Seeing Yanchuan Xianyou’s expression growing increasingly displeased, she hurriedly changed her words, but in her heart, she still didn’t take it to heart.
"You said that the Crown Prince wouldn’t return until the day before his engagent, right?" Yanchuan Xianyou turned back to the living room.
Asakawa Xia closed the door behind her and stepped forward to wrap her arms around his, "Because I missed you so much, is that not allowed?"
"Heh heh," Yanchuan Xianyou pulled his hands out of her embrace and gave a noncommittal chuckle.
Obviously, he didn’t like this fiancée of his.
Even if she ca from a distinguished background and was very pretty.
Seeing this, a hint of gloom flashed through Asakawa Xia’s eyes, but she quickly masked it and put on a faint smile again, leaning slightly against his shoulder.
Yanchuan Xianyou, with an expressionless face, looked down at his book.
............
When Aoyama Xiu Xin returned to Police Headquarters, he happened to run into Nakamura Shinichi leading his team out. They spotted each other’s vehicles and both stopped at the entrance. Nakamura Shinichi rolled down his window and saluted, "Police Chief."
"Where to?" Aoyama Xiu Xin asked casually.
"We’ve had a murder over in Ooi Town, I’m going to check out the scene," Nakamura Shinichi replied.
Aoyama Xiu Xin nodded, then revved the engine and drove past him into the parking lot.
No sooner had he arrived in his office than he received a call from Takizawa Shikou, "Dean Takazawa, may I know your instructions?"
"What instructions? Mr. Aoyama, you haven’t visited in several days, and I was just thinking about having a good talk with you. After all, so of your insights are always refreshing and highly beneficial."
"Dean Takazawa, you flatter . It should be coming to receive your teachings," replied Aoyama Xiu Xin with a humble chuckle, then after pondering for a mont, "If you’re free tomorrow evening, I shall pay a visit."
Takizawa Shikou’s sudden invitation to his ho took Aoyama Xiu Xin by surprise, but such an important figure personally inviting him ant it was worth going; perhaps there was so serious matter he wanted to discuss?
"I’ll be free, free indeed. Since that’s settled, then let’s confirm it for tomorrow evening. I’ll await your arrival at ho."
"Alright! I’ll be sure to co by tomorrow evening."
On the other side, when Nakamura Shinichi arrived at the scene, the area had already been cordoned off with police tape, and officers were standing guard.
He put on gloves and shoe covers before entering, taking out his ID to pin to his chest, and said, "Who is in charge of the forensic team here? I am Deputy Director Nakamura Shinichi of the First Division of the Homicide Section at Police Headquarters."
"Right here! Right here!" A young officer ca out of the bedroom, "I’m in charge."
"What’s the situation?" Nakamura Shinichi gestured towards the female victim, who had been stabbed in the neck and was lying in a pool of blood.
The forensics in charge imdiately briefed, "After our preliminary investigation, the victim lived alone, nad Aizawa Youko, 26 years old, a nursing ho employee. The cause of death was excessive blood loss due to a dagger severing her carotid artery."
"Judging from the wound, the killer struck from behind unexpectedly. No footprints have been found at the scene, which suggests the murderer took off their shoes upon entering. Several fingerprints were lifted from the dagger, but surveillance footage hasn’t been checked yet."
"Okay, thank you for your efforts; we’ll take it from here," Nakamura Shinichi bowed in thanks.
Since the murder weapon had fingerprints, it indicated that the killer hadn’t worn gloves, likely a first-ti murderer. The disguise they used was probably not well-executed. They were definitely captured by surveillance, and it was expected that they would be apprehended soon.
As expected, the culprit was indeed full of slip-ups; hallway monitors captured him knocking on the victim’s door and his hasty retreat from her ho. The elevator cara captured his face straight on.
The murderer’s target was clearly Aizawa Youko. Thus, Yoshikai Youzai analyzed that the two likely knew each other and had a grudge. As a result, they checked her connections: relatives, friends, and coworkers.
Unexpectedly, none of these people included the murderer. Aizawa Youko’s friends and relatives also claid never to have seen the murderer, stalling the investigation imdiately.
Things were not as advanced as in future generations, and not everyone’s fingerprints were in the database, so even with a suspect’s appearance and fingerprints, the person might not be caught.
There was no choice but to issue a warrant overnight.
And that worked.
The murderer was likely keeping an eye on the news and saw the warrant. The next day, while attempting to flee Tokyo by train, he was recognized by a citizen and subsequently captured.
