Chapter 29: Triggering the Case Conclusion

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Ye Sang had pulled up the case files concerning Lin Xue—not the case surrounding his death, but the one that had previously sent him to prison.

Once Lin Xue’s history was confirmed, the logic behind the other man’s death would become clear as well.

Twelve days had passed since the game began. Ye Sang still had no clue who the real murderer was, and even she was beginning to feel a trace of pressure.

The case files were numerous and chaotic. Since several years had passed, reading them was as unpleasant as going through the case involving Qin Jiang’s wife and child. Perhaps it was because of the era she came from; she was accustomed to doing everything on electronic devices, with offices having essentially gone paperless.

She could almost remember anything after seeing it once. Why “almost”? Because she always felt that after taking the medicine, her mind was not as sharp as before, and her memory had deteriorated as well. She could no longer achieve the same level of instant recall.

As she turned the pages one by one, Lin Xue’s history gradually emerged.

Like the Scene Kid, this man had also gone to prison for theft. The difference was that he had committed the crime as part of a gang and had been caught red-handed, earning himself three years behind bars.

Like the Scene Kid, he had not hesitated to drop to the ground and clutch his head when caught. The two were truly worthy of being friends. He had nearly been beaten to death.

After all, in the early 1990s, people were notoriously fierce.

How should she put it?

It was an entirely ordinary criminal record.

Yet among the names of the gang members listed in the file, Ye Sang spotted one that seemed vaguely familiar.

Zhao Tianman? So that was how the two had met.

Ye Sang felt that she ought to look through Zhao Tianman’s case file as well.

After she told Gu Ling, Gu Ling went to retrieve it for her.

Once she had finished, Ye Sang immediately began reading Zhao Tianman’s file.

Who exactly was the real murderer Zhao Tianman knew—the person who had lived in his home? That person was extraordinarily cunning. Though they had lived and slept there, they had left behind not a single fingerprint or strand of hair.

Zhao Tianman’s file was even longer. He had been imprisoned three separate times.

Still, persistence paid off. At last, among the stacks of documents, Ye Sang found a familiar name hidden within.

A familiar name, naturally, meant one she had seen before.

“Feng Yude,” she read aloud.

Gu Ling leaned over beside her head and looked at the name. “What about him?”

“Tell us,” Zheng He said. By now, he was thoroughly convinced by Ye Sang. She might be a newcomer, but in reality, she was a monster.

Of course, “monster” was meant as praise.

“Come on, tell us! My brain isn’t very good, so spell it out for me.”

“Watching Sang Sang go through these files has left me completely stunned. I want to know too.”

“Be more direct. For example, say it like I would: Honey, tell me!”

Ye Sang looked at the two expectant faces before her—perhaps at the audience watching the livestream as well—and slowly said, “He was the kidnapper who abducted and brutally murdered Qin Jiang’s wife and child.”

Gu Ling and Zheng He both stiffened. Their scalps prickled as they turned together toward the case file.

“In other words, Zhao Tianman and Feng Yude knew each other many years ago, and Zhao Tianman also knew Lin Xue?” Gu Ling analyzed.

“So Lin Xue was very likely acquainted with Feng Yude as well.” Zheng He pointed at Lin Xue’s name. “If that’s the case, then the murderer’s motive for killing Lin Xue wasn’t so simple either, was it?”

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Ye Sang lowered her eyes and thought in silence before saying, “I think Captain Chen may have known these people. He was actually very familiar with both Zhao Tianman and Lin Xue, which is why he initially chose to tell us to stop investigating. The murderer also knew that he was aware of those two men’s existence, so they deliberately killed them, forcing Captain Chen to interfere and create this miscarriage of justice…”

“Truly, every move was calculated!”

“If Sang Sang hadn’t found this breakthrough, would the case have ended right there?”

“I owe Captain Chen an apology. I suspected him before and thought he had condemned Qin Jiang without any basis. I never imagined that he, too, had been drawn into the murderer’s calculations—that the murderer was using what he knew to carry out all this.”

“Am I the only one who thinks the murderer truly hated Qin Jiang to the bone?”

The entire livestream audience was stunned by this sudden revelation. Even the question of Captain Chen had been answered.

Gu Ling and Zheng He exchanged looks, both feeling as though everything had suddenly become clear.

Many things they considered unreasonable might be perfectly reasonable from someone else’s perspective.

At that thought, bitter smiles appeared on both their faces.

Ye Sang said nothing. She looked at Lin Xue’s name. “There’s one more thing. I suspect that Lin Xue and Zhao Tianman were connected to the kidnapping of Qin Jiang’s wife and child. After seven or eight years, it won’t be easy to investigate, so we’ll need to work overtime.”

They naturally had to question Captain Chen, but he certainly would not know much. If he had known that someone with such deep hatred for Qin Jiang existed, he would never have stopped them from seeking revenge.

So questioning Captain Chen would not yield many clues. They would have to rely on themselves.

Zheng He and Gu Ling quickly agreed. The most direct approach was to question someone like Zhao Tianqi, Zhao Tianman’s only relative.

They could also seek out the kidnapper’s family and try to obtain information from them.

Finally, they needed to confirm the deceased’s DNA.

Fortunately, the technicians were already conducting the comparison. It was a substantial amount of work, and they were busy as well. The results might not arrive until that afternoon or evening, though no one knew the exact timing.

Ye Sang and Zheng He went out to investigate, while Gu Ling went to question Captain Chen and Zhao Tianqi.

