The deceased: Wan Yuan
Gender: Male
Occupation: University Vice Dean
Age: 42
Cause of death: Frozen to death
Location where the body was found: Abandoned building behind 2077 Bar alley
The police carried away the corpse, and the scene was cordoned off in an orderly manner.
Jian Jing took Knight with her and followed the car to the police station, under the noble pretext of making a statement, but in fact to gather information about the big case.
Gao Police Officer's attitude was not much looser than the seasonal wind, but his skills at muddling through were not enough, and he had no guard against Jian Jing, so she was able to wheedle some things out of him.
Recently, there has been a complicated case in Heping City.
Three women died, all frozen to death alive, ranging in age from 20-40 years old. The bodies were severely damaged, with fingerprints and faces burned beyond recognition, making it impossible to verify their identities.
Whenever it snowed, the bodies were abandoned on the streets, hidden in the ice and snow, as if they were people frozen like in Frozen.
"No clues?" she asked.
Gao Police Officer sighed, "The bodies can't be identified, we can't find their social connections, so it's difficult to investigate. Also, the snow often causes circuit failures and several surveillance cameras failed, so we didn't get much from the directions the bodies were abandoned either."
Jian Jing was very interested, "Did the seasonal wind find nothing?"
"I'm not supposed to say, but since you're so concerned about him..." Gao Police Officer coughed, "He's examining the personal belongings found on the bodies to see if he can uncover any clues - I can't say anything else, it's a big case."
Jian Jing nodded readily and instead asked, "Is it okay to just chat about this case?"
As usual, major and important cases, especially those where people were pulled from the branch for investigation, were highly confidential and difficult.
But cases like Dean Wan's had not yet been incorporated, it was still an ordinary case. Even though Gao Police Officer's intuition told him something was off, he still had to slowly file reports.
This gave Jian Jing a chance to get involved. With her connections with the police, asking to assist in investigating this case was not excessive at all.
Gao Police Officer was also happy to agree - Teacher Jian always gave Ji Feng extra credits on his performance appraisal, this time it was finally his turn. He said, "Are you sure the deceased went to the bar?"
Jian Jing directly showed him the surveillance video of Dean Wan in drag.
When Wan Dean's cross-dressing photos came out, Gao Police Officer couldn't help but say, "Your dean has quite special hobbies." After observing carefully for a while, the police radar loudly warned, "This outfit is indeed...too similar."
The few women who had died were also heavily made up.
Jian Jing took the opportunity to ask, "Will you check the surveillance footage? Our dean went into the bar on the evening of the 3rd, so the scope is not too big."
Gao Police Officer immediately took action.
Jian Jing pondered for a moment, took out her phone and sent Ji Feng a message: [What are you up to?]
He: [Busy]
Oh, that was rather perfunctory.
She replied with an expressionless smiley face.
Ji Feng didn't have many other skills, but his keenness had always been high. He sniffed something was up and made time in his busy schedule to reply with two words: [What's up?]
Jian Jing: [Nothing]
Ji Feng: I'll believe you when pigs fly.
But he still couldn't figure out what Jian Jing meant.
In nearly half a month, he and Teacher Jian had met much less frequently. Firstly, without cases, there were fewer opportunities to interact, and secondly, he had been promoted recently, so he really was busy.
Occasionally he could see her updates in Moments - like that she got a dog - but that was it.
And in Ji Feng's experience, Jian Jing would never chat with him privately for no reason. Daily small talk was almost non-existent, but when it came to discussing cases, it was easy to go off topic.
For her to suddenly message him like this, it was not good.
Ji Feng felt a chill down his back, but couldn't figure out what the problem was.
"Hey, what are you daydreaming about?" Liang Yi came over with two cups of instant coffee, handing him one, and glanced curiously at his WeChat screen, "Any progress?"
Ji Feng put his phone away, keeping a straight face: "No."
