I can dream about my own death.

Old Zhou, halfway through his sentence, laboriously raised his shackled hand and started smoking.

Chen Wensheng and the other two remained silent, waiting quietly for Lao Zhou to smoke.

After taking a few puffs, Old Zhou continued:

"Through my investigation, I have finally uncovered the truth behind why Jiang Yanhui fled back then."

"It turns out that his wife, Yu Juan, was scammed out of several million yuan when buying raw jadeite, which is the real reason why Jiang Yanhui couldn't pay salaries."

"This also means that Jiang Yanhui and his wife deserve to die."

"However, Yu Juan raised an extremely fierce and protective husky."

"Because this husky problem was so difficult to solve, I thought of many plans to get revenge on Yu Juan."

"I once tried to stage a car accident, but she managed to dodge it."

"I once tried to secretly cut the water pipe leading to her house and poison the water, but her house had a high-end water purifier."

"I failed several times, but fortunately she didn't notice anything unusual."

"Until recently, when animal protection organizations and relevant departments issued a statement prohibiting the harming of stray animals, I knew my opportunity had come."

"I gleaned the key information that 'her husky was extremely aggressive,' which gave me a bold idea: to release cats and dogs carrying the rabies virus around her house, so that her dog would fight with the stray cats and dogs and thus get infected with rabies and die."

"Doesn't Yu Juan treat her dog like her precious son? Then let her experience the pain of losing a son."

"I just never expected that Yu Juan would get rabies after being bitten by her dog, which had rabies. It really is a case of karma."

Chen Wensheng became increasingly suspicious as he listened, then interrupted, "No! No! Lao Zhou, you're wrong. Yu Juan's dog contracted rabies, not from the stray cats or dogs you released around her house."

"Probably," Old Zhou said, not entirely sure. After throwing two stray dogs around Yu Juan's house, he was afraid of being discovered and didn't dare stop to look, so he walked away.

"No! Do you remember that day, the first time I asked you to buy tilapia?" Chen Wensheng asked.

Old Zhou nodded.

"You reminded me that day that there were more stray cats and dogs on the street. When I got home, I saw Yu Juan making her husky bite stray cats and dogs. That husky must have already been infected with rabies that day."

Chen Wensheng spoke frankly because none of this concerned him. He was upright and had nothing to fear, so he openly told the truth.

"This..." Old Zhou hesitated.

"Weren't those extra stray cats and dogs on the street transported to Changfeng City by you?" Chen Wensheng asked.

Old Zhou shook his head, then nodded: "I know about this, and I've had the same thought, but it feels too cruel. Releasing a large number of stray cats and dogs would hurt many innocent people. Although I really want revenge, I'm a person with principles. After careful consideration, I ultimately decided not to carry out this plan."

Chen Wensheng felt that Lao Zhou's words were contradictory and particularly strange.

Li Mubo, who was standing to the side, couldn't help but speak up: "Old Zhou, you shouldn't be the mastermind behind the gold heist, but rather the main implementer of this plan. With your financial resources, you simply can't support the normal operation of this plan. You might as well just tell me directly, otherwise, if I check your bank account statements, I can find out all the financial dealings between you and the person behind the scenes."

Li Yucheng suddenly realized, "That's right! Both aqua regia, which can dissolve gold, and the containers used to hold it, are extremely expensive chemicals. Old Zhou, how could you, a fishmonger, afford so much money?"

Old Zhou suddenly laughed and asked, "You want to know the answer?"

The group was bewildered by the laughter.

Old Zhou stopped laughing and continued, "There's a poem that goes, 'To repay your kindness, I'd gladly die for you.' My benefactor, after hearing about my plight, gave me 500,000 yuan as start-up capital. I was the one who orchestrated this case from beginning to end, but I've already given the stolen gold to my benefactor. Your police have no chance of getting it back."

"The 9 of Hearts?" Li Mubo suddenly blurted out these three words.

Old Zhou suddenly paused for a moment, then shook his head: "I don't know what you're talking about?"

Li Mubo nodded: "The mastermind behind this should be this person."

"The 9 of Hearts? Is that a code name for a criminal suspect?" Li Yucheng asked.

Li Mubo nodded again: "Yes! You work at 749 Media, and the Dark Star Society is a mysterious organization. Red Heart 9 is an official member of the Dark Star Society, right?"

"Dark Star Society? Isn't that the hacker organization that's already been wiped out?" Li Yucheng was even more confused.

"The Dark Star Society was originally a very loose organization. After several rounds of crackdowns by the government, some high-ranking criminal suspects were indeed arrested. But after those crackdowns, the Dark Star Society became even more secretive. Now, members of the Dark Star Society no longer directly participate in crimes, but they remotely designate a complete criminal plan for others."

Li Mubo looked at Lao Zhou.

"I sensed something was wrong at the crime scene. This gold robbery must have been meticulously planned."

Logically speaking, even if it wasn't flawless, it's impossible to leave so much evidence at the scene; the handling was too sloppy.

One of the direct reasons for this is the lack of time and the absence of time to wrap things up.

But this doesn't make sense. The suspect even dug a tunnel leading to the jewelry store. How could he not have had time to finish up?

The second most likely reason is that the planner and the implementer of the plan were not the same person.

It's like someone asking you to draw a tiger, but your drawing skills aren't up to par, so you follow their instructions and end up drawing a cat.

Old Zhou laughed and said, "That's a very good deduction. But you only guessed part of the truth, not the whole truth. Mr. Nine of Hearts is not someone a lowly detective like you can fathom."

"Furthermore, do you really think Jiang Yanhui is completely without fault? Without Jiang Yanhui's cooperation, could this plan have been implemented smoothly? A sewer renovation project that goes under multiple jewelry stores, and not even a single security camera is installed around it—is that reasonable?"

Li Mubo's eyes widened slowly, and his face gradually darkened.

"At the beginning, Jiang Yanhui was acting very strangely and refused to cooperate with the police investigation..." Chen Wensheng seemed to have found the reason why Lao Zhou took the initiative to request an interview.

Jiang Yanhui was in charge of municipal engineering projects. If Jiang Yanhui didn't have a wide network of connections and strong relationships, he wouldn't have been able to secure these projects.

To put it bluntly, if Jiang Yanhui was also involved in the gold robbery, then he was guilty of embezzlement, and anyone connected to Jiang Yanhui should also be investigated.

If things escalate and are not handled properly, the Changfeng City Finance Department will ultimately be the one to lose money.

What Lao Zhou wanted was never a perfect crime, but to get himself involved and carry out a thorough revenge, making Jiang Yanhui lose everything and spend the rest of his life in prison.