Fang Rui went to Zhang Shuochen's dormitory again to question his roommates. Zhang Shuochen lived in a six-person dorm, and when his roommates heard about his death, they all appeared very upset. One roommate even broke down crying.
"Shuochen was fine when he took leave to attend an event. How did he suddenly pass away?" someone sighed.
Fang Rui asked, "Do you know what event he went to participate in?"
"Oh, it was because of that clingy girlfriend of his. She insisted on dragging him to some couples' event. If Shuochen had just stayed at school, he wouldn't have ended up dead."
"Do you know what kind of event it was?"
"Shuochen said the organizers wouldn't let them reveal the event details. It was supposed to be kept secret. I felt it wasn't some proper event, being all mysterious like that. Shouldn't normal events try to get likes on social media to increase their influence? But this one told participants to keep quiet about it. I advised Shuochen not to go at the time, and he agreed at first, but then he went with his girlfriend anyway," Zhang Shuochen's dorm leader explained.
Fang Rui continued, "How was Zhang Shuochen's relationship with Wang Jie?"
"Pretty good. Shuochen had a very good temper and always went along with his drama queen girlfriend. They had their conflicts, but they'd make up within two days every time," Zhang Shuochen's roommate said. "They even opened a joint account to show off their relationship, and it has quite a lot of followers."
"Can you show us the account?"
"Sure, just search for 'Little Wang and Little Zhang's Happy Life' in this app. Yes, that's the one with their picture as the profile image. It's all lovey-dovey content, nothing special."
Fang Rui briefly looked at the video titles and could see that the two were very much in love. They posted videos of everything from eating meals to taking walks, just to show off.
There were many comments under their videos. The comment section was very harmonious, with most people saying how sweet they were or expressing envy.
"How long has it been since Zhang Shuochen last contacted you?" Fang Rui asked.
"A week. We tried calling him during this time, but no one answered. He's done this before; whenever he's with Wang Jie, he often goes off the grid, so we didn't think much of it. Ah, if only we had reported him missing to the police. Who could have imagined he'd be gone just like that..."
"Alright, thank you for your cooperation."
"Boss, they all mentioned that event. Could Wang Jie and Zhang Shuochen's deaths be related to it?" Zhang speculated. "But there haven't been any major events specifically for couples in Jiangzhou City recently!"
"It might have been privately organized. These kinds of events need to be reported in advance. Can we check if there are any related activities?" Fang Rui paused, then added, "However, I suspect the killer might have used this as an excuse to lure them out."
"This killer seems to hate couples so much. Could they have just gone through a breakup and are now jealous of these lovey-dovey couples?"
At this moment, Fang Rui suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"Boss, what's wrong?" Zhang followed his line of sight and saw Bai Jing approaching.
Zhang greeted Bai Jing warmly, "Miss Bai, what are you doing here?"
"Officer Zhang, Officer Fang, what a coincidence to meet you again," Bai Jing said, holding a few books in her arms. "I got into graduate school, so I'm back at the university to continue my studies."
"That's amazing! You managed to get into grad school in less than half a year?" Zhang marveled. He had felt sorry for Bai Jing before, thinking a graduate from a prestigious university ended up as a community worker in a residential area. He hadn't expected she was just preparing for her graduate school entrance exams.
"I took the exam at the end of last year and had an interview in April. I didn't expect to actually get in," Bai Jing smiled happily. "And I've also found a part-time job as an assistant in a psychology clinic."
Fang Rui looked at Bai Jing, "Miss Bai, what about those stray cats? Aren't you taking care of them anymore?"
"This place isn't far from that residential area. I can still go feed the cats every day. I won't forget my promise." Bai Jing glanced at her phone. "Teacher Shen is urging me to attend her group meeting. I have to go now. Goodbye, Officer Fang, Officer Zhang!"
"Goodbye, Bai Jing!" Zhang waved at her.
Fang Rui's suspicions about Bai Jing deepened. The time she started working as a community worker in that residential area coincided with when Chen Hui began his episodes. And after Chen Hui's case was closed, Bai Jing quickly resigned from that job. These coincidences seemed too convenient.
But if Bai Jing only wanted to take revenge on her father, she should have had many other ways to do so. Why would she choose to cultivate Chen Hui into a serial killer, using such an unpredictable method for revenge? Fang Rui found himself unable to identify Bai Jing's true motive for doing so.
"Boss, what's wrong? You seem to have some hostility towards Bai Jing," Zhang asked, confused. He had a good impression of Bai Jing and believed that girls who liked to feed stray cats were generally kind-hearted.
"It's nothing. Let's head back!" Fang Rui said.
Back at the station, Fang Rui examined Wang Jie and Zhang Shuochen's phones. Zhang Shuochen's phone interface was very simple, with only daily-use apps installed. Opening his chat software, it was also straightforward. Apart from his roommates and parents, the person he contacted most frequently was Wang Jie.
Moreover, in his friends list, besides his mother, Wang Jie was the only female contact.
Fang Rui went through his chat history with Wang Jie, which was full of sickeningly sweet exchanges like "baby" and "I love you." Nothing out of the ordinary. Fang Rui also couldn't find any chat records with the person in charge of the couples' event.
Fang Rui then checked Wang Jie's phone. Her wallpaper was extremely gaudy, and she had downloaded many strange apps. Fang Rui opened her chat software to find a long list of conversations.
Fang Rui's eyes hurt from reading her chat records, and he couldn't find the person who invited them to participate in the couples' event.
"Boss, this Wang Jie is a social media monster, a queen of small talk. Look at how many chat records she has," Zhang, who had been forced to take on the task of searching through the chat records, said as he went through them one by one. "How can she chat so much?"
Li rolled his eyes at Zhang in exasperation: "Don't you know there's something called a search function? You just need to enter keywords in the chat records, and you can quickly find what you're looking for."
Zhang retorted, "What if they used code words? It's not good to rely too much on technology. If you don't carefully read every chat record, you might miss important clues!"
Li felt a pang of guilt at Zhang's words. It was his mistake for trying to take shortcuts. He was at fault!
"Li, what was that thing you just mentioned?" Zhang mumbled. "How come when I enter the keyword 'couples event,' it shows no results?"
"...That's the limitation of technology! You'll have to slowly go through the chat records manually."
Zhang went through all the chat records again but couldn't find the mysterious person who invited Wang Jie and Zhang Shuochen to participate in the couples' event.
