Mystery Hunter

An Jinzhong never paid attention to Jiang He again after that. What Jiang He said was correct. He indeed met his wife yesterday—or, to be more precise, his ex-wife—and things did not go well. He left the police station alone and gazed up at the stars, rather than asking Jiang He how he knew about it.

With An Jinzhong’s departure, Jiang He was the only one left in the room.

Jiang He could certainly see that.

An Jinzhong wasn’t at work and it was after four in the morning, nevertheless, he was well-dressed and wore a watch. More importantly, his shirt had been washed and was wrinkle-free.

It was easy for Jiang He to tell that An Jinzhong was still sleeping, but when he heard about the case, he picked up the clothes by the bed and put them on.

Had An Jinzhong wasn’t meeting prominent figures, he wouldn’t have shaved his beard.

Jiang He speculated that An Jinzhong had gone to see his ex-wife, but it was easy to predict the outcome this time since he noticed a lot of wear and tear on An Jinzhong’s leather shoes’ fronts. This was unusual for a newcomer, and Jiang He assumed An Jinzhong kicked it himself.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t this issue that perplexed Jiang He; rather, it was what An Jinzhong said; Jiang He himself didn’t know what he had done wrong. He was acutely susceptible to this remark since, over the course of his 30-year life, other individuals had almost exclusively used such a phrase to address him.

While Jiang He had always wanted to figure out what they mean by that, he failed to do so. He likewise observed the stars as he peered out the window.

Wang Chao arrived at the police station around five o’clock with two police officers.

“Ol’ An?” An Jinzhong was standing outside the police station with a dejected expression when Wang Chao approached him and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing,” An Jinzhong said when he caught sight of Wang Chao. “It’s just the situation at home. Jiang He is in the interrogation room. Please take him away.”

“Who the hell is Jiang He?” said Wang Chao as he handed An Jinzhong a cigarette. “Isn’t he a cop from your station?”

“No, he isn’t. I only met him three days ago,” An Jinzhong said as he lit a cigarette. “He was fighting with a pig when I spotted him.”

“About Jiang He… You’ll have to find out who he is once the case is over.” Wang Chao was taken aback.

Jiang He and Luo Jinbao were both escorted to the main branch.

“Li Weiyi is undoubtedly not the murderer,” Jiang He stated emphatically. “I had been waiting for this person at Li Weiyi’s house for three days. I’m not sure if you noticed something. On the wall close to Li Weiyi’s front door, there is some inconspicuous small graffiti. I discovered the meaning of these graffiti through observation and comparison.”

Wang Chao shook his head at Jiang He, who was speaking eloquently: “I truly didn’t notice that.”

“When I went upstairs, I noticed these symbols at the doors of other people’s houses,” Jiang He explained, “so I don’t think these symbols are without significance. Consequently, I went to the security captain and requested the list of stolen items. Sure enough, I saw the same symbols on these people’s walls.”

Having said that, Jiang He withdrew a piece of paper with various symbols inscribed on it from his pocket. “By comparing the symbols, it is simple to discover that the walls of the houses where theft has transpired bear an X symbol.” Jiang He explained one by one.”I’m almost positive this is a sign of the thief’s success. A circle indicates committing theft in this family is possible, a horizontal bar indicates that there is only one person in the family, and so on. There is an X in a circle, which indicates that initiating robbery in this family will be challenging, and a vertical bar indicates that it is impossible.”

As a result, when Jiang He threw this book in front of Luo Jinbao, he confessed.

“I really didn’t expect the police to treat people as lovers,” Luo Jinbao said.

People were sociable creatures, therefore it was simple for them to establish their own circles, and thieves were often the same. It was simple for one thief to track down another. When these thieves banded together, a set of industry rules emerged.

These were the symbols that thieves used to communicate with one another, informing them how many members of a family there were and whether committing a theft would be conceivable.

For some time now, Luo Jinbao has been wandering around this neighborhood. Every night, he behaved as though he was going outside to cool off. In reality, he was making observations. He went to look out the window of someone else’s house whenever it got dark. After it got dark outside, some residents didn’t start lighting up their dwellings for a while, while others did so right away. Whereas other people did so before midnight, others waited until that time to turn out the lights.

On the other hand, Luo Jinbao assessed a dweller’s working and sleeping times based on the light and dark of the lights to determine whether it was possible to initiate a theft.

Luo Jinbao preferred to commit his crime at the homes of single women.

