Animal Detective-Chapter 63: No. 1 Cotton Mill

Du Xiang Street, on the east side of Tingyang District.

The entrance to the Nanjiang First Cotton Mill near Quanshan Road.

Shen Xin slammed on the brakes, bringing the car to a halt.

Even from a distance, he could see the SWAT vehicles.

’Looks like this is serious.’

He got out of the car with Zhang Jian and went to the guardhouse next to the main gate. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Sun Zhao and Chen Chao were gathered around a tablet with Feng Kaiwei, the captain of the Tingyang District SWAT team, looking at a map.

When Sun Zhao saw Zhang Jian, his eyes lit up and he strode over to greet him.

"Are you all right?"

"I’m fine."

Zhang Jian patted his own chest.

Back when Zhang Jian worked in the Major Crimes Division, Sun Zhao had been his superior, the deputy captain.

But Sun Zhao’s sharp eyes noticed the ligature marks on Zhang Jian’s wrists. He sighed silently and patted him on the shoulder. "Good. Light injuries don’t take you off the front line, after all."

As he spoke, he noticed Shen Xin standing nearby.

"Well done!"

A slight smile appeared on his face.

Shen Xin hadn’t even officially reported to the Major Crimes Division yet, and he had already distinguished himself again.

He had managed to find Zhang Jian so quickly with just a dog.

Shen Xin smiled and quickly moved to stand next to Chen Chao.

The branch bureau had now taken full command of the case.

The station was busy, so Song Liang, Chen Ju, and the others had taken their men and returned.

Shen Xin was now considered part of the Major Crimes Division, so he was allowed to stay with the case.

As for Zhang Jian, he was here because of his knowledge of the case, and only after requesting permission from Sun Zhao.

As a rookie, Shen Xin couldn’t just walk up and ask what was going on. He could only listen from the side.

It seemed Li Shanjie had taken hostages, and the three men were now discussing a plan of action.

This cotton mill was originally a state-owned enterprise that went bankrupt in 2015. The factory buildings had been abandoned and left untouched ever since.

And Li Shanjie used to be an engineer at this very mill.

At the same time Zhang Jian was found, Sun Zhao’s team had been tracking Li Shanjie’s van via surveillance cameras and had followed it all the way here.

The last time a camera caught the van was at 11:13 p.m.

This meant that by the time Sun Zhao arrived, Li Shanjie had already been here for nearly two hours.

They discovered the locked main gate of the factory had been pried open, and then found Li Shanjie’s van outside the old dyeing workshop.

Sun Zhao and his men immediately launched a reconnaissance.

Inside a materials warehouse northeast of the dyeing workshop, they heard the sound of voices.

Soon after, they spotted the hostages held by Li Shanjie.

It was indeed Zhang Qin and Chen Zhongyuan.

However, they then saw that Li Shanjie had something that looked like explosives strapped to his body. They immediately halted their operation, retreated, and called for SWAT backup.

Shen Xin’s heart sank when he heard about the explosives.

’Sure enough, the criminals you face at a local police station and those you face in the Major Crimes Division are on completely different levels.’

The drunkards who caused trouble and got into fights at the station were just small-time troublemakers.

Zhang Jian interjected, "I remember Li Shanjie studied chemistry. He was in charge of mixing dyes at the cotton mill."

The implication was clear: Li Shanjie had enough knowledge to make his own explosives.

Sun Zhao just nodded slightly.

Whether Li Shanjie was capable of it or not didn’t matter. The fact that he had what looked like explosives on him changed the entire procedure for handling the situation.

The three men were still discussing an assault plan.

Feng Kaiwei, dressed in plainclothes, looked to be in his thirties. He wasn’t tall, but his broad shoulders gave him a solid, powerful build. He pointed at the map and said, "This map isn’t clear enough. We can’t determine the exact structure of the materials warehouse, but from what we can see, there’s only one way in or out."

The map wasn’t an architectural blueprint, just a satellite image of the interior layout.

They had already tried to contact people from the original factory, but there was no news yet.

