Qiming Chapter 44

Chapter 44

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Qiu Lu sat nervously on the chair in the interrogation room, her fingers interlaced and arms resting on the table, constantly taking deep breaths and drinking water. She kept her head down, occasionally glancing at the handsome, imposing officer in front of her from the corner of her eye.

Xu Chengyue walked over to her, holding a thermos filled with water and flipping through a workbook she had placed on the table.

"Are these the exercises you gave Jiang Shuishan on the evening of August 19th?" he asked.

She nodded, her eyes suddenly reddening. "I never thought it would be the last time I saw them."

"I've always had a good relationship with Shuishan. Although she came from a wealthy family, she wasn't spoiled at all, she was very sweet and kind." As she spoke, she couldn't help but sob, tears dripping down her face.

"Which days did you come to tutor her in maths?" Xu Chengyue handed her a pack of tissues, waiting until she had stopped crying to continue questioning.

"Every Thursday and Saturday." She pulled out a tissue and wiped her face. "This weekend I had something to do, so I changed it to Tuesday and Friday."

"A last-minute change?"

"Mhmm." She nodded. "I only informed Shuishan and Mrs. Jiang on Monday, and they readily agreed."

"Did you encounter Jiang Yang when you were leaving the Jiang residence? Did you talk? What did you say?" Gu Yunfeng asked. If the tutoring schedule had indeed been changed at the last minute, it might have been something the murderer hadn't anticipated. Unexpected situations could easily reveal flaws.

"Mr. Jiang took the initiative to greet me, which startled me." She nervously poked the table leg with her finger, speaking softly. "I don't have a good impression of Mr. Jiang. We rarely saw each other, and even when we did, we didn't exchange greetings."

"I don't know what was different that day." Qiu Lu held her face in her hands, looking at the yellowing wall in confusion. There were still tears in the corners of her eyes, which she didn't bother to wipe away, staring wide-eyed at the two officers questioning her.

Qiu Lu was a freshman at a nearby university, not yet twenty years old, and came from a modest family. She tutored Jiang Shuishan to earn living expenses to support herself.

When Jiang Yang greeted her that day, she couldn't help but be curious and intentionally looked into his car. He had opened a small window, and she couldn't clearly see inside, only vaguely feeling that the streetlight's glow cast shadows within the car as it passed through the glass.

"Can you recreate the scene where you talked?"

"He rolled down the window, showing half his face, then waved at me and asked why I was there that day." She continued, "So I told him the schedule had been changed."

"And then?"

"Then he told me to stay safe and left."

"When he rolled down the window, was there anyone else in the car?"

Her heart skipped a beat as she instantly recalled the shadowy figure inside the car.

"I don't know." She shook her head. "The window was quite small, and there was a shadow inside, but I couldn't tell if it was a person."

She hesitated for a few seconds before finally saying with certainty, "There's no way to confirm this, but... there was definitely something inside the car."

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"For now, let's assume that Jiang Yang returned to Qianyuan Villa with the murderer." After questioning Qiu Lu, they convened an emergency meeting in a conference room.

"So the murderer avoided the surveillance and entered the villa through the garage elevator just like Jiang Yang." He drew a rough sketch of the villa's interior on the whiteboard, revealing his poor drawing skills and spatial awareness.

"Once inside the villa, the murderer used the sedatives they brought with them in the victims' food and water. Once the drugs took effect, they bound the victims and took them to the crime scene, the villa's double-height living room."

"They were very familiar with the Jiang family, especially Jiang Yang." Xu Chengyue flipped through the recorded information, memorising every word spoken by the relevant personnel. The fact that Jiang Yang could roll down the window and greet Qiu Lu at least indicated he hadn't been held captive or felt excessively threatened. Jiang Yang was even willing to drive the murderer into his own house, which had its power and water cut off, showing their close relationship.

"The question is, how did they escape?" Xu Chengyue closed the file, removed his glasses, and replayed the surveillance footage from eleven in the evening to nine in the morning over and over again on his computer. There was no one in front of the villa, near the garden fence, or at the garage entrance the entire time.

"Why don't you take a look at this?" Shu Pan thought for a moment and found a few 3D street-view images. After rotating the angle, they could see the back of the villa: "Jiang Ronghua is quite particular about feng shui. Not only do his children's names include the character for water, he also insisted on buying a villa by the river. One side faces the river, while the other three sides are open roads and grasslands."

"Are there windows on the side facing the river?"

"The second floor has them," Gu Yunfeng pointed at the screen. "About six meters above the river, not too high. This river area also happens to be a surveillance blind spot."

"Escape by jumping into the river?"

"Yes, if the murderer jumped from the window into the river and swam away, they could have escaped perfectly." He nodded. The street view images showed people walking by the river, unaware that a fugitive was making a hasty escape right under their noses.

Xu Chengyue leaned forward, arms resting on the table, staring at the screen. "The murderer entered the Jiang family villa in Jiang Yang's car, committed the crime, and then chose to escape by jumping into the river, avoiding all surveillance cameras."

"Have the physical evidence results from the technical team come back?" Gu Yunfeng looked at Xiao Zhang from the technical investigation team.

"The results are out. The weapons used by the murderer were all items originally from the villa. Additionally, the murderer showed some anti-reconnaissance skills. Aside from the murderer's DNA mixed with the victims' blood, no fingerprints or other traces were found."

"What about the car that Jiang Yang parked in the garage on the night of the 20th?"

"It hasn't been moved."

He breathed a sigh of relief and accepted the physical evidence report Xiao Zhang handed him. There was no information related to the car, but a receipt was found in Jiang Yang's bedroom on the third floor of the villa. The receipt showed that Jiang Yang had taken his car for a thorough cleaning at a car wash one kilometre away two days before the incident. According to the shop owner, Jiang Yang had indeed been there, and both the interior and exterior of the car were cleaned thoroughly.

