Without a doubt, Scar Man had shown extraordinary abilities more than ten years ago. He seemed to be able to keenly peer into the darkness in people's hearts, and amplify it, luring them into the abyss.
Moreover, he was willing to take the risk of being remembered and have a conversation with Aunt Wang, which showed his arrogance.
But it was also his arrogance that gave Jian Jing and others a chance to get close to him.
"Do you still remember what he looked like?" Ji Feng asked.
Aunt Wang hesitated, "Just a little impression."
Ji Feng handed over an iPad, "There are some pictures here, can you take a look?"
Aunt Wang asked, "Does this young man have anything to do with the Zeng family?"
"We can't confirm yet, we can only say he is a suspect." Ji Feng was very cautious with outsiders.
Aunt Wang was a little reluctant, but out of her simple sense of justice, she still agreed.
The iPad contained a simple facial composite system, that is, it collected common facial features and recombined them into human faces.
This kind of simulated portrait was outdated, but very useful at the moment.
Aunt Wang tried hard to recall the face in her memory: "The young man looked quite handsome, his face looked very childish, rounder, not that round, thinner..."
The system was simple and the adjustment range was limited. Aunt Wang looked back and forth, still unsatisfied.
Jian Jing was getting impatient. She simply recited a prayer for drawing cards.
[Card drawing in progress]
[Draw completed]
[Name: Skill Card - Simulated Portrait (Beginner)]
[Description: Gain entry-level simulated portrait skills, limited to pencil, basic similarity 60%]
[Note: Can only be used to draw the appearance of a suspect, cannot be used daily]
According to Jian Jing's knowledge, the general similarity reaching 50% can be put into use. The basic similarity of 60% was already a very hardcore passive skill. It made sense to put usage restrictions on it.
Hopefully it would be useful.
She took out a blank piece of paper and casually drew a face shape according to Aunt Wang's description: "Is it like this?"
"Oh, yes, yes, you drew it better than that one. Accurate." Aunt Wang secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and quickly moved on to the next step, "He had short hair, very gentle, his eyes were not big or small, the corners drooped a little, his nose bridge was high, his lips were a little thin, oh, this kind of face, his fortune doesn't seem too good."
Jian Jing: "..."
She painted and modified it, relying on the passive accuracy of the skill card, gradually restoring the other's appearance.
As Aunt Wang said, this face could be described as gentle and handsome, as if a college student who had just left campus, it was difficult for the elderly to be wary of him.
On the contrary, if he pretended to be respectful and timid, many lonely elders in their later years would probably treat him as their grandson, and be very happy to chat with him.
If he was in his early twenties in 2009, now he must be thirty-five or thirty-six, a middle-aged man.
Aunt Wang also provided other information: a little over one meter and seventy centimeters tall, not too tall or short, inconspicuous, wearing frameless glasses.
Jian Jing asked her, "Did he have any identifying marks on him? For example, scars?"
Aunt Wang thought about it and shook her head: "I didn't see any, his face was fine."
"Any injuries?"
She also said she didn't notice.
A scar so conspicuous, it was unreasonable not to notice it. Perhaps at that time, there was no scar on the back of his hand yet.
Jian Jing wanted to ask more clues, such as accents and so on, but Aunt Wang had only met him a few times and could not recall more, so she had to give up.
At this time, Aunt Wang’s daughter-in-law came home from work. Seeing there were guests, she politely invited them to stay for dinner.
Jian Jing and Ji Feng declined again and again, and hurriedly said goodbye.
When they came out, the night was dark.
Jian Jing lowered her voice and asked the question she was wondering: "You still haven't told me, how's her husband?"
"He was drunk asleep, and choked to death by his own vomit." Ji Feng said.
She yelled "Yo" in her heart, but said with her mouth: "It's got nothing to do with us."
It's got nothing to do with you, why did you ask. Ji Feng rolled her eyes at her, but didn't say it straight out: "We got his portrait, we can go ask the insurance company now."
It was not an easy task to find someone from eleven years ago.
Insurance salesmen had low barriers to entry and high mobility. Many people only did it for a month or two and then quit. There were many companies that started up, and just as many went bankrupt.
Ji Feng went through a tedious process before obtaining the evidence from the Zeng family case from the local public security bureau.
There were no insurance-related documents inside, people at that time did not realize the key point, but fortunately, they found an insurance brochure on a coffee table in one of the crime scene photos.
Insurance company T√
After confirming the company, it became much easier to investigate. This small insurance company was still in business. They asked around and found the person in charge at that time.
The person in charge actually still remembered Scar Man.
"I remember him. This young man was very capable and signed up a lot of clients." The person in charge said, "I wanted to give him a promotion early on, but who knew he would quit after only half a year, such a shame. With his ability, he could have easily made big money."
"Do you still have the registration information when he joined at that time?" Ji Feng asked.
The person in charge regretfully said, "Our company has been restructured several times, and a lot of information has been lost. This kind of employee information was not very important content either. But the policies he signed are still here, the insurance is for twenty years."
He typed on the keyboard and pulled out the insurance policies from that year.
Of course the most information on it was about customers, insured items, etc., but in the "Customer Manager" column, there was his name.
Wang Si Ji.
Jian Jing immediately said, "That's a fake name."
Wang Si was death spelled backwards. Similarly, Si Ji was worshipping the dead.
