Chapter 237: Discovering the Drug Trafficking Organization’s Informant, Immediately Arrest Zhang Lifang!

Truth can also be a form of lie.

Bai Yu’s words caused everyone present to pause in surprise.

Lan Jing, sitting nearby, adjusted the side of his black-rimmed glasses with one hand and nodded thoughtfully.

“There is such a possibility.”

“In forensic psychology, there is a type of montage-style lie, where every sentence the suspect says is true, but because the sequence is different, it creates a completely different effect.”

“You can divide a sentence into three parts: A, B, and C. The original chronological order is A+B+C, but the suspect rearranges it to B+C+A or C+A+B.”

“This changes the meaning of the entire sentence, yet all parts remain true.”

“This may be hard to understand, so I’ll give a classic example: ‘She divorced me, got together with someone else, so I hit her.’”

“To an outsider, this sounds like the speaker is in a weak position, evoking sympathy, and more likely to be forgiven during judgment.”

“But this is actually a rearranged lie; the real sequence is: ‘Because I hit her, she divorced me and got together with someone else.’”

“That’s montage-style lying—it causes each sentence to be true, but when the order is shuffled, the overall meaning and result become completely different.”

After hearing Lan Jing’s explanation, Lin Tian and Huang Qiang fell into deep thought, seemingly recalling the earlier interrogation of Zhang Lifang.

After a few seconds, Lin Tian shook his head slightly, frowned, and tapped the table lightly.

“No.”

“Although montage lies exist, judging from Zhang Lifang’s demeanor and her words before and after, this probably isn’t the case.”

He then switched the surveillance footage to the middle section, during the questioning of Zhang Lifang, and pointed to it, signaling everyone to watch carefully again.

After the short interrogation played through again, although only Lan Jing held a doctorate in criminal psychology, everyone present was highly experienced in criminal investigation, including the Chief of the Ximing Criminal Investigation Brigade, so they were familiar with the concept of montage lies and could roughly judge if it applied.

Liu Yang, who had just arrived and had not been part of the earlier interrogation, nodded in agreement and confirmed further.

“Indeed, there’s no issue.”

“Judging from this video alone, leaving aside the elderly man who barely spoke and seemed lost in his own world, the nanny’s statements, even if the sequence was rearranged twice, don’t provide any useful information.”

“In other words, there’s no need to rearrange; montage lies simply don’t apply here.”

Even Liu Yang was so certain.

Everyone present clearly understood that montage lies did not exist in this case.

Bai Yu squinted, tapped his pipe against the table, scanned everyone present, and said,

“Besides montage lies, there are actually two other possibilities.”

“In the detective fiction I’ve read, there was a case where the suspect told only the truth, didn’t rearrange sequences, and didn’t use montage techniques.”

“But if the suspect deliberately withholds some words, hiding certain important information, it can still leave us completely baffled.”

“Like a murderer: if we bring them in to ask about a case, and they claim to be a witness, not the killer.”

“When information is unequal and no clues are found, would we trust their one-sided story more, without suspecting them to be the real culprit?”

“Because without evidence, we lack the most crucial proof.”

“When the killer hides in the dark, and we lay our cards on the table, as long as they don’t expose any clues, they can deliberately point us down the wrong path.”

“Misleading our investigation, wasting our precious time.”

Bai Yu paused briefly, then with a serious and sharp gaze continued,

“The last possibility is… Zhang Lifang is telling the truth, and she isn’t deliberately hiding anything, but the key problem is that she simply doesn’t know much.”

“My personal feeling, combining this with the Drug trafficking organization, is that this is the most likely scenario and explains the interrogation issues well.”

“To put it more clearly…”

“Although Zhang Lifang is an informant arranged by K, she doesn’t know that Priest is actually Jiang Sulong. In other words, Priest’s real identity hasn’t been exposed.”

“Maybe Priest told Zhang Lifang to take good care of Yu Ruyi, but not as a son, maybe as a relative.”

“Or perhaps using her sister Jiang Sumei as an excuse, implying that to protect the contraband, Yu Ruyi must be well looked after.”

“Or maybe no reason was given, just direct orders from K.”

“This creates a special situation.”

“Zhang Lifang may indeed be an informant for the Drug trafficking organization, perhaps even a core member who knows many internal matters.”

“But as long as she doesn’t understand the relationship between Priest and Yu Ruyi, doesn’t know Priest’s real name, and is unaware of other related matters,”

“Then in the first interrogation, she could easily avoid all traps and later be arranged to flee after leaving the police station.”

“She, or K, took advantage of our police interrogation style, or perhaps their weakness is a better term.”

“When interrogating without key evidence, police tend to keep the case confidential and avoid implicating innocent people, so they don’t go into too much detail.”

“For example, in this interrogation, Chiefs Lin, Huang, and Wang only asked Zhang Lifang about Jiang Sulong and never mentioned the name Priest or anything about the Drug trafficking organization.”

“Because judging from Zhang Lifang’s prior behavior, subconsciously, you all thought that someone so familiar with the nanny’s work shouldn’t be an informant planted by the Drug trafficking organization.”

“So avoiding that line of questioning was quite normal.”

“We can only say Zhang Lifang is skilled at exploiting human weaknesses and knows our police investigation methods and procedures well.”

“As well as the confidentiality that, although useful, sometimes feels excessive and redundant.”

Zhang Lifang belongs to the Drug trafficking organization.

But she doesn’t know the relationship between Priest and Yu Ruyi, nor Priest’s real identity Jiang Sulong.

