Chapter 521 - You People Who Toy With Others’ Minds Have the Ugliest Hearts!
Chapter 521 You People Who Toy With Others’ Minds Have the Ugliest Hearts!
The chief was stunned for a while. He sighed. “Yuecheng, you… Ay!”
The Jiang family were family friends of the chief—he had watched Jiang Yuecheng grow up. Hence, there was no way he could spit merciless words at this nephew of his.
Just then, Jiang Yuecheng received a call from Zhao Yiyang.
Zhao Yiyang’s voice was deep, making the atmosphere extremely tense. “Sergeant Jiang, Li Niancheng has passed away. According to the prison guard, he was engaged in conflict with other prisoners and hit his head on a sharp edge of the wall during the fight. He was killed instantly.”
“…”
“Noted,” Jiang Yuecheng replied in a gravelly voice. He hung up and called out, “Uncle Zhao.”
Chief Zhao sighed again. Jiang Yuecheng never called him uncle in the police station—not even when they were alone. That was because he did not want to take advantage of their relationship.
However, now that Jiang Yuecheng brought it up, there was no way Chief Zhao could refuse his request.
“In the second case in the book, the killer died in prison. It was caused by an argument with his prison mates which escalated into a fight, eventually leading to his accidental death. Just now, I just received a call from Zhao Yiyang—Li Niancheng, from the case we just resolved, is dead. The cause of death is exactly the same as described in the book.” Jiang Yuecheng took a deep breath and spat it out again. “Uncle Zhao, is this evidence still not compelling enough? The guys over at T City still don’t know about this. They’re treating this case individually. We have to inform them about this or they’ll never figure out the fact that there is another murderer behind all this.”
“Uncle Zhao, even if you don’t believe me, can you do this as a favor for your nephew?” Jiang Yuecheng completely stepped out of his professional role. “If it is later discovered that our assumptions are wrong, I’m willing to apologize to those at T City personally. However, if we’re right, we can prevent other murders from occurring.”
Chief Zhao sighed deeply. In the end, he could not reject his nephew’s request. “You…!”
Nonetheless, apart from Jiang Yuecheng’s pleading, Chief Zhao was also convinced by the phone call received from Zhao Yiyang, who reported Lee Niancheng’s death.
With Jiang Yuecheng still present, Chief Zhao made a call to T City’s chief of department but did not mention the book.
Jiang Yuecheng brought the book to Chief Zhao and showed him some pages that were related to their case. Nevertheless, he still had his reservations. Needless to say, the chief over at T City would harbor more doubts as many things could not have been explained clearly through the phone. Moreover, those who have not read ‘Killer of the Heart’ would not know about the previous two cases and would surely feel that their assumption was absurd.
Hence, Chief Zhao only explained that the third case in the book had relations to the two cases they were faced with previously and that there were a few details in those cases that were present in the book. He expressed his desire to send people over from B City to assist with the case. Needless to say, the team from T City would still be the lead—they would not snatch this case from them.
Once the chief in T City accepted the request, Chief Zhao hung up. “Alright, you should go get ready. Leave your work here to the other teams.”
“Thank you, Uncle Zhao,” Jiang Yuecheng said with a smile.
“Ah, you little brat. You only call me that when you want to beg for something,” Chief Zhao scolded in a joking manner.
Jiang Yuecheng returned to the office. Although they lost Li Niancheng as a key source of information, at least Jiang Yuecheng was successful with this request.
When he told Wei Muran and the others about the news, Wei Muran could finally let out a sigh of relief.
Not long after, Zhao Yiyang came back with Xing Jiadong. Intensely vexed, the two men had glowering expressions.
A new lead was discovered that day and the two rushed to the prison immediately, just to be told that Li Niancheng had died.
It would have been alright if he had died a long time ago, but to be told that he just died yesterday, meaning they were literally only one step behind, making the two extremely exasperated. If they had gone there just one day earlier, would they have been able to save Li Niancheng and get the psychologist’s name from him?
Bang! Xing Jiadong slapped the table violently, giving the unsuspecting people in the office a shock. Even so, no one criticized him for it.
Due to this incident, the atmosphere in the office was awfully tense.
“We’ve asked about the incident in detail and found out the men who Li Niancheng engaged in conflict with yesterday. They’re a group of men who had been in prison for a long time. They’re like gangsters of the prison. Their confessions are flawless, showing that they have not been instructed by anyone to kill Li Niancheng. The prison guard had also assured that no one visited the group of inmates recently—the most recent contact was already two months ago; it was one of the inmates’ sisters who came to visit.”
