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

“What’s even stranger is that the lottery ticket was purchased at a betting station near Hongyuan Company, and surveillance footage from Zhang Baohua’s office shows that he left the company at 3:17 p.m. the day before he disappeared, and his walking route happened to pass by there.”

The investigation took a turn when the betting station owner, Ms. Wang, recalled the incident. She adjusted her reading glasses, stared at the photo provided by the police, and immediately nodded: "It's him! The man who always wears a dark suit. That day he bought twenty quick-pick numbers and even specifically asked for a lottery ticket holder with a combination lock." When asked if she had seen Zhao Gang, Ms. Wang suddenly frowned: "A man with a buzz cut did come a few times, saying he was looking at numbers for a friend, and he spoke with a non-local accent." She pulled out an old registration book, her finger tracing the yellowed pages, "On the night of November 18th at 11 PM, the day Accountant Zhang disappeared, this man bought all the remaining scratch-off tickets."

Bank statements revealed an even more startling secret. After claiming the prize, Zhao Gang's personal account consistently transferred 30,000 yuan to Li Jing every month, a practice that continues to this day. Three months before Zhang Baohua's disappearance, his salary card showed unusual withdrawals—each time a round number of 50,000 yuan was withdrawn, with no cash transaction records. "It's like someone deliberately evaded surveillance," Zhang Hui circled these time points in red pen. "Even more interesting is that the emergency contact Zhao Gang registered when claiming the prize was Li Jing's mother."

During a visit to Zhao Gang's hometown, the villagers' discussions made the case even more perplexing. "This kid suddenly became rich, and everyone in the village says it's because his ancestors' graves are emitting auspicious smoke," said an old neighbor, Grandpa Li, squatting on the threshold smoking, ash falling onto his canvas shoes. "But before his father died, he kept saying that Zhao Gang was 'unclean' outside, and that he 'took things he shouldn't have taken.'" Zhao Gang's junior high school classmate revealed that he had been obsessed with studying lottery patterns and had even made his own "winning probability calculation table."

The most crucial breakthrough came from Zhang Baohua's diary. Hidden within the encrypted USB drive found in a secret compartment was a recording: "If something happens to me, that lottery ticket is evidence. Zhao Gang and Li Jing have been in cahoots; they want to swallow my assets." The recording abruptly ended, but a heated argument could be heard in the background, with words like "insurance money" and "transfer of ownership" faintly audible. Simultaneously, the technical team successfully recovered deleted photos from Zhang Baohua's phone—one of which was a close-up of the lottery ticket holder, the combination lock number "1205," which happened to be Zhang Xiaomeng's birthday.

When Zhang Hui stormed into Zhao Gang's office with a search warrant, the man was wiping the keys to his luxury car in the safe. "I won the lottery by luck, what does it have to do with Zhang Baohua?" Zhao Gang tried to remain calm, but beads of sweat trickled down his forehead. However, when the officers found a bloodstained climbing rope, a lock identical to the one on the iron cage at Xingfu Reservoir, and a notebook detailing their plans for dividing the loot in a hidden compartment of the safe, he finally collapsed onto the leather sofa.

“Li Jing said Zhang Baohua wanted to leave all his assets to his daughter.” Zhao Gang grabbed his hair, his voice trembling with tears. “She asked me to help create an accident, I just wanted to scare him. But that day at the reservoir, he struggled so violently that the lock on the iron cage wasn’t fastened properly.” He suddenly coughed violently, blood seeping from between his fingers. “That lottery ticket was bought by Zhang Baohua; he said it was a way out for his daughter. I was blinded by greed and stole the lottery ticket holder from his office using a spare key.”

Under the interrogation room lights, Zhao Gang confessed to the complete crime chain: Li Jing exploited family conflicts to intensify Zhang Baohua's emotions, while Zhao Gang disguised himself as a lottery player to approach the betting station and obtain information. On the night Zhang Baohua was murdered, the two lured him to Xingfu Reservoir and submerged him in an iron cage. The lottery ticket, worth five million yuan, originally intended as Zhang Baohua's last guarantee for his daughter, became the bargaining chip for the murderers to divide the loot. As dusk deepened outside the window, the lights of the criminal investigation team came on. This tragedy, intertwined with interests and betrayal, finally faced its long-awaited trial seven years later.

"Tell me the specific process."

Zhang Hui began taking notes.

The incandescent light in the interrogation room cast a cold glow over Zhao Gang's head. He stared at his distorted reflection on the table, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down with the hum of the air conditioner. His right hand unconsciously rubbed his left wrist—there was a light brown burn scar there, left seven years ago when he was drowned in the reservoir, after being cut by a rusty iron cage and becoming infected.

“When Li Jing first told me this, I thought she was joking.” Zhao Gang’s voice was like a rusty gear, each word stammering. “She said Zhang Baohua was going to transfer both houses to his daughter, and even halve the child support he was paying for Haozi.” He suddenly laughed, his laughter tinged with tears. “We were good friends in junior high school. Later, she married Zhang Baohua, and I went to work in another city. In the summer of 2015, she contacted me, saying she couldn’t make ends meet anymore. I thought that since I had once liked her, I spent more time talking to her.”

His craving for a cigarette kicked in, and Zhao Gang instinctively reached for his pocket, only to find cold handcuffs. Lu Chuan offered him a cigarette, the flame dancing between his trembling fingers: "She showed me Zhang Baohua's medical records, saying he had liver cancer and wouldn't live much longer." Smoke swirled in the interrogation room, blurring Zhao Gang's expression. "Then she suddenly knelt down, saying Haozi was about to start junior high and couldn't be without tuition. When I pulled her up, her tears dripped onto the back of my hand, as hot as the day we broke up."

The decision to take action was made on November 10th. Zhao Gang followed Li Jing to Zhang Baohua's company and hid in the stairwell to listen to his phone call: "Yes, I will transfer Xiaomeng's tuition on time, and the school district house will be transferred next week." Li Jing gripped her phone tightly, her nails almost digging into her palm: "Did you hear that? He didn't even mention Haozi's name." That night, they discussed the details in an abandoned shed by the reservoir. Zhao Gang kicked a rusty iron cage, the sound startling the water birds that were roosting there: "Use this, sink it to the center of the reservoir, and it won't be discovered until the major repairs and water release."

When buying the chain and combination lock online, Zhao Gang deliberately used three different bank cards. "Every time I entered the password, I felt like someone was watching the screen." He stared at his toes, where he had once walked through the muddy reservoir wearing the same hiking boots. "Li Jing said she wanted to stage an engineering accident so that Zhang Baohua would 'accidentally' fall in. But when I saw the family photo in his office, with Xiaomeng laughing on his back, I suddenly felt a little regretful—until Li Jing sent me the bank statements, showing that Zhang Baohua had transferred 200,000 yuan to his ex-wife's parents, but bought Haozi a cheap second-hand bicycle."

November 17th was a gloomy day. Zhao Gang waited for three hours at the convenience store opposite Hongyuan Company. Seeing Zhang Baohua walk out in a beige trench coat, he touched the lottery ticket holder in his pocket—Li Jing had stolen it from home. The password "1205" made him sneer: "Sure enough, she only cares about her daughter; even her lottery ticket password is Zhang Xiaomeng's birthday." (End of Chapter)