Death Notice 2 Destiny

Chapter 55

Besides Liu Song, all the members of the 418 Special Task Force gathered around the conference table. Also present was an unofficial member: Huang Jieyuan, the former captain of the criminal investigation team and now the owner of "Black Magic Bar".

It wasn't yet normal working hours, so everyone's faces showed signs of fatigue from their disrupted biological clocks. Huang Jieyuan, in particular, should have just fallen into a deep sleep according to his schedule.

On the table in front of each participant were two things: a cup of fine, strong tea and a thick stack of documents.

"I'm sorry to have called everyone here so early," Luo Fei, who was chairing the meeting, greeted everyone briefly before turning serious. "But this situation is extremely urgent, so everyone needs to adjust quickly and get into peak working condition."

After saying this, he turned to Yin Jian beside him and instructed, "Let's begin."

Yin Jian turned on the projector and projected a scanned photograph onto the white screen in front of the conference room. A familiar-looking text appeared before everyone's eyes.

Death sentence notice

The victim: The perpetrator of the 112 dismemberment case

Crime: Intentional homicide

Implementation Date: November 7th

Executor: Eumenides

"This death sentence notice was delivered at 6:20 this morning," Yin Jian explained. "Luo Fei immediately notified me to arrange a meeting to discuss countermeasures."

Looking at the latest death sentence notice, everyone understood the meaning of the word "urgent" in Luo Fei's words: the execution date on the notice was today! This meant that a new round of confrontation between the police and Eumenides was imminent. Of course, the notice was not only noteworthy for its timing.

Zeng Rihua scratched his head, expressing his confusion: "The 112 dismemberment case? Hey, where is the killer in this case?"

"This is the first problem we need to face," Luo Fei said solemnly. "And Eumenides has given us at most less than seventeen hours."

Luo Fei's logic was very clear: if the police wanted to stop Eumenides, they had to find the killer in the 112 dismemberment case first, and this task would only be meaningful if it was completed today. Because Eumenides' death sentence notice had never been false, he would not act later than midnight on November 7th.

"Seventeen hours... First, we need to solve a case that's been unsolved for ten years, then we need to find the murderer, and then we need to devise a corresponding operational plan against Eumenides..." Zeng Rihua grinned exaggeratedly, "How... how is this possible?"

Everyone else in the room exchanged bewildered glances, remaining silent. Indeed, from any perspective, this was almost an impossible task. Only Luo Fei maintained his resolute gaze: "Regardless, since they've issued a challenge, we have no choice but to fight with all our might. And after so many years as a police officer, I've long understood one thing: in this world, nothing is impossible."

These powerful words acted like a shot in the arm, significantly boosting everyone's spirits. Yin Jian chimed in, "Captain Luo is right. If Eumenides could find the killer, why can't we? Our information and data are certainly no less than Eumenides', are they?"

"Eumenides..." Huang Jieyuan slowly shook his head, "...Are you sure he really found the killer in Case 112?" He was dismissed from his post because of Case 112, and for the next ten years he had been relentlessly pursuing the killer without any results. If Eumenides found the killer so easily, it would be an unacceptable insult to his professional dignity.

Luo Fei understood Huang Jieyuan's feelings at that moment, and he could only gently remind him to accept reality. "Eumenides would never lie on a death sentence notice; I think everyone here can agree on that."

Mu Jianyun and the others nodded silently. Huang Jieyuan was stunned for a moment, then let out a long, dejected and bewildered sigh.

"That guy. No wonder he'd disappeared these past few days; turns out he was investigating Case 112." Zeng Rihua said, shaking his large head. "But what's he doing with this case? Is he trying to distract us? Or is he deliberately showing off and mocking the police's incompetence?"

Mu Jianyun immediately refuted Zeng Rihua's argument: "At this stage, he won't have the leisure to handle other cases; he's only concerned with his own background. I think there's only one possibility for him to investigate the real culprit in Case 112: perhaps this case will lead to the discovery of Ding Ke's whereabouts."

Zeng Rihua stared, seemingly not quite understanding. So Mu Jianyun continued to explain, "Back then, it was precisely because of the pressure from Case 112 that Ding Ke went into complete seclusion. Eumenides, wanting to uncover the truth behind his father's shooting, had to find Ding Ke. So he probably thought of using Case 112 as a breakthrough."

Zeng Rihua said "Oh," then pondered for a moment before saying, "So what does he mean? If he killed the real culprit in Case 112, then Ding Ke no longer needs to hide?"

