Her phone still hadn’t been found.

Liu Yisha’s home was spotless, with no signs of a struggle. Besides, the building was full of residents—it would have been almost impossible to forcibly remove someone from there.

This wasn’t where she had disappeared from.

Judging by the state of her apartment, she hadn’t been planning to go away either.

So, on either the 7th or 8th, she had gone out. But where? And who did she meet?

The possibilities were endless. The first victim, Zhao Feier, had been taken while walking home from her night shift. They lived in the same district—Liu Yisha could have encountered the killer while getting breakfast or buying fruit.

You Mingxu ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. She had a feeling this would be an extremely challenging serial case. No wonder the Huaicheng police had been stumbling in the dark for a year. She glanced at the man standing ramrod straight with his hands in his pockets. This was his area of expertise, wasn’t it?

Remembering Yin Feng’s “common craftsman” deduction, she looked down at the dense network of streets, shops, and flowing crowds below. She smiled wryly—in this area alone, there had to be at least five hundred craftsmen, if not a thousand. That observation was practically useless.

“Handsome,” she called him over anyway.

For this business trip, she had insisted that Yin Feng couldn’t wear his usual yellow or green cartoon clothes. Instead, he wore a sweater vest, jacket, and leather shoes—all luxury brands sent by Chen Feng. Standing there now, he cut a striking figure: well-dressed, clean-featured, tall, and straight-backed. As long as he kept quiet, he looked quite cool and distinguished, almost proper.

But the moment he leaned against the railing beside her, he immediately planted his feet on the lower bar, stretched out his arms, and started swaying his body back and forth, destroying the illusion.

You Mingxu had truly never met a man so determined to waste his good looks. That sexy, slightly pitiful man who had carried her upstairs earlier must have been a complete hallucination.

“Get down!” You Mingxu ordered.

He slowly climbed down.

You Mingxu asked, “What have you discovered?”

He said, “Looking at the victim selection, there are several commonalities: all recently graduated college women, unemployed, with limited social circles; living alone in the same area; all had pressing financial needs. Their daily routines were confined to a 1-2 kilometer radius. There are differences too: one was plain-looking, and one was pretty. One was likely a virgin, the other wasn’t. The killer doesn’t care about these factors.”

You Mingxu pondered for a moment before adding, “Also, they both probably spent 2-3 days with the killer before their deaths.”

“Those must have been difficult days.”

You Mingxu sighed internally and asked, “In your experience… how did the killer choose them?”

Yin Feng shook his head. “I don’t know, there are too many possibilities right now. He might live in the same building as them. Or he could be a kilometer or two away, searching for his next target with binoculars.”

—

By evening, all police forces had returned to the city bureau for a briefing. Old Tan from the provincial office and Huaicheng’s Deputy Director of Criminal Investigation presided over the meeting.

The massive conference room was packed. The air was thick with cigarette smoke, coffee, sweat, boxed lunch smells, and even the scent of wolfberries from thermal flasks, all mingling together.

You Mingxu sat next to Old Tan, with Yin Feng behind her. When she turned to look back, she noticed that this kid became quite obedient and quiet during serious business—no need to worry about him.

Old Tan, with his years of experience, started with one question: “Was any information about last year’s Zhao Feier case released to the public?”

The criminal investigation team leader in charge of the case, Han Feng, replied, “We only issued a briefcase bulletin, without revealing specific details to the public. However… Zhao Feier’s body was discovered by villagers. By the time we arrived, quite a crowd had gathered, and some had taken photos and posted them online. We immediately had those posts removed to avoid compromising the investigation. But complete secrecy was impossible at that point.”

Old Tan took a drag on his cigarette without commenting.

You Mingxu thought to herself that this meant they couldn’t completely rule out the possibility of a copycat crime, especially since the killer had been dormant for a year. However, having seen the photos from the first case, she leaned toward it being the same perpetrator. The way the bodies were folded, the shocking impact it created—they were too similar.

“It’s the same perpetrator,” Han Feng stated.

Many officers nodded in agreement.

You Mingxu asked, “What about the vehicle investigation?”

Xu Mengshan said, “We have results. We found two drivers who passed by Liu Yisha’s dump site between 2:00 and 2:30 AM yesterday. Both saw a Jinbei van parked by the county road. Neither noticed the license plate nor saw anyone in the vehicle.”

A wave of low discussion spread among the criminal investigators.

On the projection screen at the front, a blurry photo appeared showing an old Jinbei van. The rear license plate was missing, and there was a vague figure visible in the driver’s seat.

Xu Mengshan continued: “This vehicle was captured by cameras on the county road, three kilometers from the dump site. Based on the time of death and the drivers’ descriptions, this should be the same vehicle they saw.”

Someone said, “That’s great news. Last year, the surveillance conditions near the dump site weren’t good, and we couldn’t find any suspect vehicles. Now we finally have a lead.”

Another voice countered, “But this model is very popular in the local area, with many second-hand vehicles being sold here. There must be several hundred if not thousands.”

Old Tan and the Deputy Director discussed briefly before establishing the next investigative directions:

Han Feng would lead a team focusing on key physical evidence—the Jinbei van and fingerprints from the first case—conducting more thorough, large-scale screening.

You Mingxu would lead a team investigating the two victims’ interpersonal relationships and their movements before disappearing, looking for any clues leading to the killer.

The meeting should have ended there, with everyone heading off to their tasks. Old Tan cleared his throat and looked behind You Mingxu: “Teacher Yin, do you have any thoughts?”

Everyone suddenly turned to look at Yin Feng. They had all noticed this distinguished-looking handsome man at first, but after seeing him sitting silently with his hands clasped, head down playing with his fingers, they had assumed he was just a junior assistant.

Yin Feng raised his head, his eyes as clear as a fresh police academy graduate’s. He even raised his hand like a student and asked, “I’d like to ask, what is campus lending?”

Han Feng immediately understood what he was getting at, but this criminal team leader in his thirties thought: Yin Feng looked like another important figure from the provincial office—how could he not know what campus lending was? Asking must be deliberate. Was he criticizing their past investigation? Han Feng’s face flushed slightly.

The unsolved case from last year had been weighing on him like a stone. His lips moved as he was about to speak, but Old Tan added, “Oh, this is the provincial criminal psychology consultant, Professor Yin Feng from Peking University’s Psychology Department.” Old Tan didn’t mention his status as a famous author—it would be too showy and inappropriate.