Chapter 139, 4th: Was he randomly selecting his target?

As soon as Lei Xiao gave the order, everyone sprang into action.

Without a word or a moment's hesitation, the three elite squads quickly split up, silently blending into the approaching twilight and bustle of Yancheng. An invisible tension hung in the air, as if every passing second carried the looming threat of danger.

Zheng Yu's team was the first to arrive at the Second Textile Factory in the east of the city. The huge factory area cast long shadows in the setting sun. The factory buildings were old, and the roar of the machines could be faintly heard through the walls, carrying a sense of decline and decay that seemed to belong to a certain era.

The factory manager, a middle-aged man in his fifties, broke out in a cold sweat when he heard the police's purpose and the potential danger Miao Wei might face. He repeatedly expressed his willingness to cooperate. The shift change procedures involved workshop scheduling and personnel matters; even with special arrangements, it would be at least tomorrow before Miao Wei could be completely transferred away from the night shift.

This means that, at least tonight, the danger remains.

"Officer Zheng, don't worry, I'll arrange it right away. I'll have their workshop team leader find two reliable female workers. These next few days, especially for the night shift, they must go in and out together and not be separated for even a moment," the factory manager assured, wiping his sweat.

Zheng Yu's expression was serious: "It's not just on her way to and from get off work. We also need to be extra vigilant inside the dormitory area, especially on her floor and in her room. The murderer may have been spying on her living environment."

The order was issued quickly.

Miao Wei was called in for a talk by the workshop foreman. When she heard that she might be targeted by a serial killer, her already pale face instantly lost all color. Her fingers twisted the hem of her faded work clothes, her body trembled slightly, and her eyes were filled with unbelievable fear. She was just an ordinary, even humble, female worker who had never imagined that she would be associated with such a terrifying thing that only happened on television.

"I...I understand. Thank you, leader...thank you, police officer..." Her voice was barely audible, almost breaking into tears. Could that legendary, terrifying killer who would disembowel and rip out hearts have his eye on her? Just thinking about it made her tears flow uncontrollably.

At 6 p.m., the night shift workers began to enter the factory area one after another.

Zheng Yu and her team had already spread out and set up their positions. Their focus was naturally on the only route leading from the factory's side gate to the dormitory building. This route was about 300 meters long. On one side was a three-meter-high red brick wall of the factory, topped with old barbed wire; on the other side was a construction site enclosed by dilapidated blue barriers, overgrown with weeds. The road surface was uneven cement, with only five or six streetlights casting a dim, yellowish glow, spaced far apart, beyond which lay an impenetrable darkness.

The investigators, disguised as off-duty workers, roadside vendors, and even construction site workers stranded there, silently occupied all the advantageous observation points. Snipers set up concealed observation posts on the rooftop of a tall residential building in the distance, their high-powered binoculars and night vision goggles aimed at every corner of this death tunnel. Everyone's communicators were tuned to the same channel, maintaining only the bare minimum of necessary communication; the air was so quiet that only the distant noise of the city and the chirping of insects in the nearby weeds could be heard.

The first night passed peacefully. Accompanied by two relatively tall and strong female coworkers, Miao Wei walked quickly back to the dormitory. Apart from nervously looking around, nothing happened.

The second night was uneventful. The continuous high tension had begun to wear down some of the team members, but Zheng Yu's eyes remained sharp. She kept reminding everyone, "The killer may be observing, waiting for the moment we let our guard down."

On the third night, an unexpected incident occurred.

At 9:40 PM, Miao Wei and her coworkers appeared at the side gate of the factory area. Almost simultaneously, a young man wearing the same work clothes but looking much more disheveled stood up from the shadows by the wall, threw away his cigarette butt, and went to meet them. His face was gloomy, and his eyes held a stubborn resentment.

"Miao Wei!" he called out, his voice hoarse and abrupt, breaking the relative tranquility of the surroundings.

Miao Wei stopped abruptly like a startled rabbit and instinctively hid behind her coworker.

"Zhang Zhiqiang? You... why are you here again?" a coworker asked, mustering his courage, his tone full of disgust.

"None of your business!" Zhang Zhiqiang shouted impatiently, his eyes fixed on Miao Wei. "Miao Wei, why are you avoiding me? I just want to ask you one question: who is that man? Is it because of him that you broke up with me?"

