Chapter 305: This World Isn't Simply Black and White

Fang Peng nodded:

"Yes, when I got to the police station, it was already the small hours of the night. There was only one duty officer and one auxiliary police officer on hand."

What he meant was, there were too few people, so going would be Bai Da.

But Yu Dazhang didn't think that way. He noticed Ma Jian and Liu Miao beside him also wore heavy, solemn expressions — clearly they had realized the problem too.

Something was off about that police station!

A case like this should have been reported up to the leadership immediately, then the municipal bureau should have stepped in directly, mustered officers, and acted at once.

There was one key point here: that factory wasn't holding only Fang Peng.

Besides him, seven other people were locked up there — the equivalent of seven hostages.

At a time like this, with hostages left unsaved, they first arranged for Fang Peng to get some sleep?

Where had things gone wrong? Could it be that Fang Peng hadn't explained the situation clearly enough?

Thinking of this, Yu Dazhang immediately asked:

"Did you tell them at the time that there were other people being held in the factory?"

No other information was needed — as long as Fang Peng had told the police this, it would have been enough to make them take it seriously.

"Of course I told them." Fang Peng replied:

"I described the situation in the factory very clearly, and went through the whole thing from start to finish, including that underground prison."

Then this matter was getting rather serious… Yu Dazhang could already picture the whole sequence of events in his head.

With something this big, the duty officer definitely wouldn't dare conceal it — after hearing the situation, he would have reported it straight up to the station leadership.

The problem appeared right here. If the station's leaders had reported it up the chain, the municipal bureau would certainly have taken action that very night.

Since no action was taken, only one possibility remained.

The police station had suppressed the matter!

At this moment Yu Dazhang felt cold air whooshing up the back of his neck, a chill rushing straight to the top of his head, and he couldn't help shivering.

What nerve!

To forcibly suppress something this big meant the station's leaders had some kind of connection with that factory.

There was also the possibility of negligence, of course, but that possibility was vanishingly small.

"Keep going. What happened after you got to the factory?"

What came next, Yu Dazhang had already guessed.

Once you assumed the police station had a problem, then of course someone would have tipped them off.

"That factory was empty."

When Fang Peng said this, a puzzled look crossed his face — clearly he still hadn't figured it out to this day:

"It's really strange. I remember it very clearly — the warehouse there was still piled full of goods the night before, but when the police brought me into the factory in the morning, it was completely empty. The people and the goods were both gone."

Strange, my ass… Yu Dazhang cursed inwardly.

After all these years he still hadn't figured it out — at this level of IQ, there was basically no difference between him and someone with an intellectual disability.

Yu Dazhang thought for a moment, then asked:

"What kind of factory was it — or rather, what did it produce?"

"I'm not sure of the specifics." Fang Peng said, recalling:

"But judging from the goods piled in the warehouse before, it should have been a manufacturer of sheet materials."

Sheet materials? Yu Dazhang didn't know much about that industry.

But to be able to move all the goods out overnight, they must have gotten wind of it in advance and been well prepared.

"What about after that — did you leave on your own, or did the police station send you back?" Yu Dazhang was growing more and more curious about that station.

"I went back on my own." Fang Peng answered:

"They helped me get a temporary ID, bought me a ticket back to Songhai, and told me they'd contact me if there were any developments in the case."

"But after that, there was complete radio silence. The people over there never contacted me again, and I never asked about it either."

They actually let him go back to Songhai… This didn't quite match what Yu Dazhang had expected.

He had assumed Fang Peng had escaped from that police station.

The reason was simple: if the station was in cahoots with the factory, they wouldn't have let such a living, breathing person just walk away.

By normal logic, the best move would have been to send him back and let those people lock Fang Peng up in the underground prison again.

Yet the police station simply didn't do that — instead, they sent him home.

This showed that not everyone at the station was in league with the factory — it was the personal doing of some leader at the station.

He dared to suppress the matter, but didn't have the nerve to persecute the person who had reported it.

There was another reason: Fang Peng wasn't a local.

Once they sent him away, he wouldn't keep clinging to the matter.

And that was indeed how it turned out — after Fang Peng got back to Songhai, he really didn't pursue it any further.

This further proved that the person colluding with the factory was only protecting them in the shadows; they weren't all part of the same gang.

This kind of thing wasn't rare — after all, "protective umbrella" was hardly a fresh term anymore.

Then Yu Dazhang asked for the name of that police station, and Ma Jian and the others wrote it down.

At this point, Fang Peng's case could be considered completely cleared up — at least as far as Yu Dazhang was concerned, there were no more loose ends.

All of Fang Peng's earlier illogical actions could now be explained.

His tunneling skills were something he'd learned from the professionals in that underground prison.

After escaping, he chose to report to the police right away, but the police never brought those people to justice.

After that he went back to Songhai and started driving a taxi. By then it was already 2011.

It was precisely because those people hadn't been caught that Fang Peng started entertaining crooked ideas, thinking their methods were so covert that the police would never discover them.

So, he began to imitate them.

Digging an underground chamber, abducting people and holding them captive...

He began taking his revenge on society.

Now that Fang Peng's case had been clarified, it had dragged another case into the picture.

And no matter from which angle one looked at it, the case Fang Peng had recounted was more complex and far more heinous.

The interrogation could be wrapped up to this point.

Fang Peng had already told everything he had experienced.

Throughout the process, Yu Dazhang had been watching his expression the whole time and found no trace of lying or deliberate concealment.

He spoke smoothly through the entire process, and in great detail, with a logically coherent explanation.

What Fang Peng had confessed was still not enough for sentencing; for now, the outcome hadn't really changed.

Just as his cellmates had analyzed for him:

He's done for.

Leaving the detention center, Yu Dazhang and the other two returned to the branch bureau.

"Complete the case files as soon as possible, and get the victims' statements sorted out quickly too."

Inside the cold-case office, Yu Dazhang gave orders to Ma Jian and Liu Miao:

"The interrogation content from just now also needs to be sorted out. From now on, the three cold cases are officially to be handled together."

The most important thing right now was still the captivity case Fang Peng had committed.

The contents he had confessed naturally needed to be investigated as well, but before that there had to be a verification process.

Besides, the Hongkou Branch Bureau had more than just their one squad.

After assigning the work, Yu Dazhang sat at his own desk and began replaying the scenes from the interrogation in his mind.

During interrogation one picks at the details; once it's over, one naturally has to sort things out and do an overall analysis.

First of all, the food, drink, and daily needs of over a hundred people—such a massive consumption—how had they managed it without being discovered?

(End of chapter)