Chapter 110

Wenshang, it's been a while since it's been this lively.

The last time it attracted so many residents to happily watch was when the feed store at the east end of the road caught fire. At that time, the flames soared into the sky, there were many people helping with the rescue, and the smell of roasted corn wafted for miles, exponentially increasing everyone's sense of participation.

Chen Fan's hardware store is also a well-known large store in Wenshang, belonging to the local high-end heavy industry sector and possessing certain core technologies. Sometimes, nearby auto repair shops would even come to them to request technical support.

"I didn't expect a hardware store to do that."

The surroundings were chaotic, with locals discussing things in the local dialect.

Jiang Yuan occasionally understood a sentence, turned his head in surprise, and asked, "Doing 'that'—what is 'that'?"

"You're an outsider, you don't understand; they are doing 'that'." The local said, laughing with a "hehehe."

"It's not doing 'that,' it's doing 'that'." Another local corrected.

"Oh my, it's 'that's' 'that'..." Another person stood out.

Amidst the loose-on-the-outside, tight-on-the-inside cordon, no gunfire rang out.

Jiang Yuan lowered his head to look at his phone; nearly 20 minutes had passed. At this point, since the suspect hadn't fired, most likely they wouldn't fire, or they didn't have a gun.

After waiting a while longer, Jiang Yuan's phone buzzed.

"Come in. The fish isn't big, but it's quite energetic." Liu Jinghui's voice was filled with irrepressible excitement.

"Okay. Right away." Jiang Yuan was also very curious about this person's situation. He didn't know how much influence it would have on the case.

The police officers guarding both sides of the commercial street withdrew one after another, allowing the public to enter and dispersing the crowd.

The shop owners on the commercial street perked up, using all their strength to shout:

"Selling mops, selling washbasins, selling stainless steel shovels..."

"Beer, sunflower seeds, drinks..."

"Brooms, mops, plungers, cockroach poison, rat poison, dog skin plasters..."

"Selling chicks... good chicks..."

Every owner sought to take advantage of the opportunity of their colleague being sacrificed to heaven to sell a climax.

The police officers transferred from various places stopped one after another, or were enthusiastically pulled into the shops by the owners.

Two snipers slowly climbed down from the roof.

The older one was calm and composed, like a leisurely gecko.

The younger one was a bit dejected, looking around as he climbed, likely feeling a bit regretful that he hadn't been able to fully exert his role and had let a second-class merit slip away.

In the backyard of the hardware store, inside the high red brick wall, a layer of cement wall had been reinforced, looking quite sturdy.

Although the surrounding shops and residences all had a tendency to crowd the remaining space near the hardware store, they were all blocked by the hardware store's red brick wall.

Jiang Yuan had to enter the interior of the hardware store's backyard to see a dim but spacious factory building.

The most conspicuous thing was a CNC machine tool, and there were other machine tools, boring machines, and other machinery that looked very old and had passed through who knows how many hands...

In one corner of the factory, a large number of express delivery boxes were piled up, inside which various mechanical processing parts were exposed; one could see gun barrels, gun stocks, air gauges, air pump handles, pressure valves, screws, gaskets, and so on. And on the side with better lighting, on several tables covered with black leather, several air guns that had not yet been assembled were visible to the naked eye.

"So arrogant?" Jiang Yuan felt surprised. Wenshang's commercial street was only as large as a place with a thousand corpses, and now with over a hundred police officers gathered, the police density was so exaggerated, yet they were still producing firearms; it was a bit imprudent.

Chen Fan said dejectedly, "I was just preparing to clean up."

"How are you going to clean up? Do you have anything in this factory that isn't contraband?" Liu Jinghui scoffed, pointed casually, and said, "You have over a dozen assembled guns here alone, plus so many parts; what are you doing with so many? Are you crazy?"

Chen Fan muttered, not making a sound; he wanted to argue, but was a bit afraid of being beaten.

