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

Chapter 1216 Jiefang West Road Sewers

The carriage was silent, save for Zhang Baoshan's suppressed sobs and the roar of the car engine. Looking out the window at the receding North Mountain, Xiao Zhou recalled Li Kui's honest smile and the devastation his family felt when his identity was confirmed. A sigh of relief finally settled in his heart—this investigation, spanning several days, had finally brought justice to the deceased with the most complete chain of evidence, and the crimes hidden in the abandoned brick kiln would ultimately receive their due punishment under the law.

Less than three days after the brick kiln murder case was closed, the criminal investigation team received another report.

At 6 a.m., the city was still shrouded in a thin mist. Beside a manhole cover on Jiefang West Road, sanitation worker Li Zhibo's hands trembled as he gripped his shovel. Ten minutes earlier, while clearing debris from the sewer as usual, the tip of his shovel suddenly struck a soft object. Bending down to part the sewage and silt, he was confronted with the sight of a curled-up male corpse—pale skin that gleamed coldly in the dim light. Startled, he dropped his tools, staggered to the roadside, and dialed the police with trembling fingers.

Twenty minutes later, Li Ming's police car arrived with sirens blaring, its red and blue lights flashing alternately in the morning mist, instantly shattering the silence of the street. "Immediately cordon off the scene, set up a perimeter, and prevent unauthorized personnel from approaching!" Li Ming pushed open the car door, his black leather shoes clicking on the wet pavement, and gave instructions to his team members behind him, "Notify the municipal department to stop the drainage from this section of the road to prevent water from obscuring the evidence at the scene; Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun will be responsible for the initial on-site investigation, and Xiao Wang will come with me to question the person who reported the incident."

Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun, carrying their investigation bags, quickly walked to the sewer manhole cover. Li Zhibo had already lifted the cover, revealing a manhole opening about 80 centimeters in diameter that emitted a pungent stench of sewage. The inside was pitch black; only the body could be vaguely seen curled up in the silt about 1.5 meters below the opening. "Set up the lighting equipment first, use reflectors to illuminate the bottom of the well, being careful not to disturb the footprints and traces around it," Xiao Yang said, crouching at the edge of the manhole. He took out a powerful investigation lamp, the beam piercing the darkness and precisely focusing on the area around the body.

Xiao Sun then began searching the ground around the manhole. The beam of his footprint light swept across the damp surface, quickly finding a set of size 42 men's athletic shoe prints on the east side of the manhole cover. "Stride length 70 cm, stride width 18 cm, stride angle 2 degrees inward, estimating a height of 170-175 cm," he measured with a ruler close to the ground. "The shoe prints had a small amount of silt on the edges, consistent with the composition of silt in the sewer, and the prints were fresh with clear edges, indicating they were recently made and may be related to the suspect." On the sidewalk west of the manhole cover, he also found half a blurry woman's high-heeled shoe print, with obvious wear marks on the heel. "The print was partially washed away by rainwater; only the general outline is visible, requiring further extraction and comparison."

After the lighting equipment was set up in the well, Xiao Yang lay down at the wellhead and carefully observed the surrounding environment of the body: "The male body, initially estimated to be 25-35 years old, about 178 cm tall, wearing a black jacket and dark jeans, the clothes were covered with silt, and it was impossible to see if they were damaged; the body was curled up, the right hand was clenched tightly, the left hand was hanging naturally, and the head was turned to the left, as if there were signs of being dragged - there were obvious strip-shaped depressions in the silt under the body, pointing from the depths of the sewer to the wellhead, suggesting that the body was dragged from the depths of the well to the vicinity of the wellhead." He had his team members carefully clear away the debris around the body with a special hook, "In the silt to the right of the body, we found a silver lighter with a 'ZIPPO' logo on the surface, slight scratches on the edge, and no obvious silt covering it, so it should have fallen recently, possibly left by the deceased or suspect."

Xiao Sun made a discovery in the green belt around the well: "There is a fresh soil disturbance here, about 30x40 centimeters in area and 5 centimeters deep." He gently brushed away the soil with a twig. "There are a few black fibers mixed in with the soil, which are initially consistent with the material of the jacket on the body. It is speculated that the suspect had stayed here and may have accidentally brushed against it while moving the body."

On the other side, Xiao Wang led Li Zhibo to a safe area outside the police cordon and handed him a cup of warm water: "Brother, take your time, don't rush. Tell me in detail how you found the body." Li Zhibo held the cup of water in both hands, the chill still lingering on his fingertips, his voice filled with lingering fear: "I come to this street to clean every morning at 5:30. Just now, when I was cleaning this manhole cover, I felt it was very clogged, so I wanted to lift it up to take a look. When I poked it with the shovel, I touched something soft. I thought it was trash, but when I looked down... Oh my god, it was a person, with a frighteningly pale face. My legs went weak, and I quickly ran out to call the police."

"Before you lifted the manhole cover, did you see anything unusual about it? For example, signs of being pried open, or any suspicious people or vehicles nearby?" Xiao Wang took out his notebook, his pen moving quickly across the paper. Li Zhibo tried hard to recall: "The manhole cover looked normal, no signs of being pried open. But last night when I got off work, I think I saw a black van parked nearby. The lights weren't on. I thought it was waiting for someone and didn't pay much attention. Now that I think about it, could it be related to this?" He pointed to the end of the street, "That car was probably parked over there, facing east. The body was a bit old, and it seemed like it didn't have a license plate, or the license plate was obscured."

Xiao Wang pressed further, "Do you remember the exact time the van stopped? Did you see anyone get out of it?" Li Zhibo frowned, "It was probably around 9 pm last night. I was riding my tricycle past and glanced at it, but I didn't see anyone get out. The windows were tinted, so I couldn't see inside." He added, "There are few people on this street at night. Apart from the occasional resident passing by, very few cars park here. That van looked very strange."

Just then, Xiao Yang's voice came from the direction of the well: "Team Leader Wang, come here for a second, we've made a new discovery!" After settling Li Zhibo in, Xiao Wang quickly walked to the well. Xiao Yang pointed down into the well: "In the silt beneath the body, we found a black nylon rope, about 2 meters long. The ends of the rope show signs of wear, as if it had been dragged. It might have been a tool used by the suspect to move the body. Also, a corner of a piece of paper is sticking out of the body's jeans pocket; it looks like an ID card, but it's covered in silt, so the information is currently unreadable."

Xiao Sun added, "We found several fresh scratches on the pipe wall at the sewer inlet, about 1 millimeter deep, pointing vertically downwards. We speculate that these were left by the body or tools rubbing against the pipe wall when the body was being moved. There were also a small amount of black fibers stuck to the scratches, which are consistent with the fiber composition found in the green belt."