The surveillance footage from the Garden Community showed Wang Hongqiang turning left after leaving the community, which meant his destination was to the east. Half of the locations on the map were eliminated. Of the remaining four, the most remote was precisely Dongliu Street, where Ji Chenjiao and Ling Lie were at this moment.

Perhaps Wang Hongqiang was “hunting” here that day, but before he could find his “prey,” he fell into a long-woven net.

Where would that person have taken Wang Hongqiang?

“Ah!” Ling Lie pointed to the east. “Leaving the county town from there, there are many abandoned doll factories. Xiao Ji, want to go take a look?”

Huazai County had always been bustling on its west side, with the flower fields and trading areas all located there. More than a decade ago, many factories were built in the east to produce packaging materials for fresh flowers and doll decorations. However, due to poor management and problematic development positioning, these factories did not last long and were abandoned one after another a few years later.

Since the main city of Xiarong was to the west of Huazai County, the county had always been developing westward. The abandoned plots in the east were gradually no longer considered part of Huazai County. The desolation could be imagined.

The setting sun plated the dilapidated low buildings with an even more ancient color. Ji Chenjiao and Ling Lie stood in a rust-covered factory building, looking around, their brows furrowed into several lines.

This place would surely be profitable if converted into a trendy haunted house—sewage dripped from corroded pipes, “drip, drip,” onto the damp floor; unprocessed dolls were strewn about, missing arms and legs. Besides cute animal dolls, there were even adult latex dolls. A strange stench floated in the air, not the smell of a corpse, but more like the rotting smell of various foods and garbage.

In the early morning of March 10th, if Wang Hongqiang had come to Dongliu Street to “hunt,” for what reason would he have voluntarily come here?

The answer was obvious. A person with a graceful figure—not necessarily a woman, perhaps a man dressed as a woman—passed in front of him, pretended to run in panic, and led him to this place.

The factories were sprawling and had no electricity. It was almost impossible for two people to check the entire area before dark. Ji Chenjiao made a call back to the Major Crimes Unit, asking Xi Wan to bring a team for a crime scene investigation, and also requested more than twenty people from Huazai County for the search.

The generator roared to life, and high-power searchlights illuminated the pitch-black factory as bright as day. The only “outsider” at the scene was Ling Lie. He had long since tossed his back basket somewhere, but he was still holding a rose.

While Ji Chenjiao was commanding the scene, he quietly slipped the rose into Ji Chenjiao’s hand. Busy, Ji Chenjiao didn’t notice what he was holding and brandished the rose like a conductor’s baton for quite a while before realizing something was wrong.

Ji Chenjiao looked speechlessly at the rose, its petals almost shaken off, the corner of his lip twitching. Beside him, Xi Wan suppressed a laugh. “Chief, that’s a good idea. From now on, you can hold a flower, and our Major Crimes Unit will have its own Balala the Fairy.”

Ji Chenjiao turned fiercely to find Ling Lie, who was already laughing so hard his eyes had disappeared.

The search continued until dawn. In the dry pool of Factory No. 8, a body showing partial signs of skeletonization was discovered.

The pool was filled with garbage and dirty dolls, with the body buried underneath. Moving it rashly might destroy existing clues.

The Major Crimes Unit spent a great deal of effort clearing the garbage, and An Xun conducted an on-site autopsy.

“The deceased was once burned, but was not burned to death.” An Xun gently turned the body over. “He was placed here after death. The burn level on the pool surface beneath him is different from other parts of the pool, indicating he did not struggle. Moreover, the burning process did not last long; the layer of grey grime formed by liquefaction and decomposition of tissue is still attached to the bones. The killer’s purpose was likely just to erase marks on the body’s surface. However, the burning did affect the decomposition process. I estimate the time of death was at least three months ago.”

This timeline matched Wang Hongqiang.

Ji Chenjiao said, “If he wasn’t burned to death, then what was the cause of death?”

An Xun held the skull, which had turned greyish-black. “A depressed fracture of the occipital bone. This was likely the fatal injury.”

Important clues had disappeared with the burning and decomposition. The skeletal remains were sent back to the municipal bureau for further autopsy and identity comparison. The next morning, DNA comparison confirmed that the deceased was indeed Wang Hongqiang.

