Miss Forensics – Chapter 83.2

Lead

After all, this is a major and crucial case, and there have been too many people involved.

Lin Yan gradually tightened her grip on the slender neck of the tall glass, exerting so much force that her fingertips turned white.

She hated herself for not having the ability back then, for being ignorant and unskilled. But now, as long as there’s a piece of broken bone, she can extract nearly accurate information from it.

Song Yuhang had been waiting outside for quite a while. she leaned against the glass door and fell asleep. She was awakened by the cold, sneezed, and even her nasal mucus froze into ice.

She rubbed her hands, stood up, and looked around the entire villa. When her gaze fell on the chimney on the roof, she had a sudden idea.

Damn it, chasing after a girlfriend is really difficult. I even had to resort to my former secret infiltration skills.

Song Yuhang put her fingers on the edge of the chimney and glanced down where there was a dim light. She closed her eyes and jumped down.

In the moment she sensed movement behind her, the glass fell to the ground, and Lin Yan grabbed her knife and pounced.

The paper knife, thin as a cicada’s wing, was lightning fast in her hand and instantly pressed against Song Yuhang’s face.

Song Yuhang fell dizzy and disoriented, only seeing a flash of cold light coming straight towards her neck. Instinctively, she raised her hand to disarm the attack, but Lin Yan was relentless. Recognizing who she was, Lin Yan became even more ruthless in her actions, bending her knee and striking her in the abdomen, causing Song Yuhang to be thrown to the side.

Song Yuhang’s head hit the ground, but she held onto Lin Yan’s wrist. “Lin Yan, it’s me…”

“I’m hitting you. Shouldn’t I hit someone who illegally entered a private residence?”

Lin Yan was slightly out of breath, and the two of them were at a stalemate.

“But… I missed you.” Song Yuhang said, shifting the hand holding the knife to the side.

Under her pressure, Lin Yan slowly moved back, and the tip of the knife was aimed directly at her eye.

“I told you, I don’t need your comfort. Are you here to seek death?”

She almost sat on top of her in a triangle choke position, the two of them struggling against each other. Song Yuhang was in a disadvantageous position and didn’t want to hurt her.

She watched helplessly as the tip of the knife touched her eyelid.

She let go of her grip. “Come on then.”

With that, she closed her eyes slightly, ready to be slaughtered.

Lin Yan’s hand, clutching the knife handle, began to tremble. She gritted her teeth, looked at the face in front of her, and her eyes reddened slightly.

A strong gust of wind hit her. Song Yuhang swallowed nervously, but the anticipated pain didn’t come.

Song Yuhang opened her eyes, and Lin Yan cut a strand of hair from her temple. She threw the knife and stood up. “Song Yuhang, this is what you owe me.”

Song Yuhang felt a pang of sadness in her heart. She got up and chased after her, wanting to grab her sleeve and hold her gently in her arms.

“I know, I’ll repay you slowly throughout my life.”

Lin Yan slapped her away, sparing her in a sense, but the anger wasn’t so easily dissipated.

“Take your cheesy love words and get lost.”

Song Yuhang was pushed onto the table, and she looked at the wall in front of her, which suddenly shook violently. “This is…”

It was the compilation of clues about the “Fenyang Wharf Dismemberment Case.”

She had painstakingly pieced together this wall over the course of fourteen years.

Song Yuhang looked at Lin Yan. The person picked up a cigarette from the table, lit it, took a puff, and rested her hand on the table, studying a map with a furrowed brow.

Suddenly, she understood why she had been so irritable just now.

Song Yuhang sighed quietly in her heart, walked over to her side, but still didn’t dare to stand too close. Even at a distance of a palm’s length, she carefully examined the yellowed map.

It was the city of Jiangcheng fourteen years ago.

The Jiangcheng No. 1 Middle School was circled with a black pen.

The route taken by Chen Chu Nan, who was known to have left, was marked with a red pen.

But it abruptly stopped not far into the journey.

When she appeared in public view again, it was three days later, turned into a pile of minced meat, picked out from a garbage bin by someone.

The dumping site was circled in a mess by Lin Yan with a red pen.

Song Yuhang walked around the table, then approached the wall to examine the photos. When she returned to Lin Yan’s side, she snatched the cigarette from her mouth to her own mouth.

