Chapter 247: Chapter 244: Just Died Like That?_1
Zhou Ning was startled.
Wang Guanli wanted to see him; how did he know who he was?
Mr. Zhao hung up the phone, looking anxiously at Zhou Ning.
"Do we go down now?"
Zhou Ning nodded and stepped toward the passageway first, with Mr. Zhao waving at Zhu Xingxing.
"You and Sun Gaotie don’t rush, organize all the evidence, send someone back to the technical department first, take it to Mrs. Cui, hurry up with the examination, two experts, keep a close eye on this team leader, don’t let him contact others, Mr. Yang and I will follow quickly."
After issuing his instructions, everyone nodded, and Mr. Zhao and Mr. Yang hurried to catch up with Zhou Ning.
The three of them didn’t take the elevator this time, given the elevator was displayed on the first floor, they quickly moved through the stairwell to the twentieth floor and headed straight for the easternmost side because He Chunyang and Liu Yufei were standing at the end of the east corridor, waving at them.
Seeing Zhou Ning approach, He Chunyang said in a low voice,
"Wang Guanli has taken Ren Guangzhi hostage, right inside the office. He has also smashed the window and is threatening to throw Ren Guangzhi out."
Zhou Ning frowned.
"If no one was giving away information, why did he take Ren Guangzhi hostage?"
"Maybe he saw the police cars downstairs. When we arrived, we first secured Ren Jingmin—the man has a loud voice. As we rushed in, we saw Wang Guanli holding Ren Guangzhi and had also thrown a chair down, the glass broke completely. He then started ranting, demanding to see Zhou Xiangrong’s son, Zhou Ning, the forensic doctor.
We were stunned at that moment as well. Xu Da, on the other hand, was calm and asked Wang Guanli who Zhou Xiangrong was. Wang Guanli smirked, saying not to waste time with him and to bring Zhou Ning over. If we weren’t quick to act, Zhou Ning, you would have already been dead. Right at that moment, Xu Da’s phone rang, so he told you to come down quickly."
Zhou Ning nodded, and Mr. Zhao looked worried; the words of He Chunyang had made him break out in cold sweat—this man actually intended to kill Zhou Ning, truly wicked to the extreme.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, shall I come in with you?"
Zhou Ning shook his head.
Liu Yufei patted him on the shoulder.
"Don’t act rashly, the boss is inside. Follow the boss’s signals, don’t rush in."
Zhou Ning nodded, giving Liu Yufei a reassuring smile.
"I’ll go in, don’t worry, he can’t escape. I have some questions I want to ask him. It’s perfect that he took the initiative to see me."
The door opened, and Zhou Ning walked in. Xu Dayuan stood in the center of the room with a gun raised. In the spacious office, the cold wind howled through a huge glass window which had completely shattered, leaving a gaping hole where the chair had smashed through it.
Wang Guanli pressed a dagger against Ren Guangzhi’s neck, blood already trickling down.
Zhou Ning stepped closer, one foot at a time. Wang Guanli glanced at Zhou Ning, then squinted his eyes and tilted his chin up at Xu Dayuan.
"You, close the door!"
Outside were police officers, fully armed. Closing the door would leave only him and Zhou Ning in the room. Although Ren Guangzhi and Wang Guanli were suspects, the case hadn’t been cleared yet, and nothing should go wrong at this point.
Xu Dayuan hesitated, and Wang Guanli snorted twice.
"If you don’t close the door, I’ll kill him right now."
Xu Dayuan clenched his teeth, kicked the door, and with a bang, the door shut. He then stood beside Zhou Ning.
"Heh, that’s more like it. If I had known earlier that you were Zhou Xiangrong’s son, I would have killed you on New Year’s Day. But now you can’t kill me—I have diplomatic immunity. Annoying, isn’t it?"
Xu Dayuan glanced at Zhou Ning, worried he might lose his composure. After all, this was the man who had killed his parents. How could he remain calm? Seeing Zhou Ning clenched his fists, Xu Dayuan couldn’t help but speak up.
"Stay calm. He won’t escape. Diplomatic immunity my ass. This is Hua Country’s soil. Here, Sapporo means nothing. We all know he is Wang Guanli, a death row fugitive evading punishment, guilty of numerous lives."
...
In the Vice President’s office on the twentieth floor, Zhou Ning exhaled deeply, fixing his gaze on Wang Guanli.
"Now that you’ve seen me, what do you want to say?"
Wang Guanli laughed, tilted his head back in loud laughter. Then suddenly stopped, tilted his head, and looked at Zhou Ning with a gaze like that of a demon from hell—mad and bloodthirsty.
"Not bad, quite the composure. But aren’t you interested in your parents’ deaths? Don’t you want to know why I am standing here unharmed while they are dead, with no one to inquire, as if they never existed?"
Zhou Ning shook his head.
"Provocation won’t work on me. I’m not desperate. If we could come here openly today, it means you and Ren Guangzhi are both expendable. Even if you escaped punishment seventeen years ago, you won’t escape it today. So, holding Ren Guangzhi hostage is of no threat to us."
Ren Guangzhi burst into tears, tugging hard at Wang Guanli’s hand.
"Wang Guanli? Let go, Gaoqiao Xing, you lunatic, let go! The issue with the accounts will naturally be covered by the president, why are you doing this? Have you gone mad? If you want to be a scapegoat, go ahead, if you want to die, then die on your own, why drag me into it?"
Wang Guanli tightened his grip, and the dagger cut a slit in Ren Guangzhi’s neck.
