Criminal Investigation Notes

The police quickly arrived in several police cars and took all these people away. Some people began to conduct bomb disposal checks inside the studio, and the small sand painting studio was crowded with people.

The sand explosion case had always been a major case. The young people were taken to the headquarters in separate vehicles and were subsequently locked in interrogation rooms, where they were questioned one by one.

The detectives from the Major Crimes Unit were divided into several groups, each collecting relevant information.

Even Yu Keke, who was related to the case, was brought to the headquarters. The police quickly confirmed that Yu Keke’s sudden absence from the workshop was indeed related to the harassment she suffered from Duan Siyuan on the bus.

“It was probably a few months ago. One day when I was going to work, I suddenly encountered that man, and later on, he would always appear on the bus when I was going to and from work,” Yu Keke said softly. She was a thin and fair little girl, visiting the police station for the first time, feeling a bit fearful, and her voice trembled.

“I… I was afraid of that man, so I stopped going to work. I also talked to Boss Lan about whether I could take some sand home to do sand painting and bring it back later. Boss Lan agreed too…”

“Do you know about the recent bus explosion?” asked Qu Ming, who was in charge of the interrogation.

Yu Keke nodded. “That has nothing to do with me, and I don’t know what happened. I don’t usually take that bus… I was at home that day and didn’t go out…”

“The man who harassed you died in the accident. Are you aware of this?” Qu Ming asked.

Yu Keke hesitated for a moment and nodded. “I saw the news online later and recognized him…”

That man was her nightmare, and upon seeing the news of his death, her first reaction was disbelief, followed by a sense of relief.

“Is there anyone around you who might have done such a thing?” Qu Ming’s question was quite direct.

Yu Keke’s gaze flickered. Under the gaze of the two detectives, she moved her disabled foot slightly under the chair. “My family doesn’t know about this. Only my colleagues in the sand painting studio know…”

Qiao Ze changed his approach to questioning. “Did anyone want you to return to the studio to work? Or did anyone exhibit any unusual behavior or words?”

The interrogation room fell strangely quiet. Yu Keke seemed to be struggling before finally speaking up. “Dong Ancheng… that boy…”

She opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something but stopped.

“Did he say anything?” Qiao Ze asked.

“I don’t know if this is related to the case… Last night, he suddenly came to my house. He told me that the bad person was gone, and I could go to work again,” Yu Keke’s gaze flickered. “Dong Ancheng is not a bad person… I think he wanted to help me. He has always treated me like an older sister. Maybe he also saw the news and came to tell me…”

She was desperately explaining, but Dong Ancheng’s behavior was undoubtedly suspicious.

Lu Junchi had an impression of the boy. He remembered him as a person with Asperger’s syndrome. When he was in the studio asking about the situation, it was this boy who accidentally knocked over a sand bottle. Now, in retrospect, it might have been a sign of guilt.

Could such a boy be the culprit who planted the bomb on the bus?

Upon hearing this, Lu Junchi turned and walked out of the observation room, entering the adjacent office.

He asked Xia Mingxi, “Has the recording of the previous phone call to the police been exported?”

Xia Mingxi hurriedly responded, “The file has been sent over from the emergency call center. I’ll send it to you immediately.”

Lu Junchi received the file and returned. He handed one side of the headphones to Su Hui and pressed the play button.

It was the complete recording of the phone call received by the emergency call center a few days ago. Soon, a woman’s voice came through.

“Hello, this is the 110 emergency call center. How can I assist you?”

“There’s a bomb on a bus… on the bus…,” a man’s voice came from the other side, deliberately lowered and somewhat unclear.

“What?” The operator clearly couldn’t hear properly. “Hello, can you repeat that?”

“There’s a bomb on the bus… Route 104, near Ping’an Bridge… It’s about to explode…” The person on the other end abruptly hung up after saying that.

After a click, there was no sound. The call was short, but it conveyed a lot of information.

Initially, Xing Yunhai took action promptly after receiving this information, but the bus entered a tunnel, leading to a major accident.

Su Hui said, “Guilt, urgency, haste, unclear speech… Perhaps the person who made the call is the one who planted the bomb.”

Lu Junchi nodded. “I’ll have Dong Ancheng interrogated immediately.”

Dong Ancheng sat with his head down in the interrogation room. Initially, he refused to say anything, but under the relentless questioning from the detectives, he finally spoke up.

About six months ago, Duan Siyuan started harassing Yu Keke. He figured out her commute schedule and would wait for her specifically, getting close to her.

Yu Keke was very afraid of him, but no matter if she tried to avoid or resist him, it was futile. She had attempted leaving early or intentionally being late, but soon enough, the man would still find her. He would even wait for her at the station where she disembarked…

She reported the incident once, but after the man was taken away, he quickly returned, with his behavior becoming even more severe.

This kind of situation troubled her, and her mental state deteriorated. She often had nightmares.

Yu Keke told the young people at the studio about this matter. Dong Ancheng had accompanied her on the bus a few times and had seen Duan Siyuan.

