her psychological defenses.

Do you usually sleep with your son or with his maternal grandparents?

Huang Yanli didn't understand why she asked that, but she still said, "He only sleeps soundly when I'm with him."

Qiao Jiali said, "I don't know how long the little one cried last night."

Huang Yanli's heart clenched instantly. Yesterday, when the police came to arrest her, her son kept crying and clinging to her, and it was because she was trying to comfort him that she was delayed for so long.

She suddenly became afraid that she would never see her son again. He was so young; what would become of him?

“Officer, I really didn’t hire anyone to kill Zheng Guangming,” Huang Yanli said, covering her face and crying. “It was that bastard Zheng Guangming who paid someone to kill me, and I had no choice.”

(End of this chapter)