"If Ding Ke's retirement was indeed due to his inability to solve Case 112, then this line of reasoning makes sense. The murderer who had haunted him for years had been killed by someone else; from the perspectives of curiosity and pressure release, Ding Ke wouldn't be completely unresponsive, would he?" At this point, Mu Jianyun paused briefly, then analyzed from a different angle, "Of course, we can't ignore the second possibility: Ding Ke's retirement might be related to some deeper secret within Case 112. If that's the case, then Eumenides would have a much better chance of finding Ding Ke if they uncovered the truth behind Case 112."

"Yes," Zeng Rihua nodded repeatedly, agreeing with Mu Jianyun's theory. "In that case, we should have turned our attention to Case 112 sooner. Now that Eumenides has gained the upper hand, we're at a disadvantage!"

Luo Fei sighed softly, his expression somewhat helpless. In fact, he had already tracked Huang Jieyuan's bar several days prior and even discussed the details of the 112 murder case. However, the Longyu Building murder suddenly appeared, forcing him to divert his attention to dealing with the two troublesome figures, Han Hao and Ahua. Although the facts of the latter case were now largely clear, and Han Hao had been brought to justice, Eumenides had seized the opportunity to gain an advantage, taking the lead over the police in the investigation.

However, dwelling on these sentiments now is pointless. At least Eumenides didn't just disappear on his own; he still gave the police a chance to catch up—whether they can succeed depends on their own capabilities. Thinking this, Luo Fei decided to quickly steer the conversation back to the main topic. He cleared his throat and said, "Alright. Everyone understands the current situation. No need for further words—we must identify the true culprit in Case 112 as quickly as possible. There are difficulties, after all, this case happened ten years ago, and most of you here aren't very familiar with the details. So I've specially made copies of all the original case files, one for each person. I'll give you half an hour to read these materials, and then we'll have a group discussion."

After saying this, Luo Fei took the lead and picked up the pile of documents in front of him to look through them. The other attendees followed suit, and the room fell silent for a moment.

Although all were members of the task force, their approaches to reviewing the materials differed. Luo Fei, having already read through the documents once, simply pondered and selected relevant sections for focused study, following his train of thought. Yin Jian, beside him, was much more meticulous, flipping through the pages in sequence while making notes in his notebook. Zeng Rihua, also flipping through pages, read much faster, only glancing at the extremely gruesome photos of the crime scenes with a grimace. Mu Jianyun, however, was the complete opposite of Zeng Rihua; she simply closed her eyes and skipped over any chapters with photos. Even so, as she read deeper, her breathing became increasingly rapid, as if she were struggling to keep up.

Of all the readers, Huang Jieyuan had the most complex emotions. Most of these materials were compiled by him personally years ago, and rereading them now brought back memories of a bygone era—a time filled with anger, humiliation, and helplessness, emotions that still tormented him. Before long, his attention completely drifted away from the materials, his gaze fixed blankly on a distant point, lost in thought. It wasn't until he heard Luo Fei's voice calling him that he snapped out of his reverie.

"Old Huang, you know this case best, so please tell us about it first." Half an hour had passed, and Luo Fei was looking at Huang Jieyuan as he said, "Time is tight, and no one can look at everything in too much detail—with your background, we can achieve twice the result with half the effort."

Huang Jieyuan nodded, took a deep breath, and sorted out his thoughts. Then he carefully explained some details of the case, the information summarized by the special task force, and his ideas for founding the "Black Magic Bar." Everyone present knew that the information they could get from him was probably more valuable than the entire stack of documents, so they all listened intently, not daring to miss a single word.

For much of the content, Luo Fei and Mu Jianyun were hearing it for the second time. However, their state of mind this time was completely different from when they were at the "Black Magic Bar" a few days ago. Back then, they treated the case as just an interlude in their search for Ding Ke, so they listened to it briefly without giving it any in-depth thought. Now, listening to it again, however, they were under the intense pressure exerted by Eumenides. Every cell in their brains was mobilized, working at full speed, trying their best to find the light in the thick fog.

Yin Jian and Zeng Rihua also frowned in deep thought as Huang Jieyuan spoke, especially when he brought up the theory that black heavy metal music could be a source of murder; they showed great interest. Finally, when Huang Jieyuan finished, Zeng Rihua couldn't contain himself and exclaimed, "Right, right, I've heard that kind of music online too. It's really twisted! I think people who like this kind of music probably have some kind of mental illness, right? So when you say that this music could be a medium for murder, I completely agree. Hehe, I was wondering why you opened a bar like that! Turns out there was a deeper meaning behind it! I'm impressed!"

