CLG Chapter 1

Jianghe City, a mountain city in the southwest.

In a dark alley, two people stood facing each other. One had long, loose hair, clearly a woman. The other wore a hat, head lowered, making it difficult to see their expression.

The woman shook her head, a faint smile tugging at her lips. At this moment, she seemed relieved. She pulled out a sharp, gleaming dagger. “There’s no time, and I don’t want to wait any longer.” The silver blade reflected her determination.

She seemed to understand…

A few minutes later, a crisp clang was heard, the sound of metal hitting the ground, along with blood silently splattering. A woman clutching her stomach emerged from the alley, her stomach a bloody mess, staining her pure white short-sleeved shirt red.

It was the end of the workday, and the gentle glow of the setting sun shone on her, her black shadow stretching long. Passersby seemed to notice her condition. Some quickly skirted past her, some stared at her suspiciously, and others cautiously walked toward her.

She no longer called for help; she was no longer speaking. But whether her hand was still, whether she was writing something, a moment later, her hand dropped to the ground. Then, she mustered all her strength to turn over, facing the ground, no longer moving. Someone said she was still alive, so they quickly dialed the emergency number.

The woman was murdered in broad daylight on a busy street. Soon, the scene was swarming with people, even affecting traffic nearby. Before long, many media outlets flocked to the scene, and ambulances and police arrived. But alas, when the paramedics arrived, she had already breathed her last.

After a brief exchange between the paramedics and the police, Li Zhong, the leader of the Criminal Investigation Unit, squeezed through the crowd to the body. As soon as he arrived, he saw the crime scene. Instead of saying whether the deceased was lying on her back, she was facing the sky. Her eyes were still gazing ahead, her expression somewhat peaceful. Li Zhong raised his head in confusion. The sky had already darkened. Besides the afterglow of dusk, he didn’t know what she was looking at.

It was said that no one had maintained the scene, so only a few people went to her side, and no one stepped on the blood stains. It seemed that the area where the blood stains connected to the alley was the primary crime scene.

“I heard that she was stabbed on the spot, and she called for help.” Just as Li Zhong was thinking, the female police officer next to him spoke. Her name was Yang Xiaomin, a newcomer who had just joined the Criminal Investigation Unit and was now learning from Li Zhong. After completing the basic inspection, she faced Li Zhong and said.

“Called for help?”

He walked to the entrance of the alley. It was a dark alley connecting to the road. The sun couldn’t shine there from the side. The width was about 1.3 meters. It wasn’t dirty or messy inside. Opposite was another street. It seemed that people occasionally walked there.

There wasn’t much blood spatter on the walls of the scene, or rather, none. The blood was all stained on her clothes. It was probably a stab directly to the abdomen. There were also scattered drops of blood on the ground, most likely caused by the murder weapon falling.

“Ask the people at the scene again.” Li Zhong looked around, raised his head, and found that there was a camera nearby, so that should save some trouble. When he went over, he heard passersby talking in low voices. From the mouths of the passersby, he learned that this seemed to be a homicide case.

To commit a murder in broad daylight, the perpetrator was bold enough.

“Saw it, she seemed to be stabbed.”

“I seemed to see her entering the alley with someone before… When I paid attention again, she had already fallen to the ground.”

“That’s roughly it.” Li Zhong also successively questioned the surrounding crowd, and the answers he received were similar, that the deceased seemed to be suddenly stabbed, and then fell to the ground not far away. Before she died, she used her own blood to write a person’s name, then turned over, and finally died. After she stopped moving, people began to Surrounding, but the camera wasn’t clear, and it was far away, so it was impossible to see the specific faces.

The only thing that was important and regretful was that no one saw the murderer.

“Shi Hua?” Li Zhong glanced at his work permit, then handed it to him. “Before the case is completely clarified, don’t write anything random.”

“Good, good, good, don’t worry, I definitely won’t write those sensational news to gain traffic.” Shi Hua smiled. He didn’t leave. He said to Li Zhong in a low voice, “Captain Li, can I come in to take pictures?”

Being able to find the deceased’s information at the crime scene was the best, as it saved a lot of effort.

After conducting a comprehensive inspection of the crime scene, Li Zhong observed the nearby surveillance cameras that could be retrieved. Fortunately, there was a camera here.

“It seems that it was a sudden murder after an argument.” Yang Xiaomin recorded the passersby’s words in her notebook. After listening, she analyzed to the side.

“Maybe… Let’s go back first.”

Some people on the roadside also identified the missing woman as a suspect.

Due to the suddenness of the incident and the seriousness of the nature of the incident, Li Zhong and others had to work overtime to investigate. The first thing to do was to retrieve the surveillance footage next to the scene.

“The deceased’s name is Meng Yue, unemployed. Her phone didn’t have the phone numbers of her relatives. We have already contacted the community where she lives to see if we can contact some of her relatives.” Yang Xiaomin also verified the identity of the deceased. She stood next to Li Zhong and said.