After more than three months, only traces of blood and brain tissue remained at the scene. There were no signs of a struggle.

The bloodstains appeared about ten meters away from the pool. Judging from the trajectory, the killer knocked Wang Hongqiang down there. After Wang Hongqiang fell unconscious, the killer struck him a few more times in the back of the head until confirming his death.

Afterward, the killer dragged Wang Hongqiang’s body to the pool and set it on fire.

No accelerants were detected in the pool. It was likely the killer only ignited Wang Hongqiang’s clothes.

The fire did not burn fiercely. After the body surface was burned, the killer dragged over a water pipe. When the dirty water hit, the flames flared up before being extinguished shortly after.

The killer had washed the floor, but a footprint remained—a high-heeled shoe.

This again coincided with Ji Chenjiao’s deduction, but the person wearing high heels was not necessarily a woman.

“A size 42 chunky heel. If it’s a woman, she would have to be at least 1.8 meters tall. And she was going to kill someone; she would normally wear sneakers.” Xi Wan said, “It’s more likely a man disguised as a woman. The high heels were a clue he deliberately used to mislead us. But Chief, can the cases of Wang Hongqiang and Wei Xuyan really be merged? The killer’s M.O. is completely different.”

Ji Chenjiao was also pondering this question.

The reason Wang Hongqiang’s case turned from a missing person case into a homicide was entirely because the Major Crimes Unit had uncovered a “side path” while investigating Wei Xuyan’s case. But while Wang Hongqiang’s body had been found, it provided no more clues apart from the high-heel footprint at the scene.

To merge the cases, they had to confirm the motive that had previously only been a deduction—the killer was punishing men who “hunt” women.

According to the logic of this “hunting” line of thought, the other missing person, 27-year-old Deng Zian, had most likely also been murdered, but the Major Crimes Unit had not yet found the body.

Solving a case is not an overnight task; even the most elite team needs rest. Ji Chenjiao was the last to leave the office, and it was already past midnight.

Not only was Ling Lie not asleep, but he was also cooking a small hot pot. “Oh, my, our young master is back to get free food and drinks again. How do you time it so well? You come back just as I finish cooking!”

Ji Chenjiao: “…”

Eating hot pot late at night was a sin, but Ji Chenjiao thought, Ling Lie had already cooked it!

This time, the two didn’t even bring the dishes to the living room. Each holding a bowl, they stood by the bubbling pot, eating and discussing the case.

Ling Lie said, “Everyone’s talking about this case online.”

Ji Chenjiao was aware. The increasingly severe social problem of “hunting” women would eventually enter the public’s full view. If there was any good to come from this case, it was perhaps that it exposed a foul-smelling wound, prompting society to pay more attention to women’s safety.

In the future, people like Wei Xuyan would take it as a warning and quiet down, at least for a while.

Ji Chenjiao bit into a rice cake. It was cooked just right; a few more seconds and it would have melted. “What are they saying online?”

Ling Lie looked up. “The netizens’ voices are not what I imagined.”

“Hmm?”

“I thought everyone would be denouncing Wei and Wang, but guess what?” Ling Lie held his phone up to Ji Chenjiao. “Surprisingly, most people are insulting the female side.”

Ji Chenjiao immediately took the phone. The screen was filled with one fiercely worded comment after another—

[A woman’s heart is the most poisonous! Someone just looked at you a few times, and you can kill them! Do you really think there’s no law in society?]

[Don’t talk to me about the perfect victim. They were indeed not perfect, but did they deserve to die?]

[What can I say? We shouldn’t give these women the soil to survive! If you don’t beat them, they’ll kill you!]

[Punish the killer severely! Execute the killer!]

Public opinion was overwhelming. Although many people also condemned the act of intimidating women, killing someone because of it was a blatant violation of the law.

The internet has always been the forefront where all kinds of voices ferment. The topic had already spiraled uncontrollably towards gender opposition, with everyone attacking everyone else. There were relatively rational voices, but more were just using the topic to vent their emotions. In the endless verbal abuse, it seemed there were no winners.

Men, women, patriarchy, feminism—all believed they were the most hurt.

As the only woman in the Major Crimes Unit, Xi Wan had always insisted that women should be independent and strong. Seeing those posts insulting women, she couldn’t help but reply: [What does this have to do with women? Are you men not in the wrong for scaring women in the middle of the night?]

