Guan Liang silently uploaded so screenshots. They were fragnts scattered across the vast ocean of the internet: a few blog posts, Weibo, posts on different online forums, and comnts and replies under others’ online articles.
"This is the content Mr. Tang asked to gather from the entire web, posted by ng Chuyan using a pseudonym. Everyone, take a look."
After browsing through them, everyone frowned. All the text, all the emotions revolved around a single the: exhaustion.
A perforr’s work is naturally tiring, but the halo of stardom and the fa and fortune in the entertainnt industry also provide artists with the motivation to carry on. However, there was not a hint of positivity in ng Chuyan’s words, so the cause of such exhaustion was directly attributed to her being ntally drained, feeling weary of everything in this world.
Fang Xingzhou still shook his head: "Look at the tistamps of these online writings; so were from years ago. She’s been weary of life for a long ti, so why choose this ti and place to die?"
"Because of Qin Jiajun, and also because of this scene." Shi Nian said softly, "Mr. Fang, you’ve seen her posts from her main account, saw when she once posted ’tired’ along with that picture. Qin Jiajun himself admitted, he arranged the music bar’s booths to resemble the picture."
"Qin Jiajun was a superfan of ng Chuyan, and he recreated the scene from when ng Chuyan posted that article. At the ti, she was just expressing her feelings and didn’t expect to attract so much hatred from online trolls, accusing her of being pretentious, claiming she was just promoting a show... ng Chuyan’s response was intense. Although she didn’t publicly fight back, she blocked dozens of people. Those people were relentless, they imdiately gathered friends, or registered new accounts to continue the attack..."
"At that mont, ng Chuyan was already exhausted, further wounded by the crowd, especially by those disguised as her fans. Her fatigue and negative emotions must have peaked at that mont."
Shi Nian gently closed her eyes, envisioning the scene in her mind: under the faint light, ng Chuyan staring at her computer, utterly exhausted, her eyes filled with despair. The image she had uploaded was ant to express a subconscious wish: she was tired and longed for a place like the one in the picture, to quietly rest and escape the fate that brought her despair, to escape those who controlled her freedom.
But such a simple and pure desire was attacked in such a manner, severing her last attachnt to this world. Harsh and vile words piled beneath the web pages, resembling twisted, hideous faces. She was too exhausted to even bother blocking anymore. She just stared at that picture, so peaceful, so beautiful, a haven she wanted to find.
Under such psychological suggestion, when she saw the booth co to life in front of her, her heart was flooded with the ultimate despair and fatigue she felt before. She wanted to sit down, to rest, to never wake up again...
Qi Xiuqi nodded after listening: "My junior sister is right, it was precisely Qin Jiajun’s attentiveness that triggered Judy’s decision to commit suicide. Moreover, Qin Jiajun was her superfan, well-off, treating her with rare kindness, so having soone like him accompany her on her final journey was better than going alone... After all, Qin Jiajun was much better than her previous clients, at least he represented pure intentions from the opposite sex."
Jia Tianzi chid in: "As we already know, the Blood Cross was carved after her death, and it actually has no direct causal link to her real cause of death."
Everyone nodded silently.
Fang Xingzhou was sowhat agitated: "But what does this an? Can we just close the case like this? We only caught a Hong Kong bar owner with a dical background whose actions weren’t murder but at most desecration of a corpse. And a case that drew so much attention was just a suicide?"
"Even though there’s no specific murderer, there’s still ’that person’ behind this case," Tang Yanqing calmly intertwined her fingers: "Just like the Kangchuan University series of cases, and later the Rosa Clown case, and the Xiong Jie Explosion case, each seed to have a concrete conclusion, but we still saw the shadow of one person behind them all."
"He manipulates everything: the case’s progression, the culprits eventually caught, and even the direction of court trials. He’s right there, he never even bothers to hide, even letting us sense his presence, yet we cannot find a shred of solid evidence."
"It’s like a ga of hide-and-seek. He’s a master, standing right in front of us saying ’co on, co on, I’m right here, catch ,’ yet we simply can’t pin him down. He’s a high-skill daredevil and also enjoys toying with us. In this ga of cat and mouse, while he’s the hunted mouse, he’s turned into Jerry from ’Tom and Jerry,’ becoming the one in control."
