novelraw Chapter 1230: Betrayal
Chapter 1230: Betrayal
“Go in.”
In the holding cell, Zhao Le walked silently into the cell… ironically, the one assigned to guard him was Lin Feng, someone he had met before.
Lin Feng had just returned from X City this morning, along with Ma Houde. A few people from X City were still there conducting follow-up investigations.
He never expected that, as soon as he got back, Zhao Le would already be brought to the station for questioning… and that even more bewildering details of the case would come out of his mouth.
As the iron door closed with Zhao Le inside, the two men stood separated by the bars. Lin Feng’s feelings were complicated. “I didn’t expect it to be you… why did you do this?”
Zhao Le was extremely quiet now. Lin Feng had seen almost every kind of criminal — by the time they reached this point, many were like this: no longer anxious or panicked, but unnaturally calm — mostly because the pressure they’d been carrying had finally been released.
“Do you remember I said the law is the moral minimum?” Zhao Le looked at Lin Feng with a complicated smile on his pale face.
Lin Feng felt a sting in his chest and nodded reflexively.
Zhao Le’s voice was hoarse. “Officer Lin, actually not everyone can find where that bottom line of morality is.”
Lin Feng sighed, opened his mouth, then stopped — he couldn’t find the words.Zhao Le suddenly said, “Oh, and thank you… for visiting my sister. Thank you for the five hundred yuan.”
“You… you knew?” Lin Feng was taken aback.
Zhao Le smiled bitterly. “How could you guys so easily believe me? You were following me those days, weren’t you.”
Lin Feng was silent a moment, then ground his teeth. “What can I do to help?”
Zhao Le was quiet for a long time before slowly saying, “If possible… don’t let my sister see me. And tell her… I’m okay. Tell her not to worry.”
Lin Feng frowned — he knew these were lies.
Lin Feng knew very well that if the case went the way Zhao Le described, Zhao Le would at minimum be charged as an accomplice; even with meritorious cooperation, he would still likely face several years in prison… how could he say he was “okay”?
And if the case developed further, Zhao Le’s sentence would only grow heavier.
But for Zhang Xiaoqin, perhaps the most needed thing right now was that lie.
“All right, I’ll do it,” Lin Feng said. “I’ll go see your sister.”
Zhao Le whispered, “Officer Lin, you’re a good person.”
Lin Feng smiled bitterly and left the holding cell.
…
“I never would’ve guessed these two cases were this complicated behind the scenes…young people these days are getting harder and harder to deal with.” Sir Ma muttered. He’d just returned and skimmed the interrogation record; there was an indescribable feeling in his chest.
“Old Ma, do you think anything Zhao Le said is true?” Zhou Yusheng was still reading the interrogation log.
Ma Houde said, “Not entirely false, but not all true either… the key is finding this ‘Mr. Blank’ — whether he’s fabricated or real.”
At that moment, an officer came up to the two captains. “Captain Zhou, Ma, based on Zhao Le’s account credentials, we successfully logged into his forum account… here’s the exported posting record from Zhao Le’s personal account.”
“Good work.” Zhou Yusheng nodded, took the files and handed some to Ma Houde, then began reading.
“Did you find Mr. Blank on the forum?” Ma Houde asked.
The officer nodded. “There is such an account, but we can’t log into the other party’s account. I tried; the forum is hosted overseas and we can’t pull backend data right now, so we can’t locate Mr. Blank for the time being.”
Ma Houde nodded.
Zhou Yusheng’s set of files was more detailed. “Lètianpài, Mr. Blank… Old Ma, look — Lètianpài registered in October the year before last, and Mr. Blank registered in January last year. They interacted a lot.”
They turned the pages.
Reading the exchanges between Lètianpài and Mr. Blank made them increasingly uneasy… Mr. Blank’s age was unknown, but Zhao Le’s was clear. From Lètianpài’s registration time, he was still under eighteen — a high schooler — when he registered.
From the exported message logs, the two were meticulous planners: starting immature and growing more sophisticated, they worked together like role-players to design many criminal plans.
Some of those plans were chilling even to Sir Ma, who’d been in the field for decades.
“Here — it records the Wu Rong and Wang Liang cases.” Ma Houde said quickly.
