The intelligence Yu Can could provide was very limited. She only remembered a name, Zhao Bin, but there were at least tens of thousands of people in the country called that, making it impossible to find him.
Ji Feng said he would go ask Liu Ao and the others again to see if they had any impression of this name.
Jian Jing was more direct. She went to find Zhang Peiru.
"Does the name Zhao Bin ring any bells for you?" she asked.
Zhang Peiru hesitated. "Is this person important? I think I've heard of him..." She wracked her brains trying to remember. "Zhao Bin, it sounds familiar. Is he perhaps from our hometown? Could it be him?"
Jian Jing realized she had taken the wrong approach and changed tack: "No, actually what I want to know is, in the months before the incident, were there any realtors or salespeople who came to see you?"
"Realtors..." Zhang Peiru thought for a moment, then said, "Earlier when you told me to look for Honglin's belongings, I got the things back from our relatives. Let me show you."
She brought out many old items - Wu Honglin's and her old clothes, old wallets, bankbooks, documents, and a box full of receipts and papers.
Jian Jing put on gloves and picked up each item to examine.
Most had no value, but there was a flyer for a new property development that said they could get a free box of eggs by going to the sales office on January 20th.
Attached to the flyer was a business card: Warmheart Real Estate Agency, Zhao Bin, Phone: XXXX-XXXXXX.
"Honglin brought this home, saying we could get free eggs, which would be perfect for making meat and egg stew for the New Year," Zhang Peiru said, stroking the yellowed old flyer. She had forever lost the chance to eat that meal with her husband.
Jian Jing took a photo of it.
The phone number was a landline, likely not Zhao Bin's personal number, so it wasn't very useful. But at least this proved he had been in contact with Wu Honglin.
"Is this helpful?" Zhang Peiru asked anxiously. "If it is, you can take it."
"Alright," Jian Jing said after a moment's thought, and took the flyer and business card, putting them in a sealed plastic bag. Though she knew that even if there were fingerprints, they would have long since faded over the years.
Had the killer anticipated this from the beginning?
The next day, Ji Feng told her he planned to visit Wang Zihui's hometown.
Her identity had been discovered in 2003, and the people around her had been investigated by the police more than once. The information was complete, and those involved still had fairly clear memories.
Perhaps they could provide some intelligence.
Jian Jing wasn't optimistic, though. "The killer has hidden so well. Even if someone saw him, they might not remember now."
Ji Feng sighed. "We have to try, don't we? What if there's something?" Most investigative work was tedious and useless, but if they didn't look, they'd never know if they missed something.
Jian Jing said, "Well, I don't think it will work."
"How do you want to investigate?" He understood her meaning.
She smiled, somewhat smugly. "I'm not telling you, but I've thought of a way." She paused, then challenged him, "What if I find the killer first?"
Ji Feng replied, "Nominate you for another Good Samaritan Honorary Citizen award?"
Jian Jing said, "...I don't care about that."
Ji Feng said, "True, you already have one. I'll see what other honorary titles there are then."
Click. She hung up on him again.
He shook his head, amused, and bought a bottle of coffee from a nearby convenience store.
Halfway through drinking it, his phone pinged with a notification: [Jian Jing posted a new Weibo]
"Pffft―"
She couldn't be planning to... Ji Feng didn't even bother wiping off the coffee, rushing to open the app.
Sure enough, Jian Jing had made a big move.
Jian Jing V:
While gathering material, I came across an interesting cold case and want to investigate. But due to the time that's passed, information is incomplete, and the investigation isn't going well. I've decided to ask readers for clues.
Between November 2002 and February 2003, four burned body cases occurred in Peace City. Two victims have been identified:
Wang Zihui, female, born March 4, 1981, from XXX, working as a restaurant manager in 2002;
Liu Ta, female, born August 29, 1982, from XXXX, working as a magazine model in 2002.
