Sweeping Mouse Ridge – Chapter Six : 2

From the start of the meeting until now, Du Jianping had remained silent. He knew that as the leader of the Special Task Force team, he bore primary responsibility for the case’s current unclear state, but what could he do? Years of experience on the front lines of criminal investigation had given him a kind of uncanny sixth sense; for most cases, he could often accurately determine whether a suspect had truly committed a crime based on intuition alone.

But Zhou Liping was different! Du Jianping felt that arresting him was like trying to catch a wisp of fog with a net in the dead of night. Not only had he failed to see through his opponent, but as time went on, the surrounding light grew dimmer and visibility worsened. He still had the net in his hand, but the fog was gradually thinning, and he never knew when it would all be revealed…

Now was not the time to dwell on these thoughts. As the meeting’s moderator, he could not let the awkward silence last too long: “Fengchong, report to the chief on the ‘trip tracing’ of the Spire.”

“Trip tracing” refers to the transportation department using a surveillance system to reverse track the entire journey of a suspect vehicle within a certain time period, thereby creating a route map of the vehicle. Originally, police used CCTV footage to trace the “Spire’s” movements, starting around 9:40 p.m. on the night of the incident, when the vehicle exited the north exit of the street where Tongyou Nursery was located. This was because Zhou Liping was driving the car from there to Sweeping Mouse Ridge. However, after behavioral science experts produced a psychological evaluation report based on Zhou Liping’s interrogation video, the police decided to significantly advance the tracing process to 6:00 a.m. on the morning of the incident.

Lin Fengchong reported as follows: Based on the surveillance video extracted from the parking lot of Xing Qisheng’s apartment and the traffic lights near Hefeng Hotel, Tongyou Nursery, Qingshikou East Lane, and other major intersections, it could be roughly outlined that on the day of the Sweeping Mouse Ridge Case, the black Spire made the following itinerary at the following times:

At 9:00 a.m. that day, Xing Qisheng drove the Spire away from the parking lot of his apartment, heading towards the orphanage.

At 2:20 p.m. that day, Xing Qisheng drove the Spire through the traffic lights at the south entrance of the street where the orphanage was located, continuing south, and at 2:28 p.m., entered the gate of Hefeng Hotel, parking the car in the parking lot behind Block E.

At 8:45 p.m. that evening, the Spire drove out of the Hefeng Hotel. Surveillance video showed the driver as Xing Qisheng.

At 8:50 p.m., the Spire entered the street where the southwest gate of Love Hospital was located and did not exit from the other end until 9:00 p.m. Since the southwest gate of Love Hospital led to the morgue, there was no surveillance there according to custom, so it was unknown why Xing Qisheng lingered there for ten minutes.

At 9:05 p.m., the Spire passed the traffic light at the south entrance of the street where the orphanage was located, heading north, but did not exit from the north entrance; it likely stopped in the orphanage’s yard.

At 9:40 p.m., the Spire passed the traffic light at the north entrance of the street where the orphanage was located, heading towards Qingshikou East Lane.

“This car was parked at the orphanage for almost forty minutes. What was Xing Qisheng doing during that time? Zhou Liping received Xing Qisheng’s call at 9:00 p.m., asking him to go to the orphanage, right? What time did he arrive at the orphanage?” Xu Ruilong asked a series of questions.

“We contacted the taxi company. One driver recalled picking up a man on Xiahe Street around 9 p.m. that evening and driving him all the way to the entrance of Tongyou Nursery. The taxi’s mileage record shows the journey took twenty minutes. The driver quickly found a photo of Zhou Liping from a pile of pictures. Zhou Liping stated that after arriving, he went to the office to find Xing Qisheng, who said he had some unfinished business and asked him to wait in the car. He sat in the car for twenty minutes playing on his phone. After Xing Qisheng got in, he lay down on the back seat and asked him to drive to Sweeping Mouse Ridge.”

“I have a technical question,” an officer asked. “Can’t the surveillance system capture the situation in the back seat? Wouldn’t that tell us if there were other people in the car at the time?”

Lin Fengchong smiled wryly. “Our surveillance system has limited resolution. It can capture the driver’s face, but if the lighting inside the car is poor or the interior lights are not on, it cannot capture the back seat. If Xing Qisheng was lying down in the back seat, or even just sitting low behind the driver, the angle might make it impossible to capture him at all—in fact, the relevant departments have taken technical measures to increase the resolution and improve the image quality of all the surveillance videos, but they can only vaguely make out that there’s something behind Zhou Liping, but it’s hard to say whether it’s a person…”

“Is it possible that we’ve complicated a simple matter?” Chai Yongjin suddenly spoke up. “Actually, this case is quite simple. Gathering information from all sides, it’s not hard to see that Zhou Liping was previously suspected of harassing and even sexually assaulting children in an orphanage, and was therefore obstructed by Xing Qisheng. On the night of the incident, Xing Qisheng called Zhou Liping over, probably to settle scores. Perhaps in a moment of anger, he said he would take him to the police station. Zhou Liping got scared, lured Xing Qisheng into his car, knocked him unconscious, then found the three children he had abused, locked them in the trunk, and then drove to Sweeping Mouse Ridge, murdering them one by one, dumping the bodies, and burning them. Isn’t that a perfectly plausible explanation?”

