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."
...
for mindless slaughter, this isn't for you.] My name is Ye Shu, and I'm a transmigrator. It seems I'm supposed to be the protagonist, but that feels pretty unlikely. This world has been invaded by a system. The antagonists on the other side have suddenly become pure, flawless saints. The female leads have been force-fed the so-called "original plot," making them think they've been reborn. Now, everyone thinks I'm scum. Including the old lady in my ring. And here I am, in the Monster Beast Mountain Range, braising pork. To put my situation in perspective— It's as if, the moment Xiao Yan stepped into the Monster Beast Mountain Range, the Soul Emperor already knew he would become the Flame Emperor, and Yao Lao had been turned to the enemy's side. I have nothing right now. Oh wait, that's not true. I do have a white-haired loli child-bride who's the Heavenly Dao, and her only skill is acting cute. So, tell me guys... what are my chances of making it to the end?
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
