Chapter 31 You Can Just Call Me by My Name
After Guan Xia asked, Xu Nian did not answer immediately.
After waiting for two seconds, Guan Xia saw Xu Nian's eyes with a hint of surprise, and suddenly realized that her invitation was a bit abrupt and rude.
After all, the two of them had only met three times, including today, and their only two phone calls were all related to the case. They couldn't even be considered friends, just acquaintances.
Guan Xia scratched her cheek awkwardly and was about to say something when Xu Nian raised his wrist to check the time. He said calmly, "I have to go back to the police station tonight and leave at seven."
Guan Xia was stunned for a moment before realizing what Xu Nian meant. Surprised and overjoyed, she quickly stepped back and opened the door. "I won't keep you long, Captain Xu. Please come in."
Xu Nian hesitated for a moment before following Guan Xia inside. As he walked in, he said, "My name is Xu Nian. You can just call me by my name."
Guan Xia put the dumplings in her hand on the table and almost immediately understood what Xu Nian meant. He meant that although she was not yet a friend to him, she had already gone beyond the category of strangers and was an acquaintance whom he could call by name.
Guan Xia readily called out, "Xu Nian."
Xu Nian nodded, glanced at the dining table, pulled out a chair and sat down opposite Guan Xia.
Guan Xia quickly walked into the kitchen, got a new set of dishes and chopsticks, poured a glass of water for Xu Nian, and then sat down comfortably in her seat.
Xu Nian said thank you, but didn't pick up his chopsticks immediately. Instead, he asked, "What do you want to know?"
Guan Xia happily picked up the chopsticks and said, "Eat first, eat first. You have to leave at seven o'clock. Eat first and then talk."
Xu Nian waited for Guan Xia to pick up some food, and when he was sure that she had no intention of communicating at the moment, he also picked up his chopsticks and started eating.
Guan Xia originally thought that having a meal with someone she was not very familiar with would inevitably cause the atmosphere to be a little awkward, but unexpectedly, the two of them did not communicate with each other and ate their own meals, yet it was very natural and there was no discomfort at all. What surprised Guan Xia the most was that Xu Nian ate very quietly, without making any noise except for the slight clatter of dishes and chopsticks.
This reminded Guan Xia of the time when she ate in the cafeteria in college. It seemed that all the boys would smack their lips while eating and have endless things to say. Even if the girl sitting opposite them was a stranger, they would ask a bunch of random questions. As a result, Guan Xia had to share a table with only girls.
It only took them about twenty minutes to fill their stomachs. Xu Nian put down his chopsticks first, took a few sips of water, and said, "Whatever you want to ask, you can ask it now."
Guan Xia wiped her mouth with a piece of tissue and handed one to Xu Nian as well. After a moment's thought, she said, "The domestic violence man in Building 7, I only know his last name is Liang. Is he still alive?"
Guan Xia hadn't thought of the worst before, and just thought that the domestic violence man named Lao Liang went fishing, but later she realized that the murderer who pretended to be Lao Liang was wearing Lao Liang's clothes at the time, which meant that Lao Liang must have fallen into his hands.
Sure enough, Guan Xia saw Xu Nian shook his head and said, "He died yesterday morning."
Guan Xia opened her mouth and asked again, "Is it the murderer I saw who did it?"
Xu Nian shook his head again and replied, "No."
Although he denied Guan Xia's guess, Xu Nian had no intention of explaining. However, it was enough for Guan Xia, as it confirmed her idea that there were two murderers based on the system settlement time.
Guan Xia thought for a moment, then asked another question, trying not to embarrass Xu Nian. "Could you please tell me why the murderer wanted to kill Lao Liang, his wife, and his daughter? Did they have a grudge?"
To wipe out an entire family, how deep must the hatred be to do such a cruel thing.
Guan Xia's mind was spinning rapidly, thinking of countless kinds of love, hate, and vengeance. Unexpectedly, Xu Nian was silent for a moment and said, "He didn't want to kill Liang Xinhua's wife and daughter. He was going to kill Liang Xinhua's wife Ye Lan."
"Ah?" Guan Xia was puzzled. "How many people did this murderer kill before..."
Xu Nian looked at Guan Xia with a surprised expression, "You know this?"
Guan Xia finally realized that she had let something slip and smiled awkwardly, "That's all I know, and I heard about it. He's a serial killer who not only kills people but also dismembers them. That's all."
Guan Xia finished her words dryly, fearing that Xu Nian would ask her where she got the information.
Fortunately, Xu Nian didn't ask any further questions. He thought for a moment, as if he was considering the matter. After a few minutes, he said, "This case is a bit complicated. The murderer's original target was indeed Liang Xinhua, but for some reason, he took his anger out on Ye Lan, and that's why he also included Ye Lan in his target range."
Guan Xia was puzzled by Xu Nian's choice of words. "Turning out your anger? Isn't Ye Lan just an ordinary, poor woman who's been abused? What could possibly cause you to vent your anger on her?"
Xu Nian hesitated for a moment, then thought of Guan Xia as an eyewitness who had provided them with several important clues. Given her frequency and talent, there was a high probability that she would continue to cooperate in the future. He then said, "Because Ye Lan's ex-husband, Tian Shaohui, was the second victim killed by the murderer in Yongquan City."
This answer was so unexpected to Guan Xia that her voice rose in shock. "What? What did you say? Ye Lan's ex-husband was also killed by the murderer? So both of Ye Lan's husbands were killed by him? No, he didn't kill her, his accomplices killed her, which is almost the same as if he killed her. This murderer's brain circuit is a bit amazing. What did Ye Lan do to make him focus on her?"