Lin Yan raised her hand and delivered a slap, and Song Yuhang quickly dodged.

Song Yuhang smiled obsequiously, “It’s not good to smoke too much. Let me help you solve that problem, so it won’t go to waste.”

Lin Yan looked at her with a hint of playful smile on her lips. “Do you know that the janitor who accidentally stumbled upon this place last time is already dead? I can achieve the same dismemberment effect as shown in that picture, or even cleaner, not a single bone fragment left.”

As she spoke, with her hair scattered and her features enveloped in the dim yellow light, her lips, still red from the drink she had just consumed, created a sense of intrigue. Perhaps due to unstable voltage in the attic, the table lamp flickered for a moment, casting a ghostly shadow behind her.

Song Yuhang felt a chill down her spine for a moment, goosebumps rising on her arms. But after a moment, she shook her head firmly, “It’s not that you can’t kill, it’s that you won’t.”

Otherwise, with Lin Yan’s intense hatred towards her, the love and hate combined, that knife would have long plunged into her neck, let alone an innocent janitor.

Hearing her words, Lin Yan glanced at her, tightly pursed her lips, and averted her gaze.

Song Yuhang walked up to her, placing the table lamp on the map.

“I have done quite a bit of research on this case. Would you like to hear my thoughts?”

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“This is…” The man sitting across from him looked slightly shocked.

“That’s right, it’s almost identical in composition to what was sent by the Jiangcheng City Bureau last time.”

The test tube that Lin Yan had recently handed over to her trusted confidant lay quietly on the table.

“But this time, the dosage in the blood is much smaller. Lin Yan has become smarter and knows to do it herself.”

The man sitting across from him chuckled with his head buried, his expression indistinct, as he tapped his knee with his fingertips. “Has this thing resurfaced again?”

“It’s appearing one after another in Jiangcheng City. It’s not a good sign,” sighed the man he was conversing with, getting up and walking to the window.

“For the sake of this thing, too many lives have been sacrificed.”

“But hasn’t the formula already been destroyed?” The seated man looked at the test tube, his tone flat.

“But what if the owner of the formula is still alive?” The man standing by the window turned around, his voice somewhat hoarse and heavy.

“No—impossible!” The man suddenly intensified his tone, gritting his teeth. “He, he’s long dead! It’s impossible for him to still be alive! Unless… unless…”

He gasped heavily, “Has he crawled back from hell as a vengeful demon?”

The man looked at the neon lights flickering outside the window, the bustling traffic, lost in thought. They were no longer young, and their once tall figures had become slightly hunched.

However, when he uttered those words, it still made another person reminiscent of that tumultuous era.

“Whether he’s a human or a ghost, no matter how many times he comes back, if he dares to come, we’ll send him back to hell just like we did twenty years ago. The human world cannot tolerate such a vile creature.”

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Since there was no whiteboard, Song Yuhang drew and wrote on paper with a pen. “Psychologically speaking, a psychopathic serial killer is also known as a ‘sadistic killer.’ Over 95% of the criminals are male, with only a very small percentage being physically strong females.”

Lin Yan nodded and leaned against the table, signaling her to continue.

She knew why this was the case. Dissecting and dismembering bodies is physically demanding work that requires either skill or strength, both of which are essential.

Otherwise, do you think killing a person is like killing a chicken? Killing a chicken doesn’t require any effort, but you can’t even catch a chicken.

“Secondly, the choice of targets for the attackers is often random. It’s possible that you might catch their attention just because you’re wearing a beautiful dress, or perhaps they target you because you’re carrying an attractive bag. It’s also possible that the criminals prefer overweight individuals, and if you happen to be particularly thin, you might escape unharmed. I won’t dwell on this point too much, but as long as you meet the criteria set by the criminals, they will kill you.”

“Thirdly, in cases of indiscriminate attacks like this, criminals generally don’t choose people they have social relationships with because only unfamiliar individuals are seen by the criminals as having biological attributes rather than social attributes. In other words, to them, you are just their prey, just a piece of meat on their cutting board. They find pleasure and excitement in killing, enjoying the feeling of having complete control over everything.”

