Finding herself unable to swing the whip down, Zhang Lihua's expression instantly changed. She tried twice more, but it still wouldn't work. She threw down the whip and turned to leave.
Before she had taken two steps, Lin Xi, who was invisible, struck her legs with a burst of spiritual energy. Her left foot tripped over her right, and she fell forward stiffly. Even more coincidentally, as she fell, her head smashed down first, knocking her out cold.
Lin Xi glanced at the three people on the canopy bed and sent a wave of spiritual energy towards their side, only loosening half of their restraints, allowing one side of their bodies to move freely.
Before leaving, Lin Xi gave Zhang Lihua another tap, ensuring she would stay unconscious longer.
Afterwards, she left, directly took out her computer, logged in, removed the U disk given by Yao Xiran that could contact the state, inserted another U disk, and directly sent the video she had just recorded via email to the nearest public security bureau.
The bureau's email was checked regularly, with duty personnel reviewing it three times a day and then logging the activity.
Lin Xi's timing in sending the information was precise, just a few minutes before the night shift officer was due to go off duty.
The final task for the duty officers each day before leaving was to check the bureau's external email inbox.
Zhou Xumeng was the officer on duty today. She had already packed her personal belongings ten minutes ago. Watching the clock, she began to click into the email backend.
As soon as she entered, she saw the email sent by Lin Xi. Without much thought, she clicked into it, distractedly reaching for the water cup on her desk at the same time.
Sitting back down in her chair and looking up, she saw the moment a young woman was dragged out by Li Fuming, his hand around her neck.
The water cup in Zhou Xumeng's hand fell to the floor, the stainless steel exterior instantly denting in one corner. It was a prize she had received last year for an outstanding personal performance award. Zhou Xumeng treasured it greatly; usually, even a scratch would distress her, but today she showed no reaction.
With trembling hands, she pressed pause and called the criminal investigation department. As a police officer, she possessed the most basic professional judgment. She recognized the woman being dragged out by the neck by the man. Her information was currently listed on the public security system's missing persons roster.
Two months ago, the notice requesting public assistance in her investigation had been distributed to major police stations across Jiangnan Province.
Not long after Zhou Xumeng made the call, the duty room was suddenly filled with a crowd of people. They were all from the criminal investigation team.
They had been working on the case of the missing men and women from the Wuxin Industrial Park for a very, very long time. The pressure on everyone during this period had been immense.
They had investigated for a long time but found nothing. The culprit's choice of time and location for committing the crime was simply too covert, always selecting stretches of road without surveillance cameras.
They could only roughly determine the time of the disappearances, but the rest was like searching for a needle in a haystack; no matter how they investigated, they couldn't find any leads.
They investigated the social connections of the missing persons. Aside from all having worked at the Wuxin Industrial Park at some point, they had no other similarities whatsoever.
It was no exaggeration to say the officers handling this case had grown gray hairs. Recently, they had even increased patrols around the Wuxin Industrial Park.
Still, they had found nothing.
This video arrived at an incredibly coincidental and timely moment. Regardless of the video's authenticity, the police had to do their utmost to investigate.
The leader of the criminal investigation team handling the case directly sat down at a workstation and began watching the video frame by frame from the beginning. Lin Xi had started recording from the moment she entered.
The moment Li Fuming and Zhang Lihua's faces appeared in the video, Team Leader Lu paused and immediately issued an order.
"He Liang, quickly investigate these two individuals. Use the fastest method possible!"
"Yes, sir." An officer took a photo of the two people from the recording with his phone and left directly.
In this era of information explosion, as long as there was a person's likeness, if they had ever appeared anywhere, big data could match them. Figuring out their backgrounds would be straightforward.
Team Leader Lu and the others continued watching. When they saw Li Fuming attempting to assault the girl, everyone's expressions turned extremely grim. Afterwards, when Li Fuming inexplicably fell asleep and the girl miraculously escaped, Team Leader Lu and the others breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, following the girl's gaze, they saw the women locked in the room like livestock. Zhou Xumeng directly cursed, "Beasts."
Afterwards, the words transmitted from the video, advising them to be careful when striking, left all the present police officers silent.
Then the video reached the side where the men were imprisoned. Zhang Lihua's psychotic words were recorded with exceptional clarity.
The police officers present fell silent. They had thought the perpetrator of these disappearances was depraved, but they hadn't imagined them to be this depraved.
Especially Zhang Lihua; she was like a madwoman.
After the video ended, the bureau chief and deputy chief also arrived. They watched the latter half of the video. Once the playback finished, the bureau chief reviewed the video back and forth several times.
His gaze finally lingered for a long time on the sender's name: Student Red Scarf.
He Liang also returned. In just twenty short minutes, he had already uncovered the identities of Li Fuming and Zhang Lihua, as well as their recent movements and whereabouts.
The bureau chief could no longer afford to ponder. He quickly skimmed through the information, then said to Team Leader Lu, "Dispatch two-thirds of the patrol force from around the Wuxin Industrial Park to Li Fuming's residence."
"The remaining one-third will continue patrolling the Wuxin Industrial Park. We absolutely must not alert the enemy. Hu Lixue's undercover mission is to continue. Ten young men and women are missing. Before Li Fuming and Zhang Lihua are apprehended and confess everything, we cannot let our guard down."
"What if there are accomplices? If we don't capture this entire group, our Wuxin Public Security Bureau will have no way to answer to the public who trust us!"
