Chapter 315 - 315 283 Destination

Words : 2179 Updated : Oct 5th, 2025

315: Chapter 283: Destination 315: Chapter 283: Destination Dawan Village in Shahe Town is located to the west of Changyang City. Like other towns and villages in Changyang City, Shahe Town’s pillar industries had already shifted to real estate and processing long ago. Dawan Village also saw the construction of factories, dormitories, and rows of self-built houses. “The floating population is forty to fifty thousand, and there are several vegetable markets,” the chief of the police station in Shahe Town explained, standing at the scene of the incident. “Eleven years is too long; eleven years ago, they had just started building factories here, and half of the factory workers were local youths. Nowadays, the locals don’t want to work in factories anymore, even the vegetable sellers aren’t locals.” “What do the locals do then?” Liu Jinghui asked. “They become landlords, run supermarkets, restaurants, and mahjong parlors,” the chief said with a touch of envy. “Those who built their own houses weren’t regulated before; some have dozens of rooms, and with each room bringing in two to three hundred yuan a month, you do the math, they earn more than I do.” “Two to three hundred yuan per room is pretty cheap; it’s already over a thousand in the city,” Wang Chuanxing, who had transferred from another area, listened to the town’s rent and felt it was quite appealing. Jiang Yuan said, “They’ll charge for utilities. A hundred yuan a month, and some may charge up to one hundred and fifty or two hundred, so the rent goes up to four or five hundred.” “Two hundred for rent, two hundred for utilities, that’s pretty ruthless,” Wang Chuanxing exclaimed. “In the utility fee of two hundred yuan, you can include sanitation fees, management fees, and even pull a shared Internet line. Just use a separate mobile number and get a broadband for all the rooms on one floor. Tenants are generally willing to do so because setting up their own Internet line costs several tens of yuan and is troublesome. The self-built houses don’t have property certificates, so it’s not easy for them to get the lines installed either,” Jiang Yuan explained in detail. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and natives of Rome, of course, didn’t begin by entrusting their houses to property management companies. People like Jiang Fuzhen, when their houses were first demolished, also learned to become landlords. The earliest Jiang Village People who rented out houses did so to the workers of nearby factories. Wang Chuanxing was also familiar with Jiang Yuan’s background and could not help but look askance at this moment. Liu Jinghui coughed twice and brought the conversation back on track. “In short, there is an enormous floating population in Dawan Village, so conducting a general investigation now would be unnecessary.” Wei Zhenguo had been following Jiang Yuan and now joined in, “Wasn’t the taxi abandoned 5 kilometers away? Theoretically, the area from Dawan Village to the abandonment site and its surroundings could all be potential destinations for the murderer at that time... but does that mean we can’t find them?” Liu Jinghui shook his head and said, “Considering the method of the crime, the fact that the DNA left behind never matched, the absence of any arrest records for the murderer to date, and scrutiny of those released upon completing their sentences during the time of the crime, I believe the murderer is likely not a habitual criminal; he might even be a first-time offender.” Liu Jinghui pointed ahead and continued, “For a first-time offender, the primary crime scene where the body was found is more likely to be the destination for both individuals. The secondary scene, where the vehicle was located, I believe was purely for abandoning the car. Moreover, it was in a secluded area with no proper hiding places nearby.” Liu Jinghui spoke in a summarizing tone, “Murder is best done in familiar places.” In fact, this is also a development of the times. With the proliferation of cameras, or due to social changes, personal residences have become the modern person’s preferred murder scene. Put in more comfortable terms: once you leave home and don’t go to someone else’s, your chances of being murdered greatly diminish! It’s akin to saying: Staying at home increases your chances of death! Wei Zhenguo expressed his confusion, “If this was their intended destination, and they wanted to avoid detection... They were going to abandon the car anyway, so why didn’t they move the body?” “This further suggests they were novices. I think either they hadn’t thought it through, or the body was too disgusting?” Liu Jinghui said. “Actually, if it was just a robbery, there’s no need for murder. If a murder occurs during a robbery, a normal robber would either not deal with the scene or just drive the vehicle away, fleeing further before changing vehicles or using public transportation. Abandoning it 5 kilometers away... ” Liu Jinghui shook his head, “It’s nothing but a panicky choice. Driving off in a frenzy, after a few kilometers, they felt too far from the destination and so they abandoned the car on the spot and fled, and it’s highly likely they went on the run afterward.” “How do you crack a case like this?” The local police station chief was baffled. Most cases nowadays are more straightforward. Moreover, any complications in many cases are just the perpetrator’s own affairs and for the police, they’re utterly redundant—like the first time someone reveals their buttocks. Liu Jinghui, who had seen more buttocks, pondered awhile and said, “The household registration data from the initial investigation wasn’t complete, right?” “Of course not.” “Plane tickets are definitely under real-name registration, what about train tickets?” “They might even take the bus here; checking train tickets from eleven years ago... I don’t know how feasible that is,” Wang Chuanxing sensed all these tasks might fall on him after hearing Liu Jinghui’s words and hurriedly tried to ward it off in advance. Wei Zhenguo said, “If we can find a way to compile a list of people who moved away within a certain period after the crime, the case would be much simpler.” Tang Jia asked, “Didn’t the special case team do that at the time?” “The special case team never had a clear judgment on the suspect’s residence or the taxi’s destination,” Liu Jinghui shook his