An hour ago, he was still a happy hardware store owner, but now, watching prison life beckon right in front of him, the change in his emotions was hard to describe.

Moreover, there was something even more terrifying in his heart.

Both lucky and panicked.

Liu Jinghui switched to an earnest tone and said, "Just like I told you before, don't think about resisting us. Resistance won't do you any good. You know how firearms are determined, right? Anything over 2 joules per square centimeter counts as a firearm. Do you know how many firearms are here?"

Chen Fan shuddered, still not making a sound.

Liu Jinghui chuckled; in the past, he would have had someone take Chen Fan away. But this time, his target wasn't Chen Fan, but the much more important serial killer gang, so the most important thing now was to make Chen Fan talk.

After pondering for a moment, Liu Jinghui said, "If you won't talk, then I'll tell you. In our firearm management regulations, firearm parts are determined this way. Parts that can form a set are calculated as one firearm. Those that cannot form a set are calculated as thirty pieces per firearm. In your own factory, you tell me, how many parts are here?"

Chen Fan trembled all over, looking at Liu Jinghui in disbelief.

Liu Jinghui looked at Chen Fan with a regretful gaze.

Liu Jinghui was actually lying; the calculation method he mentioned was the determination method for smuggling firearms, not the determination method for manufacturing firearms.

But Chen Fan clearly hadn't done any research in this area.

Liu Jinghui successfully tested this conclusion and immediately felt settled in his heart.

According to his plan, if Chen Fan was knowledgeable and knew the difference in the criminal law regarding the determination of parts for illegal manufacturing of firearms versus parts for smuggling firearms, then he would just play the bad cop and hand the interrogation over to someone else later.

Now it seemed Chen Fan didn't know, which meant this was a young man who had never been reformed in prison; sure enough, he still had huge shortcomings on the path of crime, so it was a waste not to trick him.

Liu Jinghui immediately picked up a screw from the table next to him and said, "With so many parts here, if I count them all for you and treat them all according to the firearm standard, how many guns is that? You'll be eating prison food until you die."

Chen Fan raised his head with difficulty, his face turning pale.

Jiang Yuan looked at him, feeling a bit depressed. Clearly having the ability to independently process mechanical products and the ability to make money, yet using it to process firearms, and having already started processing and manufacturing firearms, he hadn't even read the relevant articles of the criminal law—of course, if he had read them, maybe he wouldn't have continued processing and manufacturing firearms.

Liu Jinghui continued, "We have so many people here, not just to catch you alone. If you cooperate well with us and confess a few suppliers and buyers, I'll count the parts here that can be counted as general-purpose parts as general-purpose parts..."

Chen Fan, as if he had grabbed a straw to save his life, said hurriedly, "That's right, these parts of mine are all for processing other things, not for making guns."

"It's not up to you to say." Liu Jinghui looked at him coldly.

Under Liu Jinghui's gaze, which lasted for dozens of seconds, Chen Fan lowered his head again.

Liu Jinghui struck while the iron was hot, took Chen Fan directly to the Wenshang police station, put him on the "tiger bench," and couldn't wait to start the interrogation.

The tiger bench was a bit like a larger baby's high chair, where the wrists, ankles, and back were all tied up. The baby chair was to prevent the child from falling while eating, while the tiger bench was to prevent the suspect from becoming emotionally agitated and suddenly doing something irrational.

Liu Chu's interrogation skills couldn't be called brilliant within the provincial department, but dealing with a criminal like Chen Fan who hadn't even been to a detention center, it was really much too brilliant.

In just an hour or two, Chen Fan spilled the beans like a bamboo tube pouring out beans, selling out his suppliers and buyers completely.

At this time, Chen Fan still thought he was caught because of the firearm manufacturing incident.

Liu Jinghui drank some water himself, adjusted his emotions, and thrust the most fatal sword of the day: "You made so many air guns; didn't you think about hunting or something yourself?"

