The place where Li Xiaonuan was discovered was a garbage dump. Unlike the messy scene in the photo, it's now completely unrecognizable.
It's now a large shopping mall, about three streets away from the training center, less than a five-minute drive or about a ten-minute ride on an electric tricycle.
Walking south along this street and turning a corner, you'd reach the agency where Wu Honglin's car was previously taken. It would also take about ten minutes by tricycle, making the 8:50 time point very consistent with the killer's route.
Back at the training center, the owner had returned.
The pot-bellied middle-aged man hadn't expected anyone to come asking about events from over a decade ago.
However, the visitor was a beautiful woman, and a celebrity at that, so the owner welcomed her warmly.
"Teacher Jian, I've read your book. Are you gathering material?" he asked in surprise, thinking he'd figured it out. "I didn't realize your cases were based on real events."
That wasn't wrong, actually.
Jian Jing smiled and asked, "Do you remember what happened back then?"
"Of course, how could I forget someone I knew?" The owner did indeed have a strong impression of Li Xiaonuan. "The girl who died was called... Li Xiaonuan, right? She was thin, very pretty, with two dimples when she smiled."
He fell into reminiscence: "It was 2007, I had just scraped together some money and decided to open a tutoring center for elementary school students. I wanted to make the classroom look nice, so I specifically sought someone to paint the background wall. That girl was from the art academy. She showed me her practice sketches, which were quite good, and her fee was cheap, so I hired her.
"Those days, I was busy with the renovations, so I just gave her the key and occasionally came by to check. I must say, the young lady worked very diligently. She'd just eat a couple of biscuits for lunch, not even a proper meal. I felt bad about it, so I left some snacks in the shop and told her not to be shy. She was quite embarrassed and said she often ate like that, so her stomach wasn't good, but she was used to it... You know, if her parents knew how poorly she took care of herself, they'd be heartbroken... Sigh...
"To be honest, I still regret it when I think about it. I never imagined she'd be harmed like that. If I had known, I definitely would have made her go back to school earlier. She was only twenty years old."
The owner was quite emotional, sighing deeply after just a few sentences.
Jian Jing interrupted him: "Can you tell me what was around here in the past?"
"In 2007, this area had just been built up. The shops on our street were the first to open. It was very cheap. I bought three units at once for just a few hundred thousand. Now, a single storefront costs over a million, and that's not even in a good location."
Like all men, the owner had a bad habit: he loved to show off in front of pretty girls.
He was no exception, constantly emphasizing his foresight: "I set up early. At that time, there weren't many open shops on the street. I remember the busiest place was an internet cafe for gaming, then there was a cinema, a burger shop, and a wholesale clothing store at the corner where young girls liked to buy clothes on weekends. The rest were waiting to be rented."
He looked smug: "These people lacked vision. Buying shops and waiting to rent them out, how many years would it take to recoup the investment? Me? I made it back in three years."
Jian Jing asked, "So at night, there weren't many people on the street, right?"
The owner nodded slowly and added, "It gets dark early in winter. By seven or eight o'clock, only a few lights were on in this street. Everywhere else was pitch black. There weren't many buses, and the subway hadn't even been built yet."
She nodded and asked another question: "What was Li Xiaonuan wearing the last time you saw her?"
The owner answered without hesitation: "A red coat, quite pretty." He paused, then sighed, "I heard it was burned? All her clothes were burned too? What a sin. I don't know what kind of inhuman beast did it."
She had a good idea now.
"Thank you for your time. Sorry to bother you."
Leaving the training center, Jian Jing's mind was full of questions.
Li Xiaonuan's behavior was too strange.
Think about it: in a quiet, deserted new district with barely any lit shops, how could a girl get into an unlicensed taxi without any caution?
Her roommate's statement was clear: during those days of painting, Li Xiaonuan would leave at eight or nine and return by six or seven, indicating she intentionally caught the last bus back.
Assuming Li Xiaonuan really lost track of time, her first priority shouldn't have been going to the burger shop to buy food.
Moreover, she bought the burger at 5:30 PM.
The folder contained a bus schedule copied by Ji Liming. The last bus to the west side of the city was at 5:50 PM. Although it didn't go directly to the art academy, it passed through the city center.
Jian Jing put herself in Li Xiaonuan's shoes. She would definitely choose to take the bus first, then buy food to fill her stomach while transferring in the city center.
Especially since the burger shop wasn't cheap. The copied receipt showed that one burger, one fried fish, and one cola cost 28 yuan.
28 yuan in 2007.
Li Xiaonuan's family wasn't well-off, otherwise she wouldn't have taken on freelance work.
After buying a burger, taking an unlicensed taxi would cost how much more? So, the fact that Li Xiaonuan, close to missing the last bus, didn't rush to catch it but instead bought a burger, could only have one other explanation.
She didn't need to worry about getting back to school.
Someone would take her.
Who? The most likely suspect was the owner.
By the time of her death, Li Xiaonuan had been painting for a week and was quite familiar with the owner. The owner even said he would bring her snacks, indicating a basis of trust between them.
If he offered her a ride, Li Xiaonuan would very likely have accepted.
However, the police hadn't overlooked this possibility.
To be precise, the owner was the first person they investigated after Li Xiaonuan's death.
But the owner had an alibi. He had gone to dinner with people from an educational institution. The dinner started at 6 PM and ended after 9 PM. The restaurant owner, waiters, and other people at the dinner could all testify to this.
Ji Liming's notes read:
Remote location, alone, willing to get in the car, acquaintance (?)
Owner (XX Restaurant, alibi)
Classmate (? Not heard of)
Other acquaintances (?)
