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

Wang Shuai led his team members to the east end of the village, following the directions given by Li Feng, and found Li Yongbao's house. It was a simple mud-brick house, which was more dilapidated than the surrounding farmhouses. The door was tightly closed, and the yard was overgrown with weeds, indicating that it had not been maintained for some time. The lock on the door was also rusty, as if it had not been opened for a long time.

Wang Shuai gestured to his team members to be quiet, then quietly walked to the courtyard wall, stood on tiptoe, and peered into the yard. The yard was empty, without any movement or lights, indicating that no one was home. He then carefully examined the door and the wall, finding no fresh cleaning marks on the door and no signs of climbing on the wall. His initial assessment was that the house was likely uninhabited recently, or that very few people lived there and rarely went out.

"Brother Wang, it looks like no one's home. Should we try knocking?" a team member asked softly. Wang Shuai shook his head and said, "No need. It's already past 2 a.m., the villagers are all asleep. Knocking will disturb them. Besides, judging from the situation, there's a high chance no one's home. Even if someone is home, it's probably Li Yongbao's elderly mother. Asking her at this hour isn't convenient and might frighten her. Let's stay here for a while and observe the situation. We'll visit her after dawn and ask her wife, Liu Mei, for more details."

Subsequently, Wang Shuai led his team to a secluded corner near Li Yongbao's house, closely observing any activity within the house and the surrounding environment to check for any suspicious individuals. The night air was chilly, and the early autumn wind sent shivers down their spines, but the team members remained steadfast at their posts, their eyes fixed intently on Li Yongbao's door, afraid to miss a single sound. During the stakeout, Wang Shuai reviewed the clues provided by Li Feng. Li Yongbao's characteristics closely matched those of the deceased, and the fact that he had gone to work in another city last year and shouldn't have returned home, yet had suddenly disappeared, made him a prime suspect. However, direct evidence was still lacking, and they could only wait until dawn to interview his family and further verify the information.

Meanwhile, Zhang Hui's enterprise inspection team was also carrying out its work intensively. Zhang Hui's team consisted of four members, divided into two groups. Zhang Hui personally led one group, responsible for inspecting large enterprises and construction sites in the surrounding area, while the other group, led by team member Zhao Peng, was responsible for inspecting small workshops, farms, and small shops. The inspection covered all enterprises and business premises within a five-kilometer radius of the site, totaling 12 enterprises, 8 construction sites, 15 small workshops, 6 farms, and 10 small shops—a very heavy workload.

Zhang Hui led his team to the nearest building materials processing plant. This plant mainly produced building tiles and cement, employing over fifty workers, most of whom were migrant workers who lived in the plant's dormitory and rarely went out. It was already around 11 PM; the plant had stopped operating, and most employees were asleep. Only security personnel were patrolling the plant entrance. Zhang Hui and his team arrived at the entrance, identified themselves to the security personnel, and explained their purpose: to contact the plant's manager to inquire about the recent employee disappearances and to retrieve the plant's surveillance footage.

Upon learning the purpose of the visit, the security personnel acted swiftly and immediately contacted the factory manager. About 20 minutes later, the manager, surnamed Wang, arrived at the factory gate. He appeared to be in his forties and looked somewhat flustered, unsure of what had happened. "Mr. Wang, hello. We are from the Municipal Criminal Investigation Detachment. My name is Zhang Hui," Zhang Hui said calmly, showing Mr. Wang his work identification. "We are handling a criminal case and need to know if your factory has recently had any male employees who have left without paying their wages, or who have gone missing, especially those aged 30-40, approximately 175 cm tall, wearing a black long-sleeved T-shirt and dark blue jeans. Additionally, we need to retrieve your factory's recent surveillance footage, focusing on the footage from 8 PM to midnight three days ago, to look for suspicious individuals."

After hearing Zhang Hui's words, General Manager Wang looked surprised and quickly said, "Officer, no employees have gone missing or gone astray at our factory recently. All employees are on duty, and those who left have all completed the proper resignation procedures and settled their wages before leaving. There have been no cases of employees going missing after leaving. As for the type of employee you mentioned, we have a few of them in our factory. They are all migrant workers from other places. I can contact their team leaders right now to verify their situation and see if anyone has been absent from their post or gone missing recently."

Subsequently, General Manager Wang immediately contacted the team leaders of each shift in the factory, instructing them to verify the attendance of employees overnight. About half an hour later, the team leaders successively reported back that all employees were on duty, and there were no missing or unreachable cases. Moreover, there were three employees who met the description of Zhang Hui: Zhang Qiang from Henan, Li Wei from Sichuan, and Chen Hao from Anhui. All three had been working normally recently, had not asked for leave, and had not shown any unusual behavior. Three nights ago, they were all resting in the factory dormitory, which could be confirmed by their dormitory roommates, thus ruling them out as suspects.

“Mr. Wang, could you please take us to retrieve the surveillance footage from the factory area? We’d like to focus on the footage from 8 p.m. to midnight three days ago, covering the factory gate, dormitory area, and surrounding areas,” Zhang Hui said. “Also, could you please provide the personal information and contact details of these three employees? We may need to ask them for more information later.”

“Okay, no problem, officers. I’ll take you to the monitoring room right away,” Manager Wang nodded quickly, leading Zhang Hui and the others to the factory’s monitoring room. Inside, there were over a dozen monitors, monitoring every corner of the factory in real time. The surveillance footage was stored for one month, clearly showing all activity within the factory area. Following Zhang Hui’s request, the security personnel retrieved the surveillance footage from 8 PM to midnight three days prior. Zhang Hui and his team carefully reviewed each clip, focusing on individuals matching the deceased’s clothing and those matching the suspect’s description.

The surveillance footage is clear; the cameras at the factory gate can clearly see everyone entering and leaving the factory area. (End of Chapter)