Translated by: La Phong
Edited by: Cherry Blossoms, / Leo…
Prologue (Part 1)
City W, Heaven Garden District, Villa Area.
Shen Yi stood in an unattended corner not too far from the Villa Area’s gate.
In his mouth was a Chinese cigarette, his half-closed eyes gazed at the Villa Area, he seemed to be thinking about something.
After finishing the cigarette, Shen Yi dropped the cigarette b.u.t.t to the ground, and mercilessly stepped on it.
Touching his pocket, he pulled out a cigarette pack and a few hundred RMB bills. After pulling in a pa.s.serby, he placed the cigarette pack and money in his hand and said, “A gift for you, buddy.”
The pa.s.serby stared stunned at Shen Yi, as Shen Yi carried a parcel and went across the road.
Coming to the Villa Area’s gate, several residential security guards stopped Shen Yi.
“Express delivery.” Shen Yi referred to the express courier clothes on his body, as well as the parcel on his hand.
“How does a courier come without a car?” Security nowadays were very dedicated.
Shen Yi pointed to the other side of the road, “Stopped over there, something was wrong, it’s still in repair.”
“Bring the registered note here, did you bring an ID card?”
Shen Yi showed the ident.i.ty card to the security, “You have very tight security recently, now even an express delivery also needs an ident.i.ty card?”
“Didn’t you hear recently that there is a serial killer? He has already killed several people.”
“I heard that he is very cruel, and has also already crippled a few people as well. Has he been arrested yet?”
“No, I don’t know how the police works so slow like that.” Security hurriedly registered him, and returned the ID card to Shen Yi.
Whistling a song, Shen Yi went into the depths of the area.
Coming to the front of the 16th villa, Shen Yi rang the bell. A voice sounded, “Who is it?”
“Is this Zhou Ze’s home?
The voice behind the door was silent for a moment.
Then the door opened.
Behind the iron door, a middle-aged woman’s face was exposed, she looked at Shen Yi with vigilant eyes, “Where’s this parcel come from?”
“Běijing, to Mr. Zhou Ze.”
The women looked at the parcel in Shen Yi’s hand. After hesitating to open the door a little, she took the parcel and muttered, “We have no relatives in Běijing, what is this?”
“Death’s notice.” Shen Yi coldly said.
The gun in his hands was pointed at the woman’s forehead.
***
Criminal Investigation Department of Public Security Bureau.
A special meeting was being held in the Great Conference Room.
Responsible for presiding over the meeting was the captain of the Criminal Investigation Unit – Li Qiang – he was a well-known expert in solving criminal cases. But today, he was in a very bad mood. He squinted at his cigarette and puffed the smoke for a long time, and then plugged the cigarette in the ashtray, said, “Vice captain w.a.n.g, you introduce the case first.”
Next to him, Vice Captain w.a.n.g Hansheng nodded, picked up the file and said, “This is case No. 312, about a large series of murders. Most of our comrades have known already, but there are several comrades that just transferred who may not understand, so I will briefly repeat. This year on March 12, the famous therapist Yang Bingquan, was killed at home by a headshot. The murderer used a 54-type 7.62 mm pistol; after investigation, the gun was one of the three pistols lost last year. Along with this pistol, the city police also lost two magazines, totalling eighteen rounds of ammunition. The original holder of the pistol was Han, a city police officer, who was in last year’s No.816 ‘killing of a policeman’ case; the case still has not been solved. After a lapse of seven months, the murderer not only resumed killing, but also took off in a killing spree.”
w.a.n.g Hansheng turned to the next page, “March 12, Yang Bingquan was killed in his house. March 13, the city’s former jailer, Mr. Liao Zhensheng was killed. March 14, Judge Zheng Min was shot. After a thorough examination, the killing of the three men were done with the same gun, which meant that it was caused by the same person, so the cases were combined.”
Captain Li Qiang said, “I added that all the deceased had signs of being tied up before their death, which meant that the murderer had talked with the victims before the murder. After examining the site, the murderer did not leave any cigarette b.u.t.ts, indicating that the killer was very relaxed and not nervous, and also had an excellent psychological mindset. In addition to that, we could not find any fingerprints or footprints at the site, he did not leave any valuable clues, indicating that the murderer is a very experienced man. All the victims have one thing in common, they were killed when they were alone at home, indicating that the murderer was already prepared, he was directed at a specific goal.”
“The problem is…,” Vice captain w.a.n.g said, “we already looked over the three victims personal information, and didn’t find any common connections between the victims.”
“On the other hand…,” Li Qiang talked again, “in addition to the dead victims, there were 10 other victims; they didn’t die, but suffered cruel torture by the murderer, some of them even became disabled. The only difference is that the murderer didn’t kill them. No one alive saw the murderer ‘s face, because the murderer was masked, we only know that he is a young male, height at about one meter seventy-five centimeters. From the way of his speech, he is highly educated. After detailing more than thirty suspects that were pointed out by all the victims, after investigation, no one fitted with the target’s characteristics.
“All of these victims also didn’t have anything in common, there were some people that knew each other, but their relations were very shallow, let alone having common enemies.” w.a.n.g, vice captain said, “So finding the link between all the victims has became our top priority.”
This is obviously a series of murders that had been planned for a long time. All the victims were in different industries, had different characters; there were some officials, but there were also some ordinary people too. Moreover, the murderer also left as many as 10 people alive, the most strange is that these surviving victims didn’t even provide a useful clue.
This was a bizarre story.
More than 20 police officers in the meeting thought hard, but no one figured out what the reason.
A police said to himself, “This is very unreasonable. The murderer in such a short period of time, continuously found more than 10 targets, such a prospective shows that he had prepared in advance. Since it is an intentional homicide, it must be motivated, then more than a dozen people can’t not have any contact with each other.”
