361: Chapter 328 Reporting 361: Chapter 328 Reporting “If I report and expose an accomplice, could that be considered a significant contribution to rit a reduced sentence?” Wang Kedian spoke again, his first words startling.
ng Chengbiao’s expression changed involuntarily, then smoothly transitioned into a smile, “You seem to know quite a bit.
The criteria for a significant contribution are quite high.”
“When I was inside, soone made a significant contribution and had their sentence reduced by several years.
That’s how it works, right?” Wang Kedian pressed.
ng Chengbiao chuckled twice and said, “You would need to report and expose a cri punishable by life imprisonnt or more to possibly be recognized for making a significant contribution.”
His words weren’t entirely clear, but as the interrogating officer, ng Chengbiao indeed had no obligation to make everything fully comprehensible.
After all, this wasn’t a class—could you really expect an exam to prove whether you understood or not?
Wang Kedian hesitated slightly.
His education was limited, but he knew that so police officers indeed lied to people.
Seeing the expression on Wang Kedian’s face, ng Chengbiao couldn’t help but make a guess and then said, “I can report this up the chain.
If it truly is a major clue that can solve the case, the likelihood of it being considered a significant contribution is quite high.
And let’s be honest, if you can’t clear yourself from this case, you’ll be spending your life behind bars.”
Wang Kedian didn’t take long to think this ti and quickly said, “On the 2nd of November, I was indeed called to pick a lock.”
“And then?”
“Then…
I picked it,” Wang Kedian sighed and continued, “After I went back, I watched TV and saw that the warehouse had been burned down.
They ntioned finding a body.
I thought I was in trouble…”
“Which warehouse?”
“8178 Ke Si Road,” Wang Kedian recalled it quite clearly.
“Continue.”
“Then…
as I was figuring out what to do, soone threw a bag of money into my yard, 100,000 yuan, and a train ticket to Kunming.
I thought about it and just packed up and left.”
Wang Kedian’s response left ng Chengbiao silent for a mont.
It was completely different from the scenario he had anticipated.
Initially, ng Chengbiao—or rather, the special case team—had envisioned a lone criminal who handled everything from lock-picking to murder and arson, similar to Jiang Yuan’s assumption of a single perpetrator completing the task.
Later, when Wang Kedian ntioned wanting to make a contribution, ng Chengbiao thought he had an accomplice.
But ng Chengbiao was still thinking of a traditional accomplice scenario; one person primarily responsible for the murder and arson, and another for the lock-picking as well as serving as a lookout and driver.
ng Chengbiao never imagined Wang Kedian could distance himself so completely from the cri.
And yet, his story was sowhat logical and reasonable.
After receiving this answer, ng Chengbiao’s view of Wang Kedian shifted, and he no longer seed like a vicious arsonist and murderer.
With over twenty years of experience as a criminal detective, ng Chengbiao found Wang Kedian’s movents and deanor matched that of a middle-aged petty thief; calling him an old thief would have been a complint.
“Who asked you to pick the lock?” ng Chengbiao had many questions and doubts, but he did not delve into these.
He simply pursued the question of who the murderer was, the primary purpose of the interrogation, even if Wang Kedian was making up a story.
He wanted to see the end of the story before going back to weigh its truthfulness.
“Zhang Xiang.
Those who knew him called him Zhang Da Nao Dai; we used to call him Zhang,” Wang Kedian replied.
A nearby officer asked, “Which characters are in ‘Zhang Xiang’?”
Wang Kedian answered, “The ‘Zhang’ for open, and the ‘Xiang’ for project.”
“Is ‘Zhang Xiang’ his real na?” ng Chengbiao also pursued the matter of the na because it could very well be the most crucial answer in the entire case.
Wang Kedian replied affirmatively.
“What does he do?”
“He’s a parking lot security guard for Jianyuan Pharmaceutical,” Wang Kedian said.
“A security guard, how did he end up mixing with you guys and beco so chummy?”
