Chapter 300: Not a Single Doubt Can Be Overlooked!

Yu Dazhang was eager to interrogate Ru Yao and Shu Rujia, but what he really wanted to know was whether Fang Peng still had an accomplice.

Once that was confirmed, he grew even more puzzled.

How had Fang Peng managed it?

He understood structural engineering and knew how to brainwash people, yet the robbery he committed was utterly foolish.

The more you take things seriously, the more you have to fear.

If you analyze it carefully, you'll find this simply isn't something one person could have done.

Could Fang Peng have schizophrenia?

Probably not... Yu Dazhang immediately rejected that hypothesis.

He had spoken face-to-face with Fang Peng; if the man had any such condition, he would have been able to tell.

Logically speaking, with the case at this stage, they could move toward closing it.

The suspect had confessed, the place where the victims were hidden had been found, and the victims themselves had provided relevant testimony — ironclad evidence, mountains of it, with no room for reversal.

But for Yu Dazhang, it just wouldn't pass.

Because there were still doubts.

Investigating means conducting targeted inquiries into every unreasonable point.

Since doubts about Fang Peng still existed, they had to keep digging deeper.

Leaving the hospital, Yu Dazhang returned to the branch bureau.

The first person he found was Li Jun.

"Captain Li, I'd like to see the squad's investigation file on Fang Peng's personal background."

Since he was going to investigate, he naturally had to start with Fang Peng's past.

He had only briefly glanced at Fang Peng's identity information with Li Jun before; he hadn't looked into the rest in detail.

"Hasn't the case already been cleared up?" Li Jun was puzzled by his reverse course of action:

"Now you're looking at personal files — are you planning to dig deeper?"

Yu Dazhang waved his hand and denied it:

"No, no, I just want to put together a fresh case file, then merge the three cold cases together. Of course the more complete the suspect's information, the better."

For now, his suspicions about Fang Peng were still just his personal speculation, and Yu Dazhang wasn't confident he could uncover any other leads.

So naturally, he had to leave himself some room.

Li Jun nodded upon hearing this, then handed him a document from the desk:

"This is the squad's investigation file on Fang Peng. If you need to keep investigating him, I can send someone else."

As the detachment commander, he naturally hoped the case would be handled as carefully as possible — criminal cases could not afford the slightest slip.

And based on his understanding of Yu Dazhang, there should still be some other issues with this case.

"No need, no need." Yu Dazhang waved him off:

"I'm really just organizing the files."

Back in the cold case office.

Yu Dazhang sat at his desk and began flipping through Fang Peng's personal file.

The personal information at the beginning he had seen before, so this time he just glanced at it briefly and skipped over it.

Fang Peng's family background was also very simple — he was the only one left now.

Flipping further on, he reached the work history section.

Fang Peng's earliest job was as an ordinary worker at a large collective enterprise, and he had even driven for a leader for a year.

In 2006, when the enterprise was restructured, Fang Peng took a severance payout and left.

After that, he drove a commuter bus for a factory for two years, and after that he started driving a taxi.

Hmm?

Seeing this, Yu Dazhang noticed something off.

Fang Peng drove the commuter bus from 2006 to 2008.

He drove the taxi from 2010 to 2012.

Judging by the dates, a year was missing.

There was no record for 2009.

In other words, Fang Peng was unemployed that year.

Yu Dazhang took out his notebook, wrote down that year, and drew a question mark after it.

This file still wasn't detailed enough — even if Fang Peng was unemployed in 2009, at the very least a rough reason should have been noted.

It couldn't be that he was unemployed and did absolutely nothing that whole year.

And looking at his past work history, he wasn't the type to lie around at home — suddenly being out of work for a whole year was abnormal to begin with.

After that there was nothing more; Fang Peng's last job was driving a taxi.

What happened afterward, Yu Dazhang already knew.

Ru Yao, Shu Rujia, and Zhang Xinyue went missing one after another in 2012, imprisoned by Fang Peng in the basement of Minjiang High School.

And that basement, Fang Peng had dug in 2011.

Thinking of this, Yu Dazhang found it incredible.

Fang Peng had actually been driving a taxi while digging a tunnel — earning money by day, going to the abandoned school at night to pursue his hobby.

Such a busy life, and he had kept it up for nearly a year.

What a fulfilled individual.

Yu Dazhang calculated in his head: Fang Peng was 46 this year, which meant he was 43 in 2011.

When a person reaches that age, their bodily functions noticeably decline, and hormone secretion is naturally affected.

In other words, women no longer tempt him.

Yet to imprison the girl, he spent a whole year digging out a basement.

Where did he get such a craving?

Could it be that he'd been repressed for too long?

No — Yu Dazhang felt that possibility was too low.

He'd endured over forty years; if Fang Peng had such inclinations, he would have acted long ago.

What Yu Dazhang couldn't figure out most was where he'd found the courage to turn these fantasies into reality.

A man with no criminal record suddenly committing such a major case — however you look at it, something uncanny is at work.

And after imprisoning the three girls, Fang Peng had even stopped driving his taxi.

Even if he'd saved up over years of work, the money would eventually run dry.

Then Yu Dazhang went over Fang Peng's personal file once more.

High-school graduate; his later work history showed no contact with structural engineering or anything similar.

Looking at it now, only the year 2009 — with no record — is left.

Did he go study that year?

In 2009 Fang Peng was forty-one — at that age, going to learn structural engineering?

No matter how you think about it, it's impossible.

The best move now is to go interrogate Fang Peng directly.

But Yu Dazhang wanted to sort some things out before going; otherwise, even face-to-face with Fang Peng, he wouldn't know where to begin.

Even an interrogation requires homework beforehand.

If he didn't deliberately go study that year, what other way could he have picked up the relevant knowledge?

Yu Dazhang's mind raced now — possibilities kept popping up, only to be dismissed one by one.

Finally, a single word came to him.

Experience!

That's right — experience.

Some skills you don't need to learn; just start doing them, and after a while they come naturally.

Practice makes perfect, after all.

But then a new question arose.

Suppose Fang Peng took on engineering-related work in 2009 — why is there no record of that employment?

It was also right after that year that Fang Peng grew bold enough to ignore the nation's laws and go straight for the girls.

What did he go through that year to change so drastically?

When these two questions merged, Yu Dazhang suddenly recalled Ye Zhiyu's words:

People can be tamed.

I know… Yu Dazhang's eyes lit up; an idea slowly took shape.

Fang Peng had once been tamed!

No — more precisely, in 2009, Fang Peng had been imprisoned by someone using the very same method!

(End of chapter)