Chapter 478: Chapter 283: Stockholm Syndrome

“How could it not be? You can even kick it again.”

After saying that, he thrust his buttocks out a bit.

Smack~

“It’s quite bouncy.” Seeing this, Zuo Yilong gave him a slap.

“Stop fooling around, notify the technicians, secure the evidence immediately, take Ye Dan to the car, and send Ma Chengjun to the hospital first.”

“Understood.”

Out of humanitarian concern, as Ma Chengjun was injured, Li Xiang and his team first took him to the hospital for finger reattachment surgery.

The finger that was knocked off had also been found. Under Li Xiang’s supervision, it was taken to the Renmin Hospital in Fuhui City for treatment.

Li Xiang knew that Ma Chengjun had been a mercenary for fifteen years; ordinary people were no match for him. Criminals like him were extremely vicious and would never surrender easily, and Li Xiang was familiar with scenarios like this.

In TV shows, there are usually scenes like this where the police injure the criminal and capture them successfully, but during treatment, the criminal seizes the opportunity to escape.

Normally, when Li Xiang watched such plots, he would curse the police for being stupid with gritted teeth.

So in this familiar scenario, Li Xiang naturally had to guard personally, not trusting anyone else.

After all, last time in Jinling, even Yue Cheng, who had been a scout, nearly escaped; he wouldn’t let that happen again.

With himself there, Ma Chengjun wouldn’t stand a chance.

Upon arriving at the hospital, the doctor saw the handcuffs on Ma Chengjun and instantly understood that he was a criminal.

Due to professional ethics, the attending physician said nothing and immediately prepared for surgery.

“The surgery is ready. Please remove his handcuffs; the operating room is a sterile environment, and you need to wait outside.”

“No way, this person is a high-risk felon, and to ensure no accidents, I must be in the operating room.”

Li Xiang immediately rejected the doctor’s proposal, jokingly considering the safety of the doctor, as the scalpel in the doctor’s hand was very sharp.

Li Xiang’s tough stance left the doctor speechless, so he had no choice but to let Li Xiang wear sterile clothing and enter the operating room together.

“Can the handcuffs be removed now?”

“No rush, anesthetist, give him general anesthesia.”

Upon hearing Li Xiang’s words, Ma Chengjun’s eyes widened like saucers, looking at Li Xiang in disbelief.

He had indeed been considering taking advantage of having his handcuffs removed to escape during surgery. As for the severed finger, compared to his life, it was just a small piece and could be dispensed with.

But he never expected Li Xiang to be so wary of him.

A minor finger reattachment surgery, and he was to be given general anesthesia.

This…

How was he going to escape?

“Let me go, I don’t want the treatment.”

Li Xiang wasn’t about to indulge his antics: “If you don’t want the treatment, fine, just bandage it up; a missing piece of a finger won’t kill you.”

Ma Chengjun: “…”

At this point, he behaved, realizing that with Li Xiang around, he had no chance at all.

Seeing Li Xiang and Ma Chengjun come out of the operating room shortly after entering, Jiang Tuo was quite surprised: “That was quick?”

“He said he didn’t want the treatment, so what’s the point of staying in there? Just a quick bandage, and we’re out. Let’s go, first we’ll detain him at the Fuhui City detention center for interrogation.”

Working on a case in a different location, at critical times, they still had to rely on some local resources to handle it.

The case wasn’t closed yet, and Li Xiaofang and Shen Youlin were still missing. Their whereabouts were only known to Ma Chengjun.

—————–

Fuhui City, detention center.

Ma Chengjun was detained here, and Li Xiang and Jiang Tuo took turns interrogating him, but he was as stubborn as ever, refusing to say a word no matter what was asked.

Those who can work as mercenaries are tough; getting him to talk was no easy task.

“Still not talking, even though Li Xiaofang’s phone and bank card are laid out in front of him, he still won’t say where she is.”

Without finding Li Xiaofang, or rather, without finding her body, it would be difficult to convict him.

If the court convicted him and then years later Li Xiaofang suddenly turned up alive, the case would be a miscarriage of justice.

Currently, wrongful cases are pursued as a lifetime responsibility. If a case is mishandled, even if you’re retired, you can still be held accountable, which leads to prosecutors being very cautious in filing charges nowadays.

Even if everyone believes he did it, as long as the body isn’t found, it’s hard to convict him.

Ma Chengjun obviously understood this, which is why he hasn’t said a word from beginning to end.

Don’t ask, because if you ask, he doesn’t know.

In another interrogation room, Ye Dan’s situation was similar, as they had clearly communicated beforehand.

“What should we do?”

After three days of continuous intense interrogation without making any progress.

People can’t be detained indefinitely. The key to this case now is that if they’re alive, they must see the person, if they’re dead, they must see the body.

Li Xiaofang and Shen Youlin, where exactly are they?

At the meeting, everyone was brainstorming.

Ye Dan’s room had been thoroughly examined, and only some of Li Xiaofang’s belongings were found. No bloodstains or evidence were found.

Nothing proved that Li Xiaofang had been harmed.

“They obviously understand the severity of the situation. Currently, the only thing we can charge him with is illegal possession of firearms, but that crime isn’t severe enough, compared to a homicide, when weighing the lesser of two evils, Ma Chengjun clearly knows this.”

“Ye Dan is the same; she shifted all the blame onto Ma Chengjun and also denied the incident of withdrawing money in Lantian three years ago, directly refusing to admit that the person in the video was her.”

Because disguises were used when withdrawing money, she flatly denied it and left others with no recourse.

We can’t just say she looks like her, right?

That definitely wouldn’t fly in court.

“Captain Li, what do you think we should do?”

Everyone looked at Li Xiang. Li Xiang had earned the team’s respect with his competence and had become the team’s anchor, the one everyone turned to when they faced problems.

“Ma Chengjun didn’t spend fifteen years as a mercenary for nothing; his willpower is quite strong. I think we need to adjust our focus; the breakthrough in this case still lies with Ye Dan. We must find a way to make her talk.”

“How do we get her to talk?”

These past few days, they tried persuasion by appealing to reason and emotion, but it had no effect.

They used various interrogation techniques one after another without achieving any progress, leaving everyone quite surprised.

It made sense for Ma Chengjun, with fifteen years as a mercenary and strong willpower, but what about Ye Dan?

What’s her reason?

“Lan Huina, you’ve been studying criminal psychology, and Ye Dan is your primary responsibility in the examination. What’s your take on her?”

Seeing Li Xiang asking her, Lan Huina took out her notebook and said, “After three days of interrogating Ye Dan and close communication, I found that she has a famous psychological effect: Stockholm Syndrome.”

“Stockholm Syndrome? What’s that?”

“Here, I must mention a little story. On August 23, 1973, two ex-convicts, in an attempt to rob the largest bank in Stockholm, Sweden, failed. They took four bank employees hostage, and after a 130-hour standoff, the hostages were released when the perpetrators gave up.

However, several months after the incident, the four hostages still showed compassion toward their captors, refusing to testify against them in court, and even raising legal defense funds for them. They all stated that they did not resent their captors and expressed gratitude for not being harmed by them, even showing hostility toward the police. More surprisingly, a female hostage even fell in love with one of the captors and got engaged to him while he was in prison.”

“No way? Is there really such a thing?”

Sun Zhidong listened to this story, shocked enough to drop his jaw.

“Indeed, these two captors held hostages for six days, during which they threatened their lives but sometimes showed mercy. In an unexpected psychological turn of events, the hostages resisted the government’s final rescue efforts. This mindset is Stockholm Syndrome.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep