"Just based on the fact that the victim's skull was struck multiple times, it doesn't necessarily prove that the murderer couldn't be an adult male, right? What if the murderer killed out of anger? If it's just to vent anger, then hitting a few more times seems normal to me," Xiao Li questioned, rubbing his chin after hearing Xu Mo's analysis.
He thought Xu Mo's judgment was clearly too idealistic.
In previous cases, victims being stabbed multiple times were common. Aiming for a spot where one stab could kill, yet insisting on stabbing ten or even twenty times... wasn't that just to vent anger?
So in his view, the murderer repeatedly striking the victim's skull could also be to vent anger, not because of insufficient strength to kill with one blow.
Xu Mo glanced at Xiao Li.
"I still maintain my previous view; the murderer definitely isn't an adult male. The murder weapon in this case is a hammer. If an adult male wanted to vent anger, he would definitely use a lot of force. If that were the case, the victim's skull would probably be smashed to pieces."
Hearing this, Xiao Li was slightly stunned.
Xu Mo seemed to make sense...
If an adult male wanted to vent anger by smashing the victim's skull with a hammer, what would the skull look like? It would probably be unrecognizable!
But soon, he thought of another possibility: "What if the murderer deliberately controlled his strength? He didn't use his full strength when killing, aiming to mislead us into thinking the murderer isn't an adult male."
"That's possible..." Xu Mo nodded. "But this possibility assumes the murderer is a habitual offender, someone who has killed more than once. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to maintain his sanity while killing. If it's the first time, he would be nervous and scared, leading to excessive force, using all his strength to ensure the victim is dead. There wouldn't be any time to control his strength, would there?"
Xiao Li thought for a moment, then nodded, "Makes sense!"
After a brief examination of the body, Xu Mo stood up and removed his gloves.
"That's all we can deduce from the body. Let's find eyewitnesses and residents nearby to see if we can get any other clues."
At this point, Xu Mo already had a suspect in mind.
Of course, it was just a suspicion, and he would need more time to confirm it.
"Alright," Xiao Li nodded. Unconsciously, he had started following Xu Mo's train of thought.
Outside the police tape, there were already many onlookers.
These days, people want to see all kinds of excitement, even murder cases. But luckily, they were kept at bay by the police tape and officers. Otherwise, if these onlookers saw the dismembered body parts clearly, they might be scared into fainting, let alone watching the excitement.
"Did someone die? Who died?"
"I don't know, I just got here."
"I know, I know. It was Old Mrs. Chen. She was killed and then thrown into the trash."
"Old Mrs. Chen? You mean that Old Mrs. Chen?"
"No, not that Old Mrs. Chen, the other Old Mrs. Chen!"
"Oh, so it's that Old Mrs. Chen!"
"...
Listening to the discussions of the onlookers, the police officers beside them were confused: "???"
Which one is it?
Which one?
At that moment, Xu Mo and his team walked out from behind the police tape and found the old lady who had called the police.
"Auntie, can I ask you a few questions?" Xu Mo smiled and said.
The old lady nodded blankly, indicating it was okay.
"When did you find the body parts in the trash? Were there other people around when you found them?"
The old lady blurted out: "Just now. I was originally looking through the trash for recyclables to collect and sell, and then I found that bag... I realized something was wrong and called the police. There was only me at that time."
"Do you know the deceased?"
"Yes."
"Do you know if anyone in this area had a grudge against the deceased?"
"No," the old lady shook her head without hesitation.
"Can you tell us what you used to do for a living?" Xu Mo suddenly asked a question unrelated to the case.
As a result, all the police officers around Xu Mo looked at him in unison, their faces full of confusion.
The witness's job, does it have any connection to the case? There's no relation at all!
The old lady was also a bit puzzled, but she still answered Xu Mo's question.
"I used to work in a knitting factory, but later, as I got older, my eyes couldn't handle it, so I quit. Now I just pick up recyclables to sell."
Hearing this, Xu Mo couldn't help but sigh. The warm smile on his face earlier disappeared completely, and his tone turned cold: "One last question, why did you kill her?"
All the police officers: "???"
Is this old lady the murderer? Isn't she the one who found the body?
How did Xu Mo suddenly ask someone why they killed? What basis did he have for this? From the previous questions?
It doesn't make sense!
From the previous questions, they didn't feel the old lady had any issues. Instead, they felt Xu Mo's questions were problematic.
While investigating, he suddenly asked about someone's previous job. This move was quite puzzling, and his thinking was too erratic!
However, after hearing Xu Mo's words, the old lady, who had been very calm, suddenly changed her expression, becoming flustered, even stuttering: "I, I didn't kill her. She wasn't killed by me. I just happened to find her body. This has nothing to do with me."
In the eyes of the other police officers, the old lady's flustered expression was a reaction to being scared by Xu Mo.
After all, who asks a witness why they killed someone like that?
Asking a witness why they killed someone? How could any witness not be afraid?
Not only did the local Hang City police officers find Xu Mo's questioning method unacceptable, but even his colleague Chen Ke felt it was too much.
He quickly walked up to Xu Mo, tugged at his clothes, and whispered, "Don't mess around, look how scared the auntie is. You might scare her to death."
But Chen Ke's concern was clearly unnecessary.
This old lady could remain calm upon seeing dismembered body parts. Would she be scared just because of Xu Mo's question?
In other words, her flustered expression wasn't because Xu Mo scared her; it was because she had something to hide!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
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...
