The crackdown on organized crime began with the arrest of the mother-in-law.

Chapter 1137 Detailed Explanation of the Crime

"Where did you climb over the wall from?" Xiao Wang's voice broke the silence of the warehouse. The edges of the notebook in his hand were wrinkled with sweat, and his pen circled the words "climbing over the wall location." Li Xiaodong's finger trembled as he pointed to the east wall of the warehouse, where there was a clear V-shaped gap in the barbed wire. Several brown fibers hung from the tips of the two stretched wires, swaying gently in the breeze. "I... I climbed up by stepping on that pile of discarded bearing boxes," his voice trembled with tears. His gaze fell on the pile of crooked boxes in the corner. The top one was marked "Harbin Bearing Factory," and there was a fresh footprint on the lid. The diamond pattern of the shoe print matched the work shoes found in his rented room perfectly. "That night, the fog was particularly thick, and the visibility was less than five meters. I heard the patrolling security guard's flashlight shining in the distance, and I was so scared that I crouched behind the boxes and didn't dare to move."

The technician immediately used a laser rangefinder to measure the height of the gap. "1.82 meters," he reported precisely, a figure perfectly consistent with Li Xiaodong's confession that it "reached about my chest." Below the gap, several pits of varying depths lay in the ground, still containing some damp soil. Testing revealed that the mineral composition of the soil was identical to the soil found in the seams of Li Xiaodong's shoes. "Look here," the technician pointed to scratches on the edge of the pits, "this is from the diamond-patterned soles of your shoes when you climbed, and it matches the wear characteristics of your work shoes."

Stepping inside the warehouse, the smell of engine oil grew stronger, and the oil stains on the floor shimmered with an iridescent sheen in the morning light. In front of the third shelf, several blue bearing boxes lay crookedly on the floor, one of which had a cracked lid, revealing neatly arranged 6205 model bearings inside, the metallic sheen of the raceways flickering in the shadows. "He used to keep accounts right here," Li Xiaodong's voice trembled, his finger tracing the edge of a tin box on the third shelf, its edges worn smooth, bearing a crooked "Zhang" character. "He was holding a black pen with a crack in the cap, and the ledger lay open on this tin box, a corner missing from the upper right."

The technician carefully opened the tin box, and inside lay a Chenguang brand black ballpoint pen. The crack on the cap matched Li Xiaodong's description perfectly, and the fingerprints on the pen barrel were confirmed to be Zhang Jianguo's. Several warehouse ledgers were scattered nearby; the top one had a missing corner in the upper right corner, with dark red stains on the edge. Tests confirmed these were Zhang Jianguo's blood—matching the forensic report's record of "a scratch on the deceased's right palm," clearly indicating he had left these marks while gripping the pen after being injured.

"How did you get that steel pipe?" Xiao Wang pointed to the iron frame in the corner, which still bore several fresh scratches, as if left by a heavy object leaning against it for a long time. Li Xiaodong's gaze suddenly darted away, and he instinctively hugged his shoulders, as if the cold steel pipe was still pressed against his back. "I... I saw it leaning against the iron frame when I came in," he gestured with his fingers to indicate the length of the steel pipe, "It was about this long, about three centimeters in diameter, and wrapped with a circle of blue tape, with a triangular slit at the end of the tape."

The technician took the bloodstained steel pipe out of the evidence bag. Sunlight streamed through the holes in the pipe, casting a series of circular spots of light on the ground. "Look here," he pointed to the blue tape on the pipe's surface. Sure enough, there was a triangular tear at the end of the tape, perfectly matching a scratch on the iron frame. "The fiber composition of the tape was compared with the paint residue on the iron frame, and they match perfectly. This steel pipe has indeed been leaning against there for a long time." The dark red stains on the inner wall of the pipe were particularly clear under the light. Tests revealed that, in addition to Zhang Jianguo's DNA, there were also small fragments of Li Xiaodong's skin tissue—confirming his confession of "grabbing the steel pipe."

As Li Xiaodong approached the human silhouette drawn in white chalk, his legs suddenly gave way. He nearly collapsed to the ground if the officer beside him hadn't caught him. The chalk drawing on the ground was somewhat blurred, but the outline of the human figure was still clearly visible. The dark red stains along the edges of the silhouette gleamed bluish-black in the morning light—marks left by Zhang Jianguo's blood seeping into the concrete. "He… he's lying right here," Li Xiaodong's voice trembled with tears, snot mingling with his nose, dripping onto the silhouette's chest, spreading into a small, damp patch. "I hit him here with a bearing, just once… just once…"

The location he pointed to was precisely where the forensic report recorded "fractures of the 4th and 5th ribs on the right chest" and "rupture of the right ventricle." Scattered on the chalk-drawn left-hand side were three 6205 model bearings, one of which had a fresh impact mark on its raceway. The arc of the mark perfectly matched the edge of Zhang Jianguo's right chest wound. The technician, examining it with a magnifying glass, found a very fine, silvery-white fiber remaining in the impact mark, perfectly matching the fiber composition of Zhang Jianguo's work pants.

"How did the fight start?" Xiao Wang's laser pointer drew an arc between the shelf and the chalk drawing, the beam piercing through the dust in the air, forming a clear band of light. Li Xiaodong suddenly squatted down, waving his hands wildly in the air, imitating the fight scene from that night: "He saw me putting bearings into the burlap sack, so he grabbed that steel pipe and swung it at me," his right hand suddenly swung in an arc, "I instinctively grabbed the steel pipe and pulled it to the side, he lost his balance, his body leaned back, and the back of his head hit the corner of this shelf with a 'thud'."

He pointed to the right angle of the shelf pillar, where there was a fresh dent. A few strands of silvery-white hair clung to the edge of the dent, perfectly matching Zhang Jianguo's hair sample. The dent was about 0.5 centimeters deep, and its curvature perfectly matched the forensic diagnosis of a "subscalp hematoma caused by a blunt force trauma." "Look here," the technician measured the dent with a ruler, "3.2 centimeters in diameter, just enough to fit the back of an adult's head. The paint chips at the edge are fresh, and the time of formation matches the time of the incident."

On the ground, a pale blue fluorescent trail, 25 centimeters wide, stretched from the shelf to the outline of the chalk drawing. This was bloodstain residue revealed by luminol reagent, resembling an eerie band of light under ultraviolet light. "You said you dragged him to the corner, but how exactly did you drag him?" The technician crouched down, his finger gently tracing the trail.

Li Xiaodong's gaze followed the band of light in front of him, his voice filled with fear.