Chapter 61 I've seen this woman. She seems to be one of us...

Although Guan Xia knew the suspect's motive for murder, she still had doubts in her mind.

Unless someone is born with an antisocial personality, no one would kill for no reason. Jealousy is the motive, but there must be something else behind it driving the suspect.

Guan Xia wanted to know, so she simply asked, "Why is he jealous? Is it because his own relationship is not going well?"

This was Guan Xia's first reaction. He still remembered the scene when the suspect left after killing someone that day. He was so leisurely and not nervous at all. His two hands were busy sending messages. Who was he sending messages to?

Xu Nian nodded and said, "According to the suspect, he loves his wife very much. He would give everything for her, and he didn't even mind her infidelity. But even so, his wife insisted on a divorce, and his pleas were in vain."

Guan Xia: ...What kind of love-brained person is this? Being submissive at home, but striking out hard outside?

Guan Xia couldn't help but think of the young man who had fallen in a pool of blood that day. He subconsciously shuddered at the thought. After a moment's thought, he asked, "Did he only kill these two people?"

"More than that," Xu Nian said. "The Third Squadron responsible for solving this case not only found two utility knives on the suspect's person, but also in his home. Testing has revealed that, in addition to the two known victims in Pingjiang District, there are three other unidentified victims whose identities have not been matched in the database. We've already issued a joint investigation notice to other police stations and are searching for related cases throughout the city."

There were three more deaths. Guan Xia was surprised but not surprised. The cases she had come across were all serial murders, and she was used to it.

However, in Guan Xia's opinion, this murderer is slightly different from the murderer in the previous case. Although the motive for murder is equally outrageous, it is more like a crime of passion. The victims do not have much in common. If Guan Xia had not accidentally encountered them while visiting the park yesterday, there might have been one or two more victims. After all, the two victims were killed only five days apart, and the murderer was completely dominated by emotions. Maybe he had just killed someone, returned home, had a quarrel with his wife, and went out to kill again in anger.

Thinking of this possibility, Guan Xia looked at Xu Nian and asked, "Was he at home when the Third Squadron arrested the suspect?"

Xu Nian seemed a little surprised that Guan Xia would ask this question. He looked at her for two seconds before answering, "No, when the Third Squadron caught the suspect, he was wandering around the neighborhood where his wife had an affair with her lover. He still had the murder weapon he used in the park that day in his pocket."

Guan Xia subconsciously speculated, "Is he going to kill that lover?"

Xu Nian showed a somewhat strange expression, and after a moment he said, "According to the criminal suspect's later confession, no, he said that he felt much calmer after killing someone that day, so he wanted to take his wife home, but his wife refused to answer the phone, and he didn't want to go home alone, so he stayed downstairs from his wife's lover so that he could be closer to her. Besides, his wife might quarrel with her lover and come home in anger."

Guan Xia: ...

Guan Xia was once again stunned, speechless. Was this truly the world of detective fiction? The killer's mindset was inaccessible to normal humans. He might kill a stranger simply because he was upset, but not the person who upset him. If it was his wife, whom he deeply loved, he couldn't bring himself to do it, but what about the cheating lover? Was he afraid of upsetting his wife?

Guan Xia felt that if this question was not answered, she would not be able to sleep well tonight. This murderer was truly the most bizarre case she had encountered since she had linked the system to her current situation.

Faced with this question, Xu Nian's mouth twitched for a moment before he said, "It's pretty much as you guessed. He was afraid his wife would be angry, so he wanted to do it several times, but when he thought about the consequences, he didn't dare."

Guan Xia: ...Sure enough, even though I guessed it right this time, I was still shocked and had a lot to complain about.

So after seeing Xu Nian off, Guan Xia couldn't wait to call Pang Le, fully sharing all the details of the case she knew, and also talking endlessly about her turbulent and fluctuating emotions at the time.

Pang Le was also shocked. She was different from Guan Xia. She had rich emotional experience and had seen several love-brained people, but compared with the suspect in this case, she was nothing.

Therefore, the two of them had a rare long phone conversation, which lasted from the afternoon to the evening, until both of them were so hungry that their stomachs were growling, and it would be time to go to bed if they didn't eat, so they hung up the phone reluctantly.

Because she received overly stimulating news during the day, Guan Xia did not sleep well all night and had a lot of messy dreams. When she saw Pang Le who came to pick her up at noon, she looked carefully and saw that this guy's eyes were also bloodshot.

The two were stunned after looking at each other, and then laughed at the same time.

