You're supposed to be a security officer, what case are you solving?

Chapter 49 Behold my three-foot length!
After Liao Guohua and the two leaders from the Municipal Bureau left.

Zheng Kang pulled Yang Jinwen outside and continued the previous topic: "Jinwen, what exactly are you thinking?"

Yang Jinwen took out the marks on Zhang Xiaoying's wrist again, and also opened the hardcover notebook, where the marks were copied onto blank pages.

"Master, take a look at this?"

Zheng Kang held the copy in his hand and carefully compared it with the photograph.

After a moment, he raised his head: "This...this is..."

The way the ropes were tied was very regular, but he named it.

Yang Jinwen replied, "This is called a figure-eight knot!"

"A figure-eight knot?"

Yang Jinwen nodded, went back into the house, found a piece of hemp rope, and came out again. He gestured with his chin to Zheng Kang and said, "Please put your hands out."

Zheng Kang raised his hands, clenched them into fists, and held them in front of his chest.

After thinking for a moment, Yang Jinwen folded the rope into two strands, then tied a figure-eight knot in the middle of the rope, and passed the end of the rope through the knot from the opposite direction to the end of the rope.

Immediately afterwards, he grabbed Zheng Kang's wrists and tightened them.

As the rope squeezed Zheng Kang's wrist, it instantly embedded itself into his muscle.

He said angrily, "Go easy on me, kid."

Yang Jinwen took two steps away from him, took out a photo of Zhang Xiaoying's wrist marks, and handed it to him: "Take a look, is this the way it was tied?"

Zheng Kang compared the two and exclaimed in surprise, "That's right! How did you know that?"

Yang Jinwen shook his head: "That's not important."

Yang Jinwen was very familiar with this figure-eight knot binding method, because in his previous life, rock climbing enthusiasts used this method to utilize ropes.

However, in 97, rock climbing was not a sport in Annam at all.

“Master, as long as someone is human, they will have muscle memory! The way the murderer tied the rope when he bound Zhang Xiaoying during the crime must be something he used often in his daily life or in the past!”

Add to that the flat crowbar used to pry open the door, and wouldn't that create a profile of the killer?

Upon hearing this, Zheng Kang's pupils dilated, and he couldn't help but swallow hard: "Did you figure this out all by yourself?"

Yang Jinwen nodded: "I thought about this all night yesterday."

Zheng Kang was stunned and speechless. His apprentice's method of attack was not based on the city bureau's sophisticated equipment, but rather on clues found at the crime scene, deduced solely from his own experience and wisdom.

Even though his conjecture cannot be verified at present, Zheng Kang believes that Yang Jinwen's way of thinking is correct.

You can't find many veteran criminal investigators who can develop this kind of thinking.

Needless to say, Maozi, a complete greenhorn, was even more so.

But at this moment, Zheng Kang noticed that Yang Jinwen looked hesitant, as if he had something else to say.

"Don't hold back, what can't you say to your master?"

"Alright then." Yang Jinwen nodded, untied the rope from his wrists, and then took out a photo of Zhang Xiaoying's wrist marks and handed it to Zheng Kang.

"Master, what else can you see from this photo?"

Upon hearing this, Zheng Kang straightened his expression, perked up, and focused intently on observing the marks on the wrists in the photo.

After a long pause, he opened his eyes wide: "No abrasions?"

Yang Jinwen nodded: "Yes, not only were there no abrasions, but usually when victims are tied up by the murderer, they will subconsciously struggle, but Zhang Xiaoying did not."

Zheng Kang raised his face: "Why is this happening?"

After he finished speaking, his expression changed: "Was it an acquaintance? Then why did the murderer break into the house?"

Yang Jinwen shook his head: "I don't know either."

A bad feeling crept into Zheng Kang's mind. He gritted his teeth and said, "Let's go see Sun Lu first."

