Chapter 484: Chapter 455 Search Warrant_1
"So, you’re saying, you don’t stay in this rental every night?"
Ye Chengchen shook his head.
"I can’t say for sure, but after the New Year’s Day until after the Spring Festival, I stayed here once or twice. It depends on the location of my show. If it’s close by, I stay here; if my home is closer, I stay there. It’s my rented apartment, whenever I stay is none of the police’s business, right?"
The cellphone on the table vibrated twice. Liu Yufei picked up the phone, glanced at the content, and laughed directly after browsing through it.
"It seems you know full well that there’s surveillance at the elevator and the entrance of the apartment building. With a hat on and a different outfit, not to mention strangers, even acquaintances wouldn’t recognize you. But I must say I admire you — using the stairs instead of the elevator to go up and down the eighth floor. Is it for exercise?
I seem to remember a fitness instructor who often encourages everyone to climb stairs for exercise, and to keep the motion of pulling up their pants. Are you maintaining your figure this way?"
Liu Yufei paused for a moment, and seeing that Ye Chengchen continued not to speak, she leisurely continued.
"Zhang Bo has a pair of children, a two and a half-year-old daughter and a one and a half-year-old son. I’d think even though you broke up, you should still be aware of this, right?
My colleague reviewed the surveillance footage and found that on March 1st at 19:22, you entered Building 5, Unit 2, and left the next day at 10:42.
My colleague arrived at the scene at 10:28, just in time to see the two children fall from the building. With so many onlookers gathered below the building because of the commotion, you didn’t hear anything?"
Ye Chengchen nodded and then shook his head.
"I heard the noise, it was loud with crying, shouting, and calling. Plus, when I came out, there were already many people blocking the entrance, but I didn’t pay attention to what was happening. I’m not going to be like those old ladies who come to see what’s going on; I had a show yesterday, was in a hurry, and simply didn’t care."
Liu Yufei stared into Ye Chengchen’s eyes, her fingers tapping on the small table.
"Let’s sort out your timeline a bit. According to what you said, you and Zhang Bo broke up before the New Year’s Day, he looked for you afterward, but you didn’t get back together. You hardly returned to the rental from New Year’s Day until yesterday, is that right?"
Ye Chengchen nodded, didn’t say a word but looked annoyed, turning her head to one side.
Liu Yufei stood up, walked to the table, and took out a stack of photos. Then, she returned to face Ye Chengchen, laying out the photos one by one before introducing them.
"Good, I understand your point. Since you didn’t see anything, let’s look at these together, these are crime scene photos taken during the investigation."
As she spoke, Liu Yufei placed the pictures one by one on the small table. The gruesome scene of a high-altitude fall wasn’t like the censored images seen online.
The blood-soaked bodies had fallen onto steps. Although they weren’t embedded into the ground, their backs were perfectly contorted along the strange curves of the steps, making anyone’s hair stand on end at a single glance. The sight was too horrific to describe.
Ye Chengchen took one look, closed her eyes instinctively, and her hands flailed. Her freshly cut nails, unfiled and very sharp, scratched Liu Yufei’s wrist, drawing blood, as the photos scattered on the floor.
Liu Yufei bent down to pick up the photos, while the clerk rushed over and shouted at Ye Chengchen,
"Do you realize this is assaulting an officer? If you’re told to look, just look. What’s with all the nonsense? Where do you think you are? This is the Criminal Police Brigade, where major criminal cases are investigated and processed. Don’t put on that frail and aggrieved act. Do you think we’d handcuff you and have you sit here without any evidence?"
After such an outburst, Zhou Ning was taken aback, barely holding back a laugh, he gave Xu Dayuan a thumbs-up.
"Director Xu, you’ve trained some fine officers, they all have the same temperament as you. What a way with words, clearly takes after you."
Xu Dayuan grinned and nodded, arms crossed.
