Xiang Qiu immediately thought of Xia Qingqing. The three of them lived in the dormitory and rarely left the campus unless there was something going on, so they were unlikely to encounter any danger.

But Xia Qingqing is a different story. She has to go to and from school alone every day, and she's so pretty that she's easily targeted by bad people.

"Qingqing, you must be careful on your way home from now on. Don't talk to strangers, and never help anyone who asks for your help. Some bad people are very good at disguising themselves."

“Yes, Qingqing, why don’t you move back to school for a while and then go back to commuting after those bad guys are caught?”

"I think so too. Qingqing, you should move back. Then we can eat in the cafeteria together and go to class together again."

Xia Qingqing looked at her three roommates who were trying to persuade her, and said with a smile, "Sisters, you don't need to be so nervous. I'm not that unlucky. I just happened to run into those bad guys."

"Besides, I have a secret weapon in my bag, so you don't have to worry about me," Xia Qingqing said, showing a corner of the fruit knife in her bag to her roommates.

Liu Huimin's eyes widened when she saw the fruit knife. She pointed at Xia Qingqing in disbelief and said, "Qingqing, you...you actually brought a knife to school??? But it's good this way, you can use it to defend yourself if you encounter danger."

"Actually, I already knew about this yesterday. I carried the knife mainly to put my parents at ease. My mom was worried about me going to and from school alone and wanted my dad to pick me up and drop me off every day. In the end, it was only after my insistence that I was allowed to carry this fruit knife with me for self-defense," Xia Qingqing explained somewhat helplessly.

"Oh, I see," Liu Huimin said with a look of sudden realization. She had wondered why Qingqing had brought a knife to school; it turned out she had heard the big news yesterday.

Xiang Qiu's expression was solemn: "I hope the police can bring the bad guys to justice as soon as possible, otherwise no one can feel at ease."

"It will definitely happen, we must trust the police officers," Liu Huimin said, clenching her fist with a determined expression.

A few days passed peacefully until news suddenly broke that another woman had been murdered.

The victim this time was a woman in her thirties, and her death was similar to that of the previous victim. The police initially determined that it was the same group of murderers.

Two murders in a row have made even those who weren't initially paying much attention to the matter uneasy.

When the first victim appears, people can still treat it as a coincidence, or that the victim has offended someone and is being retaliated against.

But when the second victim appeared, no one dared to take any chances.

After Song Ze learned about this, he immediately came to find Xia Qingqing, but he also had to attend classes, so even if he wanted to pick Xia Qingqing up, he was unable to do so.

However, he didn't have time himself, but he could ask his brothers for help. Besides, Ning Zhiyuan was a policeman, so even bad guys wouldn't dare to show their faces in front of him.

"Qingqing, how about I have Ayuan pick you up and drop you off at school during this time? Otherwise, I'm not at ease with you."

"No need, that would be too much trouble for them. Besides, both of these cases were committed at night, and I don't wander around outside at night, so nothing will happen to me," Xia Qingqing said, squeezing Song Ze's fingers to reassure him.

Song Ze grasped Xia Qingqing's hand in return: "But I'm still worried about you. Why don't you stay at school for a while?"

Even the most daring bad guys wouldn't dare to commit crimes directly at a university.

Xia Qingqing shook her head again. Although her roommates were all very nice, living at school was never as comfortable as living at home.

For example, there are sometimes long queues for things like going to the toilet, taking a shower, and washing up in the morning. The school food is not as good as Zhang Hongyan's cooking, and the small bunk beds at school are not as comfortable as the bed at home.

When Song Ze heard her say that, he subconsciously frowned. He hoped that Xia Qingqing would avoid danger, but he did not want her to lower her quality of life.

"Then you should still commute. It's definitely more comfortable living at home. Just make sure you're careful, okay?" Song Ze reminded him worriedly.

"I heard you. I'll ride my bike straight home after class," Xia Qingqing said, smoothing out his furrowed brows. She reassured him for a long time before he finally felt at ease enough to go home.

Song Ze didn't go straight home. Instead, he went to Ning Zhiyuan to ask about the progress of the case. He was really worried about not being able to rest easy until the suspect was caught soon.

Ning Zhiyuan shook his head, looking somewhat dejected: "No, we found no useful clues at the scene, nor any eyewitnesses, making it very difficult to solve the case."

Song Ze asked, "Do these two victims have anything in common? Or are they connected in any way?"

"After investigation, we found that the two victims had no connection in their lives and had no enemies. We almost investigated everyone the two victims knew, but we couldn't find anyone suspected of committing the crime," Ning Zhiyuan said, feeling increasingly powerless.

What's most disheartening is that they don't even know how many accomplices the criminals have, nor are they sure if the criminals will continue to commit crimes, or who their targets will be if they do.

The atmosphere in the bureau has been gloomy these past few days. The bureau chief has applied to his superiors for a female soldier to come and help, planning to use a sting operation, but it's unclear whether it will be effective.

After the application was submitted, a highly skilled female soldier was sent over within two days. The colleagues in the bureau had high expectations for this female soldier.

But as it turned out, the entrapment operation was ineffective. The female soldier sent down from above went out late at night for a whole week, and the lack of sleep caused her to develop dark circles under her eyes, but she didn't encounter any suspicious people.

This couldn't go on forever; they couldn't just let people wander aimlessly at night. In the end, the police chief had no choice but to send them back.

Whether the criminals had gotten wind of the situation or were afraid to show themselves due to the increased police patrols at night, Beijing remained calm for the next period of time.

Even petty theft cases have decreased significantly, since no one dares to provoke the police at this time, lest they be arrested as murderers and end up in serious trouble.

People tend to forget things quickly, and after about a month of this calm, very few people continued to discuss the two murder cases.

After enjoying being picked up and dropped off by car for a month, Gou Dan went back to walking to school with Tian Hongjun. He felt quite disappointed about this, since who would want to walk when they can take a car?

Zhang Hongyan wouldn't get anxious or upset if Xia Qingqing came home a little late.

Everyone thought that was the end of it.