At the crime scene of Unit D, Jiayi carefully got the keys and hurried back to the bedroom.
She bent down to closely examine the bunch of keys she held, selected the one that seemed to match best, inserted it, and gently turned it with a click.
Fang Zhenyue walked up to her. The two exchanged a silent glance, and he understood the nervousness in the young policewoman’s eyes. Pulling Jiayi behind him, Fang Zhenyue slowly opened the cabinet door.
Inside, there was no horrific corpse, but rather a well-locked display cabinet, the cleanest and most meticulously arranged part of the room.
Centered on the top shelf was a belt coiled into a spiral—likely the one Zhou Jianguo had disappeared with.
Jiayi instantly realized that this was the killer’s trophy from the murder. Since it was the trophy from their first kill, the belt was prominently displayed at the top, occupying a space by itself.
The second shelf held three items: a shirt cuff, a men’s watch, and a box of Marlboro cigarettes.
On the left side of the third shelf, there was a tie.
There were also two empty spaces on the right side of the third shelf, and below, two more spots were wiped clean and left vacant.
The killer clearly had a more long-term murder plan, leaving room for more trophies, but hadn’t yet managed to fill these spaces, dying tragically along with the spirits of their victims.
“Sir Fang, there’s a side bedroom that won’t open,” a forensic colleague who had finished inspecting the other rooms reported. The last room couldn’t be opened, and Sanfu struggled with the doorknob for a long time before returning to the bedroom to find Fang Zhenyue.
“Sir Fang, a citizen from Unit C reported a call from Detective Gary from Hengxiang Wangye,” a military-clad police officer standing at the doorway shouted into the crime scene, reporting to Fang Zhenyue.
Fang Zhenyue stepped out of the bedroom, instructing Sanfu and Jiayi to wait even if they found the key to the side bedroom, and then left the crime scene to take the call next door.
Two minutes later, Fang Zhenyue returned, his expression grave.
Without a word, he took the keys from Jiayi’s hand, silently walked to the unopenable side bedroom door, took a deep breath, and gently turned the key.
No one knew what was behind the door, but Fang Zhenyue’s expression alone was telling.
Chen Guangyao finished collecting trace elements and stepped out of the master bedroom, standing at the doorway, intently watching Fang Zhenyue open the door.
The door opened to reveal a surprisingly empty space—no cabinets, no beds, no desks or chairs, or any furniture.
The curtains were tightly closed, and the room was pitch black, with long objects laid out from left to right, resembling five coffins.
Fang Zhenyue turned on the light, and everyone squinted from the sudden brightness. The white walls reflected the pale light, casting it onto five pallid freezers.
Fang Zhenyue turned around, and Chen Guangyao tacitly led the forensic lab technicians to enter first, to inspect and gather evidence.
In the living room, forensic officer Xu Junhao had just completed a preliminary examination of She Jingjing’s body. He called the junior medical examiners to prepare to take away the body, and then also walked to the side door, peeking inside: “Are there more bodies?”
“There might be more than one,” Fang Zhenyue slightly stepped aside to let Xu Junhao see inside the room.
As other lab technicians inspected the scene, Chen Guangyao, under the watch of others, walked to the refrigerator and opened it one by one.
After opening the last refrigerator door, he looked up and said to Fang Zhenyue, “Five male bodies.”
Fang Zhenyue nodded, unsurprised.
“Isn’t this the home of the deceased She Jingjing?” Xu Junhao was still a bit confused about the situation.
“These five men were probably killed by She Jingjing. During her seventh hunt, something went wrong, and she was killed in self-defense,” Jiayi explained from behind Fang Zhenyue, lifting her head towards Xu Junhao.
“…” Xu Junhao frowned, muttering in disbelief, “Specifically targeting men…”
Ten minutes later, the forensic science team began detailed evidence collection, clearing the way for others to enter the room. The medical examiners and detectives then entered this special morgue one by one.
Jiayi walked behind Fang Zhenyue, using him to cover half of her body to find some psychological comfort.
As Fang Zhenyue inspected the refrigerator, she also saw five sections of mental imagery.
The second body was found dead on the living room sofa, the third body in the kitchen, and the fourth and fifth bodies in the bathroom. It seems that the murderer, She Jingjing, accumulated experience in managing crime scenes and found the bathroom the easiest place to clean bloodstains, gradually making it her chosen location for murder.
“Each was killed by throat-slitting,” said medical examiner Xu Junhao after a brief inspection of the five bodies.
“The kitchen knives have all been collected by the forensic team, and they will be tested as soon as we return to the station, hoping to determine the murder weapon,” Chen Guangyao added.
“All of them were in the prime of their lives, physically much stronger than She Jingjing. It’s initially believed, as Jiayi discovered, they were first drugged to be dazed by the murderer, then killed with a blade cutting the throat to bleed them,” Xu Junhao meticulously examined the throats and other details of the five bodies, “The sequence of the killings was likely from right to left.”
“Why do you say that?” Jiayi still stood behind Fang Zhenyue, curious despite feeling uneasy.
“The murderer’s knife cuts became progressively cleaner and more precise,” Xu Junhao said somewhat helplessly. Although it sounds as mundane as butchering pigs, it indeed was like that.
Jiayi swallowed dryly and silently noted down a line in her notebook.
“The first three bodies had many cuts of flesh removed from their legs, chest, arms, and buttocks…” Xu Junhao looked up, exchanging a glance with Chen Guangyao.
