Eyes that are the same as those of evil

Chapter 134 The Mystery of the Murder Weapon
"If you were Qi Ziqin, would you give birth to this child?"

Qi Yao's interrogation was over, and the case was nearing its end. They were doing the final finishing touches when they discussed this matter.

The questions were mainly directed at two unmarried women. Tan Jia didn't pay attention to what Wu Yang said, but when it came to her, she gave a negative answer without hesitation.

"I have no obligation to continue anyone's bloodline. Childbirth is so damaging, who can help bear the burden?"

Xiao Chen asked, "What if Tang Tianyu's parents keep pleading? Do you think Qi Ziqin might feel a moment of reluctance?"

"Maybe, but with such a long pregnancy, if she hesitates today, feels unwell while filming tomorrow, or loses an endorsement, she'll still reaffirm her initial idea. It's not like killing someone, where once you stab them, there's no going back."

"Unless the child has another use for Scutellaria baicalensis."

After she finished speaking, Tan Ming helplessly reiterated the investigation results: "Based on multiple testimonies and existing evidence, we cannot prove that Qi Ziqin and Qin Jianan induced or condoned the murderer's crime."

Qi Yao was unaware of Qi Ziqin's pregnancy, nor was he aware of Qin Jianan's secret visit to Qi Ziqin. Furthermore, there was no evidence that Qi Ziqin knew in advance that Qi Yao was hiding in her room, so the two of them had already been released.

“Most murderers are not the typical high-IQ criminals portrayed in movies and TV shows. You have to accept their stupidity and some twists of fate,” Tan Ming added.

Tan Jia pursed his lips, then held up the completed human-shaped clay sculpture for a couple of seconds to admire it.

Although her current works are limited to "the murderer standing straight", "the dead lying straight", and "the eyewitness staring blankly", at least they can distinguish who is who.

When I have more time, I'll refine my posture; it will definitely be even more perfect.

After admiring the artwork, she continued kneading the dough. This time, her "Crime Scene - Suitcase Body Disposal Case" was still missing one final piece: the murder weapon.

Not the crudely made knife she sculpted during the previous demonstration, she planned to sculpt all of Qi Ziqin's props and then highlight one of them as a real knife.

However, if you want to make a metallic blade out of dough, you'll need to ask Lin Zhiyue for help with color mixing.

“It’s causing a huge uproar online,” Wu Yang said as she returned from submitting her documents and searched for news online. “Tang Tianyu’s fans stormed the filming location of Qi Ziqin and blocked Qin Jianan on the road. His activities for the next three months have all been canceled. The top five trending topics are all related to this incident.”

“Many people heard what Qi Yao shouted in the square, right?” Xiao Chen said with a yawn. “When it comes to things in the entertainment industry, they are often kept secret. During this investigation, all sorts of production crews, companies, studios, and brands came to ask for confidentiality. Who knew that Qi Yao would shout it out on the spot?”

Tan Jia now felt that it was a good thing that Qi Yao didn't know Qi Ziqin was pregnant.

"If she knew that Qi Ziqin was pregnant with Tang Tianyu's child, and shouted it out so that people could hear, it wouldn't just be Tang Tianyu's parents coming to beg Qi Ziqin to keep the child."

Hundreds and thousands of crazy fans are "calling" for Qi Ziqin to leave an heir for Tang Tianyu. My God, just thinking about it is suffocating.

"There are even videos. The evacuated crowd was so scared that they ran around in circles, almost causing a stampede, yet so many people still managed to take photos and record videos." Wu Yang looked through the photos one by one, and sighed as he reached the end.

“Someone filmed you shooting an arrow, Gaja.”

Xiao Chen and Tan Ming went over to take a look first.

"You're so handsome! Your eyes are as determined as if you're hunting on the East African savanna. Lin Zhiyue behind you is almost falling in love with you."

Tan Jia turned around, put his hand on another chair, adopted a boss-like posture, and raised an eyebrow with a "take it for granted" expression.

Tan Ming used an elbow strike to punish Xiao Chen for his nonsense, then said officially, "The number of reposts is so high. Contact the other party to delete the post and stop promoting this."

But before contacting the other party, they saved the photo, one for each person.

Tan Ming also sent it to the family group, after cropping out Lin Zhiyue from the edge.

The atmosphere in the office was good. When Zheng Yan returned, they were all discussing where to eat after they finished their work. "A new sour soup hot pot restaurant opened on Shiming Street. I heard the beef there is very fresh. Let's invite Shiyan to go eat together."

"Team Leader Zheng, this time you don't need to reimburse us, we'll treat you."

While discussing the matter, they were also engrossed in making the final written summary; their bodies were at the police station, but their minds were at the hot pot restaurant.

Zheng Yan calculated how long he would be busy with the follow-up matters, and replied, "Okay, I'll still take advantage of the free meal. I'll go as soon as I'm done cleaning up, and hurry up."

Tan Jia's movements as he sculpted the dough weapon were a bit too fast.

Just as everyone was packing up to leave, the forensic investigators suddenly pushed the door open and came in.

His face was serious, and his brows were furrowed; it was clear that something had happened.

"Captain Zheng, an unexpected situation. Additional bloodstains have been found on the murder weapon used in Qi Yao's murder of Tang Tianyu."

Everyone in the office was stunned. Tan Jia stopped what she was doing and looked at the clay weapon she was sculpting.

What's going on? Could this knife be connected to another murder case?
……

Trace evidence testing laboratory.

The case of the body found in the suitcase is nearing its end. The evidence that was previously examined has served its purpose and has been moved to other places, leaving only the murder weapon on the table.

This is a folding knife with a rather long blade. The blade is rusty, the edge is a bit dull, and there are dark red bloodstains and paint all over it.

"When we examined the bloodstains on the blade, we easily found the victim's blood, along with red pigment, which matched the witness's testimony. This is indeed a prop knife from a murder mystery game; the red pigment is very realistic."

"However, when we disassembled the handle, we found some isolated dark red pieces that had dried into flaky skin and were hidden in the corners of the handle."

The forensic investigators showed them the photos they had taken earlier, pointing to the dried blood and saying, "If it were sprayed red paint, it should be connected to the paint on the blade, but this is separate, and the drying state is different. Even the victim's blood flowing in couldn't cover up this trace."

Zheng Yan looked serious and, after examining the blood carefully, asked, "So you checked it more thoroughly and found it was someone else's blood?"

"Yes. Moreover, it's been quite a while, and the DNA in the bloodstains has degraded. It's hard to say whether it can be used for DNA testing. We can only try to see if we can extract some special fragments to confirm the identity."

Tan Jia was a little curious: "Maybe the original owner of this knife just cut his own hand and some of the liquid got in? It doesn't necessarily involve a murder, right?"

Zheng Yan shook his head and pointed to the groove in the handle of the folding knife: "The fact that blood is still in here, and in large flakes of skin, means that a lot of blood was lost. Even if this is not a murder case, it is definitely a criminal case involving personal injury."

"What if it's an unexpected situation?"

"We still need to investigate. Only after we've thoroughly investigated can we rule out this possibility. We cannot ignore any potential or already committed murder."

As soon as he finished speaking, the person inside doing DNA testing said, "We have a usable fragment; we're matching it with samples in the system."

Everyone crowded around, and the data on the computer was quickly extracted and compared. Finally, it stopped on a known sample, showing a high degree of match.

After seeing it clearly, Tan Jia and the others turned around in surprise and looked at Wu Yang beside them.

"Wu Yang, is this knife related to your father?"

(End of this chapter)