Immediately, a post cursed her out viciously.

[If they’re in the wrong, they deserve to die? Do you dare say you women have never made a mistake?]

[Feminism is anti-social and anti-human, just so you know.]

“Alright, arguing with people online is the biggest waste of life.” An Xun placed a glass of juice in front of Xi Wan. “Sister Wan, calm down. Look at your group of male colleagues; don’t lump us in with that online scum just because of them.”

An Xun was the little angel of the team. After a few sips of juice, Xi Wan finally calmed down a bit, rubbing her temples. “Strange, I can’t believe I actually got into a fight online.”

As soon as Ji Chenjiao arrived at the office, he heard Xi Wan’s words.

Xi Wan’s mental fortitude was very strong. She shouldn’t have been affected by public opinion. Ji Chenjiao felt he had grasped something, but it wasn’t entirely clear.

They had investigated to this point and seemed to have escaped the killer’s trap, glimpsing the truth of the case. But this seemed to be another net.

An invisible hand was pulling at them. The person hiding in the dark seemed to enjoy seeing the online chaos brought about by the case.

But why?

When a person meticulously plans something, they must have a goal to achieve.

The killer killed Wei Xuyan and Wang Hongqiang as a form of punishment. The wrongdoers were dead, but had the killer’s goal really been achieved?

The living wrongdoers were not warned; instead, the conflict between men and women intensified.

Ji Chenjiao closed his eyes, his arms crossed over his chest. Then, to deduce in reverse, in this storm of public opinion, which side lost the most?

Without a doubt, it was the women seeking their legitimate rights.

They were, as An Xun had just said, being treated as accomplices of the killer by the majority of voices.

The internet’s logic turned everything into black and white—the killer kills men to avenge women, so if you speak up for women, you support the killer, you are the killer!

Thus, legitimate demands also became illegitimate. Judging from the method of the crime, the killer was a meticulous person, skilled at hiding themselves.

They planned every step. Could they not have foreseen the social controversy that would erupt once the police investigated the “hunting” angle?

The sense of contradiction grew stronger, and the uneasy feeling of being pushed into another net became more distinct.

“Chief? Chief!” Xi Wan had to call out several times to bring Ji Chenjiao back to his senses.

“What is it?”

“Brother Liang just called. There’s progress in the investigation of Deng Zian’s social connections.”

Although Deng Zian’s parents were both highly educated, he himself was unscholarly. After graduating from middle school, he went to a technical school to learn a trade. He didn’t learn the trade and later, through family connections, became a janitor at Xiarong Normal University. The job was very leisurely, only responsible for guarding the card-swiping machine in the laundry room.

Most of the students who came to the laundry room were well-off and would hardly stoop to cheat a few yuan. Moreover, after the logistics department upgraded the washing machines, the situation where one could do laundry without swiping a card no longer existed.

It didn’t matter whether Deng Zian was on guard or not. He was often not seen in the laundry room; he was essentially getting paid for doing nothing.

Some female students reported that Deng Zian had a wicked mind, often staring lecherously at girls. When pretty girls came to do laundry, he would be overly attentive, insisting on helping them hang their clothes.

Some girls had lost clothes and suspected Deng Zian had stolen them, but there was no evidence.

Now, all these missing clothes had been found by Liang Wenxian. They were in the house Deng Zian’s parents had bought for him, all with varying degrees of bodily fluid residue.

Combined with his posts on forums and his remarks in his circle of shady friends, it was clear that this person was a habitual thief of women’s intimate apparel.

“When Deng Zian was studying at the technical school, there was an incident of him bullying a female classmate. It was later settled by his parents with money.” Liang Wenxian placed a photo from the technical school in front of Ji Chenjiao. A girl with a bob haircut was circled. “Her name is Dan Jing.”

This technical school was located on Rongxin Street in the North District. The students there were mainly of two types: one, their parents ran food processing businesses on Rongxin Street, and their children attended school nearby; two, their families were not on Rongxin Street, or even in the North District, and their parents deliberately sent them there to board, letting the school manage them uniformly. This type was generally more unruly and aggressive.

