Six, why six?
After snapping back to her senses, Jiayi tried to regulate her emotions through deep breathing to calm down and face the complex case rationally.
This was a method taught to her by Dr. Bai during post-shooting psychological counseling: to soothe her emotions, avoid thinking about things that trigger fear or other emotions, focus on logical content like the formula ‘1+1=2’ to divert attention, and then use rational logic to revisit the emotionally triggering events, redefine them, which helps alleviate pain, reduce fear, and solve problems.
It worked well. After silently repeating ‘1+1=2’ for a while, Jiayi quickly managed to calm herself down. Then she heard Brother Guangming standing beside the bed discussing with forensic officer Xu Junhao about the odd wound:
“It doesn’t look like it was caused by a dagger. See here, there are serrated edges. I noticed something odd with just a glance during the scene investigation.”
“Yes, if it were a dagger, each end of the wound should have a single cut. Some wounds might have two cuts at each end because the dagger changes direction as it’s pulled out. But this wound has many cuts at each end, or it’s a strange weapon with fine serrated blades at both ends, or the murderer kept cutting. But why would they do that?” Sir Xu furrowed his brow, having never seen such a wound in previous autopsies.
Jiayi frowned, stepped forward pretending to examine the wound closely, then turned to Xu Junhao after a few seconds:
“Could there be another possibility? The murderer stabbed hard the first time, pulled out the knife, and then stabbed down hard again. Perhaps the murderer was venting anger or ensuring the victim’s death by repeatedly stabbing, but unlike typical multiple stabbings, this murderer stabbed repeatedly in the same spot.”
Xu Junhao paused, unconsciously emitting a thoughtful “Hmm…” as he turned back to re-examine the wound. After a few seconds, he looked up, “Jiayi could be very right! We can explore this hypothesis further during the autopsy by studying the cross-sections of the wound.”
“Thank you, Sir Xu.” Jiayi then stepped back.
“But why would the murderer do that?” Liu Jiaming approached from behind Jiayi, his brow furrowed in confusion.
“The victim also had a blunt force trauma to the back of the head, which we can’t rule out as the fatal injury,” Sir Xu continued with the preliminary onsite examination of the body.
“We found a blood-stained crystal ball on the small rack by the door. We’ll focus on extracting and testing materials and fingerprints from it back at the station,” Brother Guangming immediately added.
Jiayi turned to look at the crystal ball Diane had collected in an evidence bag, which was consistent with the object she saw in her mental imagery, held in the murderer’s hand striking Zhao Meini at the back of her head.
So it was a crystal ball.
Sir Xu looked up, nodded at Brother Guangming, and then continued inspecting other parts of the body.
“The murderer might have wiped down the body… There are no signs of assault, and whether there were other malicious acts before the murder needs to be determined after returning to the station for further forensic testing… It is preliminarily concluded that the victim was first knocked unconscious with a blunt object to the back of the head, followed by stabbing actions…”
“The stabbing was likely also out of anger,” Uncle Jiu sighed lazily, leaning against the doorway.
“The blood-stained crystal ball was found on a shelf in the living room, it had been superficially cleaned, probably with disinfectants or other chemicals. The murderer wiped off the fingerprints but left behind blood stains,” the forensic scientist Diane added.
“So, the blow to the head with the blunt object likely occurred in the living room,” Uncle Jiu turned to look at the living room, “This is where the first crime scene was.”
“We will conduct a more thorough inspection again,” Diane quickly responded.
Standing in the bedroom, Jiayi looked up just in time to see a young forensic scientist pinch a strand of hair from the gap in the bed, which under the light revealed a dark brown hue.
That must be the thread-like thing the murderer intentionally left behind, which turned out to be a hair.
This action… Why does it seem like something someone would do to frame another person after committing a murder?
The forensic department also found a torn photo in the living room trash can, depicting the victim with a female friend who had reddish-brown long hair.
“From this, could it be the hair on this photo that was found here, and tearing up the photo was an act of venting anger?” Liu Jiaming stared as his forensic colleague picked photo pieces out of the trash and began preliminary reconstruction on site, speculating based on the faces in the photo.
“The stabbing of the chest after the murder was also for venting; it must have been an acquaintance who committed the crime,” Uncle Jiu also came over to look at the woman in the photo, “This woman with reddish-brown hair is most likely the murderer.”
Jiayi frowned, choosing not to comment.
Turning around, she suddenly stood in the living room hallway and surveyed the area, then squatted to look under the sofa, indeed spotting a glint of cold light.
“Diane, there’s something here.”
Diane immediately came over, bent down to look, and used tweezers to retrieve the small object that hadn’t slid far under the sofa.
“It’s an earring.” Diane examined it before placing it in the evidence bag.
“Eh? It’s the same as the one the woman with reddish-brown hair in the photo was wearing when the picture was taken.” Liu Jiaming found further evidence to support the ‘woman with reddish-brown hair is the murderer’ theory!
Jiayi frowned and inhaled sharply, something felt off.
She had the eerie feeling that the murderer somehow knew she would see all this, as if the murderer was guiding everyone to discover these pieces of evidence, then leading the entire B team to point the finger at the woman with reddish-brown long hair.
Recalling the images in her mind, occasionally the murderer stood in the darkness, suddenly looking towards Jiayi’s perspective, made her feel very uncomfortable.