If you or someone you know was acquainted with these two victims, especially if you had contact with them around the time they went missing, and are willing to tell me anything about them, please submit to my email at jianjing04@jw.com
If your information proves useful, you'll receive a reward of 1000 or more, plus a signed book of your choice.
―
In just a few minutes, the reposts and comments skyrocketed to astonishing numbers.
It couldn't be helped, given her massive following.
Since participating in "King of Reasoning," Jian Jing's follower count had nearly reached 9 million, most of them active fans. Even her most mundane posts got hundreds of thousands of likes.
When she said she wanted to investigate a real case for research, it immediately piqued her fans' curiosity.
Comments poured in.
Comment 1: I have a friend named Wang Zihui, is the 'hui' character correct?
Comment 2: There's an auntie in my hometown with a name like that
Comment 3: Read carefully, Ms. Jian means these two people went missing in '02
Comment 4: What kind of case is this? Has the killer been caught?
Comment 5: Ms. Jian's range of work is expanding again...
...
Jian Jing didn't read a single comment.
Even if there were people who knew something and saw this Weibo post, they'd probably think twice before contacting her. Casting such a wide net to millions, she'd be lucky to get two or three useful responses.
The key wasn't online.
She had thought it through. The killer had hidden so well, and over ten years had passed. Searching for a needle in a haystack would be time-consuming and laborious - she didn't have that kind of patience.
Better to use her old tricks and let the killer come to her.
Tell the killer: I'm investigating your old case. Don't think you can really get away with it. Once I catch your trail, your good days are over.
Are you scared? If you're scared, come try to kill me.
As long as they made a move, Jian Jing was confident she could catch them.
Her phone rang.
She answered impatiently: "Objection overruled."
Before she could speak, she was abruptly cut off. Ji Feng nearly choked on his saliva before slowly saying, "Ms. Jian, that's the second time."
"Oh."
"After all, this is a serial killer who's been free for ten years. We don't know how they might appear," Ji Feng said. "Let's make a deal. If you get any leads, call me."
Jian Jing said, "I don't want to."
Ji Feng said, "Cooperate a bit, and I'll take you somewhere nice in the future."
She replied, "Is it to sell rice noodles or flatbread this time?"
Unable to fool her, he had to promise: "If there are any special cases, I'll tell you about them."
Jian Jing rolled her eyes, but she understood. Ji Feng wanted to investigate himself, partly out of responsibility, not wanting her to put herself in danger, and partly because he wanted to solve this case with his own hands.
Delegating the task wasn't about distrust; it was just that having someone else do it versus doing it yourself was different.
"Fine," she said. "You go, I'll eavesdrop, OK?"
"OK."
Having reached an agreement, they sat back and waited for the fish to take the bait.
To create opportunities and put pressure on the killer, Jian Jing spent all day wandering around the various body dump sites.
She had already delegated the task of checking emails to her three assistants.
They were fourth-year interns, recommended by their professor to intern at Golden Crow. When Jian Jing asked the editor for someone to check emails, the chief editor dumped all three interns on her, calling it "training," but they were really just doing odd jobs.
But checking emails didn't require much professional knowledge, so interns were sufficient.
They helped Jian Jing with the initial screening of incoming mail, filtering out requests for relationship advice, fan letters of praise and admiration, harassment emails with photos, and requests for her to edit manuscripts. Only emails related to the case would be forwarded to her.
Two days later, she received a special email in her inbox.
"Dear Ms. Jian,
Hello, I am Liu Ta's older brother. Since she mysteriously disappeared in '02, I had a feeling that something might have happened to her, but I never heard anyone mention it. So I clung to false hope, pretending she just didn't want to contact us anymore.
"Yesterday, when I saw your Weibo post, I finally learned that she had died. This shocked and pained me deeply. After careful consideration for a long time, I decided to write this email. I'm not sure if what I know will be of any help to you, but I hope to do something for her. This is my last act of care for her.