“Dan Jing belongs to the former type. Her family lives on Rongxin Street,” Liang Wenxian said. “It happened too many years ago. The teachers at the time couldn’t say much about the bullying, only that it was a conflict between male and female students. But it certainly wasn’t that simple. A week after the Deng family settled it privately with money, Dan Jing dropped out of school.”

Ji Chenjiao suddenly thought of something. Jaco Xu Jiajia had once reported that the Rongyoufu Meat Processing Plant on Rongxin Street used expired and spoiled meat. He had received much praise for it.

Liang Wenxian was a bit confused after hearing this. “Is there any connection between these two things?”

Ji Chenjiao shook his head. “I don’t know. Brother Liang, I’m going to make a trip to Rongxin Street.”

Before setting off, Ji Chenjiao looked at the police car and missed his own car. It wasn’t convenient to drive a police car today, but he had lent his private car to Ling Lie. He didn’t know if the guy was using it. Ji Chenjiao called Ling Lie, who answered with a curt, “No.”

“…”

Ling Lie added, “Unless you take me with you.”

Ji Chenjiao kept his composure. “Come on!”

A quarter of an hour later, the two headed north.

After the last crackdown, the factories on Rongxin Street were now much more regulated. There were people from the food hygiene department on the street doing spot checks, and the roar of machinery floated in the air. Rongxin Street sounded like a single street, but it was actually a large community. The narrow definition of Rongxin Street referred to the main avenue running north to south, while the various villages it radiated to were the broader Rongxin Street.

Ji Chenjiao drove the car in and wound through several roads before deciding to park and walk. On the way, he had already told Ling Lie the general situation. Ling Lie thought for a moment and said, “Dan Jing probably doesn’t have the ability to retaliate, but her family might.”

The Dan family lived in an old residential complex, only a ten-minute walk from the nearest processing plant. Dan Jing’s father had passed away from an illness a few years ago, and Dan Jing lived with her mother and older brother, Dan Jin.

Ling Lie spotted the girl sitting alone by the flowerbed downstairs of an old building at a glance. She was wearing dark blue cloth pants and a faded white T-shirt. Her bangs were a bit long, covering her eyes. She wasn’t doing anything, just sitting, woodenly watching people pass by. When her gaze met Ling Lie’s, she paused, then looked away.

“Xiao Jing! Why are you sitting there again? Come back quickly!” A stout woman in an apron came down from upstairs and grabbed the girl’s arm. The girl didn’t resist at all and was pulled upstairs.

Ji Chenjiao suddenly said, “Dan Jing?”

The girl didn’t react, but the stout woman stopped, turning back with a surprised and wary look. “Who are you?”

Ji Chenjiao showed his credentials. “You must be Dan Jing’s mother, right? We’d like to ask you about something.”

Dan Jing’s mother immediately broke into a sweat, hiding Dan Jing behind her. “What-what is it?”

Dan Jing saw the carrot clip on Ling Lie’s collar and stared at it without moving. It was a small item Ling Lie had been selling at his stall. When he didn’t sell them all, Ling Lie would pin them on himself, changing them every half a day. Once changed, it counted as sold.

“You like it?” Ling Lie took it off and dangled it in front of Dan Jing. Dan Jing reached out for it, but Ling Lie pulled his hand back. “Unless you invite me to your house for a visit.”

Dan Jing looked at her mother. Her mother said, “Come with me.”

Although the house was old, Rongxin Street was on the edge of the city, so all the residences were built quite large. Ji Chenjiao looked around. It was a three-bedroom apartment. The doors to two of the bedrooms were open, but the other was closed. After getting the carrot clip, Dan Jing went into her room, sat at her desk, and looked at the carrot clip over and over.

Ji Chenjiao pointed to the closed door and asked, “Is someone home?”

“That’s my son’s room,” Dan Jing’s mother said. “He’s at work in the factory. He likes to keep his door closed and usually doesn’t let me in. What exactly do you want to investigate?”

Ji Chenjiao looked at Dan Jing’s back. “Has she always stayed at home?”

Dan Jing’s mother said somberly, “Yes, at most she sits downstairs. She doesn’t go anywhere else.”

“Is it because of that incident at the technical school?”

Dan Jing’s mother’s shoulders suddenly tensed, and she quickly closed Dan Jing’s bedroom door. “It’s been so long, let’s not bring it up again!”