Zhang Yi’ang immediately rushed to the scene. Li Qian insisted on coming along. He thought: bringing her to the scene wasn’t particularly dangerous, and if she got scared silly by the corpse and rolled back home sooner, it would actually help him successfully complete his political task, so he didn’t object.

The crime scene was a green space by the river. The city was called San Jiang Kou, so naturally there were numerous waterways. Many of the city’s inland rivers had their banks arranged into green park spaces planted with flowers, grass, and trees.

The location of the incident was densely wooded with trees and usually didn’t have many people around. Early this morning, an old man had come to the riverside to secretly fish. Inadvertently, he saw a man covered in blood lying nearby and was immediately so frightened that he suffered a cardiovascular attack. He was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment and nearly became a second casualty.

Police tape had already been put up on the shore. The police who had arrived first were already guarding the scene. Dozens of meters beyond the police line, hundreds of onlookers had gathered. The characteristic of small cities was that whenever anything novel happened, everyone passing by would spread the news and come running—as if nobody here had to go to work.

Ye Jian’s body was still in its original position. A simple curtain had been erected in a circle around it to block the curious gazes of the common people.

Zhang Yi’ang brought Li Qian through the curtain. Inside, the forensic investigation team was conducting the most basic examinations and taking photographs. It was now mid-October in the golden autumn, and the weather was cool. Ye Jian was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and casual pants. At first glance, his body was covered with wounds, and his clothing was stained dark red by large amounts of blood. Zhang Yi’ang looked back at Li Qian and found that she was completely unmoved. Instead, her eyes revealed a sharpening, eager light. He could only shake his head helplessly.

He exited the curtain, crossed his arms, and stood in place, carefully observing the crowd of onlookers above on the riverbank.

The riverbank terrain was sloped. The common people stood at the high ground, and every move of the police below was in their full view. Of course, this also meant Zhang Yi’ang could clearly see the expression on each onlooker’s face.

“Director, what are you looking at?” Li Qian came to his side and noticed his solemn expression.

“You’ve studied criminal psychology, right?”

“I studied it last year.”

“According to criminal psychology statistics, in outdoor homicide cases like this, there’s over a fifty percent probability that the perpetrator will return to the scene within forty-eight hours after the crime.”

Li Qian quietly corrected him, “The book says twenty-four hours.”

Zhang Yi’ang snorted, “Let me ask you this: if there’s a fifty percent probability within twenty-four hours, wouldn’t the probability be even higher at forty-eight hours?”

“Put that way, you’re not wrong.”

Zhang Yi’ang nodded, “In any case, you need to remember one thing: the perpetrator is very likely to return to check, and very likely they’re hiding among these people right now!”

His gaze slid across the face of each distant onlooker, and he deliberately lingered on some people with unfavorable appearances. He believed that perpetrators had guilty consciences and wouldn’t dare make eye contact with police.

“Hmm—” Sure enough, one person fell into his field of vision.

This person was under fifty years old, wearing a simple casual T-shirt, standing behind a police officer manning the police line, one hand on his waist, the other pinching a cigarette butt. While other onlookers were craning their necks to peer this way, he had a completely indifferent appearance.

Zhang Yi’ang made eye contact with him for a second, and the man immediately turned his head away, then secretly glanced at Zhang Yi’ang a few more times before lowering his head to say a few words to the police officer manning the line. Zhang Yi’ang’s heart jumped. Not good—could he be trying to gather information about the case?

Following his gaze, Li Qian also noticed this person and couldn’t help calling out quietly, “Director… this person, I think—”

Zhang Yi’ang shushed her, nodded, and casually made a gesture, beckoning Wang Ruijun over and secretly pointing at that person. “This person’s demeanor is extremely suspicious. Find someone to investigate him indirectly, find out his identity. Remember, don’t alert him yet!”

“Uh… him? No need to investigate. He’s Chief Medical Examiner Old Chen. He was on vacation but was temporarily called over. He’s waiting to haul the body back for autopsy.”

“So he’s the medical examiner.” Zhang Yi’ang nodded, then suddenly turned and angrily reprimanded, “Then why haven’t you hurried up and hauled the body back? What are you waiting for! Do you want to wait until after the seventh day memorial to do the autopsy?”

“Okay, I’ll go call him right away!” Wang Ruijun responded decisively and hurried toward Medical Examiner Chen, muttering under his breath, “Just now you clearly said not to let anyone touch anything at the scene until you arrived, and now you’re blaming me?”

