Animal Detective

In the precinct conference room.

The Ministry of State Security team had arrived long ago. About a dozen of them were there, and the room was a hive of activity.

In a corner, Qian Zidan obsequiously offered a cigarette to Zhang Hancheng. "Senior," he said, "do me a favor. We already know it’s him, so there’s no need to be in such a rush."

"I guarantee you, he’s not going anywhere."

Zhang Hancheng didn’t take it. He glanced at Qian Zidan and said coldly, "My man is still lying in a hospital bed."

Originally, the case had been a complete mess, making progress difficult.

Who would have thought that Wang Liang’s confession would suddenly break the case wide open?

The investigation’s pace was like hitting the expressway and flooring it to top speed.

Using Li Siyu’s hidden phone number, they had locked onto a person.

Zhang Zhanhui!

The text message had been sent to a number registered under the name of a woman named Chen Weixia.

That right there was a problem. In her message, Li Siyu had called him "Bro."

Moreover, household registration records showed that Chen Weixia was fifty-seven years old and from Changxi Province.

She had two SIM cards registered in her name from different carriers, and one of them was consistently used locally in Changxi.

They had called to confirm—the person had never been to Nanjiang.

There was no doubt about it; this was a SIM card registered with stolen identity information.

Then came the crucial part. They pulled the usage records for this SIM card, especially its connection history with cell towers.

During the time of the incident, at 10:43, the number connected to a 5G cell tower at Orange Apartment.

It remained within that tower’s range afterward.

This lasted until 11:37, when the phone was turned off.

During this period, the phone made no outgoing calls, but it did consume data.

More importantly, this number and Li Siyu’s had been in contact many times.

Furthermore, the place where this SIM card was most frequently active was Yuanqiao Village.

It was glaringly obvious who was using this SIM card.

The first contact between these two phone numbers was on May 16th.

They were in close contact after that.

There weren’t many messages, just a few here and there. Most were from Zhang Zhanhui, sending things like, "What are you doing?" or "I miss you."

Li Siyu had replied, but not often.

Clearly, the two of them were using other channels to communicate.

They checked. Both numbers were linked to WeChat accounts.

Contact had already been made, and they were in the process of retrieving the account information.

But without a doubt, Li Siyu and Zhang Zhanhui had been in contact for a while, and he had been at the scene at the time of the incident.

How he got there was still being determined, but he was definitely there.

And the timing of his arrival was also crucial.

At 10:14, Li Siyu sent him a message.

At that time, according to Wang Liang’s confession, he had left Li Siyu’s apartment but hadn’t driven away. He went to the garage and sat in his car, thinking about what to do.

Then, at 10:47, after strangling Li Siyu, Wang Liang left. The parking garage records clearly show his exit.

At 10:43, Zhang Zhanhui’s phone connected to the cell tower, which means he had already arrived at Orange Apartment.

The timing worked out.

Driving from Yuanqiao Village to Orange Apartment would take about that much time.

In other words, no sooner had Wang Liang left after strangling Li Siyu than Zhang Zhanhui arrived.

And then, Zhang Zhanhui must have gone inside the apartment.

Wang Liang tried to stage the scene as a robbery-homicide. When he left, he deliberately didn’t close the door all the way, leaving it ajar.

He didn’t have a key to Li Siyu’s apartment. He explained that his idea was that if someone discovered the body after he left, that would be for the best, as it would give him an alibi.

If nobody found her, he planned to wait until the next day when Li Siyu didn’t show up for work. He would then arrange for someone, or even go himself, to be the one to "discover" the body.

But clearly, this action created the opportunity for Zhang Zhanhui to enter Li Siyu’s apartment.

As for what happened after that, no one knew.

With this discovery, Zhang Hancheng’s objective was clear: bring the man in and interrogate him directly.

But Qian Zidan disagreed.

His side hadn’t yet gotten a handle on the situation. It was still unclear what Zhang Zhanhui’s status was—had he been corrupted and turned into a spy, or was he a target of the enemy?

Furthermore, his connection to Mao Ruiqiang hadn’t been fully investigated either.

Even Institute 57 had secretly begun an internal audit to see if any classified materials were missing.

Therefore, Qian Zidan’s idea was to hold off for now. It wouldn’t be too late to act once they had a clearer picture.

Zhang Hancheng disagreed.

Since they had already identified a suspect, there was no reason not to arrest him.

What if he was destroying evidence right now?

Also, Mao Ruiqiang had been brought to the Ministry of State Security, but they had yet to make a breakthrough with him.

Zhang Hancheng believed that they might be able to get a breakthrough from Zhang Zhanhui, which could in turn determine what role Mao Ruiqiang played in this case.

In short, the two couldn’t agree, so the dispute was kicked upstairs to Zhao Hongjie and the Ministry of State Security leadership.

Now, they were just waiting for the leaders to give the order on how to proceed.

The time was now 7:16 PM.

Finally, a call came from Zhao Hongjie.

His voice was cold: "Hancheng, make the arrest."

Beside him, Qian Zidan’s phone buzzed. He had received a text from his director.

It told him to cooperate with the police in carrying out the arrest.

Zhang Hancheng shot a glance at Qian Zidan and rose to his feet in one swift motion.

Liu Baoqing and the others had been waiting for this. With a scrape of chairs, they all rose and followed him.

Qian Zidan sighed softly and quickly signaled for his own people to follow.

「At the Municipal Bureau headquarters.」

Zhao Hongjie put down his phone and glanced at the middle-aged man sitting across from him.

Liu Mingyi, the director of the Nanjiang City Ministry of State Security.

He had just put down his own phone and said with a look of resignation, "Lao Zhao, satisfied now?"

Zhao Hongjie snorted. "What do you mean, am I satisfied? Lao Liu, you say it as if you’re the one being wronged. Who are you trying to fool?"