Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“No sooner do we get out of one kind of trouble, when down comes another!” Ran Tao was speaking from the passenger seat. “I just memorized all of the information regarding the Headless Female Corpse Case. Why would there suddenly be a random killing case that popped up out of nowhere? The murderer is crazy to blackmail in such a bold way!”
“Yeah,” Wu Xiumin added, “I thought this job with the special investigation team would be relaxing! Who knew it would be this crazy?!”
Zhao Yu was driving his Phaeton, rushing with his team member to Jinping. Theoretically, Ran Tao should be the one driving, since he was in charge of all fieldwork. But, the car was given to Zhao Yu by Miao Ying, so he wasn’t comfortable letting other people drive it.
“Team Lead, I looked into all of the information that you told me to check,” Zeng Ke said, as he fiddled with his laptop. “The nation holds a controlling number of shares, and it is a chinese-foreign joint venture. Not only is the Changxin Tailong Pharmaceutical Factory the pillar of all of the enterprises in Jin’an, but it is also the leader of the national pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. It has seven branch offices across the nation. Its Jinping headquarters alone has more than ten thousand staff members!”
“Wow! So many?” Wu Xiumin said. “Even if he kills one a day, he wouldn’t be able to kill them all in his entire lifetime!”
“Please, you are a psychologist, not a killing maniac, okay?” Ran Tao teased. “Are you eager to see the world plunged into chaos?”
“Hey, how can you speak like that?” Wu Xinmin panicked. “I am only giving an example! It is just your brain that is unhealthy, okay?”
“It actually wouldn’t take his entire life, as the headquarter factory has a total of ten thousand and sixty-five people. If the murderer were to kill one a day, it would only require twenty-seven years and six months!” Zeng Ke said.
“Dang, another psychotic!” Ran Tao hugged his shoulders and told Zhao Yu, “Team Lead, look who you have you recruited!”
“I think, if anyone here is psychotic, it is you!” Wu Xiumin refuted. “You only know how to blab and tell obscene jokes. This is a kind of mental shortcoming, too! Son, did you grow up in an orphanage?”
“You…” Ran Tao was burning with rage. He held his fists tight and went crazy.
“Ah! Hero, please stay back in my sweet dream…”
Just then, Zhao Yu’s phone suddenly rang. The loud ringtone covered his team members’ growling voices.
“Hello? Wh… What?!” Zhao Yu answered the call and his face suddenly grew grave!
The team members noticed this change and suddenly became quiet. A minute later, Zhao Yu hung up the phone and told everyone, “As all of you wished, another staff member is dead! Are you happy now?”
Everyone was shocked, as they never expected that the Hasty Murder Case would have another new deceased victim so quickly! Then, they realized that the topic that they were just talking about had been handled very irresponsibly by them, and they hung their heads low in shame!
…
Zhao Yu and his team arrived at the Jinping police building at ten in the morning. Although they received a welcome worth their high ranks, the atmosphere was obviously different from before.
Due to the urgency of the case, neither parties didn’t managed to exchange conventional greetings, but entered the case analytic room in the police station together to immediately start the task of analyzing the case.
They skipped all small talk, instead going straight to talking about the main topic. The captain of the criminal police in the Jingpin Police Station, Li Luoyun, introduced Zhao Yu and his team members to the recent developments of the case in detail, then showed them the letter from the blackmailer.
The letter was printed digitally, and it requested that the person, who was in charge of the Changxin Tailong Pharmaceutical Factory, send five million dollars to an account that he appointed. Otherwise, he would kill a person from their pharmaceutical factory every day!
At the beginning, they thought it was just a ridiculous prank. They had never thought that the blackmailer would really kill anyone! The moment the first victim appeared, the higher ups of the pharmaceutical factory finally realized that the situation was very serious, so they lodged a police report.
Now, it appeared that the murderer knew perfectly that he wouldn’t be able to force the other party to send five million dollars obediently, at least not with just one blackmail letter! Hence, he opted for more bloody measures. In one of the parks, he killed a marketing manager of the pharmaceutical factory with a blunt weapon.
The weird thing about this, though, was that after the murderer killed the first victim, he didn’t contact the pharmaceutical factory, nor did he send another anonymous blackmail letter. It wasn’t until the second victim appeared, that the murderer made a call to the board of directors of the pharmaceutical factory. Over the phone, he insisted that the pharmaceutical factory send him that same fee of five million!
However, due to the person who answered the call not having the rank or authority to make a decision, the murderer hung up the phone immediately. He didn’t even have a chance to give any method of payment for the fees! And, you guessed it, there was a third victim found the next morning!
The third victim died a terrifying death. He was a male quality control inspector from the pharmaceutical factory. After he got to work that morning, he suddenly showed signs of being poisoned. They called an ambulance, but his heart stopped beating before it arrived.
As this was definitely getting out of hand, the police had already sent people to bug all of the phones at the board of directors and the pharmaceutical factory, just in case the murderer made another blackmail call. Then, the captain of the criminal police, Li Luoyun, shared more of their current information with Zhao Yu and his team.
The police weren’t sure of the exact number of murderers involved in the Hasty Murder Case. They weren’t sure if it was an individual or the act of an entire criminal gang.
Plus, the objective of the murderer wasn’t very clear. He gave a condition, and it seemed to be motivated by money. However, his actions didn’t seem to be fueled by the desire for money.
To threaten and blackmail for money via murder wasn’t just a very rare criminal method, it was simply unprecedented! So, the Jinping police suspected that the murderer of the Hasty Murder Case had another goal in mind!
“We combined all of the information and sent it through numerous levels of analyzation, so that we could be certain that the goal of the murderer was revenge!” Li Luoyun declared.
Hearing the report, Zhao Yu nodded continuously, obviously agreeing with Li Luoyun’s inference. Before getting into this line of work, Zhao Yu had seen too many people killed in revenge. He thought, if the murderer of the case were to only be after money, he would be totally satisfied to receive a ransom through kidnapping and other methods, and would thus have no need to kill.
As such, there were already three victims. One was killed with a blunt weapon, one was burnt to death, and another one was poisoned to death. Zhao Yu was almost certain that such killings were totally motivated by revenge! However, Zhao Yu couldn’t figure out who the murderer was trying to take revenge on.
The factory or the deceased victims?
If he was trying to take revenge on the factory, why didn’t he just kill the higher ups of the factory? Wouldn’t it make more sense to vent his anger that way?
Also, if his revenge was directed at those victims, why would he send out a blackmail letter asking for five million from the pharmaceutical factory?
There was definitely the existence of contradictions. If he couldn’t clear them up, it would be difficult to find out the true motive of the murderer!
What is the murderer planning to do next, exactly?!
Suddenly, he linked his thoughts to the Kun hexagram that he had received. Zhao Yu gradually became certain about one thing regarding the Hasty Murder Case… Whatever the goal of the murderer was, it must be something major!