He had a conflict with Duan Siyuan because of Yu Keke.

However, he was not a normal person, and his actions were very clumsy. He was no match for Duan Siyuan at all.

Later, due to the harassment, Yu Keke finally stopped coming to the studio.

Dong Ancheng felt increasingly uncomfortable at that time.

He wanted to punish Duan Siyuan and even thought about killing him.

He followed him to the station where Duan Siyuan often appeared and took advantage of his day off to place a bomb under Duan Siyuan’s seat.

The first time, Duan Siyuan quickly got off the bus, and the bomb’s timer was set too long, so it didn’t explode.

The second time, he did the same thing again and adjusted the explosion time to be shorter.

At that time, he felt a little scared. He happened to get off near a train station and made an emergency call using a public telephone.

Upon hearing his words, Lu Junchi felt a suffocating sensation in his chest. “Do you know how many people died because of your actions?”

“I… I didn’t expect the explosion to be so powerful in the end…” Dong Ancheng stuttered, “I did all this for Keke. I… I just wanted to see her every day at work.”

“Have you never thought of any other way to solve the problem?” Lu Junchi asked him again.

The boy hesitated for a moment. His expression and behavior were still abnormal. He lowered his head. “Reporting to the police didn’t work. We tried… Other methods wouldn’t work either…”

“That’s still not a reason for you to commit a crime.” After listening to his confession, Lu Junchi felt a complex mix of emotions, a sour feeling welling up amid the chest tightness.

Dong Ancheng’s eyes turned red, and he wiped away his tears. “I deeply regret it now.”

Su Hui looked at the interrogation room. Is the murderer caught just like that?

The process was much quicker than he had imagined. Only two days had passed out of the five, and although they hadn’t yet found the source of the bomb, the young man in front of them had admitted to his crime.

In the interrogation room, Lu Junchi continued to question Dong Ancheng. “Who gave you those two timed bombs?”

Such things couldn’t be easily obtained by an ordinary person.

Dong Ancheng lowered his head, hesitated for a moment, and said, “It… it was Boss Lan…”

Lan An?

Who is that woman?

Dong Ancheng, seeing his silence, looked up and said, “I… I’m not lying. You can go and ask her… She, she said… I just needed to put it on the bus, and no one would find out. It was me who did it…”

His gaze was unfocused, as if his pupils couldn’t converge, but his eyes were still red.

They had been discovered, not only discovered but also detained here, awaiting interrogation and punishment.

Lu Junchi stood up and said, “I will verify your statement with Boss Lan.”

In no time, it was already past five in the afternoon when Lu Junchi came out and briefly met Su Hui sitting outside.

Su Hui asked, “What’s next? What are you planning to do?”

Lu Junchi replied, “We’ve reached this point, so naturally, we’ll ask Lan An and hear what she has to say.”

Su Hui coughed and lowered his head, taking a sip of hot water. He couldn’t quite pinpoint what was wrong with the situation, which made him uneasy. But for now, the best course of action was to interrogate Lan An. It was clear that she hadn’t been completely honest.

Before Lu Junchi entered the room, he received news from Zheng Bai, who was in charge of the search.

“Captain Lu, we have finished searching the studio. We found a small amount of chemicals inside, materials for making bombs.”

“Understood. We will proceed with the questioning immediately.”

It seemed that the evidence was conclusive.

With the person captured, the team members felt a sense of relief, as if celebrating their success was just around the corner. However, Lu Junchi didn’t dare to be careless. He entered the interrogation room with Qiao Ze, who had finished questioning Yu Keke.

Lan An was being held separately, sitting quietly inside, her eyes lowered, looking at the ground.

It was autumn now, with moderate temperatures, but in the short time they hadn’t seen each other, Lu Junchi noticed a thin layer of sweat on her forehead, even dampening the hair on her forehead.

The woman before him was in a state of high tension.

When she noticed someone entering, Lan An raised her head and glanced at them. The expression on her face now was completely different from the gentle composure she had in the sand painting studio.

She seemed to have aged instantly, as if a flower was visibly withering.

The expression on Lan An’s face reminded Lu Junchi of four words: heart turned to ashes.

Although she was still alive, her heart was already dead. Her complexion was also gray, like that of a lifeless corpse.

Her various pieces of information had already been cross-checked by others. Lu Junchi spared no words and directly asked her, “Lan An, Dong Ancheng said you provided him with the weapon for his crime. Do you admit to your wrongdoing?”

Lan An raised her head and smiled bitterly, “I have imagined this scene countless times, but I didn’t expect it to actually happen in the end.”

Su Hui, upon hearing this, raised his eyes and looked at the interrogation room separated by a layer of glass.

He hoped to be able to see the woman’s appearance and her expression clearly, not wanting to miss any details.

But he couldn’t see clearly, the image in the pre-interrogation room seemed to be veiled by a layer of mist.

Lan An’s voice came through, “Yes, I am the Fine Sand you have been searching for all along.”