I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 40: Chapter 38: Portrait Analysis

Su Miaoyi called Zhuang Yanzheng and told him everything she had seen.

Then she called Lu Zhishen.

After a moment, Lu Zhishen answered the phone. ”Hm? What’s up?”

His voice sounded like he had just woken up. Su Miaoyi said, ”I saw something again.”

Lu Zhishen was silent for a moment, then his voice became clearer. ”The serial killer?”

”Yes,” Su Miaoyi said. ”I didn’t see his face, just his build.”

’No face, but I saw his build. Maybe that will still help the case.’

”Hold on a second.” Lu Zhishen went to get a pen and paper. He had pulled an all-nighter at the station last night and had just fallen asleep after getting back. His brain suddenly rebooted. He stumbled a couple of steps as he walked from his bedroom to the adjacent art studio. ”Are you still in the old district? I heard you were going to jump into the river and kill yourself.”

Su Miaoyi: ”...”

’Good deeds go unmentioned, while bad news is all anyone asks about.’

Su Miaoyi sighed. ”I felt like life was meaningless, so I wanted to become a mermaid in the river.”

Lu Zhishen fell silent again for a moment. ”The kind of mermaid with a fish for an upper body and human legs for the lower body?”

Su Miaoyi pictured it.

’??? A Beautiful Mermaid?’

Lu Zhishen said, ”Alright, go ahead.”

Su Miaoyi shook the image of the Beautiful Mermaid from her head. ”It’s a man, about 183 centimeters tall, and weighs around 70 kilograms. As for his age...”

’Based on the killer’s voice, the way he walks, the strength in his hands, and the skin on his neck.’

”Between forty-five and fifty,” Su Miaoyi said, verbalizing the conclusion she had reached in her mind.

”His body proportions aren’t great. Visually, his torso and legs look like they’re the same length, a fifty-fifty split. His head is narrow and relatively small, but his shoulders are very broad. He has uneven shoulders—his left is higher.”

”Continue,” Lu Zhishen said.

Su Miaoyi tried hard to recall the details from the scene. ”He was wearing a baseball cap and a face mask. The brim of the cap was pulled down low, so I couldn’t see his face at all. But during the attack...”

She raised a hand to touch her own face.

The pain still seemed to linger there.

’That pain felt too real.’

’This is the first time I’ve realized how terrifying this empathy can be.’

”I vaguely saw his eyes. I only saw the expression in them, not their shape.” She suppressed the fear rising in her heart. The victim’s eyes had been filled with blood and tears at the time, blurring her vision.

But she had still seen the look in them.

She hadn’t just seen it; she had felt it, too.

”He was excited,” Su Miaoyi said. ”And very happy. He was using a scalpel to slash the victim’s face, and he got more and more excited with every cut.”

”What kind of excitement?” Lu Zhishen asked.

Su Miaoyi was in her bedroom. She looked at a small sparrow perched outside her window and followed Lu Zhishen’s lead. ”It was cathartic, vengeful... a twisted, savage sort of joy.”

”Good.” Lu Zhishen’s single word sounded like both a response to her statement and a word of praise.

Su Miaoyi didn’t speak, listening to the SHH, SHH sound of his pen sketching through the phone.

After a moment, Lu Zhishen said, ”Clothing.”

Su Miaoyi immediately responded. ”A short, black trench coat, a black dress shirt underneath, black sweatpants, and black sneakers.”

’What a strange combination of clothes.’

Su Miaoyi thought to herself before adding, ”None of the items had any obvious logos.”

She fell silent after speaking.

”What is it?” Lu Zhishen asked.

”I suddenly have a feeling... I think he changed his clothes,” Su Miaoyi said.

”Hm?”

”The trench coat, the pants, the shoes—they all looked like they cost less than a hundred yuan each. But the shirt he was wearing underneath... even though I only saw the collar and a little of the chest,” Su Miaoyi said, ”the texture of the fabric and the structure of the collar made me think it must cost at least four figures.”

