Chapter 99: Identity

“Did you see the words on the wall?”

Old Zhao, the officer in charge of the questioning, pointed to the eight bold characters on the back wall of the interrogation room, radiating a sense of justice.

“I saw them. ‘Leniency to those who confess, severity to those who resist,’ right?” Huang Tianbo wore a miserable expression. “But officers, I’ve already told you everything I know. I’m not hiding anything from you!”

“Then tell us again what you were doing all day yesterday.”

“I’ve already said it twice… Fine, fine, I’ll say it again, okay?” Huang Tianbo wasn’t particularly brave. Though he grumbled, when he glanced up and saw the serious expressions on the two officers’ faces, he sighed and prepared to repeat his story.

“Think carefully before you speak. There were a lot of vague parts in what you just said. Don’t think you can bluff your way through this. If we miss a crucial lead because you’re hiding something, you’ll be held accountable,” Guo Zile said sternly. Normally cheerful and joking, he now wore a look of absolute seriousness, and his words made Huang Tianbo’s expression shift uneasily.

“Officers, if I tell the truth and what I say helps you, does that mean I’ll be released without charges?”

Old Zhao and Guo Zile exchanged a glance. As expected, this guy wasn’t being entirely honest.

Old Zhao said, “Released without charges? That’s not going to happen.” Huang Tianbo’s face fell even further. “But if what you say significantly helps the investigation, we can request the judge to consider a lighter sentence.”

Huang Tianbo gritted his teeth. A lighter sentence was better than nothing!

“Officers, yesterday I…” Huang Tianbo began recounting his whereabouts. This time, his story sounded a lot more credible than the previous two versions. As Old Zhao listened, he occasionally interrupted with questions, while Guo Zile typed rapidly, recording everything they said.

It turned out that Huang Tianbo had spent the entire morning yesterday gambling in the basement level two of the Letaotao Foot Massage Parlor. They were playing dice – easy to pick up, exciting, and with flexible stakes. It was their most common form of gambling.

By noon, the twenty thousand yuan Huang Tianbo had brought was completely gone. Unwilling to accept defeat, he borrowed another five thousand from someone, hoping to win it back. But within half an hour, that five thousand was gone too. At that point, Huang Tianbo was in shock.

That twenty thousand was meant to cover this month’s and next month’s employee wages. Now it was all gone, and he was five thousand in debt. What was he supposed to do?

You see, the junkyard he ran was a private business, owned by his brother-in-law. Though he was called the manager, it was really just a way for his sister to help him out financially. The junkyard made money by handling waste for nearby residential communities and through government subsidies. If managed properly, it could definitely support a family. But Huang Tianbo was never one for hard work. Before long, most of his staff had quit, leaving only two garbage truck drivers who still diligently did their jobs – starting at five or six every morning, collecting trash, and coming by every three days to haul it all to the incinerator.

Their job was already tough. If he couldn’t pay them on time, the whole junkyard would collapse. Not that Huang Tianbo really cared if it shut down, but he’d have a hard time explaining it to his brother-in-law. Over the past few years, his sister had been secretly helping him out, and his brother-in-law already had a low opinion of him. He didn’t want to make things worse.

After thinking long and hard, Huang Tianbo decided to head back to the junkyard to grab something he could pawn, just to get enough money to pay the workers. If he could win the rest back later, everything would be fine.

With that plan in mind, he returned to the junkyard, went into the office, grabbed a few things, and left. He took them to a pawnshop, but was told that since the junkyard’s property wasn’t under his name, they couldn’t accept the items as collateral. Out of options, Huang Tianbo turned to a loan shark he knew. As for that little bag of pills, it was part of the interest – he was supposed to deliver it to someone at the foot massage parlor. He didn’t use that stuff himself.

“Officers, that’s all I’ve got. I did go back to the junkyard yesterday afternoon, but I had no idea anything had happened there! If I had, I would’ve called the police right away.” This part about returning to the junkyard hadn’t been in his earlier statements.

“What time did you go back to the junkyard?” Old Zhao ignored his whining and pressed on.

Huang Tianbo frowned, thinking for a moment. Then his eyes lit up. “Officer, check the phone in my pocket. I sent someone a message when I went back to grab the stuff. The timestamp should tell you exactly when it was.”

Old Zhao walked over, pulled the phone from Huang Tianbo’s pants pocket, and unlocked it with the code he provided. Scrolling through WeChat, he found a chat from yesterday afternoon. The timestamp showed 2:42 PM.

“When you returned to the junkyard, how did you get in?”

Huang Tianbo paused. “I used my key to open the gate.”

“Besides you, who else has a key to the main gate?”

“I’m the only one with a key to the main gate, same for the office. But the back gate key, aside from me, both Lao Huang and Old Zhang have one too. They usually drive in and out through the back gate when transporting garbage.”

