I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 168: Chapter 166: Captain Zhuang, You’re Injured?

After Zhu Xuan’s capture, Zhuang Yanzheng had Lu Zhishen and a few others take her back to the station.

He and Su Miaoyi then led a small team to Zhu Xuan’s home.

Zhu Xuan’s home was a one-bedroom apartment with a living room, kitchen, and bathroom.

The layout was simple, and it looked like she had lived there for many years.

Su Miaoyi went into the kitchen first.

In the kitchen, she found the fruit knife that had been used to pierce Luo Min’s heart.

Then, in a kitchen drawer, she found a meat cleaver.

After placing both knives into evidence bags, Su Miaoyi inspected the area around the kitchen doorway.

Zhuang Yanzheng sprayed some luminol on the floor.

Large patches of the floor lit up.

These areas had once been covered in large amounts of blood, all of which had been cleaned away.

”The station dug up some information on Zhu Xuan,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”She went to the same university as Shi Xiaoru, had the same major, and was even her roommate.”

”What about Luo Min?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”Luo Min started working after graduating high school,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”We haven’t found any connection to Zhu Xuan.”

”It feels like Luo Min and Zhu Xuan didn’t know each other well. When Zhu Xuan invited her over, Luo Min seemed to want to refuse. And after she arrived, she acted very polite and restrained,” Su Miaoyi said.

Zhuang Yanzheng inspected the surroundings. ”We also found Zhu Xuan’s ticket purchase. She bought a ticket to Luo City last night. She was taking the subway to the high-speed rail station this morning.”

”She was planning to go after the person in Luo City?” Su Miaoyi asked.

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded.

They had been so close. A little longer and Zhu Xuan would have been out of Jinghai.

Thank goodness for Su Miaoyi.

Otherwise, things would have gotten complicated.

Not only would catching her have been a nightmare, but someone else would have died in Luo City.

”Captain Zhuang, I found a photo over here,” a voice called out from the bedroom.

Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng went over.

It was a photo of Shi Xiaoru and Zhu Xuan, and it looked to be nearly ten years old.

”They must have been very close,” Su Miaoyi observed. ”The photo is quite old, but it’s been kept in excellent condition. By keeping it in her nightstand, she must have looked at it often.”

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at the red string pendant on Zhu Xuan’s neck in the photo. ”She was wearing this pendant today.”

When Su Miaoyi and Lu Zhishen had pinned her to the ground, the pendant had fallen out from under her shirt.

Zhuang Yanzheng, who had been helping the old woman at the time, happened to see it.

”She’s a skilled fighter,” Su Miaoyi said. ”It’s like she’s had some kind of formal training.”

Zhuang Yanzheng agreed.

They searched Zhu Xuan’s home thoroughly and took her computer with them.

Back at the Municipal Bureau.

The moment Zhuang Yanzheng stepped into the office area...

...Chu Xingrou rushed over to him. ”Captain Zhuang, you’re hurt?!”

”Who’s hurt?” Zhuang Yanzheng looked completely baffled.

”Huh?” Chu Xingrou looked at him, her eyes filled with worry. ”But... Brother Zheng just said you were hurt.”

Brother Zheng had been part of the arrest team and had returned earlier with Lu Zhishen’s group, escorting Zhu Xuan.

Hearing Chu Xingrou, Su Miaoyi grabbed Zhuang Yanzheng’s arm and rolled up his sleeve. ”The ’injury’.”

Chu Xingrou stared at the fingernail marks on his arm. Some had broken the skin, while others were just purple bruises.

She took one look, then turned and walked away without another word.

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at Su Miaoyi.

Su Miaoyi slowly let go of his arm.

”Captain Zhuang, what are you doing here? I heard you were hurt! Why didn’t you go to the hospital? Where is it?” Qi Feng spotted him and, his face a mask of concern, practically slid over to his side. ”Where are you hurt? Where?”

His hands flailed about, though he didn’t dare actually touch Zhuang Yanzheng.

Zhuang Yanzheng raised his arm. ”The ’injury’.”

Qi Feng stared at his arm, dumbfounded for a couple of seconds. ”Oh.”

