POTL Chapter 3.2

“To commit the crime, one must clearly know Yi Ziyun’s work schedule.”

Yu Shi roughly surveyed the surroundings before taking Li Yu to find the mall manager to review the surveillance footage.

After the mall manager confirmed their identities, he led them to the back-end monitoring room and asked, “Which specific time period are you looking for?”

“Let me start with the 23rd. There’s a bench slightly off to the side outside the clothing store. Can your surveillance capture that bench?” Yu Shi gestured. The manager immediately understood.

“That’s the southeast corner. This is the second time today I’ve opened this surveillance feed,” the manager said, instructing a subordinate to select the footage.

Li Yu casually asked, “Has someone else come to view the same footage today?”

“Yes. A female customer said she left her bag on that bench a couple of days ago,” the manager replied, just as the footage started playing.

“Why wait until now to look for something lost two days ago?” Yu Shi wondered, her intuition telling her the woman’s purpose wasn’t just about finding a bag.

“I don’t know. Since she said she lost it, I had to show her. She watched several clips afterward but didn’t find anything.”

Yu Shi nodded and focused on the footage with Li Yu. The video played at several times the normal speed as they watched for anyone sitting on the bench. Around 7 p.m., a slightly overweight man wearing a hat, mask, and black clothes appeared, holding a newspaper. He sat on the bench and began reading, staying until nearly 10 p.m. before leaving. Yu Shi then asked the manager to play footage from the previous few days. Although the times varied, the same man would sit there reading a newspaper during different periods each day.

“Manager, please copy these clips for me.”

Li Yu understood immediately from Yu Shi’s glance. There was something suspicious about the man in the footage.

Yu Shi called Mie Mie and asked her to check whether Yi Ziyun had worked on the 20th. The answer was no. She turned to Li Yu and said, “This man was definitely observing Yi Ziyun. On the 20th, he only sat for a short while before leaving because Yi Ziyun was off that day.”

Of course, this wasn’t the only reason she concluded the man was observing Yi Ziyun. He hadn’t returned to the mall after Yi Ziyun’s death, and she noticed the newspaper he brought each day had the same layout and design on the cover. He was reading the same newspaper every day. Although he occasionally flipped through it, the paper mostly lay open on his lap. While subtle, his face was also turned toward the clothing store. The newspaper was merely a prop to avoid suspicion.

Though the fact that he specifically came to the mall to read a newspaper was already the strangest thing.

Meanwhile, the interviews conducted by Da Gezi and Mie Mie also concluded. Based on colleagues’ testimonies, Yi Ziyun had no recent conflicts with anyone, behaved normally, worked diligently with punctual attendance, and even gave money to a homeless person on the street. Everyone, from colleagues to superiors, felt it was a pity that such a person of good character was killed without reason.

“We’re missing a key point…” Li Yu remained puzzled.

Colleagues described Yi Ziyun as well-liked and never one to hold grudges. But the perpetrator must have chosen her as a target for a reason. A single word, an action, or even a glance could have been the cause of the victimization.

“Maybe she had a conflict with someone in a place no one knew about. It’s not like Yi Ziyun had someone following her around all the time.” Yu Shi considered whether the tech department could enhance the surveillance footage later.

Exiting the mall’s main entrance, Yu Shi observed the street cameras and had Li Yu note their locations. They would need to apply to review these recordings later, as there was a chance they might have captured the suspect’s face.

Bringing along Da Gezi and Mie Mie, Yu Shi planned to visit Yi Ziyun’s home next. She instructed Li Yu to take Mie Mie back to the police station while she and Da Gezi headed to Yi Ziyun’s residence.

Yi Ziyun lived with her parents in a ten-year-old apartment building on the fifth floor. Upon arriving, the elderly couple led them to Yi Ziyun’s room and left them to investigate. The forensics unit had already been there once, taking everything they needed. Yu Shi simply wanted to look more closely, hoping for any unexpected discoveries.

Yi Ziyun’s room was exceptionally tidy. Her parents mentioned that their daughter had been disciplined since childhood. Her room had never been messy. Everything was arranged with precision, down to each pen lying perfectly straight. That was why Yi Ziyun was responsible for organizing the clothing store’s inventory, as her arrangements always looked neat and appealing.

“Isn’t this a bit obsessive? Aside from soldiers, I’ve never seen anyone fold their blanket into a perfect square right after getting up,” Da Gezi couldn’t help but comment. Even the bedsheet was smoothed out without a single wrinkle.

“Would you do that?” Yu Shi opened a desk drawer and glanced inside.

“That’s exactly why I switched from being a soldier to a detective. I’m too casual to adapt to that kind of life,” Da Gezi recalled the messiness of his own home, where the blanket was never folded. “Are you disciplined?”

“Not at all.” Why would anyone constrain themselves so much?

Just as she finished speaking, Yu Shi’s phone rang. It was the forensic examiner, Shu Xia. “Yu Shi, we’ve made a discovery from the fibers found between the victim’s teeth and under her nails. Analysis revealed trace amounts of components including sucrose, fructose, glucose, glutamic acid, serine…”

Hearing that Shu Xia seemed ready to list every component, Yu Shi quickly interrupted, “Even if you keep going, I won’t understand. If there’s sucrose, does that mean sugarcane?”

“Yes, exactly. It’s likely sugarcane or a processed product made from it,” Shu Xia confirmed confidently.

Yu Shi remembered seeing something similar in the kitchen earlier and hurried there. Several sugarcane stalks were lying on the table. After asking Yi Ziyun’s parents, she learned that Yi Ziyun had bought them a few days ago. She relayed this information to Shu Xia, who excitedly replied, “Bring them back.”

As soon as she hung up with the forensic examiner, another call came in. Yu Shi glanced at the caller ID. It was an unexpected guest!

“Hey, Captain Hua.”

“Hey, Captain Yu. I’ve got good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?” Hua Yicheng asked from the other end of the line.

Hua Yicheng was the captain of the neighboring Criminal Investigation Team One and Xiao Liang’s superior.

“Let’s hear the bad news first!” Yu Shi pointed at the sugarcane, signaling Da Gezi to take it away.

“Our team received a homicide case yesterday.” Hua Yicheng was currently standing in his office, holding the autopsy report sent to him by the forensic examiner.

To be honest, Yu Shi was still somewhat surprised. The murders were happening too frequently. She didn’t understand why Hua Yicheng had specifically called to inform her. “And the good news?”

“The forensic examiner found fibers on the body. After testing, they turned out to be the same as those on your team’s victim. Congratulations, your team has just landed a serial murder case.”

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