——Mr. Blank: Want revenge? (Dec 1, 21:53)
——Lètianpài: Revenge? (Dec 1, 22:17)
——Mr. Blank: Go to Wang Liang’s house now. (Dec 1, 22:21)
…
——Mr. Blank: The freezer has been bought; it will be delivered tomorrow morning, you know what to do. (Dec 2, 10:23)
——Lètianpài: Put the stuff in, cleaned once. (Dec 2, 17:09)
…
——Mr. Blank: Cleaned again. Tomorrow I’ll go to X City to handle Wu Rong’s matter. (Dec 2, 22:23)
——Lètianpài: Why don’t you just dispose of the body? Why leave it? (Dec 2, 22:24)
——Mr. Blank: If I leave no clues, it’s no fun. (Dec 2, 22:25)
——Lètianpài: That’s too dangerous, I disagree! (Dec 2, 22:27)
——Mr. Blank: You’re already an accomplice, you can’t escape… Don’t you think leaving your enemy lying cold and unseen is a good revenge? (Dec 2, 22:30)
——Mr. Blank: I’ll contact you later. (Dec 2, 22:31)
…
——Mr. Blank: I’m in X City, Wu Rong’s place is handled. You didn’t sneak back to Wang Liang’s place, did you? (Dec 3, 20:46)
——Lètianpài: I wouldn’t dare; you’ve screwed me this time… (Dec 3, 20:51)
…
——Mr. Blank: I’m in HK City, everything’s fine. (Dec 6, 10:17)
——Lètianpài: All good here. (Dec 6, 14:11)
…
——Mr. Blank: PP City, all good. (Dec 15, 15:34)
——Lètianpài: All good. (Dec 15, 18:20)
…
——Mr. Blank: HY City, all good. (Jan 6, 10:33)
——Lètianpài: All good. (Jan 6, 12:19)
…
——Lètianpài: The police came to my house today! (Mar 12, 20:10)
——Mr. Blank: What did you say? (Mar 12, 20:53)
——Lètianpài: I said Wu Rong’s name; they’ll probably investigate Wu Rong next. (Mar 12, 20:54)
——Mr. Blank: That’s enough. They won’t find anything. Keep living your life and don’t do anything. (Mar 12, 20:59)
…
After paging through everything, Ma Houde and Zhou Yusheng let out heavy breaths and set the files on the table.
“Old Zhou, what do you think…” Ma Houde rubbed his brow.
Zhou Yusheng said, “According to what Mr. Blank said here, Wu Rong was indeed killed by Wang Liang, which matches our previous deduction… I just didn’t expect that the two of them would continue according to Wang Liang’s original plan, and that Wang Liang himself would be treated the same way… this Mr. Blank is no ordinary person.”
“Yes…” Ma Houde nodded, then looked at the colleague waiting nearby. “Ah Can, get the backend data for this forum as soon as possible. I don’t care if it’s overseas! This is the only clue we have to find Mr. Blank.”
“Understood!” The colleague, Ah Can, quickly left.
Zhou Yusheng said, “Old Ma, online evidence is hard to rely on for judgments. What do you think we should do with Zhao Le… how do we handle him for now?”
Ma Houde pondered, “Online evidence is indeed hard to use as the sole basis, but it’s the only lead we currently have. And it aligns with Zhao Le’s testimony… Although we still can’t confirm if Wang Liang was killed by Mr. Blank, at least Mr. Blank is highly suspicious. We need to try to catch him. As for Zhao Le… just keep him in custody for now.”
“Mm, that’s what I was thinking too.” Zhou Yusheng nodded.
At that moment, an internal call came through to Zhou Yusheng’s phone.
“What? Mingming is in the hospital? When did this happen!” Zhou Yusheng straightened up immediately upon hearing the news.
“Not long ago. He was sent to the hospital unconscious, but at that time, Captain Zhou, you were interrogating and the phone was off…”
“Okay, I understand.” Zhou Yusheng nodded.
Feeling slightly flustered, he looked at Sir Ma. After Ma Houde made a gesture to continue, Zhou Yusheng tried calling Chen Mingming again.
This time, the call connected.
“Mingming, I heard you were hospitalized unconscious. What happened? Is it true? Where are you now?”
