Common Ground Between Two Things

After a short while, the school administrators returned with a USB drive.

"Officer, this USB contains all the surveillance footage of the entire building, including the first-floor entrance and hallway cameras."

Han Fei took the USB drive.

During the time the administrators were gone to copy the footage, the police had conducted another search but found nothing, uncovering no useful clues.

Since they couldn't find any leads, there was no real need to preserve the crime scene.

Moreover, having a corpse at the bottom of a university dormitory was certainly not a good look.

Han Fei decided to have his officers take a few photos and then transport the body back to the police station.

At the police station, they reviewed the surveillance footage they had brought back.

Han Fei noticed similarities between this suicide case and the one discovered the previous night.

"It's similar to the footage from the other building. In both cases, the deceased went up to the roof alone, and no one else went up there before or after, right until the body was discovered."

"So it's suicide then?" Wang Dachuan scratched his head.

The surveillance footage for both suicide cases only showed the deceased going up to the roof alone, with no sign of anyone else.

Wasn't this clear evidence that they had jumped of their own accord?

To call it murder seemed quite far-fetched to him.

"Two deaths in one night? Since when did the suicide rate get so high?" Han Fei said. "And both jumped from rooftops, with deaths occurring not far apart in time... When things are this unusual, there's bound to be something fishy."

If looked at in isolation, the newly discovered suicide case didn't have any suspicious elements.

An 18-year-old, full of youthful passion and prone to impulsiveness, jumping off a building due to relationship troubles – it was plausible.

The reason Han Fei suspected this suicide case was problematic was mainly because it overlapped in time with the suicide case from the previous night, and both victims chose the exact same method of death: jumping from a rooftop.

Moreover, because the case from the previous night already had several suspicious points, he couldn't help but doubt this newly discovered suicide case as well, which is why he wanted to investigate them together.

As an experienced police officer, his instincts told him that there must be a connection between these two incidents.

This definitely wasn't suicide!

Han Fei placed the identity information of both deceased side by side for comparison.

"This is our first victim we discovered, Zhu Xingde, 35 years old, a high-level manager at a finance company, unmarried, local to Ram City, suspected to have committed suicide due to stock market losses."

"The second victim, Lu Yu, 18 years old, a freshman majoring in Hotel Management at the University of Technology, from out of town, originally from Su City, suspected to have committed suicide due to relationship issues."

Looking at the two victims' information, Li Chen couldn't help but feel confused.

"Captain Han, there doesn't seem to be any connection between these two victims, nor do they have anything in common. If it really is the same killer, what could be the motive or logic behind the murders?"

Han Fei couldn't really answer this question.

To be honest, it wasn't just Li Chen who was puzzled; Han Fei himself couldn't make sense of it.

There appeared to be absolutely no connection between the two victims, no overlap whatsoever.

One middle-aged, one young.

One office worker, one student.

One local, one from out of town.

At first glance, they had no similarities at all.

Han Fei even started to doubt whether his instincts might be wrong, and perhaps there really was no connection between these two incidents...

Maybe only the first suicide was suspicious, and the one they had just discovered was merely a coincidence?

Just then, Xu Mo, who was standing nearby, suddenly pointed at the two personal information sheets pinned to the whiteboard and spoke up.

"These two aren't completely unrelated. They actually do have something in common."

As soon as he said this, everyone turned to look at Xu Mo. "What?"

"They're both male, and they both seem to be quite well-off financially," Xu Mo said. "The first victim was a high-level finance company manager, so his economic situation goes without saying. As for the second victim, I don't know if you noticed his clothing... He was wearing all designer brands, something an average family's student couldn't afford. Also, Hotel Management is a major that people from less wealthy backgrounds don't usually choose."

Hearing this, Han Fei immediately had an officer look into Lu Yu's background.

Soon, the results came back.

"I've checked, and it's true. The second victim... Lu Yu, his family owns a hotel. They're quite well-off. He just turned 18, and already has two houses and a car in his name."

With this, everyone had a bit more to go on.

Han Fei immediately picked up a pen and drew a line connecting the two victims' information on the whiteboard.

At the intersection of the two lines, he wrote "Killer," and just above the word "Killer," he added a note: "Resentment towards the wealthy?"

The police had encountered cases before where people killed out of resentment towards those better off than themselves.

So, the point Xu Mo raised could potentially be a useful lead.

"Let's assume for now that these two incidents are connected, and that the killer is the same person," Han Fei said, pointing his pen at the victims' information before continuing.

"People who overlap in both victims' social circles and are not well-off financially could potentially be the killer. Let's try following this lead for now."

Han Fei's longstanding principle in solving cases was – whether there are dates on the tree or not, shake it a few times and see what falls!

Once you have a hypothesis, investigate it. It's better than just staring blankly.

Sometimes, as you investigate, the truth reveals itself...

After Han Fei assigned the tasks, the officers immediately started investigating along this line of inquiry.

Xu Mo wasn't involved in checking the overlap in the victims' social circles.

Han Fei had given him a different task – analyzing the surveillance footage.

In both sets of footage, the victims went to the roof alone, and for a long period before and after, no one else was recorded going up to the roof.

Han Fei found this highly unreasonable – could the killer have appeared on the roof out of thin air?

That was clearly impossible!

The only possibility was that the killer had tampered with the surveillance footage.

Xu Mo was a hacker, so checking whether the surveillance footage had been tampered with was best left to him.

...

Half an hour later.

An officer came to Han Fei.

"Captain Han, our earlier assumption seems to be incorrect. We've checked, and there's no overlap at all in the two victims' social circles."

At the same time, Xu Mo had finished examining the surveillance footage and also came to Han Fei.

"The footage is clean. There's no sign of tampering."

...