Mu Jianyun glanced at Zeng Rihua, feeling the other man was rambling a bit too much. Zeng Rihua wisely stopped talking, but then heard Mu Jianyun ask Huang Jieyuan, "Old Huang, last time when Captain Luo and I were at the bar, you seemed to have identified a chef—how's the investigation going?"

Huang Jieyuan shook his head: "It shouldn't be him. His daughter was born ten years ago when the crime occurred. I've heard from various sources that he was at home taking care of his wife and child all day at that time, and he didn't have the opportunity to commit the crime."

"So in all these years, haven't you found a single suspicious person who meets all the criteria?" Zeng Rihua couldn't help but interject.

Huang Jieyuan sighed helplessly, "Indeed, not a single one. There are very few people who can pass the knife skills test in a bar. And those who do pass either don't meet the time requirements for the crime or don't have the right environment to commit it..."

"Wait a minute," Zeng Rihua interrupted, "I think there's something wrong here! Why do you insist on finding someone with exceptional knife skills? Even if the slices of meat are very thin, couldn't they have been made using a meat slicer or something similar?"

"Using a meat slicer doesn't quite fit the perpetrator's psychological description." It was Mu Jianyun who said this.

"Oh?" Zeng Rihua raised his eyebrows, making a gesture of eager interest.

"Cut a victim's body into pieces is inherently a perverse act. The murderer must have derived some kind of pleasure from mutilating the corpse, which is why they committed this act. Using a meat slicer would greatly reduce that pleasure."

"You mean, simply turning the corpse into pieces is meaningless to the murderer? What he wanted was the process of personally cutting it up?"

Mu Jianyun nodded: "That's right."

"This...this is truly..." Zeng Rihua stammered for a long time, finally managing to squeeze out a few words, "A beast...no, a devil!"

"Actually, we don't necessarily need to analyze it from a psychological perspective to rule out the possibility of using a meat slicer," Huang Jieyuan continued. "Because if a meat slicer had been used, all the meat slices should be of uniform thickness. But the remains found at the scene were not like that. The meat slices varied in thickness, clearly cut by hand."

"Is that so?" Zeng Rihua muttered to himself, pulling out a photo of a pile of meat slices from the documents and examining it closely. Mu Jianyun, who was sitting next to him and had been watching the former's actions, quickly looked away, unwilling to be exposed to the bloody scene.

"That's true." After a moment, Zeng Rihua put the photo back on the table and said in a somewhat resentful tone.

Luo Fei hadn't spoken for a long time, but he had been paying close attention to Zeng Rihua and the others' discussion. At this moment, he leaned over again, picked up the photo that Zeng Rihua had dropped, and after looking at it for a moment, his gaze sharpened, as if he had some ideas.

"Your lines of reasoning may all be correct," he said, glancing at Mu Jianyun and Huang Rihua in turn, "but your conclusions may not be accurate."

"Huh?" Mu and Huang looked back at Luo Fei with puzzled expressions.

But Luo Fei continued, "What if he only used a meat slicer to cut some of the meat, and the rest was cut by hand? Then, mixing the two parts together would also create an uneven thickness, right?"

Huang Jieyuan paused for a moment, then asked, "But why would he do that? Using both his hands and a meat slicer, the purpose behind his actions seems inconsistent."

"Cutting by hand was to satisfy some perverse desire of his, while using a meat slicer was to create a confusing effect." Luo Fei waved the photo in his hand. "I looked closely, and only a small portion of the meat slices at the scene were cut very thinly, so I came to this guess."

"Yes, that's true. Truly thin slices of meat are rare..." Huang Jieyuan didn't need to look at the photos; all the scenes and details were already deeply etched into his mind. "The other slices of meat aren't too difficult for the average person to cut. Hmm, any housewife who cooks regularly should be able to do it."

"But that small, very thin slice of meat was enough to guide the police's thinking, leading them to believe that the killer must have been someone with extremely meticulous and superb knife skills—and thus to make a preliminary determination of this person's occupation."

Luo Fei's meaning was quite clear. Huang Jieyuan asked in astonishment, "You mean, when that guy was mutilating the corpse to vent his lust, he deliberately used a meat slicer to process some of the flesh, with the aim of causing the police to make a wrong judgment?"

"We can't rule out that possibility," Luo Fei said, maintaining his careful wording, "because there are obvious differences in the quality of the cutting of these meat slices..."

Huang Jieyuan, however, was unwilling to accept this: "Perhaps it's related to the perpetrator's mood when committing the crime. Sometimes, the pressure is too great, so their performance suffers; or maybe they start off very carefully, but gradually lose patience and their movements become increasingly rough?"

