Chapter 318: Chapter 316: It’s Him?

The four of them had just finished breakfast when Duan Wenrui and his team returned.

Zhuang Yanzheng called the shop he’d just gone to for breakfast, and it quickly delivered their order.

"They deliver?" Chu Xingrou asked casually.

"They will if you pay them enough," Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Chu Xingrou nodded.

"We should have been the ones to treat you," Duan Wenrui said.

"No need to stand on ceremony," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "Eat up and get some rest. You’ve been up all night."

But before they could even finish their meal, a commotion erupted at the entrance to the station.

Duan Wenrui and Zhao Yongliang took some men and went out.

Su Miaoyi managed to catch a few phrases amidst the chaotic shouting.

It was Tian Shi and Tian Xuan, who had brought a group of people to raise a ruckus at the station entrance, demanding they release Tian Min.

"Why is it just you local cops? Where are those outsiders?! Why won’t they come out! Hiding in your shells now, are you?! My sister’s just a young woman—what could she have done?! You think our family is an easy target! Just because my sister can’t speak, you think you can bully and frame her! Let my sister go! Let her go, now!"

"You can’t find the real killer, so you want to make my sister the scapegoat! No way! You’re just picking on her because she can’t speak! Are you trying to pin the murder charge on her?! And then those three can just walk away and get promotions back home, is that it?!"

"What could my sister possibly do?! Using her to pad your stats! Not a chance!"

After hearing a few lines, Su Miaoyi opened the door, intending to go out.

Zhuang Yanzheng grabbed her arm. "Where are you going?"

Su Miaoyi looked at him, then sighed.

"You think they’ll listen to reason from you?" Zhuang Yanzheng said. "You can’t explain your way out of this. Going out there will only make them more agitated, and it could even turn into a physical fight. That would be trouble for everyone. Let them handle their own business. For the station chief and a precinct captain, this is a minor issue."

Su Miaoyi didn’t say anything.

Zhuang Yanzheng said, "You used to be able to see things through the killer’s eyes. You’re not seeing anything from Tian Min?"

"No," Su Miaoyi said. "And I didn’t see any images from Wan Shuang’s body or Wu An’s bones either."

"Perhaps their fated time has not yet come," Lu Zhishen said.

The commotion outside continued for a long time. In the end, both Tian Shi and Tian Xuan were detained, and only then did the rest of the crowd quiet down and disperse.

Tian Shi’s aunt came to plead for their release.

Zhao Yongliang refused, and the aunt cried there for a long time.

After she had calmed down a bit, Duan Wenrui asked her some questions.

「The morning passed quickly. It was now past three in the afternoon.」

Su Miaoyi and the others went to question Tian Min again, but they still made no progress.

She no longer showed fear when she heard the song or saw the mask.

Su Miaoyi began to feel that her judgment was wrong.

She had never encountered a single criminal who didn’t show any cracks during interrogation.

Not counting the things she’d forgotten from her time as Qin Leyan—she couldn’t remember those anyway.

But in the past year or more, she had seen many criminals, and every single one of them had a weakness.

But she couldn’t find one in Tian Min.

She suspected there was a problem with her judgment.

And she began to doubt herself.

’Can I really not solve a case without my Special Ability?’

Su Miaoyi started running her hands through her hair again in frustration.

"Captain Zhuang," Zhao Yongliang came over and called out as soon as he saw Zhuang Yanzheng. "The manager from the Sheep Horn Temple is here. He says he’s looking for Consultant Su."

Su Miaoyi immediately stood up. "Where is he?"

"In the main hall," Zhao Yongliang said.

Su Miaoyi rushed to the main hall.

Zhuang Yanzheng and the other two followed her.

When they reached the hall, Su Miaoyi saw the man from the Sheep God Temple the previous night. Before she could even walk up and speak, the man said, "Officer Su, I remember now! That sketch you showed me last night—I’ve seen that man."