"What nonsense are you talking about! There's no one else here!" Miao Wei retorted, her voice trembling with tears, trying to get around him.

Zhang Zhiqiang stepped forward and grabbed her wrist: "You're lying! I saw it all! A man dropped you off at the factory gate the night before last!"

In the shadows, every investigator's heart was in their throat. Zheng Yu whispered into the microphone: "Team A, Team B, approach slowly, await my instructions. Sniper team, report the situation."

"The sniper team reports that the target is agitated but not armed. No other suspicious persons were found in the vicinity."

Just as Zhang Zhiqiang was pulling Miao Wei forcefully, almost dragging her away from the protective circle of his two coworkers, two investigators disguised as workers who had just finished get off work silently pressed up behind him.

"Hey buddy, what are you doing? It's not a good look to be pulling and tugging like this so late at night, is it?" An investigator reached out and casually put his hand on Zhang Zhiqiang's shoulder, but the force was irresistible as he pulled him away from Miao Wei.

Another investigator stepped in front of Miao Wei, flashing his badge: "Police! Let's talk this out, don't get physical!"

"Police...police?" Zhang Zhiqiang's anger was instantly replaced by shock and panic, and he loosened his grip on Miao Wei's hand. He clearly hadn't expected to alert the police.

The swift control and questioning took place on the roadside, with a result that was both reassuring and somewhat disappointing.

Zhang Zhiqiang, Miao Wei's ex-boyfriend, worked at another factory in the Chengdong Industrial Zone. Suspecting there was more to the breakup than met the eye, he repeatedly harassed Miao Wei. The so-called "man who escorted her to the factory gate" was just a kind-hearted older worker who happened to be passing by that night. He knew nothing about the serial murders; he was simply a pathetic man blinded by heartbreak.

Zheng Yu gave him a stern warning and instructed the factory security to put him on a watch list, prohibiting him from entering the textile factory area again. Miao Wei was safely escorted back to her dormitory. After this fright, Miao Wei's mood became even more depressed and fragile. Fortunately, she did not encounter the murderer. With Zheng Yu's comfort and encouragement, Miao Wei gradually regained her spirits and walked into the dormitory building with her coworkers.

Zheng Yu frowned as she looked at the lights coming on in the dormitory building. One distraction had been eliminated, but the real threat still lurked in the darkness, patiently and unsettlingly persistent.

The killer did not seem to have set his sights on this quiet factory area.

--

Fan Wei's second team faced a different, more complex environment. The area around the teachers' college was mostly populated by young students, but it also included a large number of renters, small vendors, and other people. Liao Tingting's rented six-story old-style residential building was located deep within a maze of alleyways.

Finding Liao Tingting went relatively smoothly. When the police came to her door and identified themselves, the girl wearing black-rimmed glasses appeared quite surprised and nervous, her fingers unconsciously turning the pages of her book.

Her roommate also looked terrified.

That's why they say "good news doesn't travel far, but bad news travels fast." The serial murder case is still unsolved, and the police are strictly controlling the spread of information, but even Liao Tingting and her roommates know that there is a terrifying killer in the city who targets women and uses extremely cruel methods.

Fan Wei explained the situation in a gentle tone. Of course, he deliberately omitted the most gruesome details, only emphasizing that there had been recent vicious attacks against women traveling alone, and that because of a certain detail that could not be disclosed, the police suspected she might be considered a potential risk and advised her to minimize going out at night and to always travel in groups if necessary.

Liao Tingting's face turned pale. She pushed up her glasses, her voice trembling slightly, "I... I have been tutoring or going to the library sometimes in the evenings lately..."

Fan Wei's tone was firm: "Let's stop everything for now, or at least make sure your classmates pick you up and drop you off. After all... safety comes first."

Liao Tingting nodded, her eyes revealing lingering fear and confusion. For a recent graduate who had just entered the workforce and repeatedly failed in her job search, being suddenly caught up in such a storm was undoubtedly adding insult to injury.

The deployment was immediately initiated.

The old building has multiple entrances and exits, and the corridors are dark and winding. The investigators are scattered in the spicy hot pot stall downstairs, the photocopying shop, and the rental rooms in the building across the street, working in shifts around the clock, keeping a close watch on the building entrance and the alleyways that Liao Tingting might pass through.