"That's a reasonable guess," Luo Fei nodded first, then analyzed from another angle, "However, ten years ago, the police focused their investigation on doctors, butchers, and other related groups. Since then, you've laid meticulously designed traps for years, but all this work has yielded no results. In this situation, shouldn't we change our approach—perhaps there was a deviation in the initial step of defining the scope of the investigation?"

Huang Jieyuan fell silent. Indeed, since different possibilities existed, using "knife-wielding skills" as a criterion for identifying the perpetrator was clearly inappropriate. After a long while, he smiled bitterly and sighed to himself, "Was I wrong from the very beginning?"

"At least for now, we should broaden our search scope, not just to specific groups like doctors, butchers, and chefs, nor just to highly skilled knife-wielders."

Zeng Rihua continued Luo Fei's words, saying, "Old Huang, you shouldn't have set up that knife-testing device in the bar. If it weren't for that thing, you might have already caught the murderer in Case 112."

Huang Jieyuan shook his head helplessly: "If we don't use that prop, there are just too many suspects. I'm no longer a police officer; I simply don't have the ability to investigate everyone."

"That's true..." Zeng Rihua pushed up his glasses, feeling somewhat like he was "talking without understanding the situation."

"The scope of suspects still needs to be defined—solving such unsolved cases is the primary task the police must face. However, we now need to reconsider our methods for defining this scope from different perspectives." At this point, Luo Fei scanned the room with his gaze. "Does anyone have any insights to offer?"

No one spoke, nor did anyone meet Luo Fei's gaze. Everyone was deep in thought; after all, a long-held approach had just been overturned, and it would take time to establish a convincing new system.

A moment later, Yin Jian said, "I think Lao Huang's theory about heavy metal music is very interesting. Maybe we should explore that direction further."

Luo Fei gave a noncommittal "hmm," seemingly unexcited. This wasn't exactly a new perspective, and Huang Jieyuan had been exploring this area for nearly a decade; they'd probably already exhausted all the avenues for discovery.

"Professor Mu, what are your thoughts on this? This is related to criminal psychology, and we all want to hear your analysis," Yin Jian said, turning to Mu Jianyun. As the secretary at the meeting, he seemed to be consciously trying to liven up the dull atmosphere. Luo Fei secretly applauded: ideas need to be stimulated by each other; if a lively discussion can be formed, the effect will be much better than everyone thinking alone.

"On this point, I agree with Lao Huang's analysis—'Mu Jianyun was successfully coaxed into speaking,'—the alternative music was likely the link between the perpetrator and the victim. This was the victim's hobby, and this hobby was precisely related to death, violence, and sex. Based on this, coupled with other people's descriptions of the victim at the time, we can roughly deduce the victim's personality traits: she was probably a sensitive girl with a more complex way of thinking than her peers. This made her somewhat withdrawn at school, because she felt it was difficult for other classmates to resonate with her intellectually. Therefore, she turned her attention outside of school, and it was under these circumstances that the perpetrator and she met."

"Wait a minute." Zeng Rihua suddenly waved his hand. "Aren't we overthinking things? The situation could be quite simple: the perverted killer and the victim simply met by chance, and it wasn't a social crime. If that's the case, then analyses of hobbies and ties are not only superfluous, but could even mislead our thinking."

"It couldn't have been an isolated incident," Huang Jieyuan immediately countered. "The fact that the perpetrator could so meticulously mutilate the victim's body indicates that the crime scene must have been a very private space. Given the victim's sensitive and introverted personality, she would never have entered such a space with a stranger. Therefore, before committing the crime, the perpetrator must have somehow touched the victim's heart and gained her trust."

Zeng Rihua suddenly said "Oh," and said nothing more. Luo Fei also nodded, and at the same time instructed Yin Jian beside him: "Here's a deduction: the murderer should have had a solitary residence when committing the crime, and this residence meets the basic conditions for dismemberment—write this down for now."

Yin Jianyi picked up his pen and wrote down in his notebook:

Characteristics of the perpetrator:

1. Lives alone in a secluded place that can provide a location for dismemberment.

Luo Fei then looked at Mu Jianyun: "Teacher Mu, please continue."

Mu Jianyun continued, "Now we can try to analyze what kind of person the perpetrator might be from the victim's perspective. As I just mentioned, the deceased was sensitive and her thinking was more mature than that of an average girl, so it was difficult for someone her age to win her favor. For the perpetrator to gain the deceased's approval, psychologically speaking, he would need to be at least five years older than her."

"The victim was nearly twenty years old at the time of the crime, which means the perpetrator is at least twenty-five years old?" Yin Jian quickly calculated and asked, "Should we write this down?"