"I had always had a secret crush on Liu Ta. She was a good girl, hardworking and sincere to others. But she had a boyfriend, so I couldn't pursue her too much. In December '02, I sensed that something was bothering her, and she mentioned having some conflict with her boyfriend. Christmas was coming up, so I offered to treat her to a meal, and she agreed.
"We agreed to meet on the 25th at 4 PM, but she never showed up that day. I waited until after 8, leaving the restaurant with disappointment only when it closed.
"That night, I wanted to ask her what happened, but she didn't answer my calls. I thought she didn't want to contact me anymore, so I didn't dare disturb her. But from that day on, I never saw her again."
Jian Jing replied with a letter, inquiring about his identity and if he had any suspects in mind.
The response came quickly.
"I used to work at a magazine. Liu Ta and I did a few photo shoots together, that's how we met. I don't want to reveal my specific identity; my wife and children don't know about this.
"As for suspects, I'm most concerned about her boyfriend, of course. Then there's her agent and my boss. They've both gotten handsy with Liu Ta more than once, especially my boss. He's always tried to use the excuse of shooting magazine specials to take advantage of Liu Ta. But on the 25th, which was Christmas, the magazine had an event. I'm just a junior editor, not important enough to attend, but my boss was definitely there, so I don't think it was him.
"I don't know much about the agent and don't have his contact information. You could ask others about him. I'm not sure what else I can do to help you."
If the first email could have been fabricated, the content of the second completely matched the investigation. The sender indeed knew Liu Ta and was familiar with some of her affairs.
Jian Jing thought for a moment, then asked him:
"Around December, did Liu Ta contact any real estate agents about moving?"
The reply came:
"Yes, her lifestyle didn't match her roommate's, so she planned to move to a new place at the start of the new year. I'm not sure about real estate agents."
Once again, her guess was confirmed.
Jian Jing thanked him and asked for his account details to send him some money. But he politely declined.
She forwarded both emails to Ji Feng, asking: [Does this sound like the killer?]
Ji Feng: [It does]
Jian Jing felt the same way.
The sender kept saying he admired Liu Ta, but his description of her was limited to just a few words - hardworking, sincere - like a teacher writing comments for an elementary school student.
Jian Jing was a writer, dealing with words day in and day out. Her instinct for literary creation wasn't for nothing. She instinctively felt this wasn't a heartfelt outpouring.
Looking further, the details about Liu Ta's work, personality, and relationships were extremely vague, while there was more content about her disappearance.
She reasonably suspected that this was the killer probing to see how much she knew.
So, Jian Jing also very readily threw out some bait.
Now it was time to wait for the killer's next move.
But as the saying goes, man proposes, God disposes. Perhaps because there were too many verified accounts in Jian Jing's fan list, or because "Ms. Jian" appeared too frequently in various police announcements, the killer didn't approach her.
Instead, they chose someone related to the case who had indirectly exposed themselves.
Yu Can's daughter.
That day, Yu Can called hesitantly, saying: "Is this Ms. Jian? I'm Yu Can, from the furniture mall... You remember me, right? That's great. There's something bothering me, and I don't know who else to talk to."
Jian Jing was puzzled: "What is it?"
"Well," she hesitated, "my daughter told me that someone came to her school looking for her, but wouldn't say why. It was strange. From her description, it sounded like that colleague you asked me about."
Jian Jing was shocked: "Looking for your daughter? Is she alright?"
"She's fine. It's almost the New Year, so I sent her back to our hometown." Yu Can was confused, "What's going on here..."
Instead of answering, Jian Jing asked: "Could you ask her about the specific time and place?"
"I can, I'll call her once her flight lands." Yu Can paused, still worried, "Ms. Jian, Zhao Bin... he's not... you know, is he?"
Jian Jing replied: "I don't know either."
Yu Can seemed to have more to say but held back.
Not long after, her daughter's body was found in an abandoned building on the outskirts of Peace City.