PFC Chapter 363 Obedient and Clingy Younger Brother (74)
Chapter 363 Obedient and Clingy Younger Brother (74)
This case has been merged into the 127 case, and the investigation into the 127 serial murder case has officially resumed today.
This is a major and urgent challenge not only for the Municipal Public Security Bureau and the Major Crimes Unit, but also for the entire judicial system and the safety of all citizens.
As long as the case remains unsolved, people's safety cannot be guaranteed, and this is absolutely unacceptable!
The criminals have now begun to provoke the police, and the danger they pose is self-evident.
You must turn off your mobile phone on the plane.
Jin Shuhe sat by the window, looking out at the scattered lights on the ground.
The initial shock had subsided, and now he didn't even know what he was thinking.
Some things can never be overcome.
Even if time passes and the feelings are temporarily buried in the heart, once something triggers them, those sealed emotions will not diminish but will erupt again, just like before.
It is a wound that never heals, a rainy day from which one can never escape.
Jin Shuhe seemed to suddenly recall many things. There was a period when he was a child that he was very afraid of rainy days.
It was raining outside, which restricted his activities both at home and at school.
The smell of dampness and earthiness unique to rainy days makes my stomach churn and feel nauseous.
If it's still raining when school lets out, even if he brought an umbrella, he'll find a building and stand there until the rain stops before leaving...
Later, I don't know when or how, things got better.
Jin Shuhe can't recall it now either.
Pucheng's winters are bitterly dry, completely devoid of any moisture, but when Jin Shuhe went outside just now, the blast of cold air jolted him awake considerably.
Lu Liruan sat next to him, not disturbing him, but simply placed her hand on his leg: "Why don't you take a nap? You probably won't be able to rest well when you get back."
Jin Shuhe obediently closed his eyes, but he was not sleepy at all.
Lu Liruan was indeed quite tired. She had spent most of the day playing mahjong with her aunt and should have been lying down to sleep by now.
Leaning back in her seat, feeling the slight turbulence, Lu Liruan was in a daze. When she regained consciousness, she heard the announcement on the plane that they would be arriving at their destination soon.
As soon as he got off the plane and turned on his phone, Jin Shuhe's phone rang several times in a row.
The message came from his colleagues and Wu Qidong. They were worried about him and afraid that something might happen to him because of his emotions. They asked him where he was.
"I'll take the things back. You can just take a taxi to your workplace."
Lu Liruan weighed the bag in her hand and figured she could barely carry it into the elevator by herself.
Jin Shuhe refused outright: "Li Ruan and I will go back first."
In the dead of night, and under these circumstances, how could he possibly let Sister Li Ruan go home alone?
When the two of them arrived home by taxi, it was already dawn.
After taking his luggage upstairs, Jin Shuhe didn't change his clothes.
"Aren't you just going to leave? Wait a minute!" Lu Liruan rummaged through the kitchen and came out with a bottle of juice: "Take this to drink on the way. Are you a little low on blood sugar?"
Jin Shuhe's complexion was really bad, and the color of his lips was extremely pale, without a trace of blood.
Did you bring a change of clothes?
"Ah...no." Jin Shuhe was reminded and went to her room to pack a few clothes before coming out.
Lu Liruan could clearly see his reluctance, but she didn't say anything to him.
"Sister Li Ruan..." Before opening the door, Jin Shuhe turned around and looked at Lu Li Ruan seriously: "Why don't you stop going out from now on?"
"Huh?" Lu Liruan was taken aback by his nonsensical words.
"You're safest at home." Jin Shuhe felt very secure about the door locks at home.
A few years ago, we did some minor renovations on our home, replacing the sofa and a few appliances.
At Jin Shuhe's request, the security door was also replaced.
If you replace it with the highest-security home security door, as the installer said: "As long as you don't let him open the door from the inside, he'll have to work all day outside trying to pick the lock, and he still won't be able to open it!"
"You think I'm still staying home and not going out?" Lu Liruan almost laughed.
Unexpectedly, Jin Shuhe actually thought about it quite seriously: "Sister Li Ruan can work from home, and she doesn't need to go to the bakery every day."
Lu Liruan realized that he really thought so.
"Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself. I'll be extra careful," Lu Liruan reassured him.
“Sister Li Ruan…” Jin Shuhe didn’t know what else he wanted to say, but the thought of Sister Li Ruan being alone at home gave him an inescapable sense of unease.
Lu Liruan felt that he was being overly suspicious and paranoid, but she did not argue with him at this moment.
