Chapter 20: Cruel Death

"Where is she?" Su Qixing was so agitated that he stood up from his chair, staring at Fang Wenxuan as he asked.

"She’s dead," Lin Hui replied.

"What... dead?" Su Qixing's eyes widened in disbelief. "How could that be..."

"Su Qixing, can you remember what happened before Luo Xi disappeared?" Fang Wenxuan pressed.

"Before she disappeared, she received a letter. She told me she needed to go out for a while. I asked her about it, but she wouldn’t tell me or let me see the letter. She even deliberately avoided me. After reading the letter, she left and never came back. I should have insisted on seeing that letter. The look in her eyes when she read it was so strange..." Su Qixing said, his voice tinged with regret.

"Who do you think sent her the letter?" Fang Wenxuan asked.

"She was the belle of the school. Even though I was her boyfriend, she received a lot of letters from other boys every day. But that letter was delivered by a postman, so I have no idea," Su Qixing recalled.

"We found her in the restroom of District Sixth High School. They're demolishing it now. Did you ever study there?" Fang Wenxuan continued.

"...District Sixth High School?" Su Qixing echoed hesitantly, as if shocked, as if something had occurred to him, but in the end, he said nothing.

"Answer the question. Did you attend District Sixth High School?" Lin Hui, seeing Su Qixing’s silence, raised his voice in frustration.

"Yes, I went to school there. I graduated from there. So did Luo Xi. But we didn’t know each other back then. It was only later, after we got to know each other, that we realized we were once schoolmates," Su Qixing answered.

"Did Luo Xi have any enemies at the time? How was your relationship?" Fang Wenxuan asked.

"She had a great personality. We got along very well back then," Su Qixing responded.

Fang Wenxuan asked a series of further questions, and Su Qixing answered them all, but nothing of value emerged apart from the letter.

But Luo Xi’s body had already decomposed, so even if she had that letter on her when she died, it would have long since rotted away.

Fang Wenxuan and Lin Hui walked out of the interrogation room. Su Qixing requested to see Luo Xi’s remains, so Fang Wenxuan led him to the forensic department.

On the pure white autopsy table lay only a skeleton, with a faint stench still clinging to it.

Su Qixing, seemingly heedless, reached out to touch the skeletal hand.

Fang Wenxuan did not stop him, watching as the mature, resolute man’s hand trembled while he gripped the hand of the skeleton. Tears, one after another, fell onto the bones.

Just from this, Fang Wenxuan felt certain Su Qixing could not be Luo Xi’s killer. The pain in his expression could not be faked. The way he touched the foul remains with such heartache and sorrow was all too real.

With no evidence to show Su Qixing was a suspect, they had no choice but to release him.

"It seems we’ve reached the end of this line with Su Qixing. Let’s all have a meeting, summarize the findings, and discuss the next steps," Cheng Fei said to the group.

Soon, the forensics and technical departments gathered for the meeting.

Fang Wenxuan sat on the right side of the conference room. He Xiaopeng, seeing an empty seat next to Fang Wenxuan, was about to sit down when Lin Hui slipped into the seat first.

"Hey, Hui, you’re not on Wenxuan’s team anymore. That’s not your seat," He Xiaopeng protested.

"What’s the difference? Sit somewhere else," Lin Hui shot back with a glare.

He Xiaopeng shook his head and found another seat.

"Alright, let’s summarize what we’ve each found," Cheng Fei began. "Xiaopeng, let’s start with you. What did you find out about the writing on the blood-soaked paper stuck in Sheng Mingyi’s chest?"

He Xiaopeng took out the bloodstained paper, sealed in a clear bag. "I’ve figured out what’s written on it."

"What does it say?" Cheng Fei asked.

"It reads, ‘Sheng Tianming, the sins you committed, your daughter will pay for.’ That’s all," He Xiaopeng reported.

"So this is a revenge killing? The murderer was after Sheng Tianming, the victim’s father?" Lin Hui mused.

"Then let’s investigate Sheng Tianming. That’s the only lead we have. There’s also that strand of hair, but its owner died long ago, also murdered. These two cases may be connected, so let’s merge them into a joint investigation. We’ve now confirmed the identity of the victim found at the old school restroom—her name is Luo Xi. She was Su Qixing’s girlfriend, and Su Qixing is also a suspect in Sheng Mingyi’s case. Lin Hui, assign people to keep an eye on Su Qixing every day," Cheng Fei instructed.