"If you're going to write it down, start with 28 years old. Because what I just mentioned was psychological age, and for men and women aged 20 to 30, women's psychological age is generally older than men's, by about three years. Based on this calculation, the perpetrator's actual age should be at least eight years older than the victim's—unless you believe the perpetrator is a woman."

"A woman? How is that possible?" Yin Jian shook his head and wrote down the second piece of information about the perpetrator in his notebook:

2. Male, aged 28 or older at the time of the incident.

While Yin Jian was taking notes, Mu Jianyun had already begun a new analysis: "The deceased was a college student, sensitive and introverted, with a somewhat aloof and self-admiring disposition. Someone who could approach her and gain her full trust and affection not only needed to be physically presentable, but also possess considerable knowledge and inner qualities. Therefore, I suggest you write the third characteristic of the perpetrator: above-average appearance, high education, and relatively high social status."

"That's not necessarily true," Yin Jian paused, raising some questions. "The vocational university the deceased attended wasn't a particularly prestigious school, and she wasn't especially attractive. So, her standards for partners probably weren't that high, right?"

Mu Jianyun smiled and said, "You're wrong. The more someone is like that, the higher their standards will be. The deceased was sensitive and aloof, but her own conditions in various aspects weren't outstanding. Such people often have a mentality called 'vanity-induced inferiority complex.' She looked down on people around her who were like herself, and at the same time, she had a strong desire to integrate into a higher-level environment, hoping to use this to increase her own value and compensate for her inferiority complex. Conversely, people who are already very well-off tend to be less concerned about the things around them, because they no longer need those things to prove themselves."

Yin Jian pondered for a while, and it really made sense. So he wrote down the third characteristic of the criminal that Mu Jianyun had summarized in his notebook, and then looked up and asked, "Hmm, anything else?"

"From the victim's perspective, that's all for now. Next, we need to analyze the situation from the perpetrator's perspective."

Yin Jian held the pen in his hand, waiting intently. Luo Fei and the others also watched Mu Jianyun intently. Even Huang Jieyuan, who had been studying the bloody case for ten years, was deeply attracted by this meticulous psychological analysis, feeling as if his eyes had suddenly become much brighter.

"As mentioned earlier, the perpetrator's circumstances were likely quite good, at least far superior to the victim's. Yet, he was willing to engage in deep interaction with the victim, so I believe this person suffers from 'hidden inferiority complex'."

"Hidden inferiority complex? What does that mean?" Yin Jian muttered. He could understand the deceased's "vanity-related inferiority complex" earlier, but he had never heard of the term "hidden inferiority complex" before.

"People with exceptionally high external qualities often harbor deep-seated feelings of inferiority that they find difficult to express to others. This condition is known in psychology as 'hidden inferiority complex.' If you observe people in real life, you'll find that there are always individuals whose own circumstances far surpass those of their surroundings—'environment' includes spouse, career, social circle, and so on. Normally, people would perceive such individuals as lacking ambition and drive. But in reality, they are often sufferers of 'hidden inferiority complex.' They possess some unknown flaw, and the expectations of those around them make them hesitant to reveal it, thus forming a deep-seated inferiority complex that starkly contrasts with their outwardly glamorous appearance. Under the influence of this emotion, they lower themselves and integrate into lower-class environments that don't align with their own circumstances. Because in these lower-class environments, they feel safer."

Everyone present nodded, understanding the meaning of "hidden inferiority complex." However, Huang Jieyuan immediately expressed some doubts: "That perpetrator was just looking for a target to commit a crime; that can't be considered normal interaction. Can we analyze him using the theory of 'hidden inferiority complex'?"

"Regardless of the perpetrator's desires in approaching the victim, human instinct remains unchanged," Mu Jianyun replied. "For men, who wouldn't want to be near a beautiful woman? Even when you're arguing with a woman, you'd still hope she's beautiful, not ugly, right? That's your instinct, and it has nothing to do with any ulterior motive."

This was simply an irrefutable truth. All the men present, including Luo Fei, couldn't help but smile wryly.

"Therefore, even if the perpetrator initially intended to harm the victim, he should have consciously chosen a beautiful woman of similar standing to himself. A beautiful woman would undoubtedly provide him with greater pleasure during the crime. However, he chose the victim, an extremely ordinary girl, which indicates a lack of self-confidence in certain areas. He believed he could only control girls of a lower social standing, otherwise he would feel insecure."

Luo Fei sensed that Mu Jianyun's words were approaching some substantial content, so he pressed on with great interest, "Then what exactly is the source of his inferiority complex?"