Another group conducted an intensive investigation of all individuals in the surrounding area who fit the description of "young, reclusive, and with a penchant for violent audiovisual content," focusing primarily on several video arcades hidden deep in alleys and audio-visual stores that rented out large quantities of foreign films and television shows. The list was long, but after days of investigation, most were ruled out because they lacked the opportunity to commit the crime or had clear alibis.

On the third night, around 10 p.m., Liao Tingting finished her last tutoring class. Although a female roommate went to pick her up, it was already late when she returned to her apartment building. To make matters worse, the motion-activated lights in the hallway were broken; clapping and stomping had no effect, leaving the entrance area in eerie darkness.

The detectives who were on surveillance hesitated for a moment, but then quickly walked into the dark stairwell. Just as the detectives were about to approach from their hiding place to ensure their safe ascent, a stumbling figure emerged from an even darker alleyway next to them, reeking of alcohol that could be smelled from several meters away.

He was a young thug wearing a floral shirt and a buzz cut, with glazed eyes and unsteady steps. He saw the figures of two girls disappear into the darkness of the stairwell, muttered something filthy under his breath, and squeezed in after them.

The narrow stairwell suddenly became a dangerous trap.

"Hey...two little sisters, wait for your big brother..." A sleazy voice echoed in the enclosed space, laced with nauseating drunkenness. "You're back so late, you must be tired. Big brother will treat you to a late-night snack..."

Hurried footsteps and suppressed gasps from the girls came from upstairs.

"Why are you running... Let's talk..." The thug's footsteps quickened, as if he was catching up.

"Ah! What are you doing! Don't touch me!" Liao Tingting's scream came through clearly.

The investigator monitoring downstairs was terrified. He growled into the microphone, "Something's up in the target building's hallway! Suspected harassment! Requesting immediate intervention!"

Before any reply could be given, the two closest detectives pounced out of their hiding places like cheetahs, heading towards the stairwell entrance. Detectives upstairs also heard the commotion and moved down to surround the area.

The beam of the flashlight suddenly pierced the darkness, revealing that the thug was bracing himself against the wall with one hand while trying to pull on Liao Tingting's backpack strap with the other, almost trapping the two girls at the corner of the stairs.

Liao Tingting's roommate was trembling with fear, while Liao Tingting desperately tried to back away, her face full of terror.

"Police! What are you doing! Get down!" The detective's thunderous shout echoed in the hallway.

The thug was startled by the sudden shout and bright light, his movements froze, and he seemed to sober up halfway. He turned around blankly and saw several sharp-looking men rapidly approaching. He immediately cowered, raising his hands: "Police...comrades! It's a misunderstanding, I...I was just joking with the girls, I live in this building..."

The situation was quickly clarified through rapid control and verification.

This is another distractor. The drunken hoodlum, a local, unemployed, has a history of petty theft, but it's irrelevant to this case. It was purely a case of drunken misconduct, driven by lust.

Liao Tingting was escorted back to her room, her face pale with fright, and she was speechless for a long time.

Police have increased patrols of the building and contacted the community, demanding that all hallway lighting be repaired immediately.

However, the real threat remains elusive.

--

The southern route, personally overseen by Lei Xiao, presented the most complex and challenging environment.

The "Blue Moon" hair salon is located in a bustling area of ​​an old town. Its storefront is small, but its neon sign is strikingly eye-catching. Even at night, it's teeming with people of all kinds. The alley behind the salon presents a different picture: narrow, damp, and piled high with garbage cans and clutter. One of the only two streetlights is off, and the other flickers, exuding an air of decay and danger. The intricate network of alleys is like a maze, and surveillance cameras? Absolutely none.

The police had to allocate the most resources possible.

Investigators disguised themselves as motorcycle taxi drivers, night market vendors, and drunk customers, loitering outside the hair salon; hidden observation points were set up at several key entrances and exits in the back alley and near the old attic where Peng Lina lived; a disguised surveillance vehicle was parked on a distant street corner, with the screen inside split into several images, transmitting in real time the secretly captured footage from each location.

Lei Xiao sat in the car, staring at the screen with a cold expression.

