When A Snail Falls In Love

Chapter 57.2

By the time Ji Bai and the other team members rushed to the crime scene, dusk had already fallen.

This was a mountainous region, dozens of kilometers away from the last abandoned corpse, and very remote. At this time, twilight shrouded the earth. The body was lying in a cave in front of the forest – equally beautiful, and equally treacherous.

The initial forensic tests were being done on the body. Ji Bai and Xu Xu were a few steps away from the body. They were silent. Zhao Han reported: "The deceased was Li Tian Tian, 24 years old, a graduate student in a music conservatory. She went missing a week ago. Because she was living with other students in a rental property, and they often travel overnight on their own, the students did not realise she was missing, and thus did not report it."

The forensic investigator also stood up and approached them: "Time of death is between 8:00 and 12:00 yesterday. The condition of the body is basically consistent with the previous one. However, the degree of decay is higher. In addition, the injuries in the lower part of the body are more severe. Some of these wounds may have been caused after death, we will need further examination to confirm."

Everyone felt a chill in their heart. Da Hu scolded: "F**K, his perversion has increased."

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Ji Bai surveyed the surrounding forest. When he looked back, he saw that Xu Xu was standing by his side. She was silently standing with a deep frown on her face.

"What happened?"

Xu Xu looked up at him: "Although the possibility of Feng Ye surviving his fall into the sea is very low, but earlier, I still suspected that he could have been the murderer. After all, the methodology of committing the crime is very similar too. But with the appearance of today's second corpse, I don't think it's him anymore."

Ji Bai smiled: "Please continue."

Xu Xu said: "In addition to similar appearances, there is something else the two have in common — they disappeared for some time, but that did not cause people around them to raise an alarm. The murderer seems to have abducted them without anyone noticing. I think this is not a coincidence as the murderer had probably been following them for a while before the abduction, and he would be very familiar with them. In his mind, this would also help him establish intimacy."

"And?"

"There is also this problem — Li Tian Tian had been missing for a week. During that time, we had deployed a large number of police to search for Feng Ye in the city. In almost every street, there were plainclothes police patrols. Traffic police monitoring also played a role. If it is Feng Ye, how can he escape our intensive searches in the city to complete such complex steps as tracking and abducting these victims?

And according to your last inference, the murderer should have some relatively free time, a car, a house. But Feng Ye was wanted by Hong Kong and mainland China's police as well as by Interpol. If he had fled to Lin City, he would have maintained a low profile. To commit such a meticulous crime would be difficult.

So I now tend to think the murderer is someone else. No matter what is motivating him to imitate Feng Ye, he succeeded in misleading us."

While the two of them were talking, Lao Wu and other senior criminal police officers had also gathered around them. After she finished, everyone also nodded. Everyone had rich experiences, after the extensive search these past few days, they also had the same opinion.

Ji Bai looked at Xu Xu: "In Feng Ye's case, the greatest value you can give us is to help us understand the perpetrator's mentality. We cannot assume that Feng Ye is the criminal, but this should be a new case and a new murderer will need to be identified. And evidence is the primary basis for determining criminals. Look here."

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Everyone was startled. Ji Bai looked down at the ground where the soil was soft and there were some leaves. He squatted down, gently brushing off the leaves. There were clear prints of more than half of a shoe in the mud.

Everyone was suddenly excited.

Soon the shoe prints were analysed. Ji Bai narrated in a low voice: "The murderer was wearing size 42 shoes. Feng Ye's size as per our information is 44."

Someone questioned: "Could the murderer have left shoe prints just to confuse us?"

Lao Wu also squatted down to stare at the shoe prints as he answered: "No. Firstly, after Bai AnAn's murder, the boss ordered a blanket ban on all news regarding the crime. The murderer should not be aware that the first corpse had already been found by us, there is no need to leave shoe prints. Secondly, from the depth of these shoe prints, it looks like he was carrying a heavy load. The prints are just right in the direction of the corpse, so they should be of the murderer's. Here there are a lot more fallen leaves, so probably the murderer was not aware that he was at that moment, leaving these precious shoe prints."

That day everyone in the team continued working till the middle of the night. Although they still did not know the identity of the murderer, at least the possibility of the murderer being Feng Ye had been ruled out. At the same time, they had also learned a little more about the murderer.

At the police station, Ji Bai told Zhao Han: "Please inform Yao Meng, she does not have to worry too much."

Everyone nodded. Although Yao Meng had left the police force, but if the girl was being targeted by the serial killer, she was really to be pitied. Now at least everyone could be assured that this would not happen.

Zhao Han called Yao Meng later. At that time, Yao Meng was in Lin Qingyan's home. It was late at night, she and Lin Qingyan had been asleep. Seeing that it was a call from the police, she walked out of the bedroom, opened the door and walked into the living room before she answered the phone.

"Yao Meng, we have determined that the murderer is not Feng Ye. He should already be dead, you do not have to worry about him," Zhao Han said.

Yao Meng was quiet for a moment, then she smiled: "Well, then I am relieved. How could you be so sure?"

As Yao Meng was the one under protection, Zhao Han did not have to hide anything from her. He whispered: "The shoe size was not right."

Yao Meng thought: "Feng Ye was a size 44."

Zhao Han: "Yes, the murderer wears a 42, please keep this confidential."

"Ok."

Hanging up the phone, Yao Meng stood at the entrance of the living room for a while. Having been on tenterhooks for many days, she could finally stop worrying. Glancing up, she saw the shoe rack at the entrance filled with Lin Qingyan's and her shoes. She remembered what Zhao Han had just said, thus she naturally noticed the size on the men's shoes: it was also 42.

She couldn't help laughing slightly — she had been too nervous. She went into the bedroom to lie down. Lin Qingyan was aware of the movement in his sleep. He turned his body and embraced her from behind.

The same night, Ji Bai sent Xu Xu home to sleep. Ji Bai went back to the police station to work overtime. He was about to leave early in the morning when he received a call from Xu Xu: "You are right, this should be treated as a new case to study. Now, I have a preliminary profile of the offender. I think, maybe he can be identified out of the whole of Lin City's population."