Chapter 97 Chapter 97 Is it a case within a case, or just a coincidence...

Twenty miles south of Chaojiang Village lies a solitary mountain with dense, undeveloped forests, rugged roads, and no human habitation.

Only the Mu family, who were guarding the mountain, still lived halfway up the mountain. The old couple had died in a forest fire long ago, leaving their son Mu Hui alone.

The deep winter dusk passed through the bare tree trunks, falling one by one in front of the mountain keeper's cabin.

The windproof curtain was suddenly pushed open, and the girl with a red birthmark on her face came out, wiping her tears.

"Xiu Lan, Xiu Lan...Yao Xiu Lan!"

An angry growl came from inside the house, breaking the gloomy silence of the forest. Yao Yulan stumbled out of the door, lost her balance, and fell heavily to the muddy ground.

"Sister, your leg!" Yao Xiulan ran back anxiously and fearfully, "Is it okay? I—"

"It's an old problem. It always comes back when it's cold." Yao Yulan grabbed her sister and asked sternly, "Where are you going?"

Yao Xiulan trembled, and tears as big as beans fell down and hit the back of her sister's hand.

"You want to turn yourself in, don't you?" Yao Yulan grabbed her sister's trouser leg tightly. "No!"

"Sister, please keep your voice down!" Xiulan looked around anxiously. "What if someone hears me? I saw a policeman in the village today—"

"I heard it, I heard it," Yulan said firmly. "We're both in on this. I didn't abandon you back then, so don't even think about leaving me alone now!"

"But we can't keep hiding like this... What should we do, Brother Muhui? If it weren't for this, you would have gotten married! You could have lived a good life! - It's all my fault! It's all my fault!"

Yao Xiulan squatted on the ground, hugged her knees with her hands, and cried facing a blank tombstone outside the yard, her shoulders shaking.

Hearing her sister mention her boyfriend, Yao Yulan felt a pang of sadness in her heart. She reached out and patted her sister on the shoulder, "I don't blame you. This is our fate. We've been inseparable since we were born."

A gust of wind blew over, making the scattered dead leaves rustle. The crows' mournful cries and Yao Xiulan's crying merged into one.

Yulan lowered her eyes and thought for a moment, then she grabbed her sister's shoulders and said, "Come in and help me pack my things. Let's go together, get away from here, and stay away... until we are caught."

"Ah?" Yao Xiulan raised her tearful eyes in astonishment, her red birthmark soaked. "Then what about Brother Mu Hui?"

"We broke up." Yao Yulan let out a sad smile. "How can I expect to live a normal life when my hands are stained with blood?"

She put her hands on the ground, used the force to stand up, and dragged her sister into the house, limping. "Hurry, Mu Hui is going to the city to help us get some information. Let's leave Chaojiang Village before he comes back!"

*

The orange sunset glow disappeared from the end of the horizon, and thousands of lights lit up in the night.

In the office of Tiandu Branch, dim lights shone on every worried face.

No one spoke, only the sound of people slurping their food from their lunch boxes.

After a while, Niu Dazhi burped, "Captain Ji, what should we do next? There are so many clues, and they are so confusing. My head hurts..."

Ji Yinhe put down his lunch box, wiped his mouth, and thought for two seconds before suddenly standing up. "It's an objective fact that the murderer entered the scene to commit the crime, and it's inevitable that he would leave clues. Let's sort through the clues again. With patience, we will definitely find a clue."

Everyone pushed the tables and chairs away, and the huge blackboard was divided into two parts again - the left side was the murder case of Yao Youlu in 1980, and the right side was the murder case of Feng Qisheng, He Ling, and Feng Xiaojing, a family of three, in 1996.

Ji Yinhe stood still in the open space in front of the board, stroking his chin and thinking slowly.

Although he had just used the material exchange theory to encourage everyone to continue looking for evidence, after the family massacre occurred, Lao Ge was unable to extract any biological traces at the scene.

The autopsy results only showed that a third person, the murderer, entered the house, killed Feng Qisheng and the other two with a kitchen knife, wiped out all traces of himself at home, and then left in a swagger.

Ji Yinhe's eyes were solemn as he scanned the photos taken when Yu Jing and his men first entered the scene over and over again.