Although his words were rash, they revealed much of what the detectives were thinking; in their view, this was the truth about the Sweeping Mouse Ridge Case.

“I still think we should not jump to conclusions about the Sweeping Mouse Ridge Case so hastily,” Lin Fengchong said seriously. “Of course, according to your explanation, everything seems to make sense, but besides the lack of direct evidence, two things remain unclear: one is what method Zhou Liping used to get from Sweeping Mouse Ridge to Xingyu Road in just half an hour afterward; the other is… given Zhou Liping’s criminal experience, he certainly knew that driving from the orphanage to Sweeping Mouse Ridge would have been captured on CCTV. Even if the body was badly burned, the police could quickly identify the victim and track him down. Yet, he neither fled nor took any counter surveillance measures—this is all too abnormal. I’m not saying Zhou Liping can be ruled out, but rather: we cannot presume guilt in others while dismissing suspicion in ourselves.”

“Mother-in-law Lin” was known throughout the police force as a kindhearted person, so his words were quite harsh, and another round of whispers arose in the meeting room.

Xu Ruilong picked up his teacup, took a sip, and all the discussion seemed to vanish instantly; the meeting room fell silent.

Xu Ruilong slowly said, “During this period, everyone has worked very hard and diligently. It should be said that achieving so many breakthroughs in such a large case in such a short time is commendable. As for the various debates surrounding the doubts, that’s a good thing. I’ve always advocated encouraging debate among investigators; we cannot reach a ‘unified understanding’ too early, otherwise we’ll make mistakes and create wrongful convictions…”

“Next, I have two thoughts for everyone to consider. First, this case is ultimately a case of ‘burning a body to destroy evidence.’ What kind of evidence was destroyed? It certainly was not the evidence of ‘murder.’ The ‘murder’ evidence is right there; it cannot be hidden or erased. So, what was destroyed was likely the ‘evidence’ of the children suffering sexual assault or other harm. Some comrades believe that this ‘evidence’ must have been done by Zhou Liping, which is a subjective assumption and inappropriate.”

“The next step should be to investigate the staff of the orphanage. We need to intensify our investigation and uncover the truth. Second, we solved this case too early and too quickly. Comrades, do not think I’m joking. What I mean is that we discovered Zhou Liping’s involvement too early, and because of his special status, we focused most of our attention on him too soon, unintentionally doing a lot of targeted and purposeful work specifically to ‘prove’ Zhou Liping was the murderer.”

“Now it seems that while this approach achieved some results, it also had its shortcomings. At the very least, the fact that we’ve concentrated such significant manpower and resources and still have not found conclusive evidence that Zhou Liping is the real culprit speaks volumes. So, can we change our thinking—assuming Zhou Liping is not the real culprit, then who is the most suspicious person in this case?”

The people in the meeting room exchanged glances, no one daring to answer rashly.

“I think it’s Xing Qisheng.”

A voice suddenly rang out, and dozens of eyes in the conference room focused on Chu Tianying.

Regarding his trusted lieutenant, Xu Ruilong could not appear biased in front of everyone, so he simply said calmly, “Tell me your reasons.”

“First, based on the investigation, apart from Xing Qisheng’s secretary, Chi Fengli, who had some suspicions about Zhou Liping, no other staff members at the orphanage pointed out any wrongdoing on Zhou Liping’s part with the children. Chi Fengli’s testimony only indicates that Xing Qisheng and Zhou Liping had a conflict over the children, but the reason for the conflict is unknown. Simply considering the conditions for child sexual abuse, Xing Qisheng had a greater ‘advantage’ than Zhou Liping in terms of time, place, and ‘convenience’—”

Sitting diagonally across from him, Sun Kang could not help but say, “Let me interject. When I was questioning Chi Fengli, she emphasized that one of Xing Qisheng’s characteristics was ‘lust,’ but then she said Xing Qisheng was not interested in her at all. This surprised me quite a bit, because Chi Fengli is a rather sexy woman. If Xing Qisheng is not interested in her and is not gay, then he’s very likely a pedophile.”

