Anti-gang campaign: Female bureau chief

The woman in the photo is vaguely recognizable as He Guifang in her youth, and the baby should be Ding Hai.

"I haven't seen him for several years."

He Guifang sat at the table, her hands folded on her knees, her tone as indifferent as if she were talking about someone who had nothing to do with her.

"He was arrested once for stealing when he was eighteen. After he got out, he went to work in New South Wales and rarely came back."

The last time I came back was... let me think, it was about four years ago. I stayed at home for two days and then left without saying goodbye.

When they left, they took the two thousand yuan I had hidden under my pillow.

Jiang Ruolan noticed that her expression remained completely unchanged when she said these words—no anger, no sadness, not even disappointment.

It's not the calm that comes from life smoothing out the rough edges, but a numbness that develops after being hurt too many times.

The relationship between He Guifang and her son seems to have been completely severed by something many years ago.

"Are you aware of his job in New South Wales?"

He Guifang shook her head:

"He never talks to me about these things. My son has never spoken to me since he was little. He hates me."

When she said those three words, her tone was still very calm, but her hands on her knees unconsciously clenched. "He hates that I remarried, hates that I brought him to Shiqiao, and hates that his stepfather treated him badly."

But he hated the wrong person—his stepfather, though short-tempered and quick to call him a burden, never deprived him of food or clothing.

He was stubborn from a young age, always feeling that the whole world owed him something.

When did his stepfather pass away?

"Two years ago, he died of liver cancer. Ding Hai didn't even call back when he died, and I handled the funeral arrangements all by myself."

At this point, He Guifang's lips trembled slightly, but she quickly regained her composure. "What do you want with him? Did he steal something again?"

Jiang Ruolan hesitated for a second, then decided not to hide it:

"He is involved in a murder case."

He Guifang remained silent for a long time. She sat there motionless, like a hollowed-out sculpture.

After a long while, she finally spoke, her voice even lower than before:

"He had a cat when he was a child. The cat had been crippled in one leg by someone, and he took it in from outside. He treasured it and shared half of his food with it every day."

Later, the cat went into heat and ran away. He searched for it for three days but couldn't find it. When he came back, he smashed all the bowls in the house.

His stepfather cursed at him, and he rushed into the kitchen, grabbed a cleaver, and tried to attack his stepfather. He was only eleven years old that year.

From that day on, I knew that this child's heart was broken.

He wasn't corrupted by anyone; he was rotten to the core. If you find him, arrest him. Don't let him harm anyone else.

After leaving He Guifang's house, Lu Zheng remained silent in the car for a while before speaking:

"This mother seems to have given up on her son a long time ago."

"It's not about giving up."

Jiang Ruolan started the car, her gaze calmly fixed on the road ahead. "It's fear. She's afraid of her son, and she's been afraid for decades."

Didn't you notice the pile of cardboard in front of her door? She makes a living by collecting recyclables.

A mother who would rather collect recyclables than ask her son for a single penny of alimony shows that she knows what getting close to him would bring her.

As soon as the car left Shiqiao County, Jiang Ruolan's phone rang. It was Zhou Pei calling.

"Ruolan, the investigation into Dinghai Province's whereabouts that you asked me to check has yielded results."

Zhou Pei’s voice carried a suppressed excitement. “His ID card did not have any record of being used outside the province, but he used a fake ID card to stay in Guizhou for nearly two years.”

The fake ID card was in the name "Zhou Hai"—he had a colleague named Zhou Haipeng at the trading company in New South Wales, and this guy impersonated him and changed his birth year.

We found him through a facial recognition system in the temporary residence registration records of a mining area police station in Bijie City, Guizhou Province.

The registration date was last November, meaning he was still in Guizhou at the end of last year.

"A mining area in Guizhou? What does he do at the mine?"

"The registered job title is underground blasting worker. That mine is privately owned, poorly managed, with high staff turnover, and the verification of ID cards is basically a formality."

Ding Hai worked there for more than half a year, and then suddenly left in March of this year without going through the resignation procedures, and he didn't even get paid for the last half month.

The mine owner said that before he left, he told his coworkers, "There's a debt back home that needs to be settled," and then he left.

She left the mine in March, returned to Yi'an in April, bought lipstick in May, and was killed in June—the timeline matches perfectly.

Also, do you need a list of personnel from New South Wales Long Sheng Trading Company?

I simultaneously investigated the whereabouts of Zhou Haipeng—he was one of the people who reported the case of Fang Zhiqing in New Jersey three years ago, and also the last person to see Fang Zhiqing alive.

Jiang Ruolan parked her car on the side of the road and picked up her phone to listen intently.

Zhou Haipeng – this name appeared when Zhao Rui was previously investigating “males whose names contain the character ‘Hai’”.

He is from Shiqiao County, has a prior conviction for intentional injury, and used to work odd jobs in Yi'an.

Now Zhou Pei tells him that this Zhou Haipeng is not only Fang Zhiqing's colleague, but also one of the people who reported Fang Zhiqing's case, and the last person to see Fang Zhiqing.

Ding Hai used his identity to live in Guizhou for two years.

The relationship between these two people is much deeper than just the words "former colleagues".

According to employee records at New South Wales Longsheng, Ding Hai and Zhou Haipeng joined the company in the same month, were assigned to work in the same warehouse, and were assigned to the same employee dormitory.

The two were roommates. After Fang Zhiqing was murdered, Ding Hai resigned and disappeared, while Zhou Haipeng stayed in New Jersey to cooperate with the police investigation and gave two statements.

He then left New South Wales, and his whereabouts are unknown. I've sent both of their files and photos to your phone; you'll understand after taking a look.

Jiang Ruolan opened her phone and clicked on the file sent by Zhou Pei.

Two photos of new employees appeared side by side on the screen—Ding Hai on the left, thin and pale, with gloomy eyes and tightly pursed lips; Zhou Haipeng on the right, with rugged features, dark skin, and a shallow scar on his cheekbone.

Although the two people's facial features are obviously different, from certain angles—especially the contour of their jaws and the arch of their eyebrows—they have an inexplicable similarity.

"Does it look like it?" Zhou Pei asked on the other end of the phone.

"Somewhat similar, but not quite."

Jiang Ruolan zoomed in on the photo and carefully compared the facial features of the two people.

That's because the photo of Zhou Haipeng you saw is from three years ago.

I have also retrieved a photo of Zhou Haipeng taken last year in Bijie, Guizhou, when he was questioned by the local police station. He was also administratively detained by the Bijie police last year for impersonating someone else.

Guess what? Zhou Haipeng in that photo looks almost exactly like Ding Hai.

Jiang Ruolan received the third photo sent by Zhou Pei.

She clicked on it and glanced at it, her pupils suddenly contracting.