Peng Lina was the most difficult of the three girls to protect. She was young and outgoing, carrying the naiveté and boldness of a small-town girl arriving in the big city for the first time. The police gave her a safety warning through the hair salon owner, and she nodded vigorously at the time, but obviously didn't take it to heart. She continued to laugh and joke with her friends, accepting the enthusiastic greetings from customers without any sense of vigilance.

The next evening, the incident unfolded.

Around 11 p.m., a middle-aged man with a flushed face, reeking of alcohol, and a beer belly staggered out of the hair salon, one hand still tightly gripping Peng Lina's wrist. Peng Lina wore a professionally awkward smile and tried to break free.

“Come on… little sister, come out with your brother. Let’s have a late-night snack, sing some songs, and I’ll buy you new clothes…” The middle-aged man’s tongue was tied, and his greasy voice was loud, attracting the attention of passersby.

"Boss, it really won't work. We have rules here, we can't go out..." Peng Lina struggled, looking pleadingly at the supervisor at the door.

The supervisor quickly stepped forward with a smile: "Oh dear, Mr. Zhang, you see... Lina is really not available today. How about I call another girl for you?"

"Get lost! I want her!" The middle-aged man impatiently shoved the foreman aside, his strength nearly knocking the foreman over. "I have plenty of money! What are you pretending to be so high and mighty for!"

The atmosphere inside the surveillance vehicle instantly became tense.

Lei Xiao stared at Peng Lina's wrist being grabbed and the man's arrogant attitude on the screen, and said coldly into the microphone: "01, 02, step forward to intervene. Strategy: pretend to be an acquaintance to pull them apart, pay attention to concealing your identity, and absolutely protect the target's safety."

At the entrance of the hair salon, a motorcycle taxi driver and a night market vendor immediately sprang into action.

The motorcycle taxi driver tossed away his cigarette butt and greeted him with a smile: "Hey! Brother Zhang! It really is you. Had a good time drinking? Come on, come on, I know a new place, it's great, I was just looking for you." As he spoke, he very "familiarly" put his arm around the middle-aged man's shoulder, cleverly separating him from Peng Lina.

Another night market vendor chimed in, "That's right, Brother Zhang, it's too crowded and noisy here. Let's go somewhere else and have some fun!"

The two men, working in tandem, half-pushing and half-persuading, practically "carried" the cursing, still confused middle-aged man away from the hair salon entrance and towards a dark alleyway in the distance, where a vehicle was waiting to take him away for education and reassurance.

Peng Lina stood there, stunned, looking at the passersby who had come to her rescue. A hint of doubt flashed across her face, but she was quickly pulled back into the store by her supervisor. She patted her chest and said to her colleagues, "I was so scared! Luckily, I ran into someone I know..." She had no idea that this was a potential crisis that the police had averted for her.

Subsequent investigations confirmed that this "Boss Zhang" was just a typical difficult customer and had nothing to do with the target case.

Time passed in a state of high tension and constant surveillance. For several days, the three surveillance points dealt with similar unexpected situations, eliminating one distraction after another. However, their true target—the killer immersed in a mock murder game—seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving no trace.

The lives of the three girls on the list seemed to have returned to a temporary calm, but the police were on edge, almost to the point of breaking down.

The three blood-red numbers "0, 7, 9" on the whiteboard in the conference room seemed to be constantly expanding. Was the deduction wrong? Did the killer astutely sense the police's actions and change their plans? Did those numbers have another meaning? Or was their investigation flawed from the very beginning?

Question 1: Where did the murderer obtain the victim's ID number? And why did he write those three numbers down and cross them at the crime scene?

Question 2: The murderer's tools were crude and the imitation method clumsy, but one thing is certain: the murderer was extremely cruel and showed no mercy. Would such a cold-blooded killer vomit upon seeing a dissected abdomen?

Although there had been some doubts within the Criminal Investigation Division, the drive to protect the victim left no time for hesitation. Could it be that we've made a mistake?

Continuing to protect these three girls would require a significant amount of police resources. Should we continue?

A sense of oppression and anxiety spread silently within the task force.