"As for other entrances, like the warehouse’s ventilation shafts... this isn’t a movie. So my recommendation is to negotiate. Lure him out, then find a way to take him down."

This was a materials warehouse used for storing dyes, additives, and other items for the dyeing workshop.

Because they were all chemicals, many of which needed to be stored away from light, there was only a single entrance and exit.

It also had ventilation ducts.

But the movie trope of SWAT officers crawling through ventilation ducts to silently take out a criminal was almost impossible in reality.

Putting aside whether the thin, galvanized steel sheets—only a few millimeters thick—could even support a person’s weight, the metal was brittle. The noise someone would make crawling inside would be astonishingly loud, making a silent approach impossible.

Sun Zhao nodded in agreement. He looked up at Zhang Jian and said, "Zhang Jian, you were in charge of this case back then. You know the most about Li Shanjie and the others. Think about it—what’s the best angle to take when negotiating with him?"

The branch bureau didn’t have any so-called negotiation experts, only a political commissar who specialized in matters of persuasion.

The man was currently rushing to the scene.

But negotiation required finding an opening. Not all criminals who take hostages do so with the intention of negotiating with the police.

As Zhang Jian had said, Li Shanjie didn’t want to live anymore; he was looking for death. By taking hostages, he likely had no intention of negotiating with them at all.

The only reason he hadn’t killed anyone yet was probably to prolong the hostages’ torment.

Negotiating with him now was just a long shot, a faint hope that he might have a change of heart.

Zhang Jian sighed and quickly began to recount the case.

"To be honest, that case was always a real mess," Zhang Jian said, sighing as he recalled the past.

Li Shanjie was born in ’81. After graduating from college in ’03, he was hired to work at the Nanjiang First Cotton Mill.

While working there, he met Zhang Qin.

Zhang Qin was also a local and worked as a textile worker at the mill.

The two married in ’05.

"When I was doing interviews, everyone at the factory said they were incredibly in love at first. Zhang Qin was beautiful, too. You could say they were a perfect couple."

"The problem started with the child."

"Li Shanjie’s mother was rather traditional and always wanted a grandson. About half a year after they married, Zhang Qin got pregnant."

"But then there was an accident, and she lost the baby. Because of complications from the miscarriage, on top of her already frail health—she was always delicate—she developed problems and couldn’t have children anymore."

"Because of this, their relationship started to sour. When they were living in the factory dorms, their neighbors often heard Li Shanjie arguing with Zhang Qin after he’d been drinking, and even getting physical."

"Later they moved out to the nearby Yuehua District, but it was the same story. The local police station received multiple domestic violence calls about them."

Shen Xin listened in silence.

’Married in ’05, lost the baby a year later, Li Shanjie was in prison for five years, and it’s ’17 now... that means he went to prison in ’12.’

’In other words, the domestic violence went on for a full six years.’

"Why didn’t they get divorced?" Shen Xin couldn’t help but ask.

Zhang Jian sighed. "How should I put it... from my interactions with her, I got the feeling Zhang Qin had a very soft personality. The type to just accept her fate. She didn’t have much family, no one to back her up."

"And Li Shanjie refused to divorce, so it just dragged on. Anyway, as outsiders, it’s hard for us to say what was really going on in their heads."

In ’10, Li Shanjie’s mother fell ill and passed away.

"This also seemed to set Li Shanjie off. My investigation showed that his violence escalated, and he started suspecting Zhang Qin was cheating on him—with this Chen Zhongyuan."

"Chen Zhongyuan started at the mill in ’07. He was an engineer and was already married, but his wife and child were back in his hometown. He happened to be assigned to the same textile workshop as Zhang Qin. One thing led to another, they probably interacted a bit more than usual, and rumors started to spread."

"The local police and the Women’s Federation tried to mediate several times, but nothing worked."

"Until February 17, 2012, right after the New Year. The local precinct received a call saying Zhang Qin had been beaten again, and this time she was seriously injured."

At this point, Zhang Jian’s tone grew grim.