Luo Jinbao would observe the women on the road wearing high heels and carrying purses. When these people returned home and the lights turned on, Luo Jinbao understood they were single.

After committing thievery at several houses in quick succession, Luo Jinbao shifted his target to Li Weiyi’s house.

Luo Jinbao knocked on Li Weiyi’s door three days ago at noon.

He drew a circle on the wall to indicate that this household was taken and started observing Li Weiyi’s house while hiding.

A crack in the door appeared right before Luo Jinbao’s eyes. There was no one when Luo Jinbao looked through the crack in the door.

Luo Jinbao’s attention was not limited to a single day or two. He checked the time. Only the hostess should be in the house at this time. Despite that it was now noon, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Even if he were discovered and something went awry, the hostess would be powerless to intervene.

Luo Jinbao subsequently went inside the house, and nobody was present.

The sun was scorching at noon, and Luo Jinbao didn’t dare to rummage through the cabinets and steal anything, but he could go in and look around.

He Huijuan was lying on the bed, with an Apple mobile phone on the computer desk, and he could reach out and grab it.

Luo Jinbao looked at He Huijuan and reached out to take the phone without saying anything.

“What happened to that Apple phone?” Wang Chao inquired.

Luo Jinbao sighed and took out a brand-new iPhone7 in bright black from his pocket.

“How come it didn’t turn on?” Wang Chao took up the phone, examined it, and questioned.

“I’m not stupid,” Luo Jinbao said. “People will be able to find me through my account as soon as I turn it on. I need to find a buyer to activate it.”

Wang Chao took the phone and said, “Hand it over to the technical department. Let’s see if it’s He Huijuan’s phone.”

A member of the criminal police department nodded.

“What time did you pick up the phone?” Jiang He approached Luo Jinbao and asked.

“Roughly half past eleven,” Luo Jinbao said after a brief silence. “I didn’t want to linger for too long since I was afraid the mother of this family would return.”

Jiang He and Wang Chao both asked, “When?” after learning the more delicate timing.

“About 11:30 a.m. I just stole an Apple mobile phone so let me go after two or three days,” Luo Jinbao said, looking at them.

According to Xu Yiman’s autopsy report, He Huijuan died at quarter past eleven.

Because He Huijuan died suddenly, the autopsy results were almost minutely accurate.

In other words, what Luo Jinbao witnessed would have been just a dead woman if it weren’t for Xu Yiman’s autopsy report.

Jiang He was 98% certain that Xu Yiman’s autopsy report was correct.

“Did you happen to see the hostess He Huijuan?” Jiang He inquired, word by word.

“He Huijuan was still asleep when I entered her house. What’s the matter?” Luo Jinbao said to Jiang He.

“State it abundantly clear.” Wang Chao, too, figured something was wrong and inquired.

Luo Jinbao remarked slightly impatiently, “I saw her, she was still sleeping on the bed when I went in. Do you officers not understand what sleep is? Just close your eyes and sleep with a quilt over your head.

“You think I did that, right? Despite her attractive appearance and incredibly white skin, I’m not that type of person…”

“Was she wrapped in a quilt?” Jiang He asked.

“That’s right.” Luo Jinbao spoke up.

“To what extent was she covered?” Jiang He persisted in his inquiry.

“Neck.” Luo Jinbao replied.

This was a major issue. Both of their doubts were entirely allayed by Luo Jinbao’s revelation. Li Weiyi was the first. Although the information provided by Li Weiyi was accurate, he was able to answer firmly since he had previously seen two corpses and could plainly determine where the wounds were.

However, Li Weiyi was lying blatantly. Li Weiyi was not the murderer, judging by the fact that he did not take out the Apple phone. Furthermore, Li Weiyi would have noticed Wu Guifeng when he entered the room should Wu Guifeng have been the murderer.

So, will the murderer be Luo Jinbao in his presence?

The probability of the murderer returning to the crime scene after the murder was one percent, whereas the probability of the murderer returning to steal after the murder was currently zero, according to Jiang He’s summary of the information received.

Most murderers naturally flee as far as they can after their crime and would never return.

Wang Chao and Jiang He exchanged glances.

“Didn’t you see the blood?” said Wang Chao.

“Blood?” Luo Jinbao displayed his bewilderment.

Wang Chao cleared his throat and said, “Well, now we suspect you are involved in a murder case, so get ready.”

“Me? I kill people?” said Luo Jinbao, pointing to himself. So Luo Jinbao heard the unsettling news that the He Huijuan he had seen at the time was already deceased.