A madman in France? How come he's always at crime scenes!

Chapter 60 Swift Arrest and Prosecution?!

Wu Liang hesitated for only a moment before pressing his tongue against his lower teeth, suppressing the strange feeling.

Everyone here is a criminal police officer, and Li Mu has very sharp eyes. If he hesitates for even a second longer, someone might rip something off his face.

"It seems I've stumbled upon a crucial point unintentionally?"

Wu Liang chuckled and casually turned to the next page of the materials.

Meng Jiang stood in front of the whiteboard and asked directly without responding to the previous question.

"What did Lin Zhiyi talk to you about?"

"Let me correct you first, it's not a conversation, it's a recruitment." Wu Liang looked up, "Hongyuan needs an external legal counsel, and Manager Lin thinks I'm quite suitable."

Li Mu turned her head to look at him.

"You're quite satisfied?"

"Don't worry, Officer Li, am I the kind of person who would bow down for a pittance?"

Wu Liang responded with a grin, and Li Mu rolled her eyes at him.

Get to the point.

Seeing Meng Jiang become serious, Wu Liang also put away his casualness and recounted the daytime confrontation to everyone present in detail.

"The accounting process for Hongyuan's workers' wages isn't exactly clean. It's not that there's definitely a problem, but the subsequent compensation went too smoothly, which makes me suspicious."

"Zhang Huaizhong insisted he had no money, but Lin Zhiyi was able to pull up a sum right afterward. At the very least, there was disagreement within their organization regarding this amount."

Wu Liang casually pressed the materials back onto the table.

"It's not that Hongyuan is short of money; the inability to pay out money is not a normal sign. This is probably what Lin Zhiyi is dissatisfied with."

Meng Jiang leaned against the whiteboard and looked at him, his brows furrowing.

"So that money wasn't paid through the normal process?"

"I didn't see the account." Wu Liang smiled. "Captain Meng, in our line of work, we need evidence."

Li Mu looked up.

"You weren't being this honest just now."

"They're just not blind," Wu Liang said, shrugging. "Zhang Huaizhong insisted on following the procedures at first, but Lin Zhiyi was able to get the money moving with just one phone call. This shows that this money wasn't something their project team could decide, at least not something Zhang Huaizhong could decide."

Zhang Ze sat to the side, having already transferred the records from the bank.

"This expense cannot be found in Hongyuan's accounts."

"That's right."

Wu Liang brought the water glass to his lips and took a sip to moisten his throat.

"She didn't want to make a big deal out of it, nor did she want to leave too obvious a mark on Hongyuan's accounts. The simplest solution was to use external funds to cover the costs first, and then find a pretext to make up for it after the holiday."

As he spoke, he casually glanced at the line for Tianyue Group on the whiteboard.

"A 27-year-old mediator who dares to suppress the project manager on the spot and can mobilize funds at any time must have something behind him."

That's a bit of a roundabout way of putting it, but it's clear enough.

Standing behind Lin Zhiyi was Tan Yongren, whom they had been keeping a close eye on!

"Cao Yang has made some progress."

Having received confirmation, Meng Jiang finally changed the subject.

Wu Liang raised an eyebrow.

"Good news?"

He realized something was wrong as soon as he said it, at least from the way Zhang Ze rubbed his temples.

Meng Jiang picked up the remote control, and the projector on the wall turned on. The first photo was of that gray bread truck.

"Cao Yang insists the car was stolen."

Zhang Ze tapped the cigarette pack on the table, his tone full of resentment.

"We traced Hongyuan's connections through the car owner Zhang Haitian, but regarding Cao Yang, Zhang Haitian said he only lost his car keys and wasn't familiar with Cao Yang. He also said his old car wasn't worth much and he didn't want to bother the police. Who taught him all that rhetoric?"

Wu Liang stared at the photo without saying a word, resting his chin on his right hand as he pondered.

Li Mu then took out another document.

"Cao Yang said he bought that amber choline to steal dogs. The person who supplied the medicine to the illegal clinic has been arrested, but he only admitted to selling the medicine, so there hasn't been much progress."

"As for the hospital..."

Li Mu glanced at Meng Jiang, who sighed.

"We screened everyone who had access to Ma Desheng's information. Everyone could be a suspect, but none of them looked that much like him."

Wu Liang picked up the interrogation record and turned to the page containing Cao Yang's confession.

"What did Cao Yang say?"

"Illegal possession of a firearm, assaulting a police officer, murder—he admitted to it all," Zhang Ze sneered. "But he didn't utter a single honest word. He just begged for the death penalty to be executed as soon as possible. This guy from Biyang, does he know how to use shadow clones? Killed Shen Xuejun and then drove to pick him up?"

