Free Web NovelChapter 176: Chapter 175 Stop, stop!_1
After hanging up Mr. Qu’s call, Zhou Ning sighed with relief.
In Yi Xiaou’s home, the computer and several mobile phones that had been found were decrypted. Traces of eavesdropping software were discovered on the phones, and although they had been deleted, the contents were fully recovered.
There were quite a few people being monitored, including the phones of Dong Chengwen, Fang Hua, and Luo Qian, with the monitoring spanning sixteen months. Hence, many monitoring files had been deleted.
As for the surveillance on the computer, it seemed a professional had been hired to cancel all the automatic sync dates for the surveillance. Instead, they were set to manual date settings, with the default date set one day behind the actual date.
In other words, the surveillance showed dates from the previous day. In the real surveillance footage from June 29th, Yi Xiaou had not returned home, and only images of a cat were captured.
Zhou Ning glanced at the time on his watch. It was nearly five o’clock now, and the lab results were about to arrive.
Xu Dayuan, standing nearby, also heard everything clearly. Just as Zhou Ning was about to speak, his phone rang again. The call was from Yang Xuetong.
"What has Mr. Yang discovered?"
"Team leader, we found Yi Xiaou’s locker, but it was empty. We opened a few adjacent lockers and found a black backpack containing a set of yoga clothes, a black tracksuit, a pair of black sports shoes, a few scraps of cloth, and a strong smell of gasoline inside the entire backpack."
Zhou Ning frowned and looked at Xu Dayuan.
"If it wasn’t Yi Xiaou’s locker, how did you open it?"
"I didn’t explain clearly. We just talked to the owner. They started a full renovation of the place on July 3rd and had posted a notice that it would not reopen until October. The front desk recorded that Yi Xiaou had visited once, but the scene was very chaotic, and all the lockers were sealed with plastic sheets, which is why she left.
As for the lockers, they keep detailed records here. No one else used the lockers to the left or right of hers, but they were locked with a code lock that was not from their store, which is why I thought of opening it to take a look.
As for the bag, the front desk staff recognized it. It belongs to Yi Xiaou, and it’s a designer brand I don’t recognize—with an oval logo featuring a carriage. However, that front desk lady said the bag is very expensive, and only Yi Xiaou carried it. Haven’t seen another like it around Qindao."
"Are the yoga clothes black pants and a black skirt?"
"Team leader, don’t make it hard for me. Although I’m married, I can’t make sense of these things. The black is like shorts that look like a skirt, and there’s another pair of pants that look like tights. The top is a bright pink long-sleeved yoga shirt with a hood."
Zhou Ning laughed. Whether it was the black shorts or the black skirt, the color matched. If they could find scratches, then it would be solid evidence.
"Bring them back, and send them directly to Mrs. Cui’s place. See if there are any scratches or bloodstains on the left leg?"
"Got it. I’ll head back now. But I checked carefully, there are scratches on the left leg as if the thread has jumped, no bloodstains found. The color is black, so it’s indistinguishable to the naked eye, and I didn’t dare to use Luminol Spray. Better to send it for testing for accuracy."
After the call ended, He Ruxing had already been taken away. In the interrogation room next door, Yufei was led in by Liu Yufei. The switch from casual chairs to such a place had visibly surprised Yi Xiaou.
"What evidence do you have? I’m not a criminal suspect. Release my hands."
Despite her verbal resistance, Liu Yufei’s actions did not cease, and without any delicacy, she locked Yi Xiaou to the interrogation chair. freёwebnoѵel.com
"Don’t rush, you’ll find out soon enough."
Seeing Zhou Ning put away his phone and seeming ready to speak, Xu Dayuan raised his hand, stopping him.
"Don’t tell me to go to the tech department. Whatever they need to send for testing, they have. I’ve got Mr. Zhao waiting at the lab door, so once the results are out, they’ll send them right over. You stay and watch here, I’ll go meet this Yi Xiaou. She’s given us quite the runaround before."
With that, Xu Dayuan quickly entered the interrogation room.
Liu Yufei took a seat next to the stenographer, as a female suspect requires the presence of a female law enforcement officer during interrogation. Xu Dayuan didn’t sit down either, instead standing in front of Yi Xiaou.
"Just now in this interrogation room, He Ruxing confessed. Everything at the hot spring hotel was orchestrated by you behind the scenes. You gave him a total of 480,000 yuan in cash, even contacting He Ruxing to get him close to Fang Hua."
Hearing this, Yi Xiaou laughed.
"You’re quite funny. Police need to speak with evidence. If someone slanders with just a word, does that make it true? Don’t the police investigate? Do you have evidence of me giving him money? Any transfer records? If I say I gave your chief a million yuan, is your chief guilty of bribery?"
Xu Dayuan wasn’t annoyed. He had been prepared for Yi Xiaou’s resistance and casually glanced at his watch.
"I know you’re smart, opting for cash transactions. That way, there won’t be any transfer records. And if things go south, He Ruxing is your scapegoat, considering from June 29th to June 30th only He Ruxing was recorded entering and leaving the residential area."
