Chapter 244 - 238: Arrest

"What!" Cheng Xiangyu shot up, then glanced at Zhang Jianqiang in the interrogation room.

"Captain Cheng, Li Xin’s husband, Qian Wang, kept saying she was home. I thought something was wrong when I saw she hadn’t come out for dinner.

It turns out they weren’t telling the truth. I had to force my way in to find out that Li Xin was gone.

Captain Cheng, something must have happened to Li Xin."

"What nonsense are you talking about? How could anything happen to my wife!"

As he spoke, Qian Wang took out his phone and, refusing to believe it, called Li Xin. The line was busy.

The color gradually drained from his face, and his hands couldn’t help but tremble. He was filled with regret.

"Today, she said her stomach hurt and she was worried something was wrong with the baby, so she wanted to go to the hospital for a check-up."

"Even so, if you had just told us, we could have gone with her..."

Before He Yu could finish, Cheng Xiangyu cut him off. "He Yu!"

He Yu quickly composed himself.

"Go check the surveillance footage from their residential complex now. I’ll have someone check the area around the hospital."

"Right!"

He Yu hung up and hurried off.

...

"Miss Jiang? Jiang Li?" Feng Dong called her name several times with no response, so he couldn’t help but reach out and nudge her.

"Jiang Li?"

Jiang Li’s eyes snapped open. She looked at Feng Dong in front of her. "Officer Feng, this is bad! Li Xin has been taken, and the killer is sharpening a knife.

The location... look for an old warehouse nearby. A small one, the kind with no light coming in."

Feng Dong’s mind could barely keep up with Jiang Li’s pace. ’How can someone just open their eyes and reel off a bunch of clues?’

"Okay, okay," Feng Dong said, already halfway out the door.

"Captain, Captain, we have a new lead!"

Upon hearing this, Cheng Xiangyu immediately arranged for his team to start investigating, then walked over to Jiang Li.

"Jiang Li, think carefully. Was there anything else in that room?"

Jiang Li was more awake now. Listening to Cheng Xiangyu, she picked up a nearby cup and took a sip of water.

"Yes. He was sharpening a pig-slaughtering knife, the pointed kind."

Cheng Xiangyu spoke into his walkie-talkie, "Old butcher shops, a butcher’s warehouse. Check them out."

Cheng Xiangyu stood up and looked at the hospital surveillance footage a teammate had sent over. Li Xin had walked out of the hospital safely and gotten into a taxi.

"Guo Wei, you guys check on a taxi with the license plate D807."

Through their combined efforts, they finally narrowed it down to two target locations.

"Feng Dong, you go to location A, I’ll go to location B. Stay in contact."

Cheng Xiangyu led his men outside and left in a police car.

Jiang Li watched their retreating figures, stretched lazily, and picked up her phone to see messages from Yu Huannian and the others.

Jiang Li replied to each of them, then asked about Lu Xingchen’s condition.

Lu Xingchen’s condition had stabilized. The Gu Worm was a type of poison, but he was still a bit weak.

The day after she left, Lu Xingye had returned to the bureau to help Zhou Tiancheng and the others track down Kun Sha.

Reading this, Jiang Li couldn’t help but tighten her grip on her phone. She hadn’t noticed any suspicious people these past few days.

’Could I have been wrong?’

Jiang Li held the photo of Kun Sha and studied it carefully. ’What would Kun Sha look like after plastic surgery?’

As she was contemplating, a noise came from the interrogation room. She got up and walked over.

In his chair, Zhang Jianqiang was struggling emotionally.

"What the hell is wrong with you cops? I already told you I killed them!!"

Zhang Jianqiang roared, his face red with anger. Jiang Li walked to the door, and the officer standing guard saw her.

"Miss Jiang, be careful."

Jiang Li nodded, turned the doorknob, and walked in.

Zhang Jianqiang saw that the person who walked in was a woman, and one not in a police uniform at that.

"Who are you? Get those cops in here to see me!"

Jiang Li stepped forward and looked at Zhang Jianqiang, her voice calm. "You’re saying you killed all those pregnant women?"

"That’s right, it was me. It’s a shame I didn’t get to cut their bellies open..."

Jiang Li clenched her fist and swung. Zhang Jianqiang’s cheek went numb with pain, and two of his teeth went flying.

His face half-numb, he stared at the woman who had just openly assaulted him. "You... you... do you know that killing people is against the law?!"

"Is hitting someone worse than you killing someone? Didn’t you just say you regretted not cutting their bellies open?

I suppose you must be very curious what it feels like to have your own belly cut open."

After saying this, Jiang Li backed away and left, leaving a dumbfounded Zhang Jianqiang behind.

An officer in the surveillance room watched this unfold and spoke into his radio, "Captain Cheng, Captain Cheng, Miss Jiang went into the interrogation room. She also hit Zhang Jianqiang."

Cheng Xiangyu, hearing the voice in his earpiece, asked, "Why did she hit him?"

"Miss Jiang asked if he was the killer. Zhang Jianqiang said yes, and then added that he regretted not cutting their bellies open."

Cheng Xiangyu frowned. "Well, wasn’t he asking for it? As long as he’s not dead, it’s fine."

"Huh?"

Cheng Xiangyu and his men forced the door open and burst in, only to be stunned by the scene before them.

"My... my baby..."

Li Xin crawled toward the bloody mass on the floor, laboriously reaching out, trying to touch the fully formed child lying there.

That monster, Zhang Ze, had actually... he’d actually cut open her belly and taken the child out...

At that moment, the physical pain Li Xin felt was not even a ten-thousandth of the pain in her heart. ’How much pain my baby must be in... how cold...’

The next second, her vision went black, and she passed out.

The officers behind Cheng Xiangyu rushed in and pinned Zhang Ze down. Cheng Xiangyu quickly shouted to those outside.

"Quick, get the paramedics in here!"

The waiting paramedics rushed in and began emergency treatment on the adult and child on the floor.

Cheng Xiangyu looked at the captured killer, who looked nothing like Zhang Ze at all.

"Take him back for a DNA test..."

"No need! I am Zhang Ze! Cheng Xiangyu, you must be disappointed that I survived that disaster! HAHAHAHA!"

Zhang Ze’s eyes were bloodshot as he looked at the half-dead Li Xin on the floor. "Pah! You bitch! If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have ended up in this goddamn state!"

"Take him away." As Zhang Ze was led off, Cheng Xiangyu assisted the medical examiner in collecting evidence at the scene.

Jiang Li came out and sat for a while. Before long, an officer walked over to her, carrying a meal.

"Miss Jiang, Captain Cheng asked me to buy you some late-night food. See if it’s to your liking."

"Thank you." Jiang Li took it. It really was a full meal, with food and a drink.

"Oh, no need! If you need anything, just call us."

Jiang Li was indeed a bit hungry. She unwrapped her chopsticks and started to eat.

Then, the sound of a police siren came from the entrance, and two officers walked in, escorting Zhang Ze.

As he struggled, Zhang Ze felt an intense gaze and looked up in her direction.

Just one look, and a bone-deep fear rose from within him.

Zhang Ze stopped making a scene and struggling. He just stared at her blankly until he was pushed into the interrogation room.

Jiang Li stood up. "Officer Feng, since the man has been caught, I’ll be heading back to rest."

Jiang Li picked up her bag from the side and walked out.

Back at the hotel, she sat on the edge of the bed and yawned.

"KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK, KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!"

Jiang Li froze. She had just gotten back, and someone was already knocking on her door.

"KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. Hello, room service."