Wu Liang's gaze fell on Cao Yang's resume.

Retired from the military.

jail.

His parents died early, leaving him all alone, seemingly without any ties.

Wu Liang tapped his head, but something felt off.

A person who truly has no attachments will not treat seeking death as a task.

"Stop checking the household registration book."

Wu Liang suddenly spoke.

Everyone looked up at him.

"A man like Tan Yongren, if you really want to capture a desperate criminal, you can't buy such a loyal follower with money."

Li Mu was puzzled.

"Then what do we rely on?"

Wu Liang didn't answer directly, but instead looked at the photo of Lin Zhiyi on the whiteboard.

Long-term beneficiaries of the Tianyue Charitable Foundation.

"kindness."

The meeting room fell silent.

Wu Liang continued, "Just because we can't find his parents, wife, and children doesn't mean he has no one else outside. That person might not even have any legal relationship with Cao Yang, but as long as he's eating Tan Yongren's rice and living in the place Tan Yongren arranged, Cao Yang has to obey."

Li Mu lowered his head and flipped through Lin Zhiyi's page of information, his face turning cold.

"So Cao Yang sought death because he believed that if he died, that person would be safe?"

"That's true, but he's mistaken."

Wu Liang looked up at Meng Jiang, raising his eyebrows.

"While he's alive, that man is a bargaining chip. Now that he's dead, that man is just a tail." And what Tan Yongren wants most right now is to cut off all the tails completely, isn't it?

After saying that, Meng Jiang's breathing noticeably became heavier.

That's right, that's actually the breakthrough point!

If Wu Liang's speculation is correct, then in this situation, the only way to achieve a breakthrough is to lay bare the stakes in Cao Yang's life and shatter the beliefs that support him becoming a suicide squad member!

Just then, hurried footsteps sounded outside the door.

A young police officer stood at the door.

"Team Leader Meng, it's Team Leader Zhou's phone."

Meng Jiang took the phone.

The voice on the other end of the phone wasn't loud, and the conversation in the conference room was unclear; all that could be seen was Meng Jiang's increasingly grim expression.

"Should we proceed with the existing case?"

Zhang Ze looked up, and Li Mu also stopped flipping through the documents.

Meng Jiang didn't look at them; his voice grew increasingly deep.

"It's true that Cao Yang is a current suspect; he shot and attacked police officers, carried explosives, and attempted poisoning at a hospital—the evidence is there. But the connections behind him…"

He seemed to be interrupted on the other end of the phone.

Meng Jiang listened, his chest heaving heavily.

"I know about the pressure of security during the National Day holiday. I also know that the negative social impact necessitates swift arrests and prosecutions."

"But as you know, once Cao Yang closes the case, it won't be a matter of just adding a few more documents if he wants to drag Tan Yongren into it later."

The meeting room was eerily quiet.

Wu Liang sat to the side, his eyelids slightly drooping.

Meng Jiang's hand, gripping the phone, bulged with veins, and his voice gradually became hoarse.

"It's been more than ten years, Captain Zhou."

He closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again, they were bloodshot.

"After all this time, we finally have a lead to bring down Tam Wing-yan. The murderer is in the interrogation room now. You want me to hand over the easiest part first?"

I don't know what was said on the phone that day, but Meng Jiang's face was almost as black as charcoal.

In the end, he only replied with two words.

"clear."

The phone hangs up.

He stood there, motionless for a long time.

Li Mu gently pressed Lin Zhiyi's page of material onto the table, making a very soft sound.

"Quick arrest and prosecution, with further investigations in the surrounding areas?"

Meng Jiang did not answer immediately, standing there as if he had lost all his strength.

A few seconds later, he put his phone on the table.

"The higher-ups have ordered that Cao Yang's case be handled as a current violent crime. Illegal possession of firearms, assaulting police officers, and intentional homicide—once the evidence is secured, he should be arrested as soon as possible."

"External leads in the 9.15 case...the consolidation of the cases will be temporarily suspended."

Zhang Ze muttered a curse under his breath.

Meng Jiang suddenly slammed his fist on the table.

"Schedule my ass!"

The materials on the table were shaken and scattered, but the photo of Tan Yongren on the whiteboard remained firmly in place.

Meng Jiang stared intently at that face, flames burning in his eyes.

"Damn it, we were just one step away! What are they thinking? Is this the time to only consider the social impact?!"

No one responded.

Wu Liang turned his head to look in the direction of the interrogation area and suddenly stood up.

"Team Leader Meng."

Meng Jiang subconsciously looked at him.

Wu Liang straightened his collar and chuckled.

"Since they demand a swift arrest and prosecution, it's reasonable to arrange for a lawyer to meet with the client as soon as possible."