Chapter 1830
"You went to Lin Siyuan’s house?"
"Yeah."
"How was it?"
Liang Jiajia was a bit curious; she wanted to know whether Lin Siyuan had really been wronged.
"The old man’s very guarded. From my eye for people, it should be true, but there’s no evidence yet, so it’s hard to draw a conclusion."
Song Guanchao didn’t speak too definitively, nor did he immediately go find someone to overturn the case.
If the truth turned out not to be like that, he’d be ruining things with good intentions.
As they were talking, his phone rang. An unfamiliar number was calling.
New Year’s, and at this hour—Song Guanchao guessed it might be Lin Siyuan.
He shushed Jiajia, then picked up.
"Hello, who is this?"
"Are you Song Guanchao?" It was a young man’s voice, with a hint of nervousness.
"I am." Hearing the voice, he was seventy to eighty percent sure already, so he simply asked, "Are you Lin Siyuan?"
Liang Jiajia immediately shot him a curious, astonished look.
Lin Siyuan’s call?
Why would Lin Siyuan be calling him?
She tamped down the wild curiosity surging up inside her, even her breathing went so quiet it was almost inaudible. She leaned sideways, ears pricked, listening to the voice on the other end.
Lin Siyuan hadn’t expected Song Guanchao to be so direct, even less that he’d guessed who he was.
After a brief moment of shock, he gave a wry laugh. "Yeah, it’s me."
Song Guanchao said, "Looks like you’ve figured out who I am, and you’re hoping I’ll help you."
"Yes."
"You should have evidence in your hands that’s enough to prove your innocence, right?"
"I do."
"Send it to me."
"Alright."
Lin Siyuan’s decisiveness was a little beyond what Song Guanchao had expected.
He’d thought Lin Siyuan would agonize over whether to trust him.
This was better; it saved a lot of steps and time.
After he hung up, Liang Jiajia, suppressing the excitement in her voice, asked, "That really was Lin Siyuan?"
"Mm." Song Guanchao lowered his head and worked his phone, sending over his email address. "I asked him to send me the evidence. As long as it’s confirmed he’s innocent, I’ll overturn this case."
By now Jiajia had calmed down too. "Give me the evidence."
She was still worried this matter would affect Song Guanchao’s future.
Not every leader liked someone as meddlesome as him.
Especially those leaders who already had problems themselves.
In officialdom, officials could pretty crudely be divided into two kinds: clean and corrupt.
What corrupt officials despised most was a clean official like Song Guanchao who couldn’t tolerate any sand in his eyes.
Song Guanchao ruffled her hair. "Focus on your training. I’ll handle this."
Jiajia puffed out her cheeks. Sometimes she felt like, in this relationship, he was raising her like a daughter.
"The evidence’s here." Song Guanchao opened his email.
There was a video attached, and a long piece of text.
The text laid out the whole story from start to finish.
From Lin Siyuan’s wife coming back home pregnant to rest, to Secretary Liu’s son coming over to molest her...
Jiajia craned her neck, reading through it slowly with him. Only after they finished did Song Guanchao download the video.
The video finished downloading quickly. He tapped it open and suddenly understood.
The video was surveillance footage!
Lin Siyuan had installed cameras in the yard and in the living room of his home.
Everything Secretary Liu’s son did had been recorded in full.
"Why didn’t he take this evidence to report them?" Jiajia found it strange.
"Probably fear, and not believing in the system."
Song Guanchao could understand Lin Siyuan’s mindset.
Even a tiny town party secretary dared turn black into white. It was clearly his son who’d first attempted rape, yet he was never punished.
His mother had obviously only fought back to protect herself, and had only nicked him once with the scissors, but they framed it as him attacking someone with a knife.
After something like that, how could he still have any faith in public servants?
"Rongcheng Town is utterly rotten!" Jiajia was furious. "Which department are you planning to report this to?"
Staring out the window, Song Guanchao suddenly smiled and asked, "Your brother Wei Li is a deputy bureau chief?"
Jiajia wrinkled her nose. "He might not help."
"We can try. What if he does?" Song Guanchao grinned wickedly. He didn’t actually need Wei Li’s help to get this reported up the chain.
He just wanted to use this matter to take Wei Li down along the way.
With his eye for people, he could tell at a glance that Wei Li was trash too.
He figured he wasn’t wrong.
He forwarded the evidence Lin Siyuan had sent to Jiajia. "You hang on to this. As for this matter, just pretend you don’t know anything. We’ll use it to test Wei Li’s character."
Jiajia rolled her eyes wordlessly. "You’re ridiculous."
"I’m thinking about you." Song Guanchao said it with a straight face. "You’re in training together. If he’s scum, who knows when he’ll try something on you. This is a perfect chance to test him—waste it and it’s gone."
Jiajia froze for a second, then realized his intent. Her face flushed red and she pinched his arm. "You’re terrible!"
"If there’s nothing wrong with him, then the test is for nothing and we’ve given him a big favor for free. If he really is scum, we’re doing the people a service."
With righteous indignation on his face, Song Guanchao said this, then reached out and pushed open the car door.
Leaning back in her seat, Jiajia followed his line of thought. She couldn’t be sure whether Wei Li would sell Song Guanchao out or not.
Either way, she personally had no liking for Wei Li. She felt he loved to put on a show, and that entitled-rich-kid behavior actually made her physically uncomfortable.
...
It wasn’t until Song Guanchao walked up in front of the car that Wei Li was sure he was here for him.
He put on a friendly smile. "Mr. Song, do you need something?"
Song Guanchao glanced at the other officers, then gave an apologetic smile. "I do need something. Officer Wei, could we talk somewhere else?"
Wei Li got out of the car. Under the puzzled stares of the other officers, the two of them walked off into the distance.
Once they were far enough away, Song Guanchao’s expression turned solemn. "I just came from Lin Siyuan’s house."
Wei Li was taken aback and heard him continue, "Lin Siyuan really was wronged. What the villagers said is all true."
Wei Li more or less knew why he’d sought him out. Wearing a troubled look, he said, "Mr. Song, if there’s no evidence, we should just listen and leave it at that."
"I have evidence." With that one sentence, Song Guanchao left him frozen on the spot.
"You have evidence?" Wei Li thought he’d misheard.
"Yes." Song Guanchao took out his phone, his expression heavy. "There’s surveillance at Lin Siyuan’s home. Everything that happened that day was recorded."
He opened the footage and dragged the timeline, fast-forwarding through it in front of Wei Li.
When the video finished, Wei Li was still in a daze.
Fuck, you really do have evidence?
"Officer Wei?"
"Huh? Oh, I’m listening." Wei Li swallowed, his eyes flickering as if he were turning something over in his mind.
"Officer Wei, as a police officer, you can’t just stand by and watch this wrongful conviction!"
Song Guanchao said in a low voice.
Wei Li pondered for a few seconds, his face growing serious. He nodded hard. "Send me the evidence!"
Watching every shift in his expression, Song Guanchao said softly, "Alright."