Everyone's eyes were bloodshot, and the trash cans were piled high with cigarette ash, instant noodle boxes, and tea leaves. Lei Xiao was under the most pressure; he stayed almost constantly in the command vehicle, repeatedly reviewing all the surveillance footage and investigation reports, trying to find any overlooked clues.

In this suffocating stalemate and waiting, just after 11 p.m. on the fourth night, a hurried, slightly breathless but exceptionally clear emergency call broke the silence of the Criminal Investigation Detachment Command Center and made Lei Xiao's communicator ring suddenly.

"I need to call the police... I was almost killed just now in an alley near Xingye Road in the south of the city!"

The person who called the police was a woman. Her voice was rapid from running and she was clearly still shaken, but her tone was unusually calm, showing her strong mental fortitude. "He had a very large pair of scissors, like the kind a tailor would use, but they were very long, and the tips were sharpened until they shone. I kicked him and ran for my life to escape..."

Lei Xiao sat up abruptly, grabbed the communicator, pressed the record button, and spoke rapidly in a calm voice: "Don't panic, tell me the exact location! How many people are there? What are their characteristics?" The eyes of everyone in the command vehicle instantly focused on him.

“At the intersection of Xingye Road and Sanmin Lane, about 100 meters east, there’s a dead end… He was all alone.” The girl took a deep breath, trying to steady her breathing. “He was very tall and strong, probably around 1.85 meters. He was wearing dark clothes, and it seemed like he’d been drinking; I could smell the alcohol from a distance. He was a little unsteady, but when he lunged at me, he was incredibly strong. He was wearing a baseball cap and a black mask, so I couldn’t see his face at all…”

She paused, then added details that sent a chill down the spines of everyone who heard her: "He was holding the scissors with both hands, and he was aiming straight for my stomach! I've practiced taekwondo for a few years, and I instinctively turned and kicked him, probably in the stomach. He grunted, and that's when I managed to break free and run away... When he lunged at me, he seemed to be muttering a foreign name, but I was too panicked to hear it clearly."

Li Qiuyun reacted immediately and cried into the communicator, "Was that Jack he was calling?"

The girl who called the police paused for a moment, then exclaimed, "Yes, yes, that's the name!"

Li Qiuyun turned to Lei Xiao: "Captain Lei, it's him! This time, he's imitating Jack the Ripper, and the murder weapon is a sharp pair of long scissors!"

Lei Xiao reassured the girl: "Please make sure you are safe, don't panic."

The girl, panting, replied, "I'm fine. I'm sitting in a small shop now, there are lights on, he won't dare come. That killer looked scary, but his steps were unsteady and his movements were clumsy. I kicked him and he fell to the ground, all flustered and a complete idiot!"

What an idiot?

All the elements seem to point to the target they are pursuing, yet there is an unsettling deviation.

First, the victim was not one of the three frail women on the list who were under tight protection, but a woman who was capable of defending herself and successfully escaped, and who had practiced Taekwondo. Her ID number did not contain the numbers 0, 7, or 9.

Secondly, in the previous three crimes, although the murderer's tools were crude and his imitation methods were clumsy, he was able to successfully skin, disembowel, and behead the victim. This proves that the murderer was calm, cruel, and possessed physical and mental abilities far exceeding those of ordinary people. Why did he act like a novice committing a crime for the first time this time? Yet, he was imitating Jack the Ripper, which fits the characteristics of the previous three cases.

Lei Xiao's face turned extremely grim under the cold light of the monitor screen. He quickly issued orders, demanding that nearby patrol officers and the city's south control team immediately rush to the location of the report, search for suspicious persons, protect the scene, and contact 120 to ensure the safety of the person who made the report, all while his mind raced.

—If the perpetrator deliberately changed tactics after discovering the tight police surveillance, it proves that the perpetrator was extremely cunning, highly vigilant, and had access to adult ID cards. A mobile phone seller? A pager seller? A telecommunications company? A bank? A community worker? The scope is too broad, further increasing the difficulty of the investigation.

—If the killer randomly selected the target, then the numbers 0, 7, and 9 are not the last three digits of an ID card, and the previous investigation was misguided!

—What do the numbers 0, 7, and 9 actually represent? Are they a deliberate misdirection by the murderer, or do they have a hidden meaning?

The case became increasingly perplexing.

The night grew deeper.