Chapter 66: The Death of Zhao Jiang

"Perhaps we can refine this story and turn it into the truth. What do you think?" Wang Ziyang asked with a confident look in his eyes. Aside from Ye Sangsang's questions, his story was airtight, wasn't it?

Just like the car accident.

As long as the chain of evidence was clear, the others would be willing to admit it.

Then, just as with the outcome of the hit-and-run, he would once again evade criminal responsibility.

"I asked you here simply to patch the holes and correct the flaws. As for everything behind the scenes, you have no need to know, do you?" he added.

Ye Sangsang merely looked at him in silence, her gaze calm and indifferent.

More than ten seconds later, for the first time, she shook her head at Wang Ziyang and smiled wryly.

She was mocking Wang Ziyang for being overly confident and naive.

Staring into his face, she scoffed, "You think the car accident was executed flawlessly? Then how did I discover it? If even I couldn't be fooled, how could you possibly fool those seasoned criminal investigators?"

"You don't think they are useless, do you? Aren't you being far too arrogant?"

Wang Ziyang looked at Ye Sangsang with a somewhat bewildered expression. "Is that not possible? Couldn't we just modify it slightly?"

"The fact that I raised one problem with your story doesn't mean there are no others. You claim you were constantly at the construction site during that rush period, but where did you go that day? What did you do, and do you have an alibi?" Ye Sangsang asked.

"You said Zhao Jiang was there for a part-time job, right? To a certain extent, that requires logging him into the site personnel records. So let me ask you, does that record still exist? And if it doesn't, who destroyed it?"

"And most importantly, the clothes! To actually tell the police that they belonged to you—how laughably foolish."

[...Well, well, well. I was just marveling at how perfect the story sounded a moment ago... Now I see I was just being naive.]

[The police are not that easily fooled. Wang Ziyang has never been interrogated before; he has no idea that his excuses are riddled with loopholes.]

[As for the clothes, I thought that was strange too. He confessed voluntarily without any corroborating evidence. If I were a cop, I wouldn't believe your nonsense either.]

Under Ye Sangsang's mocking gaze, Wang Ziyang's facade quickly crumbled. Recalling his previous excuses, he too began to sense the glaring loopholes.

His self-assurance was swiftly dismantled by Ye Sangsang and vanished completely, plunging him into a state of self-doubt.

"The records, the clothes, and the alibi... those can all be explained..." Although plagued by self-doubt, he still stubbornly tried to cling to his narrative.

Ye Sangsang was certainly professional, but a confession like this could potentially lead to the death penalty.

In anyone else's shoes, it would be impossible to easily lower one's psychological defenses.

Yet Ye Sangsang did not press her advantage at that moment. Instead, she stood up, picked up her phone to send a text message, and then fetched a canned coffee from the beverage cabinet prepared in her hotel room, opening it to take a leisurely sip.

She leaned against the cabinet, drinking slowly until she had finished more than half of it, before finally speaking. "The most fatal flaw in a person is overconfidence, especially when facing the police—thinking you can pull the wool over their eyes. The reality is that you couldn't even withstand my questioning."

"Until you tell me the truth, I cannot offer any advice."

Wang Ziyang looked at Ye Sangsang and took a deep breath. "Sometimes, I truly hate clever people like you. It's a good thing you're on my side; otherwise, I completely shudder to think what the consequences of making an enemy of someone like you would be."

He gazed at Ye Sangsang, his face full of admiration.

[Congratulations, you've suddenly hit upon the truth!]

[Reminds me of those novels where people can see the bullet comments. If Wang Ziyang could see the comments right now, he'd probably go insane.]

[The person above, you shouldn't wish for that! If it's a good person, fine, but if a villain could see the bullet comments, it would be a disaster for the victims.]

"Let me be frank. If you remain obstinate and refuse to speak the truth, I think I should leave. You can choose a lawyer who satisfies you to fight this lawsuit." After finishing the last drop of coffee, Ye Sangsang tossed the empty can into the trash bin, stood up, and prepared to leave.

The more you want to achieve a goal, the less impatient you must be.

Take just now, for instance: if she had continuously urged him to tell the truth, she would have met with immediate psychological resistance.

What she needed to do was compel the other party to tell the truth of their own accord.

Criminals will never speak the truth unless driven to a dead end.

Many criminals will refuse to admit guilt in court even when faced with ironclad evidence.

Communicating with clients to unearth the truth is precisely what lawyers in reality must do.

Especially criminal defense lawyers.

Sensing the disappointment in Ye Sangsang's tone, Wang Ziyang panicked and hastily blurted out, "I... I'll talk! But you promised, no matter what happens, you would protect me."

Ye Sangsang looked at Wang Ziyang's face, uttered a cold "Very well," and sat back down at the table they had just been using.

"This matter truly was an accident," Wang Ziyang said, taking a deep breath.

Ye Sangsang keenly noted that he referred to "this matter" rather than the death of Zhao Jiang.

In other words, Zhao Jiang's death was indeed inextricably linked to Wang Ziyang.

Furthermore, an "accident" could very well be a man-made one.

After turning this over in her mind, she remembered the red wine he had poured for her earlier, retrieved it, and placed it before him. "Take your time. You need to trust in my capability as a lawyer."

