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

Chapter 1173 Yang Baocheng Confesses

As the red motorcycle was towed away, its exhaust pipe emitted a final, muffled roar, as if bringing this tragedy caused by debt and gambling to a close. Xiao Zhou opened the record book; next to Yang Baocheng's signature were a few brown tear stains, while the red ink on Li Chengde's IOU stood out starkly in the afterglow—this debt dispute, which could have been resolved through legal channels, ultimately became an unhealable wound for two families due to impulsiveness and greed.

Although the case has made a major breakthrough, Xiao Zhou knows that there are still details to be verified. The shovel that Yang Baocheng confessed to hiding was in a reservoir behind the cemetery, and a search and retrieval operation needs to be organized; the detailed flow of the 2 yuan remittance and whether Yang Baocheng's cousin was aware of or assisted in the transaction also require further investigation and evidence collection.

The incandescent light in the interrogation room of the Criminal Investigation Detachment was blinding. Yang Baocheng sat in the interrogation chair, the handcuffs clanging against the metal chair legs with a dull thud. Xiao Zhou pushed a glass of warm water in front of him; water droplets from the glass dripped down the edge of the table onto the record book, spreading into a small ink stain. "Tell me, what exactly happened on the night of May 20th?" Xiao Zhou's voice was calm but carried an undeniable force, his gaze falling on the gauze wrapped around Yang Baocheng's right hand—where hidden were scratch marks matching the DNA under Li Chengde's fingernails.

Yang Baocheng's Adam's apple bobbed violently, his hand trembled so badly as he held the water glass that water spilled onto the front of his prison uniform, leaving dark stains. "I...I did arrange to meet Li Chengde." His voice was hoarse, as if it had been sanded, his fingertips unconsciously digging into the wood grain of the chair. "At the cypress grove outside the west gate of Dongshan Cemetery, I wanted to discuss with him about getting a few more days' grace to repay the money." He suddenly looked up, his eyes bloodshot. "But as soon as we met, he took out his phone and said he was going to call my construction site boss and make me lose my job!"

The surveillance cameras in the interrogation room faithfully recorded every detail. Yang Baocheng's body language betrayed his nervousness—his legs were shaking incessantly, and his left hand repeatedly rubbed the watch on his right wrist. "He said he would let my wife know I was gambling again, and that he would ruin my family," Yang Baocheng's voice suddenly rose, trembling with sobs, "I acted impulsively and tried to grab his phone. We started fighting, and he pinned me to the ground, punching me in the face..."

Xiao Zhou flipped through the photos of the scene; the signs of a struggle in the cypress grove were clearly visible—broken branches, scattered leaves, and drag marks on the ground. "And then?" His pen hovered over the notebook. Yang Baocheng's breathing suddenly became rapid, his chest heaving violently: "I panicked, grabbed a rock from the ground to scare him, and when he saw the rock, he lunged at it to grab it. In the struggle, I tripped him, and the back of his head hit the rock; he didn't move at all..."

“No,” Xiao Zhou suddenly interrupted him, pointing to a photo of the finger marks on the deceased’s neck, “The forensic examination shows that Li Chengde’s cause of death was mechanical asphyxiation, not traumatic brain injury.” Yang Baocheng’s face turned deathly pale instantly, his lips trembling as he couldn’t speak. Silence spread through the interrogation room, the ticking of the quartz clock on the wall particularly jarring. After a full three minutes, he slumped back in his chair like a deflated balloon.

“I strangled him to death…” Yang Baocheng’s voice was barely audible, tears and snot streaming down his face. “After he fell to the ground, he was still cursing me, saying that even if I let him go today, he would cause trouble at the construction site tomorrow. I got scared, so I pounced on him, straddled him, and strangled his neck with my arms…” He gestured the action, his arms crossed on either side of his neck. “I closed my eyes and strangled him with all my might until his body went limp and he made no more sound…”

While confessing to the murder, Yang Baocheng's body trembled uncontrollably. He said he was so scared that his whole body went limp, and he lay on the ground for more than ten minutes before daring to touch Li Chengde's nose to check his breathing. "When I found that he was no longer breathing, my first thought was to run," he said, his nails digging deeply into his palms. "But then I thought that the body would be discovered sooner or later if it was left here, and I remembered the empty grave that my cousin Yang Ming had mentioned."

Yang Baocheng confessed that when he rode his bike home to get the shovel and chain, his heart was pounding as if it would jump out of his throat. "My wife was fast asleep and didn't notice me leaving," he said, his gaze drifting to the window, as if recalling that terrifying night. "The shovel was a flat-headed shovel I grabbed from the construction site, and the chain was for tying steel bars. I thought if I used the chain to bind the body, the stray dogs wouldn't be able to drag it away." He deliberately tied a fisherman's knot, because he thought it was sturdy and could mislead the police into thinking it was a fisherman who committed the crime.

The process of dragging the body was more difficult than expected. "Li Chengde was stronger than me, and I had to rest after dragging him for a few steps," Yang Baocheng said wearily. "The corn leaves cut my arms painfully, and his head hit the stone several times, making a 'thump' sound. I was so scared that I wanted to abandon him and run away several times." He was extra careful when digging the grave, afraid that the noise would attract the grave keeper. It took him half an hour to dig a pit large enough to hold the body.

“After burying the body, I threw the shovel into the reservoir behind the mountain, and hid the iron chain under the bed board in the workers’ shed,” Yang Baocheng confessed, and the hiding place matched the previous investigation perfectly. “The bloodstains on my jacket were from when I was dragging the body. I didn’t dare to wash them, so I hid them under the bed board, thinking I would deal with them after things calmed down.” He thought he had done everything perfectly, but he didn’t expect the police to find him in just three days.

The next morning, Yang Baocheng was taken to Dongshan Cemetery to identify the scene of the crime. As soon as the police car entered the cemetery, he began to tremble, his face as pale as paper. At the site of the struggle in the cypress grove, he pointed to a stone stained with dark red marks: "This is where he was strangled. The blood on the stone must be his." Technicians immediately tested it with luminol, and a pale blue fluorescence appeared on the ground, confirming his confession.

Reaching Zhou Guiying's grave, Yang Baocheng's legs buckled, and he nearly collapsed to his knees, only to be caught by police officers. "He's buried right here," he said, his voice trembling with tears. "I dug about a meter deep, put him in head in and feet out, and buried his water delivery bag next to him." The excavator quickly unearthed Li Chengde's water delivery bag at the spot he pointed out. The logbook inside was still intact, and the last page listed the amount Yang Baocheng owed.

At the reservoir behind the mountain, technicians indeed retrieved the flat-headed shovel. The red soil on the blade matched the soil composition of the grave mound, and the fingerprints on the handle perfectly matched Yang Baocheng's. Under the bed board in the shed, in addition to the previously discovered half-chain, they also found Li Chengde's cell phone, which Yang Baocheng had hidden—he had forgotten to throw it away in his panic and hid it under the mattress after turning it off.

As the site identification concluded, the setting sun cast long shadows across the cemetery.