After lunch, Lin Qiupu called everyone into the conference room. When Lin Dongxue arrived, she saw Xu Xiaodong’s eyes dancing around several female police officers, “Did you hear? This morning, Captain Lin was made speechless by a mere driver, and was eventually forced to release him obediently!”

“What are you talking about?” Lin Dongxue put the information in her hands down.

The female police officers all huddled together, and Xu Xiaodong smiled and came over, “I didn’t mean anything by it, so don’t be angry. I reckon this guy is a sly old fritter[1]. Unless we have concrete evidence, he won’t own up so easily.”

“Keep your distance from me!” Lin Dongxue said with disgust.

“Miss Lin, don’t take your frustration out on me. Why don’t I treat you to a hot pot[2] tonight?”

“Get lost. Get lost. Get lost! Who would want that?!”

At this time, Lin Qiupu arrived, and everyone immediately became quiet. Lin Qiupu cleared his throat, "There’s already some leads in the case, but we still lack evidence. I know that you have all worked hard in investigating the case, but we can't relax just yet."

After summarizing the information on hand briefly, Lin Qiupu assigned tasks to the police officers, "Xiao Qi, Xiao Wang, you two go to the Traffic Management Bureau to investigate what vehicles were passing through the murder scene that night. Xiao Dong, Lao Wang, you guys are to walk around the scene. I need to expand the scope of the witnesses; everyone else, I will send you the interrogation records for you to see if the situation that Chen Shi spoke of is true or false."

Lin Dongxue widened her eyes. Did Chen Shi have the ability to foretell the future? Even the wording was almost precisely the same!

Someone stood up and asked, “Capt. Lin, do you still think Chen Shi is a suspect?”

Lin Qiupu replied, "I don't believe that he is completely innocent. This person is probably the key to a breakthrough. This lead can’t be so easily discarded!" Lin Qiupu’s words were full of confidence as if he couldn’t be wrong, and many nodded, faithfully agreeing with him.

If Lin Dongxue had not spoken with Chen Shi before this, she would have probably also followed suit. Now her mind was all muddled. Although she has always hated her brother, she has never denied her brother’s ability. However, she seriously doubted that belief at this point.

Lin Dongxue didn’t hear a single word in the latter half of Lin Qiupu’s speech. It wasn’t until Lin Qiupu announced that the meeting was adjourned did Lin Dongxue stand up and walk away.

After leaving the meeting room, Lin Dongxue called Chen Shi immediately, “Where are you?”

“It looks like what I said was on point?” A carefree voice sounded from the phone.

Lin Dongxue really didn’t want to boost this guy’s ego, so she just downplayed the situation, “It was passable. You were barely right.”

“Haha!” Chen Shi laughed, “I am currently outside Feng Zhilin Hotel. Bring the autopsy report and a photo of the scene to me. I’ll give you an hour.”

“Hey! Hey!” Lin Dongxue yelled for him not to hang up. However, the call had already dropped. Lin Dongxue was so angry she stomped her foot once more.

There were several copies of the autopsy report that had been printed out for the team, so Lin Dongxue was able to obtain a copy with ease. As for the photos of the scene, she was forced to sneak into Lin Qiupu’s office and take a picture of them with her phone.

Lin Dongxue called a cab and instructed it to take her to Feng Zhilin Hotel. She looked left and right, and just as she was about to pick up her phone to contact him, Chen Shi called out to her, “This way, this way!”

Chen Shi was sitting in a beef noodle restaurant, eating noodles. Lin Dongxue sat down next to him, “You’re so free!”

“I’m currently investigating a case,” Chen Shi slurped a large mouthful of noodles.

“What are we investigating out here?”

“I told you repeatedly that the female passenger got out of my car here on that night. You guys would’ve preferred to die than believe me, so I could only come personally to investigate. However, they won’t let me see the check-in records, so we’ll have to borrow your ID.”

“Feng Zhilin Hotel? But the woman died on the way here, so logically…”

Chen Shi made a helpless expression, “You still think that I’m the killer?”

“I don’t know! You’re so sly!” Lin Dongxue suddenly questioned what she was doing. This person is probably the real murderer, but I actually discussed the case with him.

Chen Shi’s words and actions were so open and confident. While Chen Shi did feel a tiny bit like a murderer, one couldn’t know for sure. Lin Dongxue had been in the police force for half a year. Although she had participated in several cases, she always worked on the side-lines rather than being part of the core investigation, so she didn’t truly know what a real murderer felt like.

Chen Shi took the autopsy report from her hand, opened it, and declared, "If you believe me, I will be able to give you a first-class merit."

