Eyes that are the same as those of evil

Chapter 109 The Army of Justice 11
According to his confession, Zhao Qingxiang divided the stolen goods in two. The cash was hidden in a cabinet, and he planned to use it after a while to make sure it had no special features. However, the gold and silver jewelry was not there, but in his old house.

That was an old residential area at the very beginning of Jiefang South Road, where milk delivery boxes, which were very popular more than ten years ago, were still installed in the stairwells.

Xiao Chen pried open Zhao Qingxiang's personal milk box and successfully found a bag of jewelry, the gold and silver glittering and jingling when shaken.

"No wonder he wasn't caught stealing more than ten times. His real home is here, and his belongings are here, but he lives in an apartment he bought with stolen money. The apartment over there is a small one-bedroom apartment that the developer built specifically to be used as a hotel or guesthouse. It has an open entrance and is not strictly part of the community, so the security cameras at the main gate didn't capture him."

They really have three burrows!

He brought the items back to the police station, where he happened to run into the victim, Jin Xiangyuan, meeting with Zhao Qingxiang. One was shouting and yelling with bloodshot eyes, while the other cowered and hid, not daring to utter a sound. If Tan Ming hadn't held him back, Jin Xiangyuan would have rushed over and killed his enemy.

After the two sat down separately, Xiao Chen placed a bag of jewelry on the table and asked Jin Xiangyuan to do some of it.

"Take a look, is this what it is?"

Jin Xiangyuan covered his eyes and cried. After calming down a bit, he opened the bag, looked at the peace charms and safety buckles that held sentimental value, and then lowered his head in anguish for a moment.

Gold and silver can be lost and regained, but two loved ones can never come back.

Xiao Chen sighed, helped take the items out and count them, and said in a low voice, "You should still check them."

There was a heavy, golden peace pendant, a lustrous safety buckle, a diamond ring, a silver safety lock, and a jade bracelet—quite a collection of odds and ends.

Jin Xiangyuan nodded: "That's all."

He looked at each item one by one, slowly put them together, and when he opened his mouth, he couldn't control his sobbing.

“When Qu He and I divorced, she even refused to take my ring and the old bracelet my mother had passed down to me. I knew she didn't think they were good quality items, and she even said I had been tricked into buying fakes. Later, she dated this person and that person, and finally found a rich man who bought gold and jade for our child. Every time, she would try to shove it in front of my mother and me... My mother was right, she was a menace! She messed around everywhere, got involved with a murderer, and caused the deaths of my son and my mother! I want this person to pay with her life!”

Qu He sat outside, and it's unknown how she felt upon hearing this.

However, none of these were within Tan Jia's scope of thought.

She squeezed to the side of the crowd and noticed a strange detail—when Zhao Qingxiang saw the pile of gold and silver jewelry, he seemed to pause for a moment, and then subconsciously looked at Jin Xiangyuan.

What does this reaction mean? Is there something wrong with that pile of jewelry?
She looked thoughtfully at the items; the safety buckle and bracelet had been put back together, and the peace plaque gleamed brightly under the indoor lights.

Hmm? There are patterns on the "Nothing to Do" plaque.

Squinting and observing carefully, when Jin Xiangyuan put the peace plaque into the bag, she finally saw the pattern clearly. It seemed to be... a phoenix pattern?
Jin Zixuan is a boy, so why does his "no worries" pendant have a phoenix pattern on it? Isn't it usually women who wear phoenix pendants?
All the jewelry was repackaged, and Tan Ming took out the export documents for both parties to sign. It seemed that the case was about to be settled.

Zheng Yan was suddenly poked twice in the back.

The sudden itching and pain made him shiver. He turned his head and met Tan Jia's gaze.

She handed over the phone with a line of text already typed.

If there are any problems, leave the jewelry and the person behind.

……

The case-closing process was paused, and several people left the interrogation room.

"You said there's a problem? What's the problem?" Zheng Yan asked as he closed the door and turned around.

Xiao Chen and Tan Ming were also looking at her.

"When Jin Xiangyuan was counting the jewelry, Zhao Qingxiang's eyes were strange, as if he was a little suspicious," Tan Jia said in a low voice. "I felt there might be a problem, so I followed his gaze and looked carefully. I found that the gold 'no worries' amulet had a phoenix pattern on it. Phoenix patterns are usually worn by girls, and people who believe in 'no worries' amulets are usually very particular about the taboos associated with wearing them and won't wear them randomly." Zheng Yan didn't know much about 'no worries' amulets, but he pondered the first part of her sentence: "Zhao Qingxiang, the thief, looked at the victim counting the stolen goods and seemed suspicious... Were some of the jewelry items not stolen by him? Or were they changed and switched?"

This can only be done by interrogating Zhao Qingxiang.

Tan Ming went in and pulled the person out separately. Jin Xiangyuan sat opposite them, watching them come in and go in a daze, his gaze following them for a while.

Tan Jia stared intently at him through the glass until he lowered his head and cried again, then followed Zheng Yan to another interrogation room.

Zhao Qingxiang seemed somewhat absent-minded. He didn't seem surprised to be moved to a different interrogation location, and his eyes were downcast, lost in thought.

Zheng Yan observed his micro-expressions and asked directly, "Is there something wrong with those pieces of jewelry?"

He raised his head and slowly said yes.

Tan Jia thought he had guessed correctly; the problem lay with the "nothing to worry about" sign.

Unexpectedly, he said, "I clearly hid that safety amulet."

What? They looked astonished.

Zheng Yan pressed on in a deep voice, "What exactly happened?"

Zhao Qingxiang recalled the events of the past two days.

According to him, although he was a habitual thief, he only stole from strangers and never hurt anyone. This time, he killed someone because he couldn't control his fear. After running home, he knew he was going to get caught and that it was only a matter of time before the stolen goods were found.

But he was unwilling to lose out like this, so he took the only safety buckle and hid it. He thought that Qu He had said it was a piece of mutton fat jade, which was very valuable. He would leave it for his mother as a way of showing his filial piety. If asked about it later, he would say that he lost it or that he didn't see it when he stole it.

However, the safety buckle was conspicuously among the stolen goods found in the bag.

“I took the things back to my place and hid them behind the picture frame. I was home alone during that time… You can go and look for me if you don’t believe me. I don’t understand why I ran out again.”

What else could it be? It couldn't have grown legs and run away, could it?

Zheng Yan: "There are two possibilities. One is that you have a problem with your memory and you didn't take it at the time, and the other is that the bag of jewelry you hid was switched."

The former is easy to prove as to whether it is true or false; just send someone to Zhao Qingxiang's house and look at the back of the picture frame to find out.

If it's the latter, who would have switched the items?
Tan Jia pondered, unconsciously kneading the dough in her hands into a square, heavy, and soft shape.

"When you took those things back, did you check them? Did you look at them one by one?" she asked.

"It has been checked."

"Do you remember what the pattern on that gold plaque looked like? Was it a phoenix pattern?" She showed him a traditional phoenix pattern.

Zhao Qingxiang hesitated: "It seems so. I originally wanted to keep that one, but pure gold is too conspicuous, and if it's missing, they'll definitely continue to investigate. That safety buckle is different; it's small, and if it's missing, there's a 50% chance they won't investigate."

Tan Jia put away her phone and said to Zheng Yan, "We need to check those pieces of jewelry. And Jin Xiangyuan too."

More and more clues are now suggesting that something is wrong with Kim Hyang-won.

It's time to contact the "actor" she hired and talk about what happened at the steamed bun shop this morning.

(End of this chapter)