Chapter 1413: A Case with two Criminals
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Xia Fan was startled. In truth, this sort of simulated crime scene was not his strongest suit. Everything was staged, and even the blood used was pig’s blood rather than real blood. Neither his Scent special ability nor his Beast Control Technique could be properly utilized.
Wang Jing said in an encouraging tone, “Seeing how you look like you’re in deep thought, it seems like you must have thought of something. There’s no pressure, so why don’t you share what you’re wondering about?”
Xia Fan nodded. “I was thinking that the killer might not have been alone.”
Everyone was stunned. A single person’s fingerprint and footprint were distinctly left at the crime scene. If this was a case with two murderers, where had the traces from the other person gone to? The murderer could not have possibly cleaned up the traces from just one person, and intentionally left the traces of the other one behind, right?
Wang Jing’s eyes shone as he encouraged Xia Fan, “Very interesting. Why don’t you elaborate?”
!!
Xia Fan made his way to the corpse and pointed at the knife wounds, “Everyone can see the concentrated wounds on the victim’s stomach, but this is by no means coincidence; it looks as if the killer had very carefully planned them.
“The facts confirm this: out of the twenty-seven wounds made, twenty-six of them were non-fatal. The truly fatal blow was this stab right here, thrusting straight into the victim’s heart. If you examine this wound closely, you will realize how different this wound is compared to the others.”
How was that possible!?
Everyone present was dumbfounded. Everyone had examined the same crime scene, yet no one came to the conclusion that the knife wounds were not all the same.
“Everyone, listen to me.” Xia Fan raised his hands to encourage everyone to keep quiet, and proceeded to point at the wound on the heart as he explained, “The victim’s a woman, acted by a staff member from the camp. Furthermore, this stab happens to have been stabbed at the more sensitive chest region, which is why everyone was not too willing to get too near and examine it closely when inspecting the corpse. After all, the possibility of being mistaken as a thug if they got too close to it exists.
“But I happened to examine it closely. This wound is slightly more downward than the other wounds, and the degree of spreadness was slightly larger by 0.3 millimeters. Humans habitually exert strength differently from others; the same left-handed punch by two people, the sequence by which their muscle fibers are exerted will be distinctly different if anyone watches it in slow motion.
Xia Fan used his hand to mime a stabbing motion as he explained this, demonstrating that if height was different, the strength index was dissimilar, and the muscular strength was inconsistent, even if two people made the same action, there would be a vast difference in the final execution. They could simulate behavior, but there was no way they could make it 100% similar.
Everyone present was now deep in thought. What Xia Fan had said was not wrong. There were many superb imitators in the world, but there was no way someone could 100% imitate another…
Meanwhile, everyone also recalled seeing Xia Fan leering at the voluptuous chest of the woman earlier, and that no other cadets had done what he had . After all, the one lying on the bed acting out this crime scene was actually a staff member of the camp. To stare so intently there for too long would make things awkward if they were to cross paths in the future.
“My conclusion is that there are two killers. Though the first did aggressively attack the victim, he or she had did so in a very measured manner, with no intention of killing the victim. That was why everyone could see there was such a patchwork of intricate wounds which were very precise.
“The first killer might have even left a mobile on the table after they were done venting, somewhere that the victim could reach, all so that she could have a chance to be saved. The phone had the fingerprints of the killer, this fact was mentioned in the survey report.
“But it was such a pity, that after the first killer left the crime scene, a second killer swiftly appeared, and this person was far more vicious than the first. He or she immediately went over and took the life of the victim with a single stab, and then set up the crime scene.”
The entire room was silent. Xia Fan had practically overturned the conclusions that both Traveling Buddha and Lengyun had come to. Traveling Buddha was lazy in nature, and he looked completely unconcerned with all this, leaning against the wall, scratching his neck in complete disinterest.
Meanwhile, Lengyun was enraged, growling, “What kind of inference are you making, Cadet Xia! You’ll need to provide far more evidence in order to prove your conclusion!”
Xia Fan chuckled, “Where would I find even more evidence? Even the blood at this crime scene used pig’s blood, and the victim is acted out by a staff member of the training camp. Look there, that woman is still breathing as she lies on the bed.”