Previously, she judged that the murderer must be at least an acquaintance of the deceased based on the fact that there were no signs of the doors and windows being pried open.

But so far, no suspicious targets have been found.

At Chengguan Middle School, every teacher said that He Ling was beautiful, young, came from a good family, and didn't make enemies at work...

But the weekly diary incident seemed to reveal her other dark and cold side.

Perhaps, as student He Ling commented, this is a hypocritical person who walks around the world like wearing a mask, making it difficult to understand his true face.

As for Feng Qisheng, his situation was almost the same. When she and Lu Zheng came out of the stage association during the day, she made a profile of him - he was an ambitious man who came from a poor family but was determined to climb up. In Lian Qiao's words, he was a typical "Phoenix Man"!

Ji Yinhe pressed his solar plexus, picked up a piece of chalk, and drew light diagonal lines on Chengguan Middle School and the Taiwanese Business Association, temporarily excluding the people below these two lines.

...Her intuition always worked well, but this time, there was no intuition at all.

We can only infer through logic - maybe this acquaintance is not someone we met at work, but someone we are familiar with in other life scenarios?

If the murderer wasn't aiming for money, he would have killed all three members of the family, not even sparing a five-year-old child. How much hatred must he have had...

Ji Yinhe took a deep breath, and a scene suddenly flashed before his eyes - that was the little girl's snacks he saw in Feng Qisheng's desk drawer during the operation at the Taiwan Business Association during the day.

At the same time yesterday, Lu Zheng also judged based on the bloodstains at the scene of Feng Qisheng's death that Feng Qisheng did not rush to protect his daughter at the time of the incident, but happened to be leaving his daughter's room.

At this moment, Sang Xiangyang happened to come over with a clean lunch box in his arms. "Captain Ji, did you see anything? It's almost time for me to go back. My wife is still waiting for me!"

"..." Ji Yinhe didn't answer, but asked, "Xiangyang, you are married, right? Have you given birth to a child?"

Sang Xiangyang was a little confused. "She gave birth to a daughter. What a coincidence, she's the same age as Feng Xiaojing... I almost vomited when I saw the tragic scene that day——"

"Will you buy snacks for your daughter?" Ji Yinhe asked directly, "The kind you don't dare bring home and hide secretly in the office?"

"...Huh?" Sang Xiangyang asked in confusion, "My wife doesn't allow me to buy snacks for the child. He's so young and hasn't learned to eat properly yet. Why would he eat these? They're not good for his growth or development at all!"

"Hmm, that makes sense." Ji Yinhe tapped his fingers lightly on his chin. "Then imagine, what kind of situation would you buy these for her?"

Sang Xiangyang thought for a long time and muttered, "There are times when we need to coax her... But this situation is really rare. It's only when the child makes a mistake that we accidentally over-educate..."

Niu Dazhi shook his head, "Don't punish her physically. Children have good memories. Be careful that she won't be filial to you when she grows up!"

Sang Xiangyang screamed, "No, don't talk nonsense! I'm going back!"

At the blackboard, Ji Yinhe thought about Sang Xiangyang's words and fell silent.

Feng Qisheng really loved his daughter very much, but this kind of love always made her feel that something was wrong.

If Lu Zheng's judgment was correct, when someone came to his house, why didn't Feng Qisheng go downstairs to entertain them with his wife, but stayed in his daughter's room upstairs?

Ji Yinhe drew two thick circles on Feng Qisheng and Feng Xiaojing's names with red chalk, wrote the two big words "father and daughter" next to them, and then turned his gaze to the other side of the blackboard.

Because Yao Youlu's case happened so long ago, it is even more impossible to find any biological traces.

According to Yu Jing's visit today, it can be seen that the family relied on the cooking skills passed down by Lin Fang's ancestors for a living, and they once lived a good life.

A tall tree attracts the wind, and it is possible that someone will secretly target you.

What is confusing is that after Yao Youlu's death, Yao Yulan and Yao Xiulan did not call the police, which is abnormal enough.

And Lin Fang did not come back with him - would a normal mother abandon her two underage daughters?

The neighbors in his hometown thought that Lin Fang was dead, and Ji Yinhe also guessed so.