"Yes, sir," Lin Hui replied.

"Captain, I don’t think Su Qixing is the murderer," Fang Wenxuan couldn’t help but interject.

"Wenxuan, solving cases isn’t about gut feelings. As detectives, we look at evidence and clues. Right now, he’s a suspect in both cases," Cheng Fei said sternly.

Fang Wenxuan fell silent, head lowered. He still believed Su Qixing was innocent.

"Captain, if he’s so sure, he must have his reasons. Go on, tell the captain your reasoning," Lin Hui nudged Fang Wenxuan, looking at Cheng Fei.

Fang Wenxuan glanced at Lin Hui in surprise. What was with Lin Hui today? In the past, he would have been even more severe than the captain in reprimanding him.

"Wenxuan, why are you so sure?" Cheng Fei asked.

"Maybe it’s because I interrogated Su Qixing and brought him to see Luo Xi. He was devastated by her death, deeply pained. None of that was fake," Fang Wenxuan explained. "As for Sheng Mingyi’s case, I believe what he said. He owns shares in the parent company, so he wouldn’t care about a branch manager’s position. Sheng Tianming trusted him enough to let him look after his daughter, which shows he’s good with people. Sheng Mingyi’s attempts to blackmail him with those photos were child’s play to him. We should focus on investigating what Sheng Mingyi and Luo Xi had in common—their enemies, whether the same person killed them, and why the killer chose these two. That’s the conclusion I’ve reached."

"What conclusion?" Cheng Fei asked.

Lin Hui looked at Fang Wenxuan with keen interest. He hadn’t expected the young traffic cop to progress so quickly. The threads of these two cases were tangled, but Fang Wenxuan could analyze them methodically.

"First, both victims were exceptionally beautiful women, and the manner of their deaths was especially cruel. When I investigated Sheng Mingyi, I noticed a photo of herself on her desk. She had strikingly beautiful eyes, and almost ninety percent of her cosmetics were for eye makeup—the rest were perfumes and nail polish. Clearly, she was proud of her eyes. Yet the killer, despite having already killed her with steel spikes to the heart, went on to drive two more spikes through her eyes. For her, it was the cruelest fate—not even death left her body whole.

"As for Luo Xi, the victim in the old school restroom—she, too, was beautiful. According to our visit to her parents’ home, she was extremely clean, unable to tolerate bad odors. Both her mother and Su Qixing said she had serious obsessive-compulsive tendencies; even in the poor conditions at school, she would buy water to bathe every day. Yet after her death, she was dumped into the filthiest restroom. Again, the killer had already murdered her, but chose to throw her into that place. Imagine: for someone with her aversion to filth, such a death is unspeakably cruel. That’s a key similarity between the two cases. Typically, only a woman would envy another’s beauty—but rarely would someone envy a stranger’s looks, unless that beauty affected her personally—say, the person she loves was drawn to the victim’s beauty, sparking jealousy and murderous intent. These two cases are crimes of passion."

"But Sheng Mingyi and Su Qixing were enemies, and Su Qixing is married. According to the records, he’s only been married for under three years, so he couldn’t have known Luo Xi back then. How could he be involved?" He Xiaopeng asked, puzzled.

"This similarity isn’t especially persuasive. The methods of killing are different—one used steel spikes, and based on my autopsy, the killer hurled them at least two meters away, like darts, straight into the heart. Such force and skill requires long-term training, which most women don’t have. Luo Xi, the restroom victim, was drugged with sleeping pills and dumped in the restroom, where she was either suffocated by fumes or drowned," Qin Lian reported from her findings.

Fang Wenxuan fell silent. His deductions were all based on analyzing the circumstances of death, unlike Qin Lian’s more substantive conclusions. But he didn’t deny his own inferences; in fact, he felt the killer could be the same person, or the same kind of person.

He felt disheartened, realizing his analysis of the criminal’s methods failed to win the others’ approval.

Lin Hui sat beside Fang Wenxuan. Even though Fang Wenxuan said nothing more, Lin Hui could sense his dejection, yet also his stubborn conviction in his own theory.

Indeed, Fang Wenxuan’s reasoning was speculative, lacking solid evidence. Unless the killer confessed, it would never hold up in court, where only concrete evidence matters.

But seeing the young traffic officer so downcast, Lin Hui found himself unable to say anything harsh. In the past, he would have been the first to scold such unsubstantiated deductions.