Yang Jinwen followed behind him: "Shouldn't we tell Captain He about these clues?" Zheng Kang nodded: "We should tell him. We need to be wary of Liao Guohua, but we can't be wary of our own comrades."

The two arrived at the small shop outside Wutong Lane, where handwritten papers were pasted on the wall in front of the shop.

[Intra-provincial calls: 70 cents per minute; Inter-provincial calls: 2 yuan for distances exceeding 1200 kilometers.]

As luck would have it, the shop owner was the one who called the police at that time.

At that moment, he was holding the remote control, constantly changing TV channels.

Upon seeing the two people enter, he immediately perked up.

"Oh, officers, are you here to find out what's going on?"

He entered the crime scene yesterday, and the police even collected his footprints.

He was bored out of his mind, but when someone came to his door, he was excited.

"I'm going to make a phone call." Zheng Kang walked towards a row of telephones behind the wall.

There were three landline telephones on the long table, one white and two red, and three stools in front of them.

The shop owner chuckled and said, "Please feel free to hit any number of you, I won't charge you."

Yang Jinwen turned to the side, blocking his face: "I remember your surname is Wan?"

The boss nodded: "Yes, officer, you can just call me Lao Wan. By the way, have you caught the murderer?"

Yang Jinwen smiled and flattered, "Catching the murderer also relies on the power of the masses."

"You are a reasonable comrade, unlike that stern-faced policeman yesterday who kept criticizing us for disturbing the scene."

"You tell me, with such a big thing happening to the Sun family, shouldn't we, the neighbors, go and help them?"

Yang Jinwen asked, "I heard you untied the rope binding Zhang Xiaoying's wrists?"

The boss looked distressed: "It was me. Sun Lu was terrified. There was also that child in the room, who kept crying."

Xiao Ying's death was so tragic, what a terrible loss! Her child was also so pitiful, only a little over a year old, and he lost his mother.

Yang Jinwen nodded, opened the sketchbook he had copied, and handed it to him: "Take a close look. Wasn't Zhang Xiaoying's wrist tied like this with rope back then?"

"Wait a minute, let me take off my reading glasses."

A moment later, the boss took the notebook from Yang Jinwen, glanced at it briefly, and replied, "That's right, it's tied up like that."

"Okay, could you please tell me about Sun Lu and Zhang Xiaoying? Is their relationship good?"

"Well, how should I put it..." The shopkeeper hesitated for a moment, then continued, "This child is thrifty and capable, and she was very welcoming to us..."

Yang Jinwen interrupted him: "What about her conduct? Is there anything wrong with her conduct?"

The boss shook his head: "Xiao Ying is a very down-to-earth girl, the kind of person who's good at managing a household. Anyway, I haven't heard any rumors about her."

"What about Sun Lu? How did he treat Zhang Xiaoying?"

"They argue occasionally, but it's always about trivial things. The couple runs a noodle shop on Jianmin Road, and business is pretty good."

Officer, if you ask me, it's definitely because Sun Lu and Xiao Ying are being targeted. You know, there are layoffs everywhere these days, and so many people have lost their jobs, so petty theft has become more common.

With something like this happening in the alley, who among us living nearby isn't afraid? We all lock our doors tightly at night, especially those of us in business; I'm also afraid of being targeted.

That damned murderer not only stole the money, but also abused Xiaoying like that. If I ran into him, I'd shoot him!

The shop owner became more and more excited as he spoke, and he even pulled out a homemade hunting rifle with its barrel sawed off from under the wooden counter.

As he waved it, he excitedly said, "My son gave it to me last night so I could use it for self-defense while I'm minding the shop at night."

Yang Jinwen quickly took two steps away, and the boss's smile froze on his face.

He had forgotten that the person standing opposite him was a policeman.

Judging from his carefree manner, Yang Jinwen must have shown him off quite a bit.

The two looked into each other's eyes, both seeing shock in each other's eyes.
Happy Dragon Boat Festival, everyone! Wishing you happiness and good health!
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(End of this chapter)