At the Qingcheng Police Bureau, inside the conference room.
Zhou Ran sat at the head of the table, with Jiang Zhuyu beside him.
Liu Changshan, Wang Hai, Gu Yuan, and other senior police officials took their respective seats.
Clearing his throat, Zhou Ran spoke sternly: “Alright everyone, what’s the status? Any new developments?”
Jiang Zhuyu shook her head: “Chief Zhou, I went back to the scene and re-examined everything. In another unfinished unit, I found traces left by that tall, burly man—but I still couldn’t find any sign of Jiang Chuan.
It’s like he just vanished into thin air. Completely gone without a trace.”
She was genuinely puzzled by this—she simply couldn’t figure out what was going on.
As a specialist in forensic trace evidence, she knew full well that traces can never be completely erased, because even the act of erasing them leaves behind new traces.
Unless, of course, the other party had used some kind of supernatural force, or was an equally top-tier expert in the field who could eliminate all evidence in an impossibly short amount of time—leaving nothing for her to find.
But did people like that even exist?
After hearing Jiang Zhuyu’s report, Zhou Ran paused for a moment, then nodded thoughtfully without saying much.
This outcome was somewhat expected, after all.
“Liu Changshan, what about your side? How did the door-to-door inquiries go?” Zhou Ran asked.
Liu Changshan perked up and also shook his head: “Chief, based on our interviews, we found that the money Jiang Chuan was scammed out of came from three sources—part of it from his parents, part from his friends, and the rest from online loans.
Currently, after Zhang Songyang paid the money back to Jiang Chuan, Jiang Chuan immediately returned the money to his parents and friends, and also paid off all his loans.”
“The money he was scammed out of came from those channels?” Zhou Ran asked, somewhat surprised.
Liu Changshan nodded: “That’s right, Chief. Based on the current situation, either Jiang Chuan isn’t really an arms dealer at all—because if he were, he wouldn’t be short on cash like that.
Or, Jiang Chuan had anticipated all of this from the very beginning, and deliberately created this illusion to throw us off the scent.”
Gu Yuan stroked the stubble on his chin: “Chief Zhou, if I may—I think this is a false trail left by Jiang Chuan, designed to make us believe he’s not an arms dealer and that this whole thing is just a misunderstanding. That way, we’d ease up on the manhunt, giving him more time to escape.”
“That’s right, Chief Zhou—I agree with Consultant Gu’s take. Based on all the evidence so far, it’s clear that Jiang Chuan is a complete lunatic, a criminal who has absolutely no fear of police pursuit!” Wang Hai said indignantly.
Through his recent interactions with Zhang Songyang and his examination of the text messages between Zhang and Jiang Chuan, he’d been genuinely infuriated by Jiang Chuan’s arrogant tone.
But at the same time, those same text messages had made him notice something off.
“Chief Zhou, there’s one more issue I think I need to bring up.” Wang Hai raised his hand without hesitation.
Zhou Ran gestured for him to continue.
Wang Hai looked around at everyone in the room, then pulled up a record of text messages—the very exchange between Zhang Songyang and Jiang Chuan.
“Chief Zhou, everyone—after reviewing their conversation logs over the past few days, I’ve come to believe that Jiang Chuan may have never actually believed Zhang Songyang would choose to turn himself in.”
As soon as Wang Hai said this, everyone in the room looked taken aback.
Zhou Ran asked, “Why?”
The others turned to Wang Hai with the same confused expression.
Calmly, Wang Hai pointed at the text message log displayed on the projection screen.
“As you can see, Jiang Chuan’s tone was indeed overly arrogant. Back then, we all assumed that Jiang Chuan must have known about Zhang Songyang’s surrender, and that his arrogance was a sign of utter contempt for police authority.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
But then, Wang Hai shifted his tone: “However—if Jiang Chuan didn’t know that Zhang Songyang had turned himself in, then those words take on a completely different meaning, don’t they? He was just trying to intimidate Zhang Songyang, nothing more.
And this also explains the key reason why our raid to arrest Jiang Chuan came up empty.”
“What key reason?” Jiang Zhuyu furrowed her brows and asked urgently.
As all eyes turned to him, Wang Hai took a deep breath: “I believe Jiang Chuan was never living in that rental unit to begin with. He must have guessed that Zhang Songyang might try to get revenge, so the moment he mailed that gun to Zhang Songyang, he moved out.
That’s why Officer Jiang found no traces at the scene, and why our arrest operation came up empty.”
Zhou Ran nodded thoughtfully: “That makes sense.”
“That’s right, Chief Zhou—what Team Leader Wang said is very plausible,” Gu Yuan added.
Seeing his analysis accepted by everyone, Wang Hai straightened up with renewed confidence: “So, Chief Zhou, I propose we try using Zhang Songyang as our breakthrough.
We’ll have Zhang Songyang pretend to introduce a client to Jiang Chuan—and use that to lure out Jiang Chuan’s criminal evidence!”
Liu Changshan’s eyes went wide: “A sting operation? That… that’s against regulations.”
Zhou Ran slapped the table: “What do you mean ‘sting operation’? This is a reasonable, regulation-compliant investigative measure! Sure, the approach might be a bit unorthodox, but it’s a necessary adjustment we have to make in order to solve this case.”
“Chief Zhou is right,” Wang Hai chimed in.
Gu Yuan nodded: “Absolutely.”
Jiang Zhuyu also gave a slight nod: “I think Chief Zhou makes a good point.”
Liu Changshan sat back in his seat, looking a little wronged, holding his head and saying nothing.
Zhou Ran cleared his throat: “Alright then, that’s what we’ll do. Wang Hai, Gu Yuan—I’ll leave this in your capable hands.
Remember, the primary goal is to find a way to hook that big fish… I mean, um, gather evidence against him. Right. Anyway—just do whatever it takes to collect enough criminal evidence against Jiang Chuan so we can bring him to justice as soon as possible!”
“Rest assured, Chief Zhou—we’ll get the job done!” Wang Hai stood up and declared loudly.
Gu Yuan also rose and gave a nod of acknowledgment.
——–
Meanwhile, in the interrogation room.
Zhang Songyang’s phone was tossed in front of him. Wang Hai said gruffly, “Pick up the phone. Send a text to Jiang Chuan.”
Completely baffled, Zhang Songyang’s face instantly paled: “Wait, Officer, I… I don’t dare! He—he’s already on the run. He must know I ratted him out. He’ll—he’ll kill me!”
“Enough with the nonsense!” Wang Hai barked. “Just send it when I tell you!”
Trembling, Zhang Songyang picked up his phone, completely at a loss.
“Send it!” Wang Hai frowned and urged him on.
Zhang Songyang looked like he was about to cry: “But… but what do I say, Officer?”
Wang Hai paused, then cleared his throat: “Tell him this—to make up for his past mistakes, you’re introducing him to a big client. This client has already seen your Desert Eagle, thinks the quality is excellent, and wants to buy in bulk.”