Wang Ziyang took the glass of red wine, tilted his head back, and drank it all down in one go. "What you said just now—that Zhao Jiang's affair was related to the project—was right. This whole thing starts with that project..."

Four years ago, Wang Ziyang was just a lowly grunt at the construction site. He was the kind of person who had to obey unconditionally, no matter who was giving orders.

A year later, he had climbed to the rank of a junior site supervisor.

Such a rate of promotion was considered fairly normal.

This was largely thanks to his family's wealth, decent connections, and some minor social capital, which enabled his advancement.

After the first phase of the Dongdi Urban Construction project was successfully completed and sold out like hotcakes, the second phase became the most coveted prize within the company.

Everyone whispered that securing this project meant securing a permanent foothold in the firm.

Thus, the position of project manager was fiercely contested.

Logically speaking, how could such a role ever fall to a junior supervisor?

Yet, a month and a half into the second phase, Wang Ziyang was promoted to project manager—and overall director of the project—under the pretext of the company appreciating his educational background and business acumen.

"I was ecstatic at the time. The highest position I'd held in previous companies was just a minor team lead. I never imagined that shortly after changing jobs, I'd leap straight to project manager, with a potential promotion to deputy general manager down the line. To me, it was no different from pie falling from the sky."

Wang Ziyang gestured to Ye Sangsang, his eyes still retaining the ambition he had felt upon receiving that promotion.

Ye Sangsang cut straight to the point: "Lacking competence yet occupying a position of power invites disaster."

"You're right. Once I took the post, I often felt like a mere puppet. It was also then that I learned the previous project manager had resigned on his own accord." He gave a bitter laugh, pressing a hand to his brow with a wretched expression.

Ye Sangsang found it quite comical.

People like this would always play the victim first, no matter what.

Yet if he were truly miserable, he wouldn't have become the deputy general manager of Dongdi Urban Construction.

He could only have reached where he was today by embracing the darkness behind the scenes.

Otherwise, how could he possibly walk away unscathed after discovering the truth?

As for playing the victim, it was already a habit for them—much like capitalists who fancied themselves benevolent for providing jobs while maintaining a strict silence on their own exploitation.

Suppressing the speculation rising in her heart, Ye Sangsang did not refute him. Instead, she offered sympathetic agreement: "You were used, weren't you?"

Wang Ziyang nodded and resumed his tale.

After becoming project manager, he gradually realized something was amiss because many of the documents requiring his signature were just rushed through; he had no time to examine their contents in detail.

Moreover, shady activities were being covertly concealed, and it wasn't until later that he discovered the construction had cut corners right from the foundations.

In other words, the engineering was severely flawed, and once completed, the building's lifespan would be vastly inferior to ordinary residential structures. In the event of a natural disaster like an earthquake or flood, the buildings would crumble like tofu.

"I tried telling my superiors to halt everything and rebuild from scratch..." Wang Ziyang clenched his fists. "But the higher-ups told me that earthquakes hadn't occurred here in decades, and floods wouldn't reach that particular residential area, telling me not to worry."

Despair filled Wang Ziyang's eyes.

He looked at Ye Sangsang. "I know you don't believe someone like me has a sense of justice. I admit, I had selfish motives at the time. After all, if disaster truly struck, according to the principle of lifetime accountability, I would go to prison and couldn't possibly shirk responsibility."

"Do records of your feedback still exist? What else did you do afterward, or did you simply turn a blind eye and let the matter slide?" Ye Sangsang pondered for a moment before adding, "And what role did Zhao Jiang play in all this?"

Wang Ziyang opened his mouth, clenched his fists tighter, and continued answering Ye Sangsang, "You know how it is in the construction industry; you have to keep your wits about you. The phone calls from back then were recorded."

"That was rather wise. If you submit those documents now and voluntarily confess your wrongdoing, you might simply lose your job without having to serve prison time," Ye Sangsang said thoughtfully, offering him professional advice regarding the construction issue.

Wang Ziyang's eyes lit up as he looked at Ye Sangsang, asking once more, "If I confess voluntarily, I won't have to go to prison?"

"There's a high probability you'll be fine, provided no actual harm has been caused yet..." Ye Sangsang reminded him.

Wang Ziyang let out a long breath, his body relaxing slightly as he continued to address her previous question. "Afterward, I tried communicating through various channels, but no one paid any attention to me. They even kept making me sign those papers."

"Until..."

Ye Sangsang looked at him quizzically.

Wang Ziyang hesitated, his eyes lingering on Ye Sangsang, before finally blurting out, "Until... a month after I became project manager, a foundation collapse and cave-in accident occurred at the site."

"Seeing the exposed concrete and steel rebars, I realized just how severe their corner-cutting really was. I truly understood that I couldn't stay there any longer; I had to run."

Ye Sangsang knew this was where the real story began.

She stated with certainty, "You didn't run. You were blinded by greed and chose to stay instead."

"I couldn't run. I had signed too many documents; there was no turning back." Wang Ziyang grit his teeth, hatred burning in his eyes.

[So he chose to sink to their level.]

[It seems Wang Ziyang chose compromise.]

[But what does this have to do with Zhao Jiang? Did Zhao Jiang find out about all this and get silenced to cover up the crime?]

Ye Sangsang voiced the question lingering in the bullet comments: "After choosing to compromise and becoming one of them, Zhao Jiang somehow found out what was going on. Did you move against Zhao Jiang?"