Chapter 32: Follow Me

Wei Zhenguo asked repeatedly for over half an hour, combing through the timeline and chain of evidence for the arson case at the scrap collection station, before finally pausing to take a drink of water.

This case was still a minor one, occurring in Xihong District, which was also the hometown of Lü Xin.

Wenxiang was where his maternal grandparents lived. He also knew the principle that a rabbit doesn't eat the grass around its own burrow, so whenever his hands got itchy, he would go to the riverbank villages under Wenxiang to set fires for fun. Finally, after burning a large one, he took to his heels and ran.

In Xihong District, Lü Xin was relatively well-behaved most of the time, but he couldn't resist recently and ended up burning down a scrap collection station, involving property damage of perhaps only a thousand yuan.

At the police level, such minor cases were as numerous as ox hairs; when a scrap collection station caught fire, there was no need to even open a case file.

Now, with the big stick of "case clearance rates" hanging over them, the grassroots police stations would solve the case before opening a file... Wei Zhenguo couldn't manage that anyway. Even if he were made a leader, he couldn't possibly classify an unclear case as "arson"—that would purely be asking for trouble for himself.

Of course, if the case were solved, then arson would be arson, and not a single point of the score on the combat effectiveness leaderboard could be missing. Because it was a serial case, the total score would even jump up a bit.

Wei Zhenguo narrowed his eyes, looked at the young man opposite him, and said in a low voice, "Besides this case, tell me about the others as well."

"There are no more," Lü Xin said in a low voice.

Wei Zhenguo chuckled, "Do you think we only have evidence for one case of yours? If it were just this one case, would I have run over a hundred miles in the middle of the night to stake you out?"

Given Lü Xin's usual personality, he would have had eight hundred ways to retort at this moment.

But when he moved, the iron rings on his hands rattled, and his ankles felt a constant chill; the usual retorts he was accustomed to just wouldn't come out.

"The crime of arson can be punished by up to 10 years. Hmm... arson is classified as the crime of arson in the Criminal Law. You set the fire, so confess honestly. If you go in for a few years and behave well, you might be out in a year or two. If you resist and refuse to confess, my statement to the Procuratorate will change. Ten years... you're only 20 this year; in 10 years, you'll be 30. Are you willing to spend the best 10 years of your life in prison?" Wei Zhenguo had interrogated more criminals than he had seen women, and he poked Lü Xin's weak spot just right.

He had confessed to the minor case just to get through this interrogation with the lowest cost, but to Wei Zhenguo and the others, his confession to the minor case was the beginning of a dam breaking.

Just like a fraudster, the purpose of cheating a client out of a small sum of money is to follow that opening to cheat them out of more money.

Lü Xin's expression could no longer be managed at all, and his head couldn't help but lunge forward, regretting the past... only he wasn't sure which past he was regretting.

"Speak," Wei Zhenguo's highly oppressive voice entered Lü Xin's ears once again.

"I... I really did have one more time..."

Lü Xin's voice as he confessed became faster and faster, and his mood actually became a bit more relaxed.

There was the joy of the other shoe finally dropping, as well as the release of fear.

Wei Zhenguo looked at Lü Xin with deep eyes, waited for him to finish confessing to the second case clearly, and then said slowly, "Continue."

Lü Xin struggled, "No, I..."

"Do you remember this case?" Wei Zhenguo pulled one out from a thick stack of photos and displayed it to Lü Xin again. This time, it was the tractor arson case.

Next to the tractor's ignition point were Lü Xin's fingerprints; this was extremely powerful evidence.

Lü Xin was powerless to resist, and noticing the stack of photos Wei Zhenguo had just taken out, he had no choice but to continue confessing.

Just as Wei Zhenguo had guessed, Lü Xin had more or less an antisocial personality. He had liked setting fires since he was a child, liked burning insects since he was a child, and after growing up, he liked setting fires in the wild for fun even more, intentionally igniting large items and even houses.

But precisely because his arson was out of hobby, the time, location, and scope of his arson tended to be random, making the cases difficult to solve. He himself had never been caught, so it was inevitable that his courage grew larger and larger.

However, when he sat on the cold "tiger bench," the courage that had inflated over many years instantly withered rapidly, as if a balloon had been pricked.

Evening.

Wei Zhenguo walked out of the interrogation room with a spring in his step, his dark face glowing with excitement, and his stomach aching with hunger.

Arson is one of the eight major cases. Although the value of the cases Lü Xin committed was relatively small, the quantity was quite considerable. In total, he dug out 5 cases, which, rounded up, was equivalent to a platoon of junior criminals. Moreover, he also had a greenhouse arson case worth a million yuan.

The only pity was the forest arson case, which seemingly really wasn't Lü Xin's doing, and coupled with insufficient evidence, it couldn't be pinned on him either.

But regardless, solving a serial arson case was still a very good achievement. According to the combat effectiveness leaderboard's point mechanism, the greenhouse arson case in Wen County was worth 30 points. The other cases, depending on the nature of the case, were worth at least 20 points.

Lü Xin, who had been arrested and brought to justice, was worth another ten or eight points.

This meant that after handling this set of cases, Wei Zhenguo could theoretically increase the Criminal Police Brigade's combat effectiveness by fifty or sixty points.

In reality... because there were caps on various types of cases, the Criminal Police Brigade's total score might not increase by as much as 60 points, but it would still be very considerable.

It might be more points than Wei Zhenguo harvested in a whole year of handling cases.

No matter from which angle one considered it, today belonged to the heavens dropping a pie, and he just needed to open his mouth and catch it with a smile.

Wei Zhenguo recalled Lü Xin's eyes with tenderness.

What an obedient criminal; if all criminals were this well-behaved, how popular would the profession of police be?

Looking at Jiang Yuan again, Wei Zhenguo's eyes became even more tender: "Wu Wu Fa Yi Jiang, please trouble yourself to produce the fingerprint identification report later."

"Okay," Jiang Yuan agreed immediately and looked at Wang Zhong beside him.

"We'll do it together later." Seeing Jiang Yuan's look, Wang Zhong understood and replied.

Wei Zhenguo nodded happily and added, "I should have treated you to a meal, but my daughter has already brought food over. If you need help with anything later, definitely come find me, don't be polite!"

"Not at all, not at all." Wang Zhong replied quickly, pulled Jiang Yuan with anticipation, walked two steps away, and said in a low voice, "Pay attention later, I'm really not bragging."

Before long, a policewoman walked over quickly.

The policewoman had short, capable hair and fair skin. In contrast to the group of rough men, she was as bright, conspicuous, and sharp as the bottom of a beer bottle in a rocky beach.

She walked all the way over, attracting eyes, walked straight up to Wei Zhenguo, called out "Dad," and handed over a sturdy large lunch box.

"Alright, don't send it next time; I can just get something to eat myself." Wei Zhenguo said that, but he still opened the lunch box with a happy face. He didn't care that it was cafeteria food; instead, he smiled proudly at everyone, patted his head, and said, "Forgot to introduce you. Jiang Yuan, this is the new forensic doctor in our brigade, Wei Yin, my daughter."

"Hello." Jiang Yuan nodded politely at Wei Yin.

"Do you think we don't look alike?" Wei Zhenguo had been paying attention to Jiang Yuan's expression.

Looking at Wei Zhenguo's dark face, Jiang Yuan couldn't help but say, "Maybe the skin tone follows the mother..."

"The skin tone follows me." Wei Zhenguo pulled up his upper garment, revealing his fair belly, and said, "My face is tanned." ===== CHAPTER 33 =====