Chapter 592 - 493: Three Days Is a Hurdle, Seven Days Is the Ghost Gate

Chapter 592: Chapter 493: Three Days Is a Hurdle, Seven Days Is the Ghost Gate

The New District cafeteria.

Zhao Tianxing was wolfing down his food. "I’m telling you, no joke," he declared while chewing, "I’ve eaten at a ton of cafeterias, but the braised pork belly here is still the best."

Liu Baoqing had mentioned before that the braised pork belly at the New District Branch cafeteria was in a league of its own.

Seeing that Shen Xin and Yang Zeran hadn’t touched their chopsticks, Zhao Tianxing added, "Come on, we have to solve the case, but we also have to eat."

As he spoke, he brazenly picked a piece of meat from Shen Xin’s tray.

Shen Xin didn’t stop him. He just glanced over and said grimly, "I take it you’re not coming to see the body later, then."

The autopsy wasn’t finished yet.

They’d put a rush on it, so it would probably be done soon.

Right now, the priority was to confirm the cause and time of death.

Thanks to the police dog, they had basically confirmed that Wang Liang wasn’t the suspect who stole the recorder, so they had to approach the case from other angles.

Especially the body.

Zhao Tianxing’s chopsticks froze in mid-air. He then shoved the piece of meat into his mouth and retorted with a glare, "Can’t I just puke it up later?"

Despite his bravado, he quietly moved a few pieces of meat into his bowl and passed it to Celestial Skill, who was lying beside him.

Just then, Yang Zeran suddenly spoke up. "Shen Xin, it’s obvious. It has to be her top donor, or..."

He paused as another idea popped into his head. "It was Wang Liang’s wife! She went to confront Li Siyu in person, and in the middle of the argument, she strangled her."

"Then she got scared and called Wang Liang. She’s his wife, after all, the mother of his son, so Wang Liang chose to help her cover it up."

"That’s why they burned the body and stole the recorder."

"No, wait."

At this point, Yang Zeran had confused even himself, forgetting that Celestial Skill had already confirmed it wasn’t Wang Liang who stole the recorder.

"It was Wang Liang who strangled Li Siyu. Then he called his wife, and she had no choice—he’s the father of her son, after all—so she had to come help."

"One of them staged the scene and prepared to burn the body, while the other went to steal the recorder. If we bring his wife over and let Celestial Skill get her scent, we can confirm it."

Shen Xin shot Yang Zeran a look.

This guy had been so adamant that Wang Liang was the prime suspect. Now that Wang Liang’s involvement was in doubt, he was just spouting nonsense.

"It was already posted in the group chat. Wang Liang’s wife, He Meiqin, has a confirmed alibi. Didn’t you see it?"

It had been ten or so hours since the crime was discovered, and many basic facts had already been established.

He Meiqin’s movements yesterday were normal. After 7:00 PM, she was at home with her son.

Her apartment building had a private elevator for each unit, and surveillance footage confirmed her story: she never went downstairs after 7:00 PM.

At a little past 9:00 PM, she even had a video call with a friend that lasted for over an hour.

So, she had no opportunity to commit the crime.

"Oh, right, I forgot. You’re not in the group chat," Shen Xin said with a smile.

Zhang Hancheng had added him to the work group chat.

Yang Zeran reached for Shen Xin’s phone to read the messages.

Shen Xin didn’t stop him.

The chat was filled with messages, with various teams reporting their updates.

Based on the current situation, it seemed Wang Liang was lying simply to hide the fact that he was cheating on his wife.

Also, he had just seen Li Siyu, and then she turned up dead. He was probably scared.

Shen Xin glanced at the food in front of him, clenched his jaw, and started to eat heartily.

’I have to eat.’

’The next three days are going to be a grind.’

For a major case like a homicide, there’s a saying: three days is a hurdle, and seven days is the Ghost Gate.

It means that if a case isn’t solved right at the beginning, it becomes much harder to crack.

This is because right after a crime occurs, all available resources are concentrated on the investigation, sparing no expense to find every possible clue.

It was just like the double-homicide case at the reservoir.

Officers were brought in from all over the city to canvass the area, no matter the cost.

But people aren’t made of iron. After three days of sleeping only two hours a night, you just can’t take it anymore.

Besides, after three days, the basic situation of the case has usually been thoroughly investigated. If the conditions for solving it were there, it would have been solved already.

That’s why they say three days is a hurdle.

For the reservoir case, the deadline they were given was three days.

After that, you don’t need to deploy so many people.

The officers you borrow from other departments can’t stay forever; you have to send them back.

At that point, the only option is to widen the scope and start considering low-probability scenarios.

And these low-probability scenarios are often things no one would ever think of.

Solving the case then comes down to a bit of luck, the intuition of veteran detectives, and some out-of-the-box thinking.

That’s why seven days is the Ghost Gate.

If the case isn’t solved within seven days, it becomes truly difficult.

Beyond that, it’s highly likely to become a cold case, shelved and left to become a thorn in the side of every officer on the task force.

After a hasty meal, the colleagues who went to question He Meiqin brought her to the branch station.

Even though her alibi was confirmed, they had Celestial Skill’s team check her scent just in case.

The scent didn’t match.

She was not the suspect who stole the recorder.

Shortly before 3:00 PM, the preliminary autopsy results came in.

The cause of death was confirmed: mechanical asphyxiation.

She was strangled.

The body was severely burned, but there were no tissue wounds, fractures, or other signs of blunt-force trauma.

As for whether Li Siyu had engaged in sexual activity before her death, that required further testing.

