Anti-gang campaign: Female bureau chief

The Chengguan Town National Highway Service Area is a very small service area with only a gas station, a simple public toilet, and a small shop selling instant noodles and bottled water.

Jiang Ruolan's convoy quietly stopped outside the service area without turning on its hazard lights.

She ordered the special police to split into two groups: one group blocked off the two exits of the service area, while the other group followed her into the service area to conduct a search.

There weren't many people in the service area. The two gas station staff were playing on their phones, the shopkeeper was dozing off, and an old man was squatting outside the public toilet smoking a pipe.

Jiang Ruolan walked to the window of the convenience store and showed the proprietress a photo of Tang Yuanqing.

The proprietress squinted for a while, then suddenly gestured with her chin towards the direction behind the service area:

"This man bought a pack of cigarettes from me about two hours ago. He walked down that dirt road behind the house, where there are a few abandoned chicken farms that nobody usually goes. I noticed he was walking suspiciously, so I didn't ask him anything."

The dirt road was narrow, and wild grass, about waist-high, grew on both sides.

Jiang Ruolan and the special police walked along the dirt road for about 500 meters. Ahead, they came to a row of low brick and tile houses. They were simple houses converted from old-fashioned chicken sheds. The walls were peeling, most of the windows were broken, and there were various abandoned chicken coops and rusty tin buckets piled up at the door.

A wisp of white smoke was rising from the roof of the innermost room.

"Tang Yuanqing!"

Lu Zheng drew his pistol and shouted towards the house, "You're surrounded! Come out and surrender!"

His answer was a sharp gunshot.

The bullet flew out of the broken window and hit the ground less than half a meter in front of Lu Zheng's feet, splashing up a clump of dirt.

The special police quickly dispersed, each taking cover, their guns all pointed at the dilapidated house.

After a brief silence, a rough, hoarse voice came from inside the house:

"Don't come any closer! I have a gun. I'll shoot one if one comes, and two if two come!"

Jiang Ruolan stood behind an abandoned chicken coop on the side of the dirt road and said coldly:

"Tang Yuanqing, you can't escape now. The Shiqiao County Public Security Bureau has already surrounded this area. Put down your gun, come out on your own, and we can consider it a surrender."

"fart!"

Tang Yuanqing's voice carried a desperate madness, "Surrender? I have two lives on my hands, surrendering means certain death! You think I don't know that? Shen Wangshan has fallen, you can arrest and execute any small fry like me, and you're talking about surrendering?"

Jiang Ruolan and Lu Zheng exchanged a glance.

Tang Yuanqing's mention of "two lives" clearly refers to Meng Zhaoyang and Sun Guangli.

This statement is tantamount to admitting to the murder.

She lowered her voice and said to Lu Zheng:

"He's stalling for time. These abandoned chicken farms usually have back doors or ventilation shafts. You take two people and go around to the back."

Lu Zheng nodded, crouched down, and walked around the drainage ditch beside the dirt road.

Jiang Ruolan continued to call out to Tang Yuanqing, trying to prolong the conversation and attract his attention.

"Tang Yuanqing, you're right, Shen Wangshan has fallen. But what's the point of you taking the blame for him now that Shen Wangshan has fallen? Killing Meng Zhaoyang wasn't your idea; it was Shen Wangshan who ordered it, wasn't it?"

You are the executor, not the mastermind. As long as you clearly explain what happened back then and distinguish between the primary and secondary aspects, the judge will differentiate the sentencing accordingly.

Don't give me that!

Tang Yuanqing's voice trembled, "I've worked for Shen Wangshan for over ten years. Do you think I don't know what kind of people you police are? You talk a good game, but once you're in jail, you're a completely different person."

"Zhao Biao, you guys agreed to leniency too, right? What was the final sentence? Life imprisonment! I fucking killed someone and buried the body, at the very least I'd get a suspended death sentence. How lenient can you get?"

Jiang Ruolan narrowed her eyes.

Tang Yuanqing had a clear understanding of the situation outside—he knew that Zhao Biao had been sentenced to life imprisonment, which meant that he had been paying attention to the progress of Shen Wangshan's case during his escape, and that he still had sources of information.

She decided to try a different strategy.

"Tang Yuanqing, we've got the information about the phone call you made to your ex-wife. You said you were in Shiqiao, and that you had some money hidden in the old place, and asked her to go and get it."

But we've already set up surveillance on the address you gave her. You're now trapped; your only way out is to lay down your gun.

Silence fell over the house.

Jiang Ruolan continued to increase her bets:

"Do you think anyone in Shiqiao will come to your aid? Fengmao's people in Shiqiao, from the mines to the sand and gravel plants, have either been arrested or fled."

You think you still have brothers in Shiqiao? Go out and see if anyone in Shiqiao dares to associate with Fengmao anymore.

The silence lasted for about ten seconds.

Then, a hoarse laugh came from inside the house, a laugh that contained absurdity, despair, and a hint of hysteria.

"You're right, I'm at my wit's end."

Tang Yuanqing said, his voice suddenly becoming calm, a calmness that sent chills down one's spine, "But I, Tang Yuanqing, have lived for over forty years. I dare not say anything else, but there is one thing no one can compare to—no one can take my life away. Not God, not Shen Wangshan, and certainly not you police officers."

Jiang Ruolan's inner alarm bells were ringing.

She knew that tone all too well—the tone of someone making a final decision.

She suddenly stood up, about to order a full-scale attack, when Lu Zheng's voice came from behind her:

"Director Jiang, the back door is under control; you can enter at any time—"

Before he could finish speaking, a muffled gunshot rang out from inside the house, startling a few sparrows on the roof.

The gunshot echoed for two seconds in the empty mountain valley, and then everything fell silent.

When the SWAT team broke down the door, Tang Yuanqing was already lying in the corner. He had a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun in his mouth and had pulled the trigger with his toes.

The shotgun shell entered through the jaw and exited through the skull, splattering a large patch of dark red on the mottled earthen wall.

Jiang Ruolan walked into the dilapidated house filled with the smell of gunpowder and blood, and stared at the curled-up corpse in the corner for a long time.

Tang Yuanqing died, taking with him all the details about the deaths of Meng Zhaoyang and Sun Guangli, as well as the undiscovered secrets surrounding the Fengmao Group.

His death was an escape from the law and yet another betrayal of all the victims' families—Meng Zhaoyang's mother will never know what her son went through before his death, and Wu Xiulan will never know why her husband had to die.

But Tang Yuanqing's death itself is also a confession.

His suicide proved Jiang Ruolan's reasoning about the Sun Guangli case correct—the leather shoe left in the reeds, the worn-out pigeon-toed feet, his fingers that were pinched in the same way as Meng Zhaoyang's, and the chicken farm hidden in the mountains behind the stone bridge—all pointed to the same person....

...........