In an instant, blood sprayed out, covering the faces of both Wang Guanli and Ren Guangzhi. Ren Guangzhi screamed in terror, reaching to cover the wound on his neck, but when he extended his hand, his fingers were cut as well.
"Don’t, don’t do it! What do you want?"
Wang Guanli said viciously:
"Shut up. You’ve had your fun; now you’ve got to pay the price. I’m just sending you off early. I’ve killed so many people; I don’t care about adding one more."
As he spoke, Wang Guanli grabbed Ren Guangzhi’s hair and kicked the back of his knee. Just as Ren was about to kneel, the dagger sliced towards his throat.
Just then, Xu Dayuan’s gun fired, bang, hitting Wang Guanli’s knife-holding right elbow. He winced in pain, dropping the dagger, and Zhou Ning rushed forward the instant Xu Dayuan shot, grabbing Ren Guangzhi by the collar and dragging him back two steps; but Ren was quite heavy, causing Zhou Ning to fall.
At the same time, the door burst open, and He Chunyang and his team rushed in, guns drawn. Several men pulled Ren Guangzhi aside while Mr. Zhao pressed a cloth to his neck.
Ren Guangzhi kept shouting:
"Call an ambulance for me, quickly call an ambulance!"
"You’re not going to die, so shut the fuck up!"
Mr. Zhao slapped Ren Guangzhi across the face, and he instantly fell silent.
Covering his elbow, Wang Guanli’s blood gushed out, but his face showed no expression of pain, as if he didn’t have pain receptors at all, just staring at Zhou Ning, stepping backward.
"Heh, who would’ve thought, that in the end, I’d be taken down by you. But I’m not at a loss. Do you know why I’m alive? Because I killed your parents, hahaha... Doesn’t it seem like there’s no justice in this world? Do you hate it?"
Xu Dayuan stepped forward, blocking Zhou Ning.
"Cut the crap. You’ve got no hostages left, are you still planning to resist?"
Wang Guanli shook his head, sneering disdainfully.
Zhou Ning felt a chill in his heart. He realized Wang Guanli didn’t want to live; he wanted to die, forcing Zhou Ning to live with hatred. But the secret was still unspoken, who had framed his parents, who had revealed their whereabouts.
"I know because I never wanted to live. I’ve been stealing life for seventeen years; I’m not at a loss. Likewise, I’ll take the secret to my grave, and you’ll find nothing. You just live with your hatred!"
As he spoke, Wang Guanli fell backward. Zhou Ning and Xu Dayuan dashed forward. One grabbed Wang Guanli’s sleeve, the other his collar.
Zhou Ning was frantic.
"Who disclosed my parents’ whereabouts? Who was it? Tell me!"
Wang Guanli laughed, shook his head, and with a forceful jerk, the shattered glass cut through his clothes, and he fell straight down.
He Chunyang and his team rushed over and helped Zhou Ning and Xu Dayuan up; both had cuts on their hands, but Zhou Ning couldn’t feel the pain. He stood at the broken window looking down.
Wang Guanli had hit the ground, blood pooling out quickly, soon forming a puddle, many vehicles below flashing their lights, alarms blaring incessantly.
Xu Dayuan pushed away He Chunyang and his team, grabbing Zhou Ning. He knew how much Wang Guanli’s words had impacted Zhou Ning. If it were him, he probably would have been even more furious, after all, this was the murderer of his parents.
He pulled off Zhou Ning’s body camera and threw it to He Chunyang, who wasn’t stupid and quickly helped to turn it off.
Xu Dayuan dragged Zhou Ning to a corner of the room, and everyone was chased out by He Chunyang.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, calm down. Wang Guanli is dead. I will help investigate your parents’ death. I can’t ask you to let it go right now, I know that’s impossible. But remember, you are a police officer, always remember that!"
Zhou Ning looked up, Wang Guanli’s roaring voice seemed to fade, he stared at Xu Dayuan’s ceaselessly moving lips, trying to make out his words. Amid Xu Dayuan’s vigorous shaking, Zhou Ning closed his eyes.
Has it passed?
Impossible. With Wang Guanli’s death, the case had become a mystery, and even the identity of his parents couldn’t be verified.
What Wang Guanli had said before his death was meant to drive him mad, and Zhou Ning understood, but it indeed was his deepest pain.
After an unknown period, Zhou Ning seemed to be able to hear again, patting Xu Dayuan’s hand.
"I’m fine, don’t worry. I’m not Wang Guanli; I can control my emotions."
Xu Dayuan looked at Zhou Ning with worry on his face, but there was much more he couldn’t say. However, the investigation had to continue. Wang Guanli’s death had disrupted their pace, especially since he was now the military attaché at the Sapporo Embassy. If he died in that capacity, it would indeed be prone to criticism.
Mr. Zhao approached, and as Zhou Ning had cut his wrist, he quickly helped dress the wound, occasionally glancing at Zhou Ning’s expression, worry written all over his face.
"The wound is deep. Should I take you to see Mr. He to get a few stitches?"
Zhou Ning shook his head.
"It’s not fatal. There should be surveillance here, right? Has Mr. Qu gone to the surveillance room?"
Mr. Zhao nodded.
"Don’t worry. We saw the hostage situation from downstairs, and he went straight to the surveillance room."
Zhou Ning turned back to look at Xu Dayuan.
"Chief, I don’t think there’s any need for further investigation here. After all, the surveillance and the body cameras have recorded everything. I want to perform an autopsy on Wang Guanli to prove he is Wang Guanli, not Gaoqiao Xing. Also, I don’t need to recuse myself, right?"
Xu Dayuan rolled his eyes.
"Recuse my ass. Get to work!"