Xia Fan’s words elicited laughter from the crowd. Even the woman acting as the victim could not hold it in any longer and was snickering, so she decided to just get up from the bed. She was quite the charming woman, and while Xia Fan could see the crow’s feet in the corners of her eyes, this woman nevertheless exuded the beauty of a mature lady, with almond-shaped eyes that could seduce the soul. Xia Fan could not recall seeing her anywhere in the camp before.
Xia Fan continued, “A simulated crime scene is no different from children playing house; everyone needs to employ their imagination to their utmost, and provide an inference based upon the clues found. There’s no need to treat this so seriously.
“If you want to talk about realism, when setting up the crime scene, the staff left several strands of hair in the bathroom, and aside from the fingerprints of the killer, there were also plenty of fingerprints that the staff accidentally left behind. The investigation report clearly stated that the light switch had traces of blood on it, yet the staff completely forgot about that. What should we do about that?
“In such a rudimentary environment, to eliminate so many interferences and spot usable clues from all that isn’t bad already. If you ask me, the results of a simulated crime scene cannot be counted at all, since I’m afraid that ninety percent of the clues found here are wrong.
“Actually, I can still point out even more clues about the existence of two criminals, but I wouldn’t treat them as evidence, because I know that they were all added in by the staff at a later period, and there are too many tampering factors to consider. The only fact that was not made by mistake is the wounds, because the wounds were reproduced with laser technology in a perfect one-to-one projection, which is why I can only draw my inferences from the wound.”
Lengyun’s face had turned scarlet red after hearing Xia Fan’s words. He turned his head away indignantly, while the others were dumbfounded. Xia Fan had discovered many traces left by the staff that most of the others had not even found. Soul Flying Bird recalled how XIa Fan had shook his head when he retrieved the two strands of hair from the bath towel; so it turned out that he already knew that they were accidentally left by the staff!
*Clap clap clap clap!*
Wang Jing applauded as he said, “Riveting! Absolutely riveting! Right now everyone should more or less know why I did not mention a word about points today, right? That is because everyone in the Technical Division also knows that when a crime scene is just a simulation, there will be plenty of omissions that make it unfair to be used as a basis for testing.
“What Xia Fan had said is correct; the standard of our Technical Division’s ability to reproduce crime scenes is absolutely worrying. Let’s do it this way:Xia Fan had found so many flaws that I’m sure my colleagues are all already hiding behind the scenes, blushing hard.
“Everyone, you’ve all done well! I hope you’ll continue to work harder in the future!”
The cadets were dismissed, but the shock that Xia Fan had given them became a topic of discussion for them. Just as they headed up, Flying Bird suddenly thought of something and asked Waing Jing, “Teacher Wang, you haven’t told us the truth yet, have you?”
Wang Jing froze, glanced at Xia Fan, before finally saying in a grave voice, “Traveling Buddha’s conclusion was half-correct, while Xia Fan’s conclusion was completely correct. The relevant information shall be sent to your personal emails before tonight. If any of you have any questions, you’re welcome to come to the Technical Division and discuss the matter.”
The moment Lengyun heard that, he abruptly came to a halt, like someone had given his face two tight-slaps. Worse, the stinging pain came from an intermediate cadet and a novice cadet! They had smashed his position as the big brother of the Technical Department, making him feel very discontented deep down.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Lengyun saw the slight smile on Xia Fan’s face as he humbly accepted the congratulations from his fellows, as well as the completely unconcerned Traveling Buddha, a look of absolute nonchalance on his face. It all left Lengyun feeling an anger inside him that was difficult to quell.
“*Hmph!” Snorting coldly, Lengyun quickened his pace and left without looking back.
…
The cruel eliminations at Blue Boiling Point Training Camp would never stop. On one hand, the number of cadets in the most recent class who had been removed from the Camp had already reached close to ten thousand. The others who still remained in the Camp felt as if there was a spear behind their backs while they desperately worked hard and studied, afraid that they would be the next on the chopping block.
