Attending ex-girlfriend's wedding, arresting the groom's officer on the spot

When Wang Shuai confronted Li Bo again, the old man suddenly pulled a paper package from under his bed. Inside was half a photograph—a section of an iron cage was visible at the edge of the image, with a reservoir dam under construction in the background, and several people wearing hard hats standing in the distance. “I took this secretly,” Li Bo said, his voice trembling. “The camera disappeared the next day, and then my son suddenly lost his job.” The date on the photo was November 16, 2014, only one day different from the time the construction vehicle appeared in the surveillance footage.

However, just as Wang Shuai was preparing to delve deeper into the investigation, an unexpected incident occurred. The evidence bag containing the photos was mysteriously stolen from the police station, and the archives were broken into that same night, with related files from 2014 disappearing. Surveillance footage showed that the perpetrator was masked, acted professionally, and avoided all cameras throughout the entire process. After learning the news, Uncle Li refused to speak again and packed his bags and moved away from the reservoir the next day.

The autumn wind swept through the empty duty room, carrying withered leaves. Wang Shuai gazed at the calm water in the distance; the ripples from the iron cage retrieval site had long since vanished. Those erased traces, silenced witnesses, and altered records, like whirlpools deep within the reservoir, were drawing the truth ever deeper. But he knew that every lie would leave a flaw, like the rust on the iron cage, which would one day be exposed by the sunlight.

In the DNA lab of the Criminal Investigation Division, the blue light of the fluorescence detector flowed in the darkness. Yang Lin stared intently at the constantly fluctuating data curves on the screen, his fingers unconsciously tapping the control panel. When the comparison results window popped up with the words "Match Successful," the entire lab fell into a brief silence, with only the hum of the instruments becoming increasingly clear.

"Found it!" Technician Xiao Wu jumped up from his chair, making the coffee cup on the table shake. On the screen, the genetic profile of the deceased's remains perfectly matched a record in the missing persons database—Missing Person No. 2015-097, Name: Zhang Baohua, Male, 42 years old, Formerly employed by Hongyuan Import and Export Trading Company, Date of Disappearance: November 18, 2015.

Zhang Kai quickly retrieved the missing persons file. On the yellowed paper, Zhang Baohua's photo had the pixelated quality characteristic of the 2010s. The man in the photo wore a sharp suit, and the platinum ring on his ring finger gleamed under the flash, perfectly echoing the "J&L 2015.5.20" engraved on the wedding ring found in the reservoir's iron cage. The file records showed that in the three months before his disappearance, Zhang Baohua had repeatedly sent threatening letters to the police, claiming that he was threatened because he had access to the company's accounts. However, due to insufficient evidence, the case remained unresolved.

Meanwhile, Wang Shuai's work also made significant progress.

Autumn rain slanted across the mottled glass windows of the Xingfu Reservoir Management Office. Wang Shuai opened the 2014 reservoir reinforcement project supervision log for the third time. The ink on the yellowed pages had long since blurred, but it still couldn't hide the dense records of concrete pouring and steel reinforcement acceptance forms. He rubbed his sore eyes and looked out the window at the empty construction access road—where construction vehicles used to be parked, but now only a few sections of rusty scaffolding swayed in the wind.

“Officer Wang, the construction logs from back then were always in triplicate, and our archives here are definitely fine.” The current administrator, Old Chen, rubbed his frostbitten hands, goji berries in his thermos bobbing on the surface as he spoke. “But if you really want to check, I heard the archives have a backup, though it’ll be a bit of a hassle.” He suddenly lowered his voice, his eyes scanning the surroundings warily. “The construction team left in such a hurry back then, they didn’t even take their hard hats from the work shed. Isn’t that suspicious?”

Amidst the mountains of files piled up in the archives, Wang Shuai and his team searched for three whole days like treasure hunters. In the musty, pungent warehouse, they finally found the 2014 project file folder. But when they opened it with high hopes, they discovered that the crucial financial flow chart was missing, replaced by several insignificant purchase lists. "The records from November 15th to 17th are all gone," said team member Xiao Li, holding up the tattered file, his voice filled with frustration. "It's like someone deliberately chose those dates to do it."

Visiting the former construction workers was fraught with peril. Retired concrete worker Old Zhou banged his pipe loudly, shouting, "I only mixed cement, I don't know anything else!" But when Wang Shuai showed him Zhang Baohua's photo, the old man's hands suddenly trembled violently, scattering tobacco everywhere: "This person... I think I've seen him before, at the construction site office, arguing heatedly with several men in suits." But no matter how much they pressed him, Old Zhou remained tight-lipped, refusing to utter another word.

The investigation took a turn for the better at a small shop near the reservoir. The shopkeeper, Aunt Wang, was wiping the shelves when she suddenly remembered something: "That autumn, a man with glasses always came to buy cigarettes, and each time he would stand in front of the counter staring blankly at the reservoir." She squinted as she recalled, "Later I heard he was an accountant, apparently checking some accounts, but I never saw him again not long after." Wang Shuai immediately pulled up Zhang Baohua's photo, and Aunt Wang nodded repeatedly: "That's him! The last time he came, he even asked me if I knew of any strange noises at the construction site at night."

However, as the investigation deepened, more and more contradictions emerged. The engineering quality inspection report showed that while the concrete strength of the reservoir dam did not meet design standards, it was far from posing a safety hazard. The alleged "misappropriation of funds," after a professional audit, revealed that most of the funds were simply transferred to other projects through complex accounting methods and had no direct connection to Zhang Baohua's death. Even more surprisingly, Tian Feng, the project manager at the time, had already been taken away by the disciplinary committee for investigation three years prior for economic issues.

“It seems we’ve been misled.” At the case analysis meeting, Wang Shuai pushed a stack of documents to the center of the table. Engineering drawings and financial statements flashed on the projector. “The evidence Zhang Baohua possessed is likely just the tip of the iceberg of collusion between officials and businessmen, but his death has other causes.” He pointed to the timeline on the whiteboard. “Look closely, on November 17, 2015, he appeared both at the reservoir construction site and met with a mysterious person in the city. What exactly happened in between?”

Ultimately, after deliberation by higher authorities, the case of falsifying the Xingfu Reservoir project was officially transferred to the relevant supervisory department for handling. As Wang Shuai loaded the last box of files onto the transfer vehicle, the setting sun was painting the reservoir's surface blood-red. On the distant dam, the newly painted "Safety First" slogan fluttered in the wind, while the truth behind the death of the soul imprisoned in the iron cage remained hidden behind layers of mystery, awaiting the day it would be revealed.

Zhang Hui pushed open the weathered glass door of the former Hongyuan Import and Export Trading Company, the dusty revolving door creaking jarringly. The hallway reeked of old paper, and cardboard boxes piled in the corner bore the words "2015 Customs Declaration," silently recounting the company's past. (End of Chapter)