Xu Nian was about to explain when Guan Xia suddenly remembered something and asked in surprise, "Because of domestic violence? I remember when I was buying groceries at the gate of the community a few days ago, I heard the old ladies in the community talking about how Ye Lan's second marriage was even worse than her previous one, and that he started beating her after just over a year of marriage, which meant her ex-husband also abused her."
Guan Xia looked at Xu Nian with a questioning look. Xu Nian didn't say anything, but his nod confirmed her thoughts.
Guan Xia was shocked and a little confused. "But why did the murderer kill Ye Lan? Was it just because she married another abusive husband? You said the murderer took his anger out on her because he felt he had given her a new start, but she didn't cherish the opportunity and fell into that situation again, so he was angry and embarrassed?"
Xu Nian nodded again.
Guan Xia's expression became a little complicated, "This murderer..."
Guan Xia didn't know how to describe her feelings for a moment. She sympathized with Ye Lan's experience, but was also angry that she did not fight back and repeated the same mistake. She was terrified of the murderer's cruelty, but also felt relieved that he only killed domestic violence men. But the thought of him raising the knife against domestic violence perpetrators and then raising the knife against the victims, and the police arresting him, made her feel a lingering fear.
Although Guan Xia is a layman, he has recently watched several criminal investigation dramas crazily. He knows that once a serial killer with his own thinking logic and cruel methods changes his criminal psychology, he will be like a beast escaping from a cage. He will become more and more unscrupulous, and no one can predict what he will become.
But no matter how brutal he was, he was caught in the end. Guan Xia was frightened by her own imagination for only two seconds, and soon realized that the person would be gone soon.
Looking at Guan Xia's face whose expression changed several times in just a few seconds, Xu Nian couldn't help laughing, but the corners of his mouth only rose slightly for a few seconds before quickly calming down again.
Glancing at the time, Xu Nian asked, "Do you have anything else to ask?"
Guan Xia thought for a moment and said, "Can you tell me who the murderer is? I have a hunch that I must have seen him before, not just during the camping trip and the time when he pretended to be Lao Liang."
Xu Nian remained concise and to the point. "You did see him. He observed the deceased for a long time by selling vegetables, an inconspicuous way."
"The vegetable seller?" Guan Xia's mind raced, and she quickly figured out who Xu Nian was talking about. "The man selling vegetables at the gate of the residential complex? The man who has a wife who sells vegetables at the nearby market, and a teenage daughter?"
Xu Nian said: "Yes, it's him."
Guan Xia was a little stunned. Although she had only met him twice, she was impressed by both him and his daughter.
Two such ordinary people. Although the father was not tall and did not look strong, he always had a smile on his face. He was warm and sincere to every person who came to buy groceries. Guan Xia still remembered that he advised her not to care about other people's eyes, eat as much as she could, and health was the most important thing. And the girl who was about ten years old, was not very old, but she was very skillful in weighing, bagging and making change. It was obvious that she helped her family a lot. She spoke in the tone of an adult and was dressed neatly, which showed that her parents cared about her very much. How could such an ordinary person be a serial killer who killed and dismembered people?
Guan Xia was in disbelief and a little dazed. She really couldn't connect him with the murderer she had seen twice.
Guan Xia was silent for a long time until Xu Nian woke her up by adding some hot water.
Seeing Xu Nian put the cup of hot water next to her, Guan Xia subconsciously took it. Her mind kept flashing back to the scenes of them in the past few days. After a moment, she spoke, "What about his accomplices..."
Xu Nian said, "It's his wife, Jiang Chuntao, who sells vegetables at a regular stall in a nearby vegetable market."
Guan Xia was speechless. Although she had guessed it, she still felt complicated when she heard the answer.
After she moved in, she never went to the nearby vegetable market to buy vegetables, so naturally she had never seen that woman. But from the few words of the old lady in the community, she could tell that she was a somewhat fierce person who could control her husband and endure hardships to raise her daughter very well. Such a family of three committed such a big crime, leaving the little girl of about ten years old alone outside.
Thinking of the little girl, Guan Xia recalled the scene she saw in the study that afternoon. At that time, she didn't understand why the two children were playing together. Now that she thought about it, it was probably the vegetable seller's daughter who took the initiative to approach them.
After thinking for a moment, Guan Xia told Xu Nian, "I remember it was the day before yesterday at noon, around 12 o'clock. I saw the vegetable seller's daughter and Lao Liang's daughter playing together from the study window. They must have had an argument. Lao Liang's daughter threw the lollipop the vegetable seller's daughter gave her on the ground and ran away without looking back. The vegetable seller's daughter watched her run into the unit door, then picked up the lollipop and left."
Xu Nian's calm expression changed slightly, and he frowned and asked, "Are you sure it's Luo Shun's daughter Luo Xiaoyun and Liang Xinhua's daughter Liang Panpan?"
Guan Xia waited for a few seconds, expecting some prompt to pop up on the system interface, but there was no movement.
Guan Xia had to recall it again before nodding vigorously, "I'm sure."
Xu Nian rubbed his fingers around the cup, as if thinking. After a moment, he raised his wrist to check the time, stood up and said, "It's time. I should go. Thank you for dinner tonight. Let's meet again after this case is finished. I also have something I want to tell you."
Guan Xia's curiosity was immediately piqued, but he didn't ask anything and sent Xu Nian out the door.
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