She sighed, sitting glumly down on the stool, eyebrows knitted: "What do you think, have we run into some serial killer this time?"
Ji Feng rolled his eyes: "What kind of serial killer?"
"You tell me," Liang Yi was full of hope.
Yes, hope. Which kid hadn't read about psychopathic serial killers when they were young? From Jack the Ripper, to the Green River Killer, cannibals, Zodiac Killers, they were all familiar "celebrities".
When the police encountered them, they were annoyed that these killers had no regard for law or life, yet also inevitably provoked to compete with them.
Ji Feng asked back, "Do you think it is?"
Liang Yi lowered her voice, "The perpetrator damaged the bodies and dumped them during blackouts, his anti-investigation capabilities are very strong, and he specifically targeted women of the same type...it looks very similar in every way."
"It's certain the same person committed the murders, but if you say a psychopathic serial killer..." Ji Feng stroked his chin, "Someone died half a month ago, and now there's another one? The odds seem too high."
Liang Yi knew who he was referring to that died, but insisted, "Freezing to death is not a common method of murder, he went through so much tedious trouble to do this, there must be a reason."
Ji Feng agreed on this point.
He calculated the time, "The forensic center should have results by now, right?"
Although the crime rate in this world was extremely high, resulting in cracking rates that could not be raised at all, for a case with such extremely adverse effects that could happen again at any time like this, the police did not skimp on manpower and resources.
With some queue jumping by submitting the report, the forensic center worked overtime and gave the appraisal report.
Firstly, the clothes on the three female corpses were relatively new fabrics, but not any brand names, rather generic products that could be bought from any roadside shop, extremely average quality.
In other words, it would be difficult to investigate the source of the clothes!
But the same ash and soil particles, specifically garden soil used for gardening, were detected on all three pieces of clothing.
This was undoubtedly huge progress, greatly narrowing down the range of suspects.
Ji Feng and Liang Yi began the tedious but indispensable process of making inquiries.
At the same time, Jian Jing's side entered the classic multiple choice question phase.
She didn't expect progress to be this fast either, with suspects found overnight.
Gao Police Officer couldn't help but boast, "The weather's been good recently, no snow, so the surveillance here hasn't broken. I compared the vehicles on the evening of the 3rd with the ones going in and out these past few days, and found three suspects."
With today's technology, AI was still a bit far off, but license plate collection was not a problem.
Jian Jing received his call and rushed over to the police station to sit in within twenty minutes.
The first suspect was male, 35 years old, blue collar, occupation repairman.
He honestly explained, "I'm responsible for maintaining XX brand air conditioners and heaters, all the work orders are assigned by the company. These two days there were quite a few broken ones for customers, I've been busy running around every day, can't remember exactly when I went where."
Gao Police Officer asked, "Where were you on the evening of the 3rd?"
The worker uncle thought for a moment before answering, "I had a lot of orders that day, finished a bit late, ate some late night snacks outside, then went home to play cards."
"What about this time on the 5th? Around 7 am."
"Taking work orders, I guess."
"For quite a while, huh."
"Eating breakfast probably. I'm used to eating something near the location of my first order."
"Does anyone can prove your alibi?"
"No."
"Anyone at home?"
"I live alone."
"What about your wife?"
"She ran off with someone."
Gao Police Officer looked at him and spoke gently, "It must be very tiring working so hard right?"
"It's alright," the worker uncle was not very educated, but his ability to read expressions and adapt his tone was not bad. His tone gradually became more casual, "Earning a hard living wage, at least it's better in summer and winter."
Gao Police Officer nodded, then asked again, "Any kids?"
"A daughter, she's in my hometown."
The two seemed to chat idly about family matters, but in fact revealed a lot of information.
For example, this uncle was very concerned about his wife leaving him. He had called asking her to come back but she refused, and even said not to look for her in the future, their daughter had nothing to do with her either. After all, they only had a wedding banquet at the time, without a marriage certificate, so splitting up didn't even need going to the civil affairs bureau.
