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

When I went to the supermarket where Song Yao worked, the cashier, Xiao Li, was staring blankly at the security camera. "Sister Yao took the day off last Wednesday afternoon, saying her child wasn't feeling well," she said, pulling up the attendance record. "But I saw her get into a black Passat in the parking lot. The man driving it was wearing a gold chain and looked pretty fierce." In the security footage, Song Yao was wearing a beige dress and a Longines watch on her left wrist—a watch that had been mentioned in Li Yunfeng's diary. "She always says she bought the watch herself, but nobody believes that."

Wang Shuai retrieved Song Yao's call records and found that she had been in frequent contact with a number ending in "735" for nearly a month. The last call was at 9:47 PM on July 12th, lasting 23 minutes. Cell tower location data showed that the number was located in a residential area near Li Yunfeng's home at the time. A search through the mobile carrier revealed that the registered owner was "Wang Lei," residing in Lijing Garden in the western part of the city, and owning a black Passat with the same license plate number as seen in the supermarket's surveillance footage.

When Wang Lei was found, he was supervising a construction site, wearing a platinum ring on the ring finger of his left hand, with "LW" engraved on the inner band. "Song Yao and I are just friends," he said, rubbing the ring with unusual force. "Last Wednesday night, we were at a coffee shop near her house, talking about her relationship with Li Yunfeng. There's CCTV footage to prove it." The coffee shop's CCTV did capture the two of them, but they left at 10:05 p.m., more than two hours before the forensic doctor's estimated time of death.

Song Yao's alibi had a flaw. She claimed that she was sleeping at home from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. on July 12, but the community's surveillance footage showed that at 0:23 a.m., she appeared in the underground parking garage, wearing the same gray pajama jacket as the deceased, carrying a black plastic bag, and walking hurriedly toward the elevator—this time coincided with the time of Li Yunfeng's death.

"Why was she wearing Li Yunfeng's clothes?" Wang Shuai stared at the surveillance screenshot. There was a dark red stain on the cuff of Song Yao's jacket, the location of which closely matched the pattern of the bloodstains on Li Yunfeng's body. Technicians took samples of the stain, and preliminary testing indicated it was human blood, type AB—matching Li Yunfeng's blood type. More importantly, there was a fresh touch-up paint on the rear bumper of Wang Lei's black Passat, and the residual red particles perfectly matched the composition of the warning posts in the community garage. The height and angle of the scratches perfectly matched Yang Lin's description of "collision characteristics of an upright columnar object."

When interviewed, Li Yunfeng's attending physician pulled out his medical records: "He fell while forking goods in the warehouse three years ago, fracturing his left ring finger. After healing, the joint was deformed, which is very common among forklift drivers." Pointing to the X-ray, he said, "The fracture was comminuted, requiring surgical reduction. The company paid for the medical expenses at the time, but Zhao Jianguo deducted three months' salary from his salary to offset the debt." This explained the root of the conflict between Li Yunfeng and Zhao Jianguo, and also gave the "overtime pay dispute" a more complex background.

Wang Shuai found an account book in Li Yunfeng's forklift cab, which recorded evidence of Zhao Jianguo's tax evasion, involving more than one million yuan. The last page read: "Zhao Jianguo asked me to falsify the accounts, but I didn't agree. He said he would make me pay." There was a note in the interlayer of the account book, which Li Yunfeng wrote to Song Yao: "If something happens to me, take this to report him. It might save you and the child's life."

The investigation into Song Yao's bank account revealed a deposit of 7 yuan at 3:17 AM on July 13th. The remitter was an unknown account, with the account holder listed as "Zhao Jianguo's distant cousin." Wang Lei's call logs showed five phone calls with Zhao Jianguo in the three days prior to the incident, the longest lasting 18 minutes, occurring after Li Yunfeng and Zhao Jianguo had an argument.

“Song Yao’s motive is quite clear,” Wang Shuai laid out the chain of evidence at the case analysis meeting. “Infidelity, domestic violence, financial disputes, plus the 500,000 yuan insurance payout, are enough to constitute a motive for murder. The presence of Wang Lei’s ‘LW’ ring at the crime scene, and the conflict between Zhao Jianguo and the victim, suggest that this case may involve a mixture of passion and revenge killing.” He pointed to a screenshot from Song Yao’s garage surveillance footage. “Her appearance in the garage in the early morning is inexplicable. The bloodstains on her coat and the scratches on Wang Lei’s vehicle both point to their direct connection to the case.”

Both Song Yao and Wang Lei insisted they were not involved in the murder. Song Yao said she went to the garage to retrieve documents Li Yunfeng had forgotten, while Wang Lei claimed his ring was long gone, and Zhao Jianguo denied any connection to the case. Looking at the evidence on the table, Wang Shuai knew that to break through their defenses, he needed more direct physical evidence—such as DNA analysis of the bloodstains on Song Yao's coat, biological samples from the inside of Wang Lei's ring, and the contents of the phone call between Zhao Jianguo and Wang Lei.

As night deepened, Wang Shuai returned to Shengda Trading's warehouse. Under the forklift seat, he found a button that perfectly matched the missing one from the deceased's pajamas. Several dark blue fibers were wrapped around the buttonhole—the same polyester fiber composition as that Yang Lin had extracted at the scene, originating from the construction site safety net. This button might be the final piece of the puzzle to uncover the truth behind Li Yunfeng's death.

When Wang Lei's black Passat was parked in the underground garage of Lijing Garden, the hood was still radiating heat. Wang Shuai squatted beside the car, the beam of his flashlight sweeping over the repainted area of ​​the rear bumper. The newly sprayed white paint and the original metallic paint showed a subtle color difference in the sunlight. "The sanding marks here are angled," he said, running his gloved fingers lightly over the paint surface, "completely different from the horizontal sanding of professional paint repairs. It looks like it was just a quick fix done at a small workshop."

Technician Xiao Li used a portable spectrometer to detect the remaining red particles: "The composition of the iron oxide particles is exactly the same as that of the warning posts in the community garage, and even the impurity content is exactly the same." He suddenly pointed to the inside of the tire, "Team Leader Wang, look at this!" A piece of dark blue fabric fiber was wrapped around the wheel hub bolt, hardened by engine oil, and glowed with a pale purple fluorescence under ultraviolet light—it perfectly matched the composition of the construction site safety net fiber that Yang Lin extracted on site.

Just as the investigation into Wang Lei's social connections reached a stalemate, an anonymous tip-off broke the silence. "Wang Lei went to the scrap yard in the High-tech Zone at 10:30 pm on July 12," the voice on the other end of the line was altered with a voice changer, "and sold a bloodstained utility knife and a gray pajama set. I was dismantling an air conditioner right next to him at the time." Wang Shuai immediately retrieved the scrap yard's surveillance footage. In the footage, Wang Lei was wearing a baseball cap, and the gold chain on his left wrist flashed under the light. In the black plastic bag he handed to the owner, the edge of gray fabric was vaguely visible.

When they found the owner of the scrap yard, he was squatting in the pile of scrap metal, picking through steel bars. "That knife," he gestured with his greasy fingers, "the blade was covered in dark red blood. I thought it was for gutting fish, so I gave him fifty yuan." (End of Chapter)