"Why did you kill Aizawa Youko."
Nakamura Shinichi personally interrogated the suspect.
At the sa ti, he arranged for his subordinates to investigate the suspect’s other information based on the ID he carried.
In response to Nakamura Shinichi’s questions, the suspect, nad Gu Tian Shinri, remained silent, choosing to say nothing.
His slightly trembling body, and the sweat constantly beading on his forehead, revealed his fear.
After all, from his murderous thods and the fact that he fled as soon as the warrant was issued, it could be deduced that this was his first offense, so it was normal for him to be scared of the police.
"Slam!" Nakamura Shinichi slamd his hand on the table in anger.
Gu Tian Shinri shuddered frightfully.
"You prefer to face the consequences rather than follow the rules, huh?" Judging by the reaction, he probably didn’t have any backing, Nakamura Shinichi’s eyes slightly cold, "We’ll see how tough you really are."
As his words fell, he gestured with his hand.
The police officer taking notes beside him stood up, closed his notebook, and proceeded to beat Gu Tian Shinri violently.
"Ah! This is police brutality!"
Gu Tian Shinri collapsed on the ground, his head ringing from the kicks as he roared with a mixture of shock and rage.
"We are an organization that employs force; how else can we deal with criminals like you?" scoffed Nakamura Shinichi, motioning with his hand, "Keep hitting him."
"Ah! Stop... stop hitting ! Ah!"
"I... I’ll talk... I’ll tell everything!"
Faced with the police’s genuine interest, Gu Tian Shinri quickly opened up, willing to confess honestly.
"Stop." Nakamura Shinichi raised his hand to halt the beating.
The policeman, who had been administering the beating, picked Gu Tian Shinri up from the ground and pressed him back into the chair before returning to his seat to continue taking notes.
Nakamura Shinichi looked at Gu Tian Shinri, who now had a bloody nose and a busted lip, "Start from the beginning, what is your relationship with Aizawa Youko and what conflicts do you have?"
"I... I don’t know her, and I have no conflicts with her," stamred Gu Tian Shinri.
"Slap!"
Nakamura Shinichi swung his hand and landed a slap across the face, cursing, "You idiot! You still dare to lie? You don’t know her? No conflicts? So you just randomly decided to kill her in a fit of madness? Huh?"
There’s always a motive for murder.
"I... I’m telling the truth!" Gu Tian Shinri said, a look of grievance on his face, lips quivering, "I just killed her to make money, I really don’t know her."
"Who hired you?" Nakamura Shinichi suddenly had a revelation upon hearing this, realizing it was a murder-for-hire.
"I... don’t know what to say," Gu Tian Shinri stumbled over his words, unable to form a coherent explanation.
Nakamura Shinichi tapped on the table, "Take your ti to gather your thoughts; I’ve got all the ti in the world to listen."
"Excuse , officer, do you know what a BBS is?" Gu Tian Shinri swallowed his saliva and asked tentatively.
Nakamura Shinichi looked at him blankly, "What’s that?"
"I know..." The junior officer taking notes raised his hand and began to explain to Nakamura Shinichi.
Although many families in Japan now had personal computers, the internet had not yet introduced webpages and only had text-based BBS, similar to early forums.
This type of BBS used dedicated lines, accessed through dial-up internet. Larger BBS’s provided multiple phone numbers for simultaneous connections, allowing users to post ssages and download threads to read.
A BBS could have as few as dozens to thousands of users, representing Japan’s early internet users.
Gu Tian Shinri claid that he stumbled upon a BBS full of posts offering paynt for tasks, and the murder of Aizawa Youko was among them.
He initially thought it was a joke, but driven by a lack of money, he tentatively dialed the contact number provided in the post, accepted the job, and indeed received a deposit. Once he confird the money was real, his greed took over, and, tempted by the substantial final paynt, he took the risk and murdered Aizawa Youko.
"Is that... is that how it is?" Nakamura Shinichi was sowhat puzzled; this was his first ti dealing with such a case.
If what Gu Tian Shinri said was true, then that BBS was akin to a hub for deadly transactions, and it had remained well-hidden.
Most users of the BBS would dismiss those posts as pranks and soon exit the site due to slow internet speeds and the expense of being online, not giving much thought to the content they encountered.
However, users who discovered that these posts could actually make them money, like Gu Tian Shinri, would believe they had found a way to earn easy cash and subsequently fall into the trap of cri.
Nakamura Shinichi stood up in a flash.
This matter had to be reported to Police Chief Aoyama.
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