"Yes, sir!" Following the bureau chief's series of orders, everyone sprang into action.
After they left, the bureau chief forwarded a copy of this email to the state security department in Linzhou. He also sent a text message to a specific contact in his WeChat.
Before the New Year, he and some others had attended a secret meeting. The content of that meeting was precisely about individuals like Student Red Scarf and Comrade Lei Feng, among others.
Before retiring from the military, the bureau chief had held a relatively high position in a certain unit. He had vaguely learned that the changes in the country over the past six months or more were largely due to contributions from this organization.
Especially for veterans like him who had retired due to injury—recently, he had received a very, very small medication from the state. After taking it as instructed, the old injuries in his body had improved significantly.
Beyond that, there were also the batches of medication provided to cancer patients. All of this filled the bureau chief, this retired veteran, with immense emotion and pride every time he thought of it.
Originally, the police chief thought this matter had nothing to do with them, but he never expected to encounter it today.
The chief took a deep breath, tucked his phone into his pocket, then picked up his weapon, grabbed his cap, and hurried to Li Fuming's house.
He had to be present for this case, and he had to ensure it was handled well and handled quickly!
This was a case personally involving Student Red Scarf! This was the only such case in the entire country!!!
When the chief arrived near Li Fuming's house, the police had already surrounded the entire villa. SWAT officers were preparing to scale the walls and enter.
The property developer and the estate management had also arrived. Looking at the villa encircled by police, the developer felt darkness clouding his vision.
As everyone knows, when a criminal investigation case occurs in a residential complex, the losses for that community are immense; it affects property sales.
And this complex had only been completed and handed over three or four years ago, with about forty percent of the units still unsold. The villa area was even worse off!
If something serious were really uncovered, how great would the losses be for the complex? Just thinking about it made the developer and estate management's legs go weak.
The lights were blazing in Li Fuming's home. At the chief's command, the police broke down the door.
Group Leader Lu led his team charging in at the forefront. When they saw the door, which differed from those of ordinary homes, their hearts sank considerably.
Once inside, they saw the enormous stainless steel pot that had appeared in the video, with rice and leek residue still stuck to its bottom.
Group Leader Lu made a hand gesture, and everyone split into two groups heading for the basement.
SWAT officers pushed open the incredibly heavy door, bringing them face-to-face with the basement's living area.
On the massive iron-framed bed, Li Fuming had already been locked down by the girls.
Compared to the beginning of the video, he was now bruised and swollen, with a stinky sock from his own foot stuffed in his mouth.
Hearing the commotion at the main door, he had initially thought his wife had arrived. He was ecstatic inside, and his gaze towards the four or five frail girls was full of hatred.
Li Fuming particularly disliked people resisting or defying him. He didn't know why he had inexplicably fallen today, nor could he understand how, given their current physical state, they had managed to lock him up.
But that didn't stop Li Fuming from sentencing them to death. In his mind, he had already sentenced these young girls to death.
He had even planned how to bury them!
But upon seeing the police officers entering with their weapons raised, the smugness on his face froze.
The young girls, who had been holding weapons out of sheer fear, burst into tears the moment they saw the police officers with their guns.
Two girls in extremely weak physical condition collapsed directly onto the floor. Seeing this, the few girls who were still relatively strong immediately changed expression and quickly stepped in front of them.
Only upon hearing the words, "Hello, we are police officers from the Linzhou Public Security Bureau," did they finally comprehend.
They were safe. They were rescued. Thinking of the two girls who could never return, they couldn't help but cry.
Meanwhile, Zhang Lihua's situation wasn't much better. Although Lin Xi hadn't unlocked all the men's shackles, the one side she did unlock was enough for them to teach Zhang Lihua a lesson.
Zhang Lihua was surrounded by three beds in the middle, with three men taking turns kicking her.
Zhang Lihua went from cursing and shouting threats at the beginning to finally hiding in a spot the three men couldn't reach, begging for mercy.
But whether she was cursing or begging, the three young men remained unmoved. They didn't even exchange a single word among themselves.
When the police arrived, Zhang Lihua felt she was saved. Amidst the kicks, she ran up to the police.
"Officers, save me! These people are going to beat me to death. Look at these injuries on me, they did this," Zhang Lihua complained, pulling at her clothes.
The police looked at Zhang Lihua as if she were an idiot. The Zhang Lihua standing before them now was vastly different from the one in the video.
If they hadn't seen the video beforehand and known this was Zhang Lihua's home, who wouldn't mistake her for a victim seeing her in this state?
Policewoman Zhao Jing stepped forward from the group, took out the handcuffs she carried, and cuffed Zhang Lihua's hands.
At that moment, Zhang Lihua's long-departed intelligence finally returned to her head.
Feeling the cold handcuffs, she couldn't quite accept it: "Officers, why are you arresting me? Look clearly, I'm the one who was beaten. They are the criminals!"
Her absurd statement made the police officers frown in unison.
"You imprisoned others. Isn't that breaking the law?"
Zhang Lihua laughed: "Of course I know imprisoning others is illegal, but it was Li Fuming who imprisoned them, not me."
"Besides, when I was imprisoned by him before, no one told me he was breaking the law. So if Li Fiming could imprison me back then, why can't I imprison others now?"
"Officers, why is that? I'm a victim too! Li Fuming was the mastermind behind all this. I was forced. Li Fuming said he'd kill my whole family if I didn't go along with him, so I'm not guilty!"