“Fourthly, humans are complex energy systems, and the subconscious instinct, known as ‘libido,’ is the fundamental driving force of human psychology. Therefore, the development of psychology is essentially the development of libido. As a result, psychopathic serial killers, being ‘abnormal,’ primarily manifest their abnormality in sexual deviance. They cannot derive pleasure from normal interactions; they can only satisfy their desires through murder.”

“Just like when we investigate cases of sexual assault, most of the criminals cannot perform sexually. They seek psychological satisfaction through control, humiliation, and molestation of women. It’s the same principle.”

At this point, she paused, lifting her gaze to look at Lin Yan. “However, after a regular serial killer commits their first crime, they will definitely strike again. I believe you understand this.”

Lin Yan nodded, took a deep breath to restrain her emotions, and said, “So, over these years, while I’ve been dissecting, I’ve also been searching for similar cases. I want to…”

Finding a common point means finding a breakthrough.

However, since her sophomore year when she started interning with her teacher until now, she has dissected over six thousand corpses. She has spent more time in the dissecting room than eating and sleeping combined, yet she has still gained nothing. She hasn’t come across a similar case.

Bai Ling was an exception, but the lead went cold.

Song Yuhang remembered the glass jars filled with a thousand origami cranes in her cupboard. Her heart ached sharply. She walked over and embraced her shoulders, resting her head against hers, offering silent comfort.

Lin Yan nudged her with her elbow, but she held onto her and wouldn’t let go. She continued speaking, “So, let’s put aside the speculation that the perpetrator is a serial psychopathic killer and focus on the investigation of a regular criminal case. Simplify things.”

With one hand embracing her shoulder and the other making a gesture on the paper, she truly seemed to have some insights into the case.

Lin Yan couldn’t help but look at her a few more times. Realizing that she was being observed, Song Yuhang’s lips curved into a slight smile.

“In ordinary murder cases, it usually boils down to one or several motives: financial, revenge, or passion. Lin Yan, help me organize Chu Nan’s social relationships.”

Lin Yan shook her head. “Her social relationships are very simple. There’s me, her best friend, Auntie Chen, her mother, and everyone at school keeps their distance from her. There aren’t many social connections.”

“Think again,” Song Yuhang pondered. “It doesn’t have to be positive relationships, negative ones can also be considered.”

Lin Yan thought for a moment, took a pen and paper, and wrote down a few names. “These are a few people who used to bully us. I looked into them myself, and I assume the police have as well, but still, nothing.”

A flash of inspiration crossed Song Yuhang’s mind. “I remember at that time, the suspected criminal we focused on was a butcher. Chen Chu Nan’s father had a conflict with this person at the market over two cents and accidentally injured his wife, who later passed away. He had motive, lived near the scene of the crime, had the means and tools to commit the crime, and Chen Chu Nan’s blood was found in his car. It perfectly matches the description I have of the perpetrator’s appearance and personality. But later, I heard he died in custody. Otherwise, we could have uncovered more things. Even if he didn’t commit the murder, he must have had some involvement with the person who escaped.”

This is what frustrated her the most about this case. They had clearly identified a suspect, but he died inexplicably, leaving them with unanswered questions. Who could accept that?

Lin Yan supported herself on the table, trembling slightly, swallowing her saliva, and trying to regulate her breathing.

Song Yuhang gently placed her hand on her back and patted it. “Do you have a computer?”

Lin Yan snapped back to reality, and her eyes glistened with a hint of moisture, breathtakingly beautiful.

“Yes, I’ll find it for you.”

She rummaged under a pile of newspapers and books and pulled out a laptop, opened it, and handed it to her.

Song Yuhang took out her own intranet card, and as Lin Yan watched her busy herself, she averted her gaze. “Why… do you have to be so diligent and responsible?”

Song Yuhang didn’t turn around. “Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?”

Without waiting for her response, she continued speaking to herself, “The lie would be the typical rhetoric of me being a police officer who solves every case. I bet you’ve heard it enough.”

“As for the truth…” She took a moment to glance back at her, her smile gentle and her eyes brimming with warmth and sincerity.

“Didn’t you say that once everything is over, you’ll agree to marry me?”

“I want to get married to you as soon as possible.”

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