Brother Old Qian's investigation quickly yielded results—the imported chocolate was indeed not purchased by Wang Ruiming himself. This discovery excited the entire task force. I held my phone, waiting for the technical department's test results. Each second felt stretched a thousandfold, and when the phone rang, I nearly jumped to answer it.
"Xiao Lin, the test results for the chocolate wrapper are in. You were right; we detected traces of a sleeping pill in it, consistent with the substance found in the stomach contents of the first victim, Wang Ruiming!"
It seemed this was a "gift" specifically prepared for Wang Ruiming by the murderer. I immediately reported this significant finding to my mentor. Next, we needed to follow the clues and find out who among those connected to this case had purchased such chocolate.
We quickly split up; Brother Old Qian was responsible for checking the sales points of this brand of chocolate in the city and reviewing online shopping records of several suspects. I took over his task of continuing to examine surveillance footage from other locations on campus, allowing Brother Old Qian to take a break.
Time passed slowly as I stared at the computer screen, feeling as if my eyes were about to burn out. At that moment, my mentor received a call from Brother Old Qian. While checking the fourth specialty store for this brand of chocolate, he finally spotted a familiar figure in the surveillance footage—Zhang Tianyu! He had come here a few days ago to buy this chocolate!
With this important breakthrough, my mentor immediately led a team to Zheng Botao's home to recheck the community entry and exit records along with surveillance footage. We needed more direct evidence to prove Zhang Tianyu's connection to Wang Ruiming's murder.
I stayed behind with the team to continue reviewing campus surveillance. Just as I was about to grab a cup of coffee for a break, I suddenly noticed an unusual detail—what was that small light?
I leaned closer to the screen for a better look. This was footage from the night of the incident, taken from the basketball court towards the small grove next to the dormitory building. In the dark grove, a strange little light could be faintly seen.
There shouldn't be fireflies at this time of year...
I replayed this segment repeatedly, unable to comprehend what I was seeing...
Two days later, we officially apprehended Zhang Tianyu. When he was brought into the interrogation room, he still wore that nonchalant expression on his face. My mentor Zhou Weiguo pushed open the door and walked into the room, with me following closely behind. Zhang Tianyu glanced at us and curled his lips into a slight smile.
My mentor got straight to the point, "Zhang Tianyu, we have enough evidence to prove your involvement in the deaths of Wang Ruiming and Zhao Zhe."
I placed an evidence bag on the table; inside was the chocolate wrapper. "Does this chocolate wrapper look familiar? We found it in Wang Ruiming's trash can, and it tested positive for traces of sleeping pills. And you, Zhang Tianyu, conveniently bought this type of chocolate just two days before the incident; your image is clearly captured on surveillance footage from the specialty store."
Zhang Tianyu's expression flickered momentarily but quickly returned to indifference. "Yes, I bought that chocolate, but it was for myself. I didn't give any to Wang Ruiming or put any sleeping pills in it."
"Then let me ask you again—where were you on the night of the incident?"
Zhang Tianyu raised his voice, "I think I've said this many times already. I did have a conflict with Wang Ruiming, but I was at my uncle's house that night. Didn't you check the surveillance footage? I never left. And Zhao Zhe, he is my good brother; how could I possibly kill him? You police should at least have some limits to your nonsense!"
I exchanged a glance with my master and took out a tablet, playing a video for Zhang Tianyu. In the dark footage, a faint light flickered on and off.
"This video was recorded around 1 AM on the night of Wang Ruiming's murder," Master Zhou Weiguo explained calmly. "The location is in the small woods next to the dormitory building. Do you see that flickering light? It lasted for about ten minutes."
I watched Zhang Tianyu's eyes as his expression shifted from confusion and surprise to sheer terror.
Master Zhou slowly stood up, leaning his hands on the table, his gaze piercing. "Zhang Tianyu, did you think you could cover your tracks perfectly and fool everyone? You cut the power to disable the dormitory's surveillance. However, you overlooked one critical detail."
Before he could respond, Master continued, "The campus electrical grid is separate from the dormitory. During the incident, the surveillance in other areas of the campus was still functioning normally. You know the locations of most cameras and successfully avoided detection. But—" he pointed to the video on the tablet, "you missed this one. The camera facing the small woods next to the dormitory is installed in the landscaping across from the basketball court, very discreetly. You didn't know it was there, did you?"
I could see Zhang Tianyu's pupils dilate sharply, his breathing becoming rapid. But I didn’t give him a chance to recover; I took over from Master and continued to apply pressure.
"At first, this small light puzzled me too. It's winter; it couldn't be fireflies. So I brought in my colleagues from Technical Investigation and conducted multiple field tests, ruling out flashlights, phones, lighters... In the end, we determined that it was the glow of someone smoking. Someone was smoking in those woods for over ten minutes before the incident."
I looked at Zhang Tianyu's face, now completely drained of color, and added, "We conducted a thorough search at the location shown in the video and found cigarette butts." I locked eyes with him and said each word deliberately, "The DNA test results are in, Zhang Tianyu; that DNA belongs to you."
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