Anti-gang campaign: Female bureau chief

Jiang Ruolan's voice wasn't loud, but everyone in the conference room could hear it clearly: "Fengmao has collapsed, Shen Wangshan is dead, but there are still some executors on this list who haven't come to justice."

Some are on the run, and some we haven't discovered yet.

From now on, you will check each name on the list one by one—who is the person in charge of each person's work, who is the person in charge of monitoring them, and where they are currently located.

For those still at large, issue arrest warrants; for those already apprehended, provide this evidence; for those already deceased, secure the evidence to give the victims' families a complete resolution.

Her gaze swept across the faces of everyone present. "The existence of this list is to be kept secret for now. Especially from Sun Zhengyang."

He repeatedly mentioned Song Ya and the construction site in the east of the city during the interrogation, but he never mentioned this list. He may not have known it, or he may have known but chose not to say.

Given his experience and alertness, I'm inclined to believe he knows but has chosen to conceal it. He shouldn't see a single word of this list until he's fully disclosed everything he's been hiding.

The task force started working overnight.

The names in the thirty-seven-line list were assigned to four groups, each responsible for verifying a batch of victims.

The forensic team simultaneously expanded the search of the excavation site at the construction site in the east of the city—ground-penetrating radar detected two more abnormal signals at a deeper level, and the excavation work is proceeding against the clock.

The hospital informed us that Song Ya's condition was temporarily stable and she could be questioned further, but each questioning session could not exceed forty minutes.

Jiang Ruolan did not return to her dormitory.

She lay on the cot in her office for more than two hours, and then went to the construction site in the east of the city before dawn.

The cold winter wind made the searchlights on the construction site sway slightly, casting long and short shadows of the technicians who were cleaning the soil in the tunnel.

The excavator had dug to a depth of four and a half meters underground, and the bucket was carefully scooping up a mud-covered object from the bottom of the pit—a piece of hemp rope that was mostly rotten, and a piece of old clothing that had been soaked in mud so much that its original color was no longer visible.

The search dog crouched at the edge of the tunnel, whimpering softly at the bottom, its two front paws constantly scratching at the rubble on the ground.

Forensic pathologist Lao Zheng stood at the edge of the tunnel, holding a walkie-talkie. His voice was hoarse from exhaustion from working non-stop, but there was a calm and resolute quality unique to veteran forensic pathologists in his tone:

"The fourth body. The time of death was earlier than the three above, and the preliminary judgment is that it was at least six years ago."

The body was poorly preserved; waterlogged water at the bottom of the pit had rotted most of the soft tissue, but the skeleton remained intact. The cause of death was the same as the three bodies mentioned above—multiple depressed fractures on the posterior side of the skull, and the murder weapon was the same type of blunt, angular instrument.

More than an hour later, the excavator carefully lowered itself into the location designated by Lao Zheng. The bucket hit something hard, making a dull metallic clanging sound.

The technicians gathered around and used shovels and brushes to carefully remove the mud around the hard object.

As the outline of the object gradually became clear, everyone in the tunnel fell silent for several seconds.

It was an industrial blue iron drum, exactly the same as the one found half a year ago in a deep pit in an abandoned quarry in the north of the city, which contained Xu Guangfa's remains.

The iron drum was rusted and bore the red logo of the Fengmao Group. The lid was welded shut.

Sparks flew everywhere in the darkest pre-dawn light as the technician used an angle grinder to cut open the welds on the bucket lid.

After all the welds were cut off, Lao Zheng personally used a crowbar to pry open the lid of the iron bucket.

A strong stench of decay, mixed with the smell of rust and silt, wafted from the barrel opening, and several search dogs simultaneously howled above the tunnel.

A skeleton was curled up inside the iron bucket.

The deceased was a male, whose skull also showed obvious blunt force trauma marks. His hands were tied behind his back, and the knot was tied in a very professional way—a sailor's knot, which tightened the more he struggled.

This kind of knot is not something an ordinary person can tie.

Preliminary assessments at the scene by forensic experts indicated that the deceased had been dead for at least seven to eight years, earlier than Chen Xiufang and Wu Guilan.

Based on Zhou Wenxuan's "Summary Table of Special Event Handling Records", the deceased in this iron barrel is likely one of the first few names on the list - those victims who died in earlier years and were buried in more hidden locations.

As dawn broke, the forensic team completed the initial on-site investigation.

The excavation area of ​​the demolition site in the east of the city has been further expanded, and all foundation tunnels belonging to the "Fengmao New City" period in the construction plan have been included in the search area.

The three additional search teams dispatched by the provincial department have arrived, and their detection equipment covers the entire construction site in the east of the city.

On the list of thirty-seven locations, the second burial site is about to be completely excavated, while the remaining sixteen sites lie quietly in some corner of Yi'an, waiting for the day they will be found.

Jiang Ruolan stood on a high point at the edge of the construction site, watching the dawn gradually paint the eastern horizon red, slowly fading the white light from the searchlights on the site.

Her phone vibrated; Lu Zheng had sent her a message:

"The search team has set off for the third burial site on the list—an abandoned sulfuric acid pool at the former site of the Shiqiao County Phosphate Fertilizer Plant."

Also present was the accomplice we had identified when Tang Yuanqing was apprehended at the chicken farm behind Shiqiao Mountain. During interrogation, he confessed to participating in the details of burying the body at the phosphate fertilizer plant.

Immediately following, another message came in: a notice of assistance forwarded by the provincial department—after receiving news of Song Ya's rescue, Zhou Wenxuan submitted a supplementary statement through the detention center.

He admitted to the existence of the "Summary Table of Special Incident Handling Records," admitted that the hard drive was hidden in the chicken coop at Song Zhigang's chicken farm, and revealed a detail that had never appeared in any case file:

In the former site of the Fengmao Group's phosphate fertilizer plant in Shiqiao County, in addition to the two victims buried at the bottom of the sulfuric acid pool, there is also an abandoned old power distribution room where a person who was personally executed by Shen Wangshan is buried.

This person was neither an employee of Fengmao nor a whistleblower, but a drug dealer from another province. He had stolen Shen Wangshan's goods through a double-cross, and Shen Wangshan personally smashed his head with a crowbar. His body was then poured into the concrete foundation of the power distribution room.

Only Shen Wangshan, Zhou Wenxuan, and Ren Pengfei knew about this; even Tang Yuanqing wasn't involved. Just how much did Shen Wangshan hate this person? He wanted to kill him and bury him himself, not letting anyone else do it for him.

Jiang Ruolan put her phone back in her pocket and turned to walk towards the SUV parked by the roadside.

This time she's going to Shiqiao and will personally lead the team.

Winter in Yi'an is gray and gloomy, but sunlight seeps through the gaps in the clouds, illuminating the construction site riddled with holes, the figures of police officers working busily in the mud, and the secrets of this city, buried for twenty years, being gradually revealed.

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