met free Chapter 1172 Yang Baocheng, Li Chengde's Brother-in-Law
Chapter 1172 Yang Baocheng, Li Chengde's Brother-in-Law
Xiao Zhou glanced at the recording timestamp—7:23 PM on May 18th, just three days after Li Chengde's death.
Yang Baocheng's construction shed was located in an abandoned factory on the outskirts of the city. The corrugated iron shack gleamed blindingly in the midday sun, and the air was thick with the smell of rust and concrete. When Xiao Zhou found him, the dark-skinned man was squatting beside a pile of steel bars, smoking, oblivious to the long trail of ash that had accumulated. His size 43 work boots were covered in concrete, and the "I" shaped treads on the soles were embedded with red clay particles, showing an 85% match to the shoe print samples collected at the scene. "What do the police want with me?" Yang Baocheng's eyes flickered, and he instinctively hid his left hand behind his back. The silver watch on his wrist reflected a blinding spot of light in the sunlight—a reflection that perfectly matched the suspect's left wrist in the surveillance footage.
"Where were you in the early morning of May 21st?" Xiao Zhou's notebook lay open on the oil-stained wooden board, a small oil stain immediately spreading across the paper. Yang Baocheng nervously drew circles on his knee, cement stains dripping from his trousers. "Sleeping in the workers' shed, my coworkers can all testify." But when Xiao Zhou pressed him on which bed he was sleeping in and who was next to him, he stammered and couldn't answer, his gaze drifting towards the distant tower crane. The attendance sheet provided by the foreman showed that Yang Baocheng took a day off on May 20th, citing "family matters" as the reason. The signature on the leave slip was highly similar to the "Yang Baocheng" on the IOU, which strikingly coincided with the repayment date agreed upon by Li Chengde.
When visiting Yang Baocheng's neighbors, Grandma Wang, who lives on the third floor, was sitting at her door picking vegetables, her bamboo basket piled high with leafy greens. "Around 5 a.m. on May 21, I got up to use the bathroom and heard a motorcycle starting up downstairs," she said, gesturing towards Yang Baocheng's house as she wiped her hands on her apron. "It was Yang Baocheng's red motorcycle. The exhaust was incredibly loud, like a tractor, and it woke my grandson up and made him cry." Grandma Wang suddenly lowered her voice and whispered to Xiao Zhou, "I peeked through the window and saw him carrying a flat-headed shovel onto the motorcycle, wrapped in a blue canvas, acting all sneaky. There was also an iron chain in the truck bed, rattling loudly."
While reviewing Yang Baocheng's call records, an unusual entry caught Xiao Zhou's attention. At 8:32 PM on May 20th, he called Li Chengde for 1 minute and 47 seconds, after which there were no further call records until 5 AM. Cell tower location data showed that Yang Baocheng was near the west gate of Dongshan Cemetery during the call, and Li Chengde's cell phone signal also appeared in the area at the same time. "At that time, Li Chengde should have just finished delivering the last water order to Wangyue Community," Xiao Zhou marked the locations on the electronic map; the two signal points were less than 500 meters apart. "The two likely met near the cemetery to discuss repayment."
Yang Baocheng's bank statements were even more suspicious. Xiao Zhou stared at the transaction records on the screen. At 9:15 PM on May 20th, 20,000 yuan suddenly entered his Agricultural Bank of China account. The remitter's name was listed as "Yang Ming," an unfamiliar account. Tracing the account information revealed that the account holder was Yang Baocheng's cousin, who happened to be a temporary worker at Dongshan Cemetery, responsible for night patrols and equipment maintenance—this explained why the suspect was so familiar with the cemetery's layout, even knowing which graves were recently buried and easy to dig.
The search of the workers' dormitory yielded a breakthrough. Under Yang Baocheng's bed, Xiao Zhou used a crowbar to pry open the loose wooden planks, releasing a musty smell. Hidden inside was a black jacket; the label on the collar had worn away, but the polyester fibers of the lining matched the composition of samples taken from the scene in preliminary testing. The cigarette pack in the pocket was a Yuxi brand, the same brand as the cigarette butts found near the tombstone. The saliva stains on the inside of the cigarette pack were sent to the lab for DNA testing. More importantly, the dark red stain on the jacket's cuffs tested strongly positive for benzidine—suspected to be human blood.
Surveillance footage showed that Yang Baocheng's red motorcycle appeared at the entrance of Dongshan Cemetery at 2:17 AM on May 21st, moving slowly as if observing the surroundings. It left through the east gate of the cemetery at 3:45 AM, its trajectory perfectly matching the route discovered at the scene. Vehicle registration records showed that the motorcycle's tires were indeed 90/90-18, with a tread depth of 1.2 mm, consistent with the tire marks found at the scene. Furthermore, the exhaust pipe had recently been replaced, perfectly matching the sound characteristics recorded in the surveillance audio. In the toolbox under the seat, Xiao Zhou found half a chain, with links 8 mm in diameter, its wear matching that found at the scene, and a small amount of red soil adhering to the links.
When Xiao Zhou laid out the IOU, voice recorder, surveillance video screenshots, and photos of physical evidence in front of Yang Baocheng, the man, who had been feigning composure, suddenly slumped to the ground, his back slamming heavily against a pile of steel bars with a dull thud. "He forced me to do this!" Yang Baocheng's voice was hoarse, his hands running through his disheveled hair, grease seeping from between his fingers. "He said he was going to cause trouble at the construction site, to make me lose my job, and that he'd tell my wife I'd gambled away money again..." He suddenly grabbed Xiao Zhou's arm, his nails digging deep into the man's sleeve, leaving several white marks. "I only wanted to scare him, to tie him up and force him to talk back, but he pushed me, and then we started fighting..."
Yang Baocheng's confession gradually pieced together the complete crime: He arranged to meet Li Chengde near Dongshan Cemetery at 8 pm on May 20th to discuss repayment. During the argument, Li Chengde took out his phone to call his construction site boss, threatening to expose his gambling and absenteeism. The two wrestled, and in a moment of desperation, Yang Baocheng strangled Li Chengde with his arm until the latter stopped struggling. After discovering that Li Chengde was no longer breathing, he rode his bicycle home to get a shovel and a chain, dragging the body into Zhou Guiying's grave, which he had scouted beforehand—knowing it was a new grave with soft soil that would be easy to dig. He chained the body to prevent it from being dragged by stray dogs and used a fisherman's knot he had learned at the construction site to impersonate someone else, believing he could get away with it.
Supplementary examination by forensic expert Zhang Lin further confirmed the suspicion. Yang Baocheng had a fresh scratch on the second joint of his right index finger, 0.8 cm long and 0.1 cm deep, which perfectly matched the DNA profile of the skin tissue extracted from Li Chengde's fingernail crevices. The metal composition of the silver watchband on his wrist was completely consistent with the residual metal on the chain lock at the scene, as determined by energy dispersive spectroscopy. More importantly, the measurement of Yang Baocheng's knuckle width was 2.8 cm, perfectly matching the distance between the finger pressure marks on the deceased's neck, with an error of no more than 0.1 cm.
As the sun set, Xiao Zhou stood outside the work shed watching the technicians escort Yang Baocheng into the police car.