"Where?" Su Miaoyi asked.

"On the street behind the Sheep God Temple," the man said. "It wasn’t long ago, maybe three or four months back. I saw him once when I was passing through that backstreet. He was wearing a face mask and a hat at the time. But it was really windy that day, and his hat blew off. I saw his eyes. It was definitely him."

"He looked familiar when I saw the sketch last night, but I just couldn’t place him. I thought about it all night and all day, and then it suddenly came to me. It was the eyes. I rushed right over."

"Please take us to the place where you saw him."

The group followed the man to the street behind the Sheep God Temple.

The man walked to the approximate location. "I was standing right about here. He was standing over there. His hat blew off, he went to pick it up, and I left."

"Is this whole row occupied?" Su Miaoyi asked, looking at the row of houses on the north side of the street.

"The one up front with the big tree by the door is empty, and over here... the two houses on the far west end are also empty," the man said.

Su Miaoyi noted the locations of the three houses, then headed directly west.

When she reached the westernmost house, she examined the doorway and the base of the west-facing wall.

"Check who owns this house," Duan Wenrui said to the person beside him.

The man from the temple said, "If I remember correctly, this house was sold over two years ago, but I don’t know to whom."

"Three years ago, when you were checking footprints, was anyone living here?" Su Miaoyi asked Duan Wenrui.

Duan Wenrui opened his mouth but couldn’t answer.

They had checked many places, and it was true that some houses were empty, but he didn’t know the specifics of which house was where.

"I remember the footprint comparison from three years ago," the man said. "This place was empty back then. The family hadn’t lived here for seven or eight years; they all moved to the city to live in apartment buildings. The house was sold sometime after that."

Su Miaoyi put on gloves and examined the lock on the door.

It was covered in rust and looked like it hadn’t been opened in a very long time.

The area in front of the house and along the western wall was paved with stone bricks.

Someone cleaned the street periodically.

There was no sand or dirt on the bricks, and no footprints to be found.

Su Miaoyi tugged at the lock. It was solid due to the rust, but... the hasp on the wooden door fell off.

The door swung open.

Su Miaoyi pushed the door and went inside.

The courtyard was also paved with stone bricks, with a lot of grass growing in the cracks.

In the dark, sunless areas, some wooden planks had already grown moldy.

Su Miaoyi and the others all looked first toward the western wall.

The area by the wall was clean.

Because the house had been vacant for so long, the stone bricks were covered in a layer of dust, thicker in some places and thinner in others.

But the area along the wall was clean, with no dust.

It had been deliberately cleaned.

This way, someone could step on it while climbing over the wall repeatedly without leaving any footprints.

Aside from the area by the wall, the other parts of the courtyard leading to the house had scrape marks on the ground.

Judging by their distribution, it looked like footprints had been wiped away.

It appeared someone had been in and out of this courtyard and house several times recently.

After photographing the outside, the group entered the building.

The floorboards let out a CREAK as they stepped on them.

But the floor was very clean, as if it had been wiped within the last week at least.

Aside from the floor, the nearby cabinets and everything else were covered in dust.

There were two rooms in total. After checking the outer room, they moved to the one inside.

The moment the door was pushed open...

Everyone jumped.

Chu Xingrou’s hands clenched into fists. She bit her lip to keep from screaming and took several steps back.

Su Miaoyi flinched as well.

Lu Zhishen sucked in a sharp breath.

Zhuang Yanzheng bit back half a curse.

In the very center of the room hung a long black robe, with a red, demonic-looking mask suspended above it.

Zhuang Yanzheng stepped forward and felt it, confirming there was no one inside the robe and mask.

Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, Duan Wenrui’s phone suddenly rang.

The sudden, loud noise made the group, whose nerves had barely settled, jump again.

Duan Wenrui answered the call, then looked at Su Miaoyi, his face a mask of shock. "They found the buyer of this house," he said. "It’s Zhao Yongliang."

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