“Give us a basic rundown of Lao Huang and Old Zhang. Also, where are your keys right now?”

“My keys are in my car.”

“Where’s your car?”

“Parked across the street from the Letaotao Foot Massage Parlor. The license plate is…”

“Alright, we’ll stop here for now. Take a look at this statement and see if everything is accurate. If it is, sign it and leave your fingerprint.”

Huang Tianbo skimmed through it quickly, then signed and pressed his fingerprint. After that, he was taken to another interrogation room for questioning on a different case. He was busier than the police themselves.

Following the leads he provided, the Criminal Investigation team split into two groups. One went to find Lao Huang and Old Zhang, while the other went to locate Huang Tianbo’s car.

At the same time, the DNA from the bloodstain on the torn cloth had already been tested. It was compared with the database and confirmed not to match any known criminal offenders. The trace analysis team also examined the cloth and determined it had been torn from the cuff of a shirt. Unfortunately, it was just a regular white dress shirt, the kind you see everywhere. At most, this one seemed a bit more expensive.

“Ugh, finally found a piece of evidence, and it turns out to be completely useless,” someone grumbled.

“Not necessarily,” Song Changfeng said. “This torn cloth actually tells us quite a bit. For example, the killer is probably someone who regularly wears dress shirts. In premeditated crimes like this, most perpetrators wouldn’t choose something as restrictive as a dress shirt. It limits their movement. Also, it might point to the killer having a particular sense of ritual. Judging by the method used in this case, it seems like the killer was enjoying the thrill of the act. The autopsy report shows that the knife used was thin and delicate, like a scalpel. Each cut was nearly identical in depth and size, which suggests the killer remained rational and controlled throughout the crime.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. His analysis made a lot of sense. With that, the suspect pool could be narrowed further, and they could begin a more targeted investigation based on these two theories.

However, the most pressing issue remained unsolved: who was the victim?

Since receiving the report yesterday, they had alerted all local police stations to keep an eye out for missing persons reports, specifically for a woman around twenty-six years old. But so far, no one had come forward. There had been several reports about missing pets, though.

Just then, Lei Liming’s phone rang. He answered, and his expression grew animated.

“The Qianjin Street Police Station just got a report. A woman said her friend left for work yesterday morning and hasn’t returned since. She tried calling but got no answer, and couldn’t find her anywhere, so she came to file a report. They’ve already sent a patrol car to bring her here.”

Everyone straightened up. Once the victim’s identity was confirmed, they’d have a lot more work to do. They’d need to track down everyone connected to her, interview them, investigate her social circle, and search her home for clues. In most cases, the key to solving the crime lies somewhere in the victim’s relationships.

Soon, the officers from Qianjin Street arrived with a young woman in her twenties. Her name was Chen Ru. She walked in visibly anxious, clutching the hem of her shirt with one hand and gripping her phone tightly with the other. As soon as she saw them, she asked, “You called me here… does that mean you know where Xiaoxuan is?”

The female officer Meng Li stepped forward to calm her nerves. “Miss Chen, hello. Please don’t be nervous. Your missing friend’s name is Xiaoxuan, right? Can you tell us more about her? If you have a photo, that would be even better.”

“A photo? Yes, I have plenty. She loves taking selfies. Her social media is full of them. Look, this is her.” Chen Ru opened her phone and pulled up Xiaoxuan’s profile. In the photo, a sweet, fresh-faced girl was beaming at the camera, flashing a peace sign. From the look of it, Xiaoxuan had a bright and outgoing personality. Based on the features in the photo, it was almost certain that she was the victim in this case.

“Her name is Zhong Xiaoxuan. She’s a sales rep at Chengtai Foreign Trade Company, twenty-six years old this year. We’ve been renting a two-bedroom apartment together for two years now. Because of her job, she’s often out meeting clients, so it’s normal for her not to come home at night. Sometimes she’s gone for two or three days at a time.”

“Then why did you report her missing after just one day?” If what she said was true, she shouldn’t be this worried.

“Officer, you don’t understand. Xiaoxuan loves posting on her Moments to share her life. At her most active, she could post over a dozen times a day. But her company has a rule that Moments can’t include anything unrelated to work, so whenever she posted, she’d block her coworkers and only let friends and former classmates see it. Yesterday morning, everything was normal, but by the afternoon, she stopped posting.”

“This has happened before when she was really busy with work, and she wouldn’t post much. But this time, a whole day was about to pass and she still hadn’t posted a single thing. That’s when I started to feel something was wrong. I tried calling her, but her phone was turned off the whole time. I couldn’t reach her at all. I asked her coworkers, and they said she didn’t show up at the office today. I started to panic, so I came to file a report. Officer, has something happened to Xiaoxuan?”

“Miss Chen, I hope you can prepare yourself mentally. Please come with us.”

Chen Ru saw the faint look of sympathy on the officer’s face, and her heart sank like a stone.