Although reason told her the murderer couldn’t possibly know of her existence, it still made her hair stand on end.
The Forensic Science Division conducted two rounds of site investigation, and the coroner, Sir Xu, performed a preliminary examination of the body on site before taking it back to the police station.
Not all of the Major Crime Unit detectives followed the car back; instead, they dispersed to various locations to gather evidence.
Liu Jiaming returned to the police station to thoroughly investigate the identity of the deceased.
Fu and Gary continued to canvass the area near the crime scene, looking for any clues left by the murderer that night or by the victim on a regular basis.
The body was discovered by Sister Yun, the female manager of the nightclub, who provided information about the victim’s employment. Fang Zhenyue then took Sister Yun and Liu Jiaming straight to the Daliyuan Nightclub on Portland Street.
After receiving family information about the victim from Liu Jiaming, Jiayi and Uncle Jiu got into Uncle Jiu’s car and headed directly to the South Bay Boat House area in Lai Chi Kok.
The roads in this area were muddy, with overgrown grass, and the boat houses perched on the shore were mostly inhabited by fishermen.
A middle-aged woman with weathered skin but sharp eyes answered the door.
“Is Zhao Meini your daughter?” Jiayi asked politely, holding her ID and a photo of the deceased.
The woman didn’t look at the photo, her gaze only scanning Jiayi and Uncle Jiu, who was standing behind her holding a cigarette, before saying, “We don’t have such a daughter.”
With that, she abruptly closed the door.
Jiayi, faced with a shut door, exchanged a glance with Uncle Jiu, pursed her lips, and solemnly continued to knock.
After several seconds, the door opened again, still the same woman, but her expression even more impatient.
“Miss Zhao Meini was found dead in her residence on Portland Street. Are you her mother, Li Xiaoqin?” Jiayi persisted in her inquiry.
Hearing Jiayi’s words, the woman’s impatient expression finally cracked. Her eyes flickered towards the photo in Jiayi’s hand. Her lips trembled slightly, and after a few breaths, she tightened her lips again, holding back all emotion, and said coldly:
“It doesn’t matter if she’s dead. People who bring shame to the family are better off dead.”
Jiayi was somewhat incredulous as she parted her lips.
The woman gave her a look, muttered something, and then closed the door again.
Jiayi looked down at the photo in her hand. The living Zhao Meini had delicate features, a beautiful woman.
If you looked closely, you could actually see a resemblance to the weathered woman who had answered the door; they both had large eyes and naturally slender, fine eyebrows, but one had weathered, aged, dull skin, and the other was well-maintained, young, and radiant.
It became clear that Zhao Meini had taken a wrong path, so her family no longer acknowledged her.
But no matter what, she was still their daughter. Wouldn’t they grieve her sudden death outside? Didn’t they want to help catch her murderer?
Uncle Jiu sighed and gently tugged at the policewoman’s arm.
“Let it go, parents are just another blood relation, after all. If there’s no accumulation of affection, emotional indifference is normal. If parents believe they have invested their hearts in their daughter, and she has not grown according to their plans and expectations, or is even disrespectful and antagonistic, estrangement is also possible,” Uncle Jiu took a puff of his cigarette, turned, and walked along the wooden planks leading to the boat houses on the sandy path, leaving a somewhat desolate figure behind.
Jiayi pursed her lips again, gave the wooden door another look, and then followed Uncle Jiu.
“Let’s go ask the neighbors,” Jiayi caught up with Uncle Jiu.
“Alright,” Uncle Jiu tossed his cigarette butt on the ground and ground it out.
The most densely populated communities can also be the most indifferent.
The most bustling cities can also be the most restless.
On the way back, whenever the car in front is slightly slow, there is always a car behind furiously pounding the steering wheel.
In the hustle of travel, people lose their composure; whether you were originally an intellectual or a lady, in that moment, it’s forgotten, replaced only by haste and impatience.
Jiayi sits in the passenger seat, watching the gradually fading misty ink-colored clouds on the horizon. Her mind switches between extracting information from the flow of scenes and recalling the faces of the citizens she met today during their inquiries—their expressions, tones, and attitudes…
Since their route was the longest and questioning the neighbors took the most time, they were the last group to return.
When they got back to Team B’s office, everyone was waiting for them, idly chatting while enjoying the afternoon tea Sun Xin had brought half an hour earlier.
“Nowadays, the houses in Hong Kong are getting more and more expensive, really unfriendly to the citizens. We’re considered to have high salaries, yet even we might drain all our savings and still find it hard to afford a house. How could ordinary citizens ever own their own home?” Fu complained, shaking his head while straddling a chair.
“A thousand-square-foot house costs four million in full payment! How long do I have to work… It might be better to get seriously injured on this case, receive a few years’ worth of salary as compensation, then maybe I could afford a house,” Gary said heartlessly.
Uncle Jiu, who had just walked in, was instantly furious and slapped Gary’s back, “Pah! Nonsense! Come over here and pray.”
Still carrying the cold dampness from outside, Uncle Jiu grabbed Gary and dragged him in front of the statue of Guan Gong, forcing him to burn incense with sincerity.
After the prayers, Gary inserted the incense into the burner and turned around, sticking out his tongue at everyone and chuckling.