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

"After you stabbed him, did you ever think about saving him?" Zhang Hui's tone was heavy. Li Bing shook her head, tears dripping onto the back of her hand: "I was so scared at the time, all I could think about was running away, I didn't think about saving him at all. Later, when I got home, every time I closed my eyes I saw him lying on the ground. I knew I was wrong, but I didn't dare to turn myself in, so I could only live in fear every day until you found me."

The interrogation lasted three hours. Li Bing gave a complete account of the entire process, from the resentment stemming from professional competition, to luring Zhang Tao to the grassland with lies, to accidentally killing him during the altercation and destroying evidence. Every detail perfectly matched the scene investigation and forensic autopsy results. The location of the dagger stab wound corresponded to the stab wound in Zhang Tao's chest, the location where the tool bag and dagger were discarded matched the results of the subsequent police search, and even his description of "Zhang Tao scratching his arm when resisting" corroborated the origin of the skin tissue fragments found under Zhang Tao's fingernails.

When Zhang Hui asked him to sign the interrogation record, Li Bing's hand trembled violently, and the pen tip left crooked marks on the paper. "I am sorry to Zhang Tao and his family," he said, and after signing, he suddenly bowed deeply to Zhang Hui. "I know I have committed an unforgivable crime. I am willing to accept the punishment of the law, and I only ask to give Zhang Tao's family an explanation."

It was already dark when Zhang Hui left the interrogation room. He looked at the interrogation record in his hand; every page detailed Li Bing's confession, perfectly matching the chain of evidence. He took out his phone and sent a message to Lu Chuan: "Li Bing has confessed to everything. The details of his confession are consistent with the investigation and autopsy results. The chain of evidence is complete, and the case can be formally transferred to the procuratorate for prosecution."

Lu Chuan quickly replied: "Thank you for your hard work. Justice will not be absent. Arrange to inform Zhang Tao's family as soon as possible so that they can rest assured."

Standing at the door of the interrogation room, Zhang Hui watched the streetlights gradually illuminate the room. He knew in his heart that this tragedy, caused by professional competition, had finally come to an end with Li Bing's confession. Zhang Tao's soul could finally rest in peace, and his family would finally receive a just outcome. As for Li Bing, he would pay the price for his impulsive and cruel actions, spending the rest of his life in prison to atone for his crimes.

Less than a week after the Zhang Tao murder case was closed, the administrative branch received another report in the area.

On a crisp autumn morning, the cold wind howled through the landfill, carrying a sour, rotten smell. 58-year-old Li Baoku gripped an iron rake, shoveling piles of household waste into a compactor truck. A veteran worker at the landfill, he was used to the stench. But today, as he shoveled into the western "industrial waste area," an unusual, putrid stench suddenly filled his nostrils. It wasn't the smell of ordinary rotting garbage; it was more like the pungent, bloody odor of animal carcasses fermenting over a long period.

"Strange, this area is usually full of cardboard boxes and plastic bottles, why does it smell like this?" Li Baoku frowned, put down his rake, and followed the smell, parting the waist-high pile of garbage. When he saw what was inside, he froze on the spot. In the gap between the garbage, a corpse wrapped in a black plastic bag was vaguely visible, the rotting skin showing a dark green hue through the tear in the plastic bag, and several flies buzzing around it. Li Baoku's legs went weak with fright, the rake clattered to the ground, and he scrambled out of the garbage area, trembling as he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed the police.

An hour and a half later, Lu Chuan's police car drove along the bumpy dirt road into the landfill and stopped in an open area outside the cordon. "Immediately seal off the scene, expand the cordon, and prohibit unrelated vehicles and personnel from approaching!" Lu Chuan opened the car door, his black leather shoes stepping on the scattered garbage debris, and gave instructions to the team members behind him, "Yang Lin and Yang Sen are responsible for the initial on-site investigation, focusing on checking footprints, tool marks, and left-behind items around the body. Be careful to protect physical evidence. The landfill environment is complex, so don't destroy key clues; Wang Shuai, come with me to question the person who reported the crime. The rest of you, patrol around the landfill and look for any suspicious persons or abandoned tools used in the crime."

Yang Lin and Yang Sen, carrying their investigation bags and wearing non-slip boots, carefully entered the restricted area. The ground of the landfill was littered with all sorts of waste—plastic bottles, scraps of cloth, and broken furniture mixed together—and one could easily slip and fall. The two put on gas masks, crouched three meters away from the body, and turned on their powerful investigation lights to begin their observation.

"The body was wrapped in a thick black plastic bag, which was torn in several places, with some areas still attached to the rotting skin," Yang Lin wrote in his notebook while gently clearing away the trash around the body with tweezers. "Judging from the degree of decomposition, a large area of ​​the skin on the body had peeled off, and the face was swollen and deformed, making it impossible to recognize the appearance. It is estimated that the time of death was quite long. There were a few cement fragments and red paint spots on the outside of the plastic bag, which may have come from construction waste and could perhaps help trace the source of the trash."

Yang Sen then began searching to the east of the body. His footprint light swept across the messy garbage, and next to a pile of cardboard boxes, he found a set of size 43 men's athletic shoe prints. "The edges of the prints were covered in gray dust, probably from the landfill. The stride length was 85 centimeters, the stride width 20 centimeters, and the stride angle 2 degrees outward, suggesting a height of 175-180 centimeters," he measured with a ruler close to the ground. "The prints are relatively intact, not severely damaged by the garbage, indicating they were left recently, likely when the suspect disposed of the body."

Among the pile of plastic bottles next to the sneaker print, Yang Sen also found a silver metal chain, about 15 centimeters long, with obvious signs of a break at one end and a thin layer of oil on its surface. "The chain seems to be made of stainless steel, and the break is quite clean, so it may have been deliberately broken," he said, putting the chain into an evidence bag. "We can't determine for now whether it was an item the deceased was carrying or left behind by the suspect; it needs to be taken back to the branch for further testing."

Yang Lin made a discovery in the construction waste pile to the west of the body: "There is a fresh drag mark here, the garbage is obviously compacted, and the direction is pointing towards the location of the body." He used a probe to examine the drag mark. "The drag mark is about 5 meters long, and there are still fibers from black plastic bags left at the edges, which should have been left by the suspect when dragging the body. In addition, there is half a torn express delivery slip scattered next to the mark. The recipient information on it has been smeared, but some numbers of the express delivery number can still be seen. Perhaps the sender can be found through the tracking number."

The two continued to expand their search area and found another plastic bottle cap under the wall on the north side of the landfill. The cap was branded as "a certain brand of beverage" and had a small amount of brown stains on its surface, matching the color of the stains around the body. "There are teeth marks on the edge of the bottle cap, as if it had been bitten open," Yang Lin said, putting the cap into an evidence bag. "There are no clear fingerprints on it, and it's heavily contaminated with garbage, but it's still worth extracting." (End of Chapter)