Anti-gang campaign: Female bureau chief

Lu Zheng flipped through the New Jersey case files and shook his head:

"No. But the visit records in the New South Wales case file are very incomplete. At the time, the police officers handling the case only visited Fang Zhiqing's immediate family members and a few colleagues, and did not conduct an in-depth investigation of her social circle."

The case was shelved three months later and has not been progressed since.

"Why is it hung up?"

Lu Zheng turned to the last page of the case file and found the answer. His expression became somewhat complicated:

"At that time, the deputy head of the criminal investigation branch of Xinzhou Public Security Bureau signed a line on the last page of the case file: 'After extensive investigation, no strong evidence has been found, and it is recommended to postpone the investigation.'"

The deputy branch chief who signed the document was named Sun Zhengyang. He was later transferred to the provincial department and is now a division-level cadre under the provincial criminal investigation corps.

Sun Zhengyang.

Jiang Ruolan wrote down the name.

A murder case that remained unsolved for three years was "temporarily suspended from investigation." Three years later, the same modus operandi reappeared in a neighboring city, and yet another girl died.

What was the killer doing during those three years? Where was he? Did he harm anyone else?

That evening, Zhao Rui sent over the results of the investigation into "Ah Hai".

There are more than 400 men in Yian and the three surrounding counties whose names contain the character "Hai" and who are between 20 and 35 years old, of whom 67 have criminal records.

After comparing Su Nian's call records and social media accounts one by one, three suspects were initially identified.

One of them was a local hoodlum named Liu Haitao, 25 years old, with prior convictions for theft and disorderly conduct. He knew Su Nian's cousin.

One of them is Zhou Haipeng, a 28-year-old man from Shiqiao County. He has a prior conviction for intentional injury and used to work odd jobs in Yi'an.

There was another man named Ding Hai, 31 years old, from New South Wales, with no criminal record, but who used to be Fang Zhiqing's colleague.

Jiang Ruolan's gaze lingered on the third name.

Ding Hai, a native of New South Wales, used to work at the same company as Fang Zhiqing.

The company is called Xinzhou Longsheng Trading Co., Ltd., with a registered capital of five million yuan, and its main business is building materials trading.

According to business registration information, this company was deregistered two years ago.

In Fang Zhiqing's case file, after the police officers visited her workplace, they only wrote one sentence in the record: "Her colleagues said that she usually behaved well and no abnormalities were found."

Just this one sentence.

Lu Zheng also noticed this detail: "A female accountant who had been employed for less than a year was murdered. When the police officers handling the case visited her workplace, they only wrote a one-sentence statement."

They didn't even ask which colleagues she had close relationships with or whether she had any conflicts with anyone. The depth of their investigation was practically nonexistent.

Jiang Ruolan did not comment on the quality of the case handling back then, she only said:

"Check Ding Hai's current whereabouts. If he has appeared in Yi An, cross-reference his movements with Su Nian's movements."

Furthermore, investigate how he and Su Nian met—both are university students from New South Wales and Ngee Ann. Their social circles shouldn't overlap. Finding a point of intersection would establish a connection between them.

Two days later, the technical department completed the full composition analysis of the lipstick mark found at the crime scene.

The test report shows that the lipstick mark contains a special combination of pigments and pearlescent additives. This combination is a patented formula of a niche French brand, and there are only three distributors in China.

The brand only sells sixty of the same color in mainland China, and the sales channels for each one can be traced back to the specific address and buyer information.

Based on this identification, the task force traced the specific whereabouts of the lipstick.

Last November, three lipsticks of the same shade from this brand were sold on an e-commerce platform. One of them was delivered to the old town area in the east of Yi'an City. The recipient was Su Nian herself.

In other words, the lipstick mark on Su Nian's lips that didn't belong to her came from a lipstick that was the same color as one she had bought, but not the same one.

The mark left on her lips came from someone else who owned the same lipstick—and that person was the murderer.

Following this lead, the task force traced back to the buyers of two other lipsticks in the same color. One of the buyers was a female graduate student in the provincial capital who had stayed at the school throughout the time of the incident and had a solid alibi.

The buyer of the other shipment was a local male from Ngee Ann – the recipient's name was listed as "Ding Hai".

The task force followed Ding Hai's lead and uncovered something far deeper than anyone had anticipated.

Ding Hai, 31 years old, is from Xinzhou. His registered address is an old state-owned enterprise family compound in Yanjiang District, Xinzhou City.

His parents divorced when he was ten years old. After his mother remarried, she moved with him to Shiqiao County, Yi'an City. His stepfather was a worker at the Shiqiao County Phosphate Fertilizer Plant.

After finishing junior high school in Shiqiao, Ding Hai did not continue his studies. Instead, he became an apprentice at a car repair shop in the county town. Later, he worked as a car washer, a courier, and a night shift security guard, but he did not stay in any job for long.

His social security records are sporadic, and his most recent formal job was three years ago as a warehouse manager at Longsheng Trading Co., Ltd. in Xinzhou City—it was there that he met Fang Zhiqing.

Less than half a month after Fang Zhiqing was killed, Ding Hai resigned and left Xinzhou.

For the next three years, his whereabouts became a mystery. His social security contributions stopped, his bank cards had almost no usage records, and the only mobile phone number under his name was canceled in the month he resigned.

This person seemed to have vanished from the world, with no record of leaving the province or any trace of a normal life in any city.

The task force analyzed that he likely survived by doing odd jobs and cash transactions, deliberately avoiding all social management systems that require real-name authentication.

Now, a lipstick whose purchase history can be traced back to an e-commerce platform has brought his name back into the spotlight.

"A man bought an imported lipstick that cost several hundred yuan. The delivery address was a courier collection point in the eastern part of Yi'an City."

Lu Zheng slammed the data from the e-commerce platform onto the table, frowned, and said...

"He placed the order in May of this year, which was last month. The recipient was listed as Ding Hai, and the contact number was a local mobile number from Yi An."

However, this number was switched off after Su Nian was killed. The last known location from the cell tower was in the old town area in the east of the city, less than 500 meters from the crime scene.

Jiang Ruolan picked up the base station location map and slid her finger along the red signal trajectory on the map.

..............