"This Mr. Shan is capable, he’s got good abilities. Having attended several interrogations, it’s also a growth opportunity for him. But this Ye Chengchen is not easy to deal with. I don’t understand how she was in contact with Zhang Bo.
Earlier, at Mr. Qu’s place, they checked QQ, WeChat, and the call logs, but Zhang Bo hadn’t contacted her at all. If Ye Chengchen was involved in this fall case, how did Zhang Bo notify her when the old lady went out?"
Zhou Ning thought about it and narrowed his eyes.
"You guys keep interrogating here. I’ll take someone to the scene again. Can we apply for a search warrant for Ye Chengchen’s house?"
Xu Dayuan paused, then waved his hand.
"Let’s apply for it now. Prepare for it, and I’ll send it downstairs later. Anyway, we have to wait for the forensic report. It takes time to identify the DNA on the clothes. Take Ye Chengchen to the scene for a visit, even if it’s just to intimidate her. Even if she doesn’t confess, her eyes might reveal some information."
Zhou Ning nodded.
"I’ll go and get the others ready. It’s possible that Zhang Bo didn’t notify her at all. If Ye Chengchen had been waiting in the hall all along, she would’ve known as soon as the old lady left. But there were too many footprints found on the fifteenth floor, making it impossible to identify them. If we find matching shoes in her house and can find some valuable information on them, interrogating her will be easier."
Upon hearing this, Xu Dayuan’s eyes brightened, and he waved his hand urgently.
"Don’t delay any longer, hurry down with your team. I’ll personally get the search warrant for you, and have Liu Yufei suspend the interrogation. Ye Chengchen won’t be saying anything—let’s find the evidence ourselves,"
Having said that, without waiting for Zhou Ning to react, he had already turned and left, heading straight to the interrogation room to call Liu Yufei out.
Zhou Ning shook his head and dialed Mr. Zhao’s number, asking Mr. Zhao to have the driver Mr. Wang, along with their group, take all the equipment, head downstairs, and prepare to depart.
Fifteen minutes later, Liu Yufei had already dragged Ye Chengchen downstairs. This time, Ye wasn’t handcuffed; she was directly stuffed into the car. Liu gave Zhou Ning and his team an OK sign, and then Mr. Shan, who had just come down with the search warrant, ran down as well.
Having handed it over to Liu Yufei, he also got into the car behind them. With the police lights flashing, Liu Yufei’s car took the lead, and Mr. Wang along with the cars behind hastened to follow. Mr. Zhao shook his head.
"Director Xu is in a rush again. I already said we investigated the corridor on the scene very thoroughly, and found several footprints. But the shoe sizes weren’t small, and I hadn’t seen those patterns before. I compared them, and they’re equivalent to size 41-42. Could that really be that woman’s size?"
Zhu Xingxing straightened her neck, interrupting,
"I’m only 166cm tall, but I wear size 39 shoes. Who said women all have small shoe sizes? You’ve got to check out how tall Ye Chengchen is; in heels, she’s almost 1.9 meters. With her barefoot height, she’s nearly 180cm, isn’t she? A size 41 or so shoe isn’t that big for her."
Mr. Zhao didn’t dare to say anything else; Zhu Xingxing had already raised two fingers, ready at his thigh, while driver Mr. Wang joked,
"No kidding, when I was in the army, we had a female comrade who wasn’t very tall, about 1.7 meters or so, and she wore size 42 shoes."
No one argued any further. In fact, Zhou Ning had just glanced at Ye Chengchen’s feet—they were slender and long, and the size indeed wasn’t small, but it seemed not to reach size 41. Could it be she purposely wore oversized shoes?
Before long, they arrived at Vanke Charm City, Liuhe District. The influx of so many police cars, whizzing in, instantly attracted a lot of attention, especially when the cars stopped in front of building five. Many people began to gather around that area, then pointed and chattered, speculating amongst themselves.