”If he changed clothes to avoid surveillance, he must have had a bag to carry them in,” Lu Zhishen said.

Su Miaoyi nodded. ”Right.”

’Even though I didn’t see one, the killer probably tossed it somewhere outside or left it where he changed.’

”Anything else to add?” Lu Zhishen asked.

”No, that’s it,” Su Miaoyi said.

”Okay. I’ll send you the sketch to look at in a bit.”

”Okay.”

Su Miaoyi hung up the phone.

She sat on her bed, gazing out the window.

The buildings in the old district didn’t get much natural light.

For some reason, as she stared outside, she felt a deep sense of unease. It was oppressive, so much so that she felt a little short of breath.

It was as if... she were trapped here.

She forced herself to look away.

She looked down at her hands.

She had worn gloves during the big cleanup, but her hands had still gotten wet. The area around the scrape was a little swollen.

She stared blankly at the wound. After a while, Lu Zhishen sent over the sketch.

The two of them discussed it and made a few changes.

After finalizing the last version, Lu Zhishen sent it to Zhuang Yanzheng.

As soon as Zhuang Yanzheng received it, he immediately distributed it to all departments.

Then, Su Miaoyi got a call from him.

”When are you heading back?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

”I was planning to go back this afternoon.”

”Can you make it a bit earlier?” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”We’re on our way to the body disposal site. Want to come along and take a look?”

Su Miaoyi thought for a moment. ”Okay, I’ll just let my aunt and uncle know.”

”Ten minutes. Outside the entrance to your neighborhood’s alley. The car can’t go in; it’s a pain to turn around,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

”Okay.”

...

Su Miaoyi spent five minutes convincing Cheng Yong and Ge Yu, assuring them she would be perfectly fine and that they shouldn’t worry.

She then spent another five minutes walking from her home to the alley entrance.

She had been there for less than a minute when Zhuang Yanzheng arrived. ”Get in.”

Su Miaoyi quickly got into the car.

Then she and the girl sitting in the back seat looked at each other.

She was wearing a hat that covered the injury on her forehead. To get a better look at the girl, she pushed the hat up a bit.

Zhuang Yanzheng was driving. After they had gone some distance, he glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the two in the back were still staring at each other.

Yan Cheng, sitting in the passenger seat, also turned to look at them.

”What are you two doing? Don’t fall in love,” Zhuang Yanzheng teased.

Chu Xingrou immediately looked away, placed her hands on her lap, and sat up ramrod straight, looking quite prim.

Su Miaoyi, on the other hand, was different. From the day she met Zhuang Yanzheng, she hadn’t known the meaning of the word ”prim.” She first greeted Yan Cheng, then turned to Zhuang Yanzheng. ”Captain Zhuang, the field team has a woman now?”

Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at her again in the rearview mirror.

He saw her eyes were sparkling with excitement.

Suddenly, looking at her eyes, he was reminded of the past.

’Working a case, sitting by the roadside, gnawing on a steamed bun.’

Qin Leyan had said, ”Vice Captain Zhuang, when are you going to recruit a female officer for the field team?”

”What for?”

”I’m getting a little tired of looking at you guys.”

”You’re here to solve cases, not to look at people.”

”It won’t get in the way of the investigation. Besides, we could chat during breaks.”

”What? With all of us here, you don’t have enough people to talk to?”

Qin Leyan’s expression suddenly turned a bit disdainful. ”Anyway, just remember to keep an eye out. Don’t let another unit snatch her up.”

Zhuang Yanzheng snapped back to the present. ”Why are you so excited that the serious crime unit has a woman?”

Su Miaoyi paused for a second.

’Right, why am I so happy about this?’

’Whatever.’

Su Miaoyi looked at the girl again. ”I’m Su Miaoyi.”

”Hello. Chu Xingrou.” She gave a stiff, reserved smile.

”Oh, right, my aunt and uncle packed some food,” Su Miaoyi said. ”It’s almost noon, you guys can have some of this.”

”You guys eat first,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Su Miaoyi handed some out to them and saved some for Zhuang Yanzheng...