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

He led Wang Shuai to a corner of the warehouse and rummaged through a pile of old tools to find a rusty iron box: "The knife and clothes are all here. I was afraid of getting into trouble, so I didn't dare to throw them away." The moment he opened the iron box, a faint smell of blood mixed with mildew wafted out—the cuff of the gray pajamas had a hole, which was exactly the same as the hole in the jacket in Song Yao's surveillance screenshot, and the width of the utility knife's blade perfectly matched the shape of the bruise on Li Yunfeng's left wrist.

“We’ve made a new discovery in Wang Lei’s call records,” Xiao Li’s voice was excited on the walkie-talkie. “At 11:15 p.m. on July 12, he called a number called ‘Tiger,’ saying, ‘Have you cleaned things up? Don’t leave any loose ends.’ This ‘Tiger’ is a regular at the scrap yard and has a prior theft record. He suddenly left the city last week.” Wang Shuai asked Xiao Li to check “Tiger’s” whereabouts and found that he had bought a one-way ticket to Yunnan, departing the day after the incident.

When Wang Lei's construction site suddenly stopped work, Wang Shuai knew the time to close the net had come. As the arresting officers stormed into the office, Wang Lei was stuffing a USB drive into a crack in the wall; the metal casing of the drive flashed in the sunlight. "What's this?" Wang Shuai pressed down on his wrist, the platinum ring engraved with "LW" digging painfully into his palm. After the technicians cracked the USB drive, the recording inside sent chills down everyone's spines—it was a conversation between Wang Lei and Zhao Jianguo: "...The ledgers in Li Yunfeng's hands must be destroyed, otherwise we'll all be in jail...You find a chance to lure him to the garage, I'll do it..."

The incandescent light in the interrogation room cast Wang Lei's shadow on the wall, the scar on his right eyebrow appearing bluish-purple under the light. "Where were you on the night of July 12th?" Wang Shuai pushed a screenshot from the surveillance footage in front of him. The photo showed Wang Lei emerging from a scrap yard, the black plastic bag in his hand particularly noticeable. Wang Lei's Adam's apple bobbed violently, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing his ring: "I was working overtime at the construction site. The workers can testify."

"Which worker?" Wang Shuai suddenly raised his voice. "Is it Old Zhang who took your 7 yuan hush money, or Little Li who helped you touch up the paint?" He pulled up the bank transfer records. Wang Lei's account had two transactions in the early morning of July 13th, and the recipients were indeed these two workers. Wang Lei's shoulders suddenly slumped, and the iron chains dragged on the concrete floor with a screeching sound.

“I didn’t mean to kill him…” Wang Lei’s voice trembled with sobs, the scar on his right eyebrow contorted with trembling. “Zhao Jianguo forced me to do it. He said Li Yunfeng was going to report tax evasion and asked me to teach him a lesson.” He raised his head, his eyes bloodshot. “On the night of July 12, I arranged to meet Li Yunfeng in the garage, saying I had evidence of Song Yao’s infidelity to show him. When he arrived, he was wearing gray pajamas and clutching an account book, saying he was going to the tax bureau.”

Wang Shuai opened the interrogation record, his fingertip pointing to the words "utility knife": "What did you use to stab him?"

"He started it!" Wang Lei suddenly became agitated, the chains rattling as he was pulled. "He called me a beast who destroyed other people's families, and lunged at me to grab the knife from my hand. During the fight, the knife stabbed into his stomach..." He gestured to show the position at the time, holding the knife in his right hand with the blade facing upwards. "I was terrified and wanted to take him to the hospital, but he said he would put me in jail and held onto my leg tightly."

This statement perfectly matches the autopsy report by forensic pathologist Zhang Kai: Li Yunfeng had a 3×2 cm sharp force wound in his abdomen, with the wound sloping upwards, consistent with the characteristic of a knife blade pointing upwards during a fight. Wang Shuai retrieved the surveillance footage from the garage, showing blurry figures in the video indeed engaging in tearing motions, with the time displayed as 0:17 AM—completely consistent with the time stated by Wang Lei.

"Why did you fake the scene?" Wang Shuai pressed, his gaze falling on the photo of the "LW ring".

“I was afraid of being recognized,” Wang Lei’s voice lowered. “When I dragged him to the corner, his ring accidentally came off. I used his shoelaces to strangle his ankle, trying to make it look like a robbery and murder, and I even threw his ledger down the drain.” He suddenly covered his face. “Song Yao didn’t know about the murder. I asked her to go to the garage at dawn to get the documents so she could help me throw away my bloodstained pajamas… That 50,000 yuan was hush money from Zhao Jianguo. He said he would give me another 200,000 yuan after it was all done.”

The air conditioning in the interrogation room suddenly stopped, and the stuffy air was thick with the smell of sweat. Wang Lei confessed that after the crime, he sold the utility knife and pajamas to a scrap yard in an attempt to destroy evidence, but he didn't expect to be seen doing so. "Zhao Jianguo also told me that Song Yao was the beneficiary of Li Yunfeng's insurance policy, and that as long as he died, Song Yao would receive 500,000 yuan, and then she would run away with me..." His voice trailed off, "I must have been blind to believe his lies."

Wang Shuai had technicians retrieve the recording of the phone call between Zhao Jianguo and Wang Lei. In the call at 9:03 p.m. on July 12, Zhao Jianguo's voice was clearly audible: "...be careful, don't leave any survivors...the ledger must be destroyed..." This recording became irrefutable evidence, firmly securing Zhao Jianguo's charge of instigating murder.

As Wang Lei signed the arrest warrant, the pen tip poked a hole in the paper. Watching him being led away, Wang Shuai suddenly remembered the button he'd found under the forklift seat—the dark blue fibers inside the buttonhole perfectly matched the fibers on Wang Lei's wheel hub. These scattered clues finally pieced together the complete truth in the interrogation room: a murder stemming from tax evasion, intertwined with infidelity, greed, and betrayal, ultimately shattering three families.

In the corridor outside the interrogation room, sunlight streamed through the window and shone brightly on the word "Justice".

After Wang Lei confessed, Wang Shuai immediately led his men to arrest Song Yao.

When Shuai led his team into the supermarket warehouse, Song Yao was squatting on the ground taking inventory of the shelves. A piece of dark blue fiber was stuck to the cuff of her beige dress—the same fiber composition as the construction site safety net on Wang Lei's wheel rim. "You are suspected of involvement in Li Yunfeng's murder case. Come with us." The moment Wang Shuai flashed the arrest warrant, the barcode scanner in Song Yao's hand clattered to the ground, and the barcode left a distorted black line under the light.

The incandescent light in the interrogation room cast a long shadow of Song Yao. Her right knuckles repeatedly rubbed the Longines watch on her left wrist, the light reflecting off the dial dancing on the photograph of "Li Yunfeng's Death Scene." "I didn't kill anyone," her voice was weak, like a spider web swaying in the wind. "Wang Lei told me to go to the garage to get some documents, I had no idea what was in there."

Wang Shuai pushed the surveillance screenshot in front of her. In the footage from 0:23 AM, Song Yao was carrying a bulging black plastic bag, and the gray fabric edge peeking out of the bag's opening perfectly matched the torn pajamas found at the junkyard. "What's in this bag?" His pen hovered over the notebook. "You claimed you were going to get some documents, so why did you stay in the garage for 17 minutes?" (End of Chapter)