Chapter 856: Chapter 846: Same to You

For three consecutive days, the police station, the criminal investigation department, and several assisting departments have been operating around the clock.

Autopsies, crime scene analysis, interviews and investigations, searching for the initial crime scene, the murder weapon, the victim’s social network; even Su Qing’s old classmates from his transferred school days were under secret investigation.

But unexpectedly, not a single clue emerged; whether it was the autopsy or the crime scene analysis, there were no leads.

This time, the killer was exceptionally well-prepared, leaving not even a single fingerprint; they couldn’t even find the initial crime scene. The police speculated that the initial crime scene wasn’t nearby, and perhaps the killer drove over to dump the body. However, there were no suspicious vehicles found when reviewing surveillance footage, let alone the murder weapon.

As for the interviews and investigations, there wasn’t anything suspicious among the victim’s social connections. Those who had the time to commit the crime had no motive, while those who had grudges had alibis.

As for Su Qing’s few classmates, including female classmates, originally there were thirteen people, but now only ten remain in Jiang City, with two working elsewhere and one still attending graduate school out of town.

Among those in Jiang City, three are already married, two men and one woman; the rest either live in town or work in Jiangcheng City.

After all, Jiang City is a first-tier city, quite bustling, unlike small towns where there’s extreme population loss.

Instead, every year, it attracts a significant number of people from elsewhere to work there.

But what puzzled Su Qing was that none of these people seemed to have deep connections with the deceased Zhang Shunzhi.

As for how they knew this, it was straightforward enough to investigate; one could just ask Zhang Shunzhi’s stepmother or her half-brother.

After all these years, Zhang Shunzhi had been doing farm work back home. Her family thought she had mental issues, and perhaps she agreed. Over the years, she had seldom ventured to nearby towns, let alone heatedly met someone in private.

In other words, no one had a motive for avenging Zhang Shunzhi.

When Su Qing heard this news, he was dumbfounded. How could it be? Could he be mistaken, and the killer isn’t one of those classmates from fourth grade?

Not only was he stumped, but even Lin Chengcai, the seasoned detective whom he had persuaded, also couldn’t figure it out.

Currently, the clues were too sparse, and the case had reached a stalemate. After several meetings, all the police could conclude was that the killer was likely a local, very familiar with the Qingshu Village area, and extraordinarily thorough in their preparation.

The only thing that could be done now was to expand the search area, starting with the initial crime scene and the murder weapon.

When a case reaches this stage, it’s the most grueling time; every step becomes incredibly difficult.

However, neither Lin Chengcai nor Zhao Minghui gave up. Everyone involved in this case from the police criminal investigation department was fired up.

Reality isn’t like a novel, much less a movie. How can there be so many perfect crimes? As long as it’s a human, there will be flaws, leaving behind clues.

Besides the two newcomers, He Wendong and Yu Mingyuan, even the youngest like Du Qiang and Li Zijun have been detectives for years and aren’t considered rookies, let alone people like Lin Chengcai.

They’ve been detectives for so many years; what tough cases haven’t they cracked? This level of difficulty doesn’t scare them.

With the current investigation techniques, if there isn’t a quick breakthrough, they’ll have to use the old-fashioned methods: meticulous examination one detail at a time, expanding the search area, treating every suspect as the killer and examining them carefully, especially their travel routes.

Although the workload would be astonishing, as long as they want to investigate, the likelihood of solving a case of this nature isn’t insignificant.

Rustle, rustle.

May 25th, overcast, heavy rain.

The landlady’s club was unusually quiet today, as rainy weather typically affects business, and the landlady’s place was no exception.

It’s just skin care, not a meal you skip and feel starved for, so there’s no need to come out in the rain.

So today, there were few customers in the shop, but despite that, all the staff came to work. However, since there weren’t many customers, most of the employees were idle, even the cat was napping somewhere.

Upstairs, Su Qing, dressed in a loose robe, lay on a recliner while behind him, a well-maintained woman in her thirties was giving him a head massage.

This was a senior massage therapist that the landlady recently hired. Despite her good looks and figure, she wasn’t the regular kind of therapist found in clubs but had professional certification, even in traditional Chinese medicine massage and chiropractic. Her basic salary started at 16k, even during her probationary period, not including commissions.