The exterior of her body was too scorched by the flames to retain any evidence.

The inside was sealed, but if protection was used, they could only pray that the condom was defective.

The crucial time of death couldn’t be determined with much accuracy either.

They could only estimate that she died between 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM.

In other words, sometime after Wang Liang drove away and before the fire was reported.

After all, with the body being burned, it was difficult to be precise.

The arson had truly destroyed a great deal of evidence.

Shortly before 7:00 PM, Zhang Hancheng presided over the first case analysis meeting.

In just one day, they had already established many facts.

First, Li Siyu’s social life was not particularly complex. She had few friends and no boyfriend.

The communication logs from her two phones and her social media records had all been pulled, but they revealed nothing.

There were no other phone numbers registered in her name.

Close friends like Doniya all said they were unaware of her having a secret phone.

Her company’s employees and her friends had all been investigated. Their alibis were confirmed, and no motive for any of them could be found.

Her family had arrived in Nanjiang that afternoon.

They had already given their statements.

Li Siyu wasn’t on the best terms with her family, as her parents felt her online persona—striking poses for the camera—was somewhat shameful.

But because Li Siyu earned a good income, they found it somewhat acceptable.

However, Li Siyu treated her family well.

She had two younger brothers.

One had graduated from college a few years ago and was working in Xinyun.

The other was still in high school.

Li Siyu took good care of both of them.

She had also contributed a significant amount of money when her family bought a new house back in ’16.

According to her family, they had never heard Li Siyu mention making any enemies or anything unusual happening recently.

Everything was business as usual.

Therefore, her parents were completely shocked by their daughter’s sudden death.

Liu Baoqing said gravely, "There’s still something wrong with this Wang Liang."

Sitting below, Shen Xin’s brows were knitted together.

Judging from the investigation into Li Siyu’s social circle, the most likely suspect was, without a doubt, Wang Liang.

He repeatedly denied having an affair with Li Siyu, but the investigation showed they were indeed lovers.

There was concrete evidence.

In March, Samsung released its flagship S9 phone. Just a few days after its launch, Li Siyu started using an S9.

Her best friend at the time remembered it clearly.

Then, according to Wang Liang’s bank statements, they found that on the day before Li Siyu got her new phone, Wang Liang had purchased an S9 with his card.

Although that phone was smashed and written off after only three months of use.

It was still enough to prove that, in all likelihood, Wang Liang had bought the phone for Li Siyu.

And there was plenty of similar evidence.

For example, Wang Liang’s spending records at jewelry stores and luxury brand boutiques.

Jewelry, designer bags, brand-name clothing—Wang Liang must have spent a lot of money on Li Siyu.

There were also numerous hotel records.

They had found definitive records of Wang Liang and Li Siyu renting a room together at a hotel on Mogan Mountain.

Despite so much evidence, Wang Liang still wouldn’t admit it.

He stubbornly insisted that the phone and bags he bought were rewards for Li Siyu’s hard work.

As for the hotel records, he claimed he just called Li Siyu over to discuss work.

Regarding the time on Mogan Mountain, he said that although they booked one room, he had to leave for something urgent and they didn’t stay together.

Basically, he was just making ridiculous excuses, refusing to admit he was cheating with Li Siyu no matter what.

Cui Xuesong, who was in charge of interrogating Wang Liang, said, "Lao Liu, Wang Liang is definitely hiding something, but I don’t think he’s a strong suspect."

"He’s just playing dumb right now. I think he’s probably just afraid of his wife finding out. I’ve met his wife; she’s a very rational and shrewd person."

"I get the feeling their marriage isn’t great—they seem estranged. The two of them have considerable assets, and his company is currently riding a wave of opportunity and is on the rise."

"Didn’t his employees say he was talking about taking the company public? If he got a divorce at a time like this, it wouldn’t just be about splitting assets; it would also affect the company’s growth."

"So I think Wang Liang’s mentality right now is that no matter how much evidence there is, as long as he stubbornly denies everything, he still has room for plausible deniability."

You have to be caught in the act to be proven an adulterer, after all.

"Most importantly, the community’s surveillance footage shows that Wang Liang did indeed leave the scene at 10:47 PM, returned home, and never came out again."

This point could be confirmed.

Li Lake Garden was a high-end residential community with surveillance cameras everywhere.

The footage clearly captured Wang Liang returning home, taking the elevator upstairs, and never coming back down.

"If we could push Li Siyu’s time of death earlier, say, to ten o’clock, then he would still be a suspect."

"But the problem is, if Li Siyu died at ten, why did the fire only start after one in the morning? The fire department didn’t find any kind of delayed ignition device at the scene either."

The firefighters found multiple points of ignition at the scene, leading them to speculate that the suspect had finished setting everything up on-site before lighting the fire and leaving.

"Not to mention the recorder was stolen while the fire was happening. So unless Wang Liang had an accomplice or hired someone to set the fire and steal the recorder for him, it’s impossible for him to be the murderer."

"But we’ve also checked Wang Liang’s communication records. After he went home, he didn’t contact anyone else."

"Of course, we can’t rule out the possibility that he has another phone, but we searched his home and didn’t find one."

When Wang Liang went to Li Siyu’s apartment last night, he went directly without calling her, leaving no record.

On his phone, basically all calls to Li Siyu were made during work hours.

There were no messages on his WeChat like, "I’m coming over," or "Wash up and wait for me tonight."

The assumption was that whenever Wang Liang had his ’needs’, he would tell her in person during the workday.

That way, he wouldn’t leave a record for his wife to discover.