Chapter 677 - 562: Ten Days 4

Chapter 677: Chapter 562: Ten Days 4

In a conference room in Anjing, Xu Jinguang and Minister Liu put their heads together for a serious discussion.

In the end, Xu Jinguang’s opinion was that they could no longer be too polite with Yang Guofa.

If they were too polite, he would think the police were begging him for help. He would try to hide his own crimes and exonerate himself.

He might think the special task force had no real dirt on him.

That was just human nature, but his concealment would only interfere with the follow-up investigation and verification.

Shen Xin’s group was also discussing the matter.

The main concern was that Yang Guofa might change his mind and stop talking.

Shen Xin’s idea was that they should be a little stricter.

"I think Yang Guofa is at the end of his rope right now. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have voluntarily confessed to us."

"He tore up his passport, he can’t go on with Jolinda anymore, and after a divorce, he won’t be able to survive in the United States. In his mind, returning to China is probably his only option right now."

They had already analyzed his situation before.

A divorce would mean paying alimony to Jolinda and her three sons.

After they married, Jolinda’s whole family had depended on Yang Guofa, who worked like a horse to support them.

You could say that even if Yang Guofa wanted a divorce, Jolinda wouldn’t be willing to let go of her cash cow.

It was impossible to expect her family to show any gratitude.

In Jolinda’s mind, Yang Guofa had probably only managed to get legal status and earn money all thanks to her.

So even getting a divorce wouldn’t be easy; he’d need a lawyer.

In fact, one of Yang Guofa’s conditions was that they pay for a lawyer to help him with the divorce.

"So we don’t need to be afraid of him changing his mind. We should make it clear to him that his only option now is to confess everything, without hiding a single detail."

"We should also let him know that if he hides anything, we can always go to Lu Weihong for verification."

He was an eyewitness, and he’s still alive. But Lu Weihong is also alive, was also in that cabin, and knows everything that happened.

"If his story doesn’t match up later, we’ll revoke all the special treatment we’ve offered and make him pay the price."

The lenient treatment, solving his son’s household registration issue—all of it would be gone.

After some discussion, the majority agreed with this decision.

With Lu Weihong now on their radar and essentially in their grasp, they felt they had the upper hand.

When Yang Guofa was brought back in.

Zheng Chengbao was still all smiles. He had Yang Guofa repeat the events after Wang Shulin’s arrival, finally getting to the plan for that night.

Yang Guofa said, "After we finished chopping wood and went back, Lao Liu secretly told Lu Weihong the plan, and Lu Weihong agreed."

"That night, we let Li Suhua have the bed again. The five of us made beds on the floor and slept there, specifically in the positions Lao Liu told us to."

The bed was on the right.

From left to right, it was Yang Guofa, Wang Erpeng, Wang Shulin, Liu Baoli, and Lu Weihong.

They had Wang Shulin and his partner sandwiched in the middle.

According to Liu Baoli’s plan, when they made their move that night, Yang Guofa would pin down Wang Erpeng.

Meanwhile, he would pin down Wang Shulin, and as soon as he did, Lu Weihong on his right would immediately come to help.

"But when we made our move, Wang Shulin suddenly woke up. You have no idea, that guy was really tough. Lao Liu and Lu Weihong couldn’t hold him down."

"I couldn’t hold down Wang Erpeng either. Don’t let his short stature fool you, he’s incredibly strong."

"Anyway, a fight broke out. The two of them couldn’t hold down Wang Shulin, and Li Suhua even took the opportunity to hit Wang Shulin from behind with a thermos."

"It was a really hard hit; Wang Shulin’s head started bleeding. He went berserk and threw Lao Liu off him."

"In the end, we couldn’t beat the two of them. They were furious and gave us a brutal beating."

"See this scar on my head? He gave me this when he hit me back then."

He parted his hair to show them, reinforcing the credibility of his story.

Zheng Chengbao got up to take a look. After sitting back down, he mulled it over for a moment before asking about a few details.

For instance, who made the first move.