But don’t get too happy too soon. A disguise is just a disguise. Do you think that dressing like He Ruxing and relying on your similar looks and identical attire can fool us?"
Xu Dayuan pulled out his phone and found a screenshot, a comparison between He Ruxing and Yi Xiaou from the surveillance footage, identical in scale and angle. Nevertheless, Xu Dayuan pointed out the differences in weight, height, the angle of the jawline, as well as a mole on the jaw.
"You think your deception is flawless, that if you disguise yourself well enough, you can deceive us. But to us police, these are nothing but clumsy tricks.
I can also tell you that the password on your computer has been cracked. We have discovered that you tampered with the surveillance timing, so the alibi footage you provided is totally invalid now.
Furthermore, Dong Chengwen’s phone has been located. Although it has been reset to factory settings, the content has been fully recovered. Of course, this includes your phone too, where we found applications of wiretapping software. Although they’ve been deleted, the duration of the eavesdropping, its content, and the wiretapper’s information are all intact. freewebnoveℓ.com
I also discovered that you contacted someone from the Jingkou Branch Bureau to hide a phone with evidence and even mislead the investigation. There is corresponding evidence for these actions too, and the people you contacted will also face legal consequences.
As for talking so much with you, it’s just to kill some time. By five o’clock, all our test results will be out, and then, with concrete evidence, even if you don’t confess, the chain of evidence will be complete. Come on, Yufei, check her leg."
Yi Xiaou was still in shock, not because of anything else, but because Xu Dayuan’s attitude was so pressing. It wasn’t about getting her to confess anything, but rather he seemed disdainful to converse with her. It was as if he was afraid she might admit to something too early and seek leniency.
While Yi Xiaou was still dazed, Liu Yufei had already walked to her left side, reached out, and lifted Yi Xiaou’s skirt right up to the thigh, then proceeded to snap pictures with a camera.
By the time Yi Xiaou realized and began to struggle, closing her legs, Liu Yufei had already finished taking photos. She lifted the camera to show Xu Dayuan, then handed the camera toward the direction of the single-pane glass.
Zhou Ning leaned in closer; a scratch less than one centimeter was very noticeable. Seeing this wound, Zhou Ning clenched his fist tightly.
The left leg, its height, position, and the state of the wound’s healing were already very close to the answer.
At that moment, the door to the observation room was suddenly pushed open, and Mr. Zhao rushed in breathlessly, holding a stack of reports in front of Zhou Ning as he crouched on the floor.
"Take a look, the lab results are out. The scanning was a waste of time so I just brought them over myself."
The lab contents were extensive, but Zhou Ning went directly to the blood trace comparison report from the garage’s security door. The conclusion stated that the fiber and blood mixture found on-site matched perfectly with Yi Xiaou’s DNA, coming from the same person.
Also, in the yoga studio’s bag of clothing, the missing fibers matched those collected from the garage’s security door. Blood traces from Yi Xiaou were also found on the yoga clothing, and the soles of the shoes found in the yoga bag contained pieces of glass, gasoline, and particles of burned ash.
Now, with the photographed injury on Yi Xiaou’s leg just now, we can prove that she indeed got injured in the garage.
Additionally, in the trash bin of He Ruxing’s rented house, a blood-stained bandage wrapper was found. The blood was also confirmed to be Yi Xiaou’s through tests.
As Zhou Ning turned to the last page, he paused. The analysis of the material extracted from the crevices of bricks revealed female DNA, which matched perfectly with Yi Xiaou’s DNA. This was an unexpected bonus.
Zhou Ning’s heart raced, and he immediately dialed Xu Dayuan’s cell phone.
Inside the interrogation room, hearing the ringtone, Xu Dayuan took out his phone and saw that it was Zhou Ning’s number. He laughed, lifted the phone, and waved it at Yi Xiaou, his demeanor of having everything under control intensifying her nervousness.
"See this? The forensic doctor is calling. It seems the lab results are out. Just wait a moment, Assistant Yi, I’ll share with you shortly."
Yi Xiaou’s breathing quickened even more. At this point, she didn’t know which of the police’s operations were true or false, especially the recent examination of her leg wound, which she wasn’t even aware of when it happened. She only noticed the injury back at the rental house and applied a bandage to prevent bleeding. Could she have left something behind at that time?
Yi Xiaou struggled a bit, her handcuffs clinking noisily, and she quickly shouted:
"Stop, stop, Officer, please stop!"
Xu Dayuan raised his finger to his lips, making a shushing gesture, then broke into a smile.
"Save your excuses; we’re just wasting each other’s time. Think it over and decide how you’ll answer my questions. I’m going to retrieve the report now to see if it brings any surprises. Does that sound fair?"
Yi Xiaou shook her head.
"No, don’t go, Officer. I’ve been framed. I’m just Dong Chengwen’s assistant. I might have helped him with some illegal activities, but that doesn’t mean everything He Ruxing says is true. He’s purposely framing me."
Xu Dayuan appeared to clean his ear, clearly unimpressed by her words.
"That’s enough. Just be patient for a bit longer. I’ll have good news for you shortly."
