Eyes that are the same as those of evil

Chapter 50 The Ungrateful Wolf 7
If the murderer is indeed someone who has served time in prison, then we're not far from identifying him. After all, for most law-abiding Chinese people, it's quite rare for someone to commit a serious crime and be arrested in a village.

But Jiuqu Village was an exception.

“Thirteen people from the village have been to prison,” Xiao Chen said, wiping away sweat. “Seven of them were family members of victims who participated in the murder of the suspect in the 11.23 serial murder case. Two others were imprisoned for robbery, three were arrested for gambling, and one was arrested for damaging state property.”

The police car was parked at the entrance of Jiuqu Village. Zheng Yan and his colleagues were almost too afraid to go in after hearing about these "great achievements".

"Are any of these people a match to the profile? Are they psychologically abnormal, or have had a bad parent-child relationship?"

Xiao Chen: "Uh...not a few. The families of those seven victims haven't been very normal since their only son was murdered and they themselves were sentenced for murder. The gamblers are about the same; their wives and children have all run away, and the two men aren't in good mental condition either, often cursing at people on the street. There are even a few elderly people living alone who are mentally unstable. But whether these people were mentally unstable eleven years ago, I don't know. It's not so easy to tell if someone's mind is twisted."

Zheng Yan fell silent.

Officer An did have some recollection of this village: "Jiuqu Village is quite unique. Back when this land was to be developed, there were rumors that the compensation would be distributed according to household registration. So many people who had just reached marriageable age separated into separate households and rushed into marriage, just to get a larger share. But later, it was said that their behavior was suspected of fraud, and that it wasn't distributed by household at all, but by headcount. So those newly married people rushed to have children to increase their headcount..."

After hearing this explanation, Tan Jia looked at the lush orchards in Jiuqu Village and felt that the people there probably had experienced a chaotic and dark "struggle" during the many years they waited for compensation, just like these pruned fruits.

Zheng Yan scratched the back of his head and said, "Let's go ask the person whose prison sentence best matches the interval between the murderer's crime and the timeframe."

Actually, none of them fully met the eleven-year interval requirement. The one who served the longest prison sentence was the one who damaged state property, who was sentenced to nine years, but he was indeed just released last year.

The village roads were specially planned. A straight avenue leads directly to the village government, while convenient side roads connect each household to the main road.

They had only walked a few minutes along the main road when an elderly woman with mobility issues came out from the opposite direction, carrying a rice bowl and calling to her child.

"Mingming, come home for dinner! Fan Mingming, where have you been again? You said you'd be home at mealtime! You didn't go to the ditch, did you? If I find out you're playing in the water, you'll get a beating from your dad!"

The old woman passed by them, glanced at them warily, and then continued searching for her child, limping along.

They didn't think much of it at first, but Officer An suddenly stopped and said, "Fan Mingming... her child was one of the victims from back then, the one whose body turned to skeletal remains."

Tan Jia paused for a moment, then turned to look at the limping figure.

"So she..."

"This is the family member of one of the mentally unstable victims; she served four years in prison," Xiao Chen said.

Omg.

She walked a few more steps with the group, then suddenly asked, "Why don't you suspect the families of the victims?"

Xiao Chen: "Wow, I thought you were sympathizing with them when you were silent, but I didn't expect you to be suspicious."

Such cold-blooded and ruthless rationality is rare. Zheng Yan didn't mind her confused remarks and said as they walked uphill along the road, "Would a murderer kill his own child and then kill the suspect so that he can go to jail and be safe? Moreover, the murderer's psychological distortion didn't just appear in the last few years. It was already abnormal eleven years ago, before he killed multiple children, although at that time it was probably a silent abnormality that others couldn't see."

After saying that, he turned to look at her and said, "You don't seem like the type to ask such a stupid question. What caused your IQ to drop by a thousand times?"

Tan Jia was still kneading the dough, and he started with a famous quote: "I just feel that if I were the murderer..."

Tan Ming immediately reached out to cover her mouth, but she quickly dodged it.

"What are you doing, bro?"

"You can use a more normal perspective when you speak." Is it okay to say things like "If I were the murderer," too often? Saying it too much will eventually lead to psychological distortion, and you might actually become the murderer.

Tan Jia looked at him speechlessly: "This is a perspective assumption."

Besides, she was in the killer's perspective in her dream.

Zheng Yan lifted Tan Ming's arm and nodded at her chin: "Go on."

Young people who travel the world are much more interesting than Tan Ming, whose mind is almost worn down by cases. The visual thinker's explanation is quite good. He's thinking of studying it carefully when he has some free time.

Tan Jia then spoke again: "I just think that the police back then had already deduced that the murderer was in Jiuqu Village or a nearby village. Since the murderer committed so many crimes, there must have been more and more clues left behind. Why didn't anyone find any clues? Could it be that everyone subconsciously ignored that person? For example, we have now directly ignored the victim's family."

Officer An: "I'll say it again, would a murderer kill his own child?"

"Maybe the child is still alive, or maybe they're lost, or maybe they've been abducted? Didn't you say that some children from several families were just missing, and their bodies weren't found? What if those children aren't actually victims in this case?"

Officer An stopped and stared at her.

Let Tan Jia watch as he pleases.

“You really dare to think,” Officer An exclaimed after a while, echoing Zheng Yan’s sentiments, before raising a question: “But there’s still one thing that doesn’t make sense in your guess. Even if the murderer is pretending to be a victim, there’s no need for him to get involved in killing the suspect and get himself sentenced, right? Even if the murderer wanted to use someone else to kill and shut up the accomplice, there’s no need for him to get involved himself.”

Tan Jia shrugged: "If I were the murderer, after instigating the victim's family to kill the accomplice, the police would definitely investigate others as well. After all, the son of the richest man was involved, and the child murder case was of a heinous nature, so he would definitely be severely punished. In this situation, being sentenced in advance is the best way to protect myself. However, I will try to keep my sentence as short as possible, and I will stay quiet and not do anything again for the next few years."

Officer An pondered for a few seconds and said to Tan Ming, "You'd better keep a close eye on your sister from now on; she's very difficult to deal with when she commits crimes."

Tan Ming: "..."

Zheng Yan, however, thought she was a useful soldier and directly overturned the previous decision, saying, "Tan Ming, you take people to investigate the person who was sentenced to nine years and was just released last year. We'll go find those families who participated in the murder of the suspect but whose children's bodies were never found. When you're investigating, pay close attention to anything unusual about the person's body and home, and ask the neighbors if they've noticed anything unusual. This time, the murderer committed a crime on impulse, and since we sealed off the area in time, there must still be traces waiting for us to discover."

(End of this chapter)