"No... just occasionally, hitting a rabbit or something." Chen Fan didn't dare to deny it completely, speaking cautiously.

"What we found in your house isn't just rabbits." Liu Jinghui had prepared for this sword for a long time; how could he let Chen Fan dodge it easily?

"No, definitely not..."

"This is a small matter; lying is pointless." Liu Jinghui suddenly frowned, looking as if he had been treated unfairly.

Chen Fan hurriedly recalled, could there still be leftover pheasant in his refrigerator that he hadn't finished eating?

He often went hunting in the mountains; not only did he hunt with his uncle, but he also occasionally went up the mountain to test his guns. Once on the mountain, naturally, he would shoot whatever he saw; it was impossible not to shoot if he saw a pheasant.

The more times he went hunting, there would always be prey left over that he hadn't finished eating.

Immediately after, Chen Fan remembered the medicinal wine he had soaked, which contained eagles and snakes. In fact, ordinary families often used venomous snakes to soak wine, and there were quite a few people in Wenshang who used eagles to soak wine. The few people who were caught were just confiscated and fined, but at this time, Chen Fan felt he could only admit to a little more.

Under Liu Jinghui's gaze, Chen Fan feigned generosity and said, "If I have to admit it, I admit it; I also hunted eagles and soaked them in wine."

"And then?"

"I also hunted birds, just a few sparrows or something."

"Then you should think carefully again..."

After Liu Jinghui tricked him into revealing several pieces of prey, he slowly thrust the second heavy sword of the day: "Where did you hunt these things?"

Chen Fan didn't know why, so he forced an answer: "Just in our township."

"Wenshang, does it have these animal distributions?" Liu Jinghui looked into his eyes.

Chen Fan was stunned and said in a low voice, "Yes."

"Have you ever been to Wu Longshan Mountain?"

"No." Chen Fan shook his head immediately, his movements much faster than before, obviously more intense.

Then he began to argue: "Wu Longshan Mountain is a nature reserve; I definitely wouldn't go there. I just wander around my house."

Liu Jinghui's expression turned stern, and he said in a deep voice, "You haven't been to Wu Longshan Mountain? We found a mineral water bottle with your fingerprints in Wu Longshan Mountain."

Only then did Chen Fan suddenly remember that he was caught because of his fingerprints. His face turned pale instantly. At this moment, he suddenly wanted to struggle and rush out, but only after struggling did he feel that his hands and feet were tied.

His back felt cold, his face pale, looking at the big characters in the interrogation room: "Leniency for confession, severity for resistance."

He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, saying, "I, I..."

"Think it through before you speak." Liu Jinghui had already grasped some of his thoughts through Chen Fan's expression. At this time, seeing that he wanted to lie, he interrupted him directly.

Chen Fan kept his mouth shut.

Liu Jinghui let the atmosphere in the interrogation room congeal. After a long while, he asked softly, "How many did you kill?"

Chen Fan's heart trembled, and he became twelve times more panicked.

"If you don't talk, I'll count them all on you..."

"That won't do!" Chen Fan felt he had figured it out, swallowed his saliva, and said cautiously, "I'm just a runner, really, I should count as a witness, the kind that's a tainted witness."

There is no concept of a tainted witness in the country. Liu Jinghui naturally didn't explain much, just looked at Chen Fan and said, "Then what did you see?"

"Just... just saw them kill people." Chen Fan's voice was low, but his emotions were extremely intense.

In the matter of witnessing murder, Chen Fan had also accumulated huge psychological pressure.

Jiang Yuan was standing outside the interrogation room at this moment, watching the surveillance video, listening seemingly calmly, turning a water pen in his hand from time to time, turning it very nimbly. His fingers were slender, and he turned the pen like a fan. Hearing the suspect say this sentence, the pen in Jiang Yuan's hand fell, with a "clatter," landing on the ground. He bent down to pick it up, stood up straight, and at this moment, his heart fell back to its original place.