Shi Nian suddenly coughed lightly: "The cat is Tom, even though it’s just a phonetic translation, it has a ’Tang.’"
Tang Yanqing couldn’t continue, tilting her eyes to look at her, unsure whether to laugh or feel awkward.
Shi Nian, however, ignored him, looking from the side as if sowhat unhappy.
Tang Yanqing’s awkward pause was t with Fang Xingzhou’s lingering doubts: "My colleagues from M Country, I’m not familiar with the cases you handled in M Country, so I truly don’t understand how to finally close the Judy Case. You know, I need to write a report too."
Tang Yanqing finally turned her gaze from Shi Nian: "The Judy Case is not an isolated incident; it’s a link in a series of serial killer cases."
"Then what about the Blood Cross? How should I classify it? I truly can’t understand what that Hong Kong bar owner was implying by carving this cross."
Tang Yanqing’s eyes were deep and cold, "That’s the ’signature’ of a serial killer."
"Signature?" Fang Xingzhou was taken aback.
Tang Yanqing lowered her eyes: "Just like an artist would add their seal after completing a painting or a ceramist would inscribe their mark, every serial killer leaves a mark on each of their ’works’ that is uniquely their own. This mark could appear on the victim, manifest in the scene arrangent, or even be found surrounding the cri scene... This reflects the killer’s psyche: their aesthetics, thought patterns, worldview, etc. It seems intangible but, like a fingerprint, it represents a unique trajectory that can be used to identify the killer."
After Fang Xingzhou finished discussing the Judy Case, the remaining topics were unrelated to him, so Guan Liang cut off Fang Xingzhou’s connection.
From then on, it was just the insider group, and Tang Yanqing reminded everyone: "Regarding ’signatures,’ what do you all think of?"
Tang Yan Yi jumped in: "All intentional marks could be considered signatures. For instance, S’s death pose, the bloody handprint on Sean’s office window..."
Shi Nian lowered her head: "And the kiss mark on the threatening doll I once received, the clown on Rosa’s car window."
Jia Tianzi’s mind also raced: "Going further back, there’s the Indian hand painting on Nisha’s hand on Zhou Guanghan."
Everyone had an epiphany, but Guan Liang was unable to keep up, feeling sowhat anxious: "Every case has a ’signature,’ but it seems like the Xiong Jie case doesn’t. Indeed, she was blown to pieces in an explosion, her DNA destroyed by high heat, so how can there be a signature left?"
Shi Nian, however, frowned slightly: "I feel... like there still is one. It’s just rather intangible. Xiong Jie was kidnapped first and died later, so even if there’s no signature left from the explosion, the kidnapping left one—she was silenced and forcibly bound in front of the window."
As Shi Nian spoke, her mind trembled, and she naturally thought of soone.
Tang Yanqing yawned: "You’ve all ntioned tangible signatures, but actually there are also intangible ones. But the day is breaking, let’s stop here for now. As for ’intangible signatures,’ consider it howork. Everyone, go back and think about that series of cases, and once they beco clear, we can discuss it again."
Everyone nodded, and Guan Liang saw to the final technical checks before everyone disappeared from the online eting.
.
The display screen darkened, leaving Shi Nian’s face bathed in the faint blue morning light seeping in from outside the window.
He tilted his head and tugged at her hair ends: "Wanna share your thoughts?"
Shi Nian bit her lip: "The window, and the state of sitting there unable to move or speak... I increasingly feel like it’s Huangfu Huazhang."
Tang Yanqing nodded: "One of the motives for cri is the manner in which a cri is committed, which is a reflection of the criminal’s psyche. Having suffered such pain himself, he would want to inflict it on the victim."
Shi Nian took a deep breath: "But if the one who kidnapped Xiong Jie was truly him, how could he reveal such a flaw, allowing to think of him imdiately?"
"Because it’s you," though reluctantly admitting it himself, Tang Yanqing had to concede: "His heart... to so extent, is open to you; he even wants you to know certain things."
"Because once sitting in front of the window, unable to move... only you know about those past events. Such agony was once the greatest barrier between you two. These past events are sothing M Country’s officers wouldn’t understand, so the flaw he exposed is effective only for you, outsiders wouldn’t get it."
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