Chapter 59: A Tomb-Raiding Syndicate with Seemingly Hidden Secrets

After looking at the photo of the man named Wu Yungong, Cen Lian subconsciously rubbed his eyes.

The text bubble appearing above the photo was even longer than the one belonging to Yuan Shunyou just now, and he was also five years older than Yuan Shunyou.

Judging by the number of criminal records, he was most likely the boss of this gang.

After examining the photos of these two men, Cen Lian found the autopsy photographs of the remaining three charred corpses and, as expected, saw their criminal records hovering above their heads as well.

It was evident that all five men were tomb raiders. Among them, Wu Yungong and Yuan Shunyou were veterans of the trade, and another tomb raider who frequently accompanied Wu Yungong was Wei Yong, whose identity had already been largely confirmed by the police.

The criminal records of the other two individuals were considerably shorter, with no prior convictions, suggesting they had not been following Wu Yungong for very long.

However, although the identities of the victims were now known, the identity of the killer remained elusive.

Given such a brutal method of murder, Cen Lian currently suspected whether a conflict of interest between two rival gangs of tomb raiders had led to the massacre of one party.

"This tomb-raiding gang has been operating across our province and two neighboring provinces with a rather arrogant modus operandi. Could it be possible that they triggered a gang war with their peers?" Tang Hua was also leaning toward this hypothesis.

Wu Qianshan shook his head.

"At that time, we also deployed some local informants, and they all stated they had never heard of anyone targeting them." He quickly ruled out this erroneous direction.

Indeed, those who came before had practically walked down every possible path to its dead end.

Cen Lian quickly shifted his train of thought and decided to simply examine the tombs they had previously looted.

Plundering Han and Tang dynasty tombs in Kang'an City, Shang dynasty tombs in Gaoping City, and Tang dynasty tombs in Yunzhong City held a certain perverse logic.

Only these two Qing dynasty tombs they had raided seemed out of place no matter how one looked at them.

The Qing dynasty tombs in Kang'an City and its neighboring city, Yaoguan City, possessed nothing particularly worthy of being plundered.

"Have you checked the illicit cultural relics they fenced?" Cen Lian vaguely sensed that the matter might be connected to these Qing dynasty tombs.

Yuan Chenxi retrieved a file box from the thick stack of case materials. "I just checked, they are all right here."

No one knew when she had so silently and meticulously sorted and reclassified the case files.

Wang Yuanteng watched Cen Lian pull out some photographic evidence from the box and took the remaining portion for himself.

He soon let out a gasp of astonishment.

"Goodness me, gilded Bianzhong bells from the Western Han Dynasty, glazed hairpins from the Han Dynasty, and black pottery figurines—these are imperial-grade burial objects!" Wang Yuanteng was quite shocked.

Cen Lian handed him a record from his hands. "The tomb this gang raided was Han Yunling, belonging to Lady Gouyi of Emperor Wu of Han."

Wang Yuanteng clicked his tongue in wonder. He then looked at the Shang dynasty tombs they had plundered and felt even more strongly that if these people were still alive, they would have been executed by firing squad dozens of times over.

Those were all large-scale bronze vessels. Although the neighboring province possessed many Shang dynasty relics, the number of such large-scale bronzes unearthed was also limited.

The Tang dynasty tombs were even more thrilling. Aside from some conventional Tang三彩 (Tang tri-color glazed pottery), everything else was apparently made of gold.

In comparison, the few Qing dynasty tombs among them appeared utterly mediocre.

"Was the exact location of these Qing dynasty tombs ever found back then?" Cen Lian asked Wu Qianshan.

He refused to believe that during all these previous reinvestigations, no expert had noticed this detail.

Qi Yan answered the question on behalf of Wu Qianshan.

"This Qing dynasty tomb was extremely ordinary. We can only confirm it was the tomb of a minor wealthy family in the plain area of Kang'an City. Nothing more could be determined from the illicitly traded cultural relics in Wu Yungong's possession."

Sure enough, this path had also been walked by others before, and it had similarly led nowhere.

However, Cen Lian was different from them. Compared to everyone else, he possessed an extra piece of information.

This Qing dynasty tomb was not located in Kang'an City at all, but rather in Yaoguan City, a mere dozen kilometers away from Kang'an City.

Few people would travel out of their way to such a place simply to plunder a Qing dynasty tomb.

Cen Lian estimated that among the two minor accomplices whose names he had seen but whose household registrations he could not yet investigate, at least one was likely a local from Yaoguan City.

He needed to find a way to bridge this information gap as soon as possible.

A flash of inspiration struck him, and he recalled Ge Jiawen, the cowardly tomb raider he had encountered earlier. Perhaps his uncle could be used as a convenient excuse.

"I'll go to the prison and ask Zheng Xinmin," he said, rising as casually as possible. "The active period of their gang overlaps to a certain extent with these tomb raiders led by Wu Yungong. Maybe they know something about each other."

In truth, even he felt guilty saying this. Tomb raiders with unbreakable brotherhood only existed in novels and television dramas; in reality, for the sake of immense wealth, fathers and sons often turned against each other, and brothers fought within the walls.

Most tomb raiders chose single-line contacts during transactions, trying their best not to expose their identities to their peers.

However, Cen Lian was merely going there to fabricate an excuse for his supernatural cheat; he did not actually need Zheng Xinmin to know all that much.

"Let's go to the crime scene where he died first," Wu Qianshan said. As a crime scene investigator, even knowing that virtually nothing could be detected now, he still preferred to inspect the actual location.

Thus, as usual, Cen Lian and Wang Yuanteng went to see Zheng Xinmin, while Wu Qianshan led a team up the mountain to examine the scene.

Forensic Doctor Lin walked over as they were heading out, and upon confirming there was nothing requiring her immediate attention, she returned to the forensic office to conduct injury assessments for others.

Such tasks occupied her year-round without end.

Wang Yuanteng looked at Cen Lian while they were in the car.

"Did you discover something?" He had harbored this feeling ever since Cen Lian proposed visiting Zheng Xinmin.

Cen Lian felt a start in his heart; it turned out their team really did have a talent driven by pure intuition.

"I wouldn't call it a discovery, but I remember seeing fragments of plates like this near my relatives' place in Yaoguan City," Cen Lian said, sitting in the passenger seat and showing a photo of a Qing dynasty plate to Wang Yuanteng. "So I was wondering if this Qing dynasty tomb might actually be in Yaoguan City."

"If the tomb is there, then at least one of these five men must be from there as well," Wang Yuanteng naturally deduced. "So you plan to ask Zheng Xinmin if he knows anyone from Yaoguan City within a tomb-raiding gang?"

Cen Lian realized Wang Yuanteng had completed all the logical justifications for him.

"Right, let's give it a try. It counts as a breakthrough." Cen Lian simply went along with his reasoning.

Having obtained the answer he sought, Wang Yuanteng sped up the car considerably.

This time, Cen Lian went in to see Zheng Xinmin alone.

"I want to ask you about someone," Cen Lian cut straight to the chase. "Do you know a man named Sun Heyang?"

Zheng Xinmin's expression turned somewhat surprised.

"I know him, but didn't he die long ago?"

From his expression, Cen Lian could tell that he probably had some understanding of this gang.

"It seems you also know about the 7.20 case from over six years ago," Cen Lian hadn't expected such an unexpected bonus. "Tell me, what do you know?"

Zheng Xinmin's expression instantly became peculiar.