“Mm, still at the hospital getting fluids… I did faint. But it’s nothing serious. The doctor said it’s just low blood sugar.”
“That’s a relief.” Zhou Yusheng exhaled slowly. “Since that’s the case, stay at the hospital for now. Don’t come back to the station. I’ll come get you after I finish dealing with Zhao Le this afternoon.”
“Zhao Le?”
Zhou Yusheng nodded. “Yes. We found some leads and brought Zhao Le back for questioning. Unexpectedly, he confessed everything… It’s a bit complicated. I’ll explain when I come for you. For now, rest; I still have work to handle.”
Beep——!
…
The IV was still in his hand. Lying on the bed, Chen Mingming looked pale, holding a medical record… He slowly set the phone down, glancing back and forth between it and the record.
Suddenly, Chen Mingming took a deep breath and pulled out the IV, getting up from the bed.
“Sir, you can’t get out of bed yet. Your body—”
“I know. I have something to do.”
Chen Mingming showed the evidence he held as a police officer and walked past the nurse… The nurse opened her mouth, then shook her head.
…
…
“They already caught the person…”
Nan Xiaonan calmly listened as Little Bao gossiped about the events, then nodded and continued typing.
The speed at which Zhao Le confessed was beyond her expectation… she thought that even with a witness, Zhao Le would at least try to resist the police for some time before breaking down. She had overestimated his mental strength.
Nan Xiaonan shook her head, ignored further thoughts, and focused on writing the Star Creation ritual.
“Eh, Forensic Nan, you don’t seem surprised at all?” Little Bao asked curiously.
“Heaven’s net is vast; crime is caught. What’s there to be curious about?” Nan Xiaonan replied casually.
Little Bao shrugged, muttering, “I really didn’t expect two people carried out this case… If there hadn’t been a witness, this case might have been impossible to solve. Honestly, if they’d been more careful, never letting anyone see, it could’ve been a perfect crime.”
“What did you say? Two people did it?” Nan Xiaonan paused, astonished.
“Yes,” Little Bao nodded.
Nan Xiaonan fell silent.
…
“You’re getting IVs at the hospital, right?”
Near 5 p.m., Zhou Yusheng was surprised to see Chen Mingming in front of him.
“I heard the suspect was caught, so I wanted to come check.”
Zhou Yusheng smiled bitterly, thinking this kid was like him — disregarding everything while handling a case.
He couldn’t scold him, so he pulled the pages discussing Mr. Blank and Lètianpài’s case from the files. “Take a look yourself.”
Seeing the conversation starting December 1 between Mr. Blank and Lètianpài, Chen Mingming’s eyes narrowed slightly.
He had seen it… over ten hours ago, after logging into Mr. Blank’s account!
Zhou Yusheng ignored it and slowly said, “We’re fully investigating Mr. Blank, but the forum server is overseas, which is tricky. In a few days, we should find the person’s true identity… Mingming, what are you thinking?”
“Nothing… just a little surprised.” Chen Mingming shook his head, putting down the conversation records. “I’m going to the restroom first.”
“Go ahead.” Zhou Yusheng nodded. Then he thought about Chen Mingming being missing all night, but decided not to bring it up since he just returned from the hospital.
…
…
In the break room, Chen Mingming held his forehead, his mind a complete mess.
From the records, every trip Mr. Blank made perfectly matched Chen Mingming’s own travel logs… meaning his identity as Mr. Blank would soon be fully exposed.
“The killer… really is me?” he murmured.
—Don’t worry. No matter what, I won’t say anything… You’ve already helped me a lot. If… if anything comes out, I… I’ll take responsibility!
—You must also be careful.
Those words, remembered now, left him silent… Suddenly, Chen Mingming left the break room, walking briskly toward the holding cell alone.
…
Soon, with the help of colleagues in the holding cell, Chen Mingming reached Zhao Le’s side without difficulty.
The two were separated by bars.
“Mingming? How are you here!?” Zhao Le looked at him in disbelief.
Chen Mingming remained silent.
Zhao Le felt a twinge of suspicion — how could Chen Mingming just get here?
“Zhao Le, would this count as betraying Mr. Blank?”
Finally, Chen Mingming asked, expressionless.
(End of Chapter)
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