"Don't worry, if you're worried, I'll message you often, and you don't necessarily have to reply. I'll do it when you have time..." Lu Liruan suggested.
"Okay." Jin Shuhe lowered his head and leaned on Lu Liruan's shoulder, as if drawing energy from it. "Then I'm leaving."
"Ah."
"After I leave, Sister Li Ruan will lock the door immediately. I will open it myself when I come back. I won't knock. Sister Li Ruan, please don't open the door for just anyone."
"well."
“If you order takeout, Sister Li Ruan asks the delivery person to leave it at the door, and then she waits a while and looks through the peephole to see if the person has left before opening the door to pick it up.”
"Hmm."
"besides……"
"Alright! Stop nagging. I'm so much older than you, do you think I don't even know this basic safety knowledge?"
"Oh."
"let's go!"
Lu Liruan opened the door and pushed him out: "Remember your promise to me, to come back safe and sound, okay?"
“I remember.” Jin Shuhe nodded solemnly.
"The case will definitely be solved. Once it's solved, we'll go see your mother together and tell her the good news." Lu Liruan followed him out and hugged him tightly at the elevator entrance.
Only after watching Jin Shuhe get into the elevator did Lu Liruan return to her room.
Turning around, he used the key to lock the door from the inside, just as Jin Shuhe had instructed.
Unbeknownst to her, after she closed the door, the elevator doors opened again, and Jin Shuhe stood inside without pressing any floor buttons.
He only felt relieved and closed the elevator door again after hearing the sound of the lock turning.
After all that fuss, Lu Liruan wasn't really sleepy anymore. She checked the time, made herself a packet of instant noodles, and planned to let her parents know she was safe before going to sleep.
Thinking that it was time for her family to get up at eight o'clock, Lu Liruan dialed the phone.
"Hey, Mom, I'm home."
"Yes, everything went smoothly. I'll rest for a bit and then go to film this afternoon..."
"Xiaohe is asleep now, don't worry. You all stay safe and don't worry about us~"
After Lu Liruan hung up the phone and finished washing up, she finally lay down with peace of mind.
When I opened my eyes again, it was already past four in the afternoon.
There were two missed calls on my phone, both from Jin Shuhe.
Lu Liruan was puzzled and replied to him on WeChat: "What's wrong?"
Soon, a message came from the other side.
"It's alright~ Let's see if Sister Li Ruan is awake."
"Yes, I'm awake. I'll eat something later."
"Want to go out for dinner?"
"Eat at home." Lu Liruan hadn't yet realized there was a problem.
"Come on, let's go eat! You need to lie down for a bit, your eyes are bloodshot!" Qi Silang patted Jin Shuhe on the shoulder and forcibly dragged him away.
The moment Jin Shuhe appeared in the office that morning, although everyone was already extremely busy, no one in the room dared to speak first.
Wu Qidong came out of his office first and called him into the room.
"When did you arrive?"
"My flight was last night."
"Go and rest for a while, it won't make a difference." Wu Qidong poured her a glass of water.
"It's nothing, Vice Captain, I just can't sleep."
Wu Qidong nodded: "Okay, Xiao He, let's get this straight."
His voice was very serious: "If you want to participate in this case, then during the investigation, you will be an ordinary police officer. You must follow orders and not overstep any boundaries. Do you understand?"
"Public matters are public matters, and private matters are private matters. Outside of work, I'm your Uncle Wu, but at work, I'm your deputy. You must obey my orders and never act on your own, understand?"
Wu Qidong was also worried that he couldn't calm down, and was also frightened by his injury last time.
"Yes!" Jin Shuhe stood up straight and answered solemnly.
He understood that this was a sign of the deputy captain's trust in him; otherwise, it would have been reasonable for him not to participate in the investigation.
"You can only participate in the investigation, but you cannot make any decisions. Any clues you discover or any conclusions you draw must be made public so that others can make the decisions, understand?"
"No matter what you do, you can't do it alone, you understand?"
This essentially excludes him from the case, a form of avoidance where he is only allowed to know about the case's progress.
“I understand, I won’t cause any trouble for the company or my colleagues.” Jin Shuhe understood what Wu Qidong meant.
Wu Qidong made this decision because, although the January 27th case had already been consolidated into a single case.
However, the current victims have virtually no connection to the case involving Jin Shuhe's mother from back then, and the time difference is quite significant.
In terms of investigative methods, it can be said that they started from scratch.
"Xiao He, we will definitely solve it. We will not let this murderer continue to commit crimes." Wu Qidong looked at Jin Shuhe.
Looking into his eyes, it's as if I'm seeing that little boy from back then again.