The reason he was enjoying this today was mainly because Shen Yi had noticed that he seemed increasingly haggard by the day.

It was obvious it was due to the stress from the police case, and occasional relaxation could actually be beneficial.

"Mmm~~ Mmm~"

As the masseuse applied pressure on the acupuncture points on his head, Su Qing couldn’t help but let out a moan of comfort.

"Does it hurt here?" asked the masseuse, her voice pleasant.

Su Qing shook his head.

"How about here?"

"It doesn’t hurt either!"

"What does this feel like?"

"A bit swollen and sore," Su Qing replied.

At this point, the woman was supporting the base of his neck with her hand, constantly kneading with her fingers.

"This is cervical spondylosis caused by prolonged looking down at your phone. From now on, have your partner regularly massage this point to help relieve fatigue!"

Saying so, the female masseuse lifted his head for Shen Yi to see the position of her fingers.

"Got it, thanks, master. So what should he do now to relieve it a bit? Lately, his spirits haven’t been great, the work pressure is too much!" Shen Yi asked quickly.

Hearing this, the female masseuse smiled slightly, "Don’t worry, straightening the bones will do the trick!"

With that, the woman had him sit up, and a second later, Su Qing felt someone hug him from behind, including holding his head.

He could even feel a soft patch at the back of his head, but before he could enjoy it, he felt the woman’s crisscrossed arms start to exert force.

"Relax, relax, sir. Your girlfriend is really pretty," the masseuse chuckled.

Su Qing, upon hearing this, relaxed: "Oh? Really, tha..."

But before he could finish his sentence, the woman’s arms suddenly tightened, and Su Qing heard a ’crack’ in his neck, followed by a wave of intense pain.

"Ow, ow, ow~"

The woman remained unfazed by his cries, her hands continued to work: "Don’t move, relax!"

"Crack"

"Ow, ow, ow!"

Then followed a chiropractic session on his entire body: arms, legs, waist, hips; anywhere that could crack did.

Twenty minutes later, Su Qing was drenched in sweat as if he had been fished out of water, his robe soaked from the pain.

"Alright, make sure he gets enough rest, try to limit phone use, and have him steam for a bit; it’ll help relax his mind!" The woman, having used considerable energy herself, tucked her hair behind her ears and spoke to Shen Yi.

"I understand, thank you!"

Upon finishing, she nodded and left.

"So, Master Su, are you satisfied with the little lady’s arrangements?" Shen Yi laughed as the staff left.

She poked him in the back with her finger as she spoke.

Upon hearing this, Su Qing slowly raised his hand, attempting with great effort to raise his middle finger as the stand-out among his fingers. Observing this, Shen Yi quickly snatched his hand: "I knew you’d like it, no need to thank me, it’s the least I could do," she said, pressing his middle finger back down.

"If I come here again, I’ll be a dog. This is just too outrageous!" Su Qing said weakly.

"Hah, didn’t you say last time you wanted to have a good experience? This time I arranged for your exclusive enjoyment, and now you’re not happy. What, not used to genuine massages, only interested in inappropriate ones?"

At these words, Su Qing gave her a huge eye-roll; he was completely drained now and didn’t want to say a word.

Just then, the landlady entered with a smile: "Stop whining, it’s a good thing there aren’t many customers today; otherwise, they might have thought there’s some sort of illicit operation going on here. The soundproofing couldn’t even keep you down, you really outdid yourself!"

But when she saw Su Qing’s condition, she squinted her eyes teasingly: "Xiao Yi, Su hasn’t even sweat this much on you, you have to do better."

Hearing this, Shen Yi instantly realized the double entendre and retorted: "The sweat isn’t my concern; as long as other things don’t flow chaotically, that’s what matters!"

The landlady: ???

"Xiao Yi, aren’t you a bit too lewd!"

Shen Yi: "Same to you!"

Su Qing: ...

You two are going to be the death of me.

Meanwhile, outside, the rain intensified, and a shadow passed by Su Qing’s car, leaving a card on the windshield before departing.

...

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