Worshipping death, saving lives.
Absolutely a fake name.
But Ji Feng still investigated this name: "Can't find the real identity, still need to check other things."
Since 2013, national ID cards have been networked and fingerprints recorded, making it no longer easy to forge ID cards. So it was very likely that Scar Man had changed to a new identity after that year.
But since Wang Si Ji's identity was not exposed in 2009, it was possible that he still acted under this identity for a period of time afterwards.
The next case was the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2011.
Ji Feng contacted the relatives of the deceased to ask if anyone had heard of the name "Wang Si Ji", and sent the portrait for them to identify.
The result was disappointing.
The deceased Cai family had lived in the city for many years and rarely interacted with their rural relatives, and none had heard of him.
They could only try their luck again in the 2012 Mother's Day case.
The Guo mother and son who were killed in this case still had close relatives alive, who was the mother's own brother. He was very upset about the death of his sister and remembered many things very clearly.
This time, they had a great harvest.
In 2012, Ms. Guo Yifang was 32 years old. This age may seem middle-aged to teenagers.
But that was not the case.
Thirty-two was still very young. As long as she didn't do hard labor all day, women of this age had no wrinkles on their faces yet, still beautiful and elegant.
Guo Yifang married early, right after graduating from college, and gave birth the next year. When the child grew to over one year old, he was diagnosed with a mental disability. Considering the child, the couple had a second child, hoping the younger son could continue to take care of his elder brother after their parents passed away.
But there were unpredictable twists of fate. When the eldest son was 5 and the youngest son was 3, her husband died unexpectedly in an accident.
Since it was a work-related accident, the company compensated a large sum of money, and the insurance company also paid out a considerable amount of insurance money, enough to support the mother and two sons.
But raising children as a single mother was already difficult enough, not to mention one with disabilities.
Guo Yifang did not have an easy time. Her parents and brother all advised her to find another man to share the pressure.
She was also willing. Three years after her husband's death, she slowly started dating again.
However, although she was beautiful, gentle, a stable teacher job, met most of the requirements of the marriage market, the two children put people off. Some dating prospects told her that they would agree to meet only if she gave the children to her parents to raise, and refused to be their stepfather.
This may have been a wise choice, but Guo Yifang was unwilling to give up her children.
So others gave up on her.
Guo Yifang's brother was very worried about her and argued with his sister many times. According to him, raising one child was enough, the one with disabilities should be given to the grandparents. Why should she raise them alone?
The siblings almost always parted unhappily.
But in early 2012, things took a turn for the better.
Guo Yifang told her brother that she had met a decent man who knew about her family's situation but had not lost interest.
Her brother asked, "Does he have any children?"
"No."
"How old is he?"
"Thirty, two years younger than me. He was married once before but has no children. But he really likes children," Guo Yifang happily said, "Brother, I can tell he doesn't mind Little Child's issues at all. He talked with Little Child for a long time yesterday and was not impatient at all."
Her brother was genuinely happy for her, but still wary in case the other party was after compensation money: "What does he do?"
"A teacher at an early education center."
Guo Yifang had to work herself, and her parents could only help look after her eldest son Yuke. With the additional Little Child, they were overwhelmed. She had no choice but to find an early education center where she could leave Little Child during the day, so he would be taken care of and could learn something.
Her brother was finally reassured: "When will you bring him home?"
Guo Yifang's face lit up: "In a while, if all goes smoothly, I'll bring him home to have dinner with the family."
Guo Mother quickly added: "You must move quickly. If you really like him, seal the deal as soon as possible. Look at the life you've led these past two years."
Guo Yifang agreed.
However, neither the mother nor children had met this man before.
On May 14th, Guo Yifang did not go to work and her colleagues could not reach her by phone either. Worried that something was wrong, her colleague went to check on her after work, but no one answered the door even after repeated knocking.
At this time, Guo Yifang's mother arrived to deliver some items to her and opened the door with her own key.
The home showed no signs of disarray. On the contrary, it had been tidied up meticulously. There were even two cakes on the table that the children had prepared for Mother's Day.
Guo Mother walked into the bedroom in shocked disbelief.
Guo Yifang and her two children lay peacefully in bed, but their bodies were icy cold. There were no wounds on them. Forensic tests determined that they died of respiratory failure caused by xx poisoning.
As with previous cases, very little evidence was left at the scene—no fingerprints, footprints, hair...nothing that could provide clues about the killer.
The murderer had taken time to clean up meticulously and ensure no traces were left behind.
Guo Yifang's loved ones had mentioned the man to the police, who also went to the early education center to investigate.
They met with the male teacher who was in charge of the little son.
When asked about his relationship with the deceased family, he said: "Her child attended classes here. We chatted a bit about her other son."
Police: "Do you have a girlfriend?"
He was baffled: "No, why do you ask?"
"Was your relationship with Ms. Guo purely platonic?"
"We weren't even friends!" He was shocked. "My god, she was the mother of two children! How could I possibly have had any other kind of relationship with her??"
The police were also surprised and investigated him thoroughly. It turned out he had an solid alibi that night. He was out drinking and watching a game all night with colleagues.
He also firmly denied any romantic involvement with Ms. Guo.
So who was the teacher Ms. Guo spoke of—another person, or was it just her own wishful thinking?