They split up to save time.

They also needed to inform Captain Chen that the matter was not yet over.

Under the blazing sun, Ye Sang and Zheng He arrived at the home of the kidnapper, Feng Yude.

Following the address, they drove directly to the residential compound, then went up to the third floor. Zheng He knocked on the door.

An elderly man with graying hair opened it. He stared blankly at the two of them. When he heard that they were police officers, he moved aside numbly to let them in.

“Are you here to tell me that my granddaughter is dead?” the old man asked, turning around and walking inside.

Ye Sang and Zheng He exchanged a glance. Among the missing girls of the appropriate age, one really was the kidnapper’s daughter.

Zheng He marveled inwardly. Ye Sang’s guess had been uncannily accurate.

Although they were certain in their hearts, they could not make such an accusation without evidence. He could only say, “We’d like to ask whether your eldest son knew these people back then.”

He placed two photographs on the glass coffee table in front of the old man and gestured for him to look.

Perhaps the elderly man had weathered too many storms, or perhaps his heart had already turned to ash. He said nothing, merely sighed before picking up the photographs and bringing them close to his eyes.

After studying them for a long while, he called toward the kitchen, “Old woman, come take a look. They’re asking if you recognize these two.”

A slightly stooped figure emerged from the kitchen and stood beside her husband. She took the photographs and examined them.

“I know them. What were their names…” She thought for a moment. “One was called Zhao Tianman. He was a petty thief. The one beside him seems to have been surnamed Lin. Back then, he used to loaf around and wander the streets with my good-for-nothing eldest son.”

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“What happened?” the old woman asked Ye Sang and Zheng He.

Ye Sang lowered her eyes. “We’re investigating something involving them. Do you remember whether, when your eldest son kidnapped a mother and child, these two men showed any unusual behavior?”

The room fell silent.

No matter how useless Feng Yude had been, he was still their son. Mentioning the dead brought a heavier silence to both their faces.

After a while, the old man, seated on the sofa, spoke. “No, I don’t think so. Everything was done by that wretched son of ours.”

“However, the police who investigated us back then asked the same question,” the old woman added.

Ye Sang changed her approach. “Did you see either of them during that period? Or perhaps all three of them hated the husband of the woman who was kidnapped. Was there some grudge between them? Can you tell me about it?”

Although the case files mentioned it, she wanted to understand the actual conflict more clearly.

She felt that certain things could not be as simple as they appeared.

After thinking for a moment, the old man remembered something. “Before the kidnapping, I can’t say whether the three of them knew each other. Zhao Tianman seemed to have been arrested. I only knew that my son and Lin Xue were close. They even went out to handle some kind of business. Qin Jiang seemed to be investigating them at the time. Once, when I was going upstairs, I happened to hear them say something about finishing the job and then quitting.”

His son was already dead, so the old man revealed everything without reservation. There was no point in protecting him anymore.

“Thank you.” Ye Sang nodded. “Regarding what happened before your granddaughter disappeared, did anything seem unusual? Had she recently met anyone new?”

At the mention of their granddaughter, sorrow deepened across both elderly faces.

“I don’t know much,” the old woman said. “I only know that during that period, she was constantly holding her phone, often smiling at the screen. She went out one evening more than half a month ago and never came back. We thought she had simply gone out to buy something. But when we realized we couldn’t reach her by phone, we reported her missing.”

Ye Sang recorded the information and said, “Regarding your granddaughter, we’ll do everything we can to find her…”

“La-la-la-la…”

At that moment, Zheng He’s phone rang.

He rose and instinctively walked outside to answer it. But in the next second, his face froze. He turned back toward the elderly couple seated and half-reclining on the sofa in the living room.

He could not bear to say it, but he eventually spoke. “The DNA results are back. The deceased has been confirmed as your granddaughter…”

The two elders looked dazed and asked him to repeat himself.

Zheng He repeated what he had just said.

When they realized that their granddaughter had met with disaster, tears instantly filled their faces.

Zheng He comforted them, contacted the old couple’s second son, and only then left to return to the station.

The clues they had now were that Feng Yude and Lin Xue had known each other, and that Qin Jiang had personally discovered they were involved in something at the time.

The kidnapping of his wife and child might not have been motivated solely by their earlier grudge. It was also possible that Qin Jiang’s investigation had interfered with their interests, prompting them to abduct his family.

The identity of the deceased had also been confirmed: Feng Lian, the daughter of the kidnapper Feng Yude.

“Retrieve the call records and find out who arranged to meet her. Check her social media accounts too—Penguin, for example. Have someone break into them and look through the chat history,” Zheng He instructed efficiently.

The girl’s phone was missing. These were the only remaining avenues of investigation.

When the two returned to the station, Gu Ling also came back with the records from her questioning.

“Zhao Tianqi stated that Zhao Tianman, Feng Yude, and Lin Xue were very close back then. The three of them seemed to have drawn up a whole pile of plans, and they even had a gun. But before Zhao Tianman could take action, he was arrested for theft.” She paused. “As for Lin Xue, Zhao Tianqi doesn’t know. But that man was no good. He looked timid and cowardly, yet in reality, he was obsessed with money.”

“Could they have been planning to rob an armored cash transport vehicle? Qin Jiang discovered them and ruined their plan before they could carry it out. They held a grudge and kidnapped his family. Lin Xue was definitely involved, but he was timid and cunning. Perhaps he turned against the others halfway through, before they could kill the hostages.”