He scratched his head. ”I think I’ll go check on Lu the Painter. His injuries sound a bit more serious.”

Qi Feng had just left, and Zhuang Yanzheng was about to head to the conference room when Yan Cheng appeared, first-aid kit in hand. ”Where are you hurt?”

Zhuang Yanzheng said, ”...My face.”

Yan Cheng studied his face. Aside from the stubble from pulling an all-nighter, it looked exactly the same as always.

”I don’t think his face is hurt. I think he’s lost face,” Su Miaoyi whispered.

Zhuang Yanzheng turned his head to look at her.

Su Miaoyi turned to leave.

Zhuang Yanzheng grabbed the back of her hood and pulled her back.

Su Miaoyi pointed to Zhuang Yanzheng’s arm for Yan Cheng. ”This is the ’injury’.”

Yan Cheng stared. ”...”

’I just finished bandaging Lu Zhishen,’ he thought, ’and I rushed right over when I heard he was hurt, too. All to inspect the shape of some fingernail scratches?’

After speaking, Su Miaoyi lowered her head and stood perfectly still, pretending to be a small, inanimate charm hanging off of him.

”What’s the status of Luo Min’s autopsy?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

”We ran the DNA. It’s a match for the head and hands from the branch precinct. It’s the same person,” Yan Cheng said. ”Dismemberment was post-mortem. The cause of death was the stab wound to the chest, which pierced the heart.”

”The stab wound to the chest was incredibly clean and decisive,” he continued. ”But the dismemberment was amateurish. You could call it a hack job. Time of death was approximately nine days ago.”

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded.

”I’m heading out,” Yan Cheng said, picking up his first-aid kit and heading back to the autopsy room.

Su Miaoyi was still pretending she didn’t exist.

Zhuang Yanzheng walked toward the conference room, still holding her hood and towing her along.

”Captain Zhuang, the ginger soup got cold, so the cafeteria staff made a fresh pot. There’s breakfast, too. Brother Zheng brought some back. You should eat something.”

Zhuang Yanzheng took the breakfast and ginger soup.

When they got to the conference room, he handed the ginger soup to Su Miaoyi.

Zhuang Yanzheng had asked the cafeteria to make ginger soup when they returned from Evergreen River.

But Su Miaoyi had been in the autopsy room, and from there she had gone straight to the arrest.

Zhuang Yanzheng had also been busy.

And so they had both forgotten about it.

In the conference room, they looked over Zhu Xuan’s file.

Su Miaoyi held her breath and downed the ginger soup in one go.

She quickly took a couple of bites of her breakfast to get rid of the taste.

But when she looked up, Zhuang Yanzheng had already devoured his breakfast in just a few bites.

He ate so fast, Su Miaoyi wondered if he had just opened up his stomach and dropped the food directly inside.

She quickly sped up too, not tasting a single thing.

By the time they finished eating, they had also finished reading the file.

Zhuang Yanzheng headed over to the tech department.

”The owner of this computer has some technical skills,” someone from the tech department reported. ”The password is hard to crack. We’ll need more time.”

”Make it quick,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

No matter what they tried, Zhu Xuan refused to give up her computer password.

They had, however, managed to unlock her phone using her fingerprint.

While the tech department worked on cracking the computer password, the DNA extracted from the blood on the floor of Zhu Xuan’s apartment came back as a match for Luo Min.

The fruit knife and meat cleaver they’d brought back had been washed so thoroughly that no traces of blood could be found.

The DNA from the strand of hair found under the sofa at Wu Liang’s place was a match for Zhu Xuan.

With the tech department at a standstill, Zhuang Yanzheng went to interrogate Zhu Xuan.

Su Miaoyi went to listen from outside the interrogation room.

After confirming her basic information, Zhuang Yanzheng asked, ”Do you know Xiao Xia?”

”No,” Zhu Xuan said.

Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at her. ”Wu Liang?”

”Don’t know him.”

”And Luo Min?”

”I know her.”

”How did you meet?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

”We met in a computer class.”

”What kind of computer class?”

”It was at one of those training centers that teach computer skills, like programming,” Zhu Xuan said. ”We both signed up for the same course and met there. This was back when we were both in Ji City.”