Medical Examiner Chen walked with a limp as he went to handle the body. Zhang Yi’ang frowned again. This was a disabled person? That couldn’t be right. Just how weak were San Jiang Kou’s criminal investigation resources? A medical examiner was still a police officer after all, and handling bodies was physical work. How could they just make do with a cripple?

Wang Ruijun noticed his confusion and came over to explain, “Medical Examiner Chen has a herniated lumbar disc. He’s not a cripple.”

Zhang Yi’ang nodded, but still felt emotional inside. San Jiang Kou’s criminal police team was so makeshift—it seemed that future case work was destined to be very arduous.

Zhang Yi’ang returned to the Public Security Bureau and stood in front of the unit’s bulletin board, staring at the photos on it. These were professional photos of most of the criminal police brigade officers whose identities could be made public. The first one was Ye Jian.

In the photo, he was about forty years old, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, a short and wide face, full of rough features, never smiling. Honestly speaking, with that appearance, if he’d been a bandit in ancient times, he’d definitely have been boss material.

“Director, how did you know in advance that something would happen to Ye Jian?” Li Qian’s face was full of curiosity.

How could Zhang Yi’ang know his words would prove prophetic? At this moment, he could only respond vaguely, “I can’t really say I knew in advance. Probably it’s the professional instinct from years of being a criminal police officer.”

“Criminal police professional instinct.” Li Qian slowly repeated this, and the gaze she cast toward him showed even more admiration. “Then who do you think killed him?”

“That still requires slow investigation.”

“Could it have been Zhou Rong?”

“Zhou Rong…” Zhang Yi’ang pondered for a moment and shook his head. “Not likely. Ye Jian is the Criminal Investigation Brigade captain. Killing him would be an extremely major homicide case, and the police would definitely investigate with full force. I find it hard to imagine Zhou Rong’s nerve would be that great. Moreover, supposedly he and Ye Jian always had a good relationship. However, one thing is certain: Ye Jian’s death is very much related to my arrival!”

“Why do you say that?”

“After I came to San Jiang Kou, apart from chatting with him for a few moments on the first day, he took sick leave starting the second day and has been on it until now. I’ve inquired, and he’s always been in good health—he basically never took leave before. I came and he took leave, and then he was killed. There must be a connection! You’ll see—related clues will surface very soon.”

“Director, we have a clue!” Speak of the devil—just then, Wang Ruijun came running over. When he reached them, he stopped without speaking, his slightly plump face full of hesitation.

Zhang Yi’ang stared at him for a few seconds and asked, “What clue?”

Wang Ruijun hesitated for a moment and stammered, “The scene investigation found that Ye Jian wrote a few characters on a rock before he died. It looks… looks like someone’s name.”

“Someone’s name?” Zhang Yi’ang’s eyes immediately lit up. “If Ye Jian wrote down a name before dying, it absolutely must be the killer’s name! Can the handwriting be identified?”

“Although it’s a bit sloppy, it can basically… basically be recognized.”

“Who’s the killer?” Zhang Yi’ang asked urgently.

“It’s…” Wang Ruijun hesitated to speak.

From his expression, Zhang Yi’ang knew there must be inside information. He said seriously, “Put your mind completely at ease. My position was administratively upgraded, and I have the Public Security Department backing me. Here in San Jiang Kou, no matter who did it, I dare to investigate them without reservation. Whoever Ye Jian wrote, just say it!”

“He… he wrote your name.”

“I—” Zhang Yi’ang swallowed a large gulp of air and demanded coldly, “Show me the photo!”

Wang Ruijun could only pull out his phone and open the photo sent from the scene. It was a large rock by the river. Before dying, Ye Jian had used a small stone to scratch a few characters on it.

Zhang Yi’ang frowned and stared at the characters, then turned back to ask the two of them, “The handwriting is way too sloppy, right? You can tell it’s my name from this?”

“We can tell.” The two answered in unison.

When a person is near death, their strength is nearly exhausted. Naturally, characters written with the last breath would be sloppy and hard to distinguish. But the middle character “一” was really too easy to recognize. Substituting Zhang Yi’ang’s name, it was crystal clear at a glance. What was written was precisely the three characters “张一昂” (Zhang Yi’ang), followed by an exclamation mark struck down with the last of his strength.

A conspiracy—this was definitely a conspiracy! Someone was trying to frame him!

Zhang Yi’ang was so angry he wanted to finish off whoever was framing him with one blow.

Wang Ruijun said awkwardly, “Director Qi and the other bureau leaders… want you to come over for a talk. Li Qian too.”