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

He and his team knocked on office doors one by one, only to find that most of the employees had already left, and the few remaining support staff stammered when questioned.

“Accountant Zhang, he was a very conscientious person.” Li Min, a former receptionist, clutched her faded employee badge, her voice trembling. “Around 2015, he was always working late. Once I saw him staring blankly at the computer screen, his eyes red. When I asked him what was wrong, he just said nothing and told me not to ask.” When Zhang Hui asked about the company's business, Li Min suddenly fell silent, her eyes darting away to the window. “I was just a handyman, I didn’t know anything.”

After making numerous inquiries, Zhang Hui finally contacted Zhao Qiang, the company's then-financial director. The voice on the other end of the phone was wary: "I left Hongyuan a long time ago and have nothing to do with them anymore." But at Zhang Hui's insistence, Zhao Qiang finally agreed to meet at a secluded coffee shop. The chilly autumn wind whipped fallen leaves against the shop window. Zhao Qiang stirred his coffee, remaining silent for a long time before speaking: "Zhang Baohua did discover the problem. The company was laundering money and evading taxes by forging customs declarations and falsely reporting the value of imported and exported goods. He tried to report it to his superiors, but..." His voice trailed off as he slammed his spoon heavily against the side of his cup.

As the investigation deepened, the bank records Zhang Hui obtained were shocking. Between 2014 and 2015, Hongyuan Company's multiple overseas accounts saw frequent large-scale fund transfers, with the funds ultimately flowing to offshore companies in the Cayman Islands and other locations. Even more suspiciously, the company's warehouses were stockpiled with a large number of goods that did not match the customs declarations, and many of the quality inspection reports for imported goods were forged.

However, when Zhang Hui tried to connect these clues to Zhang Baohua's death, he encountered a bottleneck. Forensic examination showed that Zhang Baohua was murdered in November 2015, while key evidence of the company's illegal and criminal activities was mostly concentrated in 2014. The retrieved surveillance footage and call records also indicated that Zhang Baohua's activities before his disappearance were not directly related to the company's business. In his last few days, he frequently contacted several mysterious, unfamiliar numbers, which, upon tracing, were all found to be one-time-use virtual numbers.

“It seems we’ve found a big fish, but it’s on a different track from Zhang Baohua’s death.” At the case analysis meeting, Zhang Hui pushed a thick stack of files in front of everyone, the projection screen flashing with densely packed financial flow charts. “This evidence of illegal activities is enough to bring the relevant responsible persons of Hongyuan Company to legal punishment, but the cause of Zhang Baohua’s death still needs to be investigated from other directions.” Outside the window, night was deepening, and the conference room lights cast long shadows of everyone. New clues and unsolved mysteries, like an interwoven spiderweb, awaited their continued unraveling.

The stairwell of the old residential building was piled with clutter. When Zhang Hui knocked on the door of room 302, holding a file folder, the sound of shattering porcelain came from inside. A moment later, the security door slowly opened, and Zhang Baohua's wife, Li Jing, appeared in the doorway, wearing a faded knitted sweater. Her eyes were dark and there were faint bruises resembling finger marks on her neck.

"Ask again?" Li Jing stepped aside to let them into the house. Scattered on the coffee table were torn photos, which, when pieced together, appeared to be Zhang Baohua's wedding photo with his ex-wife. A children's easel lay overturned in the corner, paint spilled and pooling into dark red patches on the floor. "Do you police officers think that people are killed by their acquaintances?"

By visiting the neighborhood committee, Zhang Hui pieced together a complex picture of this family. Zhang Baohua and Li Jing were a blended family in 2013. He brought his daughter Zhang Xiaomeng from his previous marriage, while Li Jing brought her son Wang Hao. Neighbor Aunt Wang mysteriously pulled Zhang Hui to the corner of the stairwell: "That couple argues every other day. Last month, I even heard Li Jing shouting, 'You only care about your daughter,' and the whole building could hear it."

During questioning of Zhang Baohua's relatives, more conflicts surfaced. His sister, Zhang Fang, sobbed uncontrollably on the phone: "My brother has suffered so much. He scrimped and saved so that Xiaomeng could go to a good school. Li Jing always says he's biased, but Xiaomeng's mother passed away early, how could he not feel sorry for her?" Li Jing's mother, on the other hand, spoke vehemently: "Zhang Baohua is a selfish bastard! My daughter hasn't had a single good day with him. Haozi has to beg for ages to get a new schoolbag!"

When questioned about the events of the night Zhang Baohua disappeared, Li Jing's testimony revealed obvious inconsistencies. Initially, she insisted that her husband was working overtime, but the building's surveillance footage showed that she left alone at 8 PM that night and didn't return until the early hours of the morning. Under further questioning, Li Jing suddenly broke down in tears, pulling out an unmailed divorce agreement from deep within the closet: "I've had enough! He always says I'm not good to Xiaomeng. We had a huge fight that day, and he said he was going to take Xiaomeng away from me. I really don't know what happened to him after that!"

During the investigation of Zhang Baohua's daughter, Zhang Xiaomeng, the 12-year-old girl remained silent, only repeatedly scribbling black on her drawing paper. It wasn't until Zhang Hui took out a collection of her father's treasured certificates that the girl suddenly spoke: "Mom always says that Dad doesn't love me, but the night Dad secretly saved money for my college education, I heard them talking about 'secrets,' and Mom even smashed Dad's photo frame."

As the investigation deepened, a startling fact gradually became clear: a month before his murder, Zhang Baohua secretly transferred two properties under his name to his daughter's name and purchased a large life insurance policy, with Zhang Xiaomeng as the beneficiary. Meanwhile, after her husband's disappearance, Li Jing frequently contacted a man named Zhao Gang—her first love, who had recently returned to the city from out of town.

“Tense family relationships are just the surface; there’s probably a bigger entanglement of interests hidden behind them.” At the case analysis meeting, Zhang Hui pointed to the relationship diagram, with Li Jing’s and Zhao Gang’s phone records standing out prominently on the whiteboard. “Zhang Baohua’s death may not be a simple crime of passion or revenge, but a meticulously planned scheme to reap profits.” The rain outside the window was pouring down, pattering against the glass. This investigation, which stemmed from family conflicts, seemed to be heading in a more complicated direction.

Zhang Hui pinned Zhao Gang's photo to the center of the whiteboard, surrounded by a dense array of clues—yellowed lottery winning records, frequent bank transfer statements, call logs with Li Jing—all pointing to this man who had suddenly become rich. The late autumn sunlight streamed obliquely through the windows of the criminal investigation team, casting a shadow on Zhao Gang's ID photo, which bore a simple, honest smile, creating a stark contrast to his current image of driving luxury cars and owning three chain supermarkets.

"Zhao Gang claimed his prize on November 23, 2015, exactly five days after Zhang Baohua's disappearance." Technician Xiao Chen projected an enlarged photo of the lottery ticket onto the screen, pointing to the lower right corner of the image. (End of Chapter)