In 2009, 2011, and 2012, the Guo Family's apartment that was the scene of one of the three cases had already been demolished, the Cai Family's house had been sold to relatives, and only the Guo Family house remained because they were still financially secure and had kept their original home.
In other words, this was the only remaining crime scene.
Although nine years had passed, the visible evidence had all been taken away by the police, and the Guo family had also come to clean up several times. But in terms of returning to the crime scene, the key was not in the evidence that was usually determined, but in other overlooked places.
Fortunately, Guo Yifang's loved ones cherished her very much. Many years after her death, her and her children's old belongings were still neatly kept.
Guo Elder Brother, who had brought them here, said, "My younger sister and her children's things are all here. When my mother was alive, she would come to clean up once a year. Now...sigh, feel free to look around, do whatever you need to catch the murderer."
He didn't want to stay and be sad, so after a few parting words, he left.
Ji Feng opened the cardboard box and said, "Back in 2012, the police had combined the investigations of several cases. Their thinking was that it was a serial murder case, different from us, so the probability of discovering new clues is quite high."
Jian Jing "mm-hmm"ed absent-mindedly.
Ji Feng noticed her wandering thoughts and pretended not to notice. "Ladies first, Teacher Jian, anything you want to check?"
Jian Jing came back to her senses. She considered and said, "I'll check Guo Yifang's things, you check the two kids'."
"Okay."
There were a lot of Guo Yifang's belongings, including her phone and computer. The police had checked these electronic devices and found no valuable clues, so everything was returned.
Jian Jing found the power cord and plugged it in. Luckily it still worked and could be turned on.
She first looked at the computer. It mostly contained lesson plans and work reports she had made, some downloaded TV shows, and lots of family photos.
Going through everything one by one was tedious and time-consuming, so Jian Jing directly skipped everything before 2011, leaving much less behind.
But the lesson plans, papers, and TV shows and movies were of no value.
The browser history had been completely deleted.
It was the same with the phone. There were no special numbers in the call records, no text messages worth noticing, and the photos were only of the two children at home.
Very unusual. When looking through the photos on the computer earlier, there were many photos of the younger son at the early education center before March. Never underestimate a mother - in their eyes, every little detail about their child was worth recording.
Yet after March, there wasn't a single photo from the early education center.
Scar Man had deliberately deleted this content.
So, was it March to May?
She opened Guo Yifang's notebook. She had a great habit of recording her daily expenses every day, and sandwiching □□ in between.
Among the dry data of breakfast, milk, bus fare, supermarket purchases, there was a missing clue.
Movie tickets, looking at the price it was for two people.
However, it was useless.
The theater's surveillance kept at most fifteen days, and it had been nine years now. Also, the police definitely would not have missed such an obvious clue in the ledger, they must have already verified it.
Was there anything that was easy to overlook?
Mother, mother... She chanted to herself a few times in her heart, and suddenly had an inspiration, taking up the computer again.
Although there was no history, the browser had bookmarked a few frequently used websites.
One of which was a shopping site.
She tried logging in directly with the phone number, and used the initials of the two children's names as the password.
She guessed right and logged in smoothly.
Checking the order history, it was either clothes, snacks and toys bought for the children, or household items for the family. She had only bought two dresses for herself that cost a couple hundred yuan.
She pulled up the order list and called Ji Feng over, "Did you find anything?"
He spread his hands.
"Here are Guo Yifang's shopping records," Jian Jing said. "Should we look for anything out of the ordinary?"
Ji Feng raised his eyebrows. "You think he left something for the Guo mother and children?"
"This family is very special," she weighed her words. "The mother was very special to him."
Ji Feng looked at her meaningfully, but didn't ask further, just said, "If so, it must be a very important clue - let's find it first."
There were a lot of items. Considering the timeframe of March to May, they prioritized picking out objects that looked newer.
Even so, it still took them six to seven hours before they selected three options: a dinosaur toy, a fairytale book, and a dress.
They called Guo Yifang's elder brother to rule out interference from gifts by family members. And March to May were not the birthdays of either child, nor near Children's Day, so the probability of gifts from friends and relatives was also low.
"Interesting," Ji Feng clicked his tongue in wonder. "The dinosaur was for the older son, he had a bunch of these toys. The storybook's suitable age range was 4-6 years old, for the younger son. And of course the dress was for Guo Yifang."
He asked, "Teacher Jian, of the three gifts, which is key?"
Jian Jing said, "The dress."
"Why?" he asked meaningfully.
However, Jian Jing was lost in thought, and didn't notice his abnormality. She simply said, "According to what you said, his mother didn't fulfill her responsibilities, he lacked maternal love, and wanted to make up for the regret. Then, he was playing the role of the child. The dinosaur and book are too new."
Self-insertion was not done casually, it needed a medium, a ceremony marking the older son as a stand-in, so the gift should be something with his personal characteristics.
It should be more private, with a sense of history.
The dinosaur and book were too mainstream, would not seem out of place given to anyone.
The dress was different.
Comparing to the photos of the scene, this dress was not the one Guo Yifang had died in. It didn't seem to have anything special about it.
But this dress had a little food stain on it, clearly it had been worn before.
Yet observing the scene photos closely, one could see that the house had been cleaned very neatly on Mother's Day. There were no dirty clothes in sight.
"There was leftover cake eaten on the table, but the plates were put away. He did this to avoid revealing that he had attended a gathering," Jian Jing sorted out her thoughts. "For Guo Yifang, she must have cleaned up beforehand if having a date over, and washed all the dirty clothes."