Did Liu Baoli go for Wang Shulin first, or did he go for Wang Erpeng first?

Yang Guofa said it was Liu Baoli. He claimed he only acted after hearing the commotion.

"That doesn’t add up. If you only turned to pin down Wang Erpeng after hearing a commotion, how did you know Wang Shulin woke up suddenly? Unless you had your eyes open and were watching them the whole time," Zheng Chengbao countered skeptically.

Shen Xin nodded to himself.

’As an interrogation expert, Zheng Chengbao’s ability to pick up on details was second nature.’

’True masters of interrogation are skilled at finding loopholes in a suspect’s confession, trapping them in contradictions and making it difficult for them to justify themselves.’

Sure enough, Yang Guofa froze for a second, then stammered in a fluster, "I heard the noise!"

Zheng Chengbao shook his head again. "Let’s say Wang Shulin was just getting up to use the toilet. If I were Liu Baoli, I would never make a move at that moment. He wouldn’t be that stupid, would he?"

Yang Guofa froze again, his words starting to falter. He stammered, "How would I know what he was thinking?"

Zheng Chengbao grunted as if in thought. Just as Yang Guofa’s eyes darted away and he breathed a sigh of relief, thinking he’d gotten away with his lie, Zheng Chengbao suddenly slammed his hand on the table.

It startled him so badly he jolted and nearly slid off his chair.

Zheng Chengbao’s tone was incredibly stern as he said gravely, "Yang Guofa, at a time like this, you’re still hiding things from me. Fine. I’m done asking you questions."

Zheng Chengbao stood up abruptly. "We gave you a chance, and we offered you a good deal. If you don’t want to take it and insist on digging your own grave, then so be it."

"Let me put it this way: whether you talk or not makes no difference to us. We’re already onto Lu Weihong. With our methods, it’s only a matter of time before we can convict him."

"When that time comes, if you don’t tell us what happened back then, we can just ask Lu Weihong."

"And at that point, you’d better not even think about returning to China. I can guarantee you, the second your plane lands, I’ll have you thrown in prison."

Zheng Chengbao had made his move, and Chang Zhigang immediately stood up to play his part. "Old Zheng, stop wasting your breath on him. Let’s just leave it at that. We’ll head straight back to China. We’re making progress with Lu Weihong anyway."

With that, he signaled for the team to pack up and prepare to leave.

Yang Guofa was completely stunned and panicked.

Seeing them actually start to pack up the equipment, he became frantic.

"Wait!"

He got up and grabbed Zheng Chengbao, shouting, "Officer Zheng, I really told you everything! I’m not hiding anything!"

Zheng Chengbao shook his head, shrugged off his hand, and started walking out.

In his panic, Yang Guofa tried to grab everyone.

No one paid him any attention.

Seeing Zheng Chengbao reach the doorway, Yang Guofa’s psychological defenses completely crumbled. He collapsed to the floor with a THUD and wailed, "Don’t go! I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything!"

"But it really wasn’t my fault! I was terrified, so I... I just pretended to be asleep. I didn’t wake up."

Zheng Chengbao stopped in his tracks, silently clenching his fists.

He turned and walked back, stopping in front of the weeping Yang Guofa. After a moment’s thought, he said, "Yang Guofa, it wasn’t just that you were scared, was it?"

His gaze was like a torch, as if it could pierce right through a person’s heart.

Yang Guofa shivered, his frightened eyes sweeping over Shen Xin and the others in the room. He trembled, "I..."

He stammered on "I" for a long moment. Seeing Zheng Chengbao turn as if to leave again, he desperately grabbed his pant leg and cried out, "I was the informant!"

Shen Xin was startled.

’He’d thought Yang Guofa was hiding something, but he never expected him to be an informant.’

’Before, he had been so adamant about how hypocritical Liu Baoli was, how he just wanted to show off for the journalist, Li Suhua. It seemed like he was trying to shift all the blame for what happened later onto Liu Baoli.’

’Now it was clear it was all because of a guilty conscience.’