Chen Guangyao felt a lump in his throat, taking a moment before he painfully said to Diane, “Take those packs of frozen meat from the fridge back with you.”
“…Yes.” Diane’s arm hairs stood on end as she clenched her lips and teeth, hurriedly walking towards the fridge.
“Did the killer cut off this meat to dispose of the body? Then why buy so many freezers?” Sanfu frowned, puzzled, “Is he planning to slowly get rid of all the meat and eventually just leave the bones for easier disposal?”
Fang Zhenyue shook his head, softly repeating what Gary had mentioned on the phone about Cho, She Jingjing’s lover:
She Jingjing unfailingly cooked meat to feed dogs.
Upon hearing this, Jiayi’s eyes gradually glazed over, instinctively clutching at Fang Zhenyue’s sleeve, struggling to suppress the surging discomfort.
After about ten seconds, she failed, turned abruptly, and ran out of the crime scene. She took a bag from her forensic colleague, bent over at the door, and vomited loudly.
This was the first time she had vomited since gaining her powers.
She had overcome her fear of corpses, managed through autopsies by Dr. Xu, and even dealt with dismembered bodies by calming herself… but this time, she couldn’t hold back.
Fang Zhenyue instructed Sanfu to help the forensic department collect the body, then stepped out of Unit D, handing Jiayi some tissues.
A housewife standing at the door of neighboring Unit C, who had been watching the commotion, saw this and complained about her good home turning into a crime scene, then ran back inside, poured a cup of warm water, and handed it over the police line to Jiayi.
“Thank you,” she said hoarsely, insisting on expressing her gratitude before taking the cup, rinsed her mouth, and drank half of it to suppress the nausea.
Fang Zhenyue nodded towards the housewife from Unit C, patted the young policewoman on the back twice, and firmly stroked her head before turning to signal forensic technician Diane.
Receiving Sir Fang’s signal, Diane walked over to Jiayi, gently supporting the young policewoman and helping her to the kitchen window to get some air.
“If you’re feeling unwell, you can go downstairs first. There’s water in the police car, and you can sit there for a while. The crime scene investigation here should be almost done, Dr. Xu will take the body away, and we should be able to go back to the station together.”
Jiayi shook her head, breathed in the fresh air from outside the window, and after a moment, the first thing she said when she opened her eyes was:
“Sister Diane, I saw some dark red stains in the crack of the wall in the kitchen. Could you also swab that area with a cotton swab to see if it’s human blood?”
Diane, half amused and half helpless, rubbed the back of Jiayi’s head, letting her hold the warm cup of water, then turned to fetch tools for collecting trace evidence.
After standing by the window for a while, Jiayi’s face paled as she walked over to Diane, pointing out several places in the flowing image where blood had flowed, asking Diane to investigate and collect samples.
Stepping out of the kitchen, she then walked into the living room, standing by the sofa to observe.
Now that She Jingjing is dead, to reconstruct the five murders and clarify the deaths of the five victims, one can only rely on physical evidence.
Jiayi aims to collect all available evidence and, at the time of closing the case, ensure that these five individuals are recognized for more than just their deaths.
All cases need to clear the fog, and even if the murderer is dead, the souls of the five victims should not merely become a file number on a shelf in the police archive.
“Could you help me move the sofa?” Jiayi asked energetically. After her forensic colleague moved the sofa, she found dried bloodstains underneath that had not been wiped away.
“This bloodstain formed from dripping. The victim must have been lying on this sofa, and the blood flowed down the leather,” observed Chen Guangyao after examining the stains, deducing that the sofa was the scene of a murder. “After analyzing the blood, we can determine which victim died here.”
Jiayi then moved to the bathroom and leaned over the bathtub to inspect it closely:
“The murderer, having committed murders in the kitchen, living room, and bedroom, would have spent a great deal of time and energy dealing with the resulting bloodstains, which is an arduous and troublesome task. If there’s one place in this home best suited for murder, it would be the bathroom.”
After saying this, she turned and pointed out the area behind the bathtub to Chen Guangyao.
Soon, the lab technician collected a fingernail, some bloodstains that hadn’t been washed away, and a clump of repeatedly soaked and naturally dried toilet paper from behind the bathtub.
Sanfu stood at the bathroom door, watching Jiayi who had just vomited and was still pale, covering her mouth, persistently using her logic to deduce and identify important spots for collecting evidence.
“Yi has the ability to guide investigations,” Fang Zhenyue said quietly, standing beside Sanfu unknowingly.
“Yes, from the moment she entered this room, she has been observing and deducing the details and scenes of the murder, pointing out critical spots for evidence collection to her colleagues in the forensic department… Her skills are very similar to yours, Brother Yue,” Sanfu murmured in a low, muffled voice, seemingly in complex emotions.
“Imagine boldly, verify carefully. I often say this—”
“It’s easy to say but hard to do. I understand, Brother Yue,” Sanfu pursed his lips. They were all veterans in this field, and only those who have been through it know how difficult it is.
In the major case squad, without a good leader, solving cases is harder than reaching the heavens.
Team B previously had a good success rate because Brother Yue was such a leader. When the clues in a case ran cold, he could find new leads, guiding everyone to move forward.
Therefore, even when they faced challenging cases that couldn’t be solved for half a month or even a month, they still held onto hope, largely because of Brother Yue’s presence, which gave them some confidence.