I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 251: Chapter 249: New Clue...

"Who killed them? From what you just said, it sounds like their bosses abandoned them. Did their handler kill them? Why?"

Liang Ran asked.

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at him.

Su Miaoyi and the others were listening from outside. They all thought Liang Ran had a pretty good memory. He had been so scared and shocked, yet he still remembered every word Zhuang Yanzheng had said.

"The police were onto them. Keeping them around was a risk of exposure," Zhuang Yanzheng said.

They had acted so swiftly, which meant Xing Chang and Chang Yong must have known something crucial.

Liang Ran fell silent, looking at Zhuang Yanzheng.

Seeing that he was thinking, Zhuang Yanzheng didn’t speak.

After a while, Liang Ran suddenly said, "I saw a phone number on Xing Chang’s phone. There was no contact name saved, just an unfamiliar number from Jinghai. His reaction when he saw that number was... different."

"We were at an internet cafe playing games when that call came in. Xing Chang immediately took off his headset, flipped his phone face down, and then silenced it. It was like he was really worried someone would see it."

Liang Ran recalled the scene. "Xing Chang stood up, and Chang Yong looked up at him. Xing Chang turned to look back at him. Xing Chang’s body was blocking my view, so I couldn’t see their expressions. But I felt like they exchanged some kind of look, and then Xing Chang went outside to take the call."

"He was outside on that call for a long time, almost an hour. At one point, I wanted to go to the restroom. The moment I stood up, Chang Yong immediately stood up too. It startled me at the time. I said I was going to the restroom, and Chang Yong said he’d go too. He followed me out and then followed me back."

"I didn’t think much of it then, but thinking back now, it seems like he was monitoring me. Maybe he was worried I’d go out and see or hear something."

After speaking, Liang Ran recited a phone number.

Zhuang Yanzheng jotted down the number. "Are you sure this is the one?"

"I’m sure," Liang Ran said. "I saw it. I don’t forget things I’ve seen. I wouldn’t get it wrong."

Zhuang Yanzheng handed the written number to a police officer standing by the door, telling him to take it to the tech department.

He asked, "Didn’t you find it strange at the time?"

"No," Liang Ran said. "We had only just met back then, and they were both so good to me. I thought Chang Yong was just being overly attentive, paying close attention to my every move because he wanted to be with me. I’m usually pretty lonely, so I thought he just wanted to keep me company and help with my loneliness."

Zhuang Yanzheng: "..."

"Liang Ran gives me the impression that he’s smart in spurts," Su Miaoyi commented.

"Doesn’t matter what kind of feelings are involved. When emotions take over, intelligence drops to near zero," Qi Feng said.

The others all looked at him, sensing there was a story there.

But this wasn’t the time for gossip, so they all quickly turned their attention back to the interrogation room.

"If you guys aren’t lying to me..."

Before Liang Ran could finish, Zhuang Yanzheng cut him off with a frown, saying sternly, "This is the municipal bureau. I’m a police officer!"

’Trusting scammers over the police? What is he thinking?’

Liang Ran was silent for two seconds, then continued, "If they really only got close to me to scam me out of my money, then thinking back, that whole time seems very suspicious. That phone call was suspicious, too."

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at him.

"I was scammed, yes, but they also kept me company for a long time. I was happy during that time, so I’ll just consider it something I paid for. I’ve said it before, I don’t care about being scammed out of the money. I considered them friends. My friends were murdered, and I want to help find their killer."

...

After leaving the interrogation room, they learned that the tech department had already identified the owner of the phone number.

Feng Ruihao, male, forty-five years old, a Jinghai native, and the owner of a building materials factory.

Zhuang Yanzheng had Qi Feng take a team to bring him in.

There was another piece of news. The people behind the game they were investigating had discovered their system had been breached and their accounts checked. They immediately took countermeasures and strengthened their defenses.

It was likely that the people at the IP addresses they found had also taken measures and fled.

The police would most likely come up empty-handed.

They were already in a race against time. All they could do now was wait for the results.

Everyone went to the office.

"Liang Ran’s memory is incredible," Chu Xingrou remarked with a sigh.

Su Miaoyi nodded. "From what we’ve seen, this wasn’t the first time Xing Chang and Chang Yong scammed people like Huang Chen and Ji Jiabao. So why did they resort to such a low-level scam using their real names? The difference between that and the scheme to guide people into that game is just too vast."

"Liang Ran’s case seems like a systematic scam. Everything followed a procedure, as if it was all planned by a specialist, with Xing Chang and the others just responsible for executing the steps. They’d guide the person to the game and then brainwash them into handing over their own money," Yan Cheng said. "But Huang Chen’s case seems more like a spur-of-the-moment scam, something Xing Chang and Chang Yong cooked up on their own."

"Could there have been some kind of internal problem?" Su Miaoyi suddenly asked. "Maybe they were planning to run after this job with Huang Chen. After all, Qiang’an Group is very wealthy and one of the top names in Jinghai. If Huang Chen’s card hadn’t been frozen, he might have transferred a lot of money to Xing Chang and the others all at once."

"It’s possible," Lu Zhishen said. "They targeted a ’Crown Prince,’ but they didn’t expect the ’Crown Prince’ to have no money. They didn’t get anything and even lost their lives for it."

Zhuang Yanzheng also chimed in, "The cash flow in Xing Chang and Chang Yong’s accounts was significant, but the balance in the accounts... wasn’t very high. According to the transaction records, they were paid out their share on a regular schedule, like a salary deposited into their bank cards at a set time. But for the last two months, the amount on that receiving bank card had decreased, and the payments were no longer on time. So it’s very likely the two of them planned to run after this last job. But how did the killers know which hospital room Xing Chang and Chang Yong were in? And they were so familiar with the locations of their wounds."

"If the two of them were planning to run after this job, would they have revealed their location to anyone? Wouldn’t they have been worried someone might come to kill them? So how did the killers know such specific details?"

"Someone from the hospital?" Su Miaoyi suggested after a moment of thought.

"But we’ve already questioned all the doctors, nurses, and even the cleaning staff in the entire department. We didn’t find anyone suspicious," Chu Xingrou said.

"Who else could it be?" Lu Zhishen asked.

"In-patients from the ward, or their family members," Yan Cheng said. "The medical records are very detailed. You can see them on the computer—the room number, even the location of the wounds. If someone was determined to look, they could find it. Someone could even blend in, pretend to be a patient’s family member, go to the doctor’s office, and see the screen while asking some questions."

"But that’s too many people," Chu Xingrou said. "And if they were just pretending, it would be even harder to find them."

"Check the surveillance footage. The cameras covering the entrance and exit of the doctors’ office. Start from when Xing Chang and Chang Yong were admitted," Su Miaoyi said.

"Right," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "Let’s go now."

...