Anti-gang campaign: Female bureau chief

Han Qiuping remained silent for a long while.

The only sounds in the lobby were the low hum of the air purifier in the corner and the occasional car horn from downstairs.

Then she spoke, her voice much softer than before, carrying a hint of barely perceptible fatigue:

"The supplier was a man named Luo Mingfa. He had an underground workshop in the north of the city that specialized in processing various placenta products. I never saw a human placenta. He used placentas from diseased and dead pigs and sheep, which he bought by weight from the slaughterhouse, simply dried and ground into powder, and then put into capsules. The production batch number, factory name and address on the packaging were all fake."

"Where did Luo Ming find it?"

"He was still in Yi'an about two weeks ago, but then he told me he needed to go somewhere to lay low. He heard that the Food and Drug Administration was conducting joint enforcement recently and was afraid of being caught, so he left. I don't know exactly where he went. We've always had a one-way communication; he delivers goods to me, and I transfer money to him. His phone number has probably changed by now."

Han Qiuping paused, then added in a voice that suddenly turned cold:

"I knew you would come sooner or later, but I didn't expect it to be because of a murder case. I can give you all the information about the upstream suppliers, including invoices, transfer records, and phone recordings. But let me make this clear: I'm just a businessman. The products were made by Luo Mingfa, and the efficacy is something consumers believe in themselves. I didn't hold a knife to anyone's throat to force them to eat them."

"Have you ever considered that the capsules you sell could cause liver damage, kidney failure, or even death? Every penny you earn comes from the pockets of women who think they are 'conditioning their health.' What they are consuming is not supplements, but poison that you have personally packaged and sold to them."

Jiang Ruolan stood up and said to Zhao Rui:

"Seize all inventory in accordance with the law, extract all sales records and customer information, and verify each victim. Take criminal detention measures against Han Qiuping and file a case for the crime of producing and selling toxic and harmful food. Notify the Food, Drug and Environmental Crime Investigation Division to cooperate in thoroughly investigating Luo Mingfa's underground workshop and find the source of production as soon as possible."

After she finished speaking, she turned and walked to the stairwell, pushed open the door, and saw the first rays of dawn shining softly on the bumpy road surface of Cuihu Road.

Several police cars were parked downstairs, their red and blue lights spinning quietly in the morning light.

That afternoon, based on Han Qiuping's transfer records, the task force located Luo Mingfa's underground workshop in a remote residential building in the north of the city.

The workshop was located on the ground floor of a self-built house, with all the windows sealed with bricks, towels stuffed in the cracks of the door, and a tattered piece of cloth hanging outside to cover it up.

When the police broke down the door, the room was filled with a suffocating stench of decay. The floor was piled with various chemical solvents, substandard gelatin, bags of animal placentas, and sealed capsules. Flies buzzed around the dark red raw material barrels.

Several food and drug administration enforcement officers wore gas masks before daring to go in and take inventory.

They found a simple production ledger next to a rusty shredder in the corner of the workshop. It recorded the source of raw materials, processing date and the list of downstream buyers for each batch of goods. Among them, Han Qiuping's "Yuejifang" was the largest buyer.

Luo Mingfa himself had fled Yi'an, but the task force extracted a large number of fingerprints and DNA samples from the workshop. Through comparison with the national fugitive database, they confirmed Luo Mingfa's true identity. He had two prior convictions for manufacturing and selling counterfeit drugs, the last of which resulted in a two-year sentence. Less than a year after his release, he returned to his old ways.

Three days later, late at night, Luo Mingfa was intercepted by the police at the provincial capital's long-distance bus station.

Police found more than 50,000 yuan in cash, several fake ID cards, and a USB flash drive in his backpack. The flash drive contained all the customer order data of his online store, involving a total of 47 people spread across multiple cities and counties in the province.

The customer information for number 273 was stored in a separate folder, with the recipient's name listed as "Qiao Xiaoyue".

Meanwhile, the technical department used customer review records from Luo Mingfa's online store to identify another buyer of the problematic capsules.

Shortly after Qiao Xiaoyue took the same batch of capsules, this customer also purchased the same product, and after taking it, he also experienced severe adverse reactions and unfortunately passed away.

The task force located the deceased's husband, Xue Yonggang.

Xue Yonggang works as a welder in a machinery factory. He has been married to his wife for nearly 20 years and they have a deep affection for each other.

His wife bought Yuejifang products at the end of last year and started taking them. More than a month later, she developed symptoms of abdominal pain, jaundice, and a rapid deterioration in liver function. She died despite all efforts to save her.

Xue Yonggang put all his medical records, test results, and half-empty bottles of capsules into a kraft paper envelope and put it in the bottom drawer of his bedside table.

After his wife passed away, he contacted Yuejifang multiple times to demand an explanation, but Han Qiuping consistently avoided him.

He also reported the matter to the regulatory authorities, but because he could not prove a direct causal relationship between the cause of death and the capsule, the report was never substantively addressed.

He once hired a private investigator and spent several thousand dollars to have him check Qiao Xiaoyue's information, including her name, address, workplace, and contact number, all of which were recorded in a notebook he had carried with him for many years.

The task force later found the notebook when searching Xue Yonggang's residence. Inside was a note, and the handwriting on the note matched the handwriting left by the suspect in the surveillance footage retrieved from Qiao Xiaoyue's home.

Through surveillance investigation and comparison of movement trajectories, it was confirmed that Xue Yonggang did appear near Yanhe Road on the afternoon of the day of the incident and was familiar with the terrain of the area.

He knew there was a drainpipe outside Qiao Xiaoyue's kitchen window that she could climb, because his wife used to frequent beauty salons and health product stores in the area, and he had accompanied her there many times.

After being summoned to the police station, Xue Yonggang did not deny his actions.

He sat in the interrogation room for a long time, head down, his two rough hands clasped together, the backs of his hands covered with scars from welding.

Instead of claiming he was "impulsive" or "careless" like others, he described the entire process in an unusually calm tone.

"I just wanted to talk to her. I wanted her to tell me what was going on with those capsules and why my wife died after taking them. My wife had been taking them for over a year, until her face turned yellow, her eyes turned yellow, and she was writhing in pain in bed. I wanted her to tell me what was inside those capsules."

She said she was just a designer who had only tried the product herself as required by the company and didn't know anything about the production process. I lost control then. I had a nylon cable tie with me, intending only to tie her up so I could finish what I was saying. But she tried to scream, so I covered her mouth. She kicked me, and I pinned her legs down. I choked her neck, asking her each time, "Do you know what that is?" She didn't answer, so I choked her again. I don't know how many times I choked her. Finally, she stopped kicking me and stopped moving.

I placed the capsule on her chest; it wasn't her number, it was my wife's. My wife's number in the Yuejifang customer system is 273.

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