This meant that any traces in the car were left within the last two days. Finding information about the murderer among these fresh traces would be much easier.

"Alright, let's head back to the Jiang family villa, you guys should focus on gathering evidence from possible escape routes the murderer might have taken by jumping into the river." He casually picked up a paper clip, made a copy of the files, and put them away in the cabinet. "Chengyue, let's take a close look at his car."

Qianyuan Villa had been strictly off-limits to non-residents for the past few days. Even deliveries and takeaways were refused at the gate, requiring residents to come out and collect them.

Professor Xu donned gloves and got into Jiang Yang's car. In the back corner, he found a crumpled pair of black stockings and a few unopened packets of condoms scattered on the carpet. The car had no distinct smell other than strong perfume, and the other scents were probably blown away with the ventilation.

He turned on the navigation system, which showed the last route starting from a hotel in Dong'an District and ending at the Jiang family villa, taking forty minutes and covering twenty kilometres. He then checked the dashcam, but there was no footage for the two hours before reaching the villa, likely due to a malfunction at the time.

This was quite interesting. Xu Chengyue sat in the passenger seat, scrolling through the navigation history with his left hand.

The missing two hours of dashcam footage suggested that if this malfunction was not a coincidence but intentional, the murderer had already met with Jiang Yang two hours earlier, before seven o'clock.

Gu Yunfeng went straight to the rear of the car and opened the trunk. As expected, it contained many of Jiang Yang's personal belongings, including jackets, hats, leather shoes, and pants. What surprised him most was a realistic-looking toy gun hidden inside, which initially made him think Jiang Yang had illegally possessed a firearm.

He couldn't understand the life of a bankrupt second-generation rich kid. Bringing a bunch of clothes was normal, but why hide a toy gun? Fear of being kidnapped? There were also dozens of knives, none of which were lethal; they were all fake. Through these fake knives, guns, and handcuffs, he could almost see the timid heart of a bored, decadent young man.

He shook his head helplessly and suddenly noticed a large box of safety equipment and cosplay costumes.

"Utter debauchery," he muttered, slapping his forehead as he realised that the trunk was filled with sex toys.

As he was taking inventory of the items in the trunk, Professor Xu called out to Captain Gu. He rolled down the window and stuck his head out, gesturing for him to come to the front.

"The dashcam footage is missing the last two hours of driving," Xu Chengyue said. "Which means that before seven o'clock, the murderer had already met with Jiang Yang and immediately tampered with the dashcam."

"However, the navigation records haven't been tampered with, almost everything is intact," Gu Yunfeng sat in the diver's seat, flipping through every corner around him while wearing gloves.

"That's strange." He removed each decoration hanging from the car's rearview mirror and checked them. The murderer meticulously planned everything, escaped without leaving a trace, and carefully wiped away any possible evidence, yet left the navigation records completely intact for them to see.

"Are they afraid we won't find them, or are they setting a trap?" He paused and turned to look at Xu Chengyue.

"The last place Jiang Yang left before seven was a hospital."

"A hospital?" Following Xu Chengyue's finger, he saw that the navigation records showed the car leaving Ruihe Hospital at six-thirty, with its destination being a bar.

"Why would he go to Ruihe Hospital?" There was nothing inherently wrong with Jiang Yang going to a bar after visiting a hospital. He was known to be a playboy, attractive, uninterested in emotional connections, and often frequented nightclubs and bars. But none of the evidence they collected indicated that Jiang Yang had any reason to visit a hospital. He hadn't bought any medication or sought medical treatment, and the autopsy report noted no physical issues that would require a hospital visit. Suddenly, Jiang Yang's trip to Ruihe Hospital seemed highly suspicious.

"Maybe he was interested in someone at the hospital," Xu Chengyue suggested, checking the seats while sitting in the passenger seat.

"Possibly." Gu Yunfeng nodded. "Let's make a bold assumption. Jiang Yang went to Ruihe Hospital on the afternoon of July 20th, took a fancy to a certain girl, and then brought the murderer home at six-thirty?"

"The murderer was the person he was interested in at Ruihe Hospital?"

"But I don't get it. The murderer sawed off Jiang Yang's limbs by hand, yet the DNA test revealed it was a woman." Gu Yunfeng was sure. "A woman with that kind of strength wouldn't be his type..."

"So it wasn't a girl Jiang Yang was interested in at the hospital, but a man?" Xu Chengyue suggested, showing him his phone. It displayed reviews of the bar Jiang Yang last visited, some of which mentioned it was a gay bar.

Gu Yunfeng sighed, "... What a hardcore scumbag."

He then closed his eyes and slumped in the seat, deciding their next step would be to visit the bar Jiang Yang had been to before his death and talk to the patrons. As he was organising his thoughts, Professor Xu suddenly tugged on his arm.

He opened his eyes to see the other party opening the car door, half his body inside, looking excited as if he'd made a new discovery. He asked in a gentle voice, "What's up?"

"Look," Xu Chengyue lifted the cushion on the passenger seat, revealing several dark red stains that were visible to the naked eye.

"Maybe this is more blood left by the murderer."

"Let's do a luminol test and compare it with the DNA from the crime scene." Gu Yunfeng opened the dashcam and went to the last frame it captured before being tampered with, which happened to capture the passenger seat. There was no cushion on it, and it was clean with no dark red marks.

"Looks like it really is the murderer's."

—————

The author has something to say:

For tomorrow's chapter, in order to give myself a bit more confidence in what I write, I really summoned the courage to go and experience it.

Ai...

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: July 23, 2024 by Angel

Edited: September 20, 2024 by Angel