She shook the dress open, her fingertips gliding over the fabric. The clothes showed no signs of having been washed, retaining fold creases, and not the kind caused by storage.
This showed that the dress was new, had been worn, but not washed before being taken off.
"This was what he gave Guo Yifang. She died wearing this dress," Jian Jing felt a chill down her spine. "He changed her out of the clothes and hid it in the closet, that's why no one noticed."
Seeing her complex expression, Ji Feng hurriedly joked, "Looks like nine years ago, he was still a cautious fellow. If she had worn this dress, it would definitely have raised suspicions. Even I can tell this dress is a bit dated."
Jian Jing: "......"
"Did I say something wrong?"
Her: "Deep v-neck, large floral print, it is indeed 80s style, but doesn't mean no one wears it. Many people like this retro look nowadays."
"....Ahem," Ji Feng cleared his throat, pretending nothing had happened. "No wonder the police didn't notice anything wrong."
He changed the subject. "He specifically gave this dress to Guo Yifang, what special meaning could it have?"
Jian Jing grew suspicious. "You keep asking me questions today, why don't you say what you think?"
"I'll say what I think, sure." He was very candid about it. After pondering briefly, he said, "Giving a woman this kind of dress, it's not like a son to his mother, more like a man to a woman. But the dress has such a sense of era, showing he still couldn't escape the influence of childhood. So my conclusion is—"
Ji Feng looked at her, as straightforward as always, "He had an Oedipus complex."
"Then why was he so good to the children?" Jian Jing questioned. "Men are jealous creatures, even if the older son was a self-projection, why did the younger son have the same fate? He placed great importance on death, wouldn't have taken shortcuts, proving he treated them equally."
Ji Feng seemed stumped by her questions. "You're right, why is that?"
Jian Jing didn't say a word.
He asked again, "Teacher Jian, what do you think?"
"The way I see it," she said coldly, "you're fishing for information from me."
Ji Feng acted innocent. "Really?"
"If you want to split, just say so," Jian Jing said impatiently. "Let's each investigate on our own then."
"No no," he quickly handed her a bottle of water to placate her, "I just felt you had new ideas today and was curious."
Jian Jing did not believe him at all: "You're full of it." “It’s true, more real than gold,” Ji Feng coaxed her, “I racked my brains last night but had no ideas, Jian is different, I can see you’ve got something in mind. Share it, won’t you? Good things like this shouldn’t be kept to yourself, we need team spirit.”
Jian Jing: "No."
Ji Feng: "Don't be so petty."
She shot him a challenging look, with an expression of "what can you do about it?"
Ji Feng sighed, then after a while tried negotiating: "How about we trade information? I'll tell you something you don't know."
Jian Jing shot up, angry: "What do you mean, you're still keeping things from me?"
Ji Feng: "I didn't mean to keep it from you, I just forgot to mention it."
"I'd have to take your surname to believe you again," Jian Jing sneered coldly, "Say it or don't, whatever. I don't care."
Bag in hand, with amazing agility she navigated around obstacles and people, storming out the door.
Ji Feng: "Teacher Jian!"
The door was wide open, cold wind howling through.
He sighed: "Leaving me to clean up this mess..."
—What else could he do?
Jian Jing was furious.
They had agreed to investigate the case together. She had told him everything she could, showed ample good faith, but what about him? Giving half-truths, testing the waters every so often, acting as if she had already been brainwashed by Scar Man, liable to turn evil any second.
Can't people have a little more trust in one another?
Even if some leads were classified, besides regulations there's still empathy. They had known each other for so long, did they not even have rapport?
Ah, infuriating.
With friends like these, might as well break it off.
At seven pm, lights coming on in homes everywhere.
From the neighbor's house wafted the aroma of stewed meat, enticing the glutton within. But Ji Feng, having offended his partner, could only snack on biscuits while sorting through the victim's belongings.
There was a ton of stuff, tiring work, and his wound was hurting more.
Just then, the phone rang.
He picked up, mumbling unclearly: "Lao Gao?"
"Yo, eating something tasty?" Lao Gao, who had been injured last year in the Golden Case but had since recovered and returned, maliciously teased his colleague, "Have fun going out with a pretty girl?"
Ji Feng: "I'm doing grunt work alone here, spit it out, did the results come back?"
"No way it'd be that fast." Lao Gao retorted, "The nationwide DNA screening has a queue, it'll take a few days to get through."
Ji Feng complained: "It takes that long? More difficult than getting an appointment at Union Hospital."
"Of course, Union has how many doctors? There are only so many places that can do the screening." Lao Gao said, "Also don't get your hopes up too high, the database only has criminals and missing children, it may not produce a match."
But Ji Feng was optimistic: "Might as well try our luck. I've made progress on my end too, we can cross-reference and might find the guy."
"Tsk tsk, you're really dedicated to Teacher Jian's case, even traveling for it on vacation." Good comrades gossip, Lao Gao couldn't help prying, "How are things going?"
Ji Feng lamented: "How could things be going? The minds of serial killers are not normal."
Lao Gao: "That's not what I was asking about."
"Oh so you wanted to ask about the zombie case?" Ji Feng jabbed, "I can crack a case even on vacation, jealous?"
Lao Gao was speechless: "You totally deserve to be single."
"Hey now, I can still turn it around." Ji Feng deadpanned, "Your daughter said when she grows up she wants to marry me."
Lao Gao bellowed in anger: "Piss off!!"
