Chapter 771: The Case Is Solved!

The next morning!

Amid the roar of car engines, Li Yi opened his eyes.

The guesthouse faced the street, and being a standard brick-and-tile building, the soundproofing was rather poor.

Although the noise had woken him up, causing Li Yi to frown, he quickly composed himself and prepared to get out of bed.

Gently setting Jiang Xue down from where she was draped over him, Li Yi sat up in bed.

He glanced at his watch—it was almost eight o’clock.

He immediately got dressed and got out of bed, intending to go outside for some exercise.

But the moment he stepped off the bed, Li Yi felt his steps were unsteady, his calves slightly weak, and his lower back aching.

Although it didn’t hurt, his weakness was obvious and undeniable!

Glancing back at Jiang Xue, who was still fast asleep—especially the look of contentment on her face—Li Yi couldn’t help but sigh.

“Lust is like a steel knife scraping the bone; alcohol is a poison that pierces the intestines.”

Before they’d been doing “that thing” as a couple very often, Li Yi hadn’t really had much experience with it. He’d always thought of himself as physically robust, and whenever he left his wife utterly defeated, he’d always felt that description was a bit of an exaggeration.

But lately, this girl clearly wanted a second child; she was relentlessly milking him dry, refusing to let him go until he’d exhausted every last drop of his reserves.

Even if it meant killing eight thousand enemies while losing ten thousand of his own, she didn’t care.

After several days of this, Li Yi felt like he was truly being drained dry.

At that moment, he realized deeply that even the strongest ox can be worn down to skin and bone!

He walked over to the window, pulled back the curtains, and took a look.

Li Yi discovered that a coal-hauling truck was parked in the guesthouse courtyard, and workers were currently unloading coal from it—the noise he’d heard earlier had come from this very truck.

After a quick wash, he walked out of the room.

Hearing the commotion, Zhang Ziqiang and Yang Zhiwen immediately came out of their rooms.

“Brother Yi, where are you headed?” Zhang Ziqiang asked.

“To get breakfast—and get some exercise while I’m at it!”

“Alright!”

After saying hello to Zhang Feng, the three of them walked out of the guesthouse.

Once outside the guesthouse, they did a quick warm-up and then began jogging along the main road through the county town.

Whether in winter or summer, running is the best form of exercise.

After running five kilometers, they arrived at the state-run restaurant, bought some meat buns, fried dough sticks, and steamed buns, and then headed back to the guesthouse.

But just as they reached the entrance of the guesthouse, Li Yi spotted a police car parked there.

Judging by the license plate, it was unmistakably the car Xiao Zhanwu usually drove.

Li Yi immediately told Yang Zhiwen to take the breakfast back to the guesthouse first, while he and Zhang Zhiqiang strode toward the police car.

When they reached the car, Li Yi saw through the window that Xiao Zhanwu was slumped over the steering wheel, fast asleep.

In the passenger seat, a drowsy police officer was slumped against the seat, looking utterly exhausted.

At that moment, Li Yi tapped lightly on the car window!

“Tap, tap, tap!!!”

Hearing the tapping on the window, Xiao Zhanwu woke up immediately.

Upon seeing it was Li Yi, he rubbed his eyes and got out of the car.

Li Yi noticed his bloodshot eyes and said, “What’s up? Did you stay up late again last night?”

“It’s nothing, I’ll get used to it!”

Xiao Zhanwu then added, “I’ve done my duty. We’ve made a major breakthrough in the case. Tang Bing and Tan Cheng are already in our custody, and they’ll likely be formally arrested within the next day or two!”

Hearing this, Li Yi’s eyes lit up instantly, and he hurriedly asked, “That fast? Do we have the evidence?”

“Yes!”

Xiao Zhanwu then proceeded to explain the details of the investigation to Li Yi.

According to Xiao Zhanwu, after returning to the county bureau yesterday afternoon, he immediately reported the case to the bureau’s leadership.

When the leaders of the county bureau learned that the Criminal Investigation Division had actually botched the case, they were both shocked and furious.

They were shocked that their team had botched the case; if higher-ups held them accountable, they were sure to face criticism, especially since their bureau had originally been in charge of the investigation.

They were furious that Tan Cheng had actually devised such a scheme to escape from prison—wasn’t he treating their county bureau like a laughingstock?

