Attending ex-girlfriend's wedding, arresting the groom's officer on the spot

"Where is the murder weapon buried?" The question brought him back to reality. Li Yong mechanically turned around and pointed to the small garden in the southeast corner of the community: "Under the old osmanthus tree, under the seventh stone slab." Recalling the scene of burying the knife, cold sweat soaked his back again - raindrops mixed with mud splashed on his face, he dug a hole with branches like crazy, and the cracks between his fingernails were filled with wet rotten leaves.

When the police officers pried open the stone slab and the black plastic bag was exposed to the sun, Li Yong suddenly collapsed to the ground. The sound of the metal handcuffs knocking against the stone slab and the muffled sound of the knife piercing the human body that night formed a sickening resonance in his mind. Amid the exclamations of the onlookers, he finally broke down and cried, his tears mixed with snot dripping onto the front of his prison uniform, but he could no longer wash away the sins stained on his hands.

Outside the cordon, Wang Xuebing's nanny, Aunt Li, turned her face away.

The morning mist gradually dissipated, and the Golden Sun Community returned to its former tranquility, but the cordon in front of Room 201 was still there.

The case was solved, and Lu Chuan and others had completed their work, but the revelation this case brought to people was the grievances and grudges behind the case. For the victim's family and those who knew the victim, it may take a long time to calm down.

I thought the Criminal Investigation Detachment would be quiet for a few days after this case was over, but I didn't expect that on the second day, the Criminal Investigation Detachment received a case transferred from the Criminal Police Brigade.

In the meeting room of the Criminal Investigation Brigade, incandescent lamps illuminated the projection screen. Yuan Shaokang, the captain of the High-tech Zone Criminal Police Brigade, stood in front of the stage, took a deep breath, and began to introduce this difficult missing case. His voice was steady, but it was difficult to hide the solemnity between his words: "A week ago, we received a report from Li Xiaomin's parents that their daughter had been missing for more than 24 hours. Li Xiaomin, 22 years old, is a senior student at the Conservatory of Music and lives alone in the Jade Apartment in the High-tech Zone."

Yuan Shaokang and Lu Chuan have known each other for a long time. This case was originally handed over to the High-tech Zone Criminal Police Brigade after the street reported it, but a week later, no clues were found. In addition, some circumstances at the crime scene were quite special. After careful consideration, the High-tech Zone Criminal Police Brigade reported to the relevant leaders of the branch and decided to hand the case over to the Criminal Investigation Brigade.

The big screen then switched to a photo of Li Xiaomin, the girl had a high ponytail, was holding a violin, and had a bright smile. Yuan Shaokang continued, "We checked the surveillance cameras around the apartment and found that the last time Li Xiaomin appeared in the surveillance footage was at 6:17 pm on the day she disappeared, when she walked into the elevator of the apartment holding the music sheet. After that, no surveillance cameras at the entrance and exit of the community or on the surrounding streets captured her figure again."

The scene switches to Li Xiaomin's residence. The living room is neatly lined with music stands, and the bed in the bedroom is still covered with unfolded pajamas. Everything looks normal until the camera sweeps across the floor. "This is the blood stain detected in the cracks of her bedroom floor. The area is about 30 square centimeters, and it is in the shape of irregular splashes." Yuan Shaokang circled the dark red marks with a laser pen. "After testing with luminol reagent, it was confirmed to be human blood. But after DNA comparison, the blood does not belong to Li Xiaomin, but to an unknown male. There is currently no matching record in the database."

This is why the High-tech Zone Criminal Police Brigade decided to report the case to the Criminal Investigation Brigade. The most important reason was that blood was found at the crime scene, but the blood was not from the missing person, which was a bit strange.

Moreover, the bloodstains in the missing person's house were quite large. 30 square centimeters was already a relatively large area. So many bloodstains appeared in a spray shape and were detected to belong to a male. Who was this person? Was he related to the missing person? Wang Shuai frowned and raised his hand to ask: "Are there any signs of fighting at the scene? Are the doors and windows intact?"

Yuan Shaokang nodded: "There are no signs of prying on the doors and windows. Apart from the blood in the house, there are no obvious signs of fighting, and no property is missing. However, we found signs of cleaning the bathtub in the bathroom, and trace amounts of blood were detected at the drain. It is speculated that the suspect may have cleaned the scene here."

Zhang Hui flipped open the notebook in his hand and asked, "How is Li Xiaomin's interpersonal relationship? Is there any emotional dispute or financial conflict?"

Yuan Shaokang sighed and shook his head: "We visited her classmates, teachers, neighbors, and even checked her call records and social accounts for the past six months. Li Xiaomin has a cheerful personality and gets along well with her classmates. She has no emotional entanglements, no loan records, and her interpersonal relationships are almost clean. The only unusual thing is that her phone was turned off after 3 pm on the day she disappeared and has never been turned on again."

Lu Chuan had been listening to the report in silence, and finally spoke up: "What is her daily routine like? Did she have any special arrangements on the day she disappeared?"

"According to classmates, Li Xiaomin had a very regular life, except for classes and piano practice, she would go to the library. The day she disappeared was a weekend, and she had made an appointment with classmates to practice in the piano room, but she never showed up. We contacted the places she often went to, and they all said they had not seen her that day." Yuan Shaokang pulled up Li Xiaomin's schedule, which was filled with piano practice time and class schedules. "The only blank was the afternoon to evening of the day she disappeared."

The conference room fell into a brief silence as everyone digested this information. The seemingly ordinary missing person case became shrouded in mystery because of the unidentified bloodstains. Lu Chuan stood up, walked to the whiteboard, wrote the words "Li Xiaomin's Disappearance Case", and listed the known clues next to it: unknown male bloodstains, regular life, clean interpersonal relationships, and sudden loss of contact.

"This case is not a simple one." Lu Chuan turned around and looked at everyone present. "Judging from the bloodstains, there is a high probability that a conflict occurred at the crime scene, and there may even be a murder involved. But Li Xiaomin's clean record makes it impossible for us to find any motive. Next, we will focus on investigating her whereabouts before and after her disappearance, expand the scope of surveillance, and re-examine every person she had contact with, even if they were just acquaintances. Any detail may be a breakthrough."

Yuan Shaokang closed his notebook and said solemnly, "We in the High-tech Zone Criminal Police Brigade will fully cooperate and get to the bottom of this case."

The next morning, the early morning sun shone obliquely into Li Xiaomin's bedroom through the dusty windows, casting a strange halo on the dark red bloodstains. Wearing headlamps, masks and gloves, Yang Lin and Yang Sen stepped into this mysterious space like two precise archaeologists. Unlike the hasty investigation of the High-tech Zone Criminal Police Brigade last time, the equipment boxes they carried with them were neatly stacked with professional equipment such as multi-band light sources, electrostatic adsorption devices, and vacuum evidence collectors. (End of this chapter)