Chapter 391

"Li Feng, you're 35 this year—by our hometown's calculation, you're nearly 38, heading straight for forty. You don't plan to retire in prison, do you?" Meng Chengbiao said with a tone of concern.

Beside him, Zhang Qi, the one playing the hardliner, slammed his fist on the table in perfect sync: "Hurry up, don't waste our time. If you want to spend your whole life here, we'll accommodate you!"

"Old Zhang, don't be so harsh. We should give him a chance." Meng Chengbiao turned back, speaking gently: "Li Feng, this is a rare opportunity. If it weren't for us wanting to catch your boss, we could've just sent you straight to court under different circumstances—you'd be finished for life. Armed robbery, serious bodily harm, using a flame gun—a vicious method—and you're a repeat offender. The sentence could easily be life imprisonment!"

Li Feng kept his head down, muttering: "I didn't do it."

"Still denying it!" Zhang Qi barked. "Your fingerprints were found on the flame gun. The mark on the victim's face matches the nozzle's imprint. Can you deny that? You won't break until you see the coffin!"

Meng Chengbiao pressed his hand down, speaking calmly: "Li Feng, you used the flame gun to burn the victim's face, then pressed the nozzle against it—effectively stamping a brand. Here are the photos, and the forensic report is ready. Take a look."

Zhang Qi chuckled: "When the prosecutor has the victim remove his mask in court for the judge to see the scar, who do you think the judge will sympathize with? Just by that horrific sight alone, you're looking at life imprisonment. Understand?"

Li Feng covered his face with his hands, his anguish impossible to hide.

He'd been to prison before. He knew how unbearable a long sentence could be.

Meng Chengbiao and Zhang Qi sat back calmly. Though they used only the most basic tactics—one playing the bad cop, the other the good cop—it was more than enough for an ordinary criminal.

Most importantly, the evidence was nearly sufficient. Going to trial might still be slightly lacking, since the flame gun was shared, and the imprint alone couldn't prove Li Feng did it.

But Li Feng's phone had traces of online gambling. If the cybercrime unit could match the victim's deposit amount and transaction record from that day, they'd have the skeleton of a solid evidence chain.

Of course, logically, Li Feng's confession would be ideal. But he couldn't afford to withhold it.

He was still resisting, but his will was weakening. And China's interrogation system wasn't like American TV dramas—you couldn't just call for a lawyer and have them sit beside you. In real criminal investigations, lawyers could be completely excluded. Some lawyers took cases and didn't see their clients for months, even longer.

Under this one-sided information imbalance, Li Feng didn't know whether the evidence against him was sufficient. Even if it was slightly insufficient, prosecution was still possible—though the police would lose face. Ultimately, Li Feng had to confess. It was just a matter of when, and how much he hoped to gain.

Meng Chengbiao casually toyed with him: "Li Feng, I'll be straight with you—we're after Jia Chengfeng, that's why we're wasting time with you. But your company isn't just you. If someone else gives up Jia Chengfeng, we won't bother with you anymore. After all, your sentence is so long, you're not a big fish—you're just a small shrimp."

"Confess... what? What do you want from Jia Chengfeng?" Li Feng, lured into speaking, had never been a hardcore gambler—his stubbornness and pride were nonexistent.

Even now, he was gambling. If Jia Chengfeng's case was big enough, maybe he'd get under ten years?

Meng Chengbiao gave him no opening: "Just confess everything you know. I'll tell you plainly—only by revealing all your knowledge can you get sentence reduction. If we find you've hidden anything, reduction is off the table. Understood?"

He wasn't telling the full truth, but a well-known interrogation tactic: police can lie. Lying doesn't invalidate the interrogation.

But Li Feng had no way to tell.

In fact, whether Li Feng got sentence reduction depended entirely on

what Meng Chengbiao said. Li Feng's actions—robbery followed by forcing the victim to transfer money to an online gambling platform via a flame gun—could be classified as "exceptionally cruel means," directly leading to life imprisonment. Theoretically, even death was possible.

Even if Jia Chengfeng's company had transformed into a thriving organization, all its illegal activities over recent years combined couldn't justify Li Feng's potential sentence. In short, Li Feng had chosen a criminally low-return model.

One could only say: those addicted to gambling lost their ability to think clearly.

After a few more exchanges with Li Feng, the man who had once looked so menacing on the other side of the steel bars began spitting out his confession, one lump at a time, like sheep dung.

Meng Chengbiao, representing Jiang Yuan, was most interested in Liao Baoquan's situation, but he didn't stop Li Feng from revealing more. Everything Li Feng said now would become ammunition against Jia Chengfeng.

Under Meng Chengbiao and Zhang Qi's subtle guidance, Li Feng gradually painted a picture of a thriving criminal organization: Jia Chengfeng beat people, seized property, lent money at exorbitant interest, monopolized routes, threatened and humiliated drivers and merchants from outside the area, forced sales—all documented.

Li Feng talked for two hours, his throat dry, repeating himself, yet never mentioning Liao Baoquan. Only then did Meng Chengbiao prompt him: "What's the relationship between Jia Chengfeng and Liao Baoquan?"

Li Feng froze. He now vaguely sensed he'd said too much—but there was no going back. Many seasoned criminals only learned the right balance during interrogation after three or four incarcerations. Li Feng had little experience and didn't read—he was easy prey for Meng Chengbiao.

"Liao Baoquan..." Li Feng recalled. "I don't know the details, but they argued twice. Twice, Liao Baoquan came to see Jia Chengfeng, and they had loud fights. The second time, Liao Baoquan left a car behind. Jia Chengfeng sent him two white pork deliveries—made a good profit."