So, where is Lin Fang’s body buried?

Is her death related to the murder and burial of Yao Youlu?

The words and photos on the blackboard looked more and more like a tangled ball of wool, which was dizzying to look at. Captain Xiao Ji simply took a step back and examined the connection between the two cases.

——Sixteen years later, is this a case within a case, or is it all just a coincidence?

If the two are related, then where is the connection?

Ji Yinhe's increasingly sharp eyes stared at the name written in the center of the blackboard, connecting the two cases.

——Yao Xiulan.

Posted below is the graduation photo that I stole from Feng Qisheng’s office today.

The girl with the red birthmark on her face seemed to be looking at him through the dark time. Her expression was tense, and her beautiful almond-shaped eyes were filled with fear and sadness.

Ji Yinhe just looked at her quietly.

It was clearly a great day for graduation, and everyone in the photo looked so happy, especially her classmates Feng Qisheng and He Ling.

But what exactly happened to Yao Xiulan? Why did she have such an expression?

Ji Yinhe took a deep breath, intuitively feeling that there must be an unknown story behind these eyes.

"Teacher Lu." She turned around, looked at her good teammate, and said softly, "Tomorrow morning, we will go to Jiangtan Normal University."

*

The next day was a cold but sunny day. Flowing clouds passed over the heads of the Yao sisters who hurriedly left Chaojiang Village, and stopped in the blue sky above Jiangtan Normal University.

Ji Yinhe and Lu Zheng got out of the car and headed straight for the Chinese Department's office building.

Early this morning, she called the college, hoping to contact the counselor of the class of 1987.

Jiangtan is not big and you can run into acquaintances everywhere. I didn’t expect that this counselor is the younger sister of Section Chief Ding of the Personnel Department of the Municipal Bureau.

Now that we have this relationship, it is much easier to ask questions, and I don’t have to act like I did yesterday.

Teacher Ding smiled and invited Ji Yinhe and Lu Zheng into the office, and went straight to the point by taking out the roster and photos from that year.

"Oh, are you here for that case? ... The class of '87 was the first class I taught. I have a very deep impression of them." She pointed to the names on the dormitory roster. "He Ling and Yao Xiulan even lived in the same dorm!"

Ji Yinhe frowned, "How is their relationship?"

"I remember it was pretty good at first," Teacher Ding sighed. "Xiu Lan is a very simple girl. Maybe because of the birthmark on her face, she's a bit introverted. He Ling, on the other hand, comes from a well-off family and is very warm and welcoming... Oh, by the way, I remember that during our freshman year, she often took the girls from her dorm out to play, including Yao Xiu Lan. But He Ling later moved back home. Since she's a local, our counselor wouldn't stop her."

Ji Yinhe thought for a moment, "What about Feng Qisheng? How is his relationship with these two girls?"

"Feng Qisheng, I remember he had good grades, but several teachers in our office didn't like him!" Teacher Ding showed a hint of disdain on her face. "To put it nicely, he's mature, but to put it bluntly, he's slick and very good at getting things done, not like a university student who can be a role model for others. He and Yao Xiulan didn't seem very familiar, and I don't know the details, but he did like to stick with He Ling during those four years, and they were both elected class leaders... Sure enough, they got married right after graduation, and he even got into He Ling's father's association as a secretary. Tsk, he's quite a driven person."

Ji Yinhe and Lu Zheng looked at each other tacitly.

It seems that their judgment of Feng Qisheng was correct, but if they want to know more details, they may have to get it from their classmates, especially their roommate He Ling, who they live with day and night.

"Teacher Ding, can you give me the contact information they registered after graduation?" Ji Yinhe asked with a smile, "The case is still unclear, and we want to question a few more people."

"Okay!" Teacher Ding readily pulled out the list and said, "Use them!"

Ji Yinhe and Lu Zheng thanked him and looked at the more than 40 names on the list. They decided to go back to the branch immediately and organize everyone to make phone calls and arrange times for visits.

They didn't know it at the moment - just one day later, the dark stories they heard from this group of people would make the Criminal Investigation Brigade, which had handled so many vicious cases, shudder and stand off with fear!