Chapter 977: The Pickpocket

After briefly discussing Wang Futing’s situation, Jiang Yuan turned to Zhang Xiaoya and said, “We still need to wait for Wang Futing’s interrogation results. If you’re willing to participate, you can go to the investigation center and speak with the officers handling the interrogation—see how we can get him to lower his guard.”

“What about the bloodstain analysis?” Zhang Xiaoya wasn’t easily misled by Jiang Yuan’s words—her daily job was extracting truth from the lips of executives.

Jiang Yuan glanced at Zhang Xiaoya and added, “Bloodstain analysis reconstructs events by examining stains—it inevitably involves describing your brother’s condition at the time. I think you don’t need to hear it. It would be cruel.”

“I want to hear it,” Zhang Xiaoya insisted.

Jiang Yuan hesitated. “You don’t need to hear it.”

“I agree. Director Zhang, please step aside for a moment,” Huang Qiang said. Though he didn’t fully understand Jiang Yuan’s reasoning, he knew he had to support him—and he couldn’t let Jiang Yuan offend Zhang Xiaoya.

Zhang Xiaoya was taken aback but couldn’t directly clash with the task force. She merely instructed them to keep thorough records before leaving.

Huang Qiang saw her out, returned, exhaled, and said to Jiang Yuan, “That was too risky. Lucky she’s reasonable—if she’d been difficult, we’d all be in trouble.”

“But the bloodstain analysis really isn’t suitable for her to hear,” Jiang Yuan said.

At this, Tao Lu and the others all turned to Jiang Yuan. Tao Lu asked, “What did you find?”

“From the crime scene and previous photos, the killing was extremely brief. The bloodstain distribution shows some motion stains were obscured by debris, while others landed on it—I’ve pieced together a clear timeline…” Jiang Yuan summarized briefly, then delivered his conclusion: “From the scene, the killer’s intent seems more like theft than murder.”

Tao Lu said grimly, “Burglary?”

“Possibly,” Jiang Yuan sighed. “The killer entered the victim’s room, rummaged through belongings, then the victim returned and was stabbed on the spot. The killer didn’t leave immediately—he searched again before departing.”

Cui Qi was startled. “Did the original task force investigate this angle thoroughly?”

“They definitely looked into it. Probably got nowhere,” Tao Lu said. Though framed as speculation, his guess was nearly certain.

Cases from the late 90s were hard to solve—public security was poor, many areas lacked streetlights, let alone surveillance. Even if installed, cameras were blurry and storage was limited.

“So there’s a real possibility this was a burglary gone wrong,” Jiang Yuan paused, then added, “The crime happened in the morning. Anyone bold enough to break in then is confident—likely a repeat offender. If the task force considered this and compared local habitual thieves’ patterns, this case becomes extremely difficult. It might be a river-and-ocean bandit.”

A “river-and-ocean bandit” meant a habitual thief from outside the area. These men were skilled, their habits unfamiliar to local police, and without surveillance or cell phones, they were nearly impossible to catch.

Transient crimes were always hard to manage—that’s why strict household registration systems were established back then. The registration system functioned like territorial control; without it, not just police, but many government operations couldn’t function.

“No wonder you made Director Zhang leave,” Cui Qi suddenly understood.

As the victim’s family, Zhang Xiaoya naturally wanted her brother’s death to mean something—even if he was killed due to factory reforms, it would be bearable. If he died because of home-related reasons, it would be easier to accept.

Being killed for no reason, randomly stabbed during a burglary—like stepping on a cockroach—felt meaningless. That answer, or even the thought of it, would be even harder for the Zhang family to accept. It felt like an insult just to consider it.

Tao Lu cleared his throat twice. “Only you’ve got a mouth? Only you can talk?”

“No no…” Cui Qi explained, then shifted tone: “You think the same way, right? Your point is—we shouldn’t say it out loud…”

Tao Lu hissed, eyes sharp on Cui Qi: “When analyzing the case, keep your mouth shut. When making idle remarks, you let loose.”

…

As more Danda people were imprisoned, more former task force members returned.

Among the late-90s task force members, those once strong and capable were now either in high positions or retired.

The young rookies from back then were now middle-aged veterans, some even returning to the task force multiple times. When speaking of cases, they were all articulate.

But understanding the case details was easy—finding a suitable suspect was extremely difficult.

In the Zhengguang Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Brigade meeting room, personnel kept gathering, yet the case showed no breakthrough.

Tao Lu’s forced smiles grew more frequent, bordering on facial detachment. Many former task force members now held senior posts in the Jing Bureau or high ranks in district offices—they all needed Tao Lu to show face.

Yet the growing task force only piled immense pressure onto Tao Lu.

This case had originally been handled by the Jing Bureau’s top-tier task force. Now it was only under Zhengguang District’s Criminal Investigation Brigade. Outsiders might think the case had been shelved.

Only those inside knew Zhengguang Bureau had nearly sold its pants.

Danda had been stripped down to its bones.

The listed company’s share had been thoroughly purged—not a single active organizational member remained, and even later hires from reputable universities who had embezzled, engaged in unfair competition, violated unwritten rules, or run private businesses had all been apprehended by the Economic Crime Investigation unit.

When criminal cases were involved, police methods and corporate methods operated on entirely different dimensions.

Along with Jianmen Academy’s downfall, Danda’s upstream and downstream enterprises—especially those holding Danda shares or investments—became the focus of the second round of investigations.

Crucially, they actually uncovered problematic individuals.

After all, how could capital enterprises near money possibly be without issues? They never anticipated such a high-level investigation. Meanwhile, the real “Danda people” had always been fearless, acting without restraint.

But it was brutal on investigators—arresting one after another, then extracting details about Jianmen Academy—Zhengguang Bureau had not reopened the Jianmen Academy case task force, yet nearly everyone in the district had been mobilized.

The basement interrogation center was piled high with salted soda—clearly, leadership had spared no cost.

In short, on the two directions Jiang Yuan proposed, Zhengguang Bureau had poured massive resources into the first.

But the breakthrough came on the second.

After Zhang Xiaoya’s team thoroughly analyzed the pros and cons with Wang Futing, he spent a night thinking, made several demands, then finally spoke: “I was assigned to pick up someone at Jianmen Academy, but I didn’t know who he was.”

Wang Futing’s single sentence sent over a thousand men and hundreds of women into a frenzy.

The interrogation records and video were immediately sent to Jiang Yuan and the others.

On screen, Wang Futing held a cigarette, half-slumped in his chair, relaxed yet resigned.

“I got 500 yuan just to pick the lock—nothing else.”

“When the homeowner came in, I was unlocking the drawer. He was still dazed. Then the guy just stepped forward and stabbed him. Honestly, back then, I’d seen several corpses—Boss Pan used to sink bodies… Anyway, one look told me he was dead.”

“The employer told me to search the body. I was young, thought I’d grab the wallet. We’d agreed: jewelry and cash split 50-50, locked items 60-40—I got 60%. I figured maybe the corpse had more to split. Didn’t expect he didn’t want blood on his hands. In the end, no valuable jewelry—just a few hundred yuan cash. I thought the boss got ripped off.”

“Later we climbed out through the wall—he wore gloves. He had a claw tool that gripped the wall to pull himself up. I was young, thought it was some exotic weapon and wanted to learn. He just brushed me off. After splitting the money, we went our separate ways. I figured someone was dead, so I fled to another city for a while.”