Chapter 136: Canceled Household Registration—Faking Death to End Police Investigation!

An Quan’s words immediately drew the attention of everyone present.

Liu Yang’s face lit up with excitement and surprise. He quickly stepped forward, one hand on An Quan’s shoulder, the other braced on the table, and asked eagerly:

“Officer An, did you find him?”

“So it really is like Team Leader Su said—this code name belongs to a member of the Poison drug trafficking organization. He might be a janitor at the Vanke Cloud(yun) City Tower?”

“Yeah, I think we’ve found him.” An Quan nodded seriously, then pointed to the personal profile on the screen and continued:

“Suspect—Zhong Jianqiang, a graduate of the 2018 class of the Gusu Medical College, majoring in pharmacology. He has the ability to extract potassium cyanide from plants, fruits, or other chemical substances.”

“The most critical part is…”

“Because of his personality issues, Zhong Jianqiang repeatedly failed job interviews and was unable to get into major pharmaceutical companies or hospitals.”

“In the end, due to financial difficulties at home, he could only take a temporary job as a janitor at the Vanke Cloud City Tower.”

“When the potassium chloride poisoning case occurred in the private theater, Zhong Jianqiang had already been working as a janitor there for over half a year—he had all the conditions in place to commit the murder.”

“According to the personnel transfer records…”

“A month after the incident, once the murder case had begun to fade from public attention and some employees left for work-related reasons, Zhong Jianqiang also took the opportunity to resign and leave Vanke Cloud City Tower.”

At this point, Bai Yu stepped forward and glanced at the personal file on the screen, narrowing his eyes.

“A pharmacology graduate?”

“Looks like we’ve basically locked in on Zhong Jianqiang. With a potassium cyanide poisoning case and all the deductions made, the janitors in the building are the most suspicious group.”

“And out of all the suspects, there just so happens to be a struggling pharmacology graduate among them. The likelihood that he was recruited by a drug trafficking group and carried out the murder is incredibly high—it goes without saying.”

“Also, Brother Quan mentioned just now that Zhong Jianqiang had been working at the building for over half a year before the crime. That means he’d be very familiar with all the blind spots in the surveillance system.”

“That being the case, the building’s security cameras would have been practically useless against him. That’s why we didn’t spot anything suspicious in the footage.”

“And did you all notice…”

“Zhong Jianqiang came from a poor background—and so did the victim.”

“From what I’ve seen in most criminal investigation cases, when it comes to premeditated murder, the perpetrator often chooses a target of similar social and economic standing. It’s not uncommon.”

“Because, in the mind of the killer, people of similar social status are easier to understand—and easier to target.”

“Based on Dr. Lan’s earlier criminal psychology analysis…”

“Poison tends to adjust his personality and behavior to match his environment. So, before he successfully committed a murder and passed the organization’s test, he would have been timid and cowardly.”

“Therefore, it would’ve been an instinctive choice to target someone similar to himself.”

“Because he knew very well…”

“That someone like the victim—timid and reserved—wouldn’t make a fuss even if they noticed something like a needle on a chair. They wouldn’t want to sour relationships with colleagues.”

“And even if the victim had chronic gastritis, they’d still show up for a department meal to avoid affecting future work performance. They wouldn’t skip it.”

“And I think the most important point is this—”

“He believed the victim had no backing or connections. Even if they died, no one would dig too deeply into it. At most, it’d just be investigated for a while and then shelved.”

Those last words left Liu Yang feeling awkward and a bit ashamed.

Because…

Back when the case first happened, the Xiangcheng Criminal Investigation Unit did indeed go all-out investigating for several months. But without any breakthroughs and with other cases piling up…

They had no choice but to temporarily shelve it as an unresolved case to be looked into again later.

All in all…

It really did amount to “just investigating for a while.” Then again, most cities handled such cases the same way.

At this moment, Zheng Hui suddenly recalled a detail and clapped his hands.

“Right, there’s one more thing.”

“When we were talking just now, a colleague from the victim’s department mentioned that they chose that particular Hunan restaurant because…”

“It had just opened recently, and they offered a 20% discount if you brought one of their flyers!”

“And I noticed that every department at Jinwei Software has a small blackboard where they write team goals and specific schedules.”

“Things like group dinners, annual parties, holidays—they’d also be posted on that blackboard.”

“I think it’s very likely that Poison—Zhong Jianqiang—saw one of those flyers and also saw the department’s blackboard, which told him the time of the dinner.”

“That’s how he was able to precisely switch the original stomach medicine with the deadly potassium cyanide.”

“Whether it’s the obvious details of the crime or the conclusions we’ve drawn, everything lines up with Zhong Jianqiang.”

At this point—

Liu Yang could no longer hold back his excitement and urgency. He quickly asked again:

“Officer An.”

“Can you check specifically where this highly likely suspect Zhong Jianqiang is currently working?”

“Or…”

“Can we find out exactly where in Gusu City he might be hiding?”

Before Liu Yang could finish—

An Quan’s hands were already flying across the keyboard, trying to track Poison’s latest traces through the internal household registration system and hotel check-in database.

But just three seconds after logging into the system—

An Quan froze, his expression stunned. He pushed up his glasses, disbelief in his eyes, as he stared at the cancellation message on screen and muttered with a frown:

“Huh? Dead.”

“According to our internal police records, Zhong Jianqiang died in a serious car accident two years ago. His body was claimed by his family and cremated at the funeral home?”

As soon as he said that—

Liu Yang leaned forward in disbelief, but when he saw the glaring “canceled” notice on the screen, he too was stunned.

The next second, however, he shook his head firmly and declared:

“No way. That’s definitely fake.”

“Over the past two years, we’ve still intercepted several batches of high-purity drugs in this jurisdiction. That proves Poison is still in Gusu City.”

“This is obviously a move to avoid detection—cutting off his original identity at the time of the crime.”

“After all, no amount of trace-covering compares to simply erasing the original identity through a death registration to shut down further police investigation.”

An Quan nodded in agreement, habitually adjusting his black-framed glasses and replying calmly:

“Fake. It’s definitely fake.”

“Erasing your identity after committing murder and starting a new life with a fresh one isn’t hard for a large-scale drug trafficking organization.”

“It’s actually a very effective way to cut off the investigative trail—a clever method of hiding a crime.”

“And there’s one more thing I want to say.”

“Unless I’m mistaken, that drug lord who’s good with hacking and computer tech has probably already noticed that we’ve discovered Poison’s original identity…”