January 19, 2007.
Tang Guohua, deputy general manager of Lianjiang City's Huihong Real Estate Co., Ltd., one of the two companies interested in acquiring the Heavenly Fragrance Tower, turned himself in.
In the interrogation room, he gave a detailed confession. With his acquisition of the Heavenly Fragrance Tower blocked, he had instructed two unemployed drifters, Lai Jiale and Fang Rong, to start a fire to intimidate Huang Yu into cooperating. He had never expected the blaze to spiral out of control, ultimately leaving nine dead and more than twenty injured.
Tang Guohua wept as he spoke, his face full of remorse. He explained every detail of the crime with absolute clarity, as though he truly were the mastermind behind the devastating arson case.
As it happened, when the police brought Lai Jiale and Fang Rong in for questioning, the two men also readily confessed to their crimes.
Their accounts covered the source of the gasoline, the tools used to set the fire, the time of the crime, the sequence of events, and the total of one hundred thousand yuan Tang Guohua had paid them before and afterward. Their stories matched, followed the same template, and were so firmly committed to memory that they could practically recite them backward.
Notably, Tang Guohua also provided a dedicated cell phone. The numbers stored in it matched exactly those found in the phone seized from Jing Xianfeng's office.
In addition, a secretary at the Huihong Real Estate Company testified to hearing Tang Guohua discuss plans for the arson with someone else. Lai Jiale and Fang Rong's disreputable friends also testified that the two had received a large sum of money four months earlier and squandered it recklessly...
With that, the mastermind, accomplices, witnesses, physical evidence, and confessions were all accounted for, forming a logical