SFTD -Chapter 303 Bride Who Fell from the Building (Part 12)

At 9:00 a.m. on July 21, Dongcheng District Criminal Police Team.

As Zhou Hai had just parked his car, he heard shouting coming from the courtyard. Looking in the direction of the sound, he saw Xu Jun standing upstairs, waving down at him.

Zhou Hai shook his head. He really had no choice when it came to these urgent calls from the criminal police. He quickly sped up and headed upstairs.

Earlier on the way, Dr. Nan’s laboratory had sent over a batch of comparison results. In the hotel surveillance footage from the night of July 19 to the morning of July 20, there were no recorded images of Xu Mingcheng and Li Hongyi leaving the hotel.

If that was the case, did it mean Xu Mingcheng and Li Hongyi had stayed in hotel rooms the entire time?

Before Zhou Hai even reached the office building, his phone rang. It was Zhang Wenqi. He quickly answered.

“Director Zhou, I’ve found something…”

Zhou Hai hung up and quickly edited the required items into a text message, sending them to Sister Zeng for re-examination. He now felt a bit more confident.

When he entered the second-floor office, Xu Jun grabbed Zhou Hai’s arm and pulled him straight to a computer, kicking a stool toward a young officer sitting there.

“Move aside, let the forensic doctor take a look.”

“You explain to the forensic doctor how to read these tables.”

The bespectacled young officer pointed at a string of numbers on the screen and said:

“The white row here shows the actual figures we obtained after auditing Dexin Wood Industry’s accounts. The remaining rows are their falsified financial statements.

From this, it’s clear that their company is operating with extremely high leverage. Their debt ratio has reached 214%, meaning their real financial condition is severely insolvent.

The other companies, Huicheng Technology Group and several others, are in a similar situation, just not quite as extreme.

These companies also had prior joint guarantee financing records.”

Xu Jun scratched his head.

“That’s too technical. I don’t really understand. So basically, you’re saying these companies are all operating illegally, right?”

The man nodded.

“Yes. Moreover, the scale of illegal fundraising and lending involved is extremely large. These large loans require the company’s legal representatives to sign in person and provide documentation to the bank’s credit departments, so this is not an individual act. Furthermore, the funds that were raised did not go into company operations. Instead, they were quickly transferred out again, routed through multiple channels, and eventually invested into financial markets and real estate.”

Zhou Hai understood and said: “So in other words, the financial situation of these companies and the use of these massive loans could not possibly be unknown to the legal representatives. They were either fully involved or gave approval, correct?”

The bespectacled officer let out a long breath. Finally, someone could understand his explanation, and he felt relieved.

“Exactly. As for the economic issues of these companies, we can hand them over to economic investigation…”

Before he could finish speaking, Xu Jun slapped him on the head, eyes wide with anger.

“Trying to steal the case right in front of me?”

“What, you want to take over the murder case too?”

“Do you even know what ‘assistance in investigation’ means?”

“It means cooperation! Not takeover!”

“You lead, and we’re supposed to solve the murder case how?”

The bespectacled officer looked confused and rubbed his head.

“Y-you… why did you hit me?”

Zhou Hai quickly stepped in and stopped Xu Jun from continuing, while also grabbing the bespectacled officer.

“Xu Jun was just joking. People in criminal police sometimes don’t control their strength well, so he probably just tapped your head a bit too hard. Don’t take it to heart. We’ll coordinate this case with Director Liu. After all, we’re all on the same side.”

With that explanation, the young officer’s grievance eased somewhat, though he still glared at Xu Jun.

“I’ll report this back to my team leader. The economic issues in this case are quite serious. From a rough estimate, between January 2014 and June 2015 alone, about 400 million yuan in loans were illegally misappropriated. If we calculate the full two-year period, the amount would be far higher.”

“Four hundred million???”

Both Zhou Hai and Xu Jun froze at the number.

The scale of the case was clearly enormous. But regardless, they still had to prioritize solving the murder case.

At that moment, the young officer had already reported the findings to his superiors. Soon after, Xu Jun’s phone rang. He immediately jumped up from his chair.

“It’s Director Liu calling. What do I do?”

Zhou Hai signaled him to relax.

“Answer it. Don’t be nervous.”

Xu Jun quickly picked up.

Director Liu’s loud voice immediately blasted through the phone: “You brat! How long has it been ringing before you answered?”

“Have you already thought of how to explain yourself to me? Or did someone coach you?”

“All you know is asking me for manpower. Why didn’t you properly report the case?”

“And you think you can hide such a big financial crime?”

Xu Jun instantly became like an obedient child and said aggrievedly: “Director Liu, this case is related to the murder of Zhang Huihui. Can we finish investigating this first before handing it over to economic crimes?”

“Finish it? When will that be?”

Zhou Hai listened from the side and quietly raised one finger.

Although Xu Jun felt it was unbelievable, he trusted Zhou Hai. Delaying by a day was probably already the minimum tolerance Director Liu would accept. He gritted his teeth.

“I guarantee we’ll complete this case within one day. As for economic investigators, we’ve already been cooperating jointly. They can continue their corporate investigations normally. Once we finish, they can interrogate the relevant personnel.”

“Is this arrangement acceptable to you?”

Director Liu laughed in anger.

“You brat, getting bold now, huh!”

“One day it is then. By 8 a.m. tomorrow, I want results. If you can’t find anything, step aside for economic investigators.”

“You’ve made your pledge—don’t embarrass me.”

Before Xu Jun could respond, Director Liu had already hung up.

Holding the phone awkwardly, Xu Jun swallowed and looked at Zhou Hai.

“Dr. Zhou… wasn’t that promise a bit reckless? I don’t feel confident at all.”

Zhou Hai didn’t respond. He stared at the comparison tables on the screen.

At this point, it was already certain that these companies were interconnected. And the link connecting them to the Bank of Communications’ credit business—based on current evidence—was Zhang Huihui.

No matter what role Zhang Huihui played, she was clearly acting as a connector.

What they needed now was to break this fragile balance. If everyone was happily making money, why would anyone commit murder? There must have been a conflict of interest—or someone was threatened.

Only then would this equilibrium collapse.

“You’ve already made the promise. Worrying about it now is meaningless. Instead of that, think about where we should start next.”

Xu Jun blinked.

“My mind is completely blank. I know Zhang Huihui’s death must be related to this case, but how do we investigate it? There’s no entry point at all. You’ve seen the interrogation records of those three people—they’re all confident and fearless. And from this data, we really can’t tell who the killer is.”

Zhou Hai folded his arms across his chest and narrowed his eyes at Xu Jun.

“Maybe… we already have a lead.”