Free Web NovelChapter 689: Chapter 689: All Apprehended
Cao Zhian almost wet himself in fear.
He looked at Lu Chuan not far away, and although the latter was in a wretched state, with his clothes nearly reduced to rags and his face scratched by tree branches,
those eyes were bright, and the barrel of the gun in his hand was pointed directly at him.
Raise the gun?
Cao Zhian wanted to raise his gun, but he didn’t dare.
It’s over.
Cao Zhian knew he was finished.
Over the years, no one knew better than Cao Zhian himself how many crimes he had committed.
Not just the crimes committed while hunting in the mountains, he couldn’t even remember how many people had died or how many women he had used.
From the moment he embarked on this path, Cao Zhian never imagined he would have a good end one day.
So, what should he do?
If he didn’t resist now, the only thing waiting for him was a dead end.
So...
Despite his fear, facing Lu Chuan’s gun barrel, Cao Zhian suddenly crouched down.
Bang!
Bang!
The sounds of a pistol and a shotgun rang out simultaneously.
Ah!
A scream echoed through the mountains.
Now that Lu Chuan had the upper hand, how could he let Cao Zhian escape again?
The moment he saw the other’s eyes, Lu Chuan knew Cao Zhian had no intention of surrendering.
Though Lu Chuan hadn’t dealt with many such desperadoes, he knew what was on their minds just by looking into their eyes.
Cao Zhian was the type to mingle with beasts in the mountains, doing things with no trace of humanity.
Living in the mountains, they had no bottom line or morals.
Whenever they encountered a group with a woman, it was basically murder and robbery.
According to Song Zhenguo’s understanding, at least ten people had died at their hands.
These include the five missing people and two couples’ skeletons Lu Chuan found in the mountains.
Kicking away the shotgun beside Cao Zhian, Lu Chuan’s eyes were cold.
Just now, the shot Lu Chuan fired didn’t take his life.
Instead, it hit the wrist that held up the gun.
"Heh, in this life, even if I die, it’s not a loss!"
Despite being captured, Cao Zhian’s eyes were still fierce.
Actually, if he had encountered an ordinary criminal investigator this time, Cao Zhian definitely would have run away.
Having lived in the mountains for decades, he was very familiar with the terrain and knew how to use the trees for cover and turn obstacles into advantages.
If he was pursued by regular police, it wouldn’t take Cao Zhian more than seven or eight minutes to shake them off.
Even while escaping Lu Chuan’s pursuit earlier, Cao Zhen once thought he had evaded capture.
But he didn’t expect Lu Chuan to have circled around quickly from the other side, blocking his escape route.
"Cao Zhian, awaiting death is often more terrifying than death itself."
After handcuffing him, Lu Chuan led Cao Zhian down the mountain.
"The cruelest thing in the world isn’t death, it’s hopelessness."
"I’ve seen people like you, you’re just a desperado."
"For the crimes you’ve committed, being executed a hundred times wouldn’t be enough."
"But don’t worry, your death won’t come so quickly."
"From arrest to interrogation, transfer to the prosecution, and finally sentencing, it will take at least half a year."
"Cao Zhian, in the next six months, you will live every day without hope."
"Counting down the arrival of death!"
At the moment when Cao Zhian resisted arrest, Lu Chuan was confident he could have taken his life with a single shot.
But Lu Chuan chose not to.
Because simply putting a bullet through someone like Cao Zhian was too easy on them.
The time when he realized there was no hope, but didn’t know when death would come, that was the greatest torment for someone like Cao Zhian.
People who have never been in prison can never understand how precious freedom is.
Similarly, people who have never faced death can never understand how terrifying the moment of death is.
And throughout the next six months, Cao Zhian would experience this fear and this hopeless life every day.
When Lu Chuan brought Cao Zhian down the mountain, the other three men had also been captured.
Though two were captured alive, one was killed by a SWAT sniper because he resisted arrest.
The fight happened quickly and ended just as swiftly.
This ambush took the enemy by complete surprise.
Just as Cao Zhian mentioned, he considered the possibility of an ambush, but didn’t take it particularly seriously.
According to his thoughts, if something happened to Song Zhenguo, the police might ambush them in Sun Valley.
Cao Zhian chose Sun Valley as the delivery point because the dense forests and high mountains offered them a better chance to escape if things went wrong.
Unlike this campsite.
Once four people entered, it was like entering a bag with no easy way out.
Cao Zhian actually realized there was an ambush from Lu Chuan and the others relatively early, showing his alertness.
But unfortunately, he ultimately couldn’t escape Lu Chuan’s pursuit.
The subsequent case investigation was handed over to the Criminal Investigation Team of Beizhou City to follow up.
The serious crime team basically completed their mission.
This case was actually not complicated in terms of complexity.
It was the unique environment of Beiliang Mountain that caused the crime to occur.
In fact, Cao Zhian and his gang had the chance to leave the mountains and live a normal life.
When the government promoted mountain closure and forest cultivation, the town government organized relocation and poverty alleviation.
Many came out of the mountains for assistance and relocation back then and now live well.
The main reason Cao Zhian and the others stayed was not just money.
But ignoring the law and committing crimes satisfied their twisted psychological needs.
In solving this case, Lu Chuan’s discovery of that partial fingerprint played a major role.
Without that partial fingerprint and a full-area comparison, they wouldn’t have locked onto Song Zhenguo.
Without the information provided by Song Zhenguo, finding those four in such vast forests would have been like finding a needle in a haystack.
The group emerged from the forest by noon on the third day.
That evening, the Criminal Investigation Team of Beizhou City invited Li Donglin and the serious crime team members for dinner.
The captain and vice-captain of the Criminal Investigation Team, along with several leaders from the City Public Security Bureau, attended.
"Director Li, thank you and the serious crime team for this case, otherwise the consequences would have been unimaginable."
Qian Hu, the director of the City Public Security Bureau, raised his glass, sincerely thanking the serious crime team for all their work.
Honestly, when Qian Hu learned the full details of the case, chills ran down his spine.
The cases in Beiliang Mountain were mostly disappearance cases.
But the City Public Security Bureau hadn’t given them high attention.
Disappearance, especially adult disappearance, usually receives low priority.
However, the concentration around a single area raises red flags.
Who would have thought that Beiliang Mountain still had illegal poachers preying specifically on expeditions with women?
If this case hadn’t been solved, and something had exploded later...
The first one to lose his head would be Qian Hu.
