Eyes that are the same as those of evil

Chapter 27 Ghost Hotline - Serial Murder Case 7
The other party was about to hang up when Zheng Yan quickly called out, "Wait a minute!"

"What exactly do you want?" He winked at the technical team, speaking without pausing, "If you want to play a murder mystery game, you could easily disguise the victim's suicide in a way that makes it harder for us to detect. Why did you have to call us? Do you have some kind of demand?"

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone, followed by a laugh, and then the call was hung up without hesitation.

The technical team shook their heads: "There's not enough time; we still can't pinpoint the location."

As expected, Zheng Yan still managed to glean some information from this brief conversation.

“I asked her what her demands were, and she laughed, which was a sign of contempt and distrust. She may have had experiences in the past where she couldn’t find trust in the police.”

Xiao Chen: "I checked if anyone near the bus stop matched. But Captain Zheng, there's a third person..."

A third life is being lost at an alarming rate. And they are powerless to stop it.

Everyone was in a bad mood. Zheng Yan's shoulders slumped, and his rough hands moved from his face to the back of his head as he exhaled stale air and tried to think calmly.

Tan Jia was uncomfortable with the atmosphere, so she moved her chair, making a sizzling sound to draw everyone's attention back to her.

"It sounds like the killer has a very detailed schedule, but you haven't made no progress either. There's the medicine, the two related abusers, and the surveillance. The more people she kills, the more likely she is to be exposed on the surveillance. She can't possibly avoid all the surveillance cameras in Jiujiang."

Compared to the speed of investigations abroad, this is already very fast.

Zheng Yan chuckled when he saw her genuinely carefree attitude.

“That’s right, we’re not without progress. The clues will only increase; what we lack now is time. I’ll request a team to assist with the case. With more manpower, we can investigate further in three directions—”

"First, check where the person suspected of being the murderer in the surveillance footage has been and where she is about to go. Also, investigate the channels through which she purchased the drugs. Detain anyone who is suspicious."

"Second, find Peng Siyan and Feng Yang and investigate what exactly happened between them and the two deceased back then."

"Third, find out the channels through which the two deceased communicated online, and it would be best to find Chen Yingying's mobile phone."

They don't yet know who the third victim will be, where, or when he will be killed, but they are all taking action, hoping to race against time to give that stranger a chance to live.

It was already evening. Tan Jia was an unofficial staff member and did not go out on fieldwork with them. Instead, she was assigned to the technical team to watch surveillance videos.

This is a very demanding job for the eyes. If you look at it for too long, a row of people will turn their heads at the same time, and the monitoring room will instantly turn into a red-eyed mutant experimental army.

She felt embarrassed to slack off in a team that was working so hard, so she also evolved into a red-eyed frogman.

It wasn't until 8:30 the next morning that Zheng Yan, radiating coldness, pushed open the door and called her away.

"A third person has died."

……

It was around the same time again, but the location changed to a university campus.

Police cars passed by the students who were jogging to check in, then turned into the teachers' apartment building in the southwest corner, where a large crowd had already gathered.

The cordon was set up, and the narrow staircase was crammed with teachers, police officers, and a few pale-faced students.

Tan Jia followed Zheng Yan through the police cordon and entered a three-bedroom apartment that had been converted into a four-bedroom apartment. The crime scene was in the master bedroom.

"what's the situation?"

The police officers who arrived first said, "He died from wrist-cutting and excessive blood loss."

Without saying more, the bathroom was right next to the master bedroom door, and the scene was already revealed to them.

The pale corpse was soaking in a bathtub stained red with blood. Its clothes were neat, and its expression was calm and peaceful. Only on its wrist, which was resting on the edge of the bathtub, was a horrific wound that went deep enough to expose the bone.

too young.

The police officer continued, "The deceased was named Xue Jing, 21 years old, a junior in college, but she had already taken a leave of absence this semester. She was renting a room in a faculty apartment and hadn't left. She rarely left her room. This morning, the other people in the room saw the water overflowing and broke down the door to go in, only to find that she was already dead."

Zheng Yan sighed, handed the scene over to the forensic experts and investigators, and first questioned the people who had called the police. "Who was the first person to come in? Did they notice anything amiss?"

"It's me..." The speaker was a boy leaning against the doorway, holding hands tightly with the girl beside him, looking quite frightened. "I, we... there shouldn't be anything wrong..."

The fear of suddenly witnessing the death scene and the tension of being surrounded by criminal police officers put them on high alert.

"You shouldn't live here?" Tan Jia suddenly asked, noting that only women's clothes were hanging on the balcony. "Why were you the first to spot her?"

The boy looked at her; her trendy appearance made her look more like an international student who had wandered into the scene, and to make matters worse, she was even carrying a green date to the crime scene.

Oh, it's a dough figurine of green dates.

He turned his gaze to Zheng Yan with a questioning look, and after receiving a nod, he hesitated before saying, "I live in the dormitory. I came here this morning to pick up my girlfriend so we can go out together."

"And then you came in? Girls sharing an apartment probably don't like guys coming in, right?" Tan Jia's gaze shifted to the girl next to him.

The girl nodded with her lips pursed, took a breath and said, "We have an agreement, but there is a toilet in the master bedroom. Xue Jing doesn't usually go out. As long as we don't talk loudly, we can leave in ten minutes or so, and it will be fine."

"So you know that Xue Jing is more concerned about this than others? How long have you been living together?"

“It’s been almost a year, but she’s been living here for a while now.”

"You say she doesn't usually go out, but do you know what she does in her room? Studying for the postgraduate entrance exam?"

"Probably not..."

Tan Jia's expression remained calm and casual, unlike the other investigators who frowned and even sculpted dough while asking questions.

Infected by her state, the girl's emotions also calmed down a bit, revealing a somewhat uncertain clue.

"But it seems she's writing a novel; I helped her bring back a box of autographed papers."

Zheng Yan, standing beside him, looked on with a surprised expression: "She's a writer?"

None of Xue Jing's classmates or teachers knew this.

Tan Jia wasn't too surprised; writers are usually highly sensitive people and have a higher chance of depression.

She pressed further, "Do you know if anyone came looking for her yesterday?"

The girl shook her head: "I haven't heard of that. I had classes yesterday."

“Someone knocked on the door yesterday; it was a deliveryman,” another female roommate said, recalling the incident. “He must have come to pick up a package. I saw Xue Jing hand over a file folder.”

Zheng Yan nodded, then frowned: "No one came in?"

"No."

This is very unreasonable.

If the murderer didn't enter the room, how did they kill Xue Jing?
Having finished asking the questions, Tan Jia took advantage of Zheng Yan's questioning of the others to enter Xue Jing's room.

The forensic doctor preliminarily determined that Xue Jing's time of death was between 5:30 and 7:30 a.m. Aside from the wrist cut, there were no other wounds, and no other people's hair or other debris was found.

However, forensic examination revealed some clues.

"The deceased had a notebook with several pages torn out, and there were writing marks on the blank pages underneath, but the marks were not deep."

Just as Tan Jia was about to go over and take a look, a loud shout suddenly came from outside.

"This case is confidential; no photos allowed!"

Hehehe, the first round of the competition is over! What a strange feeling of joy! Hehe, thank you all for following my updates lately, love you all~
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(End of this chapter)