On the other hand, the most outstanding individuals among the cadets in that semester were standing out at astounding speed: Xia Fan, Soul Flying Bird, Jaden, Du Xue, Hei Bolong, Sa-Ning, Browning and Xiao Yixi. Six weeks after joining the Camp, they were all wearing dark blue Intermediate Cadet uniforms.
There was a huge leap to go from novice to intermediate. While there were a total of several hundred thousand cadets at the novice tier in the camp, there were only five thousand and not even two thousand cadets at the intermediate and advance tiers, respectively.
Logically speaking, it should have been easier to teach and manage the cadets the fewer they were. However, Xia Fan’s rhythm of life did not get any slower, because the four divisions were still bickering over what aspect Xia Fan should focus on. Their inability to decide which direction Xia Fan should be taking led him to learn everything.
Xia Fan joined in the combat courses, kept up with the lessons from the Technical Division, and was even expected to tag along with the Reconnaissance Division’s field training.
He became a very important presence in the camp, living like he was an old bull who would immediately head off to another class after he was done with the last.
“Xia Fan? Yeah, I know him. He’s a fellow cadet of mine.”
“What do you study?”
“Biochemistry Discipline, Technical Division.”
“What a coincidence. I am studying the Disguise Discipline of the Reconnaissance Division. Xia Fan is also a fellow cadet there!”
“Xia Fan is also my fellow cadet, and I’m studying the Apprehension Discipline of the Combat Division.”
At the moment, the general idea Xia Fan had was to learn everything, which made him a fellow cadet to everyone. Soon he was vaguely familiar with everyone he crossed paths with.
Xia Fan was really annoyed. The course of an intermediate cadet was actually much more relaxed, given that the moment they were made to focus on a discipline, there would t be a limit to what they needed to study about the other aspects of the job.
Take Flying Bird, for example. As a member of the Combat Division, he was also aware of some technical skills, but his main classes were still focused on mastering combat techniques. When he was assigned to the Special Bureau in the future, being able to fight and protect his colleagues would be the scope of his responsibility.
But Xia Fan was different. He needed to learn and train anything and everything, leaving him with not even the slightest bit of time for himself. He had no choice about living such a life when he was in the Holy Tomb, since there was nothing to do except learn and train when he was trapped under the sky dome.
But this was universal society! Continuing to live like an ascetic would sooner or later drive Xia Fan insane at this rate.
——
Early in the morning, Xia Fan turned off his wrist communicator and tossed it into his room, just so he could spare himself the misery of seeing the series of lesson notifications waiting for him.
He did not put on a uniform, and was only dressed in a set of casual exercise clothes. He left the dormitory to go for a walk, his hands in his pockets and his tongue slightly rolled up, letting out a high frequency soundwave. There was a squirrel living in the forest behind the forest who suddenly ran up his body and perched himself on Xia Fan’s shoulder as he proceeded to take the mountain path up to its peak.
The view from the top was great. Sitting by a huge boulder by the cliff, Xia Fan could see a sweeping vista of the campgrounds below, the edge of the city visible far out in the distance.
“Come, eat some.” Xia Fan fished out a bag of butter-roasted peanuts and gave the little squirrel a piece, eating the snack with him.
Xia Fan had found this little creature after he first arrived at the camp. It had been abandoned by its mother and was starving, so it had boldly crawled into the trash can behind the dormitory. Xia Fan happened to pass by and saw how pitiful it was, so he began to give it a little something to eat every day. As time went by, they managed to foster a better relationship with one another.
Winter had already passed, so the forest was becoming more and more abundant. Though the little creature could survive on its own, it had already become its habit to wait for Xia Fan’s whistle every day, while Xia Fan was more than happy to become its companion.
Stretching himself out, Xia Fan laid back comfortably on the stone and allowed himself to bask in the sunlight.
There was the sound of someone climbing the mountain a short distance away. This person had very soft footsteps, and Xia Fan thought nothing of it, choosing to continue keeping his eyes closed and enjoy the moment.
“What are you doing here?” the voice of an old man asked curiously.
Xia Fan opened his eyes, fixing them on an old man wearing very simple clothes. He was not very tall, and looked unremarkable. Xia Fan reckoned he must be a logistic personnel from the camp.
“I’m playing truant,” Xia Fan answered with a radiant smile.
