Chapter 116 - 109: An Extremely Vigilant Killer

A balding, middle-aged man sat across from Xu Huo.

His lips trembled slightly as he swallowed hard. He unconsciously clenched his fists, his breathing growing ragged and his eyes darting around anxiously.

"Off... Officer, what is this about?"

Zhang Hai asked, extremely uneasy, a hint of fear in his eyes.

"It’s about Cheng Yu. What she did, and what you’ve been hiding."

Li Jianye said in a low voice.

"Don’t try to tell me you don’t even know one of your own well-known students!"

Zhang Hai jumped in fright, but his eyes showed confusion. He then lowered his head, his gaze flicking upward as he asked tentatively and anxiously,

"Is this about the scholarships? That’s not under my purview. Besides the ones for good students, the rest of those are all decided internally ahead of time..."

"Still playing dumb?!"

Li Jianye said in a low voice.

The man was the Director of Teaching and Guidance, a position second only to the vice-principal.

’If something had really happened, it’s impossible he wouldn’t know!’

"The police have already investigated everything we need to. Director Zhang, it’s best if we all confess honestly and try to get a lighter sentence."

As if from a trance, Xu Huo suddenly spoke up.

His tone was the polar opposite of Li Jianye’s—much gentler.

However...

Zhang Hai looked even more bewildered. "What lighter sentence?"

"Officer, I’ve never taken any bribes!"

"Is it about Cheng Yu’s file? It can’t be that serious. We just covered up her skipping classes and sleeping in them, and then recommended her for honors. That’s not something you get punished for, is it?!"

Zhang Hai panicked. His face was a mask of anxiety, his palms sweating as he unconsciously clenched them.

"You don’t know?"

Xu Huo suddenly paused. His eyes were fixed on Zhang Hai, observing him from top to bottom before narrowing slightly.

"Do you really not know, or are you just pretending?"

"I suggest you think carefully before you speak again! The police already have the full picture. We’re just asking you to fill in a few gaps..."

Li Jianye said grimly, his expression one of suppressed anger.

"Is this about Teacher Zhang? Officer, I admit I had a little something going on with a teacher at the school, but it was all consensual!"

"Or is it the cafeteria issue? I’m being framed! That has nothing to do with me, it’s the Director of General Affairs’ problem."

Zhang Hai was extremely agitated. Floundering, he blurted out everything he knew in one go.

"The general affairs guy was hired by the school board, it has nothing to do with me..."

"And at the last parent-teacher conference, I didn’t take any of the money or gifts the parents tried to give me!"

He spoke very quickly, but Qian Hua noted it all down.

However...

As he kept writing, Qian Hua’s brow furrowed, and he couldn’t help but look up at the man.

Xu Huo and Li Jianye were also stunned, listening to the laundry list of issues he was spilling.

He was saying a lot. If this stuff was handed over to the school board, a whole bunch of people would definitely be fired.

But...

None of it had anything to do with this case!

At this thought, Xu Huo couldn’t help but feel his heart sink.

Still, he asked in a low voice,

"Tell us about the bullying incident with Cheng Yu."

As soon as he said this, Li Jianye and the others stared intently at the man, not missing a single twitch or micro-expression.

Unfortunately...

Zhang Hai was taken aback. He tilted his head slightly, his brow furrowed, his eyes filled with complete confusion.

"Bullying? What bullying?"

"Officer, we don’t have that kind of thing at our school..."

"If you really want to talk about it, you’d have to go back a few years, but that had nothing to do with Cheng Yu."

’There... wasn’t?’

’Or it had nothing to do with Cheng Yu!’

Xu Huo paused, his mind in turmoil.

He looked up and met Li Jianye’s gaze, seeing the same deep confusion reflected in his eyes.

Because it was a private school where you could get in with low scores as long as you paid, some underperforming students would enroll.

Among them, there were inevitably some delinquents, and with a lot of delinquents, things tended to get chaotic.

However, this particular school didn’t seem to have many such incidents.

In other words...

Cheng Yu had nothing to do with the bullying?!

"Heh. We’ll give you more time to think it over. When you’ve thought it through, come find the police!"

Qian Hua glanced at the two of them, then waved his hand, signaling for someone to take Zhang Hai away.

Zhang Hai looked at the open door and subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief, but the confusion in his eyes never faded.

"CREAK~"

The man was gone.

In the empty interrogation room, only the figures of a few police officers remained.