"How often did Jia Chengfeng use Liao Baoquan's car?" Meng Chengbiao asked.

Li Feng replied: "Only when prices were sky-high and the market was booming."

"Then wouldn't Liao Baoquan lose money?"

"Of course he did. Each time, he lost tens of thousands."

"So Liao Baoquan just accepted it?"

"Jia... Jia Chengfeng just demanded the car, and Liao Baoquan had to hand it over—he was being held down." Li Feng's mind wasn't sharp, but now he understood: "Was Jia Chengfeng slashed by Liao Baoquan?"

Meng Chengbiao gave no answer, only asked: "Why do you think that?"

"Too many extortion attempts. Liao Baoquan couldn't take it anymore. His refrigerated truck was bought on loan, and business has been bad lately—he must've been under heavy pressure." Li Feng's guess earned a nod from Meng Chengbiao, and he rushed on: "Liao Baoquan's refrigerated truck was among the best in Miaohé County. If he'd run it properly, he could've made a fortune. Jia Chengfeng just messed everything up. Liao Baoquan argued with him before, then stopped arguing—probably because he decided to kill him..."

Meng Chengbiao had gathered all the information he needed. Without hesitation, he sent Li Feng back to his cell.

At the same time, Meng Chengbiao took Zhang Qi to Miaohé County Central Hospital. Jia Chengfeng had been transferred there, recovering in a dedicated ward.

From the moment they entered, they began recording video and audio, continuing their black-and-white-cop routine with Jia Chengfeng. But whether it was a routine or not, Jia Chengfeng couldn't hold out.

His subordinates were piling dirt on him. His loosely formed "thriving organization," in official eyes, was a violent, unguarded, poorly concealed, underfunded, and under-networked criminal group growing through force.

Meng Chengbiao didn't even need to trick him—he simply laid out the evidence his subordinates had provided, and Jia Chengfeng broke.

Men on hospital beds are far more fragile than women. Jia Chengfeng lay there, flanked by Meng Chengbiao and Zhang Qi on either side, his company destroyed, his life ruined—he'd become utterly defeated.

Jia Chengfeng said: "If I confess, can I get sentence reduction?"

"It depends on how big the case is, and whether anyone else has already confessed," Meng Chengbiao tempted him. "The bigger and more numerous the cases you reveal, the greater your chance of meritorious service. The standards for meritorious service and major meritorious service are written down—I won't lie to you..."

"I don't believe you. I need multiple witnesses, a lawyer, and your police team's leadership." Jia Chengfeng's only hope now was sentence reduction.

Meng Chengbiao asked a few more questions, confirmed Jia Chengfeng had real information, then immediately requested permission and called Jiang Yuan and Xu Xuewu, along with a local lawyer.

With minimal guarantees in place, Jia Chengfeng finally felt reassured. He waited calmly for the camera to turn on, then spoke without delay: "Liao Baoquan killed someone. He had a gun—I stole it."

The technician holding the camera flinched slightly.

Meng Chengbiao, expecting this, pressed: "How do you know he killed someone?"

Jia Chengfeng said: "When I stole the gun, there was a police officer's ID beside it. The officer's name was He Boyong. You know this case, right...?"

Everyone in the room reacted differently.

Xu Xuewu even stood up and paced a few steps, silently repeating "Case 503: Gun Theft and Murder" several times before calming down.

Xu Xuewu didn't just know this case—he'd heard the name repeatedly in meetings and training sessions.

Back then, He Boyong, the police station chief of Anhai City, illegally brought his gun home, was attacked and killed, and the gun was stolen. Immediately after, Anhai City saw four armed robberies and two more murders by gunfire. It was a nationally supervised case, one that had dragged on for years without resolution.

Xu Xuewu had never imagined such a massive bomb was hidden right in his own jurisdiction.

"Where are the gun and the ID?" Meng Chengbiao pressed. Finding the gun was now the top priority—not just for safety, but for the entire case.

"In my backyard. I hid it in a jar." Jia Chengfeng whispered, then gave the exact location.

Xu Xuewu immediately picked up his phone and called his men to retrieve it.

Then Meng Chengbiao started from the beginning: "What did the gun look like? What model?"

Jia Chengfeng smiled faintly, almost imperceptibly, and said, "It was mainly his refrigerated truck. Where in Miaohé County had such a good thing ever been? He brought the truck and moved here alone—I had to have someone keep an eye on him. Later, my men told me he'd bought a safe. I asked about it, and it turned out to be just an ordinary safe. Luckily, I knew an old thief, so while he was out on the road, I had him break into his house and open that small safe."

"How did you steal it?"

Jia Chengfeng gave a faint smile: "It was mainly because of his refrigerated truck. Miaohé County never had anything like that before. He moved here alone with the truck—I had to have someone watch him. Later, my men told me he bought a safe. I asked what kind—it was just a regular one. I knew an old thief, so while he was out driving, I broke into his house and opened the safe."

Meng Chengbiao looked at the leaders behind him, then asked about the time of the crime, communication tools, and the vehicle used; Jia Chengfeng answered each detail naturally.

"Nickname: Grey Donkey. He follows the rules—he only opened the safe, never even looked inside." Jia Chengfeng paused. "Inside were 60,000 yuan, two gold bars he'd melted himself—totaling over twenty grams—two Rolexes, plus the gun and ID. I paid Grey Donkey 30,000 yuan, and that was the end of it..."

【68】 Meng Chengbiao glanced at the leaders behind him, then asked about the timing, communication devices, and vehicles used. Jia Chengfeng answered naturally.

【69】 Fabricated cases rarely contain so many precise details—especially with the gun and ID as physical evidence. Before Meng Chengbiao finished questioning, Xu Xuewu stepped out to make a call.