Immediately, the bureau leadership issued instructions to assemble an investigation team composed of the best personnel, determined to uncover the truth and ensure that the arrogant criminal received severe punishment.

With the leadership’s instructions in hand, the investigation team was quickly formed.

The team members then began acting on the information they had already gathered.

First, they formally interrogated Jiang Lin, clearly informing him that the investigation team had uncovered the secret dealings between him and Tan Cheng, and even revealed some specific details.

Upon hearing the details the police had uncovered, Jiang Lin was utterly shocked. He had assumed that when Xiao Zhanwu came to see him that morning, it was merely a bluff and that there was no substantial evidence.

But he never imagined that they had actually uncovered the truth of the matter. For a moment, Jiang Lin felt as if his world was collapsing.

What hit him even harder was that the investigating officers also told him the matter implicated his father, Jiang Dafu.

If he refused to confess, the consequences would be severe. The police were likely to make his father a key target of their investigation and might even take immediate coercive measures against him.

This plunged Jiang Lin into a state of extreme panic. Not long ago, his father had visited him in prison and told him that his mother had just undergone surgery and was doing fairly well.

But to spare her distress, he hadn’t yet told her about his extended sentence.

He knew his family’s situation well: if his father were arrested, his mother would inevitably learn the truth.

Furthermore, if his father were subjected to coercive measures, there would be no one to care for his mother after her surgery, and she certainly wouldn’t survive for long.

More importantly, this matter had nothing to do with his father in the first place.

His father only found out about it after the fact; at most, he could be accused of failing to report what he knew, but he hadn’t directly participated in the case.

It would be a terrible injustice if he were arrested for this.

After much internal deliberation, Jiang Lin finally decided to come clean.

While Jiang Lin was being interrogated, Xiao Zhanwu took several men to the steel mill’s staff housing complex to meet with Tang Bing and Tan Cheng.

Upon meeting the two, Xiao Zhanwu got straight to the point and informed them that due to some issues with the previous case involving sentence reduction for meritorious service, the police bureau and the prison authorities would be re-examining the case. He formally notified them not to leave Yong County for the time being and to be ready to respond to summonses from the investigators at any time.

While delivering this notice, Xiao Zhanwu also casually—or perhaps deliberately—revealed some details uncovered during the investigation, such as the 2,500 yuan and the fact that Tang Bing had once been seen in Jiangjia Village. This left Tang Bing and Tan Cheng pale with fear.

After saying this, Xiao Zhanwu and his team left, leaving the two men as skittish as birds startled by a bowstring.

What they didn’t know was that after leaving the steel mill’s staff housing compound, Xiao Zhanwu and his team had set up surveillance in the vicinity to keep an eye on the two.

Sure enough, after dark, Tang Bing sneaked out of her home and, under cover of night, left the county town.

Once Xiao Zhanwu and his team confirmed that Tang Bing wasn’t fleeing but was heading to Jiangjia Village, they drove there ahead of time to wait for her.

At two o’clock in the morning, the woman did indeed appear in Jiangjia Village and made her way to the Jiang family home.

Coincidentally, after Tang Bing woke up Jiang Dafu, Jiang Dafu—not wanting his wife to find out that their son’s sentence had been extended—actually refused to let Tang Bing come inside to talk.

So the two of them ended up talking right there in the Jiang Lin family’s courtyard!

Tang Bing told Jiang Dafu directly that the police were investigating the case and had already turned their suspicions toward them.

She also warned him that if the truth came out, his son’s sentence would be extended.

Therefore, she demanded that Jiang Dafu keep his mouth shut at all costs and stick to the story that the 2,500 yuan was a loan, not compensation.

Furthermore, to win Jiang Dafu over, Tang Bing gave him another 300 yuan.

But neither Jiang Dafu nor Tang Bing could have imagined that, while the two were talking, Xiao Zhanwu and his men were hiding outside the wall, listening to every word of their conversation.

Then, as their conversation ended, Xiao Zhanwu and his team scaled the wall and leaped into the courtyard, catching Tang Bing and Jiang Dafu completely off guard!

Caught red-handed by the police, Jiang Dafu and Tang Bing were stunned and had no choice but to confess the truth…

……….