As Guan Xia got in the car and fastened her seat belt, she asked, "Did you have a nightmare too?" Although she didn't remember much about last night's dream, she still had some vague memories, as if there was an invisible shadow-like person in the dream who was chasing her with a knife dripping with blood, causing her to run for her life all night.

Pang Le nodded with lingering fear, and waited until Guan Xia fastened her seat belt before starting the car. "I dreamed that I was being chased by several ex-boyfriends. They asked me why I didn't love them and forced their love on me. I fought them all night and was exhausted."

Although the two people's dreams are slightly different, they are basically the same.

Guan Xia said, "I was being chased by someone whose face I couldn't see. He looked like the shadowy figure in the Conan anime. I was on the run all night."

Pang Le sighed and said, "This dream has made me not want to fall in love recently. Love-brainedness is not scary, but love-brainedness that is extremely perverted is too scary."

Guan Xia nodded in agreement. She had never been interested in relationships, and after this case, she was even less interested.

After having a quick bite to fill their stomachs at noon, Guan Xia and Pang Le couldn't wait to get to the meeting point. When they arrived, Ji An had already arrived.

After not seeing each other for a few days, Ji An looked a little haggard, and the dark circles under his eyes were much more serious than Guan Xia's, as if he had been up all night for several days.

Guan Xia and Pang Le looked at each other in bewilderment and couldn't help asking, "Sister Ji, are you in trouble?"

Guan Xia thought it was related to the case she was investigating, but Ji An shook his head and said, "One of our friends has gone missing. Lu Tingfeng has been looking for him for almost half a month. I also went over there and searched for a few days, but to no avail."

"Missing?" Guan Xia thought of the uniqueness of Ji An and Lu Tingfeng, and her heart tightened. "Are they the kind of friends who share the same goals as you?"

Ji An nodded with a heavy expression.

Guan Xia opened her mouth but said nothing in the end. She wanted to ask if there was anything she could do to help. Based on their previous interactions, she highly recognized Ji An's abilities and character. They were no longer just collaborators. At least she unilaterally believed that they were already friends. However, she hesitated when the words came to her lips. Her system was very powerful in some ways. As long as she faced the murderer head-on, she could capture any slight flaw in his body. But that was only when there were actual and clear clues, just like the previous case.

The disappearance of Ji An's friend is obviously different from previous cases. Although we don't know what happened yet, we can imagine based on speculation that their friend may have touched upon something while investigating the case, or perhaps caught the murderer's tail, which is why she disappeared. But in any case, if the murderer is alarmed, he will definitely hide deeper or even flee. So even if she wants to help, she will most likely only be a hindrance.

Ji An keenly noticed Guan Xia's hesitation, and he lifted the corner of his mouth slightly to force a smile, saying, "Don't overthink it. You are very talented, but frankly, you are still a rookie. At this stage, you still need to accumulate experience. As you get more cases and make further progress, we will ask for your help if necessary."

This was indeed a rude remark, but it was also the truth. After all, she had only been connected to the system for less than two months and was indeed still a rookie.

Pang Le knew Guan Xia very well and naturally knew what she was thinking. He patted her shoulder comfortingly and then sat down in his old seat.

As soon as Guan Xia sat down, Ji An pushed some information over to her and said bluntly, "These are some unsolved cases that I asked a friend to find based on your life trajectory from childhood to adulthood. Take a look and see if anything sticks with you."

Guan Xia took it subconsciously, cleared his confused head, and began to read it carefully.

Compared to the information Guan Xia found online, the information provided by Ji An was much more detailed, including the simple circumstances of the case and the approximate identity information of the deceased. Although it did not touch upon the core of the case, it was all the information that could be found outside the scope of confidentiality of the case.

Guan Xia looked for a while, and then Ji An asked, "How is it? Did you see anyone familiar?"

As soon as Ji An finished speaking, Guan Xia's system interface popped up.

You were questioned by the police, and you suddenly remembered that at 15:29 on the afternoon of June 7, 2022, you and your friend Pang Le were chasing a thief into an alley. In the alley, you found a young woman with strange behavior and a nervous expression. She was holding an iron rod and kept stabbing forward, muttering to herself: Between the third and fourth ribs. You keenly noticed that something was wrong, and you decided to tell the police.

After all the words were displayed, there was a pause for a few seconds, then the interface changed and a video popped up as usual.

On a sunny afternoon, Pang Le was running fast in high heels after a figure. Guan Xia subconsciously chased after him and turned into an alley. A few dozen meters away from the entrance of the alley, there were two young people, a man and a woman, squatting by the wall. Guan Xia subconsciously took a look. In the video, there were red frames on the heads of the man and the woman. The man looked to be in his early twenties, very young, with messy hair piled on top of his head, big eyes and thick eyebrows, and regular facial features. He actually looked quite handsome. The woman was also very young, about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with long black hair, big eyes, and an oval face. Even with her frown and serious expression, you could tell that she was a beautiful girl.

