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墨書 Inktalez
The application to reopen the old case of Li Chuang was quickly approved by the higher-ups. He took the lead in forming a new task force to reinvestigate the Lin Wen Case from twenty years ago. Unexpectedly, the leadership of the City Bureau also approved my inclusion as a special consultant for the task force.
"You are the discoverer of the key clues in this case. Besides, the current suspect, Chang Lu Ming, came after your novel. We still need you to draw him out," Li Chuang explained.
Thus, for the following week, my workplace was arranged in Li Chuang's office, sitting directly across from him. Under his guidance, I intentionally incorporated a wealth of details related to the Lin Wen Case into my upcoming serial updates, deliberately miswriting some previously unpublished details to await Chang Lu Ming's reaction.
A day later, Chang Lu Ming updated with three comments:
"I believe that the murderer had no need to take away that violin string used as a murder weapon; it could have been casually tossed under the bed. He wore gloves and wasn’t worried about leaving traces."
"On the night of the murder, it shouldn't have rained heavily; when the victim was attacked, there should have been a light, misty drizzle until everything settled down, and only then would the rain intensify to cleanse this filthy world."
"Suddenly being strangled by a violin string left the victim no chance to struggle violently. Yes, she didn’t struggle or scream; she merely widened her eyes and quickly lost consciousness."
The descriptions in these comments were too detailed and too plausible, sending a chill creeping up from my feet.
Li Chuang immediately arranged for verification of these details, and soon we had results: records showed that the murder weapon was a 0.4mm diameter A string from a violin, indeed found under Lin Wen's bed. Moreover, weather records confirmed that it had been drizzling lightly on the night of the incident...
This was no ordinary coincidence.
Li Chuang furrowed his brow. "Old Qin, your intuition is correct; this person is definitely not an ordinary reader. The details he knows could only be known by someone present at the scene."
At that moment, a disheveled Little Officer rushed in excitedly. "Chuang Ge! We found it! We traced Chang Lu Ming's IP address!"
Li Chuang and I both jumped up simultaneously. "Where?!"
"In a high-end apartment in the city center! The registered owner is named Zhao Luming, and he’s a violinist!"
That evening at the case analysis meeting, a large photo of Zhao Luming was displayed on the projection screen. The man in the photo appeared refined and cultured, yet his eyes held a hint of gloom and nervousness.
"Zhao Luming, 45 years old, a well-known violinist," Li Chuang pointed at the photo on screen. "Twenty years ago, he was a violinist with the city symphony orchestra. Coincidentally, Zhao Luming worked in the same orchestra as Lin Wen's sister Lin Qing at that time."
"What’s even more interesting..." Li Chuang pulled out a yellowed concert ticket from an archive folder. "After the incident, the task force found this at Lin Wen's home. In May of that year, Zhao Luming and Lin Qing had an important performance at Old Concert Hall; evidently, Lin Wen also attended this concert."
I stared at the date on the concert ticket. "The performance was two months before the incident?"
"That's right," Li Chuang nodded. "There's a statement from Lin Qing in the case file. According to her, someone rang her sister Lin Wen's doorbell several nights in a row just a week before the incident. But when she opened the door, no one was there—only a bouquet of white roses. Lin Wen reported it to the police, but back then there were no surveillance cameras. After a few days of investigation, they found nothing, and since Lin Wen's safety wasn't seriously threatened, it was left unresolved."
"Do you suspect this person is Zhao Luming?" I turned my gaze back to the man in the photograph.
"It's not just me; Lin Qing suspected him too. The special investigation team looked into Zhao Luming at that time. However, Zhao Luming claimed that he went to the hospital due to illness on the night of the incident. The attending doctor remembered that he had been there, but it had been several days, and he couldn't recall the exact time. Looking back now, that hospital had no surveillance and no electronic records, so this medical record can't serve as an alibi for Zhao Luming."
I gently bit the end of my pen. "Are you saying that Zhao Luming was likely obsessively pursuing Lin Wen? After being rejected by her, he harbored resentment, so..."
Just then, a "ding-dong" notification came from behind us in Li Chuang's office—it was from my computer.
Li Chuang and I exchanged glances and got up to check it out.
Sure enough, it was a new comment from Chang Lu Ming.
This comment was in response to a segment of my novel that I had just updated earlier that afternoon. On a whim, I had fabricated a clue for solving the case: the murderer had visited a café downstairs from the victim's apartment before the incident and ordered an iced coffee, leaving half a fingerprint on the cup.
Clearly, this made-up plot caught Chang Lu Ming's attention; his comment was filled with emotion: "This part is unbearable! It's complete nonsense! That café only opened last year! Twenty years ago, it was a barbershop where the owner liked to sunbathe on a lounge chair outside when business was slow!"
"Hmph!" Li Chuang stood behind me. "Looks like this Zhao Luming is quite the stalker... He knows exactly where Lin Wen lives and remembers details about a barbershop from twenty years ago. It's very likely he lived near Lin Wen back then."
The disheveled Little Officer stood nearby, excitedly chiming in, "It has to be him! What do you think, Brother Chuang? Should we arrest him?"
Li Chuang gave Little Officer a firm pat on the back of his head. "Arrest? What are you talking about? We don't have any solid evidence yet; we can't pin anything on him based solely on these online comments. We might even alert him."
Li Chuang glanced at me and then at the blinking light on my computer screen. "Old Qin, it's up to you from here!"
"Me?"
"Yes! We need to find a way to obtain Zhao Luming's DNA!"
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