Anti-gang campaign: Female bureau chief

On the way back to the Municipal Bureau, Jiang Ruolan kept looking through the yellowed documents.

She suddenly realized something—Shen Wangshan was able to run rampant in Yi'an for thirty years not because he was so powerful, but because too many people chose to remain silent.

The threatened merchants chose to remain silent, the injured drivers chose to remain silent, and the farmers whose land was taken away chose to remain silent.

But some people refused to remain silent—Chen Yonggui refused to remain silent and was splashed with sulfuric acid; Xu Guangfa refused to remain silent and was filled with cement; Meng Zhaoyang refused to remain silent and his fate is still unknown.

There's also the anonymous caller who still doesn't know his name, the person who secretly slipped Zhao Biao's criminal evidence into the municipal bureau's mailbox, and the stranger lawyer who quietly told Li Changhe to "appeal to higher authorities" at the courthouse entrance—these people persevered in the darkness, fighting against that enormous and seemingly invincible monster in their own way.

Her mission was to ensure that the silence of these people was not wasted.

At 3 p.m., Jiang Ruolan took the newly acquired evidence to the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection's working group stationed in Yi'an.

The head of the working group was a member of the Discipline Inspection Commission in his fifties, surnamed Sun, with gray hair but a vigorous spirit.

After reading through the yellowed documents, he took off his reading glasses and remained silent for a long time.

"Director Jiang."

He finally spoke, his voice carrying a heavy weight, "These materials corroborate each other with the data we recovered from the hard drive, forming a complete chain of evidence."

Tonight I will report to the main leaders of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and suggest that while formally initiating an investigation into Gu Changhe, a comprehensive investigation of all personnel involved in the case within the Yi'an City Party and government system should also be launched.

Based on the information currently available, this may be the largest case involving a protective umbrella for organized crime in the province in recent years.

"Standing Committee Member Sun, I have a favor to ask."

Jiang Ruolan said.

"Please speak."

(Please remember the website 20 ...

"In the process of a thorough investigation, let's not forget those who persevered in the darkness. Meng Zhaoyang, Chen Yonggui, and those whose names we may never know—they are the true heroes of this case."

Standing Committee Member Sun looked at her and nodded slightly:

"I will remember that."

That evening, Jiang Ruolan returned to her dormitory.

This was the first time she had returned to her dormitory before midnight since arriving in Yi'an.

She took off her police uniform and hung it on a hanger, took a hot shower, and then sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the photo frame she had brought from the provincial capital on the bedside table.

The photo shows her father, Jiang Weiguo, wearing the judge's robe he wore for the last time before retirement, standing in front of the provincial high court building, smiling gently but firmly.

Before his retirement, Jiang Weiguo was the vice president of the provincial high court, in charge of criminal trials.

In the last few years of his term, he worked to establish evidence standards and trial norms for organized crime cases.

Many people say he brought trouble upon himself, because this kind of case involves too many people and faces too much resistance. If he does it well, he will not receive any credit, and if he does it poorly, he will be covered in dirt.

But Jiang Weiguo never backed down.

Less than two years after his retirement, he suddenly died of a heart attack. His last words to Jiang Ruolan were, "Don't be afraid to face tough challenges."

Jiang Ruolan looked at the photo and whispered:

"Dad, I'm not scared."

Then she turned off the light, lay down, and closed her eyes.

Faint barking of dogs and the rustling of the night wind through the street drifted in from outside the window.

The city where she had fought for six days was now sleeping peacefully, awaiting the dawn.

She fell asleep—her first real sleep since arriving in Nghe An.

On the sixth day, the sun rose as usual, and spring had finally arrived in Yi'an.

On the seventh day of Jiang Ruolan's stay in Yi'an, she received her first real "new case".

The Shen Wangshan case has entered the judicial process, and the provincial department's special task force has taken over the subsequent interrogation and evidence collection work, which has eased the pressure on the Yi'an Municipal Bureau.

But this doesn't mean she can take a breather—Shen Wangshan's downfall was like a boulder being pulled out of a pond. After the water level dropped sharply, the silt and skeletons that had been buried at the bottom of the pond for many years began to surface one by one.

Every day, people line up at the city bureau to report cases, and old case files that have been piling up for years are being unearthed from the corners of various police stations and piled up in the large office of the criminal investigation branch.

Lu Zheng was so busy that he had blisters on his lips and his voice was so hoarse that he couldn't speak, but he still insisted on delivering the latest case summary to Jiang Ruolan's desk every day.

That morning, Jiang Ruolan arrived at the office at seven o'clock as usual.

The city of Yi'an outside the window was shrouded in a thin layer of morning mist. The breakfast stalls on the street had already been set up, and the aroma of fried dough sticks mixed with the mist seeped in through the cracks in the window.

She had just brewed a strong cup of tea and hadn't even had a chance to drink it when Lu Zheng pushed the door open and came in, his expression somewhat strange.

"Director Jiang, there's a case."

He placed a newly printed police dispatch report on her desk: "Around 5 a.m. this morning, a male corpse was found in the reeds along the Qinglong River in the west of the city. The Xicheng Police Station arrived at the scene first and preliminarily determined it to be a homicide. The case has been reported to the criminal investigation department."

Jiang Ruolan stopped in her tracks as she picked up the teacup.

She took the police dispatch log and quickly scanned it.

The deceased was male, his identity is yet to be determined, and he was approximately between forty and fifty years old. When the body was found, it was floating face down in the reeds along the Qinglong River. He was fully clothed and had obvious external injuries to his head.

The person who reported the incident was an elderly fisherman from a fishpond on the Qinglong River. He was out in his boat around 4 a.m. when he saw something floating in the reeds and was so frightened that he almost capsized.

"Head injury."

Jiang Ruolan repeated those words, "A fatal wound?"

"The forensic pathologist is still on his way. The preliminary assessment indicates there are blunt force trauma marks on the back of the head. However, the specific details will only be confirmed after the autopsy report."

Lu Zheng paused for a moment, then said, "In addition, the deceased's clothing and physical characteristics... are somewhat similar to someone we are looking for."

Jiang Ruolan raised her head:

"Who?"

"Meng Zhaoyang".

Jiang Ruolan put down her teacup and stood up.

Meng Zhaoyang—the accountant who secretly made a large number of core criminal evidences before leaving Fengmao Group and then handed the file folder to retired teacher Liu for safekeeping.

He disappeared for thirteen years, neither alive nor dead. The task force had been searching for him but had not found any clues.

If the body found by the Qinglong River is indeed Meng Zhaoyang, then his death is definitely not an ordinary murder case.

"Notify the forensic team to arrive as soon as possible, and don't overlook any details in the on-site investigation. Prepare the car, we're on our way now."

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