The uncle was angry she thought him poor and loved money, and felt sorry for himself, saying how poor his family was.
The second was also male, 39 years old, occupation corporate executive, frequent nightclub goer.
Gao Police Officer asked the routine questions, "Where were you on the evening of the 3rd?"
"Nightclub," compared to the nervous worker uncle at the start, this white collar executive was much calmer, without the tension of being questioned, "It's not illegal to drink right."
Gao Police Officer's attitude was the opposite of his earlier geniality, saying coldly, "Answer what I ask honestly, don't spout rubbish."
He asked again, "What time did you arrive, what time did you leave?"
The white-collar worker was still calm and nonchalant. He said casually, "Who remembers what time we left, it was probably after midnight."
"Did you leave alone?"
"I got a designated driver."
"You found one online?"
"Just grabbed a random one from the street."
"Do you have their contact information?"
"Who remembers stuff like that."
"Tell me about your family situation."
"Single and unmarried."
Officer Gao clicked his tongue meaningfully and said, "Unmarried at this age, that's not common."
"Personal choice," the white-collar worker lifted his chin. "No problem with that right?"
"Have you seen this person before?" Officer Gao took out a Photoshopped image of Fang Yuan in drag. "Think carefully."
The white-collar glanced at it: "No impression. There were so many people at the bar and the lighting was bad. I couldn't even see the face of whoever was sitting in my lap, how could I remember what some random person looked like."
Officer Gao: "You've never met him before?"
The white-collar scoffed: "Anyway, I don't remember this person."
"On the night of the 6th, were you in this area?"
"The bar," the white-collar said matter-of-factly. "I go there often."
Officer Gao asked him a few more irrelevant questions, but found no obvious flaws.
The third suspect was another man, 43 years old, a state-owned enterprise employee. His abilities were average, and he was still just a low-level manager after all these years.
Compared to the worker, he was more relaxed, but more restrained than the white-collar. Overall, he was a decent, rule-abiding middle-aged man who answered whatever he was asked.
"Night of the 3rd? Yes, I went there to get a late night snack after working overtime late. The 5th? I was at work that day, didn't go... Oh right, I went to drop off clothes for dry cleaning. I had a down jacket that needed cleaning."
Officer Gao fiddled with his phone for a while, then said, "There is a dry cleaner there, but it's quite far from your home, isn't it?"
The employee became a little nervous: "It is a bit far. I hadn't been there before, the navigation brought me there. I still have the receipt for my clothes at home, I didn't lie."
Officer Gao looked at him for a while, then became friendly again: "Don't be scared, just asking casually. Have you seen this person before?"
It was the photo again.
The employee took it with both hands, held it far away to scrutinize it carefully, then said: "No impression." As an afterthought, he added, "Definitely not someone from our company."
Officer Gao nodded, and as usual asked about his family circumstances.
This time he wasn't single, but also had no alibi: "My wife went back to her parents' home, my son is away at university, he's doing quite well with his studies. Yes, I got married early, hard to tell right...?"
He chattered on and on about household affairs, but similarly, no obvious flaws could be found.
Officer Gao couldn't help but doubt: "Maybe the murderer didn't use just one car, we might have missed something."
Jian Jing held an iPad, sliding her finger across the screen, comparing photos of the crime scene to the forensic reports: "The victim was wearing light men's clothing, there was a bottle of whiskey next to him, and his fingerprints were on the bottle. This makes it look like a drunk who froze to death on the streets by accident."
Officer Gao nodded, but did not grasp the implication of her words.
"If you didn't know the victim had been dressed as a woman, no one would connect him to the snow corpse case." Jian Jing rested her chin in her hand, lips slightly upturned. "The murderer wouldn't be especially careful when disposing of the body. I think it's very likely he used the same car."
The killer should be among these three suspects.