Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Mo Han knitted his brows. “Isn’t that case already over?”
“It’s another related case. He came over to ask me something.”
“Do you have class tonight? Come home for dinner once you’re finished talking,” Mo Han said.
“Go home for dinner? You’re ending work early today?” Xia Qingyi spoke with surprise and delight. To her, the nights when Mo Han did not have to work overtime were rare and few, so she would have her dinner at school.
“Yes, there are fewer cases at the office these days, so I can come home early. Is there anything you want to eat?” Mo Han had already put his laptop in the backseat of the car. He put on his seatbelt, wore his Bluetooth earphones and prepared to drive home.
Xia Qingyi giggled. “Anything’s fine, as long as it’s filling.”
Mo Han was already used to her sense of taste. She was terribly easy to cater for – she was neither picky with her food nor would she cause trouble. This made him feel as though he was raising a well-behaved child instead of providing for a younger sister.
“Remember to come home early,” Mo Han only realized this was the first time he had said something like this to someone.
There were greater signs of life. When he lived alone, he never thought that there would be a day when he would say this to someone else.
“Yes, I’ll come home immediately,” Xia Qingyi replied sweetly on the other end of the telephone.
Xia Qingyi was actually quite interested in Zhang Yang’s case. However, what she cared about was not how to find the murderer. What she cared about was why the murderer would want to kill multiple complete strangers. From his methods, it was clear that he was a terribly clever and cautious person – he knew how to utilise the simplest tools to murder someone in the shortest amount of time and achieve his goal.
The times of death were all at night. The first murder scene was in the forest of a school campus, the second was on the streets, and one of them was a crowded place. Clearly, he was flaunting his achievements, killing the victim by stabbing and letting the blood splatter across the ground. He was making it stimulating for the audience; he wanted attention.
Often, a murderer was just like an ordinary person, indistinguishable from the people around them. But what was clear was that he did not seek the approval and acknowledgement of others in real life; he wanted a sort of novelty that could excite the public.
To him, the feeling of seeing the people beneath him struggle painfully was satisfying.
There were just a few points that she was unable to figure out.
What was the relationship between these victims? Why did he select these particular girls as his targets? She was completely puzzled by these questions. Until now, the information she had obtained from the crime scenes was too little, it was not enough to completely work out the mysteries of this case. She had to wait until the murderer made a mistake.
At school the next day, Xia Qingyi was sitting in the middle of the classroom when she heard a few classmates beside her softly discuss the homicide that had taken place a few days ago on campus.
“I heard that girl suffered a tragic fate. Her throat slashed and all her clothes had been ripped off!” Zhong Wenjing murmured.
Xia Qingyi smiled and said nothing, continuing to read her book quietly. All truths contained differing levels of falsehood.
“That girl was from an art institute, her family went mad after they heard that she had died. They refused to bury her and insisted on waiting until the truth was revealed before giving her a proper burial.”
“Yes, yes, her boyfriend is the only one who’s no longer as dedicated. It’s only been a few days but he’s already playing around with a girl from our school a few days later! Really!”
“Hey, hey, hey… there’s gossip here! Come and listen!”
“What gossip? Don’t keep silent! Hurry up and say it!”
“Do you guys know? That girl who died was actually a hostess! Slept with guys hundreds of times a long time ago!”
“Really! I’d say! No wonder her roommate said she rarely returned to her room at night, she’s probably out and about doing her business!” A girl at the side laughed.