The young man kept following Pang Le's figure and looked forward with a bit of excitement on his face. Although the young woman's eyes were also focused on Pang Le, her hands continued to move, and she was indeed stabbing forward. The sound was also very, very small, but combined with the lip shape and preconceived notions, Guan Xia carefully identified it and it was indeed that sentence: between the third and fourth ribs.

Guan Xia was so engrossed in watching that after the system interface disappeared, she couldn't help but repeat in a low voice, "Between the third and fourth ribs."

The small gathering room had fallen silent since Guan Xia began flipping through the documents, so although Guan Xia's voice was low, it was unusually clear. Pang Le was a little puzzled, but Ji An realized something very quickly. He stared at Guan Xia and asked, "What did you remember?"

Guan Xia came back to her senses and mumbled something like, "I did remember something." Then she grabbed the document in her hand and frantically flipped through it. She didn't stop until she got to the first few pages. Looking at the young man whose name was on the paper and who was the victim's family member, Guan Xia suddenly looked up and asked Ji An, "What organ is between the third and fourth ribs? Is it the heart?"

Ji An nodded affirmatively.

Guan Xia lowered her head again and began to browse the case information. Sure enough, the deceased in this case died from being stabbed in the heart with a sharp weapon. However, the family of the deceased did not see the young woman except the young man. Guan Xia initially thought that the two were siblings, but now it seems that is not the case.

After reading through the entire case, Guan Xia looked up at Ji An, then at Pang Le and said, "I do remember something. Pang Le, do you remember? Two years ago, around the summer of 22, we chased a thief into an alley."

Pang Le thought carefully for a while and recalled it, then nodded and said, “I remember, what happened?”

Guan Xia pushed the information in Pang Le's direction and pointed at the photo of the young man. "I've seen this man in that alley."

Pang Le was a little surprised. He subconsciously grabbed the information, stared at it carefully for a few seconds and shook his head. "I have no impression. I can't even remember what the thief looked like. I just remember that the thief was not tall, but he moved very fast on his short legs. He chased me to death."

Guan Xia said: "The man was squatting by the wall at the time. Besides him, there was also a young woman. She was holding a piece of iron rod and kept making stabbing movements, repeating a sentence in her mouth, 'between the third and fourth ribs.'"

Pang Le's expression was not one of surprise but shock. "What? So that young woman is the murderer?"

Without waiting for Guan Xia to answer, Pang Le began to frown and carefully look through the case information.

Ji An didn't ask, but pushed over a stack of white paper and a pen.

Guan Xia hurriedly made good use of the time to draw a sketch. The more she drew, the faster she became. Not long after Pang Le finished reading the information, Guan Xia had already drawn it. Although the drawing was very sloppy, it made the woman's appearance extremely similar.

Guan Xia had just finished drawing and hadn't put down her pen when Ji An's expression changed. He picked up the sketch very quickly. The more he looked at it, the more solemn his expression became, and there was even a hint of anger in his eyes.

Guan Xia had only known Ji An for a short time and had never seen her express her emotions so openly. She couldn't help but feel a little surprised. She subconsciously exchanged glances with Pang Le and asked, "Sister Ji, what's wrong?"

Ji An looked twice more before looking up, as if to confirm, and said with a tense expression: "I have seen this woman. She seems to be a friend of the daughter of a friend of ours."

This relationship was a bit confusing, and Guan Xia took a while to react. "What's wrong with her?"

Ji An didn't answer, but said, "Wait a moment, I'll find Lu Tingfeng to confirm." Then he picked up his phone and made a video call to Lu Tingfeng.

The call was picked up quickly. Guan Xia couldn't see the person in the video, but she could hear the voice. Lu Tingfeng asked tiredly, "Sister Ji, what's wrong?"

Ji An said: "I took a picture of you, take a look, do you recognize it?"

After a few seconds, Lu Tingfeng said, "I know him. Isn't this Lao Luo's daughter's good friend? The one who has been taking care of them since Lao Luo's daughter died? What happened?"

Ji An was about to answer when Lu Tingfeng suddenly asked, "Wait a minute, where did you get this sketch?"

After a few seconds of pause, Lu Tingfeng said confidently, "Did Guan Xia draw this?"

Ji An said: "Yes."

Lu Tingfeng hissed, "So, Lao Luo's daughter's death is related to this girl?"

Ji An said: "It's not clear yet, but based on the experience of the previous case, the probability is very high."