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

Chen Jianfeng misappropriated the money from the feed payment for the farm. "Although the recipient was his cousin, the actual controller was a loan shark company in a neighboring county. Chen Jianfeng lost money gambling and borrowed 100,000 yuan. This 50,000 yuan was the interest payment." He pulled out the loan contract. "The monthly interest rate was 3%, far exceeding the legal limit. The person who lent the money was called Hu Zi, and he was from the same loan company as Scarface."

Zhang Hui immediately located Hu Zi's hiding place. Hu Zi was squatting in a corner of the arcade playing mahjong, with a mountain of chips piled on the table. "That coward Chen Jianfeng," Hu Zi slammed his cards on the table, "said he'd use the pigs from his farm as collateral when he borrowed money, but he lost it all and couldn't pay it back. We cornered him in the pigsty and beat him up. He needed eight stitches in his left arm." He rolled up his sleeves, showing off his tattoos. "But that happened in 2023. It has absolutely nothing to do with the case you're investigating now. If you don't believe me, go check the hospital records."

Hospital records show that Chen Jianfeng did indeed seek medical attention for "soft tissue contusion of the left upper limb" in March 2023, and the suturing record is consistent with Hu Zi's account. "He even called the police at the time," Zhang Hui said, showing the police dispatch record, "but because it was a gambling debt dispute, it was eventually settled through mediation, and Chen Jianfeng agreed to pay off the remaining debt within three months." In the bank statements, there was a repayment of 50,000 yuan in June 2023, which came from the income from selling three sows, perfectly matching the farm's sales records.

While investigating Chen Jianfeng's social connections, Zhang Hui discovered that he had been detained in 2019 for fighting. "He was fighting with Wang Laowu from the neighboring village over territory," the police officer who handled the case back then recalled. "Both wanted to contract the fishpond at the village entrance, and the argument escalated to the point where they used shovels. Chen Jianfeng broke the other man's leg, and they settled the matter privately after he paid 80,000 yuan in compensation." He pulled up a photo from the case file; Chen Jianfeng was wearing camouflage at the time, had a scar on his right eyebrow, and looked 20 kilograms thinner than he does now. "That case had nothing to do with Hongwei Building Materials, and it didn't involve any worker injuries."

Earlier records show that Chen Jianfeng ran a small shop in 2015 and was fined 5,000 yuan for selling expired food. "The industry and commerce department was cracking down hard back then," a long-time neighbor of the shop testified. "He bought a batch of nearly expired ham sausages, repackaged them, and continued to sell them. After being reported, he even argued with the industry and commerce officials, saying they were deliberately targeting individual business owners." This experience is only one page long in the file, and it neither involves any violent conflict nor has it been related to the construction industry.

Zhang Hui's gaze fell on Chen Jianfeng's call records. During the labor dispute in 2022, he had 37 phone calls with Zhou Qiang, the boss of Hongwei Building Materials, the longest of which lasted 47 minutes. "It was mainly about haggling over the price," Zhou Qiang said on the phone. "He contracted to build our pig farm, but the construction quality was terrible. The fences weren't welded properly, and the pigs could break through them. We deducted 30,000 yuan from his payment, and he's been causing trouble every day." In the recorded call, Chen Jianfeng's voice sounded like he was drunk: "If you don't give me my money, I'll go to the Housing and Construction Bureau and report you for shoddy workmanship!"

However, these arguments remained verbal and did not escalate into physical conflict. "In the end, the police station mediated," the mediator at the time recalled. "We asked Zhou Qiang to give another 11 yuan, Chen Jianfeng withdrew the lawsuit, and both parties signed a settlement agreement and put their fingerprints on it." The date on the agreement was November 15, 2022, eight months before the murder. The fingerprint comparison showed that Chen Jianfeng's right index finger fingerprint matched some fingerprints on the feed warehouse scale, but these were left from his daily work and could not be used as evidence in the case.

What concerned Zhang Hui most was Chen Jianfeng's family situation. He had divorced ten years ago, and his daughter lived with his ex-wife in Shenzhen, only returning home once a year. "In 2021, his daughter wanted to buy a house, and he borrowed 12 yuan from all his relatives," his ex-wife said on the phone. "But he was a proud man and never mentioned his gambling. His daughter always thought he was doing well in business." The repayment records for this loan were intermittent, with the last payment in December 2023, which was too far removed from the timeline of the murder.

On the fifth day of the investigation, Zhang Hui's team had verified 42 leads, but none of them were linked to the case of the pigsty corpse. Chen Jianfeng's gambling debt disputes, prior convictions for fighting, and food safety violations were all personal misdeeds and had no connection to the deceased's mechanical asphyxiation. Although the dispute with Hongwei Building Materials over construction payments was intense, it had already been settled, and none of the workers involved had a broken left ring finger. "His return home at 3 a.m. was likely dealing with pig issues," Zhang Hui said, watching the farm's surveillance footage. On the night of July 12, a sow had a difficult birth, and Chen Jianfeng was indeed busy in the pigsty until 2:40 a.m. "The pig manure and fibers on his body were from assisting with the birth, which makes sense."

On the blackboard in the information center, Chen Jianfeng's network of relationships became increasingly clear, but every line pointed in a direction unrelated to the murder case. Zhang Hui crossed out the names "Hu Zi," "Zhou Qiang," and "ex-wife" with a red pen, leaving only the vague outline of "labor dispute in 2022." "Continue investigating the worker with the broken left ring finger," he said into the walkie-talkie. "Although Chen Jianfeng's past is complicated, we can't see a direct connection to the murder case for now. The focus should still be on the employee list of Hongwei Building Materials."

As the technicians were preparing to leave work, Zhang Hui's phone suddenly rang. It was a call from a long-time employee in the archives: "In the 2022 project acceptance report, there's a worker named Zhao Lei who signed it. His ID number shows that he has a disability in his left ring finger. You can check it out." This message was like a key suddenly inserted into a seemingly unrelated lock—Zhao Lei's social security records showed that he was currently working on a construction site in a neighboring city and had taken leave to return to his hometown on July 12th. His hometown was the village where the breeding farm was located.

The rusty iron gate of Hongwei Building Materials gleamed in the sunlight, and the hinges creaked harshly as Wang Shuai pushed it open. The office filing cabinets were covered in a thick layer of dust, and Zhou Qiang was squatting on the floor rummaging through old files, the sweat stains on the back of his shirt soaking through the words "General Manager." "Payroll sheets from three years ago? I don't even know where they're piled up," he said, pushing a stack of yellowed papers in front of Wang Shuai. "I do have the construction team list from 2022, though. They signed off on building pigsties for Chen Jianfeng's farm back then."

Wang Shuai's finger traced the names on the list, the pen pausing at the three characters "Li Youcai." "That guy's a steelworker," Zhou Qiang said, his fingernails carving shallow grooves on the table. "He's missing a section of his left ring finger. He was hit by a steel pipe at a construction site in 2022. They paid him 50,000 yuan in compensation, and he quit at the end of that year." He suddenly slapped his thigh. "That's right! He lives in the village near the breeding farm, less than two miles from Chen Jianfeng's house!"

When they found Li Youcai's house, the chimney of the mud-brick house was not smoking, and the Spring Festival couplets on the wooden door had faded to a pale pinkish-white. (End of Chapter)