“That inmate is relatively new to the gang—he only joined a year ago. In order to survive in prison, inmates often join powerful groups to rely upon. That man is quite young—only twenty years old. He was convicted of stealing a total of a hundred thousand RMB from a contractor he worked for when he was distributing the workers’ pay. Although he was young, he knew a few teenage gangsters who warned him about the importance of finding a pillar he could rely on if he gets put in jail. That was why he joined the group,” expounded Zhao Yiyang, who was more level-headed than Xing Jiadong, who was too furious to even utter a word.
“Both when this man joined the gang and when he last had a visitor was way before the murder took place—we can’t find any connections here,” Zhao Yiyang pointed out.
Qi Youxuan tapped his fingers on the table. Oddly enough, he uttered a long ‘hmm’ in a high tone, conveying that his interest was piqued. His voice made Wei Muran slightly aroused.
She felt pins and needles all over her body. Her face was a little flushed and subconsciously, her eyes darted toward Qi Youxuan, who was slouching lazily on a chair.
As if he had predicted her reaction, Qi Youxuan turned to Wei Muran with playful eyes. He raised his eyebrows at her and smirked teasingly.
With a reddened face, Wei Muran glared at him. Qi Youxuan’s lips curled up even more. He acted out a series of expressions teasing her before finally asking Zhao Yiyang, “Did you say that the inmates answered the interrogation questions flawlessly?”
Zhao Yiyang nodded. Unexpectedly, Qi Youxuan clapped his hands in joy.
Everyone stared perplexedly at him. Qi Youxuan explained, “I was afraid that there would be faults in their statements—if there was none, it must mean that there’s someone puppeteering them. The man behind this incident must’ve predicted the involvement of police officers so he instructed them on what to say beforehand. He wrote a script for them to memorize.”
Xing Jiadong nodded mindlessly. “That’s right! Now that I think about it, they answered all the questions suspiciously smoothly!”
“So, it must’ve been scripted,” Qi Youxuan concluded. “Since Li Niancheng is already dead, we know that this case is progressing identically as in the book. We may not be able to bring him back to life, but we can use his death as a new lead. There are more and more details emerging that mimic the ones in the book. Consequently, we can assume that the man behind the curtains is a psychologist.”
“It’s not surprising for a psychologist to be able to influence others’ minds. The fact that he could manipulate three men into executing murders exactly as he wished only further demonstrates his skills. Men like him don’t make mistakes. If there had been any loopholes in the inmates’ answers, I would suspect that the psychologist planted it there on purpose. We can’t fall into his traps. On the other hand, what if he didn’t? What if he actually made a mistake? We won’t dare to believe that it’s the truth. Ah, the hardest task is always to identify what’s real and what’s not.”
“He gave us a wonderful lead—we can’t confirm his identity without having to guess. Isn’t that great? At least we got rid of one question,” Qi Youxuan said optimistically.
Xing Jiadong’s fists hit the table. “You people who toy with others’ minds have the ugliest hearts!”
“…” Qi Youxuan did not know what to say.
“On one hand you’re allowing me to help, yet on the other, you’re insulting me? Come on…” Qi Youxuan grumbled dejectedly.
“…” Xing Jiadong smiled shamelessly. “You’re the kind of talent we need!”
Haha, this dense fellow finally got it!
…
After a long discussion, Jiang Yuecheng decided to let Zhang Ming, Xing Jiadong, and Yang Shaozhan stay at the station and dive deeper into the psychologist and the group of inmates. The rest of the team would head down to T City.
Although Yang Shaoqun was not a xenophobe, he was still a little skeptical about it. After all, this was T City’s case. Why were people from B City trying to meddle?
Over at T City, a handful in the team was slightly displeased by this.
Luckily, Qi Youxuan called T City and informed them that he would be going too. He also told them that this case was a little tricky and promised to explain the situation to them in detail once they arrive.
The next day, Jiang Yuecheng, Zhao Yiyang, Wei Muran, and Qi Youxuan set off to T City. By noon, they arrived at the station.
Yang Shaoqun drove there personally to welcome them. To avoid humiliating Qi Youxuan and Wei Muran, Yang Shaoqun was polite to Jiang Yuecheng and Zhao Yiyang as well.
“Since it’s already noon, let’s have lunch together. You can reiterate details of the case with the team in the evening,” Yang Shaoqun said in the car.
“When we have lunch with your respectable team, I’ll explain our purpose of being here. Sergeant Yang, we’re not here to meddle in your case. The truth is, this case is connected to two cases we resolved previously. Although the three murders were performed by different killers, we suspect that there’s a common puppet master behind all three murders. When everyone is here, we will expound it in detail. As for the current case in T City, we will not meddle—all we ask for is permission to follow this case closely and be updated at all times. I know our involvement would cause some displeasure but I hope you all can bear with us for now,” Jiang Yuecheng requested earnestly.