head. “Moreover, they weren’t sure whether the murderer had fled.” Jiang Yuan slowly nodded. Indeed, from the evidence he had seen, he couldn’t be sure of the murderer’s residence or the taxi’s destination either. This part of the content wasn’t supported by evidence but rather was Liu Jinghui’s deduction. In a conventional special case group, even if someone were able to produce the same reasoning, if the trust level isn’t sufficient or their position isn’t high enough, their thoughts still wouldn’t be given significant consideration. Liu Jinghui’s gaze turned towards Jiang Yuan as he asked, “Jiang Yuan, what do you think?” “The blood footprint left at the scene is very clear. I can sift through footprints. However, there was only one blood footprint left at the scene at the time... which actually duplicates the DNA,” said Jiang Yuan, touching on one of the pain points of footmark science. Decades ago, the science of footmarks could have followed the path of fingerprinting, but after the advent of DNA technology, including fingerprints, all methods of identity verification were downgraded. Liu Jinghui was actually confirming Jiang Yuan’s thoughts, seeing that he had no suggestions on the direction of the investigation, and thus said, “Now, if we only have these clues, then I think, direct investigation is really difficult. Instead of that, why don’t we lure the snake out of the hole with a plan to hook this killer out...” Not just Jiang Yuan, several others present furrowed their brows as well. It wasn’t that they didn’t trust what he said, but this statement felt familiar—as if they had heard it not long ago. It seemed like when Jiang Yuan was called over initially for the case with the burnt bone fragments, Liu Jinghui had said something similar. Or perhaps, exactly the same? Everyone calmed down for a moment. Nobody’s phones rang, be it Jiang Yuan’s or anyone else’s. Wei Zhenguo glanced at Jiang Yuan and then addressed Liu Jinghui, “Director Liu, what exactly are you referring to with your method?” Liu Jinghui uttered a “hmm” and said, “I think that the killer is still very much paying attention to this case. We can announce that the case has been reopened with new clues found, and then, using these new clues, we can hook the two people out.” “What new clues?” Wei Zhenguo asked curiously. “Well... First off, I want to say something. I believe that the most likely composition of the killer is a married couple, or boyfriend and girlfriend, with a very, very small chance that there are three people involved, two of whom are married,” Liu Jinghui’s expression showed a slight struggle. His reasoning was always fantastical, but he rarely had such a good opportunity for investigative work. Liu Jinghui spoke his judgment very seriously, and then continued, “We could say that the murderer had a mistress, and something might have happened between them before the crime, we could even suggest that the mistress had a child... By doing this, there would definitely be chaos in the killer’s household if they are keeping tabs on this case. As long as there’s some change... Any change, it’s more likely to be discovered.” “Maybe one of them will just report the other?” Tang Jia quickly thought of a possibility. Liu Jinghui nodded, adding, “Of course, we can’t rely on this, but I do think that it will definitely attract the killer’s attention to this case, and they might just reveal themselves by mistake.” “Just this might not be enough,” Jiang Yuan seemed skeptical. Tang Jia immediately switched sides, saying, “Right, what if the killer has already divorced? It’s been eleven years, if they moved away, they might not even be able to find a job...” “Then we add a reward, jack up the reward money. Maybe the ex-wife will report her former husband,” Wang Chuanxing clapped his right hand on his left palm. “And send herself to jail too?” Tang Jia looked down on Wang Chuanxing with intellectual disdain. “Uh, true... Three hundred thousand is not worth a life sentence,” Wang Chuanxing quietly dropped his gaze. Seeing the somewhat solemn expressions of the others, Wei Zhenguo laughed and said, “At least, our progress has already surpassed the special case group. What they couldn’t do back then, we are able to do now. If all else fails, we can list out people from Dawan Village or nearby villages, or even the entire Shahe Town, those who left after the crime, and make as extensive a list as possible, then proceed with DNA testing...” “Similar checks were implemented later,” Liu Jinghui emphasized, “If we want to find the killer through checks, we can’t surpass the original special case team. Moreover, didn’t Jiang Yuan suggest that the killer has a limp?” “Then just directly find people with a limp. In Shahe Town, there shouldn’t be many, right?” Wang Chuanxing felt his intelligence reclaiming the high ground. Liu Jinghui sighed, “I’ve been saying about the taxi’s destination, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but actually, I believe that the perpetrator’s destination indeed was near Shahe Town. However, that doesn’t mean the perpetrator necessarily lived there for long, or even rented in Shahe Town. Maybe they were just visiting relatives? Or staying with family?” With that said, Chuanxing, who had just felt a glimmer of hope, suddenly felt overcome with darkness. As a young person who had worked hard to earn a spot at the Changyang City Bureau, Wang Chuanxing was quite confident in himself in the criminal police team. Nevertheless, unsolved murder cases were indeed somewhat beyond him. “So what do we do now?” Wang Chuanxing looked to the others. “If the limp is indeed a correct assumption...” Liu Jinghui looked at Jiang Yuan, then at the distant factory, licked his lips, and said, “Then we start with a secret investigation.” This was a stark departure from the investigative direction Liu Jinghui had mentioned earlier, prompting Chuanxing to ask, “Why?” “Because if the murderer isn’t a local, then those who know about the murderer’s limp are likely the killer’s relatives or old friends. In short, someone within their social circle. Conducting a flashy investigation could cause these informants to have reservations...” Liu Jinghui said, and added, “Of course, the core point is still the limp...” “Shorter left leg, longer right leg, experienced with knives,” Jiang Yuan confirmed resolutely.

Chapter 315 - 315 283 Destination

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