Upon exiting the car with Ye Chengchen, even without handcuffs, a woman of such height dressed differently amid so many uniformed police personnel immediately caught everyone’s eye.
They arrived at the entrance of block two and happened upon the big sister from 1402 with the mole between her brows, still standing in front of the building with her child in her arms.
About to greet her, they then saw the woman Liu Yufei was dragging. The big sister quickly hoisted her child onto her shoulder, disdainfully making some space, while Zhou Ning and Mr. Zhao nodded toward the big sister—that counted as a greeting since they couldn’t cause trouble for a resident.
Nine people crammed into the elevator at once; it was a bit crowded as they headed straight to the eighth floor. Zhou Ning and his team got out, with Mr. Zhao at the forefront holding the inspection kit. He began to don shoe covers and gloves—an unmistakable sign of their purpose.
Liu Yufei brandished the search warrant in front of Ye Chengchen, giving it a shake.
"Look clearly, this is a search warrant. I don’t want to waste any words. Open the door; let’s carry out a thorough inspection quickly. If there’s nothing amiss, you can get your normal life back sooner,"
Ye Chengchen snorted disdainfully, a face full of anger.
"So many police officers following me home; in less than an hour, I’ll become famous in the neighborhood. What’s your real agenda? Don’t you think I don’t know? I’m not a mistress; why the enthusiasm? Perhaps you were left by a mistress and are seeking a sense of presence here, bumpkin!"
Mr. Shan made to step forward but was stopped by a glance from Liu Yufei, who pointed to the body cam on her chest, smiling slightly as she spoke,
"See clearly, this is a body cam, and what I’m holding is a search warrant. We are following protocol. Your refusal to cooperate with law enforcement and insulting a police officer is a serious offense—contemptuous behavior could constitute a crime of insult.
"Read more when you have time, don’t place all your intelligence on your face; how many years can your beauty last? Open the door first, we’ll talk about the insults to the police officer later."
Ye Chengchen was furious, but at this point, she didn’t dare to act out. Blocking the keypad panel, she rapidly keyed in the password, and click—the door opened. Ye Chengchen was pulled aside, as Mr. Zhao and the others entered first to take photographs, followed closely by the rest.
Zhou Ning wasn’t in a hurry. He simply stood at the door in the staircase, observing the direction of Ye Chengchen’s home. This wasn’t a layout with direct elevator access to the home—with two households per floor and staggered doors. From the staircase landing, one could see the doors of both homes and the elevator doors. Plus, with a strip of glass over the doors to the stairwell, it wasn’t easy to notice someone’s presence there.
This layout was likely the same on every floor. Zhou Ning glanced at the corridor; there was less dust in the center of the floor, with thick dust on both edges—a clear sign that it hadn’t been thoroughly cleaned for months, in stark contrast to the cleanliness at the elevator bay and entrance to the homes.
Before long, Mr. Zhao peeked out and signaled to Zhou Ning with a wave of his hand.
Zhou Ning quickly went over, put on shoe covers, and entered the room, casually closing the door behind him. Just then, they could hear Ye Chengchen outside starting to lose her temper. Zhou Ning gestured to Mr. Zhao with a nod of his chin.
"So, what did you find?"
Mr. Zhao was excited as he held up a pair of shoes by their soles, showing them to Zhou Ning. Indeed, the pattern on the soles was very distinctive, with several large and small circles piled together and a few English letters PRADA in the center.
"What a find, I’ve never seen shoes like these before. They must be an expensive brand. The way this part juts out at the back—what’s the point, to make the feet look bigger? But this pattern, it looks familiar, like I’ve seen it in the footprints we collected on the fifteenth floor."
This remark energized everyone; Zhu Xingxing leaned in for a look.
"This is a pair of PRADA ’Dad shoes’ from their 2013 collection. They’re not sold in China and start at several thousand. I think I’ve seen them on sale for over 7000. But what’s this on them?"
