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

Chapter 978 Arrest of Chen Yongqiang

The case analysis meeting continued late into the night, with everyone engaged in heated discussions about Chen Yongqiang's possible hiding places. Some thought he might be hiding with a former business partner, while others speculated that he might have fled to a remote mountainous area. However, most people ultimately focused their attention on Chen Yulan's flower greenhouse. Li Ming drew the action route on the whiteboard: "Tomorrow morning, conduct preliminary reconnaissance first, and then carry out the arrest after confirmation."

The following morning, plainclothes officers, posing as tourists, conducted a search of the area near the greenhouse. Through binoculars, Xiao Wang saw Chen Yulan in a wheelchair tending to the flowers inside, behaving normally. However, he noticed a small house in the northwest corner that was always locked, with its curtains drawn, and occasionally a dark shadow could be seen moving around. "That house is closest to the blind spot of the surveillance cameras, and the air conditioner unit is always running," Xiao Wang whispered into the walkie-talkie. "Running the air conditioner on such a cold day, there's definitely something wrong."

The technical department urgently used a thermal imaging telescope, which showed that the temperature inside the small shed was significantly higher than in other areas. Li Ming made a decisive decision: "Close the net!" The special police team split into three groups and surrounded the greenhouse from different directions. The moment they broke down the door, Chen Yongqiang was huddled in a dark compartment filled with fertilizer bags, clutching a rusty pair of gardening shears. He looked haggard, his hair was greasy and tangled, and when he saw the police, despair and resentment flashed in his eyes.

During the subsequent search, police found undestroyed ledgers, a large amount of cash, and encrypted communication devices used by Zhang Fugui in a hidden compartment of the small house. In the interrogation room, Chen Yongqiang slumped into a chair, finally dropping his pretense: "I knew I couldn't hide... My second sister was the only one who truly cared for me. I thought hiding with her would allow me to last a few more days..."

It turned out that after learning that Zhang Chunli possessed crucial evidence, Chen Yongqiang planned a series of threatening actions. When he realized that the situation was beyond repair, he immediately sought refuge with his second sister.

The incandescent light in the interrogation room hummed overhead. Chen Yongqiang was huddled in an iron chair, his hands handcuffed to the table, his wrists bluish-white in the cold light. Soil from the greenhouse was still embedded in his fingernails, and dried vegetable soup stains were on his shirt collar. He looked like a crumpled piece of waste paper, a far cry from the swaggering construction boss he once was.

The air conditioning in the interrogation room was blasting, yet Chen Yongqiang writhed in pain on the iron chair, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead and onto the collar of his prison uniform. His hands were handcuffed tightly to the table, the metal chains scraping and creaking with each struggle, echoing in the silent space.

Li Ming sat opposite him, his gaze piercing, his pen lightly tapping the table: "Tell me, why did you kill Zhang Chunli?" His voice was like a sharp knife, cutting straight to the heart of the matter.

Chen Yongqiang let out a dry sob. He abruptly raised his head, his eyes filled with resentment and bitterness: "He threatened me first!" His voice trembled with tears, yet was brimming with rage. "That delivery guy, he doesn't know his place! Holding the ledger and gold bars, he demanded an exorbitant two hundred thousand!" With that, he forcefully yanked at the handcuffs, the clanging of metal echoing in the confined space, as if his rage had erupted with it. "Two hundred thousand! Does he know what that means? That's the fortune I painstakingly built up!"

Chen Yongqiang's chest heaved violently, his breathing becoming rapid and heavy: "I've been in Dongchuan for ten years, from a bricklayer to a company boss, what storms haven't I weathered? When did a food delivery guy get to ride roughshod over me?" His voice suddenly rose, the veins on his neck bulging like twisting green snakes, "That good-for-nothing Zhou Defa is incompetent, he can't even handle a food delivery guy! I'll have to go and deal with him myself."

Li Ming looked at him expressionlessly, his tone icy: "So you've decided to kill him?"

"I had no choice!" Chen Yongqiang roared almost frantically, his eyes flashing with madness. He clutched the ledger in his hand, filled with records of all the shady deals. "If he exposes this, my life is over! I can't let that happen!" He leaned forward, almost collapsing onto the table, his handcuffs gripped tightly. "I gave him a chance. I had Zhou Defa tell him that as long as he handed over the goods, he'd let bygones be bygones. But he wouldn't listen; he's determined to oppose me!"

Recalling the scene, Chen Yongqiang's face contorted with rage: "I didn't initially intend to kill him, I just wanted to teach him a lesson, to show him the consequences of offending me. But he was too stubborn, clinging tightly to the metal box, and even said he was going to call the police." He suddenly laughed, a laugh filled with irony and despair, "Call the police? Did he think the police would believe a food delivery guy, or a respectable boss like me?"

Li Ming coldly interrupted him: "So you just smashed him to death with a steel pipe?"

These words seemed to have touched a nerve with Chen Yongqiang. His body stiffened instantly, his smile freezing on his face. After a long while, he slowly spoke, his voice low and sinister: "Yes, I killed him. Again and again, until he could no longer speak, no longer threaten me." His eyes were empty, as if he had returned to that bloody night, "His blood splattered on my face, warm, yet I felt a sense of satisfaction. Only then could I feel at peace."

A brief silence fell over the interrogation room, broken only by Chen Yongqiang's heavy breathing. Li Ming stared silently at the crazed man before him, a wave of disgust washing over him. For his own selfish desires, he had cruelly taken a young life, yet here he stood, trying to justify his crimes.

"You will pay the price for what you have done." Li Ming's calm yet powerful voice broke the suffocating silence. Chen Yongqiang, however, simply kept his head down, muttering to himself, his face expressionless.

Li Ming's pen scratched harshly across the notebook: "Zhang Fugui knows about this?"

"Of course he knows!" Chen Yongqiang suddenly became agitated. "How could that illegally raised money become clean without being laundered through my construction site?" He tugged at his collar, revealing dark red scratches on his neck. "That Zhang Chunli was too clever for his own good. He thought he could control us just by having the ledger. His grandfather's death was a warning, but he insisted on courting death!"

Although Zhang Fugui was not directly involved in Zhang Chunli's death, he clearly lied about some things concerning Zhang Chunli and his relationship with Chen Yongqiang, things that Zhang Fugui actually knew to some extent.

Meanwhile, in the interrogation room next door, Chen Yulan held a thermos cup with trembling hands. The wheels of her wheelchair rolled over the floor, making a soft, rustling sound.