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

As the last person left the meeting room, Lu Chuan suddenly turned back and glanced at the 3D model on the screen. Size 42 shoe print, Tiffany earrings, a farm tricycle, a mysterious number… these clues, like scattered puzzle pieces, though not fully assembled, had already outlined the killer's profile—familiar with the terrain, possessing access to cyanide, and having a conflict of interest or emotional entanglement with Zhang Lihui. He grabbed the walkie-talkie: “Notify all groups to proceed in the designated direction, focusing on monitoring the area where the signal ending in 6789 reappears.”

The motion-activated lights in the corridor flickered on and off with the sound of footsteps, illuminating the slogan on the wall that read "Homicide Cases Must Be Solved." The photo of Zhang Lihui's charred body still lingered on the screen, and the smell of burning flesh from the mountain valley seemed to still resonate in their nostrils. But at this moment, in the eyes of the police officers present, the case was no longer an impenetrable fog. The scattered clues were gradually weaving together into a net pointing to the truth, following the thread of the discussion.

That morning, Wang Shuai began investigating Zhang Lihui's interpersonal relationships.

As Wang Shuai pushed open the glass door of the Starlight Luxury Store, the wind chimes tinkled crisply, creating a delicate yet incongruous effect with the store's fragrance. Xiao Chen, a sales clerk, was wiping Hermes bags in the window with a chamois cloth when she saw the man in police uniform enter. Suddenly, the cloth fell onto the counter: "Officer, about our boss..." Wang Shuai interrupted her, his gaze sweeping over the business license on the wall. Zhang Lihui's name gleamed coldly in the sunlight: "Take me to his office."

The leather sofa in the office still had dents, and a gilded fountain pen on the desk was stuck diagonally in an ink bottle, the ink from the nib spreading into small ink blots on the off-white tablecloth. Wang Shuai opened a drawer, and in the bottommost velvet box lay a Tiffany diamond ring. The certificate showed a purchase date three months ago, and the recipient was listed as "Lin Weiwei." "This is our boss's wife," Xiao Chen said cautiously. "The boss has been arguing with her a lot lately, and last week he even broke a vase in the store."

When Wang Shuai found Lin Weiwei, she was drinking detox juice in the yoga studio's rest area. Her calves, encased in yoga pants, had smooth lines, and the diamond bracelet on her ankle was dazzling. "Zhang Lihui and I are over a long time ago," she said, chewing the straw out of shape, her avocado-green nails scratching fine marks on the glass. "He was seeing other women behind my back and even tried to transfer funds from the shop. I'm being kind by not killing him." Wang Shuai noticed that she was wearing size 37 sneakers, which didn't match the size 39 women's leather shoes found at the scene.

When asked about Zhang Lihui's social network, Lin Weiwei suddenly laughed, the sound echoing on the wooden floor of the yoga studio: "His network of relationships is more complicated than a spider web," she counted on her fingers, "There are rich second-generation heirs who owe him money, parallel importers who supply him, and..." She suddenly stopped, her eyelashes casting a shadow under her eyes, "and there's a model named 'Xiaoya,' who always comes to the store to see him, and last week they even had an argument over a necklace."

Wang Shuai retrieved the store's surveillance footage. At 3 PM on May 10th, a woman in a red dress argued with Zhang Lihui at the counter. Her size 39 high heels stomped rapidly on the marble floor—the metal reflective material of the heels matched that of the Tiffany earrings found at the scene. "Her name is Xiaoya, her real name is Liu Ya," Xiao Chen added from the side. "She's a print model who always asks the boss to give her luxury goods. This time, the boss refused, so she smashed a bracelet on the display shelf."

When they found Liu Ya's rented apartment, the hallway was piled with smelly delivery boxes. A yellowed poster was pasted on her door, featuring her as the model, her Tiffany earring on her left earlobe sparkling. "Zhang Lihui and I are just clients," Liu Ya said, half of her false eyelashes missing and her eyeshadow smudged into a bluish-black. "He didn't give me the necklace he owed me. I did yell at him, but murder? I don't have the guts." Wang Shuai's gaze fell on her size 39 stilettos in the shoe cabinet. There was a fresh scratch on the metal plate of the heel—highly similar to the wear pattern on the back of the earring found at the scene.

When verifying Lin Weiwei's crime time, the yoga studio's surveillance footage provided irrefutable evidence. From 8 PM to 11 PM on May 12th, she remained in the hot yoga room. The surveillance footage showed that her yoga mat never moved, and the sweat stains on the mat perfectly matched her physical characteristics. "Her membership card records show that she checked in continuously for 90 minutes," Wang Shuai noted, pointing to the surveillance timestamps. "She didn't leave during that time, so it's impossible for her to be in Wild Wolf Valley, 50 kilometers away."

Liu Ya's alibi, however, had a flaw. She claimed to have been drinking at a bar on the evening of May 12th, but the bar's surveillance footage only captured her before 9 PM, leaving a two-hour gap. "Can't I just go to the restroom?" she suddenly raised her voice, a piece of red nail polish chipping from under her fingernail. "You can't blame me just because I had a fight with him, can you?" Wang Shuai pulled up her call log. At 9:17 PM on May 12th, she did call Zhang Lihui, but the last four digits weren't 6789; it was another unknown number.

In Zhang Lihui's safe, Wang Shuai found a share transfer agreement. The transferee was a shell company, and the signing date was May 11th. "Lin Weiwei forced him to sign this," the shop assistant, Xiao Chen, suddenly recalled. "That day, she brought two men in black suits. The boss talked to them behind closed doors all afternoon, and when he came out, his face was pale." Wang Shuai had the fingerprints on the agreement examined by the technical department. Besides Zhang Lihui and Lin Weiwei's fingerprints, there was also an unfamiliar fingerprint—which matched some of the fingerprint characteristics on a bloodstained rag deep in the mine.

The investigation went on late into the night. Wang Shuai added Lin Weiwei's name to the exclusion list, his pen moving with unusual heaviness as it traced the lines of the paper. This woman, who had broken up with Zhang Lihui, though with motives and emotions, was firmly ruled out by the size 37 shoe print and the yoga studio's surveillance footage. "Liu Ya is more suspicious," he muttered to himself, staring at the clues on the whiteboard. Size 39 shoe print, Tiffany earrings, a gap in the timeline… these fragments were like the edges of a jigsaw puzzle; though the overall picture wasn't certain, they subtly pointed to this temperamental model.

As he was leaving the yoga studio, Lin Weiwei chased after him and handed him a note: "Zhang Lihui hid a batch of counterfeit watches in the warehouse. Last week, a lame man came to pick up the goods, saying he owed him 500,000 yuan." Wang Shuai unfolded the note. The warehouse address on it was only three kilometers away from Wild Wolf Valley. The perfume scent on the edge of the paper was exactly the same as the fragrance in Zhang Lihui's office—it was a brand that Lin Weiwei usually used. She had left a clue after all.

Back at the branch office, moonlight shone through the case files, illuminating the name "Lin Weiwei." Wang Shuai suddenly remembered the diamond bracelet on her ankle; it was exactly the same style as the "anniversary gift" Zhang Lihui had posted on social media, only missing a small diamond. "Perhaps she knows more than she says," he wrote in his notebook, the ink spreading across the page like an unfinished period. (End of Chapter)