Chapter 612 - 507: Cellphone

Chapter 612: Chapter 507: Cellphone

"Send someone to Huating Bridge."

After giving the order, Zhang Hancheng went to the interrogation room next door.

As the door opened, Wang Liang flinched violently.

He was afraid another ruthless man like Qian Zidan was coming in.

Zhang Hancheng sat down with a dark expression, plugged the camera’s power cord back in, and had Wang Liang repeat his story.

He wanted the exact times—when he went and when he left.

"So, you’re saying at 12:41 AM, you received a text from Li Siyu. Where’s the phone, then?" Zhang Hancheng shot back.

No phone was found at the scene.

Wang Liang had said he took her phone, tablet, and other electronics, trying to make it look like a break-in and robbery.

But there should have been two phones.

The one Li Siyu used to send the text, and the one Wang Liang used to receive it.

Li Siyu’s phone was not found at the crime scene.

Wang Liang was a prime suspect, so his home was thoroughly searched.

They found phones—several of them.

Some were working, some were broken, but they were all checked.

If that text had been found, they would have zeroed in on Wang Liang much earlier.

Wang Liang looked cautiously at Zhang Hancheng. The man sitting there with his arms crossed had an even more imposing presence than Qian Zidan. "I usually have several phones," he said, "and several phone numbers."

"We’re in the live-streaming business, and sometimes you have to boost your stats. So I know some people who deal in that gray market stuff. The phone numbers that aren’t registered to me? I bought all of them from those guys."

"One of those phones was used exclusively for contacting Li Siyu. I gave her a number as well, so we could communicate in secret without my wife finding out."

"After I choked her, I thought of that phone. I looked for it, I looked everywhere, but I couldn’t find it."

"I was in a total panic then and didn’t dare stay long. I just did a quick clean-up of the main areas, left the door unlocked, and got out of there."

"On the way back, I kept thinking, ’If I have to, I’ll go back. I absolutely must find that phone.’"

"But then I had another thought. I’d gone over there on my own that night without calling her. So even if you found her phone, it wouldn’t really matter."

"Worst case, I’d just admit to the affair."

"Besides, the phone wasn’t even the biggest problem. There were the security cameras, too. I kept my head down to avoid them when I left, but they definitely caught me on my way in."

"I didn’t even think about that when I was fleeing. It only hit me after I got home. Honestly, I was scared to death, wondering what to do. The moment you saw the footage, you’d know I went to her place."

"But there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t mess with the surveillance footage. Honestly, at that point, I was ready to pack my bags and skip town."

At his side, Qian Zidan sneered.

This was why crimes of passion were easy to solve.

It was a simple lack of experience.

For many, it was a one-off. They’d act in the heat of the moment, brains buzzing with adrenaline. For someone like Wang Liang to have the presence of mind to fake a robbery was already quite something.

But there were always oversights, details they’d failed to consider.

With today’s investigative techniques, murder had become a highly technical endeavor. It’s incredibly difficult to cover every base before you act.

Even if you planned it all out, there were always unexpected complications.

Qian Zidan slammed a hand on the table and interjected, "Wang Liang, do you take us for fools? You expect us to believe that bullshit? The scene was cleaned too thoroughly, and the surveillance recorder was stolen. It sounds a lot like premeditation to me."

Wang Liang flinched and said hurriedly, "Officer, I’m telling the truth, every single word of it."

"If I’m telling a single lie, may I be struck by lightning and die a horrible death."

Zhang Hancheng raised a hand, signaling for Wang Liang to be quiet.

He shot a glare at Qian Zidan. ’Are you running this interrogation, or am I?’

’Swearing an oath was meaningless. People recanted on the witness stand all the time.’

’In the end, it all came down to the evidence.’

Zhang Hancheng asked, "Let’s put Li Siyu’s phone aside for now. What about your phone, the one that received the text? Where is it now?"

The surveillance footage from Li Lake Garden showed that after returning home, Wang Liang never went out again.

The next time he came out was when Liu Baoqing and his team showed up to take him away.

Wang Liang said, "That night at dinner, I’d originally made plans with a client to go out and... enjoy ourselves."

"But the client had something come up last minute, so we didn’t go. I was feeling... pent-up, and that’s why I went over to Li Siyu’s place. I didn’t bring that specific phone with me."

"After I got home a little after eleven, I was preoccupied with the security cameras and all that. Later, past midnight, as I was packing my things to make a run for it, I finally found that phone in a desk drawer."

"My first thought was to smash the phone. Then I thought, ’No, smashing it isn’t enough, I have to burn it.’"

"But then I thought again. ’If I burn it, that’ll leave evidence, won’t it? If you guys find the remains and ask why I burned a phone, I won’t have an explanation.’"

"’And what about the data? I thought about deleting everything. But then it hit me—deleting it from my phone would be pointless. Besides, if I deleted it and you eventually found her phone, how would I explain myself?’"

"’Deleting the data would just scream guilty conscience.’"

Zhang Hancheng let out a soft snort and said coldly, "You sure put a lot of thought into it."

Wang Liang gave an awkward smile and continued, "It was right at that moment that I received her text."

"That’s when I realized she wasn’t dead, just unconscious. If that was the case, what was the point of running?"

"But I had choked her and stolen her phone. I figured that had to be a crime, right?"

He looked toward Zhang Hancheng.

Zhang Hancheng said nothing, letting him continue.

Wang Liang said, "I was originally going to just forget about the phone. But once I knew she wasn’t dead, I figured the best thing would be to pay her off to settle the whole thing, and then cut all ties with her."