Chapter 984: Suicide Cases

Qin Meili asked for a cigarette, then started talking about what she knew.

“Li Zhenbiao didn’t hand the money directly to the other side, but he fixed the issue of their kids studying abroad. That basically amounts to bribery, except this way is very covert and hard to investigate, right?”

“Do you know who all were involved?”

Qin Meili shook her head. “That I don’t know.”

Then on Zhang Hui’s side, she asked Qi Meili a few more detailed questions about the Dark Fragrance Clubhouse. After sorting the information, she went straight to Qin Yong’s office to report.

“Li Zhenbiao? It’s actually him?!”

Qin Yong hadn’t expected that either—the mastermind Qin Meili confessed to turned out to be the boss of Taiping Group, Li Zhenbiao.

Li Zhenbiao wasn’t just the chairman of Taiping Group; he held many other positions in the city. On top of that, he was an annual charity figure—not just Haizhou City’s annual charity figure, but a national one.

Last year, the Public Security Bureau had even accepted a batch of patrol cars donated by Li Zhenbiao.

And now it turns out this man is the shadow Boss behind the Dark Fragrance Clubhouse?

Zhang Hui couldn’t believe it either, but the facts were right there. “Not only that, we got some other leads from Qin Meili. Through the Dark Fragrance Clubhouse, Li Zhengbiao isn’t just bribing and controlling people; he’s also using an international school as a disguised form of bribery.”

“Also, the tech guys just checked—there really are call records between Li Zhenbiao and her in Qin Meili’s phone, but there aren’t many calls and the content is limited.”

“Captain Qin… what do we do next?”

What to do?

To be honest, Qin Yong himself didn’t know what to do right now. The higher-ups had already said that everything had to be investigated to the end no matter who was involved, but this matter seemed to reach way too far.

“Hold on, I’ll call Director Song.”

At the Public Security Bureau, after hearing Qin Yong’s report, Song Jiangguo was just as baffled.

“Investigate to the end no matter who’s involved” was indeed the order from above, but in reality Taiping Group was a different kind of entity.

Taiping Group’s assets were close to 100 billion, making it one of Haizhou City’s largest private enterprises.

Setting aside the question of how to interrogate and deal with Li Zhenbiao himself, what would happen to Taiping Group?

If Taiping Group collapses, that’s one thing; but under it there are tens of thousands of people relying on it for jobs and food.

If the group goes under because Li Zhenbiao is arrested, and those tens of thousands end up unemployed, the social unrest that follows is something no one can bear. So in handling related cases, you can’t just take him down outright.

“Director Song, based on what we’ve found so far, the evidence isn’t completely solid yet, so we need further investigation. What’s your view…?”

Song Jiangguo sat down to think calmly.

As the director of the Public Security Bureau, he knew very well that anyone who touched the legal bottom line had to face legal sanctions. That was his professional duty as a police officer.

Since they had already found that Li Zhenbiao was the mastermind behind everything, then no matter how rich he was, no matter what good deeds he’d done, no matter how many people his group fed, once this matter was pursued, Li Zhenbiao had to pay the price for his actions.

But at the same time, Song Jiangguo also had to think through the consequences once the case was fully pursued.

In the shower. Originally, Song Jiangguo had wanted to directly report to and seek instructions from the higher-ups about what to do. But since Qin Yong said the evidence wasn’t completely sufficient yet, Song understood that he wanted to investigate further.

“Make it a secret investigation. Don’t alarm the snake in the grass. Once we’ve gathered all the evidence, I’ll report to the higher-ups.”

After a moment’s thought, Song Jiangguo finally made his decision.

No matter what stance the Municipal Party Committee would take, when he went to report he had to go in with solid, ironclad evidence.

Besides, over the years, it wasn’t as if some tycoons hadn’t broken the law. But whoever broke the law had, in the end, faced severe legal punishment.

In the eyes of the law, rich or poor, everyone is equal.

With Song Jiangguo’s instructions, Qin Yong ordered Zhang Hui to handle the case according to the relevant procedures.

“Make sure you keep it confidential!”

At the same time.

Top floor of Taiping Group’s headquarters building.

Li Zhenbiao had a particular hobby: he liked an especially spacious office and loved panoramic views. So his office was on the very top floor of the Taiping Building headquarters, and the entire top floor held only that one empty office. Through the thick glass, you could see all of Haizhou City’s scenery at a glance.

Right now, as usual, Li Zhenbiao was standing in front of the glass curtain wall, admiring the view outside.

“Boss, Rose’s place… the cops busted it.”

Rose?

Hearing his subordinate’s report, Li Zhenbiao’s body froze for a moment.

The Dark Fragrance Clubhouse is gone?

“How did it get busted?”

For years now, the Dark Fragrance Clubhouse had been developing very well, giving a big boost to his business. And Rose herself was quite cautious. All these years without incident—how did it get taken down this time?

“They say it was tied to that homicide at Experimental Primary School. Five years ago the Dark Fragrance Clubhouse handled the corpse, and that eventually led the trail back to them.”

Li Zhenbiao let out a sigh.

“A thousand-mile dike can collapse from an ant hole…”

His brow knotted tightly.

Then he instructed, “Help me set up a dinner with Secretary Gao tonight.”

“Yes.”

Over the next few days, there were quite a few personnel changes in Haizhou City.

And many people were brought under investigation.

Meanwhile, the evidence Zhang Hui had in hand kept piling up.

Some people, some matters, some cases never blow up in the media, but once they truly land in the hands of the police and enter the formal process, there’s no way to stop them, no way to turn them off.

Those TV drama plots where a leader makes a single phone call, or someone gets assassinated and the case just quietly disappears—those things don’t exist.

All these years in the real world, you don’t hear of any crime syndicate daring to assassinate police officers or government officials.

If that kind of thing really happened, what would be waiting for them would be absolute annihilation by thunderous force.

The main reason is that the system itself limits the probability of such things happening.

With people like Qin Meili under arrest, the case of Li Zhenbiao meant that sooner or later he was going to fall.

Too many people knew about this case, knew about what had happened.

Even if Li Zhenbiao managed to reach out to certain people and get the leaders at the Public Security Bureau to “say a word,” it wouldn’t help.

Because he couldn’t possibly make calls to everyone, couldn’t possibly buy off the entire Criminal Investigation Team.

So, what needed to be investigated would be investigated. What evidence needed to be collected would be collected.

While Li Zhenbiao was making his last-ditch struggle, over at the Criminal Investigation Team in the High-tech Zone, Lu Chuan was getting busy too.

Construction Bureau.

“There’s a suicide?”

Chen Jiang nodded. “They were called in for a talk by the relevant department yesterday, and today they jumped off a building.”

In the past three days, Lu Chuan had already handled two suicide cases.

He figured there might be more to come…