A stubborn gaze.
So many years have passed in the blink of an eye.
"Go!"
"Yes!"
Just as Jin Shuhe walked out of the office, Lü Chun came in carrying a bag of breakfast.
"Want something to eat?" she asked tentatively.
Jin Shuhe took the two fried dough sticks: "Thank you, Sister Lü."
The others also breathed a sigh of relief.
When Qin Wen came over to give him a copy of the case file, Jin Shuhe sighed, "Brother Wen, there's no need for this. I'm not made of glass. I understand everyone's concern, but really... there's no need."
Jin Shuhe said sincerely.
When Qin Wen was facing him, he stopped being sarcastic, which made Jin Shuhe realize that he was being very cautious.
"call--"
Qin Wen observed him for a moment, then breathed a sigh of relief: "Okay, I was just worried about you."
"No, I feel awkward with you guys doing this." Jin Shuhe took the file and spoke the truth.
"Then you see, when you're done you go visit Lü Chun." Qin Wen instructed, "You two worked well together last time, and you'll be a team again this time, but don't scare her again. She said a few days ago that she's so young, but you scared her so much she almost had a heart attack."
Hearing the tone in his voice when he mentioned Lü Chun, Jin Shuhe thought to himself, "It's only been a year, and your relationship seems to have changed a bit..."
But he wasn't in the mood for jokes right now, and nodded silently.
Jin Shuhe took a deep breath and opened the stack of photocopied files.
Including this case, spanning more than a decade, there are six cases in total, making the case file quite substantial.
Jin Shuhe started reading from the first one again. In fact, when he first joined the company, he had already used his break time to look at the unsolved cases archives.
All six victims were women.
The first victim, Shen Ting, was 33 years old when she was murdered. She worked as an accountant in a small factory.
The second victim, Ma Yao, is 30 years old, single, and lives alone. She works as a homeroom teacher at a vocational school.
These two cases occurred in the same year.
The third victim, Liu Kejing, is 41 years old, divorced, and lives with her current boyfriend. She works as a sales assistant in a shopping mall.
The fourth victim, Li Hengle, 35, lived with her parents and helped out at her family's small restaurant. She was widowed.
The fifth victim...
Jin Shuhe pressed down on his trembling hand and turned the page over.
My mother's face, which I hadn't seen for many years, appeared on the file, a black and white printout.
Jin Shuhe hadn't seen this photo for many years. It was the photo on his mother's ID card, but a different one was used for her funeral portrait and tombstone.
The mother looks better in that picture, she's smiling...
The fifth victim was Miao Ying, 30 years old, unemployed, a housewife, with an eight-year-old son.
Jin Shuhe read through the detailed description of the case word by word.
The investigation into the sixth case has now begun.
The sixth victim, Zheng Qingping, was 57 years old and a retired teacher who used to teach politics at Pucheng No. 2 Middle School.
She lives with her husband, surnamed Wang, who is 59 years old this year. He is also a teacher at Pucheng No. 2 Middle School, teaching Chinese, and will retire next year.
On the day of the incident, Mr. Wang had arranged to go to a gathering at a colleague's house. Zheng Qingping, who had already retired, did not want to go with him, saying that he was a little confused, possibly due to high blood pressure, and was going to take some medicine and take a nap.
Mr. Wang went there by himself.
That afternoon, I had a few drinks at a colleague's house and played a few rounds of cards, and it got quite late.
His colleague suggested that he stay at his house that night, as there were two empty rooms. So he and another colleague stayed together.
He also spoke with his wife on the phone that evening, telling her that he had gone home that day.
Zheng Qingping was still alive and well at the time. She said she had just woken up and didn't feel like cooking, so she would just make do with whatever she had. She also asked Mr. Wang to buy the groceries downstairs when he came back the next day.
The next morning, around 6 a.m., Mr. Wang left his colleague's house and went to the morning market. After buying groceries and breakfast, he returned home around 8 a.m.
The door was closed, and when Mr. Wang opened it, he felt something was strange.
My wife is always very vigilant. Even when she's home, she always double-locks the door. How come today, the key opened it with just a turn?
But he assumed that Zheng Qingping hadn't been feeling well yesterday and had forgotten.
As soon as I stepped into the living room, I was so frightened that I fell down.
His wife's body lay in a large pool of blood, already pale and lifeless.
Mr. Wang scrambled out of his house and dialed the police.
Police received the report and arrived at the scene at 8:45.
Mr. Wang's testimony was quickly verified, and he was immediately cleared of suspicion.