’Because he knew that he was the real culprit.’

Zheng Chengbao sat back down.

The camera had been running the whole time. Zheng Chengbao had Yang Guofa sit down again and asked him what he meant.

Yang Guofa covered his face, sobbing for a long while before he slowly began to explain. "Actually, I already knew Wang Shulin."

"You don’t know this, but back then, the salary for us Patrol Officers was really low. I heard it from the older team members... anyway, while on patrol in the mountains, I’d secretly dig up some medicinal herbs and stuff. No one knew."

He glanced guiltily at Zheng Chengbao.

Zheng Chengbao remained unmoved and told him to continue.

Yang Guofa went on, "I did that a few times when I was at Bikou. Back then, my captain even hinted at it, dropping remarks here and there. I knew he must have seen me or heard about it from someone."

"Later, they were short-staffed over at Liujiaping, so I volunteered for a transfer. After I got here, I did it a few more times, secretly selling everything I gathered."

"I mostly sold things through Wang Shulin. So when Lao Liu said he wanted to catch Wang Shulin, I got scared. Think about it, if Wang Shulin got caught by the police, what if he ratted me out?"

"I might have gone to jail too. So I tried to persuade Lao Liu at the time, telling him to just pretend he hadn’t seen anything. ’Wang Shulin isn’t someone you want to mess with,’ I said. ’If you report him and he gets arrested, he’ll serve a few years in prison and come out for revenge, won’t he?’"

"But that guy wouldn’t listen to me. He just said to do it his way, that it would be fine. ’Three guys can’t hold down two?’ he said."

Zheng Chengbao nodded slightly, picking up where he left off. "So you snitched. You told Wang Shulin that Liu Baoli was going to make a move."

The original plan of three against two had a high chance of success.

But with someone tipping them off beforehand, how could it possibly succeed?

Not to mention Yang Guofa was too scared to even make a move, pretending to be asleep. The moment the fight started, Wang Erpeng was free to help Wang Shulin.

Yang Guofa quickly shook his head, looking down. "I didn’t tell Wang Shulin that Lao Liu was going to make a move... I just... I just secretly warned him to be careful that night."

Someone in the room couldn’t help but let out a sneer.

Yang Zeran just shook his head as he listened.

Shen Xin also sighed softly. ’Truly, an informant is far more detestable than a coward who flees from battle.’

Yang Guofa continued, "Then that night, they started fighting, and I... I pretended to be asleep. I didn’t dare move."

As he said this, he shuddered violently. It was as if he could hear Liu Baoli’s furious shouts again, screaming his name, begging him for help.

But he had just lain there, pretending not to hear, not moving a muscle.

Zheng Chengbao nodded slightly. He now understood why Yang Guofa had lied about this part.

After a moment of thought, Zheng Chengbao asked, "So, the part about Li Suhua hitting Wang Shulin with a thermos, was that true?"

Yang Guofa nodded slightly. "She’s the one who hit him. He bled a lot. I think part of the reason Wang Shulin raped Li Suhua later was because she had hit him."

Zheng Chengbao frowned.

’That makes sense,’ he thought. ’From Yang Guofa’s previous description, Wang Shulin hadn’t shown any ill intent toward Li Suhua at first. He had even chatted with her quite nicely, asking her to report on him and get him on TV.’

’It felt like Wang Shulin had a certain respect and curiosity for this big-shot reporter from the city and didn’t dare to have any crooked ideas.’

’But then Liu Baoli had to go and instigate this conflict, which basically enraged Wang Shulin.’

’Perhaps that’s what led to the series of events that followed.’

Yang Guofa had called Liu Baoli the main culprit, but in reality, looking at it now, he was one too.

If he hadn’t snitched and had stuck to the plan, maybe the outcome that night would have been completely different.

Looking at the meek, sobbing Yang Guofa, the deputy detachment leader from Kang Province snorted coldly and cursed, "You’re fucking worse than a woman."

Even Li Suhua had dared to step in and help, but the cowardly Yang Guofa only dared to pretend to be asleep.