Chu Tianying nodded, then turned his gaze to Xu Ruilong: “I also have an application. I hope the Municipal Bureau can make a request for assistance from Province A Provincial Department, asking them to investigate whether Xing Qisheng has a history of sexual crimes against children. I’m worried that, for various reasons, even if Xing Qisheng has a criminal record, it might be covered up by his family using their connections.”

“Approved,” Xu Ruilong said to Lin Fengchong. “You’ll implement it immediately after the meeting.”

“Besides that, there’s the vodka thing I just mentioned,” said Chu Tianying. “Although I mentioned three possibilities, I personally think the third one’s the most likely: Xing Qisheng is lying—because the first one’s too naive, and the second one’s flawed. Let’s start with the first one: burning a body does not affect the blood alcohol content test. This might be obscure knowledge to outsiders, but I think Zhou Liping has read as many books on Pathology as many of you here before and after his imprisonment. Simply spilling a little alcohol in the car could make the police believe Xing Qisheng had been drinking, but that lie was better left unsaid.”

“Secondly, given the strong smell of alcohol in the car, if there really was a third person in the car, they must have been sitting there for a long time. We all know that drunkards cannot control themselves; unless they were asleep, their hands and feet would move erratically, leaving strange marks in unusual places. In crime scene investigation, this was called ‘intoxication traces,’ such as touching places a normal person would not touch, shoe prints on the headrest, or fingerprints with dragging or stretching characteristics. However, during the vehicle investigation, I found absolutely no such traces inside—while the murderer wiped the steering wheel and door handles, he did not wipe any other places. If this case follows the line of reasoning that Zhou Liping might have been framed, then Xing Qisheng would likely be implicated simply because he called Zhou Liping for a ‘designated driver’ without having been drunk.”

Chu Tianying continued, “Then another question arises: Xing Qisheng himself was also murdered. Who killed him? There must be an accomplice or a shrewd figure involved. So who was this accomplice, this cunning predator? First, we can rule out Zhou Liping, because not only had he always been at odds with Xing Qisheng, but Xing Qisheng would not choose him as an accomplice. Furthermore, he appeared on Xingyu Road within half an hour of calling 110 (the police emergency number), lacking sufficient time to commit the crime. Among Xing Qisheng’s cronies, Zhang Chunyang is the most suspicious.”

Zhang Chunyang’s name had not been on the suspect list during previous investigations, so many of the detectives present were taken aback.

Chu Tianying first gave a general introduction to Zhang Chunyang, then said, “According to what we know, Zhang Chunyang was a fitness instructor in his early years. He is cunning, ruthless, and physically fit. He likes hiking and often goes up West Mountain along Sweeping Mouse Ridge in his spare time. He’s very familiar with the terrain there, so he has no problem planning and carrying out the murder. An insider said that Zhang Chunyang’s biggest characteristics are ‘boldness and recklessness,’ and he used his connections with Tao Zhouyao to help Xing Qisheng make money, and he helps him cover up Tao Zhouyao’s philandering outside. The two are in cahoots and have done many bad things. Although due to their different social statuses, Xing Qisheng has always been the ‘master’ and Zhang Chunyang the ‘servant,’ in reality, Zhang Chunyang is the one doing the ‘brain’ work—after the Sweeping Mouse Ridge Case, no one has seen Zhang Chunyang again, which is extremely abnormal in itself—”

Xu Ruilong interrupted him: “When was the last time Zhang Chunyang appeared?”

“We tracked his phone, and it’s currently switched off. The last call was around 4 p.m. on the day the Sweeping Mouse Ridge Case happened.”

This timing was very sensitive. Xu Ruilong continued, “Who was the person he called?”

“Tao Zhouyao,” Chu Tianying said. “According to the cleaning staff responsible for cleaning the room, on the morning after the incident, there were signs of a secret rendezvous in Tao Zhouyao’s bedroom on the fourth floor of Block E. Tao Zhouyao brought two men there; one was her fiancé, Jiang Lei, and the other was Zhang Chunyang. But our investigation found that Jiang Lei was on a business trip in Hong Kong that night and was not in the city at all, so that person was most likely Zhang Chunyang—it’s worth noting that around 7 p.m. that night, Xing Qisheng arrived.” He was eating at the lobby bar, constantly checking his phone until 8:10 p.m. when he received a call. He then hurriedly left, and the call log showed that it was Tao Zhouyao who called him. What happened next could be seen as high-speed trains departing from the same station in the dark but heading in different directions: one was Xing Qisheng, driving his Spire on a one-way journey to Sweeping Mouse Ridge; the other was Tao Zhouyao, who booked a flight to Paris at 9:30 p.m.—”And Zhang Chunyang vanished without a trace…”

Xu Ruilong hesitated for a moment. “Find him! Dig three feet into the ground, find him!”