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

Chapter 1185 Zhou Jianming confesses everything

Around 9:20 p.m. that night, Deng Yong arrived at the construction site in his dump truck. "He got out of the truck and yelled at me, saying, 'You're not leaving until you get paid today,'" Zhou Jianming recalled, his body still trembling slightly. "I apologized to him and said I would pay him back once the project funds came through, but he disagreed and said he would search the warehouse compartments to see if I had hidden any money. I was afraid he would find the ledgers showing that I had embezzled project funds, so I stepped forward to stop him. He pushed me aside and called me a 'liar.'"

The two quickly began to fight. "He was stronger than me, and he pinned me to the concrete floor of the warehouse, punching me in the face," Zhou Jianming pointed to the corner of his eye, where there was still a faint bruise. "I panicked, afraid that he would really complain, so I reached out to push him, and I just happened to grab his neck. He struggled fiercely, his fingernails digging into my hand, even breaking the old wound on my right index finger, the wound you detected."

Zhou Jianming's voice grew softer and softer, his eyes filled with fear: "My mind went blank at the time. I just thought I couldn't let him get up, or I would be finished. I used all my strength to choke his neck. His face turned redder and redder, and he slowly lost the strength to struggle. His body went limp. I was afraid he wasn't dead, so I choked him for another two minutes until he stopped moving completely before I dared to let go."

Upon discovering that Deng Yong was lifeless, Zhou Jianming was so frightened that he went limp and lay on the ground for more than half an hour to recover. "I wanted to run away, but looking at his body, I was afraid of being discovered," he said, his fingers twisting together. "I remembered that the foundation pit at the construction site was about to be filled with soil, so I thought of burying the body in there so that it wouldn't be easily discovered. I borrowed a shovel from Li Jun—he had borrowed Lao Zhang's shovel before and hadn't returned it; it was in the corner of the warehouse. I thought that if I used someone else's tools, even if it was discovered, no one would suspect me."

The process of disposing of the body was much more difficult than he had imagined. “Deng Yong was heavier than me, I couldn’t move him,” Zhou Jianming said wearily. “I first drove his dump truck to the warehouse compartment and covered it with a tarpaulin to prevent anyone from seeing it. Then I went back to drag the body. It was more than a hundred meters from the warehouse to the foundation pit. I walked a few steps and then rested. His head hit the rocks several times, making a ‘thump’ sound. I was so scared that my heart almost jumped out of my chest.”

He dug a shallow pit in the foundation pit with a shovel, wrapped Deng Yong's body in a black plastic bag, buried it in the pit, and then threw the shovel head nearby, thinking no one would notice. "I also turned off his cell phone and threw it into the drainage ditch at the north gate," Zhou Jianming added, "afraid that the phone would give off a signal and you would find us. On the afternoon of October 7, I saw someone loitering near the construction site, asking about the filling time. I thought it was one of your people, and I was so scared that I couldn't sleep well for several days. I didn't expect to be discovered in the end."

"Why did you wipe the fingerprints off the shovel and steering wheel?" Xiao Wang pressed. Zhou Jianming looked up, his eyes vacant: "I was afraid of leaving evidence, so I wiped them with a rag, but I didn't expect it wouldn't be clean enough. I thought that if I buried the body in the foundation pit, no one would ever find it after the soil was filled in, and I could get away with it, but I was wrong..." His voice choked up, "I'm sorry to Deng Yong, and I'm sorry to his family. I shouldn't have ruined two lives for this little bit of money..."

During the interrogation, Zhou Jianming broke down in tears several times, especially when Deng Yong's family was mentioned. He squatted on the ground, covered his face, and cried: "I've met his wife. She's a very honest person. She has a child in elementary school. Now the child has lost his father. How can I face them..." He also confessed that he used the embezzled project funds to pay off gambling debts. "I became addicted to gambling and lost a lot of money. I had no choice but to embezzle project funds. I wanted to make up for it when the subsequent project funds came through, but Deng Yong pressured me too much, and I made a mistake in a moment of confusion."

Xiao Wang meticulously recorded everything, not missing a single detail. "Where did you hide the shovel handle?" he asked. Zhou Jianming shook his head: "I threw the shovel handle into the small river outside the construction site, near the north gate. The water is about a meter deep; I should still be able to find it." He also mentioned that he deliberately avoided the blind spots of the surveillance cameras that night to avoid being discovered. "The surveillance cameras at the front gate of the construction site were broken, and there were no cameras at the back gate. I thought no one would see it, but I didn't expect to still leave footprints."

By the time the interrogation ended, it was already dark outside. As Zhou Jianming was led out of the interrogation room, he glanced back at Xiao Wang, his lips moving as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he only let out a heavy sigh. Xiao Wang was organizing the interrogation records, which were densely filled with Zhou Jianming's confession, from the motive for the murder to the details of disposing of the body; every word was permeated with guilt and remorse.

He immediately dispatched his team to the stream Zhou Jianming had mentioned, and sure enough, they found a shovel handle in the water; the wood grain on it perfectly matched the shovel head. Technicians discovered records in the warehouse's ledgers showing Zhou Jianming embezzling project funds, amounting to 500,000 yuan, consistent with his confession. Deng Yong's dump truck was also towed back to the brigade, and the hair on the seat was confirmed to belong to Zhou Jianming after testing.

When Xiao Wang handed the interrogation records and newly found evidence to Li Ming, Li Ming was in his office looking at Deng Yong's portrait. "The truth has finally come out," Li Ming said with a heavy tone. "It's not worth taking a life for three thousand yuan in freight and embezzled project funds." He picked up the DNA verification report. "This is irrefutable evidence. Zhou Jianming can't deny it now."

As night deepened, the lights of the Criminal Investigation Division remained bright. Zhou Jianming was formally arrested on suspicion of intentional homicide, and he would face the full force of the law. Deng Yong's family, though grieving upon learning the truth, finally received the long-awaited justice. Xiao Wang stood by the window, gazing at the distant Oriental Garden construction site. The foundation pit there had been filled in, as if nothing had happened, but he knew that the meticulous dump truck driver was forever frozen in time on that night of October 1st.

He recalled Zhou Jianming's final confession and Deng Yong's wife's cries. He knew in his heart that while the law could punish evil, it could not make up for the pain of losing loved ones. As a police officer, all he could do was to comfort the deceased with the truth, protect the lives of every ordinary person with justice, and prevent such tragedies from ever happening again.

The day after Zhou Jianming's arrest.

The Oriental Garden construction site was still not fully awake in the early morning. A thin mist shrouded the unfinished building frames, and the shadows of the tower cranes stretched long on the gray ground. Three police cars slowly drove into the site, their tires crunching over the gravel. Zhou Jianming sat in the back seat of the middle police car, his hands cuffed, his head resting against the window, his gaze darting away from the familiar scene outside—this was once the construction area he controlled, but now it had become the irrefutable evidence of his crimes.