“So why, in so many of the surviving victims, no one is willing to speak of his contact with the other victims?” Another police said.
“Maybe there are links, but they don’t know?”
“How is that possible?”
“There is another possibility, that is, they know, but they don’t want to say.”
“It’s even more impossible, things have already reached this point, if they don’t speak now, when will they?”
“Perhaps it is a shameful thing? Maybe even worse? Because they aren’t sure, so they don’t dare to say it?”
“Nonsense.” This idea was mocked by a lot of police.
Li Qiang was thoughtful.
At that moment, the conference room door was suddenly opened.
“Found it!” With an excited cry, a young and pretty female police rushed in, almost hitting Li Qiang.
Li Qiang pounded the table and stood up, “What are you doing? Entering like this, does it look like a police officer’s way of doing things? Which department are you from? Rushing in without knock the door, don’t you see that a meeting was progressing?”
The young female police officer rolled her tongue out, but didn’t dare to continue speaking.
Vice Captain w.a.n.g pulled Li Qiang’s clothes and whispered, “She is the new one, called Li Xiaoyue, she is Deputy Director Zhao’s niece.”
Li Qiang hesitated, fiercely stared at the girl, but the his voice became milder, “Note, for the next time, don’t so fickle. So, what happened?”
“I found an important clue pertaining to the No. 312 serial murder case.” she said,”I know you’re holding a meeting about the case, and I believe my discovery could make a major breakthrough.”
“Oh? Speak then.” Li Qiang joyfully said, “Everyone listen.”
“Yes!” Little girl shared the files in her hands, “This year, starting from March 12, a large number of murder cases occurred…”
Li Qiang waved, “Skip that part, say the main point, what did you find?”
“Yes!” The little girl’s face flushed, “I found the links between all the victims!”
“What did you say?” Everyone stood up.
Li Qiang was also excited, “You find the common link between all the victims?”
“I found that all the victims are related to a case seven years ago, here is that case’s report.”
Li Qiang picked up the file, a photo of a young girl on the first page made Li Qiang hesitate slightly.
Quickly opening the file, Li Qiang’s mood sank down.
The information made him very surprised.
He looked at the female police officer and said, “How did you find this clue? Why didn’t I see this file before?”
The female police officer loudly replied, “Captain, three years ago there was a fire in the Record Room, so many files had disappeared. This file was also missing at that time, but this morning when I was cleaned up the archives, I suddenly found it in a corner.”
“This morning? Suddenly found? The fire three years ago?” Li Qiang was shocked when heard this. He pointed to the female police officer, “You mean that three years ago, the fire did not burn this file, and it just suddenly appeared this morning? Then you found it, and it was precisely about the No.312 serial murder?
The female police officer shrinked back, lolling her tongue again she said, “Do you believe it or not, things happened like that anyway.”
Li Qiang coldly looked at the girl, he turned the file to the last page, there were three young men’s photos that made him frown slightly.
Then he dumped the file on the table, “Let’s take a look at it, this is a rape and murder case that occurred seven years ago. In the No.312 serial murder, all the murdered victims had a direct relationship to this case, including the death of police officer Han that happened last year August. He was the one that handled this case. There are also the victims that didn’t die, they also had a direct or indirect relationship to this case. This case’s victim is called Liu Qing, you are now to immediately check who is closely related to her.
Li Xiaoyue cried, “I have checked, there is a man named Shen Yi, the deceased’s neighbor, but also a cla.s.smate. He and the deceased have maintained a very good relationship, graduated from Běijing University. He is serving as a senior engineer in a German company, he is mainly responsible for the design and manufacture of complicated instruments. A month before the March 12 murder case occurred, he went to Germany. But his company found out that he only stayed in Germany for a day, then came back, and didn’t tell anyone in the company. He mysteriously disappeared from that day. After the murder occurred, some people have seen Shen Yi appear near the home of the murdered victims.
Li Qiang looked at her, “You are very useful.”
Li Xiaoyue proudly stood.
Li Qiang immediately exclaimed, “Immediately check out everything relating to Shen Yi. Also, seven years ago in this case there were three people that were direct responsibility, but there is no news about them. They are called Sun Shuang, Ho Ho and Zhou Ze. Check out their current address, and then send the police to guard there. Shen Yi will appear!”
At that time, a police officer outside rushed in and shouted, “Captain Li, there have been two more murders!”
“What?” Li Qiang suddenly turned around, “Who was killed?”
“There were two people, one named Sun Shuang and another named Ho Ho, and four others who were heavily wounded, their parents,” he said.
Li Qiang pounded the table, “Immediately find Zhou Ze’s home and inform him. Shen Yi’s next goal is him. We must hurry, that is his final goal!”
Everyone became busy.
They quickly found the current address of Zhou Ze.
A police officer who had called to Heaven Garden District yelled, “Captain, the residential security said just now, a man named Shen Yi came in, he said he was a courier. Then a servant rushed out to report, saying…”
“Everyone with me!” Li Qiang shouted.
The Police Station’s door opened, a vehicle after another turned on the police lights.
Li Xiaoyue absently looked out at the window. She was thinking if she could become one of them, but this time she did such a big merit. That alone should allow her to no longer do those boring logistics work, right? Thinking of this, her mouth formed into a triumphant smile.
She rapidly took out her cell phone and sent a text message, “Hey, thank you for your help, this time I earned a great merit.”
An SMS soon replied, “Don’t worry, then they should already know who the murderer is?”
“Of course, we’ve got the guy.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m the one thankful. By the way, you said when the murderer was caught, you would tell me who you are. Now is the time, right?”
“Of course, my name is Shen Yi.”
*Crash*, the phone in Li Xiaoyue’s hand fell to the ground, breaking into pieces.