Anti-gang campaign: Female bureau chief

This suggests that the killer wanted to extract something from him before killing him.

What secrets could an honest man who has been repairing motorcycles for over a decade know that would warrant torture?

"Check Sun Guangli's call records, focusing on who made the call between 4 and 5 pm on the day he disappeared. Also, conduct a thorough investigation of his repair shop to see if there's anything unusual."

At 7 p.m., the results from both sides came back.

Call records show that the call Sun Guangli received at 4:12 pm on the day he went missing came from a mobile phone number registered in Ngee Ann.

The owner of the phone is named Tang Yuanqing, nicknamed "Old Cat". He has a history of theft and intentional assault. He is a low-level henchman of Fengmao Group, mainly responsible for "handling problems" for Fengmao Logistics in the western part of the city.

But this person is not in Yi'an now—after Shen Wangshan was arrested, Tang Yuanqing seemed to have vanished into thin air, and his phone has been switched off for several days.

The repair shop's findings were even more surprising.

The technician found a cell phone hidden in a metal box under the floor tiles beneath Sun Guangli's workbench.

The phone wasn't Sun Guangli's own; it was an old Nokia feature phone with only one number stored on it, and all call logs had been cleared.

Tucked inside the battery compartment on the back of the phone was a small, folded piece of paper. When unfolded, it revealed several lines of densely packed small characters, written hastily and forcefully, clearly in a rush.

Jiang Ruolan put on gloves, took the note, and spread it out on the table.

The writing on the note was done with a blue ballpoint pen; the strokes were crooked and uneven, and in some places, the pen pressure was so strong that it pierced the paper. The note contained only a few lines—

"Tang Laomao took money from Shen Wangshan and buried a person in a ravine behind Qingshipu on the night of August 17, 2012. The person's surname was Meng, and before he died, Shen Wangshan pinched his fingers with pliers. I saw it. I dare not speak out; I am guilty."

The interrogation room was silent for a full ten seconds.

Jiang Ruolan gently placed the note on the table, pressing her palm over it, her knuckles turning slightly white.

She thought of Meng Zhaoyang—the accountant who copied the evidence of Fengmao Group's crimes, who disappeared in 2012 and whose whereabouts have been unknown for thirteen years.

She remembered the yellowed file folder that Teacher Liu had given her, Xu Guangfa mentioned in Zhao Biao's confession, and Xu Guangfa's mother sitting on the ground crying like a child while holding the DNA test report.

And there's that Ren Pengfei mentioned: "The person who handles these kinds of things most efficiently around Shen Wangshan is Tang Yuanqing."

Tang Yuanqing, nicknamed "Old Cat".

Ren Pengfei mentioned him several times in his confession, saying that he was a person who specialized in handling "dirty work", with clean hands and feet and a tight tongue. He had been working on the periphery of Fengmao Group for more than ten years. Although he was not a core member, he knew no less core secrets than the core members.

Tang Yuanqing disappeared from Yi'an the day Shen Wangshan was arrested.

The task force has been looking for him, but has not been able to find him.

Now, Sun Guangli's last words connect the deaths of Tang Yuanqing and Meng Zhaoyang.

Sun Guangli himself paid the ultimate price for this secret he had kept hidden for thirteen years.

"Sun Guangli is an eyewitness."

Jiang Ruolan's voice was very soft, but every word seemed to be squeezed out from between her teeth, "Thirteen years ago, he witnessed Meng Zhaoyang's murder and kept it to himself. After Shen Wangshan was arrested, Tang Yuanqing panicked, fearing that Sun Guangli would reveal what happened back then, so he struck first to silence him."

"Then why did he wait thirteen days before making his move?"

Lu Zheng asked.

"Because Tang Yuanqing is observing the situation."

Jiang Ruolan said, "After Shen Wangshan was arrested, Tang Yuanqing didn't know how far the police would investigate. He waited a few days and found out that we were investigating Meng Zhaoyang's whereabouts, that the special task force had gone to Meng Zhaoyang's hometown to have his relatives do DNA comparisons, and that we already had the evidence that Meng Zhaoyang had copied back then. He knew that if he didn't take action, once Sun Guangli spoke up, his end would be near."

She stood up, walked to the map of Yian City hanging on the wall, and her gaze fell on the gray area in the west of the city.

The mountain hollow behind Qingshipu—the address Sun Guangli wrote on the note—is less than three kilometers away as the crow flies from the reed marsh where his body was found this morning.

Thirteen years ago, Meng Zhaoyang was buried in that mountain valley; thirteen years later, eyewitness Sun Guangli was murdered near the same place.

This was not merely silencing witnesses; it was an almost ritualistic burial—burying all the sins and secrets beneath this desolate land in the west of the city.

"Immediately organize police forces to conduct a comprehensive search of the back mountain of Qingshipu. We must find the person alive or dead."

Jiang Ruolan turned around, her gaze sharp as a knife. "At the same time, issue a province-wide warrant for Tang Yuanqing's arrest. Although Shen Wangshan's case has been solved, none of those who slipped through the net should be let go."

The search of the back mountain of Qingshipu began that evening and lasted all night.

Jiang Ruolan personally took charge and directed the operation.

All the ground-penetrating radar and search dogs dispatched by the provincial department were put into operation, and criminal investigation technicians used a grid method to divide the mountain valley into more than twenty blocks, probing downwards block by block.

Simultaneously, a site re-inspection was being conducted in the reed marshes along the Qinglong River, with walkie-talkies ringing out from both sides. The entire back mountain was illuminated as if it were daytime by police lights and searchlights.

At 3:17 a.m., the ground-penetrating radar detected an abnormal signal next to an abandoned quarry on the north slope of the back mountain of Qingshipu.

This location is only a little over two kilometers away from the reed marsh where Sun Guangli's body was dumped.

After receiving the report, Jiang Ruolan walked for twenty minutes to reach the scene. In front of her was a small quarry that had been abandoned for many years. The entrance of the quarry was completely covered by overgrown thorns and bushes. If it weren't for the ground-penetrating radar detecting the abnormal echoes underground, it would be impossible to see any traces of human activity with the naked eye.

The excavation began at 3:30 a.m.

Two small excavators were working on the narrow mountain road, and the engineers carefully peeled away the loose soil layer by layer at the pit opening.

Around 5 a.m., when the sky was beginning to turn blue, the bucket hit a stone slab.

It's not a natural rock, but a man-made bluestone slab with neat edges, deliberately buried at a depth of about 1.5 meters.

"There is a hole under the stone slab."

The technician stared at the radar screen, his voice trembling with barely suppressed tension. "The echoes show that there's nothing below, about a meter deep."

Engineers used steel cables to lift the stone slabs.

The moment the stone slab was removed, a strong, pungent smell of humus, mixed with something deeper and heavier, rose from the bottom of the pit...

...........