Chapter 289: Two Days of Interrogation, Nothing Gained

He left the hotel.

Yu Dazhang saw Qu Tuotuo at the door, holding two gift bags in her hands, waiting for him.

When they reached the parking spot, Qu Tuotuo had Yu Dazhang open the trunk, then put the two gift bags inside.

"What's this?" Yu Dazhang asked curiously.

"Cigarettes," Qu Tuotuo replied casually:

"My dad told me to give them to you. You know he doesn't smoke, but social etiquette makes it hard to avoid giving things like cigarettes and alcohol."

"These cigarettes would expire sooner or later sitting at home, so I just brought them all to you."

The cigarettes from last time hadn't been finished yet… Yu Dazhang muttered to himself.

Last time Qu Tuotuo had given him eight cartons of cigarettes, and there were still two unopened ones left.

"Don't close it yet." Yu Dazhang stopped her from closing the trunk and leaned over:

"Let me see what kinds of cigarettes they are."

Two gift bags, filled entirely with whole cartons of cigarettes—he pulled them out one by one.

"Hetianxia, Jiuwu, Guiyan, 1916, Tianzi…"

He hadn't so much as seen these cigarettes, let alone smoked them—fortunately the names were printed on the packaging.

"Cigarettes come in tin cans too?"

Yu Dazhang held the barrel-shaped tin in his hand, turning it over and examining it several times.

"How would I know?" Qu Tuotuo shot him a glance:

"I don't know anything about cigarettes."

Corrupt, way too corrupt… Yu Dazhang figured these two bags of cigarettes were even more premium than regular ones.

He counted again—twelve cartons in total, plus five tin-can cigarettes.

"Forget it, these are too valuable." Yu Dazhang put the cigarettes back:

"Take them home later. If anyone asks, I won't be able to explain it."

Hearing this, Qu Tuotuo punched him lightly in the waist:

"What's there to explain? These are from me to you—do we need to explain our relationship to anyone else?"

These father and daughter both know how things work… Yu Dazhang immediately understood what she meant.

If Qu Wannian had given him the cigarettes in person just now, he definitely wouldn't have accepted them.

Because there was a layer of relationship between them, accepting cigarettes from Qu Wannian would carry the suspicion of taking bribes.

But Qu Tuotuo was different—the two of them were already dating, so it was perfectly normal for a couple to buy cigarettes.

Besides, the car he was driving now was a gift from Qu Tuotuo, so a few cigarettes hardly mattered.

On the way back dropping her off, Yu Dazhang asked curiously:

"Your dad's attitude toward me keeps getting better—did something happen that I don't know about?"

"He's been regretting it like crazy." Qu Tuotuo couldn't help laughing as she said:

"Do you remember June, when we went on our first date?"

Yu Dazhang nodded:

"Of course I remember. We were drinking draft beer, and you drank me under the table."

Whenever this came up, he felt ashamed.

In his view, being outdrunk by a woman was a very embarrassing thing.

"That's not the point." Qu Tuotuo waved her hand and said:

"You said back then that a bull market was about to start, told me to lay out my positions and get in as soon as possible, and predicted the bull market would last all the way until next year."

He actually still remembered that… Yu Dazhang's forehead was already starting to sweat.

That counted as a spoiler—alcohol really does harm people.

If he'd been sober, he never would have said those things to anyone. Predicting the stock market that accurately was basically telling people he could foresee the future.

For him, that was absolutely not a good thing.

Seeing that Yu Dazhang didn't respond, Qu Tuotuo continued:

"After that, I started gathering funds, and just like you said, the news about interest rate cuts came out."

"That's when I built my position, and I told my dad about it. Unfortunately, he didn't take it seriously at all and even mocked me, saying you can't listen to rumors."

"Later, leveraged funds poured in massively, the stock market climbed steadily—and you were right again."

"Haha, you know what, the stock market is on fire now, and my dad's completely dumbfounded. If he doesn't get in soon, it won't be long before my wealth surpasses his."

Qu Wannian's guts must be turning green with regret… Yu Dazhang could imagine old Qu's mood.

Misjudging something like this would frustrate anyone, no matter who it happened to.

"Do you really think this bull market can last until the middle of next year?"

Qu Tuotuo remembered Yu Dazhang saying she should be ready to exit by April next year.

Based on past patterns, that should be right when the stock market was at its hottest, so it would probably last another month or so.

"Your capital pool is too big, so you need to prepare to exit early."

Yu Dazhang said, a little helplessly:

"People are greedy. When every retail investor in the country is bullish on the stock market, that's the best time for capital to take profits at the top. So don't have any illusions—locking in gains is the best strategy."

Since he'd already let it slip earlier, and Qu Tuotuo had already entered the market, Yu Dazhang simply told her the outcome directly.

But hearing this only made Qu Tuotuo more certain she'd made the right choice.

"In other words…" she swallowed and asked tentatively:

"It's not too late to get in now?"

Yu Dazhang gave a slight nod and answered with certainty:

"That's right."

The next day.

Hongkou branch bureau.

The cold case squad, which had rested for three days, gathered together once again.

The news that they had cracked the serial finger-chopping case in S Province had also spread throughout the entire Songhai police force during those three days.

This case had already been the talk of the town two months earlier; no one had expected that in the end it would actually be Songhai's criminal investigators who solved it.

They really made us proud!

As members of the Songhai police force, everyone naturally shared in the glory.

The ones who felt this most deeply were Ma Jian and Liu Miao; when they showed up for work today, they noticed that the way everyone looked at them had changed.

How to put it—there was a hint of envy.

But more than that, it was jealousy and resentment; some colleagues even stared at them while grinding their teeth and glaring.

The reason their colleagues were resentful wasn't their case-solving ability, but that their luck hadn't been as good as those two's.

Why did they get to work alongside Fatty?!

Inside the cold case squad's office.

"You all keep going through the files on those three cold cases."

Yu Dazhang ordered:

"Try to broaden your thinking, and strive to find a new breakthrough."

After assigning the work, he went to the detachment commander's office.

After knocking and entering, he saw Li Jun sitting behind his desk smoking; the room was thick with the heavy smell of tobacco—clearly he had been puffing away in there for quite a while.

"Captain Li, smoking like this first thing in the morning—don't you want your lungs anymore?"

Yu Dazhang walked over with a smile, picked up the ashtray on the desk that was already stuffed full of cigarette butts, dumped the butts into the trash, then set it back in its place.

"What's the matter, got you this worried?" he asked with concern.

Li Jun took another hard drag, then pressed the cigarette butt into the ashtray to put it out:

"Based on the leads you provided, we found Fang Peng at the detention center and interrogated him, but so far we haven't been able to pry anything out of him."

Zhou Zizhe lied to me? The thought immediately popped into Yu Dazhang's head.

Based on his description, Fang Peng was just an ordinary person—there was no way he could have held out against the police for two full days of interrogation.

"Not a single thing?" Yu Dazhang pressed, frowning.

There was another layer to his words: not a single technique used?

The techniques referred to here weren't torture, but interrogation skills—every officer in charge of interrogations knew at least a bit of psychology.

Language, environment, repetition and follow-up questions, combined with psychological tactics—few people could hold out for two days.

Li Jun looked utterly wretched:

"This kid's mouth is too tight; we can't get a single word out of him. I'm starting to wonder if he's had some training in this area."

(End of chapter)