Anti-gang campaign: Female bureau chief

Jiang Ruolan gently put down the deceased's hand, her gaze sweeping over the rough, deformed, and tortured ten fingers that were unbearable to look at. "This person was locked up and interrogated for a long time."

The killer used various methods on him, including burning, pulling out fingernails, and beating him, before finally strangling him with an electrical cord and dumping the body in an abandoned factory in the east of the city. But before he died, he bit off a piece of cloth from the killer's clothes. He clutched this evidence with his last breath, holding on tightly until his death.

Lu Zheng was silent for a few seconds, then spoke:

"He's telling us who killed him."

He turned to the police officer beside him and said, "Immediately notify the technical department to take this piece of fabric back for composition analysis and to restore the printed text. Conduct a thorough examination of the deceased's entire body, especially in places where things could easily be hidden, such as under the fingernails, inside the collar, and in the lining of the shoe soles."

In addition, surveillance footage from all entrances and exits of the old industrial zone in the east of the city was reviewed to check all vehicles and personnel entering the area between 6 PM and midnight last night.

Jiang Ruolan stood up, walked to the snow at the workshop entrance, took out her phone, and called the command center:

"Notify all police stations to check all missing person reports filed within the past week. The deceased was male, between 45 and 55 years old, approximately 1.7 meters tall, with black engine oil residue under his fingernails. He may have worked in the auto repair, freight, or machinery operation industries. If you find any missing persons matching these characteristics, report to me immediately."

She hung up the phone, looked back at the busy surveyors in the workshop, and then glanced at the crowd watching in the distance.

The scavengers and homeless people stood far away in the snow, their faces expressionless—in this forgotten ruin, death was not unfamiliar to them.

But Jiang Ruolan noticed that an old man in a worn-out military overcoat was standing at the front of the crowd, staring intently at the direction of the workshop entrance, his lips moving as if he were saying something to her.

She went over and asked a few questions.

The old man's surname was Sun. He was a scavenger in this abandoned factory area and had lived here for several years.

He spoke with a heavy local accent, and his speech was mumbled because he had lost most of his teeth, but you could roughly understand what he meant—after dark last night, he heard noises coming from the textile factory, the sound of cars driving by, and people talking, but they didn't have a local accent, so he couldn't understand them very well.

He didn't dare go over to look, because people from Fengmao used to come here occasionally, and these scavengers all knew the rules—don't look at what you shouldn't look at.

Jiang Ruolan asked him if he had seen the car's color or license plate. He shook his head and said it was too dark. He only saw the headlights, which were very bright white lights. It wasn't an ordinary car; the car body was quite tall.

Jiang Ruolan called Director Fang over and asked him to arrange for someone to take detailed statements from everyone present, especially this old man Sun.

Lu Zheng walked out of the workshop, holding a preliminary survey checklist that he had just completed:

"Old Zheng said that the deceased had a total of 23 burn wounds, distributed on his arms, chest, and abdomen. The arrangement of the wounds had a deliberate uniformity, rather than being random."

The killer consistently chose the same size contact surface, the spacing between adjacent wounds was very consistent, and there were overlapping burn marks at the bent joints—indicating that the killer carefully controlled the angle and force of the weapon during the execution to avoid causing premature fatal injury.

This is not something an ordinary thug could do. The killer possessed the ability to maintain emotional stability and precise control, and his goal wasn't to kill, but to extract information.

Jiang Ruolan took the survey list from Lu Zheng, her gaze lingering on one line of description: "The wounds are spaced about three to four centimeters apart, arranged neatly, and have a consistent shape."

She recalled the whistleblowers who had been tortured by Tang Yuanqing, as recorded by Liao Guangcheng in the mine log during the Shen Wangshan case last year.

Tang Yuanqing's method of "forcing confessions" also involved inflicting pain with hot tools, but he used a lighter and a piece of iron that he could get his hands on at random, which was crude and careless.

This person was different; his methods were more refined, his tools more professional, and the entire torture process had a kind of cold-blooded, extremely orderly feel.

This is not the barbaric method of the older generation of outlaws; it is a torture technique developed through systematic training.

Veterans, specially trained security personnel, or returnees who have previously worked as mercenaries overseas...

The gray cloth from the deceased's palm was sent to the provincial technical center, and the results came out on the afternoon of the third day.

The technical staff used macro spectral imaging to restore 70% of the printed characters on the fabric that had been almost invisible due to bloodstains.

The letters on the fragment are not "ON", but "TION" - a suffix of an English word.

Based on the fabric's gray base color, waterproof coating, and white printed lettering, the technical department made a preliminary assessment:

This piece of fabric most likely comes from a work uniform brand or company that uses the English word "TION" as its brand name. This naming convention is not common among small and medium-sized enterprises in Ngee Ann. It is more likely to be a logistics or transportation company with foreign investment or international business.

Jiang Ruolan sent this information to Lu Zheng, asking him to investigate all registered logistics and transportation companies in Yi'an and the surrounding area, and to filter those whose English names end with "TION".

The investigation results were delivered to her that evening—two companies in the city met the criteria: one was an international freight forwarding company registered in the Yian Bonded Logistics Center; the other was called "Yian Express International Logistics Co., Ltd."

The company, whose English name is "SPEEDATION LOGISTICS", specializes in cross-border land transportation, mainly operating freight routes from Ngee Ann to Southeast Asia. Its headquarters are located in the East City Logistics Park.

"Express Delivery Logistics".

Jiang Ruolan read the name aloud. "Have you checked this company's background?"

Lu Zheng opened his notebook:

"I checked. The legal representative of Suda Logistics is Guo Yongchang, 51 years old, a local of Yi'an, with no criminal record. The company was registered in 2019 with a registered capital of 8 million, which has been fully paid up."

On the surface, it appears to be a legitimate cross-border logistics company, with its own warehouse and fleet of vehicles in the Yi'an Logistics Park. However—

He turned to the next page and pointed to a line of text: "The controlling shareholder of Speedata Logistics is not Guo Yongchang himself, but an investment company registered in the provincial capital called 'Zhongyuan Investment'. You should remember this name."

Jiang Ruolan stopped writing.

Zhongyuan Investment—the shell investment consulting company owned by Nie Shichang in the provincial capital, registered under the name of his niece Fang Min—had three accounts frozen by the provincial economic investigation department during the New Year's Eve special case, involving more than 20 million yuan.

Nie Shichang and Xu Yaozong, uncle and nephew, broke the monopoly chain of the entire building materials market by channeling funds from Zhongyuan Investment to Yian Xincheng Trading.

Now, the same company had already entered the cross-border logistics industry much earlier.

When was the shareholding relationship between Speedata Logistics and Zhongyuan Investment established?

"In March 2020, less than a year before Shen Wangshan's case came to light, Zhongyuan Investment injected five million yuan into Suda Logistics under the guise of equity investment, acquiring a 51% stake and becoming the actual controller. Although Guo Yongchang was nominally the legal representative, all major decisions of the company had to be approved by Zhongyuan Investment."

.............