Anti-gang campaign: Female bureau chief

Jiang Ruolan recorded this point in detail. She then asked:

Where is Zhou Wenxuan?

Ren Pengfei shook his head:

"I don't know. Zhou Wenxuan is the person Shen Wangshan trusts the most, and only Shen Wangshan himself knows where he is hiding."

But I know Zhou Wenxuan has a woman in Yi'an named Song Ya, who is a host at Yi'an TV station. They've been together for over a year. You can check Song Ya's whereabouts."

"Is there anything else?"

Ren Pengfei was silent for a moment, then took a deep breath and said:

"There's something else I've been keeping to myself, something I've never told anyone. Now that I've brought it up, I'll spill it all out."

Three years ago, Xu Guangfa, a warehouse manager in the north of the city, discovered Fengmao Logistics' smuggled diesel transfer station and prepared to report it.

I had him tied up and detained in the basement of Fengmao Logistics for three days of interrogation. On the third night, Shen Wangshan came and personally asked Xu Guangfa if he had any accomplices. Xu Guangfa said no, but Shen Wangshan didn't believe him and told me to continue beating him.

My henchman, Ah Gui, went too far. He struck Xu Guangfa on the back of the head with a stick, and he was dead.

"Zhao Biao has already confessed to this matter."

"Zhao Biao only explained how Xu Guangfa died; he didn't know what happened afterward." Ren Pengfei's voice deepened.

"After Xu Guangfa died, I panicked and asked Shen Wangshan what to do. Shen Wangshan made a phone call, his tone very calm, as if he were talking about a trivial matter."

He said into the phone, "Old Gu, something's happened. Someone from the logistics company has passed away. Can you handle the funeral arrangements for me?"

Jiang Ruolan's heart skipped a beat. She asked:

"Did you hear that with your own ears?"

"I heard it with my own ears. I was standing right next to Shen Wangshan when he made that call. The phone was on speakerphone, and I clearly heard Gu Changhe's voice on the other end. He said three sentences—" Ren Pengfei closed his eyes, as if trying hard to recall each word.

"The first sentence was 'What happened?' The second sentence was 'Where is it?' The third sentence was 'Clean up the scene, shut down the logistics park for three days, and I will arrange for someone within the Public Security Bureau to suppress the missing person case.'"

The interrogation room was so quiet that only the hum of the air conditioner could be heard.

Jiang Ruolan's hand holding the pen trembled slightly, not from fear, but from anger and repression—she had finally obtained direct evidence linking Gu Changhe and Shen Wangshan.

The first reaction of a deputy mayor after receiving a murder report was not to call the police, but to help with the aftermath.

This kind of accomplice relationship can no longer be summarized by the term "protective umbrella".

"Ren Pengfei, are you willing to repeat what you just said in court?"

Ren Pengfei opened his eyes and looked at her:

"Since I've said it, I'm not afraid of going to court. But I have one condition—he can't know about my son's affairs. Tell everyone I committed economic crimes, not murder."

Jiang Ruolan was silent for a few seconds, then said:

"The law will deliver a fair verdict on the crimes you have committed. As for your family, we will do our best to minimize the impact on them within the bounds of the law."

But I cannot promise you anything beyond what is permitted by law.

Ren Pengfei nodded and didn't say anything more.

He leaned back in his chair, looking as if all his strength had been drained away, but his expression relaxed, like someone who had carried a huge rock for decades finally unloading it.

Jiang Ruolan stood up to leave, but as she reached the door, Ren Pengfei suddenly called out to her from behind.

"Director Jiang."

She turned around.

"There's a place on Shenwang Mountain that no one knows about," Ren Pengfei said, his voice lowering.

"The old shantytown in the east of the city, the area where the demolition was only half completed and then abandoned, has a row of old houses that were not completely demolished at the very back."

One of them is the old house where Shen Wangshan lived since he was a child.

He bought the house back and renovated it, but it looked just like a ruin from the outside, and you couldn't tell it was there at all.

He would go there when he was upset, drinking alone. Only Zhou Wenxuan and I knew this; even Zhao Biao didn't.

"The exact location?"

"At the end of Shengli Road in the east of the city, cross the fenced-off open space, and near the river there is a crooked old locust tree. The house is behind the locust tree."

Jiang Ruolan memorized the address, nodded to Ren Pengfei, and walked out the door.

At 4 a.m., the task force held an emergency meeting.

The meeting room was filled with smoke, and everyone's face showed the exhaustion of continuous work, but no one complained of being sleepy.

The information given by Qian Shouyi and Ren Pengfei was quickly compiled into several briefings and distributed to everyone.

When Lu Zheng saw Ren Pengfei's statement about Gu Changhe making a phone call to handle the aftermath, he cursed loudly enough for the entire floor to hear.

"The executive vice mayor is handling the aftermath for the murderer." Lu Zheng slammed the briefing on the table.

"I've been a police officer for eight years, and I've never seen anything this disgusting."

"You've seen it now," Jiang Ruolan said.

"Immediately notify the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection to send Ren Pengfei's recorded statement and written record regarding Gu Changhe's phone call to handle the aftermath."

In addition, we sent people to investigate Song Ya, the host of Yi An TV station, and to check her cell phone signal and call records. Zhou Wenxuan is very likely in contact with her.

Go to the Housing and Construction Commission's archives to retrieve the bidding documents for the 2014 New City Administrative Center project, focusing on the revision records dated March 17th.

"Yes." Lu Zheng noted it down and then asked.

"Director Jiang, what's the situation with Shen Wangshan? Should we organize police forces to search that old shantytown in the east of the city now?"

"No rush," Jiang Ruolan said.

"Shen Wangshan is still unaware that Ren Pengfei has revealed the details of the old house. That place is his last safe haven, and he will not leave it easily."

If we rush to search now and he's not there, it'll be like telling him we already know the place, and he'll disappear completely.

Therefore, first, send people to secretly surround that area. Don't turn on the lights, don't use sirens, everyone in plainclothes, keep watch. He'll go sooner or later.

At 4:30 a.m., just as the task force was deploying its stakeout operation, an unexpected message arrived.

Police officers from the Second Detachment of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Yi'an City Public Security Bureau arrested a man who was destroying documents in a rented room near the Chengdong Long-Distance Bus Station.

This person was not Zhou Wenxuan, but a secretary in the general manager's office of Fengmao Group named Sun Wei.

The documents he was burning were a batch of correspondence between Fengmao Group and several government departments, which contained numerous details of bribery.

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