Chapter 33
Chang Ting drove Zhou Zhengzheng back to the bureau, and the shame and anger on his face lasted for a long time.
Zhou Zhengzheng was sitting in the passenger seat. It was rare for him to see his master return in defeat, so he couldn't help but take a few more glances out of curiosity.
"What are you looking at!" Chang Ting was furious. "Investigate! Dig deeper into this Chen He!"
Zhou Zhengzheng glanced at his master uncomfortably and said, "Master, what he said makes sense. You can't take revenge even if you lose a verbal argument."
"So-and-so is taking revenge!" Chang Ting suppressed his anger. "Putting aside the fact that this little girl is particularly irritating, let's analyze this calmly. Since the comic was updated, it has been compared with real events three times: the discovery of Qiu Yue's corpse, Xu Candong's child abuse, and Xu Candong's murder.
"Among them, the discovery of Qiu Yue's remains and the murder of Xu Candong were presented as prophecies. Just like many online comments say, first the warning, then the murder. It's so weird, there must be something wrong when things are out of the ordinary. Even if Chen He has proof of her absence, we can't rule out that she instructed others to do it. Perhaps besides Qin Xiuzhu, she had other helpers!"
"That makes sense." Zhou Zhengzheng was taking notes in a notebook. Even though he was in a moving car, his handwriting was neat.
"Focus on investigating Chen He. Check his family background and social connections."
Zhou Zhengzheng flipped the page forward in his notebook. "I've already retrieved some of the information. Chen He is from Chengzhou City in this province. Her parents are unknown. She grew up in the Chengzhou City Social Children's Welfare Institute."
Chang Ting was a little surprised: "She is an orphan?"
"She's not necessarily an orphan. The orphanage's records indicate that she was rescued from traffickers when the police cracked down on a human trafficking ring. She was four years old when she was rescued.
"According to the traffickers, it was her parents who sold their daughter to them. But they took the money and left without leaving any information. The police later issued a missing person notice, but no one came to claim her, so they sent her to an orphanage."
Chang Ting uttered two words: "Beast."
It was unclear whether he was cursing the human traffickers or the unworthy parents. Chang Ting asked, "Chen He looks healthy, why hasn't she been adopted?"
"I spoke to the orphanage over the phone about the specific reason. They said that when Chen He was a child, she was extremely rebellious, biting and hitting people. After being approached by families with adoption intentions, they all gave up on her."
Chang Ting nodded: "I've seen it a long time ago. This guy looks as quiet as a cat, but he's actually the most ferocious tabby cat."
Zhou Zhengzheng said, "I think she did it on purpose."
"How do you say that?"
"Four years old is old enough to remember things. She was sold by her biological parents. She was probably disappointed with her family and would rather stay in the orphanage. She deliberately behaved badly to scare off the adoptive family."
Chang Ting looked outside the car silently, feeling a little sad, and decided to forgive Chen He for a minute.
Zhou Zhengzheng cheered up. "Fortunately, the people at the orphanage are treating her well. She's also very hardworking. She's always had excellent grades and has won many awards in youth art competitions. She's the pride of the orphanage. When she was in her third year of high school, she came to our city's Tibetan Ink Base for training, and the orphanage paid for her tuition. She was later admitted to our city's Qi'an University, majoring in software engineering."
"Although she didn't major in art, she clearly didn't give up this hobby. She serialized comics online while in college and earned a decent income. After graduation, she didn't apply for a job at any company, but instead became a freelance cartoonist. Because of her background and career, she rarely interacts with people in real life, and mostly socializes online, with colleagues and editors being her primary contacts."
Chang Ting listened carefully and asked, "Since she was an art student in high school, why didn't she apply to an art school?"
Zhou Zhengzheng was stunned: "Maybe because... I didn't pass the exam?"
"No way." Chang Ting shook his head slowly. "Principal Zhu said that Chen He's grades in both art and academic subjects were excellent, and she was trained to be a top student with the goal of becoming a fine artist. The tuition at the Tibetan Ink Base is not low, and the welfare home was willing to send her there, surely for the purpose of focusing on her training. But she enrolled in a major that has nothing to do with art. Something must have happened. Let's investigate this matter later."
"Okay, Master!"
At that moment, Chang Ting's phone rang. It was Forensic Doctor Xie. Xie announced that an anesthetic had been detected in Xu Candong's system. This was an injectable anesthetic, a strictly controlled drug typically used during surgery in hospitals.
It can be inferred that Xu Candong was injected with an anesthetic, then doused with gasoline and burned. Because the anesthetic dose was not very strong, he remained somewhat lucid, but unable to move. While being burned, the intense pain caused him to struggle slightly, but his struggles were minor and he was unable to scream.
This is also the reason why he was burned to death but the nearby residents did not hear any screams.
"Anesthetic..." Chang Ting hung up the phone, thinking about something.
Zhou Zhengzheng said, "Master, there are two ways to get controlled drugs: one is from hospitals, and the other is through illegal channels."
"That's right."
Chang Ting sighed. Hospitals, pharmacies, black markets, and online sales of illegal drugs. It's a huge area, making it difficult to investigate.
That needs to be checked too.
Fortunately, there was new progress the next day. Through checking the peripheral surveillance cameras of the scene, a suspicious figure was found.
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