"Rose-colored? Do you mean livor mortis? You suspect they died from asphyxiation?" Fang Rui asked in surprise.
Mu Mian shook her head, her eyes filled with disappointment. Ah, Fang Rui lacked some basic forensic knowledge.
"Mu Mian, I'm not a forensic expert. It's normal that I don't know certain things," Fang Rui felt that Mu Mian must be secretly criticizing him in her mind again.
"Yes, it's livor mortis, but it doesn't only appear on bodies that died from asphyxiation," Mu Mian explained. "It can also occur in cases of death by electrocution, hypovolemic shock, and others. So, those three victims could have died from electrocution as well."
Livor mortis can be used to determine the cause of death in highly decomposed bodies. Generally, bodies that died from asphyxiation are more likely to show livor mortis.
Fang Rui decided to report this situation to the bureau chief, and if necessary, they could investigate the cases together.
By checking the surveillance cameras around the school, the police discovered that Wang Jie and Zhang Shuochen had left the school by taxi on the afternoon of October 24th, heading to a shopping mall. However, they didn't enter the mall but instead walked towards the parking lot, eventually disappearing from the camera's view.
Fang Rui questioned the mall's security guards and relevant personnel, who all stated that they hadn't planned any activities recently. The mall's surveillance videos also didn't capture Wang Jie and Zhang Shuochen.
They couldn't find the mysterious person who invited Wang Jie and Zhang Shuochen to participate in the activity, nor could they find any information about the couple's activity.
"Boss, the tech department says that Wang Jie and Zhang Shuochen's chat records from the past few months haven't been deleted, but strangely, we can't find any record related to that couple's activity," Zhang said after sifting through the chat records again, his eyes hurting from the effort.
Chen Xue handed Zhang a bottle of eye drops, then took Wang Jie's phone and started helping with the search.
Mu Mian was studying the autopsy report from the Lin Zhou case when she heard Zhang's complaint. She suggested, "Have you checked her computer? Maybe that person contacted them via email. Some email services don't require real-name registration, making it convenient to hide one's identity."
"Mu Mian, you don't understand our country's situation. We rarely use email," Chen Xue said. After thinking for a moment, she added, "However, when I was in college, I often played games on my computer. Could it be that the killer met and contacted them through a game?"
They went to ask Wang Jie and Zhang Shuochen's roommates for their computers.
Li from the tech department checked Wang Jie's computer usage records and browser history, quickly finding a website called "Love Museum."
Upon entering the site, a pop-up appeared:
Dear user, congratulations! You have been selected by our website. You will have the opportunity to participate in our website's couple compatibility contest. If you make it to the finals, you'll have a chance to win the grand prize of a seven-day European tour. Click here for details.
After clicking the link, the page redirected to another interface asking users to leave their personal information, including the couple's names, contact information, and email address.
Fang Rui filled in the information as prompted, but after submitting, the page showed a 404 error, indicating that the submission failed.
"Although this website's design looks nice, its functionality is very chaotic. It's easy to crash if you click around randomly," Li explained. "This is probably a phishing website."
"Can we trace the personal information of the website creator?" Fang Rui asked.
"The server for this website is overseas. It's using a public server, so it's difficult for us to trace the IP of the user who created this website."
Fang Rui then had Li check Wang Jie's email, and they quickly found an email in her inbox.
The sender was called "Aphrodite," and the email content was:
Miss Wang, congratulations to you and your boyfriend for being selected by our website to participate in the "Couple Compatibility Challenge." The top three couples will win a seven-day, five-day, and three-day European tour respectively, with accommodation and travel expenses covered by us. Fourth to tenth place will receive a 10,000 yuan cash prize. If you agree to participate, please come to the Guodu Building between 3 PM and 5:30 PM on October 24th for on-site registration.
Please check the attachment for competition details.
The attachment was a file that detailed the specifics of the competition.
"This is obviously fake. How could Wang Jie fall for it?" Li couldn't help but criticize.
"Aren't there plenty of college students who get scammed these days?" Zhang retorted. "The neighboring anti-fraud department receives calls from college students every day. These students are inexperienced and easy to deceive."
Fang Rui asked, "Li, can you trace the user information of this email?"
"No, this email hasn't been verified with real-name authentication," Zhang shook his head. "We can't trace the IP address either. This is an encrypted email service. They use nested addresses to prevent us from tracing the final IP address. It's a common method for anonymizing information."
Fang Rui opened the page requiring personal information again and entered Wang Jie and Zhang Shuochen's information, randomly filling in the email and contact details. Surprisingly, the information was submitted successfully.
"Detective Fang, this must be intentionally designed. It only shows a successful submission if you enter specific names in the couple's name field. If the information is incorrect, it will show a page error," Li analyzed. "Could this website have been specifically designed for Wang Jie and Zhang Shuochen?"
Although they hadn't obtained the killer's information, the fact that the killer could design a website and knew how to use encrypted email to evade police investigation suggested that they had a high IQ and education level.
Fang Rui couldn't help but wonder if the killer might be a teacher from the school.
But then he thought about the Lin Zhou case. All four victims there worked in a factory. If the killer had a high level of education, how would they have come into contact with those working-class people?
"Mu Mian, does your hacker friend have a way to help us trace the IP address of the website creator?"
"I'm not sure, I'll ask him."
Fang Rui then asked, "Tell him to name his price, I'll reimburse you later."
Mu Mian's hacker friend replied quickly. Mu Mian happily said, "He's not charging me money this time."
"No money? Then what does he want? It's not a body donation form, is it?"
"Of course not, he's not interested in your body. He wants a photo of us together. I told him I made a really, really good friend, but he doesn't believe me. He says he needs to see a photo to believe it." Mu Mian looked at Fang Rui, "So we need to take a photo that shows our friendship."
Mu Mian took a photo with Fang Rui and sent it over.
The other side quickly replied to Mu Mian.
"He helped us trace it. The IP of the website creator is from Jiangzhou University. They used a computer in the school's computer room, so we can't pinpoint which specific computer it was," Mu Mian added. "And he complimented me, saying I made a very handsome friend."
"Shouldn't that be a compliment for me?"
"You're right! His language skills have improved. He can now compliment two people at once." Mu Mian felt gratified. Her friend used to speak in a way that no one could understand, except for Mu Mian who could comprehend his strange speaking logic.
Fang Rui and Zhang went to question the faculty and students of Jiangzhou University again. Some people reported that a while ago, the link to this website frequently appeared in their student group chats. After it was reported, it stopped appearing.