It was very quiet. For a long time, no one spoke.

Until...

"He wasn’t lying."

Xu Huo spoke these words, then fell silent again.

Li Jianye’s brows were tightly knitted as he said gravely,

"But based on our interviews with her classmates and the freshmen, there were clearly issues with Cheng Yu."

"And in the context of this case, those issues are huge!"

Zhang Hai wasn’t lying; he genuinely didn’t know about these things.

Just because he didn’t know didn’t mean it didn’t happen. But if it involved bullying... especially the kind that could lead to a life-or-death grudge, the probability that he wouldn’t know was very small.

Why?

Dropping out or applying for a leave of absence—you couldn’t do either without going through him!

Although his rank was lower than the members of the school board, he occupied a key position. He was an unavoidable part of the process.

If Cheng Yu had really bullied another student at the school to the point of causing death or disability, her student status would have to be revoked. And if that were to happen, Zhang Hai would have to be involved.

"So what’s going on here?!"

Li Jianye wondered with a frown.

"For now, let’s dispatch people to look into the suspicious points in her file. And let’s keep track of the questions we have right now."

Xu Huo thought for a moment, shook his head, and stood up to leave.

’We still have too little information.’

’Almost no important clues!’

’It would be better to lay out all the problems first, then find clues to piece together the ’formula’ for the solution.’

As for where the clues were...

"Let’s go check the deceased’s home."

Hearing this, Li Jianye paused. He was about to go with him but was stopped by Xu Huo.

"Just Captain Qian will be fine."

"The main squad needs someone to manage and coordinate. Captain Li, you can work with the criminal investigation captain from Zhaozhou City."

Xu Huo said in a low voice.

Li Jianye paused, then nodded.

’When a potential cover-up is involved... it’s best not to trust the locals if you can avoid it. It’s a frustrating reality, but it’s better to be on guard.’

’It’s always good to have one of your own people keeping an eye on things during an investigation.’

’Besides, it would be difficult for that captain to investigate this alone anyway.’

Seeing that Li Jianye understood, Xu Huo didn’t explain further. He turned, got into a police car, and headed straight for the deceased’s address.

There were three victims.

The files showed that the three of them were close, with Cheng Yu as their leader. For now, Xu Huo only needed to investigate her.

As for the address...

It was a small villa in Zhaozhou City.

It was a house not far from the university, meant for Cheng Yu to live in during her college years.

Besides Cheng Yu, the other two victims also lived in this villa.

It was only seven kilometers from the apple tree where the first body was discovered.

Whether looking at the time, location, or distance...

This was the most likely location for the murder scene!

At this moment, the small villa was already secured by the police. When Xu Huo arrived, the police tape had already been put up.

"SLAM!"

At four in the afternoon, after shutting the police car door, Xu Huo vaulted over the police tape and walked directly into the villa.

The murder scene often leaves far more clues than the body dump site.

Things like signs of a struggle, blood spatter to identify the weapon, and the killer’s method of entry to determine the relationship between the two parties.

The moment he opened the door,

Xu Huo knew this was the crime scene.

But, also because he opened the door, he knew something else...

The perpetrator’s grasp of counter-forensics!

Xu Huo stared at the scene before him, his steps halting. He fell silent, his nose constantly picking up a certain scent.

It was...

The pungent smell of perfume!

"Advisor Xu."

An officer in charge of the scene saw Xu Huo and hurried over.

"Any leads?" Qian Hua asked anxiously.

"None. The killer is very cautious. They didn’t touch anything of monetary value."

"Our initial assessment is that the killer infiltrated the scene, murdered the victims, found the perfume with minimal disturbance, and then, after dismembering and hiding the bodies, cleaned the scene thoroughly,"

the officer in charge said, his expression grim.

"They didn’t leave a single clue!"

"What about Luminol?"

Xu Huo asked, "Have you used Luminol?"

"We did. It was useless. His counter-forensic skills are maxed out, completely beyond what a normal person is capable of..."

Hearing this, the officer’s headache intensified. His eyes were still filled with shock.

’In over a decade on the job, this is the first time I’ve ever encountered an adversary like this!’

"The killer first cleaned the scene with some kind of detergent. This completely destroyed Luminol’s ability to react with the iron ions in blood, preventing any luminescent reaction."

Luminol...

’He even anticipated that?!’

The corner of Qian Hua’s eye twitched, his heart filled with profound shock.

"This person..."

"Just who are they?!"