“He used to be in the underworld too,” Wang Kedian opened up, explaining, “The parking lot security guards at Jianyuan Pharmaceutical are not like ordinary guards.
They have several small parking lots, collect cash, and even the QR codes for the paynts are managed by the security team themselves.”
ng Chengbiao frowned, “How could such a big enterprise like Jianyuan Pharmaceutical not know about this?”
“They turned a blind eye.
This team of security guards is the one that does the dirty work for Jianyuan.
Besides their normal salary, they get a share of the parking fees from the parking lots.
No matter how much they collect, it all goes to their small group, and the Jianyuan Company doesn’t care.
Zhang, or Zhang Xiang as he used to tell , said that in good months, he could pull in twenty to thirty thousand.”
ng Chengbiao was going to ask what dirty work he referred to but then thought better of it and decided not to dig deeper for the ti being.
So, he brought the conversation back, saying, “Zhang Xiang tells you to pick locks, and you just do it?
You didn’t go inside with him?”
“At the ti, he said the key he prepared himself wouldn’t work, and he fiddled around with it in the keyhole for a while,” Wang Kedian shook his head, his chubby cheeks jiggling as he spoke: “I actually asked him at that mont.
I said, why not knock on the door, surely there’s no problem with picking the lock…
He said there was so dispute and told to mind my own business.
So I just…
Well…”
“Enough talk, let’s get your statent down on record,” ng Chengbiao pointed to the side.
Wang Kedian: “So I just opened the door.
It took quite a while, like ten minutes, and there was no noise coming from inside at all.
Once the door was open, Zhang told to go back, so I went.”
“The train ticket, do you still have it?” ng Chengbiao asked another core question in a calm tone.
If Wang Kedian was telling the truth, then he must have kept the train ticket from that day.
It was a very important piece of evidence.
To this day, that train ticket held considerable evidentiary value.
Because if Wang Kedian truly had the train ticket from that day, as a small-ti thief who had been struck twice by the people’s democratic dictatorship, his first and correct choice would be to hit the road imdiately.
However, if he had bought the ticket himself, it was more likely that Wang Kedian would dispose of it, since that ticket proved that he left Changyang City after the incident occurred, making him a suspect in the cri.
But then again, if the ticket was given to him by soone else, Wang Kedian would need to keep it in order to prove this story, and to assert his innocence.
This story is not sothing that could have been concocted starting eight years ago.
Wang Kedian himself might not have fully understood the logic behind this, but he answered without hesitation: “I have the ticket, I hid it.
In the pocket of an old piece of clothing.”
ng Chengbiao’s expression suddenly turned serious.
Wang Kedian didn’t even bother to hide the tools he used to pick locks, but he cunningly hid the train ticket in a very appropriate place.
Old tickets in the pocket of old clothing couldn’t be more appropriate; not easily lost and unlikely to raise suspicion.
ng Chengbiao didn’t think Wang Kedian was making it up.
If it was made up, it would be too complicated.
Besides, he had provided physical evidence, and testimonial evidence, all of which could be verified.
Inside the office of Jiang Yuan’s Cold Case Squad, Jiang Yuan’s expression also beca increasingly serious.
“It seems that Zhang Xiang is a major suspect,” Jiang Yuan gradually had grown accustod to his commanding role.
First, he called Yu Wenshu to report the case details, then he nad a few individuals, directing them to go conduct their inquiries.
Yu Wenshu soon hurried over, looking pleased.
From his perspective, the progress made on a cold case homicide to this point was extrely exhilarating.
If it were before, he would have already started thinking about how to comnd Jiang Yuan in a way that didn’t seem too repetitive.
Of course, comndation was still in order, but it could be slightly delayed now.
Because Jiang Yuan was now the head of the Cold Case Squad, and theoretically, he needed to solve the case completely to finish his task.
It was unlike before when securing evidence and completing its trace was considered the end of the task.
Nonetheless, this further elevated Jiang Yuan’s value.
If a detective could see through the investigation of a homicide cold case, then in the detective squad, he would truly be considered a seasoned police officer.
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