“I was thinking, could this case be somewhat similar to the ‘suicide case’ we handled before?” Xu Mo said.
Prior to this, the police department had indeed dealt with a “suicide case.” Of course, it was later clarified that the deceased in that case had been influenced by a psychologist, which led them to take their own lives.
“No, although both are ‘suicide cases,’ these two cases are entirely different,” Han Fei waved his hand, pointing to the case file in front of Xu Mo. “In that case, the deceased were all manipulated by a psychologist—they had severe psychological issues and had all sought help from a psychologist. But in this case, the deceased had no such history.”
Han Fei had thoroughly investigated that “suicide case” back then, and he was well aware of many of its details.
“At the time, I conducted an in-depth investigation into the nine deceased in this case. I can confirm that none of them had psychological disorders during their lifetimes. They were just a bit down, and their social circles didn’t include any psychologists. There’s no possibility they were influenced by one.”
Xu Mo clicked his tongue. “No possibility of being influenced… so they really wanted to end their lives?”
“But that doesn’t make sense either. The frequency of suicides wouldn’t be this high, and these nine people didn’t know each other. There’s no way they could have agreed to leave this world on the same day.”
“But if it wasn’t suicide… that doesn’t add up either. I’ve looked at the photos in the case file. There are no signs of foul play at the scene. Based on the evidence, it should be suicide.”
Xu Mo was momentarily stumped.
From the photos in the case file, the death scenes of the nine deceased indeed showed no signs of foul play, which strongly suggested they had taken their own lives.
The strangeness of this case lay precisely in this contradiction.
From the scene, it appeared the nine had committed suicide.
But logically, it was impossible for them to have done so. They didn’t know each other, so they couldn’t have planned it together. As for coincidence—what are the odds of such a coincidence?
Compared to intuition and what his eyes saw, Xu Mo trusted his intuition more.
His thoughts aligned with Han Fei’s: they both believed the nine hadn’t committed suicide but had been killed by someone else.
After all, the eyes can be deceiving.
Xu Mo flipped through the case file again, searching for any useful details.
Seeing this, Han Fei didn’t rush him but silently waited as Xu Mo reviewed the file.
He knew just how tricky this case was.
Not long after, Xu Mo put down the file and stared at Han Fei.
“Have you figured out a way to solve the case?” Han Fei asked, mistaking Xu Mo’s gaze for a sign that he had an idea.
However, Xu Mo shook his head.
“No, I just wanted to ask—do you want a cigarette?”
Han Fei: “???”
Again?
Han Fei couldn’t help but recall yesterday, when Xu Mo had asked the same question.
This time, Han Fei resolutely shook his head. “No, I don’t.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. I don’t smoke.”
“Alright then.” Xu Mo stood up. “If you don’t want one, that’s fine. I’ll go out and come back to think about the case later.”
With that, Xu Mo put down the file and left the office.
Han Fei: “?”
What Han Fei didn’t know was that Xu Mo wasn’t going out to smoke. Instead, he was planning to find a quiet place to open a reward pouch given to him by his system.
He had already gone through the case file twice but still had no ideas or leads.
The case was just too bizarre.
From a “subjective perspective,” the nine deceased couldn’t possibly have committed suicide. It didn’t make sense—the timing was too close, and the locations were all in the same district. It had to be homicide.
But from an “objective perspective,” they had indeed committed suicide—the scene was evidence of that.
Solving the case through normal means was impossible. Hold on, let me use a cheat…
Fortunately, he still had two unused reward pouches from the system, which could come in handy now.
Xu Mo walked to a secluded spot, took out one of the system’s reward pouches, and opened it.
Just like last time, there was a piece of paper inside.
“So that’s how it is…” After reading the note, Xu Mo quickly stuffed it back into the pouch and tossed it into his system storage.
He now knew the specifics of the case through the pouch, but the problem was how to explain it to Han Fei later. After all, solving a case required a logical process. He couldn’t just lead Han Fei straight to the killer—even if they solved the case, it would be hard to justify.
Xu Mo lit a cigarette and furrowed his brow, thinking about how to present a step-by-step analysis of the case to Han Fei when he returned.
Even if he had to make it up, he needed to come up with a plausible reasoning process!
Even if it didn’t fully convince Han Fei, getting him halfway there would be enough.
A short while later, Xu Mo returned to Han Fei’s office, reeking of smoke.
Back in the office, Xu Mo pretended to glance through the case file once more.
Unlike the previous two times, this time he spoke up immediately after looking at it.
“I agree with your view. These nine deceased must have been killed. But there’s a question: why did the killer choose them?”
“Why?”
“Because these nine deceased share some common traits.”
“What traits?” Han Fei perked up, sensing that Xu Mo had reached a conclusion.
“The autopsy report mentions their common traits: they were young and in good health.”
Han Fei frowned, thinking to himself, “Is that really a common trait?”
Healthy people were everywhere, and young people were too numerous to count.
Seeing Han Fei’s puzzled expression, Xu Mo pointed to some details in the case file—information gathered by the police from the deceased’s families.
“It’s not just that. There are other common traits. Each of these deceased had ample reasons for suicide.”
“This one had a breakup, this one was under academic pressure, this one kept failing job interviews…”
“So…?” Han Fei still didn’t quite grasp Xu Mo’s point.
“Let’s make a hypothesis,” Xu Mo explained. “Based on our initial assumption, the deceased were victims of homicide, not suicide.”
“I can see their common traits: young, healthy, and with sufficient reasons—or even tendencies—for suicide.”
“This is the profile of these victims: young, healthy, but unable to appreciate life, even considering suicide over minor setbacks.”
“The killer must have acted out of anger. So, conversely, we can profile the killer: older, suffering from a serious illness, yet fighting bravely against it.”
“When the killer saw these young people, who could have lived but were constantly talking about not wanting to live, he became furious. His thought process was, ‘I’m battling a serious illness, yet I’m still fighting. You’re healthy, but you don’t appreciate life at all. You want to die? Fine, I’ll help you!’”
“Using this profile, let’s narrow it down: three years ago, middle-aged people living in this area who were suffering from serious illnesses could be potential suspects.”
After hearing this, Han Fei scratched his head.
Xu Mo’s reasoning wasn’t entirely without merit—there was some logic to it—but it still felt a bit forced to him.
“Are you sure this will lead us to the killer?”
Of course, I’m sure. I even know where the killer lives… Though that’s what Xu Mo thought, he said instead, “How could I be sure? But let’s give it a try. Desperate times call for desperate measures.”