Chen Shi glanced at the autopsy report and read the words on it, “‘The strangulation marks show that the attacker was positioned in the posterior position... The ditch was parallel to the auricle… There were traces of alcohol found on the deceased’s body… There were sexual acts before death…’ Was there alcohol found in the stomach of the deceased? They didn’t write it in the report!”

Lin Dongxue recalled, “The deceased was a medical ambassador. Usually, she has to socialize. According to her colleagues, she had plans to get dinner that night.”

“Did she drink?”

“She probably drank something?”

Chen Shi was cracking-up, “Miss Lin, what do you rely on when you investigate cases?”

Lin Dongxue’s face flushed red, and she argued, “Is that question even important? The murderer was clearly encouraged to act as they did because they were a pervert. What the deceased ate and drank has little to do with the case.”

“Your argument is so flawed that I don’t know where to start. All the details from before the assault happened are also important. I’ll tell you why this detail is important. If there is no alcohol in the stomach, but there’s alcohol in the victim’s blood, it means that the deceased ingested alcohol through other means.”

“Other means?”

“You’re so stupid. Alcohol is a solvent for certain drugs such as Ether!”

Lin Dongxue suddenly understood. Chen Shi pulled out a steel pen from his pocket and added a sentence next to the autopsy report, “Is there any trace of alcohol in the stomach? Are there anesthetic properties found in her blood?”

He continued, “The deceased is a medical ambassador; in other words, a medical student. If the murderer was a person that knew her, there is a high probability that an anesthetic was used.”

Chen Shi continued to read the documents, tapping the paper with his finger, “There are traces of sexual acts, ripped clothes, and many bruises on the body. According to this, the conclusion of rape and murder was reached. I reckon that this is a hasty assumption.”

Lin Dongxue carefully considered his words and suddenly remarked, “If you want to get rid of the suspicion surrounding you, you can’t confuse the facts. How is this not a rape?”

Chen Shi asked abruptly, “Are you a virgin?”

Lin Dongxue’s face flushed so red that it reached the tip of her ears, and she slapped her hand on the table, “What are you on about!?”

“Rape is often concluded based on two factors. When a sexual act is forced by an assailant, because the body is not sexually aroused, the private parts dry up, often accompanied by tears and bleeding. Also, the position of the internal bruise can determine the position taken by the murderer. I feel as though determining that it was rape just because there was sexual behavior is quite careless. Can’t it be said that the deceased had sex with someone before she died?”

“I guess that makes sense!” Lin Dongxue admitted reluctantly.

“Another point lowers the chance of this being a rape even more so. Imagine this scene; if the victim was raped, the murderer must also control the hands and feet of the deceased, and take a position before entering. Even if they were to strangle the person, they would have had to strangle the individual from the front. However, the report shows that she was entered from behind. I can’t imagine how the murderer could have possibly completed this set of actions.”

“It might not be the case. Perhaps after finishing the deed, they suddenly killed-” Lin Dongxue assumed with a red face.

“I am talking about a high probability event! From a morphological point of view, the weapon is a very thick rope. It seems to be a skipping rope. According to your assumptions, this was a sudden killing. Having a skipping rope just appearing in the scene is a bit unreasonable.”

While saying so, Chen Shi wrote his additional comments on the documents, almost filling the entire piece of paper.

Lin Dongxue was deeply impressed. This guy isn't a professional in the industry, but everything he said was reasonable and was better than the criminal investigation lectures that she attended.

“Murder due to rape, in my opinion, is very likely to have been faked!” Chen Shi concluded.

“What?!”

“The murderer is purposely misleading you guys!”

Lin Dongxue seriously thought about Chen Shi’s words.

“There is another thing. I’m afraid you won’t believe me even if I were to tell you!” Chen Shi hesitated.

“What?”

Chen Shi looked over the photo deceased’s face, “This woman is not the one that was in my car that night.”

1. Idiom means they are soaked with experienced and sly. The fritter (YouTiao) is an everyday Chinese deep-fried pastry, most often served during breakfast. It was created out of hatred for a person, and was shaped to be the person and his wife so they could dip “them” in hot oil and tear them apart. See someone explain the full story here: https://www.xing.com/communities/posts/origin-of-youtiao-1007381619. They look like this: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b3/cd/4b/b3cd4b301aede8e1e9f5ee1764977602.jpg

2. Steamboat. It’s where you cook your food in your choice of boiling soup/stew. Please see the picture below: https://www.healthxchange.sg/sites/hexassets/Assets/food-nutrition/tips-healthy-hot-pot.jpg