Anti-gang campaign: Female bureau chief

"Found it." Lu Zheng opened his notebook. "The deceased's name was Yu Xiaomei, 27 years old, from Wanzhou, Chongqing. She had been working in Yi'an for five years."

She had lived in this rented house for almost two years, and usually worked as a waitress at a KTV in the west of the city. It was a small place opened by the former managers of Shen Wangshan's old Golden Coast Club after it was shut down. It wasn't big, but business was alright.

Yu Xiaomei's roommate said that Yu Xiaomei has been financially better off in the last month or two. She got a new phone and a gold necklace. Her salary at the KTV is only three or four thousand yuan a month, which is not enough for her to buy a gold necklace in Yi'an.

Her roommate suspected that she had some quick way to make money outside.

In addition, and most importantly, there was a number in Yu Xiaomei's phone records that had spoken with Zhao Baoshan.

The atmosphere in the meeting room suddenly became tense.

Lu Zheng projected a call log onto the large screen and circled two adjacent records with a laser pointer: "Zhao Baoshan's mobile phone number and Yu Xiaomei's mobile phone number had a call the afternoon before the incident, lasting two minutes. This was the only direct contact between the two people."

Prior to this, their communication records showed no overlap, and their social circles did not intersect.

Zhao Baoshan is a 49-year-old building materials supplier, and Yu Xiaomei is a 27-year-old KTV waitress; their lives would almost never intersect. Unless an intermediary connects them.

"Or perhaps Zhao Baoshan found Yu Xiaomei through some means and turned her into some kind of 'asset'."

Yu Xiaomei works at the Golden Coast KTV, a place where all sorts of people come from all over the country; it's a hub for information.

If Zhao Baoshan or those behind him needed someone to gather intelligence and pass on messages in that kind of situation, Yu Xiaomei would be the most suitable candidate.

Jiang Ruolan put down the laser pointer, resting her hands on the table. "She provides information, and Zhao Baoshan pays her."

But she learned things she shouldn't have known, or made choices she shouldn't have made in some matter.

Her death was the same as Ma Guoqing's—strangled with a towel. The killer didn't want to make a scene and tried to make it look like an accident. But their methods betrayed them—it was the work of the same group.

At 4:30 a.m., the pursuit of Zhao Baoshan and the in-depth investigation into Yu Xiaomei's social relationships began simultaneously.

Lu Zheng led his men to Zhao Baoshan's residence in the east of Yi'an City, only to find it empty—neither Zhao Baoshan nor his wife were home. Half of the clothes in the wardrobe were missing, and the cash and bankbooks in the bedside table drawer were gone, clearly indicating that they had hastily packed their things and fled.

Zhao Baoshan's wife's phone was switched off, and a white pickup truck registered under their names had also disappeared.

Lu Zheng found a crumpled bank withdrawal receipt in the bedroom trash can—Zhao Baoshan withdrew 50,000 yuan in cash on the morning of New Year's Eve. Combined with the signal trajectory of his previously switched-off mobile phone, the location near the long-distance bus station, and the call records with the two deceased, all signs pointed to one conclusion: Zhao Baoshan knew what would happen on New Year's Eve. He made preparations in advance, withdrew the cash, participated in or planned the operation, and then fled immediately after the operation was completed.

At six o'clock in the morning, before it was fully light, the lights in the task force's meeting room were still on.

Jiang Ruolan stood by the window, drank a cup of strong tea, and watched the horizon outside gradually turn white.

Lu Zheng had only been dozing off in the conference room chair for less than an hour when his phone vibrated and woke him up. After answering the call, he sat up, his tiredness replaced by a sharp alertness.

"Director Jiang, the traffic police just reported an important piece of information. Ma Guoqing's bank card—the same Rural Commercial Bank savings card that pays his wages at the construction site—had its balance checked at an ATM in the east of the city at 12:17 AM today."

The inquiry revealed no withdrawals, only the balance was checked. However, the other party used the correct password.

It was stuck on Ma Guoqing's body; he had been dead for several hours.

The person checking his card at the ATM at midnight is either the murderer himself, or the murderer gave his card number and PIN to someone else.

"I checked my balance at midnight and there was no money withdrawn." Jiang Ruolan put down her teacup and tapped her fingers lightly on the windowsill. "It's not about the money."

If it's for the money, just withdraw it directly. If you check your balance and don't withdraw, it means the money isn't your goal.

They were checking whether the card could still be used normally—or rather, whether the bank account associated with the card had been frozen by the police after Ma Guoqing's death.

This was a trial run, designed to test the police's response speed.

If they find that the account has not been frozen, it means that our investigation into this case has not yet extended to this stage.

Therefore, the killer's target was not only Ma Guoqing's life, but also involved a more complex chain of interests—bank cards, construction sites, material costs, and possibly money laundering.

Her voice lowered, "The murderer not only wanted to kill people, but also wanted to ensure that killing Ma Guoqing would not affect some kind of operation they were carrying out later."

Checking the bank card balance is a trial balloon. If the card isn't frozen, they'll move on to the next step—perhaps transferring funds, or using the same method on others.

At 7:00 a.m. on the first day of the Lunar New Year, the task force submitted a preliminary case report to the provincial department, officially classifying the "New Year's Eve serial murders" as "organized violent crimes" and applying for a higher level of handling.

Zhou Pei called to say that the provincial department had approved it, and he was coming directly from the provincial capital and would arrive in Yi'an in the morning.

Meanwhile, the technical team from the Provincial Criminal Investigation Corps also set off from the provincial capital, bringing more sophisticated footprint analysis equipment and DNA rapid comparison instruments to Yi'an to provide support.

Jiang Ruolan hung up the phone, stood by the office window, and looked out at Yi'an City, which was illuminated by the morning light.

The snow on the streets was swept into dusty piles by the early-rising sanitation workers and piled up on the curb. The white smoke from the breakfast stalls rose again, and the lady selling soy milk and fried dough sticks was scooping out the first batch of fried dough sticks and placing them on an iron rack to drain the oil.

The city lost two lives amidst the sound of firecrackers on New Year's Eve, while most people were still immersed in the joy of the New Year, completely unaware of what had happened in the prefab houses in the north of the city and the rental houses in the west of the city.

Her phone rang again; this time it was Lu Zheng calling: "Director Jiang, Zhao Baoshan's pickup truck has been found."

In the parking lot of Yi'an Long-Distance Bus Station, the car was empty, the keys were still in the ignition, and there was a smashed cell phone on the passenger seat—presumably the one he used to contact Yu Xiaomei and Ma Guoqing.

The technical department is already on its way.

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