Zhang Peiru's statement, chartered car?
Yes, the police at the time believed that although the possibility of Li Xiaonuan taking an unlicensed taxi in that environment was low, if the driver was familiar, she might have let her guard down.
About a twenty-minute drive (by tricycle) from the training center was the subway station.
It was entirely possible that Li Xiaonuan wanted to take an unlicensed taxi to the subway station, and having ridden in Wu Honglin's car before, she recognized him and therefore got in.
This guess was reasonable and based on evidence. Jian Jing couldn't find any flaws in it.
But she didn't have the professional standards of the Ji father and son. She didn't need evidence to prove Wu Honglin wasn't the killer.
Her current investigation was based on one principle: What if Wu Honglin wasn't the killer?
First, it could be determined that the real killer deliberately framed him. After all, no one could be so unlucky as to accidentally match the characteristics of several cases.
Why would he do this? In 2003, he had already escaped the law, so why commit another crime in 2007? Because he couldn't resist the urge? To avoid being caught by the police, did he plan to find a scapegoat when he acted?
But once Wu Honglin was arrested as the killer, the real killer absolutely could not commit another crime, otherwise the framing would fall apart.
A scapegoat is a one-time consumable. Why be in such a hurry?
In 2002-2003, the killer murdered four people in quick succession before stopping. In 2007, he couldn't hold back, but one kill was enough?
Jian Jing had dealt with many serial killers. Those born antisocial like Wang Shi, originally ordinary people who became addicted to the satisfaction of killing like Zhu Guoliang (the killer in the Ice and Snow Corpse case), they all had one characteristic.
The more they killed, the more addicted they became.
The thrill of depriving others of life might surpass that of power or aphrodisiacs.
Could it be a copycat crime?
No. The size 40 shoe print had never been made public. All news reports had a unified statement, only mentioning that footprints were found.
So why did Li Xiaonuan appear like a flash in the pan?
Was she killed to silence her because she had discovered the killer's identity? But she was only 20 when she died, just 15 in 2002, and not a local of Peace City. There was no one around her who seemed likely to be the killer.
At this moment, Jian Jing truly realized the difficulty of this case.
--
As soon as the service center opened, Ji Feng immediately topped up his phone card and bought a new phone.
After inserting the card, missed call notifications flooded the message channel, dozens of them. Most were from Ji Yunyun, then Lao Gao, and some from Liang Yi and Zhu Yanan.
He drew a sharp breath.
It seemed Teacher Jian had gone to ask his old classmates for information.
He hesitated for a moment, but decided to call his sister first.
Ji Yunyun was almost in tears: "Brother!"
"Give me a break, I was on a business trip and my phone got smashed," Ji Feng said. "Why are you calling so many times? Don't phone bills cost money?"
Ji Yunyun's voice was nasally: "It's your fault for not answering your phone."
"What are you imagining?" he said in his usual mocking tone. "I went to take care of some personal business. Don't worry, if anything happened to me it would be work-related. If there really was an emergency, Uncle Gao would definitely notify you."
After a pause, he continued: "You're nineteen now, a college student. Don't think you're still a child who needs to check in with me for everything."
Ji Yunyun angrily retorted: "You're my brother, what's wrong with me contacting you?"
"It's annoying," Ji Feng said. "From now on, just call once a month. I can't be bothered to ask about your final exams either. Handle it yourself. If you run out of money, get a part-time job. Don't ask me for any."
Ji Yunyun nearly cried from anger: "Fine, I won't call. As if I care!"
Ji Feng: "Hanging up now."
He ended the call and let out a soft sigh.
The next one was Lao Gao. He didn't call, just sent a WeChat message: [Phone broke]
Lao Gao only replied: [Teacher Jian came by]
He responded: [Okay]
Teacher Jian's call was one he had to make no matter what.
The first try, it connected and then was hung up.
As expected, Ji Feng immediately dialed a second time.
It was hung up again.
Ji Feng switched to texting: [Busy? I'll call back later]
Still no response.
This was certain. Teacher Jian wasn't the type to call you back just because you said you wouldn't call.
So he immediately dialed a third time.
She answered.
With a sarcastic tone: "Weren't you going to call back later?"
"If I didn't say that, would this call have gone through?" he said amusedly.
Then... "Beep―" She hung up.
Ji Feng: What a temper.
He called a fourth time.
"Let's stop playing and talk seri―"
Before he could finish, she hung up again.
Ji Feng sighed, resigned to call a fifth time: "Don't you want to know the identity of the third victim?"
"I don't," she said coldly. "What third victim? I don't understand what you're talking about."
Ji Feng didn't believe her: "The third victim is called Liu Ta. A while ago, one of her cousins was arrested. His DNA was entered into the database and matched her sample. I went on this business trip to investigate her identity."
She continued to pretend: "Don't report your work to me. I'm not your superior."
"Liu Yan wasn't particularly beautiful, but she had a great figure. I have some magazine photos of her here, I'll send them to you in a bit. She's not originally from Peace City. Although she's a model, she's not very famous and her financial situation was average."
"Hmm?"
"A couple of days ago, I found out she had an ex-boyfriend, so I wanted to ask him some questions. But it turns out," he said helplessly, "this guy is now involved in telecom fraud. When I showed up, his accomplices recognized me. They thought they'd been caught and immediately got physical with me, even smashing my phone. That little punk heard the commotion and jumped out the window to escape. I was in a hurry to keep an eye on the situation, so I didn't have time to buy a new phone. That's why it's been delayed for a few days."
"Are you done?" she asked gently. "I'm hanging up now, okay?"
Ji Feng: "Alright then."