Bai Yu’s conclusions drawn from detective fiction left everyone present stunned.

Two seconds later,

Huang Qiang, who had chased from Taicang City to Jinling with Lin Tian after receiving intel from Bomber’s Sister, rubbed his calloused fingers and said,

“It’s possible.”

“Considering the level of secrecy in the Drug trafficking organization, it’s quite likely that members don’t know each other’s real identities.”

“Plus, Priest is the true core figure, and K is closely connected to him, so recruiting an informant to take care of his mother makes sense.”

“As for confidential investigations, they do have flaws, but overall the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.”

“But the current question is…”

“Detective Bai, how can you be sure we would definitely let Zhang Lifang leave?”

“From what you said earlier, if we don’t let her go and keep interrogating her, we’ll definitely find flaws and problems.”

Hearing this, Bai Yu was silent for a few seconds, feeling somewhat uncertain.

But the next moment, he recalled the various skills learned from Su Ming recently, and the confident look and gaze that come when you deduce a conclusion.

Learning so many techniques and criminal investigation knowledge from detective stories

Proved Bai Yu’s talent and outstanding learning ability.

During this time studying seriously beside Su Ming, Bai Yu clearly felt his logical deduction skills improving rapidly, along with an unshakable confidence whenever he reached a conclusion.

Taking a deep breath.

Bai Yu, imitating Su Ming’s demeanor, showed no expression on his face. Calm yet incredibly confident, he lightly tapped his pipe and said,

“I think…”

“If Zhang Lifang can be certain that she could leave the Criminal Investigation Brigade right after the first interrogation, then the problem must lie with Yu Ruyi.”

“For an elderly person suffering severe dementia and completely non-aggressive, we always feel sympathy and subconsciously lower our guard.”

“It’s like walking on a main road—people never put up defenses against the elderly or children, which often leads to being deceived.”

“Zhang Lifang’s confidence comes from using Yu Ruyi to escape the Criminal Investigation Brigade.”

Wang Qi, who was also present at Zhang Lifang’s interrogation, clicked his tongue in doubt and frowned.

“That can’t be.”

“How could Yu Ruyi help her? Or rather, how could she even know to help Zhang Lifang?”

“In the earlier interrogation, Chiefs Lin, Huang, and I all saw clearly that Yu Ruyi’s state wasn’t an act. Her severe dementia was obvious to the naked eye; she was lost in her own world, not hearing anything.”

“How could she assist in such a condition? I don’t buy it…”

Before Huang Qiang could finish,

Lin Tian, who had been quietly thinking nearby, suddenly thought of a possibility.

He immediately grabbed the mouse and rewound the surveillance video to the final part—when they learned Jiang Sumei might be the breakthrough.

After a few seconds,

Everyone clearly saw Yu Ruyi waving the Peach Wood Sword,

Suddenly stopping, unable to hold her urine, looking utterly embarrassed.

But her face showed no shame or fear, only confusion and helplessness.

This completely confirmed that Yu Ruyi’s severe dementia was definitely not an act and could not be faked.

Especially her confused and helpless expression—just like a child wetting their pants, indistinguishable.

If the problem wasn’t with Yu Ruyi, then it must lie with Zhang Lifang.

Thinking this,

Lin Tian focused his attention on Zhang Lifang in the video.

He noticed…

At that moment, Zhang Lifang was talking to them, initially paying no attention to Yu Ruyi.

So the problem wasn’t with Zhang Lifang either?

Leaning back in his chair, frowning deeply, Lin Tian inhaled the tobacco scent from his index finger as Zhang Lifang’s last words echoed in his ears:

“Officers, I’m sorry, really sorry.”

“I’ll head home now, and I’ll take Sister Yu with me.”

…

As the video ended,

Lin Tian still found no issue but sensed something strange.

Something hard to explain, especially after Bai Yu’s words. Lin Tian felt the entire interrogation might have been orchestrated by Zhang Lifang.

Without saying more,

Lin Tian replayed the last part of the surveillance video, following Zhang Lifang’s previous words:

“Officers, if there’s nothing else for now, can I take Sister Yu home first?”

“She’s been out for a while now, and if we don’t hurry, I’m worried Sister Yu won’t hold it much longer…”

Right after she said this,

Yu Ruyi really couldn’t hold it any longer, falling into a terribly embarrassing state.

Zhang Lifang spoke, and Yu Ruyi reacted like that?

Since Yu Ruyi’s condition was clear, she definitely couldn’t actively cooperate with Zhang Lifang, being fully immersed in her own world.

If anyone still insisted Yu Ruyi cooperated with Zhang Lifang under these circumstances, the only possibility was… an unconscious reflex?

Like training a dog.

With repeated training, a dog can respond to commands like sit, shake, or lie down.

But Lin Tian did not rush to a conclusion; he kept watching the video.

In the final moments, he focused on Yu Ruyi.

When Zhang Lifang’s last words played again,

Lin Tian clearly saw Yu Ruyi, who had originally looked confused and helpless, trembling again in her legs.

At that moment,

Lin Tian narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists instinctively.

Without hesitation, Lin Tian replayed the footage once more.

This time,

Lin Tian had a clear target in mind and was certain the problem might lie with Zhang Lifang.

This was the third time watching.

Minutes later,

Lin Tian stood up without hesitation and shouted fiercely,

“Yu Ruyi was being controlled!”

“This Zhang Lifang is suspicious! She’s K’s informant! Arrest her immediately!!!”