Chapter 251

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The cooling towers of Huasheng Chemical Plant spewed plumes of white mist into the night, like the gills of a monstrous beast.

Gu Changzheng signaled the police car to stop beneath the sycamores three hundred meters away; the red factory sign reading “Established 1984” flashed briefly in the headlights.

“Zhou Shichang’s office is in the southeast corner of the plant.” Luo Fei pulled up the drone aerial image; thermal imaging showed the wastewater treatment workshop blazing bright, “Six surveillance cameras, two of them pointed at the hazardous chemical warehouse.”

Gu Changzheng switched the walkie-talkie to an encrypted channel: “Little Sun, cut the surveillance signal. Gao Ye, seal off the western exit.” As he grabbed his tactical flashlight, his knuckles clicked faintly, “Remember, we only need the sample bottles.”

At this moment, the guard booth by the iron gate echoed with dialogue from a TV drama; Luo Fei crouched low and slipped through the shrubbery, his military dagger slicing a half-meter gap in the barbed wire. The night wind carried a pungent acidic stench; in the distance, the low hum of a centrifuge reverberated.

The iron door to the wastewater treatment workshop was slightly ajar; Ye Lin scanned the gap with a laser thermometer: “43.6 degrees—there’s a continuous heat source inside.” Gu Changzheng donned his gas mask; his fingers brushed a slick, oily substance on the door handle.

Fluorescent lights flared suddenly.

A twenty-meter production line was swallowing and expelling dark green liquid; the pressure gauge on the reactor trembled violently. No one stood before the control panel, yet the computer screen displayed real-time data streams; an open document was named “Complexation Reaction-7.12.”

“They’re remotely controlling it!” Gao Ye lunged for the main control computer; the moment he plugged in the USB drive, the alarm shrieked.

The reactor’s discharge port burst open, spewing steaming wastewater into the emergency diversion channel—where the pipe should have led to the treatment pond, it now extended toward Longhu.

Luo Fei kicked open the ventilation duct cover and shouted, “After them!”

The dark red liquid surged through the buried pipeline like a waking vein. Gu Changzheng’s flashlight beam swept across the pipe’s label; beside the faded “DN300” stamp lay fresh weld marks. Ye Lin caught the dripping liquid in a sample bottle; the test strip turned instantly indigo.

“pH 1.8—highly acidic wastewater,” she said, voice tight, “with massive suspended metal particles.”

Ahead, the iron ladder vibrated; three shadows were climbing toward the ground-level access hatch. Luo Fei kicked off a protrusion on the pipe wall and leapt upward, his tactical boot soles sparking against the cast iron.

The man in the coverall was about to push open the manhole cover when a chill breeze struck the back of his neck—Luo Fei’s thumb locked onto his throat; as he glanced at the man’s chest badge, he saw the words “Technical Director Wang Zhen”...

———

The fluorescent tubes in the interrogation room hummed. Wang Zhen’s work pants still bore crystals of sodium hydroxide; this was his thirteenth time adjusting his glasses: “We were only testing the newly installed wastewater treatment system.”

Gu Changzheng slid the Longhu water quality report toward him: “Last week, aluminum ion concentration spiked to 2.8 mg/L, while your declared discharge standard is 0.5 mg/L.”

His finger tapped a point on the data table: “Do you know what that means? Longhu is now steeped in thirty tons of alum!”

Wang Zhen’s pupils contracted sharply; this micro-expression was precisely captured by Lao Zheng behind the one-way glass. The forensic expert tapped the microphone; a hiss crackled in Gu Changzheng’s earpiece: “Lao Gu, ask him about the complexation reaction.”

“We found an EDTA disodium salt procurement slip in the remnants of your document shredder,” Gu Changzheng abruptly changed topic. “This chelating agent is typically used to...”

“Treat heavy metal wastewater!” Wang Zhen blurted out, then clamped his lips shut.

———

At 3 a.m., the Technical Department sent an urgent report. Little Sun, eyes shadowed, burst into the meeting room: “Wang Zhen’s cloud backup!” A projection screen filled with dense molecular formulas; Ye Lin suddenly stood up: “This is an aluminum ion complexation reaction model!”

Lao Zheng circled a chemical formula in red: “When EDTA forms a stable complex with aluminum ions, it releases a large number of hydrogen ions.” He sketched the reaction equation on the whiteboard: “In an acidic environment at a specific temperature, this reactivates industrial waste buried at the lake bottom for thirty years.”

Gao Ye suddenly understood: “So the victim didn’t just enter water—he entered a highly acidic solution!”

But Gu Changzheng stared at the annotation at the end of the equation, where bold text read “Phase Transfer Catalyst.”

At that moment, his phone vibrated—a new forensic report from the Evidence Division: the pink substance under the victim’s fingernails was tetraphenylporphyrin cobalt!

As dawn pierced the mist, Gu Changzheng stood atop the Longhu spillway. Dark currents churned beneath his feet; his shoe edges were smeared with dark brown algae.

Luo Fei approached with diving gear: “Master, sonar detected a metal object beneath the gate.”

At that moment, the diver surfaced for the sixth time, holding a twisted titanium alloy canister. Etched on its surface were German letters; the pressure valve interface retained blue-green crystals—identical to the substance on the chocolate foil.

“Temperature-sensitive release device,” Lao Zheng, wearing double gloves, turned the valve core. “When water temperature exceeds 15 degrees, the valve opens automatically.” He suddenly used tweezers to lift a transparent film from the valve opening: “A hydrogel protective layer—exactly four hours to dissolve.”

Gu Changzheng gazed across Longhu Reservoir at Huasheng Tower, its glass façade refracting the morning sun into cold, golden light. He pulled out the victim’s phone; the mysterious call from that early morning replayed in his mind: 2 minutes 19 seconds—enough time to remotely activate a device.

As Zhou Shichang’s Rolls-Royce entered the plant, the broken police tape still fluttered in the wind. The chemical group chairman stroked his gold-plated lighter, his smile like a greased gear: “Heard there was a misunderstanding last night?”

Gu Changzheng placed the titanium alloy canister on the coffee table; metal met marble with a clear chime. “At the 2014 Hannover Chemical Expo, Company M displayed a similar container.” He flipped open entry-exit records: “You were an invited guest—you must have seen this timed poisoning device.”

Zhou Shichang’s motion to light his cigar hesitated by 0.3 seconds; smoke drifted past his platinum ring: “Inspector Gu has a keen interest in chemistry?”

“Not as much as you do,” Gu Changzheng suddenly spread out the crime scene photos; the victim’s pink skin glowed in the dawn like fresh shrimp meat. “When tetraphenylporphyrin cobalt meets acidic wastewater, it produces an oxygen-deprivation effect similar to carbon monoxide poisoning—that’s why Professor Chen gasped desperately after entering the water, isn’t it?”

Luo Fei stepped in at the right moment and slapped a sealed bag onto the desk; inside, extracted from the chocolate crystals, was barium chloride, shimmering with the iridescent sheen of a peacock’s tail under sunlight.