“Unemployed?”

Hopefully, she’s not engaged in some gray industry, otherwise the interpersonal relationships would be too complicated, Li Zhong hoped.

“Yes.”

“How is it? Did the surveillance capture the situation at the time of the crime?” Yang Xiaomin looked at the screen and asked.

This was also difficult to handle. If it was another person who committed the crime, then the video had missed the most crucial moment. When the deceased reappeared in the camera, she was already clutching her stomach. No one noticed her situation at first, and soon after, she staggered and fell. She first fell to the ground, sporadically using her own blood to write a person’s name, then turned over, and finally died. After she stopped moving, she began to be Surrounding, but the camera wasn’t clear and was far away, so she couldn’t see the specific faces.

“Yes, yes, yes! Found it!” After being reminded by Li Zhong, she remembered that in addition to the most important deceased, there was also this most crucial name.

“But, I feel like they have no connection.”

Li Zhong came to the computer with her and found that there were indeed three people with the same name in Jianghe City, but several people’s registered residences weren’t in the same place as her. One was a child from a township who was studying in the city, one was an outsider working here, and most importantly, their ages were very different from the deceased. Without exception, they were all male. The most outrageous one was the third person, who was also the only one in Jianghe City, but he was already dead. It was said that he was quite famous when he was alive, but the deceased couldn’t have committed the crime.

“What about the forensic doctor?”

“Chang Yi is still waiting for your notification, but he said that, based on the current situation, the fatal wound is the stab wound on the stomach, which is likely to injure the internal organs. The organ injuries, combined with massive bleeding, led to hypovolemic shock.”

“Autopsy?”

Because Meng Yue was an orphan, Li Zhong was silent for a moment. “Wait a moment, let’s see if we can find his relatives.”

“That’s almost it, today ends here, come back and rest.” Li Zhong said.

Li Zhong returned home, opened his phone, and saw some public opinion about the case that happened this afternoon. Some people had also posted some videos in their Moments. Among them, there was a report from a newspaper that had been forwarded by many people online. He clicked in to take a look, “Middle-aged woman killed on the street, leaving information suspected to be a person’s name.” Li Zhong casually glanced at it, and at the end of the article there was a signature, reporter, Shi Hua. This reminded him of the man he met in the afternoon.

Chen Xuelin, could it be a person’s name? Shi Hua expressed his opinion in the article. But what Li Zhong felt strange about was that his article vaguely mentioned a woman named “Chen Xuelin”, and the name he mentioned had existed for four years, but they had ruled out that person.

The article was slightly popular, so naturally some people posted their opinions below. However, most of them expressed their anger. After all, the circumstances of committing murder on the street were very bad, especially in a crowded street area. The higher the popularity, the greater the pressure on the police. Li Zhong couldn’t help but close his eyes tightly and threw the phone aside.

The next day, Li Zhong came to the Criminal Investigation Unit, and Yang Xiaomin came to his side.

“Captain, the people named Chen Xuelin have been summoned. Should I come over and ask them?”

“But I feel that they have nothing to do with the deceased.” Yang Xiaomin took out the evidence bag again, “The phone password has also been cracked, and the communication information inside has also been obtained, but…”

“But what?” Li Zhong asked, seeing her expression change slightly.

“But there are only three people in her phone’s address book. One of the names is Chen Xuelin.” Hearing this, before Li Zhong could be surprised, Yang Xiaomin changed her tone, “Unfortunately, that number has been cancelled long ago. It’s an empty number.”

“Captain, don’t you think it’s strange?”

“How can someone have so few phone contacts?”

“Let’s meet those two people named Chen Xuelin first.”

After a morning of interrogation and investigation Combination analysis, Li Zhong believed that these two people really had no relationship with the deceased. One was even a student who was taking a leave of absence, because the “homicide” that happened yesterday indirectly affected his life and death in school. To prove himself, he directly took a leave of absence to report the situation. The other was just an ordinary worker. Whether from the real world or online, they had no contact with the deceased, and had alibis, indicating that they had no connection with Meng Yue’s death.

There were no clues from the people with the same name. Li Zhong turned to look at Meng Yue’s information, and was quite surprised at first glance. Her information showed that this person was also a master’s graduate of Jianghe University, which was considered a high education level. He just didn’t know why she had resigned from school two years ago, and had been unemployed ever since, without looking for a job.

The names of two people who contacted the deceased Meng Yue the most were written on it. One was called Mo Wenli, and the other was called Shi Hua.

When he saw the name Shi Hua, Li Zhong recalled the woman he met at the scene who looked a little unpleasant…

This woman wasn’t simple either, because she had just been released from prison not long ago, and was a person with a criminal record, the crime being intentional homicide.

“Found it.”

“Let’s go.”